Brent carefully stacked the blocks of firewood he had brought in for the fireplace. As he built a log-cabin type tower he grinned up at Mom who was resting in the recliner.
"That reminds me of the little cabins my brothers used to make from the wood blocks Daddy brought home from a box factory in St. Johns Arizona.
My earliest memory is of my brothers allowing Marie and I to play with them. I think sometimes Mother made them let us play”
"Anyway, they would place the wood blocks in a huge circle, well, I was three, what can I say, it was huge to me. There were spaces between each block and then they stacked the next layer between the blocks resting on the bottom row. The let us go inside when we promised to be very careful--and I remember the sun making little squares on the ground inside the wooden igloo as it shone through between each block."
"Both of them are still really good builders. Uncle Glenn built his neat house in Eagar with rammed earth and stuff, and Uncle Duane has changed this whole house around."
Lynae joined the conversation. “I sure like how he made this apartment for you in the basement of his own house.”
"Yeah, my big brothers have always been my heroes and my rescuers. I don't know how I would have lived without them. It's funny when we were still in school I didn't get along with them much, and they weren't around much. Duane went into the Navy and Glenn went on a church mission to Central America and then into officer's training school in the army. Then both they got married, and it was just us scraps at home in Scottsdale.”
"Scraps?" Lynae questioned her choice of words.
"When Cheryse was about ten she and I were home with baby Monte, before you two were even thought of, and I suggested we go to the swimming pool for family time--they had a special family rate. Becky and Doug were off somewhere with their dad, probably at the pig farm.”
“Cheryse asked me, ‘are you sure they'll count us as a family--just us scraps?’"
“I loved the expression, so I use it when referring to just a part of the family. She even painted me a little plaque that I have hanging upstairs in Aunt Jean's sewing area--because she makes these fabulous lone star quilts for all her kid's weddings.
It says, "When life gives you scraps, make a quilt."
"That's pretty much how you've done the last ten years, Mom, you've been given some pretty tough scraps, and have turned it into a beautiful quilt of adventures and education for us," Brent admitted taking a break from the block house that now nearly filled the floor of the Orem apartment living room.
"I've enjoyed the stories you tell us about our family history, Mom," Monte added. "You kind of make the whole thing seem real."
Brent and Lynae were talking later as they cleaned the kitchen after dinner.
"I guess we can never go back to the past now, Lynae, the apartment in Las Vegas seemed to hold the magic carpet to travel through our New Mexico History, and now that Dad moved us to Henderson, everything is different.
"At least you didn't have to change schools because you were already into your Aerospace academy at Rancho. I had to leave all my friends at church and school and go to a strange school. Everyone says your eighth grade is the best year of your life, but I had to move right in the middle and it's a harder school, so I'll probably get all C's instead of straight A's like I usually do. And the school can't even give me a grade for last semester because they can't give me a grade for fifteen days, and I've only been in school twelve days."
"Even though both schools are in Clark County School District? that seems strange." Mom asked rhetorically.
"And besides all that, the day after we moved to Henderson I called my friends Meredith and Luanne in a three way phone conversation and they said that Terry said that if he would have known I liked him four months earlier he would have asked me out."
"Well, you can’t even date until your sixteen anyway, so what difference does it make? Monte questioned his little sister.
"Well I would have said no but it would have been nice to know--and be friends." Lynae countered, forcing the ring she had fashioned onto Mom's ring finger.
"What's that thing?" Brent asked catching a glimpse of the ring. "Lynae made it from the scraps of the glue gun when you used on your project.
"Well, even though I didn't change schools, I had to learn a new bus route from Henderson down town to Rancho and I had to get involved in a new scout group--just after I was inducted into Order of the arrow, and I have to make new friends at church--which we actually haven't been to yet because we've been here during Christmas vacation. One thing is the same, I'm never at home because I have to leave at five a.m. and don't get home until after five thirty, then I eat and go to bed."
"Oh I thought you'd be closer to your school in Henderson."
"I am but the bus route is longer so I actually have to leave earlier.”
"Well Monte has had some big changes in his life too. You guys abandoned him to live with his Grandma and finish up his senior year--"
"Well, I wasn't exactly abandoned by my family--that was my choice because of Swing Thing, and being seminary president and football and wrestling. I just couldn't move out and give that all up.”
"So you basically lived on your own your senior year, then went down to ASU in Tempe to start college. It's been really great having you here with me for these few weeks before you leave for your church mission to Spokane Washington on tax day.”
"Yeah everyone's life has changed this year. You moved here to Orem, We moved to Henderson, Cheryse got remarried and is expecting her fourth baby, Jenny and Aaron got married.
"Stop stop," Brent shouted. "You're giving me a headache. I feel like the world is just spinning too fast for me.
"Well my sons, the world is changing rapidly for our people".
Lynae imitated the ancient ancestor Cristobal Baca that they had met on their first journey through time over a year before.
"Brent laughed, and added, I just wish we still had the magic."
Mom was talking to Monte and missed the exchange.
Later that evening Brent laid the last block to enclose the igloo shaped structure he had so carefully made.
"Lynae, if you are very careful, you can come inside with me."
She crawled through the three foot high opening left for the door and sat cross legged on the floor.
"This reminds me of Pope's Kiva where he visited with the evil spirits and planned the rebellion in Santa Fe.”
"Well, I hope not too much. That is one time I never want to revisit."
"You have a candle and matches?" Lynae gasped. "Mom will kill you."
"It's Christmas time, everyone has candles." Brent rationalized striking the match on the paper cover and carefully lighting the wick of the candle. Outside a storm was beating against the windows and gradually turning from rain to snow.
Lynae didn't dare stretch her cramping legs for fear of knocking the igloo down. She reached to touch the flame of the candle, and Brent bruskly pushed her hand away causing her to jerk back, hitting the blocks beside her and the entire structure crashed down around them.
"Now see what you did!” Brent accused.
"See what I did? Look around and see where we are!' Lynae responded in surprise.
Brent and Lynae spend a few days interacting with the George Jacobs’ I family and neighbors in Salem Massachusetts 1650’s.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment