Evening of Destruction

                 EVENING OF DESTRUCTION

                      (Part three of Where the Willow Tree Grows)

Another Scorching August day was thankfully fading. A breeze was beginning to stir, and preparations were once again underway for a lovely summer gathering under the willow tree. This was a special evening! Bob and Denise had brought everything for dinner. Ribs to BBQ on the grill, fresh green beans with bacon, and Bob had spent hours that afternoon painstakingly preparing a favorite potato salad his Mother used to make! It was a labor of love, and a thing of beauty as he slipped it into the fridge! As if this wasn't enough food, we of course had trays of Bernie's Secret Garden delights, tonight, she had even included a plate of chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce!

 Bob and Ric put the ribs on the grill, we girls load up with all offerings from the kitchen, which as usual..takes several trips ..( Bernie has resorted to loading up as much as possible in bags.)...

 

While she meticulously loads the little green wooden table with all the goodies, and glasses and napkins,  getting everything just "SO"...I climb up on a chair and attache the new Bobeche on the Tree Chandelier that Denise has so kindly purchased....There! That's better!

Ribs are on the Grill, little wooden table is piled high, we all settle in to relax and enjoy another magical night under the tree.

Ric takes the champagne out of the bucket and places it on the table under the chandelier and commences to pop the cork just about the same time as Bernie warns "don't open it under the.."

POP!

 The cork shoots straight in the air making a direct hit with the brand new Bobeche, sending a spray of " broken sparkly" all  over Ric, who is so startled, he has stumbled backwards bumping the loaded little green wooden table sending cheese and crackers flying,chocolate dipped strawberries sailing, and tiny tomatoes rolling right into the raspberry patch! In that split second of knowing something has gone terribly wrong but was hysterically funny...there was complete silence.(other than the sprinkling of tiny shards of Bobeche bouncing off Ric's hat)  Denise and I turned to see the look on Bernie's face...we knew Ric was gonna get it...then, we all began laughing SO hard..at first there was no sound coming out of us, then we were howling and were relieved to see Bernie's face crumple into laughter too.

Ric was off the hook.

We eventually calmed down and began gathering the scattered veggies and cheeses and wiping off glasses that somehow escaped the chaos without breaking.We settle back into our gliders with our glasses of bubbles still chuckling..We decide its time to enjoy the beautiful platter of shrimp and cocktail sauce, as I pull back the saran wrap, something out of the Twilight Zone happens! Reminding me of an old movie that used to scare the pee-wadin out of me..The Birds! Only it wasn't birds.... it was

BEES!!!!

They came out of no where ..they came out of everywhere! They swarmed the plate, crawled under the saran wrap..sending the whole bunch of us into a tizzy for the second time this evening! Denise and Bernie are allergic to bees for goodness sake!!  In the cloud of insects we somehow got the saran back on the plate ( bees and all) and raced it back to the house!

Now for a third time this evening, we return to the comfort of our swaying seats, a bit shaken but determined to enjoy each others company and the space under the flowing branches of this tree we love so much.

As I'm listening to the conversation, I gaze up into the tree, as we often do, and realize directly above the glider where Bob and Denise are relaxing, is a LARGE branch that has apparently broken off and is dangling from another branch..pointing straight down like an arrow at my two friends.

 Now, I didn't want to push the panic button..but the way the evening was going, and being a pretty strong believer in "things happen in threes" I didn't say anything, but simply pointed up.....Well! Ric was going to take care of this problem RIGHT now! He went for the ladder , the rope, a long stick... We  did NOT want him up there fixing this himself and were commencing to make quite a stink about it, which got him all riled up...then, well..Bernie had had enough!! 

 Finally we got Ric all calmed down with  some sweet talk :)

And... I'm happy to report, nobody got shish-ke-bobbed.

By now the ribs are done, and smell heavenly. We gather up whats left of our eventful evening and head indoors to the studio where the table is set. By the glow of candlelight we enjoy a truly wonderful dinner! The Ribs  were perfectly delicious, Denise's green beans and bacon, so good, and that potato salad!! Oh MY! I'm a potato salad lover..this was one of the best I have ever had! We ate as much as we could possibly hold, but there was a lot left in the bowl.

Even with all the excitement, it has indeed been a great night!

I guess bad things don't happen in threes after all.

We are all relaxing around the table after we finish, Bob (bless his heart )begins clearing the dishes and taking everything back out to the kitchen. As the rest of us are enjoying one of Ric's stories, I hear an unusual sound coming from the kitchen, kind of like a Plop, a thud...a borderline kersplat ??No one else seems to hear it, the story continues and I don't want to interrupt..

Bob comes quietly back from the kitchen and stands at the edge of the table, the story stops, we all look up...

"You are not going to believe this" he says, and turns to head back to the kitchen.

We follow.

There on the kitchen floor lay destruction episode # 3

oops.

Bob thought the lid was attached to the bowl, he was sadly mistaken. We were all so sorry, so sad for the waste and the loss of all his hard work ...then of course.......

 we laughed uncontrollably til tears ran down our cheeks.

WHAT a night!

At least he never had to worry about his potato salad going bad.