The Girl with the Lantern Again

After while I let Pauline go to sleep, but then I had my usual

trouble sleeping. She was warm and sweet-smelling beside me.

Her body called me to sleep as if it were a band of trumpets.

I lay there for a long time before I got up and went for one of

the walks I take at night.

I stood there with my clothes on, watching Pauline sleep.

Strange, how well Pauline has slept since we have been going

steady together, for Pauline was the girl who went for the long

walks at night, carrying the lantern. Pauline was the girl I

wondered so much about, walking up and down the roads,

stopping at this place, this bridge, this river, these trees in the

piney woods.

Her hair is blonde and now she is asleep.

After we started going steady she stopped her long walks at

night, but I still continue mine. It suits me to take these long

walks at night.

Margaret Again, Again, Again, Again, Again

I went to the trout hatchery and stood there staring at the

cold undelightful body now of Margaret. She lay upon the couch

and there were lanterns all around. The trout had trouble

sleeping.

There were some fingerlings darting around in a tray that had

a lantern by the edge of it, illuminating Margaret's face. I stared

at the fingerlings for a long time, hours passed, until they went

to sleep. They were now like Margaret.

Good Ham

We woke up an hour or so before sunrise and had an early

breakfast. When the sun came up over the edge of our world,

the darkness would continue and there would be no sound today.

Our voices would be gone. If you dropped something, there

would be no sound. The rivers would be silent.

"It's going to be a long day," Pauline said, as she put on her

dress, pulling it over her long smooth neck.

We had ham and eggs, hashbrowns and toast. Pauline cooked

breakfast and I offered to help her. "Is there anything I can do?"

I said.

"No," she said. "I've got everything under control but thanks

for the offer."

"You're welcome."

We all had breakfast together, including Margaret's brother. He sat next to Charley.

"This is good ham," Fred said.

"We'll hold the funeral later on in the morning," Charley

said. "Everybody knows what they have to do and we can write

notes if anything out of the ordinary comes up. We just have

a few moments of sound left."

"Ummmm--good ham," Fred said.

Sunrise

Pauline and I were in the kitchen talking when the sun came up.

She was washing the dishes and I was drying them. I was drying

a frying pan and she was washing the coffee cups.

"I feel a little bit better today," she said.

"Good," I said.

"How did I sleep last night?"

"Like a top."

"I had a bad dream. I hope I didn't wake you up."

"No."

"The shock yesterday was something. I don't know. I just

didn't expect things to turn out this way, but they have, and

I guess there's nothing we can do about it."

"That's right," I said. "Just take things the way they happen."

Pauline turned toward me and said, "I guess the funeral

will--"

Escutcheon

Margaret was dressed in death robes made from watermelon

sugar and adorned with beads of foxfire, so that the light would

shine forever from her tomb at night and on the black, soundless

days. This one.

She had been prepared now for the tomb. We moved in

lanterns and silence about iDEATH, waiting for the townspeople

to come.

They came. Thirty or forty arrived, including the editor of

the newspaper. It is published once a year. The schoolteacher

and Doc Edwards were there and then we started the funeral.

Margaret was carried on the Escutcheon we use for the dead,

made from pine ornamented with glass and little distant stones.

Everybody had torches and lanterns and we carried her body

out of the trout hatchery and through the living room and out

the door and across the porch and down the steps of iDEATH.

Sunny Morning

The procession moved slowly and in total silence down the road

to the new tomb that now belonged to Margaret, the one I had

watched them building yesterday, putting the finishing touches

on for Margaret. It was getting warm as the sun climbed higher

in the sky. There was not even the sound of our footsteps or

anything.

The Tomb Crew

The tomb crew was waiting for us. They still had the Shaft in

place and they started the pump going when they saw us coming.

We turned the body over to them and they went about putting

it in the tomb. They've had a lot of experience doing that. They

carried her body down the Shaft and put it in the tomb. They

closed the glass door and started to seal it up.

Pauline, Charley, Fred, Old Chuck and I stood there together

in a little group and watched them. Pauline took my arm.

Margaret's brother came over and joined us.

After the Tomb Crew had sealed the door, they turned the

pump off and removed the hose from the Shaft.

Then they harnessed up some horses with ropes to the two

pulleys that were hanging from the Shaft Gallows. Ropes went

from the Shaft Gallows to hooks in the Shaft itself.

That's how they get the Shaft out.

The horses strained forward and the Shaft was pulled free

from the bottom of the river and was lifted up onto the shore

and was now half-hanging from the Shaft Gallows.

The Tomb Crew and their horses looked tired. Everything

was done in total silence. Not a sound came from the horses or

the men or the Shaft or the river or the people watching.

We saw the light shining up from Margaret, the light that

came from the foxfire upon her robes. We took flowers and threw

them upstream above her tomb.

The flowers drifted down over the light coming from her:

roses and daffodils and poppies and bluebells floated on by.

The Dance

It is a custom here to hold a dance in the trout hatchery after

a funeral. Everybody comes and there's a good band and much

dancing goes on. We all like to waltz.

After the funeral we went back to iDEATH and prepared for

the dance. Party decorations were put up in the hatchery and

refreshments were prepared for the dance.

Everybody got ready in silence. Charley put on some new

overalls. Fred spent half an hour combing his hair and Pauline

put on high heel shoes.

We could not start the party until there was sound, so that

the musical instruments would work and we could work with

them in our own style, mostly waltzing.

Cooks Together

Pauline and Al together cooked an early dinner that we had

late in the afternoon. It was very hot outside, so they prepared

something light. They made a potato salad that somehow ended

up having a lot of carrots in it.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 886