Maxine and her friends are beautifully unselfconscious about the ruckus they are making. They have not lowered their voices around Chris and me, speaking freely and boisterously, happy to reunite after the first few weeks of summer when families ran their separate ways as soon as school let out.
They’ve had snacks in the family room as I made a salad to go with their Dominos pizza and Chris’s and my alternative homemade dinner. They have discussed their summer plans and what summer camps, summer jobs, and family vacations their absent friends are engaged in at the moment.
The roiling cloud of laughter and chatter faded but did not entirely die out as they floated downstairs to the basement with a bowl of Doritos and a bowl of Maxine’s personal favorite, Cape Cod salt and vinegar potato chips.
They spilled forth again when the pizza arrived, more loud chatter and laugher with a low vibration of bass tones emanating from the 16-year-old boys. Down again to the basement and then up again for singing happy birthday and digging into two desserts: Maxine’s favorite, key lime pie, and a new one that caught our interest: chocolate-matcha butter mochi cake. It actually turned out pretty good, despite the fact that I couldn’t find mochiko (sweet rice flour) in the two stores I had time for (I combined what little brown rice flour and cake flour I had).
They are now ensconced back in the basement, watching what I assume to be a horror movie, based on the sudden and irregularly timed shrieks.
My Corner of the Village 