Margaret Again, Again, Again

I spent a half an hour or so pacing back and forth on the bridge,

but I did not once find that board that Margaret always steps on,

that board she could not miss if all the bridges in the world were

put together, formed into one single bridge, she'd step on that

board.

A Nap

Suddenly I felt very tired and decided to take a nap before

lunch and went into the shack and lay down in my bed. I looked

up at the ceiling, at the beams of watermelon sugar. I stared at

the grain and was soon fast asleep.

I had a couple of small dreams. One of them was about a moth.

The moth was balanced on an apple.

Then I had a long dream, which was again the history of

inBOIL and that gang of his and the terrible things that happened

just a few short months ago.

Whiskey

inBOIL and that gang of his lived in a little bunch of lousy shacks

with leaky roofs near the Forgotten Works. They lived there

until they were dead. I think there were about twenty of them.

All men, like inBOIL, that were no good.

First there was just inBOIL who lived there. He got in a big

fight one night with Charley and told him to go to hell and said

he would sooner live by the Forgotten Works than in iDEATH.

"To hell with iDEATH," he said, and went and built himself a

lousy shack by the Forgotten Works. He spent his time digging

around in there and making whiskey from things.

Then a couple of other men went and joined up with him and

from time to time, every once in a while, a new man would join

them. You could always tell who they would be.

Before they joined inBOIL's gang, they would always be unhappy

and nervous and shifty or have "light fingers" and talk

a lot about things that good people did not understand nor

wanted to.

They would grow more and more nervous and no account and

then finally you would hear about them having joined inBOIL's

gang and now they were working with him in the Forgotten

Works, and being paid in whiskey that inBOIL made from forgotten

things.

Whiskey Again

inBOIL was about fifty years old, I guess, and was born and raised

at iDEATH. I remember sitting upon his knee as a child and having

him tell me stories. He knew some pretty good ones, too . . .

and Margaret was there.

Then he turned bad. It happened over a couple of years. He

kept getting mad at things that were of no importance and going

off by himself to the trout hatchery at iDEATH.

He began spending a lot of time at the Forgotten Works, and

Charley would ask him what he was doing and inBOIL would

say, "Oh, nothing. Just off by myself."

"What kind of things do you find when you're digging down

there?"

"Oh, nothing," inBOIL lied.

He became very removed from people and then his speech

would be strange, slurred and his movements became jerky and

his temper bad, and he spent a lot of time at night in the trout

hatchery and sometimes he would laugh out loud and you could

hear this enormous laugh that had now become his, echoing

through the rooms and halls, and into the very changing of

iDEATH: the indescribable way it changes that we like so much,

that suits us.

The Big Fight

The big fight between inBOIL and Charley occurred at dinner one

night. Fred was passing some mashed potatoes to me when it

happened.

The night had been building up for weeks. inBOIL’s laughter

had grown louder and louder until it was almost impossible

to sleep at night.

InBOIL was drunk all the time, and he would listen to no one

about anything, not even Charley. He wouldn't even listen to

Charley. He told Charley to mind his own business. "Mind your

own business."

One afternoon Pauline, who was just a child, found him

passed out in the bathtub, singing dirty songs. She was frightened

and he had a bottle of that stuff he brewed down at the

Forgotten Works. He smelled horrible and it took three men

to lift him out of the bathtub and get him to bed.

"Here are the mashed potatoes," Fred said.

I was just putting a big scoop of them on my plate to soak up

the rest of the gravy when inBOIL, who had not touched a single

bite of his fried chicken and it was growing cold in front of him,

turned to Charley and said, "Do you know what's wrong with

this place?"

"No, what's wrong, inBOIL? You seem to have all the answers

these days. Tell me."

"I will tell you. This place stinks. This isn't iDEATH at all. This

is just a figment of your imagination. All of you guys here are

just a bunch of clucks, doing ducky things at your ducky iDEATH.

"iDEATH--ha, don't make me laugh. This place is nothing

but a claptrap. You wouldn't know iDEATH if it walked up and

bit you.

"I know more about iDEATH than all of you guys, especially

Charley here who thinks he's something extra. I know more

about iDEATH in my little finger than all you guys know put

together.

"You haven't the slightest idea what's going on here. I know.

I know. I know. To hell with your iDEATH. I've forgotten more

iDEATH than you guys will ever know. I'm going down to the

Forgotten Works to live. You guys can have this damn rat hole."

inBOIL got up and threw his fried chicken on the floor and

stomped out of the place, travelling very unevenly. There was

stunned silence at the table and no one could say anything for

a long time.

Then Fred said, "Don't feel bad about it, Charley. He'll be

sober tomorrow and everything will be different. He's just drunk

again and as soon as he sobers up, he'll be better."

"No, I think he's gone for good," Charley said. "I hope it all

works out for the best."

Charley looked very sad and we were all sad, too, because

inBOIL was Charley's brother. We all sat there looking at our

food.

Time

The years passed with inBOIL living down by the Forgotten

Works and gathering slowly a gang of men who were just

like him, believed in the things he did, and acted his way and

went digging in the Forgotten Works and drank whiskey brewed

from the things they found.

Sometimes they would sober up one of the gang and send

him into town to sell forgotten things that were particularly

beautiful or curious or books which we used for fuel then

because there were millions of them lying around in the Forgotten

Works.

They would get bread and food and whatnot for the forgotten

things and so lived without having to do anything besides dig

and drink.

Margaret grew up to be a very pretty young woman and we

went steady together. Margaret came over to my shack one day.

I could tell it was her even before she was there because I

heard her step on that board she always steps on, and it pleased

me and made my stomach tingle like a bell set ajar.

She knocked on the door.

"Come in, Margaret," I said.

She came in and kissed me. "What are you doing today?"

she said.

"I have to go down to iDEATH and work on my statue."

"Are you still working on that bell?" she said.

"Yes," I said. "It's coming along rather slowly. It's taking

too long. I'll be glad when it's done. I'm tired of the thing."

"What are you going to do afterwards?" she said.

"I don't know. Is there anything you want to do, honey?"

"Yes," she said. "I want to go down to the Forgotten Works

and poke around."

"Again?" I said. "You certainly like to spend a lot of time

down there."

"It's a curious place," she said.

"You're about the only woman who likes that place. inBOIL

and that gang of his put the other women off."

"I like it down there. inBOIL is harmless. All he wants to do

's stay drunk."

"All right," I said. "It's nothing, honey. Meet me down at

iDEATH later on. I'll be with you as soon as I put in a few more

hours on that bell."

"Are you going down now?" she said.

"No, I have a few things I want to do here first."

"Can I help?" she said.

"No, they're just a few things I have to do alone."

"OK, then. I'll see you."

"Give me a kiss first," I said.

She came over and I held her in my arms very close and kissed

Margaret upon the mouth, and then she went off laughing.

The Bell

After a while I went down to iDEATH and worked on that bell.

It was not coming at all and finally I was just sitting there on a

chair, staring at it.

My chisel was hanging limply in my hand, and then I put it

down on the table and absentmindedly covered it up with a rag.

Fred came in and saw me sitting there staring at the bell. He

left without saying anything. It hardly even looked like a bell.

Finally Margaret came and rescued me. She was wearing a

blue dress and had a ribbon in her hair and carried a basket to

put things in that she found at the Forgotten Works.

"How's it coming?" she said.

"It's finished," I said.

"It doesn't look finished," she said.

"It's finished," I said.

Pauline

We saw Charley as we were leaving iDEATH. He was sitting on

his favorite couch by the river, feeding little pieces of bread to

some trout that had gathered there.

"Where you kids going?" he said.

"Oh, just out for a walk," Margaret said, before I could say

anything.

"Well, have a good walk," he said. "Lovely day, isn't it? Great

big beautiful blue sun shining away."

"It sure is," I said.

Pauline came into the room and walked over and joined us.

"Hello, there," she said.

"Hi."

"What do you want for dinner, Charley?" she said.

"Roast beef," Charley said, joking.

"Well, that's what you'll have then."

"What a nice surprise," Charley said. "Is it my birthday?"

"No. How are you people?"

"We're fine," I said.

"We're going for a walk," Margaret said.

"That sounds like fun. See you later."

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 804