were paying attention. I was excited to have the boys for a week, but I wasn’t excited that this wedding actually appeared to be happening. Then I sheepishly told them about Leslie’s proposed makeover. I decided I might as well go along with her scheme because otherwise she’d nag me to death until I did.
I looked over to Archie’s house and saw a window screen come sliding down from the second floor and hit the azaleas below. I looked up to see Hunter sitting on the roof. He had climbed out of the upstairs window. He waved at me with a big grin. I ran over to his yard in a total state of panic.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” I called up to him.
“I’m sitting on the roof!” he called back.
“Crawl back inside this instant!” I said. My heart was beating against my rib cage.
“Don’t want to,” he said. “I’m protesting!”
“Why?” I said.
“Dad’s not taking me on his trip to Bermuda! That’s why!”
“But it’s his honeymoon!” I said. “You’re staying with me!”
“I want to go to Bermuda!” he said.
“That’s not how this works,” I said.
“Tyler said Sharon was marrying into our family and the honeymoon is to celebrate it. If that’s so then we, Tyler and me, ought to get to go, too.”
I almost couldn’t argue with that logic.
“You’ll understand when you’re a little bit older,” I said. “But your dad’s right. You boys should not be going on his honeymoon.”
“Why not?”
My heart was pounding. Where was Archie?
“Because it’s just for the bride and groom! Now go back inside and don’t ever let me see you on the roof again!”
He crossed his arms and gave me an angry stare.
“Hunter? Don’t make me call the fire department!”
He thought about that for a moment and decided that a visit from the fire department probably wasn’t his ticket to Bermuda, so he crawled back inside.
The kitchen door slammed and suddenly Archie was in the yard.
“I heard something fall,” he said.
“Yeah, it was a screen. It’s over there.” I pointed to the bushes.
“Now how in the world did that happen?” he said.
“I wouldn’t have the first clue,” I said and thought, Wow, Hunter could have broken his neck.
The next day when I saw Hunter coming home from school, I took him aside and explained the concept of Lent to him, that this was a period of time when Catholics all over the world spent some time thinking about their souls and asked themselves if they were living a life that would please the Lord.
“What does that have to do with me?” he asked.
“It means stay off the roof, Hunter,” I said. “The good Lord would not be pleased.”
“Oh,” he said. “You might be right about that.”
“I’m actually certain,” I added. “So, what are y’all doing for Easter?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. I’ll ask your dad,” I said.
Hunter ran inside to have an after-school treat with Tyler. Momma was making slice-and-bake cookies again. This time they were blond sugar cookies with the silhouette of a pink rabbit inside and sugar sprinkled all over them. Pink was all they had at Publix. They were out of green and blue.
Soon, Archie’s car pulled into the driveway, so I stood to greet him.
“Hi!” I said, popping up from behind the boxwoods like a jack-in-the-box. “The boys are inside with the queen. How was your day?”
“It was a good one. Yours?”
“Another day in paradise,” I said and crossed the road to greet him. “Archie, can I ask you something?”
“Sure!” he said. “Anything.”
“Do y’all observe Easter?”
“Most years, yes. But since Carin’s been gone, I don’t think we’ve been to church at all.”
“Well, this Sunday’s Palm Sunday, and down at Stella Maris they have an egg hunt for the kids on Saturday. I’d be glad to take the boys, if you’d like me to.”
“Oh, that would be so nice of you. Gosh, I’m glad you reminded me about Easter. I’ve been so focused on the wedding, I forgot all about it. I’d better get Easter baskets for the boys, too.”
“We have great ones at Publix. If you want, I can bring home two nice ones and hide them at my house until Easter morning.”
“Would you do that? Oh, that would be great! Thanks!”
“Sure! Somehow the holidays seem to have a way of sneaking up on us, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do. And this wedding’s sneaking up on me, too.”