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pascal_curious) wrote2009-12-30 11:22 pm
Dear Chloe and Lola
Dear Chloe and Lola,
Congratulations! I can’t believe it is possible that my little green babies are graduating from high school! I wish I could be there to see you both in your caps and gowns, strolling across the stage, heads held high, to accept your diplomas. I want you to know that no matter what you choose to do with your futures, I will be here to support you. I am anxious to know what your plans are for the future. I know that you both will succeed, no matter what your endeavors.
Jenny only has one more year of high school left. She is very serious about pursuing a career in nursing. She has spent the last two summers working at the hospital here in town. During the school year she somehow finds the time volunteer at the retirement home to read to the residents. She reads letters, newspapers, and books to the residents who can no longer read for themselves. She is a much stronger person than I am. Every time a resident passes, she comes home and cries herself to sleep. Still, she keeps going back, even though she knows that she will certainly have to say goodbye to more of her dear friends. That’s what they are to her, friends. She is so much more like her mother than she is like me; caring, compassionate, and kind, yet strong and sensible at the same time.
It is just as well that Jenny is like her mother because the boys have turned out very much like me. I am not sure if it is an inherited trait, or a characteristic common to all boys to be mischievous, but Pascal, Vidcund, and Lazlo certainly keep life interesting with their exploits. They are all very good boys, but they can also drive their mother and me to distraction.
Lazlo is a pretty laid back little fellow. He is one of those fortunate few whom everything seems to come easy to. He gets excellent grades, yet I rarely ever see him studying or doing homework. This may change when he moves on to high school and more challenging subjects, but I don’t think so. He is curious about everything and never hesitates to ask questions. (You would be surprised at some of the questions he asks!) If nobody has a suitable answer for him, he will go about finding the answer for himself. He recently showed a lot of interest in submarines after I took him and his brothers to see “The Hunt for Red October”. Lazlo found a copy of the book at the used bookstore and had it read within a week. (Anything by Tom Clancy is pretty advanced reading for an eleven year old!) Because I like to encourage the boys when they take an interest in something, I bought Lazlo submarine model kit. He spent a month putting it together. It was quite impressive when it was completed and I had planned on having a stand made for it so he could display it on his bookshelf. I didn’t anticipate coming home from work one evening to find Lazlo confined to the kitchen table for having blown his model up. Kitty explained to me that he had filled the inside of the model with a few rocks, his little green army men, and two zip-loc bags of paint, one red (for blood) and one black (for an oil slick). He then stuffed the model with a couple of M-80s and tossed it into the pool. Apparently the clever little bugger was able to rig the fuse so it was long enough for it to sink a couple of feet before exploding. Kitty was furious and punished him by making him clean up the mess (it took a week for all of the paint to filter out of the water) and banning him from the TV and computer for two weeks. The only thing he was allowed to do for entertainment was read. When I got home he was at the kitchen table quietly reading a book about airplanes. I can only hope we don’t have to worry about exploding model airplanes. I almost regret not having seen the explosion. Pascal told me it was quite a spectacle (after which I felt the need to give Pascal a firm talking to for letting his little brother play with fireworks.)
Pascal is the best behaved of the boys, but he still has his moments. About a month ago he came home from school, went straight to his room and locked the door. When Kitty checked on him, he told her that he was doing homework and needed to concentrate. Kitty took him at his word and let him be. It wasn’t until he refused to come to dinner that she knew for sure that something was wrong. After everyone had eaten and gone off to do their homework, Kitty made up a tray of food for him and took it to his room. He refused to open the door until she threatened to send me back to find out what he was up to. Kitty was more than shocked to find out that the reason Pascal had been hiding was because he had a huge shiner on his right eye, and his glasses had been broken in half. Finally, under much duress, he admitted to fighting with one of the older boys after school. I wish I could say that the other boy bore as many battle scars as Pascal, but I can’t. The other boy walked away unscathed. (No wonder the poor guy was embarrassed.) I’m afraid that Pascal will always be more of a lover than a fighter. He is just not built for it. Pascal refused to say what they had been fighting about, but we found out later, from Vidcund, that they had been fighting over a girl. According to Vidcund she is the “prettiest girl in the whole damn school”. Pascal tried to beg out of going to school the next morning. Part of me wanted to give in and let him have a day to nurse his bruised ego, but I knew it would only be worse for him if he didn’t show up for school the day after having the snot kicked out of him. I saved him the trauma of having to ride the bus, and drove him to school that morning. Strangely enough, he came home in good spirits. The girl they had been fighting over was very angry with the other boy for having beaten up on Pascal, even though she thought Pascal was a dork.
Vidcund, I fear, is going to be our problem child. I try to be sympathetic; I know it can’t be easy to be the middle child. He resents Pascal for being “allowed to do everything” and Lazlo for “being the baby and getting all the attention”. I think Kitty sees this and tends to overcompensate by doting on him which has resulted in Vidcund being much closer with his mother than he is with me. I think she sometimes lets him get away with things that she wouldn’t tolerate from the others, and he has become a bit spoiled. There are some times I just do not know what to do with him. He tends to be reckless and impulsive, and that worries me. Recently he had been left in charge of Lazlo while Pascal was staying after school, Jenny was at the retirement home and Kitty had run to the grocery store. Lazlo usually doesn’t need much watching, but because Vidcund had been hogging the computer while everyone else was away, Lazlo had to find somehow to keep himself entertained. Afternoon TV doesn’t really offer much to occupy a mind like Lazlo’s, so he decided it would be fun to go out and have a swim. The solar cover was still on the pool and Lazlo thought it would be fun to jump into the pool with the cover still on. He didn’t expect to become entangled with the thing and almost drown. Vidcund had the stereo blasting the Beastie Boys and didn’t hear Lazlo jump into the pool ,or his subsequent cries for help. If Pascal hadn’t arrived home when he did, I shudder to think what might have become of Lazlo. Kitty arrived home from the market to find an ambulance in front of the house. I cannot imagine the terror she must have felt. I know I was frightened enough when Pascal called me at work. He had dragged his brother from the pool, and made Vidcund call 911 while he gave Lazlo artificial respiration. He called me as soon as the paramedics arrived and it was clear that Lazlo was going to be ok. I never thought it would be possible to feel so many contradicting emotions at once. I was so furious with Vidcund that I wasn’t able to talk to him until the next day. I was very proud of Pascal and teased him that I was going to call William Shatner and have the story put on Rescue 911. I was so worried that Lazlo might have been brain damaged since we didn’t know how long his brilliant little brain had been without oxygen, but so relieved that he was still with us. Lazlo is back to his old self, and does not seem to have suffered any ill effects from the ordeal, other than a healthy fear of the solar pool cover. As for Vidcund, Kitty and I really didn’t know what to do with him. I think he had a pretty good idea of how much he disappointed us and I hope that was punishment enough. (Kitty told me that he cried himself to sleep that night.) Pascal would really prefer that we forget about the whole thing. I think he is embarrassed by all the attention.
Those are my kids and despite their mistakes and misadventures I am so grateful to have them. (Even if I sometimes find myself wondering what planet they came from.) I only wish I had been as grateful to have you both when you came into my life. I regret it every day. I cannot make up for the past, but I can promise to be here for the future.
I am so proud of you, my darling daughters.
Your loving father,
Glarn Curious
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I still need to catch up with last few parts, but had to read this one! Love how you tell their story (tho, its sad all the letters say "return to sender")
And, btw, can I assume the unscathed boy was Buzz Grunt!? lol
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I think I have a few more of these in the works. I am glad you like them. I don't have kids so it was hard for me to come up with things the boys could have done to get themselves into trouble.
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