an excursion

I woke up this morning with a scowl on my face. Emerged from my room groggy, with the crazy notion that there really shouldn't be anyone else in the world at the moment. I could hardly recall what was supposed to happen today. I went to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, and was hailed by the cheery dishwashers. They remembered my agenda perfectly.

Today was slated for a long-awaited excursion ("The Big Outing") involving my money, Christa, Calvin, (who also happened to be the breakfast dishwashers) and the local resale shop, with the possibility of a trip to Sonic or some other undetermined location. Christa was especially pumped. She took every opportunity to discuss the event with me. I spent most of the morning putting her off.

We hung around until my mom and Ruthie returned from a behind-the-wheel, drivers' test-prep session (i.e., a post-office run). In the meantime, Babs showed up to play for the morning. We watched Anna make chili, played Legos, and socialized pleasantly. She gummed a dried mango slice, turned it to slime while we laughed at her. she announces. Finally, my hair still wet from my shower, Christa clamped her arms around my waist. "Libby, I'm all ready to go!"


I blink dully. "We'll go in a while," I say. "Please just let me brush my teeth and put on some makeup."
"You are fine right now!" Christa protested. "Gross," she added, observing Babs drop a gummed and gnawed mango slice on the carpet.

Finally, the event could be put off no longer. We piled into the Nissan, I turned the radio off. "Don't miss this," I thought. Rarely do I get to experience Christa and Calvin on their own like this, relaxed and having fun. Instead I tend to boss them around in a typical "big sister" fashion. As I pondered this absent-mindedly, they chattered together in the back seat about friends and stuff and nothing in particular. By the time we got to Elite Repeat, I admonished them, "We're not here to buy stuff, unless it's really something that we should get." So I'm still the big sister... it's true...

 This was the day after New Years' weekend, and the place was full of bargain-hunters who greedily grabbed all kinds of things off the shelves and piled them behind the front counter so they could continue shopping. By way of contrast, Chris and Calvin and I were remarkably lazy about the whole thing. We spent our time hanging out around the toy shelf--and saw some pretty good stuff: a new horse stable with horses, some hot wheel cars with tracks, a bag full of Beanie Babies with the tags intact (though that doesn't mean anything much anymore). Calvin found some plastic army men; Christa found a bag full of stencils, with odd pencils, a spirograph, and a small box of modeling clay thrown in there (it looked like someone had emptied their child's desk into a big bag). Calvin chilled out by the furniture for a while Christa and I tried on some Old Navy sweaters...no high hopes there. This is resale; it's hard to find stuff that fits right.

We arrived at the check-out counter, Christa with her stencils and Calvin with his army men. I gave them a 20 and told them to go ahead; I wanted to look at earrings for a few minutes. I took the choice opportunity to eavesdrop on their interaction with the clerk.

"Is this separate or together?" the lady asked them.

"Together," said Christa, with emphasis.

Calvin clutched the money and his soldiers nervously. Finally the lady got the soldiers long enough to find a price tag.

"Everything was 50% off," Calvin said brightly. "So mine only cost a dollar."
 Christa laid her bag on the counter and waited expectantly.

"That will be 2.53" said the lady. "...out of 20?"

"Woah! We got SO MUCH MONEY!" said Christa, loudly, as the lady handed her 17.47 in change. Then there was the momentary settlement of who got what part of the loot (it looked like a lot more now than it did when it was a $20 bill).

Then it was time for Sonic, where everyone took their pick of fruit slushies. We waited for our order by calculating how much change we would get from the waitress if we paid with a 5.

We stopped on the way home to enjoy the outdoors for a while. The drinks were abandoned as soon as we stepped from the car on to the playground. We climbed the rope spiders' web together. Christa then found these three precious kids on the playground and they played tag together. They ran around until Calvin was red in the face and panting hard.

An hour later, the other kids' mom came by and said it was time to go. Perfect timing. We started for home, smelling like fresh air and sunshine, still finishing our drinks. Back to lunch in the kitchen, and playtime with Babs...

"This is the most fun I ever had!" declared Christa.
"I've had funner outings than this," said Calvin. "Like going to the beach..."

Well, they certainly are entertained easily.

 Somehow, in all those moments of happiness, I still forgot to return the love I received. I sat in the drivers' seat, thinking of how precious those moments were. Even though I was there the whole time I still managed to miss it. I looked in the rear view mirror. There were Chris and Calvin, still in their own little world, obliviously chatting about friends and stuff and nothing in particular. Buckled in to their seats, slurping on real fruit slushes ("mine looks like chopped possum" Calvin announced). He made a stretch out the back window to recover the mail and the newspaper. We piled out of the Nissan, home.