How is it that we, as a family, found ourselves at 10:30 on a Tuesday night standing in our hot tub, screaming in fear, and violently splashing out all of the water?
It all started with Josiah. When he returned to school after serving his day of suspension (see THE FIGHT), he received quite a bit of homework, which he stuck in his backpack to do later, and boarded the school bus to go straight to his last track meet of the season. Everything was fine.
Since Drake was not in track, he came home immediately after school, and I knew right away that something was wrong. When I asked what it was, he crumpled into a chair and explained that the girlfriend who had broken up with him the day before was already dating someone else. He took it hard.
While I was still attempting to cheer him up, Makenna walked in the front door with tears streaming down her face. She had discovered that the boyfriend who had recently broken up with her had asked another girl to the prom. Things weren't going so good.
Being a mom, I decided that the best way to cheer them up would be to make a really great supper. However, while all the ingredients were still spread across the counter, Mike called saying he was having the worst work day ever, had to work late, and couldn't take Josiah to his drum lesson. I had to stop what I was doing, drive to the track meet, pick up Josiah and take him across town to his lesson. This was beginning to get stressful.
When the drum lesson was over, Josiah discovered that he had left his backpack full of homework due the next day at the track meet. I drove my Jeep as if it were a rocket, but by the time we got there, the track meet was over. We searched the stands, the field, all around the building, but couldn't find it. We hunted down a custodian and persuaded him to use his key and let us search the lost and found, the office and the locker room, but it was nowhere inside the building.
On the way home we remembered that we had checked out a math text book, so he could at least do his math work, but, sadly, the rest of his homework would have to be late. Things were getting worse.
When I returned home at 9:00, I found an emotional Makenna and a depressed Drake preparing to build a fire in our chiminea on the back deck and feed it with items that reminded them of their ex's. I quickly melted some cheese on chips and called it nachos. Lord help us.
Mike walked in the door at 10:15 and received a very emotional update on the situation. It was decided that the hot tub was what was needed, and everyone except Josiah, who was still doing algebra, finally began to unwind in the hot water as we watched the fire Makenna and Drake had stoked into a beautiful inferno. Finally, Josiah finished his math and decided to join us, even though it was well after bedtime.
As he lowered himself into the soothing water, he needed a little more room, so he moved the large hot tub lid a few inches to his left. When he did that, the opposite corner of the lid bumped against the chiminea. We all watched in horror as the chiminea fell over, cracked into pieces, rolled and spilled hot coals, flaming t-shirts, and firey teddy bears onto the wooden deck. In unison we all stood up, screamed, and began splashing the soothing water across the deck in attempt to put out the fire.
It was a bad day.
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