Call

Oh, magic--I got called off yesterday. It's the kids' last day in town--they're going to their father's for thanksgiving. My parents are driving them. I don't understand why we can't just put them on a plane, but my parents are terrified of planes. The kids are getting really tired of driving to Florida every holiday, especially since my mother's a little hard to deal with. I mean, really hard to deal with--constantly angry and critical. This endless litany of wrongdoing. One time I taperecorded her, just to prove to myself that it really was that way. She once talked an hour and a half, just this rant against me, without interruption. My ex husband, used to do that. I think it's a form of abuse--I see the tendency in Nick, sometimes, and it really scares me. We've worked with him a lot on his temper. He now takes a walk when he starts yelling. I don't do that--I don't go on and on. I'll discuss something, but I keep it short. Hammering somebody doesn't ever help, it just makes them want to chew off their own paw to get out of the cage.
So yesterday went beautifully slowly. The weather is really good--almost balmy--and the leaves are still on the trees--it's the most beautiful fall I can remember. Lilly had spent the night with her friend, Samantha. Samantha's family is like ours--a little dysfunctional, messy, intellectual, kind. Her dad, George, used to be a nurse, but he had a nervous breakdown and now he stays at home with the kids, puttering around the house, playing his guitar and undertaking really strange home improvement projects. (the latest: 8 foot tall copper poles circling the house--something to do with keeping the house safe from lightning--he's decided their house is at high risk for being struck by lightning). His wife, Nan, is a dentist, and she just takes it all in stride. But he's fun to talk to, if a little bleak. I picked Lilly up and hung out a little bit playing guitar in their living room. Then we went home. Nick was marching in the holiday parade, so we drove him out to the school to get his uniform, then we went into town for lunch. He refused to get out of the car. "I look ridiculous." So Lilly and I went into the bakery to grab him something. Then, as we were scooting around to the parade drop-off, Nick says,
"um, we have to go home."
"Why?"
"I forgot something."
"What did you forget?"
"Just something."
"Well, if it's no big deal, you can just deal with it."
"It's a big deal."
"What did you forget?"
"Just take me home, okay?"
"No."
"Okay. My trumpet."
It was so funny, I couldn't even get mad, I just laughed. Of course, the route home was the parade route, which was already completely blocked off, so getting home was interesting. But we made it back.
Nick's band was 19th in the order, so I figured we had a long time to wait for him to appear. Lilly and I went to the coffee shop to kill time. She sat reading Beowulf, and I was reading the ACLS trauma manual. After about 15 minutes, we walked up the street to watch the parade and wait for Nick.
The Holiday Parade in our town is actually kind of low rent. The newer fundamentalist churches all have floats--if you can call them that--and a lot of businesses have representatives wearing santa hats. The skinny peaceniks march, trailing clouds of patchouli and throwing no candy, of course. Then the young republicans and the shriners follow--and they throw lots of candy. And this to me in a nutshell is why the liberal left will never gain any ground in the heartland--because they overlook the basics here--we eat fried chicken and we like candy. I mean, I religiously honk for peace when I drive past them standing on the corner with their signs--they can't spring for tootsie rolls at the holiday parade? What? We're just supposed to envy their skinny fit hairy bodies? And they feel so superior to the rest of us--and it so shows.
Arghh. Enough. So Lilly and I stand for this a little bit--then I think, more than 19 groups have gone by, where's Nick's school? "Where's Greenway?" I ask her. "You think they changed the order?"
"Oh," a woman says, overhearing me, "they changed the order. Greenway went first."
"Crap." Lilly says. "We always do this."
"Don't say crap. It's coarse."
"We're going to have to lie, now." she says.
"We didn't do it for either of the homecoming parades this year." I point out.
"Yeah, I guess we're getting better."
Nick is sitting on the curb by the post office, waiting for us.
"How did you like it?" he asks.,
"You looked great!" we assure him brightly.
He seems satisfied with this.