The Statue of Mirrors

Everything is reflected in the Statue of Mirrors if you stand

there long enough and empty your mind of everything else but

the mirrors, and you must be careful not to want anything from

the mirrors. They just have to happen.

An hour or so passed as my mind drained out. Some people

cannot see anything in the Statue of Mirrors, not even themselves.

Then I could see death and the town and the Forgotten Works

and rivers and fields and the piney woods and the ball park and

the Watermelon Works.

I saw Old Chuck on the front porch of iDEATH. He was scratching

his head and Charley was in the kitchen buttering himself

a slice of toast.

Doc Edwards was walking down the street from Ron's shack

and a dog was following behind him, sniffing his footsteps. The

dog stopped at one particular footstep and stood there with its

tail wagging above the footstep. The dog really liked that one.

The shacks of inBOIL and that gang of his lay now only as

ashes by the gate to the Forgotten Works. A bird was looking

near the ashes for something. The bird didn't find what it was

looking for, got tired and flew away.

I saw Pauline walking through the piney woods up toward my shack.

She was carrying a painting with her. It was a surprise for me.

I saw some kids playing baseball in the ball park. One of the

kids pitching had a good fast ball and a lot of control. He threw

five strikes in a row.

I saw Fred directing his crew in the making of a golden plank

of watermelon sugar. He was telling somebody to be careful

with his end.

I saw Margaret climbing an apple tree beside her shack. She

was crying and had a scarf knotted around her neck. She took

the loose end of the scarf and tied it to a branch covered with

young apples. She stepped off the branch and then she was

standing by herself on the air.

The Grand Old Trout Again

I stopped looking into the Statue of Mirrors. I'd seen enough

for that day. I sat down on a couch by the river and stared into

the water of the deep pool that's there. Margaret was dead.

There was a swirl of water on the surface that cleared the pool

all the way down to the bottom, and I saw The Grand Old Trout

staring back at me, with the little iDEATH bell hanging from his

jaw.

He must have swum upstream from where they were putting

the tomb in. That's a long way for an old trout. He must have

left just after I did.

The Grand Old Trout did not take his eyes off me. He remained

stationary in the water, staring intently at me as he had

been doing earlier in the day when he lay by the tomb they were

putting in.

There was another swirl of water on the surface of the pool

and then I could not see The Grand Old Trout any more. When

the pool cleared again, The Grand Old Trout was gone. I stared

at the place where he had been in the river. It was empty now

like a room.

Getting Fred

I went down to the Watermelon Works to see Fred. He was

rather surprised to see me down there for the second time that

day.

"Hi," he said, looking up from a golden plank that he had

been checking out for something. "What's up?"

"It's Margaret," I said.

"Have you seen her?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"She's dead. I saw her in the Statue of Mirrors. She hanged

herself from an apple tree with her blue scarf."

Fred put the plank down. He bit his lip and ran his hand

through his hair. "When did this happen?"

"Just a little while ago. Nobody knows she's dead yet,"

Fred shook his head. "I guess we'd better go get her brother."

"Where's he at?"

"He's helping a farmer put a new roof on his barn. We'll go

there."

Fred told the crew to knock off for the day. They were quite

pleased when Fred told them this. "Thanks, boss," they said.

We left the Watermelon Works with Fred suddenly looking

very tired.

The Wind Again

The gray sun shone feebly. A wind came up and things that

could rustle or move in the wind did so all about us as we

walked down the road to the barn.

"Why do you think she killed herself?" Fred said. "Why

should she do a thing like that? She was so young. So young."

"I don't know," I said. "I don't know why she killed herself."

"It's just terrible," Fred said. "I wish I didn't have to think

about it. You haven't the slightest idea, huh? You haven't seen

her?"

"No, I was looking into the Statue of Mirrors and she hanged

herself there. She's dead now."

Margaret's Brother

Margaret's brother was up on the barn roof, nailing blue

watermelon shingles down and the farmer was climbing up the

ladder, bringing him another bundle of shingles.

Her brother saw us coming up the road and stood up on the

barn roof and waved at quite a distance before we got there.

"I don't like this," Fred said.

"Hello, there," her brother yelled.

"What brings you up this way?" the farmer yelled

.

We waved back but didn't say anything until we got there.

"Howdy," the farmer said, shaking hands with us. "What

are you doing up this way?"

Margaret's brother climbed down the ladder. "Hello," he said

and shook our hands and stood there waiting for us to say

something. We were strangely quiet and they picked up on it

immediately.

Fred pawed at the ground with his boot. He drew a kind of

half-circle with his right boot on the ground, and then he erased

it with his left boot. This took only a few seconds.

"What's wrong?" the farmer said.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" her brother said.

"It's Margaret," Fred said.

"What's wrong with Margaret?" her brother said. "Tell me."

"She's dead," Fred said.

"How did it happen?"

"She hanged herself."

Margaret's brother stared straight ahead for a little while.

His eyes were dim. Nobody said anything. Fred drew another

circle in the dust, and then kicked it away.

"It's for the best," Margaret's brother said, finally. "Nobody's

to blame. She had a broken heart."

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 845