But screaming abounded. Everything began well enough. Joe (and thus Clara) rounded up a "DVD book" (otherwise know as a book on CD) as well as some other books, before Clara settled into the puzzle table, and Joe wandered off to the computer in the kids' section. Joe tired of that soon enough, came over to where Clara and Julie were sitting, and decided to help Clara with a puzzle of a elephant on which she was working. It was a little too advanced for her, but we believe we have written her before about Birdie's outsized ambitions and the necessity of assisting with deference and caution. Joe, however, is nearly four which is not the most deferential of ages. It is instead the age of bursting out with all of accumulated store of knowledge at every possible opportunity. Joe could do the puzzle, Clara was messing it all up, clearly Mommy wasn't going to step in here, so what was the boy to do except reach out and start rearranging the pieces Clara had carefully laid in the frame? You could almost hear all of this go through his head. So it was that Julie came to be whispering furiously to Joe something like, "Joe! Joe! JOSEPH! Put that down! Put that down right now! Putthatdownrightnow! NOW!" as Clara screamed and Joe protested (loudly) that Clara wasn't doing it right.
Not long after, a librarian announced that the library would be closing in five minutes. Julie told the puzzle masters they needed to pack it in, which after the obligatory protesting, they did. But of course, there was the gauntlet of the kids' book bins to pass. If there is anything Julie is indulgent of, it's the request for a book. But if there is anything that makes her want to scream (in the library or elsewhere), it's not being listened to when she is speaking. (She realizes she is not unique in this regard. No doubt parents the world over, of children of all ages, sometimes want to scream so they might be heard.) Neither Joe nor Clara had donned their listening ears, so no one cared when Julie said that the library was closing, and therefore they had to get the books that were on hold, and check out those as well as the ones we were carrying--and we could not select anymore books. Well, Clara heard that and cared very much about that news. She pitched herself right down on the floor, and cranked it on up. Julie picked Birdie up, and managed to carry her, and the books to the shelves where they keep the books that were on hold. Joe trailed behind.
Naturally, the books that were on hold were on the topmost shelf next to some CDs and naturally, since Julie was retrieving the books one-handed, the CDs fell, and had to be returned to their cases before our parade of craziness could make its way to the check out counter.
As the crazy parade had headed in to the library, Julie spied a book she'd been wanting to read on the speedy read $4 rental table* and scooped it up. But the presence of this book in the pile meant that the self-checkout was not an option. Joe was much distressed about this and managed to whine loudly enough to be heard over Clara's din (oh, she was still screaming, Birdie Brigade), "But I want to use the other one!"
By the time it was all said and done, Julie did, too, and wasn't so sure the $4 book was worth it. She managed to get all the books and the DVD books on to the counter with her library card and a $10 bill. The librarian scanned Julie's card, looked up and said, "You have an 80 cent fine." Julie informed her that she was aware of that, yes, and moved the $10 bill meaningfully toward the librarian who took it. . .and returned $9.20. Did we mention that the librarian has touched all of the books, including THE ONE THAT COSTS $4?!?! Maybe the librarian was distracted by Clara's screaming because Clara was, still, screaming. Meanwhile, Joe has wandered off and is standing by the door making to put his hand between it and the jamb. Why? Why? You'll recall that he didn't wear his listening ears, so he couldn't here Julie when she called--loudly--to him. People are streaming out of the door of course because the library is closing, including a woman who paused and looked about, before finding Julie, who said apologetically, "He's mine! I know!" That's when the woman shook her head with disdain before taking her leave. Really. Really.
Clara's still intermittently screaming. The unobservant librarian is still moving slower than molasses in January, but she has now seen the $4 book and, chuckling about that's why there was a $10 bill on the counter, has rung the book up so to speak, and completed the check-out transaction.
Now Fans, you might be thinking "Well, they're leaving. At least nothing else can go wrong." But that's where you'd be wrong. As the crazy parade made its way out of the building, Julie, its Grand Marshall, stopped the procession in the vestibule and asked the bambini to sit down on the bench. She did this so that she could get the tower of books situated in her bag, and to tell the bambini that all the behavior she'd just seen was plain awful. Plain awful! Not that anyone was listening to her That's when another woman walked by, paused, and said to Joe and Clara, "God bless you both." Julie apparently needed no additional blessings in her life.
More trials of the everyday stripe that you just brush off when they aren't being heaped upon all of these slings and arrows awaited at the car. It's Julie's practice when she's running the zone defense, to open Joe's door and ask him to climb inside before heading around to the other side of the car to get Clara situated. Then, she goes back to the other side to buckle Joe in. While she was over with Clara, the woman parked next to Julie asked if she could close Joe's door. Of course Julie said of course. But then she had to wait for the woman to get her (one) child into her car seat (in the middle of the backseat), and then get a CD out and put it in the car's player, and then get her keys out, and then leave. But! Julie did not look at her with disdain! Admittedly, she may have looked judgmental as she looked straight down at the pavement, but she was doing her best. Because Julie believes that most of the time, most people are trying their best. Julie certainly was, and believes that even Joe and Clara were, so Can-I-Shut-Your-Door? Woman probably was, too.
The crazy parade made it home. That's where Joe, in his zeal to be first in the door (always), opened the door from the top step into his sister, beside him on the top step, knocking her backward down the steps into Julie who managed a clumsy catch as she continued to scream (it's true), "Joe! JOE! JOE!!!!! STOP!!!!!" No words. Which is pretty much what Julie said to Ted when he walked out of the bathroom moments later having showered in advance of date night: "I can't speak."
Some days you feel like screaming in the library. Or your front stoop.
*Behind the Beautiful Forevers, for the curious bibliophiles among our Fans.
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