5 Books so Far

“Momma, more paaaaaackets came,” he said in a sing songy voice. He slapped everything on the still damp counter. The Compassion International packet sticking to the wetness. He tossed mail this way and that as he looked for something of interest…maybe a Lego Magazine, maybe a National Geographic…nope.
“Hey can you open that big packet? Looks like it has more than two in it…maybe your guy is in it?” Is it wrong to bait him? Who cares. I keep cutting the zuchinni for the soup.
“momma here is the garlic you wanted” I look out the window and there is a cloud of dry garlic skins blowing around my herb garden. Two marching in with a bowl of peeled and ready garlic cloves. “Soup smells sooooo good, ” they chatter to each other leaving the bowl and climbing up to the counter to see what their oldest brother got in the mail.
“You go grab that chicken it is digging out all the new plants I put in there”… I yell and they run off laughing. Both small enough to tunnel under the sharp thorns of the rose bushes to catch the loose hen.
“Guys! Guys!” He scoops up the booklets and bolts out , leaping off the deck and into the grass. His back gets tanner everyday, he never wears a shirt now with it so warm.
They sit in the grass. Nabbed chickens in hand. They exchange details about these new faces and lives. “Oh he plays marbles! It says it right here!”
As I rinse this and that down the sink I look out the window and even with it open I can’t hear everything…. they are laughing and joking. Flipping a page…noticing the map. Those who have been to Guatemala proudly announce, “I went there too! What page is that on?”
I dry my hands and now I have to get in on it. They seem excited. This is what I have waited for…a connection. “Did yours come?”
“No not yet but look at this…” he gets cut off mid sentence
“He runs errands…where do you think he goes?” says my daughter who has a thoughtful look to her face, because Guatemala means things to her that it doesn’t to anyone else.
“I don’t know…we can write him and find out.”