6/5/2000 Geoff Ashbrook
Ronny and Touboi and Hat and their mother Cleebi were all sitting in the kitchen. Outside, an electric motor turned. Inside the fridge whistled and the heater tapped away quiet to one of the house rythems. Outside doors open and shut, and the wind was blowing. Inside spoons hit bowlsides, and one spoon successfully rested upon the sea without taking in too much moon water to down the crew of four ethnically diverse pieces of dried cereal. Outside birds were doing something in the tree. Inside, Cleebi could feel something like a shoe lace draped over her shoulder but because it tended to disappear when she reached and looked for it she wandered about what Sandy had told her about hang-drying cloths and the she imagined dipping dryer lint in her coffee and then she got pushy with herself and scowled as if the thought had not been at all entertaining. Outside more doors shut that sounded the same as before. Inside Ronny was gripping the cereal box with two hands reading it intently while Hat was leaned over drooling on his shoulder with her eyes shut. Outside the car started, and everyone inside looked around at eachother. Hat rubbed the side of our mouth and squinted. There were footsteps and then the door opened and their father, Taybart Coakley, stuck a head in wearing what looked like old aviation goggles and a dark blue woolen hat. "It's going, it's going," he said. Everyone ran out of the room. Ronny grabbed the bag at the foot of his bed. Touboi stuffed a bathing suit and some shirts and underwear in a plastic grocery bag and ran out of her room. Hat wandered back in the kitchen in pajama top and oversized construction pants holding one clean sock in her hand, and she teetered toward the door. In seconds they were all outside in the car. No one said a word for a good fifteen seconds. Taybart put the thing in gear. Where had this thing come from again?- the kids wandered. The car pulled back slowly and smoothly to the end of the driveway, and then just when Touboi started saying, "Ok, I know it started with either an 'H' or a 'Q,' " and Ronny started rubbing the bridge of his nose with his palm, a loud crack send the kids in the back ducking under a loose towel. The breeze that came in the open window blew Cleebi's hair around the seat into the back of the car where it flag-whipped the towel the kids were under. Hat was the first to peak over the towel out the window. Taybart just staired, Cleebi frowned, Ronny and Touboi looked out. Inches away from their car an enormous black train was rocketing past them backwards. Taybart slammed the breaks on and the sun flashed back in through the windshield and a sparrow flew over the hood of the car into a hedge. The train was gone. The sun had poked its head up over the mountains overhead. The car wasn't yet out of the driveway. The engine died. It didn't even turn over when he turned the key. Hat was already sprawled out over her brother and sister in the back of the car fast asleep. Cleebi opened the glove compartment and took out a pink rubbery hair comb, looked at it, and looked at her husband and put the comb back. "Ok," he said. "I guess you can all go back in and sleep in today." He opened the car door and stepped out half on to gravel and half onto grass in a knit slipper. They all got out of the car, Ronny and Touboi were dragging Hat who stayed fast asleep as they towed her by her arms across the yard, leaving one of her boots about half way which a robin then came to inspect.
Inside the three kids piled on the sofa in the living room with a few big blankets and pillows and one turned on the TV and they were all asleep in a pile in seconds. Cleebi stood in the kitchen dipping her fingers in the soy milk left in one of the cereal bowls, "Bart, did… should we get up earlier tomorrow?"
"No," he said, walking up behind her and placing a wet cheerio on her bare shoulder. They too retired to their quarters, the anker down, the flag on the table with the maps still in their tubes.
Across the street Mrs. Boniker was looking out the window. "Charles," she said. "Charles, did you hear something?"
Charles Boniker was standing by his dresser putting on a tie which didn't match with his suspenders. He looked at his wife through the mirror. "Maybe. What did it sound like. Was it like a balloon?"
"Oh," she said, pulling the curtain over the window, "No, not a balloon. An airplane maybe. How long have those Coakleys been living across the way?"
"Why, longer than we've been living on this side of the way." He said with a smile, he kept unraveling his tie and starting again.
"They seem so messy. They have clothing out in the front yard and it looked like they started going somewhere this morning and that was when I heard the thing and the next minute I looked and they were running back inside the house. They were all wearing their pajamas still. I mean look how early it is, the sun only just came up five minutes ago."
"Well, they say having children changes everything. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, dear. I'm going to finish my tie on the train or I'll be late. I'll see you later, hun. By."
"By by,"
And Taybart and Cleebi were almost snuggled asleep again when they heard the Bonikers front door open and shut with that odd little bell sounding twice.