"We're doing our own thing,"

   the tall, hansome boy said of his impending summer absence. 

  "So are we," our mother as the head of our pack said back.  When I looked at her I could tell she had no idea what that was going to be.

  It's a serious juxtaposition to go from Catholic school to summer.

  That's what I was thinking about as I flipped through TV channels and fell into a show about Alaska.  "I just need a couple days to myself," a woman says, and then drives off in a lunar mod pod and stumbles upon some Musk Oxen.  That's what I'm talking about! I commented to the other people in the room.  No comments back.

  A few summers after the Summer of Soap our mother had pretty much trained us to behave properly.  And she was just as in to being "unique" as we were, so that summer we each got our own territories in the back yard.  She divided her time between household chores, writing and drawing a children's book, and "playing" with us.  The neighbors across the street literally wrapped a ginormous yellow ribbon around an oak tree in their front yard.  It was a fighting death pall that hung all around in the air between the news and saving up for someday.

  The man slowed his station wagon to a crawl and Mama wasn't driving fast anyway.  "Don't hit anyone!" A kid order-yelled.  The man had shirt sleeves rolled up and toasted the air with his big beer in a paper bag.  "You better be going straight home Mister," Mama looked out her window and said.  "Always, now," the man's bushy eyebrows went up and down at the crazy world somewhere out there.  "Did everyone get to the next grade Sherry?"

  Mama put her hand to her forehead and phewed a kind of salute to by the grace of God, only. 

  "Then we'll have to see about sleepovers," the man grimaced and took another swig. 

  "Yes we will Don." 

  She honked twice.  Two little short beeps to warn the animals, here we go. 

  "Well, I'll have Little Lisa call you." 

  "Sounds like a plan." 

  You could see his knee with a six pack lift and the car come out of stop but then he braked and said, "By the way Sherry, 

  "Yes? 

  "There are several children on top of your car." 

  One threw peanuts in shells at the man.  One almost stood up and said with authority, "It's not a car!  It's an elephant."

  "Oh, I see," said the man.