Coy - Part Twenty-One - "Go to Hell"

Coy

Part Twenty-One

"Go to Hell"

            OK... so... I have to start backing out of this tale... and that’s gonna take a while to... back out... to, THEN, get to the ‘end’.  Of the tale.  “To date”.  The back out problem is that, remarkably, everything I’ve tale told so far has DOES have something to do with the END of the tale.  There is a LOT that has been told and so... each iota comes into play and is... let me call it ‘carried’ as in CARRIED OFF.

            For example.  The historical society’s card catalog with the cards (Part Twenty)...:  I know the guy who bought it.  He’s a shrewd blue jean wearing ‘antiques dealer’.  He ‘third day’ ‘offered’ and ‘got it”.  With the cards in it.   (He’s) “Stupid”.  I said.

            He loaded ‘it’ and ‘it’ was gone.  Nobody cares?  (Remember that? Who Cares?  Parts Fourteen [A-B]).  So... a... TEN YEARS go by... and one day this... old, local, gentleman... patron goes into the historical society and asks to see ‘these letters’.

            “What letters”.

            So and so’s FAMILY letters.  “They donated.”

            “OH YES THOSE LETTERS.  WE HAVE THEM ALL SCANNED.  On to THE COMPUTER”.

            “I’m looking for these ones my uncle’s FATHER WROTE HIS SISTER”.

            “OH.  Well... there quite a few LOTS of THOSE letters.  Would you know.  How.  You could FIND THOSE letters?”

            “Well...” the old local gentleman patron says... “When we donated the letters EACH BUNDLE was PUT INTO the collection and a CARD made for it.  On the back of the card MY UNCLE penciled in what letters were ‘to and from’ in each bundle.  Also what they’s was about.  We can just look at the back of those CARDS.”

            “Those cards?”

            “IN THE card CATALOG.”

            Pause.

            “WE... ah... don’t USE that anymore.  Everything’s (the old catalog cards) been SCANNED into THE COMPUTER. I... ah... GUESS we can look ...there.”

            “GOOD.”

            “Except that I don’t... recall that... we... scanned the BACK of ...any of the cards.

            MEANWHILE... the antiques dealer... had (within the ten year period) ‘finally’ SOLD the card catalog WITH the cards ‘in it’; “THEY’RE SO NEAT!” to “LOOK AT HUH”.  He sold it to a ...private party who uses it as ...interior decoration... in an... elevator lobby on HIS FLOOR of a skyscraper... in a LARGE U.S.A. city (that is bigger than Boston).  It’s ‘still there’ “OH YEAH IT’S STILL GOT SOME CARDS IN IT”.

            Have I ever visited ‘it’?

            Well... I do know it’s address.  So do others ‘now’.  It’s on the fifty first floor of a fifty ninth street.  The elevator doors open and... one is there; in an elevator lobby.  So is the card catalog.  It IS there.  With “SOME CARDS IN IT”.  Pretty cool field trip that was actually.

            Is... the historical society’s old card catalog... ‘pitched’ and ‘turned up side down’ but ‘still there’? (Part Six [A] and ever after).

            “Yes.”; I saw it.

            IS... the card catalog... with the old cards in it... old New England?

            “Yes.”

            What the state of the card catalog means is that ‘backing out’ of this tale... to get to the end of the tale ‘to date’... is going to have some ‘spots’ that ‘aren’t pretty’.  And... Susannah Johnson may be heard to hiss... “Go to Hell” (Part Six [D]).  JUST getting “Mr. Dump’s” Lincoln he parked in the middle of the historical society’s ‘meeting room’ table that day... OFF THAT TABLE... IS STILL GOIING ON... NOW.

            I don’t have to get “Mr. Dump’s” Lincoln off the historical society’s meeting table.  That’s not my problem.

            It’s the historical society’s problem.

            Among other “Mr. Dump” problems...?  The problems are mostly related to ‘tech gear’; the historical society’s evolution and usage... and ‘transfer-ing-to’ of... ‘old paper’ to “THAT” (‘tech gear’) (‘computers’).  The problems also includes what happens to the ‘old paper’ after it goes through ‘transfer-ing-to.  That, in the LAST half decade, for the historical society, has become a growing problem.  The boundary of the frontier of ‘that growing problem’ is the rising repeatedly problem that a piece of ‘old paper’ that was ‘transfer-ing-to’ (scanned) “cannot be found” “now” AND A “doesn’t know WHAT HAPPENED TO IT” after the ‘transfer-ing-to’ is... ‘it’.  I don’t know anything about any of this ...except what I just reported... for I ‘have enough’ ‘old paper’ all the time to NOT EVER NEED TO... EVER... ANYTHING... AT ALL with THEIR ‘old paper’.  Like I said... ‘it’s THEIR problem’.  The ‘Their’ does... seem to me to ...NOT BE fully “figured out yet” (not MY words).  I, professionally and privately... suspect that “THEIR.... PROBLEM” has MORE THERE in the “THEIR”.

            MY computer usage, to the relief of all of ...I include the reader... us... begins and ends at the FIRST CHAPTER where I note... as the tale begins... ‘my wife’s computer’ on the kitchen table.  THAT is the first usage notice of a computer in this tale.  THAT computer is a ‘current’ ‘tech gear’ grade computer and is... as it is... WAY AHEAD of the historical society’s fifteen years expedition ‘into that’.  Including “Mr. Dump”.  THIS is what I mean when I say “a LOT that has been told and ... each iota comes into play and is... let me call it ‘carried’ as in CARRIED OFF” in order to END this tale.  For example, Helen has a ‘cell phone’ when I meet her.  She has NEVER had or used a computer that I know of.  SHE DOES HAVE A SMART PHONE... RIGHT NOW.  So does my wife.  So do I.  This is my second smart phone.  I used the first one until it got smashed.  Then I bought another.  Today I take pictures with it and ...text them.  Fifteen years ago I was “IS THAT SOME SORT OF JOKE?”

            In the first chapter I relate my coming home from Helen’s with a truck load I bought from... one of the Savage Mansion’s sheds.  AND more plunder from Helen’s “dining room’.  But for thirty chapters after that and HERE now as I write... I have been confined to fifteen years ago and my exploration around about two thirds of a second room ‘I’m in’ and.... not buying truck loads of anything (I have bought some small things) AND then leaving AND ‘never hearing from her again’.  Obviously... I go back... to the Savage Mansion Estate and... “carry off” its contents?  Or just ‘scan it’ for the historical society?

            Or both?

            And more?

            In the second chapter and noticing Eileen Fisher and the who, what, where and I of that... I meet Helen...

And am told by her she is ... “crazy as a shit house rat”.  That’s not what Mr. Dump is.  I called HIM a ‘skunk’ (Part Twenty)  But... the skunk is very interested in ‘helping’ the shit house rat.  He likes that the rat describes herself as crazy.  That’s because he doesn’t know what a shit house rat is when it’s... crazy.  I do.  It’s “cunning”.  And it can be remarkably coy... and cute.

In this same chapter I am also introduced to Helen’s vantage of her lawyer and bank.  Their view...of her... to her vantage is... a financial grip on her ‘crazy as a shit house rat’.  This grip, ever after and to this day, proves to not be a ...firm... grip by any of these FIRMS.  THAT conveyance is introduced to me by Helen and her... management of ME... at this first meeting.  That ...conveyance... EXPANDS with her dexterous expel of “Eileen Fisher’, the first appraiser... who never ever goes away and is, as I write today... still operating her “Sea Lavender” store in the village... and... is used throughout all conversations of Helen and I as a ‘wrong direction’ fixed position that... Helen bounces ANY quandary she has about ‘this’ (the Savage Estate) ‘off’.  Although neither of us has even SEEN the poor woman in a decade and longer... she STILL remains an active ‘there’ “dressed in Eileen Fisher” just as she did on her only visit.  She is a symbol; symbolic.  I can now say that... and this is based on the thirty chapters following this second chapter... Helen perceives this first appraiser ‘expelled’ to be... the enemy.  That is; from Helen’s personal... turned professional over time... perception of HER (Helen’s) place in the POSITION of the Savage Estate, its contents and its mansion’s... PLACE ...in.... New England... the appraiser is ‘the wrong direction’ and... the enemy.

There are other ‘enemy’.  The bank-lawyer firms are standards.  Mr. Dump... works hard to become one.  The historical society... flutters like a butterfly about Helen and the Savage estate (in total) in a successful effort to become ‘the enemy’ that “I HAVE TO MANAGE THEM.  I UNDERSTAND THIS”.  Helen... declares.  Then there’s the mansion.  The contents... of objects in the mansion.  And out buildings.  And a ...historical archive of the Savage family...:  All ‘enemy’ that “I HAVE TO MANAGE THEM.  I UNDERSTAND THIS”.

“IS THIS A JOB?” she said to me about ten years ago.

“Yes.”

“How come your doing this?” she then says

“I’m getting paid... by you.”

“This IS a job.  When did I say I wanted to do this?”

In the third chapter I initiate the gamut of objects observed throughout this tale and their heritage, history, antiquarian sensibilities and design-art qualities.  And bad taste.  And bad taste based on not knowing but... thinking one does... know and thinking one ...knows ‘good taste’.  Quite a bit of time is spent hashing all of this in subsequent chapters.  In this same chapter I also introduce ...through a pile of boxes filled with old letters mounded on the floor, the basic precepts of the ‘old paper’... within the Savage estate, mansion and contents... requiring considerable attention... on several tiers.  At this exact moment in the tale... I have only seen these boxes of letters from a seated distance... and heard... that Helen took one boxes to show off at the historical society... and ...they spoke to me about that (Part Eight).  And spoke to Mr. Dump too (Part Sixteen [C])?  Evidently.

            But point must be point:

            A point:

            One may want to re-read these first three chapters to ...remember the forgotten... and denote how much in those chapters is at play in the following chapters and... STILL IS IN PLAY... as the tale turns toward a... ‘the end’.