The Life and Times of Curious Kate
My Life with Kate
Katrina Taylor was a most curious child. It was rumored she learned the words “why” and “how” before Daddy and Mama… Some days her inquisitive mind was delightful. Other days it prompted her mom to drive Katie to her aunt’s house, just for a few hours respite. You know how it is. Sometimes it is easier to listen to a child and delight in their sense of wonder when you can send them home at the end of the day.
By high school, Katie became known as CK, short for Curious Kate. Some of her teachers loved her lust for knowledge and truth. Others ran into the teacher’s lounge, like a streaker during senior prank day as soon as they saw her coming their way.
Yet in spite of her inability to “Zen”, and “countless attempts” (her words not mine) searching for Mr. Right in vain, she captured and was captured by the heart of one Thomas K. Burns her senior year at college. Tom was more on the quiet side and anyway Kate talked enough for the both of them. It was a yin and yang sort of thing. She opened him up to a world of possibilities and he was her home base. They were joined in holy wedlock upon graduation from college.
Ironically, or maybe not so much, Kate became a kindergarten teacher and she loved teaching little ones. She saw so much of herself in these kids and loved to nurture the potential in each one. She said it was her “calling”. And I have to say she was perfect for the job.
Tom worked as a computer analyst and his time at work was almost meditative compared to his life with Kate. Yet Kate’s zest for the unknown and all its experiences kept life entertaining, to say the least. But I am getting ahead of myself.
My name is Samantha King, Sam for short. Kate and I have been best friends since forever it seems, when my mom and I moved to the “small and idyllic town of Silver Lake, population 1327”. (That is what it said on the sign outside of town.) Our new home just happened to be next door to Katie, her mom, and her older brother Henry. We moved so my mom could run the bakery that Uncle Charlie and Aunt Ellie owned. Mom worked there during her summers in high school. And it was there she fell in love with baking. As it happened Uncle and Auntie were getting ready to retire, and for us, it was an opportunity for a new beginning. Anyway … you get the idea… nice, peaceful, small town, but not much to do. Yet thanks to Katie, we were never bored!
Katie and I were always getting in trouble when we were young. Not on purpose mind you. I thought Katie came up with the most awesome ideas. She was always curious about how things worked. I remember one time when we were six or seven, Katie just knew we could make our own honey and then sell it outside my mom’s bakery. So she got the idea that we could catch bees like we caught fireflies at night and put them in jars. Thinking back on it now, I feel like a jailer of innocent victims. Anyway, she thought if we could put the bees in a shoe box with holes in the top, they would just “get busy”. Sounded good to me. Katie’s ideas always did…at first.
It was my mom’s day off and it was her turn to “keep an eye on us”. She was very busy in those days and I suppose as long as we weren’t crying or making a lot of noise, she took it for granted we were OK.
Not.
Our families lived on the outskirts of town and in the back of Katie’s house was a farmer’s field. The hay field was full of clover and along the fence lines were huge sunflowers and all kinds of wildflowers. We used to pick them for our moms when we trying to get back in their good graces after another one of our “adventures”. But I am digressing, again.
Anyway, bees were always around and her mom told us that they wouldn’t bother us if we didn’t bother them. So Katie convinced me that meant that the bees would be friendly if we were friendly. Katie decided the neighborly thing to do was to make them a bee bath. Birds had baths, so should bees. Besides what self- respecting bee would want to go around stinky. The plan was, that when they came in to land, we could collect them for our honey-making operation. And of course, she knew just what to do.
We went into her mom’s kitchen, found a glass dish and put some pretty colored stones on the bottom, thinking they would help attract the bees. (That was my idea.) We filled the dish with water and put it down next to the sunflowers. Well, we waited and waited and waited and while we waited we practiced catching imaginary bees with a fish net from Katie’s aquarium. We figured if we could scoop up fish, we should be able to scoop up bees too. So we practiced our scooping skills while we watched and waited. One of us would practice scooping and putting our hand over the net so the bees couldn’t get away, while the other would be in charge of opening and closing the shoe box. Katie said if we worked fast, the bees would be fine. But, we had no takers.
The next day, Henry was supposed to be watching us. He would always ask what we were doing and we always said “nothing”. Let’s just say responsible kid-sitting was not a priority for Henry. Computer games filled his weird little world.
At any rate, Katie had remembered being at a picnic one time and Henry almost drank a bee that went for a swim in his can of pop. So she figured bees must like pop. We asked Henry if we could share a can. No problem if it would keep us quiet. We chose orange because of the color figuring it would attract bees better than the color of root beer.
Needless to say, it was a blessing that neither of us were allergic to bees. Plus, we didn’t realize that bumblebees didn’t make honey. What a fiasco. That was just one of many crazy “escapades” we shared. That was life with Katie.
In high school, Katie now Kate was a cross country runner. Running seemed effortless to her while I chugged along. You could tell she loved the feeling of being alone with her thoughts. Some days we didn’t even talk between the start and finish. Needless to say, she came up with more questions than answers.
During high school religion classes, Kate gave our teachers a run for their money as well. They were volunteers and were told to “stick to the book”. They just needed to teach the basics. It would just make things easier. Ya, right. Rote answers never satisfied Kate.
Kate’s thirst for the truth was never quenched. One question always led to the next and the next and the next. Unlike her teachers, Kate’s friends always wanted to be in the same class with her. It was never a snooze. We even admired her ability to keep digging for answers, especially when the subject was God. Before you knew it, it was time to leave. And once again Katie left with more questions than answers.
Ever since Kate and I were seniors in high school we kept journals. More like diaries I guess you could call them back in the day. By college, I had more important things to do than write down my thoughts, since they changed minute by minute some days, but Katie kept writing. I would always ask her what she found so interesting to write about. She said her thoughts needed to be written down so she wouldn’t forget them, just in case someday, she came across someone, who could answer her questions.
By the time Kate and Tom had been married for a while her frustration of “why and how” unanswered questions hit a new high. Kate had a lot of friends and we all loved her. You couldn’t find a more kind and caring spirit around. And she was the most loyal friend ever. But when it came to discussing anything from politics to diaper changing… well, let’s just say we learned how to create a diversion in the conversation if we needed to. Yet I truly admire my friend Kate. I even wish I had her deep faith and quest for truth. We live in a world where truth seems to be optional these days. I hate to think this is the world we will be handing off to our kids. But for now… on to the life and times of Curious Kate.