Margaret Again, Again, Again, Again

inBOIL and the bodies of his gang were put into a shack and

drenched with watermelontrout oil. We brought along a barrel-

ful for that purpose and then all the other shacks were drenched

with watermelontrout oil.

All the people stood back and just as Charley was getting

ready to set fire to the shack where the bodies were, Margaret

came waltzing out of the Forgotten Works.

"What's up?" she said. She acted as if nothing had happened,

as if we were all down there on some kind of picnic.

"Where have you been?" Charley said, looking a little bewildered

at Margaret, who was as cool as a cucumber.

"In the Forgotten Works," she said. "I came down here early

this morning, before sunrise, to look for things. What's wrong?

Why are you all down here at the Forgotten Works?"

"Don't you know what happened?" Charley said.

"No," she said.

"Did you see inBOIL when you came down here this morning?"

"No," she said. "They were all asleep. What's wrong?" She

looked all around. "Where's inBOIL?"

"I don't even know if I can tell you," Charley said. "He's dead

and all his gang, too."

"Dead. You must be joking."

"Why? No, they came up to iDEATH a couple of hours ago

and they all killed themselves in the trout hatchery. We've

brought their bodies down here to burn them. They made a terrible

scene."

"I don't believe it," Margaret said. "I just can't believe it.

What kind of joke is this?"

"It's no joke," Charley said.

Margaret looked around. She could see that almost everybody

was there. She saw me standing beside Pauline and she ran

over to me and said, "Is it true?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know. None of us do. They just came up to iDEATH

and killed themselves. It's a mystery to us."

"Oh no," Margaret said. "How did they do it?"

"With jackknives."

"Oh, no," Margaret said. She was very shocked, dazed. She

grabbed ahold of my hand.

"This morning?" she said, almost to no one now.

"Yes."

Her hand felt cold and awkward in my hand as if the fingers

were too small to fit. I could only stare at her who had disappeared

into the Forgotten Works that morning.

Shack Fever

Charley took a six-inch match and set fire to the shack that

contained inBOIL and the bodies of his gang. We all stood back

and the flames went up higher and higher and burned with that

beautiful light that watermelontrout oil makes.

Then Charley set fire to the other shacks and they burned just

as brightly, and pretty soon the heat was so bad that we had to

stand farther and farther back until we were in the fields.

We watched for an hour or so and the shacks were fairly gone

by then. Charley stood there watching very quietly. inBOIL had

once been his brother.

Some of the children were playing in the fields. They got tired

of watching the fire. It had been very exciting at first, but then the children grew tired of it and decided to do something else.

Pauline sat down on the grass. The flames brought total peace

to her face. She looked as if she had just been born.

I stopped holding Margaret's hand and she was still in a daze

over what was happening. She sat by herself in the grass, holding

her hands together as if they were dead.

As the flames diminished to very little, a strong wind came

out of the Forgotten Works and scattered ashes rapidly through

the air. After while Fred yawned, I dreamt.

Book Three: Margaret

Job

I woke up feeling refreshed and stared at my watermelon ceiling,

how nice it looked, before getting out of bed. I wondered what

time it was. I was supposed to meet Fred for lunch at the cafe

in town.

I got up and went outside and stretched again on the front

porch of my shack, feeling the cool stones under my bare feet,

feeling their distance. I looked at the gray sun.

The river shone not quite lunch time yet, so I went over to

the river and got some water and threw it in my face to finish

the job of waking up.

Meat Loaf

I met Fred at the cafe. He was already there, waiting for me.

Doc Edwards was with him. Fred was looking at the menu.

"Hello," I said.

"Hi."

"Hello," Doc Edwards said.

"You were really in a hurry this morning," I said. "You

looked like you needed a horse."

"That's right. I had to go deliver a baby. A little girl joined us

this morning."

"That's fine," I said. "Who's the lucky father?"

"Do you know Ron?"

"Yeah. He lives in that shack by the shoe shop. Right?"

"Yeah. That's Ron. He's got a fine little girl."

"You were really moving along. I didn't know you had that

much speed left in you.

"

"Yes. Yes."

"How are you, Fred?" I said.

"Fine. I put in a good morning's work. What did you do?"

"Planted a few flowers."

"Did you work on your book?"

"No, I planted a few flowers and took a long nap."

"Lazyhead."

"By the way," Doc Edwards said. "How's that book coming

along?"

"Oh, it's coming along."

"Fine. What's it about?"

"Just what I'm writing down: one word after another."

"Good."

The waitress came over and asked us what we were having

for lunch. "What are you boys having for lunch?" she said.

She had been the waitress there for years. She had been a young

girl there and now she was not young any more.

"Today's special is meat loaf, isn't it?" Doc Edwards said.

"Yes, 'Meat loaf for a gray day is the best way,' that's our

motto," she said.

Everybody laughed. It was a good joke.

"I'll have some meat loaf," Fred said.

"What about you?" the waitress said. "Meat loaf?"

"Yeah, meat loaf," I said.

"Three meat loaves," the waitress said.

Apple Pie

After lunch Doc Edwards had to leave early to go and check

on Ron's woman and the new baby to see that they were doing

all right.

"See you later," he said.

Fred and I stayed there for a while and drank another cup of

coffee at our leisure. Fred put two lumps of watermelon sugar

in his coffee.

"How's Margaret doing?" he said. "Have you seen her or

heard from her?"

"No," I said. "I told you that this morning."

"She's in pretty bad shape over you and Pauline," Fred said.

"She's having a lot of trouble accepting it. I was talking to her

brother yesterday. He said she's got a broken heart."

"I can't help that," I said.

"Why are you mad at her?" Fred said. "You don't think she

had anything to do with inBOIL just because everybody else does,

except Pauline and me?

"There's no proof. It doesn't even make sense in the first place.

It was just a coincidence that linked them together. You don't

believe she had anything to do with inBOIL, do you?"

"I don't know," I said.

Fred shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his coffee. The

waitress came over and asked us if we wanted a piece of pie for

dessert. "We've got some apple pie that really tastes good," she

said.

"I'd like a piece of pie," Fred said.

"What about you?"

"No," I said.

Literature

"Well, I've got to get back to work," Fred said. "The plank

press calls. What are you going to do?"

"I think I'll go write," I said. "Work on my book for a while."

"That sounds ambitious," Fred said. "Is the book about

weather like the schoolteacher said?"

"No, it's not about weather."

"Good," Fred said. "I wouldn't want to read a book about

weather."

"Have you ever read a book?" I said.

"No," Fred said. "I haven't but I don't think I'd want to start

by reading one about clouds."

The Way

Fred went off to the Watermelon Works and I started back to

my shack to write, and then I decided not to. I didn't know what

to do.

I could go back to iDEATH and talk to Charley about an idea

I had or I could go find Pauline and make love to her or I could

go to the Statue of Mirrors and sit down there for a while.

That's what I did.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 808