When Jack and Ennis returned from their first-light chores the next morning, they found the girls—having not so much a food fight as a food wrestling match—trying to shove fresh made toast into each other's mouths. They paused guiltily when the men came in but when no reproachment came, they continued squealing and laughing on the kitchen floor as Jack and Ennis leaned on the counter, watching and eating.
"Safe to say they don't do this at their mama's?"
Ennis nodded.
Later in the morning, not long before lunch, Bobby arrived and promptly had a sequined hat shoved on his head by Junior. He gave her a look. Wearing his own novelty hat, Ennis said, "Just give in. They will not let you take it off."
"They?"
"My, my sister, and your daddy." Junior flicked a finger against the brim of her hat.
Bobby blinked. "Your sister is here."
"Yeah, Jenny." She glanced around and continued quietly. "Stuff hasn't been told to her yet, so shush."
"Right."
After a lunch of instant ramen, the kids were set to work running around gathering sticks with which to build a fire while Jack and Ennis dealt with the horses and the chickens and the cat. Later in the afternoon, once the fire had been built but not lit, Jack brought a box of fireworks up from the basement. "Alright, this is going to stay all the way over here"—he set the box down roughly thirty feet from the pile of wood—"and is not going to get any closer to the fire." He tossed a tube of sparklers to his son, who grinned.
As the sun set, the kids were already chasing each other around with sparklers, stopping occasionally to pick up knocked off hats. The fire was lit, bacon and hot dogs were set to cook. Jenny grabbed her father's arm. "Can we light the fireworks now?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Way aheada ya." Jack had walked a ways away. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and set off a firework that screeched into the air and exploded in a shower of red sparks.
Jenny squealed with delight, Bobby whooped, Junior laughed, and Ennis ate a hot dog, quietly pleased.
After a couple more had been set off, the lighter was passed to Bobby to light the Roman candles and lanterns from the box—one or two at a time. Junior even managed to get a hold of the lighter long enough to ignite a strand of firecrackers.
Once the meat had all been eaten, a bag of marshmallows was brought out along with some unbent wire coat hangers.
"Hey, can you pass me that?" Jenny pointed to a tube of sparklers. Jack handed it to her. She took out four, stuck their wire handled in the ground so the tips were all together like a teepee, lit them, and held her marshmallow over them.
Ennis looked at her little set up. "What are you doing?"
"Roasting a marshmallow more interestingly."
"Is that safe?"
She shrugged. "None of the warning labels say these things are toxic."
Ennis look at Jack; they both shrugged. Before long, everyone had sparkler-roasted at least one marshmallow. Ennis had even lit a cigaret with a sparkler, which turned out to be much more difficult than one would expect.
When everyone finally went inside for the night, no one bothered to look at a clock. It was late and that was as much as they needed to know. The kids all went straight to bed. Jack and Ennis each showered then fell into bed together. Jack rolled over and kissed Ennis. "Happy Independence Day."
Ennis ran a hand through Jack's hair and kissed him back. "You too."