Entry 7

4/26/2017

The puppy whines and pulls on the little rug with his teeth.

He soon tires of this pursuit and whines again. The little boy plays with him for a moment.

I help dad, fetching and carrying, and stammering over words with my limited Spanish asking for a piece of paper for dad's list.

He really likes lists.

I do too, now that I think of it.

I wonder why.

“Esther can look for it.” Dad says just now, and I turn to look.

“For what?” I ask

“A coupler.” Peter says matter-of-factly.

“What the heck is that?” I ask, a little annoyed at his abundance of helpful information.

He comes over a finds it himself a second later.

The little boy who gave me the paper is making car noises and crashing noises and drawing on a dry erase board.

He's an okay kid.

Douglas is talking to the ladies who are working in the kitchen. They are making lunch.

The puppy is chained to a pole, and when I come near he puts his paws up on my leg and licks me like crazy.

I'm fine with dogs.

Ish.

As long as I am the boss of when and where I touch them, and their tongues stay in their mouths and away from me, than we're great.

Best buds.

But dumb dogs always want to lick me!

Excuse me.

No.

Soon dad will finish putting in these switches.

I don't know how he can like electrical.

It's quite shocking.

Oh shut up. I'm hilarious.

There is an odd smell in the air.

That of food, used baby diapers, sweat, a bit of food, and… I dunno.

Something weirdy.

Oh look.

The puppy has relieved himself.

Who knew that puppy had it in him.

The light flickers and we all glance up.

“There's actually another switch she wants in, but it'll have to be another day.”

After a pause, “what is the name for these in Spanish? Does it say on the package?” I turn to look, and Peter does too. He is farther away, but has longer legs so I just let him.

I've almost lost my balance anyway and I need to recover.

He pokes me in the side and raspberries. (Is that even what it's called? WHY IS IT EVEN CALLED THAT?!)

I scowl lovingly at his back.

I just love it when he does that.

Makes me want to renovate walls with my fist.

A few pigeon holes, you know?

I load up a few things, per dad's request. Then he decides he will do the last light after all.

Typical dad.

I actually don't mind. It's quite fun writing this out.

Dad gives me some anchors (no, not actual anchors. Just- just do some electrical and you'll figure it out.

NOT that I recommend it. It's boring.)

And then he gives me some screws too.

A few minutes later Peter asks for them, and I hand them over.

He shows me some thing circular metal disks, about the size of a quarter, from the… things… that are called…

I don’t do electrical! Gimme a break.

“Douglas said we should give them to Ezekiel and see if it fools him.” He snickers and practically skips off. He does that all the time.

A sort of sauntering skip that he pulls off with such ease it doesn't look ridiculous.

I don't know how, don't ask me!

I laugh and then return to this.

We will leave soon I hope.

Then we have to get more water.

Yippee.