Under the Plank Press

As we neared the Watermelon Works the air was full of the

sweet smell of the sugar being boiled in the vats. There were

great layers and strips and shapes of sugar hardening out in the

sun: red sugar, golden sugar, gray sugar, black, soundless sugar,

white sugar, blue sugar, brown sugar.

"The sugar sure looks good," Fred said.

"Yeah."

I waved at Ed and Mike, whose job it is to keep the birds off

the sugar. They waved back, and then one of them began chasing

after a bird.

There are about a dozen people who work at the Watermelon

Works, and we went inside. There were great fires going under

the two vats, and Peter was feeding wood into them. He looked

hot and sweaty, but that was his natural condition.

"How's the sugar coming?" I said.

"Fine," he said. "Lot of sugar. How are things at iDEATH?"

"Good," I said.

"What's this about you and Pauline?"

"Just gossip," I said.

I like Pete. We've been friends for years. When I was a child

I used to come down to the Watermelon Works and help him

feed the fires.

"I'll bet Margaret's mad," he said. "I hear she's really pining

for you. That's what her brother says. She's just pining away."

"I don't know about that," I said.

"What are you down here for?" he said.

"I just came down here to chuck a piece of wood in the fire,"

I said. I reached over and picked up a large pine knot and put it

in the fire under a vat.

"Just like old times," he said.

The foreman came out of his office and joined us. He looked

kind of tired.

"Hi, Edgar," I said.

"Hello," he said. "How are you? Good morning, Fred."

"Good morning, boss."

"What brings you down here?" Edgar said.

"Fred wants to show me something."

"What's that, Fred?" Edgar said.

"It's a private thing, boss."

"Oh. Well, show away, then."

"Will do, boss."

"It's always good to see you down here," Edgar said to me.

"You look kind of tired," I said.

"Yeah, I stayed up late last night."

"Well, get some sleep tonight," I said.

"That's what I'm planning on. As soon as I get off work I'm

going straight home to bed. Don't even think I'll eat any dinner,

just grab a snack."

"Sleep's good for you," Fred said.

"I guess I'd better get back to the office," Edgar said. "I've

got some paper work to do. See you later."

"Yeah, good-bye, Edgar."

The foreman went back to his office, and I went with Fred to

the plank press. That's where we make watermelon planks.

Today they were making golden planks.

Fred is the straw boss and the rest of his crew was already

there, turning out planks.

"Good morning," the crew said.

"Good morning," Fred said. "Let's stop this thing here for a

minute."

One of the crew turned off the switch and Fred had me come

over very close and get down on my hands and knees and crawl

under the press until we came to a very dark place and then he

lit a match and showed me a bat hanging upside down from a

housing.

"What do you think of that?" Fred said.

"Yeah," I said, staring at the bat.

"I found him there a couple of days ago. Doesn't that beat

everything?" he said.

"It's got a head start," I said.

Until Lunch

After having admired Fred's bat and crawled out from underneath

the plank press, I told him that I had to go up to my shack

and do some work: plant some flowers and things.

"Are you going to have lunch at iDEATH?" he said.

"No, I think I'll just have a snack downtown at the cafe later

on. Why don't you join me, Fred?"

"OK," he said. "I think they're serving frankfurters and sauerkraut

today."

"That was yesterday," one of his crew volunteered.

"You're right," Fred said. "Today's meat loaf. How does that

sound?"

"All right," I said. "I'll see you for lunch, then. About

twelve."

I left Fred supervising the plank press with big golden planks

of watermelon sugar coming down the chain. The Watermelon

Works was bubbling and drying away, sweet and gentle in the

warm gray sun.

And Ed and Mike were chasing after birds. Mike was running

a robin off.

The Tombs

On my way to the shack, I decided to go down to the river where

they were putting in a new tomb and look at the trout that

always gather out of a great curiosity when the tombs are put

in.

I passed through the town. It was kind of quiet with just a

few people on the streets. I saw Doc Edwards going somewhere

carrying his bag, and I waved at him.

He waved back and made a motion to show that he was on a

very important errand. Somebody was probably sick in the town.

I waved him on.

There were a couple of old people sitting in rocking chairs

on the front porch of the hotel. One of them was rocking and

the other one was asleep. The one that was asleep had a newspaper

in his lap.

I could smell bread baking in the bakery and there were two

horses tied up in front of the general store. I recognized one of

the horses as being from iDEATH.

I walked out of the town and passed by some trees that were

at the edge of a little watermelon patch. The trees had moss

hanging from them.

A squirrel ran up into the branches of a tree. His tail was

missing. I wondered what had happened to his tail. I guess he

lost it someplace.

I sat down on a couch by the river. There was a statue of grass

beside the couch. The blades were made from copper and had

been turned to their natural color by the rain weight of years.

There were four or five guys putting in the tomb. They were

the Tomb Crew. The tomb was being put into the bottom of the

river. That's how we bury our dead here. Of course we used a

lot less tombs when the tigers were in bloom.

But now we bury them all in glass coffins at the bottoms of

rivers and put foxfire in the tombs, so they glow at night and

we can appreciate what comes next.

I saw a bunch of trout gathered together to watch the tomb

being put in. They were nice-looking rainbow trout. There were

perhaps a hundred of them in a very small space in the river.

The trout have a great curiosity about this activity, and many

of them gather to watch.

The Tomb Crew had sunk the Shaft into the river and the

pump was going away. They were doing the glass inlay work

now. Soon the tomb would be complete and the door would be

opened when it was needed and someone would go inside to

stay there for the ages.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 730