The Crow's Nest 2-8

2-8

            “We didn’t know that either.” said a voice to my rear.  I turned to see a large male standing in the open doorway.  He was back lighted by the windows in the hall so a concise view was impossible but I could see the large form, that this form was a male; a tall. robust, middle aged male dressed in an old Colonial style costume that include a tri-corner hat.  He stepped forward into the attic space and walked toward me.  I had turned to face him.  As he approached he continue speaking.  “THIS IS THE CAPTAIN!” my mind said.

            “We know the history NOW but it took us a decade to discover it was fake and another decade to figure out what happened” said the approaching male.  The attic window light took over his form and I saw full bodied late middle-aged male in 18^th costume coming straight at me.  He was no ghost and his tall leather boots clomped on the old board floor.  He stopped his approach when he reached the distance a gentleman would cease his approach.  “It was Margaret’s mother who did it.  Mrs. Ardsley.  We found the label and knew something was wrong because our table never had a label that we could remember.  Our table had always been up here; right there.  It couldn’t possibly have moved and it was our great, great, great, GREAT grandfather’s gift to his wife.  The whole family always knew this.  That was that.  So when we discovered the label; I actually found it, Alice and I knew something was wrong.  We talked about it for years.  Then one evening just before Christmas, it struck us both in a flash.  Years and years before, just before Christmas, Mrs. Ardsley had begged to borrow the table for a holiday pageant at the Tea House Society.  Of course we loaned the table.  She took it off and then back it came right after the pageant.  She brought the table right back up to the attic and put it right back there where it’s always been.  We never gave it a thought.  Years later I discovered the label.  Mrs. Ardsley had switched the table.  She took our real table and brought back this fake. HOW would we know the difference.  We never thought of such a thing being done, never looked or never ever even considered such a thing.  Even now to this day we cannot fathom it and only conclude that this happened this way because there can be no other way”.

            “Did you tell her?” I heard myself say as my mind rushed through decades of transaction with the Mother that …came to the same conclusion as this captain:  That the mother would and could have done this but I too would never have thought of such a thing.

            “Of course I brought it to her.  RIGHT HERE we stood and I showed her the label.  She said the label was there when she took the table.  OF COURSE the label was there on THIS table but THIS TABLE is NOT OUR TABLE I reasoned back.  She couldn’t; WOULDN’T, understand me.  YOU SWITCHED THE TABLES I said to her.  She said no she did not.  What were we going to do?  Even then it was YEARS ago.”

            “What happened to the table?” I again heard myself say as again my mind roared through my history of transactions with the mother.  “She sold it” my mind said.

            “HOW WOULD WE KNOW what that woman would do with it.  It was years and years ago.  We always have hoped she still has it hidden away in that house of hers.  You know it’s full of her plunder.  She’s a PIRATE you know.  WAS a pirate.  DEAD just five days she is.  Might as well still be alive with Margaret already here trying to take everything and sell the house.  BURN IT you know is what she wants.  The fire chief told us.  Says she came right to him and talked all about it.  The mother owns the house you know.  Bought it years ago.  Years and years BEFORE she switched the table.  Alice says she did that to get her money back.  The table is very valuable.  We’ve always been told that.  THAT table is of NO value” he said pointing at the one I stood beside.

            I looked down at the table with the tankard sitting on it.

            “WHERE’S THAT DAMN CROW!” he continued.  “GONE I HOPE.  BACK OUT THE WINDOW I HOPE!  I came in here after you left yesterday and A CROW was hopping around in here.  CAME IN through that window.  WHO OPENED THAT I said and Alice said Margaret did.  I chased that damn crow around in here.  Wouldn’t LEAVE.  Just hopped around where ever I chased it.  THE HELL WITH THAT I SAID and left.  Locked the door with the crow still in here.  Figured it would find its way out.”

            I wasn’t listening.  I was still looking down on the table.  “The table COULD BE in the mother’s house.  She COULD still have it” my mind reasoned.  I looked at the captain.  His back was to me and he faced the window he’d just closed.