![]() CATEGORIES: BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism |
The Wind Again, Again
We went and got the body. The farmer had to stay behind. He said he would have come along but he had to stay and milk his cows. The wind was blowing harder now and a few small things fell down. Necklace
Margaret's body was hanging from the apple tree in front of her shack and blowing in the wind. Her neck was at a wrong angle and her face was the color of what we learn to know as death.
Fred climbed up the tree and cut the scarf with his jackknife while Margaret's brother and I lowered her body gently down. He took her body then, and carried it into the shack and lay it down upon the bed.
We stood there.
"Let's take her to iDEATH," Fred said. "That's where she belongs."
Her brother looked relieved for the first time since we had told him of her death.
He went to a large chest by the window and took out a necklace that had small metal trout encircling it. He lifted up her head and fastened the clasp of the necklace. He brushed Margaret's hair out of her eyes.
Then he wrapped her body in a bedspread that had iDEATH crocheted upon it in one of its many and lasting forms. One of her feet was sticking out. The toes looked cold and gently at rest. Couch
We took Margaret back to iDEATH. Somehow everybody there had already heard of her death and they were waiting for us. They were out on the front porch.
Pauline ran down the stairs to me. She was very upset and her cheeks were wet with tears. "Why?" she said. "Why?" I put my arm around her the best I could. "I don't know," I said.
Margaret's brother carried her body up the stairs into iDEATH. Charley opened the door for him. "Here, let me open the door for you."
"Thank you," her brother said. "Where shall I put her?"
"On the couch back in the trout hatchery," Charley said. "That's where we put our dead."
"I don't remember the way," her brother said. "I haven't been here for a long time."
"I'll show you. Follow me," Charley said.
"Thank you."
They went off to the trout hatchery. Fred went with them and so did Old Chuck and Al and Bill. I stayed behind with my arm around Pauline. She was still crying. I guess she really liked Margaret. Tomorrow
Pauline and I went down for a walk by the river in the living room. It was now nearing sundown. Tomorrow the sun would be black, soundless. The night would continue but the stars would not shine and it would be warm like day and everything would be without sound.
"This is horrible," Pauline said. "I feel so bad. Why did she kill herself? Was it my fault for loving you?"
"No," I said. "It was nobody's fault. Just one of those things."
"We were such good friends. We were like sisters. I'd hate to think it was my fault."
"Don't," I said. Carrots
Dinner that night was a quiet affair at iDEATH. Margaret's brother stayed and had dinner with us. Charley invited him.
Al cooked up a mess of carrots again. He broiled them with mushrooms and a sauce made from watermelon sugar and spices. There was hot bread fresh from the oven and sweet butter and glasses of ice-cold milk.
About halfway through dinner, Fred started to say something that looked as if it were important, but then he changed his mind and went back to eating his carrots. Margaret's Room
After dinner everybody went into the living room and it was decided to hold the funeral tomorrow morning, even though it would be dark and there would be no sound and everything would have to be done in silence.
"If it's all right with you," Charley said to Margaret's brother. "She'll be buried in that tomb we've been working on. They finished it this afternoon."
"That would be perfect," her brother said.
"It will be dark and there will be no sound, but I think we can take care of everything."
"Yeah," her brother said.
"Fred, will you go and tell the people in the town about the funeral? Some of them might want to go. Also alert the Tomb Crew about the funeral. And see if you can find some flowers."
"Sure, Charley. I'll take care of it."
"It's our custom to brick up the rooms of those who lived here when they die," Charley said.
"What does that mean?" Margaret's brother said.
"We put bricks across the door and close the room forever."
"That sounds all right." Bricks
Pauline and Margaret's brother and Charley and Bill, he had the bricks, and I went to Margaret's room. Charley opened the door.
Pauline was carrying a lantern. She put it down on Margaret's table and lit the lantern that was there with a long watermelon match.
There were now two lights.
The room was filled with things from the Forgotten Works. Every place you looked there was something forgotten that was piled on another forgotten thing.
Charley shook his head. "A lot of forgotten things in here. We don't even know what most of the things are," he said to nobody.
Margaret's brother sighed.
"Is there anything you want to take with you?" Charley said.
Her brother looked all around the room very carefully and very sadly and then shook his head, too. "No, brick it all up."
We stepped outside and Bill started putting the bricks in place. We watched for a little while. There were tears in Pauline's eyes.
"Please spend the night with us," Charley said.
"Thank you," Margaret's brother said.
"I'll show you to your room. Good night," Charley said to us. He went off with her brother. He was saying something to him.
"Let's go, Pauline," I said.
"All right, honey."
"I think you'd better sleep with me tonight."
"Yes," she said.
We left Bill putting the bricks in place. They were watermelon bricks made from black, soundless sugar. They made no sound as he worked with them. They would seal off the forgotten things forever. My Room
Pauline and I went to my room. We took off our clothes and got into bed. She took off her clothes first and I watched.
"Are you going to blow the lantern out?" she said, leaning forward as I got into bed last.
She did not have any covers up over her breasts. The nipples were hard. They were almost the same color as her lips. They looked beautiful in the lantern light. Her eyes were red from crying. She looked very tired.
"No," I said.
She put her head back on the pillow and smiled ever so faintly. Her smile was like the color of her nipples.
"No," I said. Date: 2015-12-17; view: 974
|