Worn Collars - Part Twenty-Eight - "Four Years" (A)

Worn Collars

Part Twenty-Eight

"Four Years" (A)

            At the end... I start at the beginning; chapter one.  If I began with Arlington St. John being a rotten man and a rotten book collector who is, now, dead... with his long time ‘housekeeper’ ‘inheriting’ ‘all of it’ and...

            If... I remind, I ‘did-business-with’, as a ‘rare’ ‘book’ ‘dealer’, Mr. St. James for over forty years ‘before he died’.

            If... I remind... that in reporting... in previous chapters... what the observant reader now denotes there to be ...THREE...  antiquarian aspects to Mr. St. John’s leavings:  (1) The rare books in his rare book room.  (2) The... boxes of old (rare) books that Mr. St. John accumulated while poking around ‘at residence in Maine’ all packed in stacked boxes around the furnace in the basement of the ‘home’ (estate property).  And:  (3) THE... ‘house full stuff everywhere’ “boxes” of packed up “THINGS” from ‘his mother’s house’ (estate dispersal of a “Chestnut Hill” region “OUTSIDE OF BOSTON”... where Arlington “LIVED WITH HIS MOTHER”... until she died and he “MOVED” “TO MAINE”... in 1969.

            “Ahhhh...”:  And the housekeeper.  And... her interests.  Her abilities.  Her ability to manage her interests.  Her abilities to ‘honk’ (talk loudly at me) about her interests ...including them “involving you” (me).  Her miss... begotten... abilities and their miss... begotten... imperatives and that the

            “WHAT WAS THAT LAST?”... You say.

            “Okay?”

            There is a miss-connect.  It is a simple one.  The main portion of the Arlington St. John’s estate was a block of Boston area institutionally managed trust funds that Arlington ‘inherited’ from his mother who inherited ‘it’ “TOO” from... the ‘back there somewhere’ of the family and

            This bundle is the largest bundle in the estate... in fact being... in fact... “THE ESTATE” with all of it ‘going nowhere’ except to the “next heir” who... IS NOT the housekeeper who... knows absolutely nothing about any of ‘that’ anyway “WHO CARES IF SHE inherits the house and property it’s not “worth shit”.

            I care.  I mean... sort of.

            So Arlington left a house and it’s stuff to his mistress.  NOT THE FIRST TIME these things happen.  NOT THE FIRST TIME the main body of the ‘his estate’ does not have anything to do with that principal (Arlington)... at all... now that ‘he’s dead’.  The vice grip of the trust documents and their institutional fence viewers... one would never notice ‘anyway’.  No one did.  Except I.

            The... house and its stuff, including the old book room, its desk and old books, the old china cabinets... the... boxes of his mother’s stuff the... boxes by the furnace...

            “Ahhhh....” sat there... heated, electrical power on... lawn mowed... mail delivered, driveway plowed and walkway shoveled for

            Four years

            ?

            Sort of seemed that way... when I drove by and ... that wasn’t very often but...

            SOMEBODY was using Mr. Wallet to keep that ship floating (the house, home and household running) and I

            KNOW it was not the housekeeper because she just kept “checking the house” and “CALLING” I have no idea who whenever “THAT” “needed to be done”.  And she had no idea that whatever she called did not include her on the “TO DO” list of ‘settling’ “THE ESTATE”.  It was... understand... never forgotten... that all ‘understand’ that “SHE” is “getting all of it”.  She to it... and it to she... “MADE”...  Sense...

            This to be true and “A BANK DOWN IN BOSTON” or two.  Or three.  NOT VERY HARD TO FIGURE OUT and I just drove by with “LIKE”.

            The ‘these banks’ do not care.

            So now we go back to the three ‘stuffs’ ‘in there’ (for four years).  Stuff number one stood out like a bloodied knuckle to the housekeeper heiress as “VALUABLE”, including her personally favored THREE “OLD ...CHINA... CABINETS”.  I... “got it” on that and ALWAYS, too, denoted how “VALUABLE” those old china cabinets “ARE” whenever... she ever... when we ever... “Yeah” “about that”.  The books (in the cabinets)... “LOOK” “VALUABLE” ...too.  But... incurred a little stumbling block for Ms. Housekeeper for SHE was (is) dynamic with her... smart phone... and the ...vast plain of old (rare) books known as “LOOK UP”. 

            Not bothering to pass-judge her ability to do that I... defaulted to the easier ...that she ‘do this’ is actually a skill but also ...TAKES TIME...:  You know... you alone with your smart phone and doing that and reading what you ‘do that’ and ...comprehending what you read doing that and ...all of a sudden one has ‘passed’ twenty-two minutes on ONE BOOK and are... ‘still not sure’.  Got it?

            “Get it?”

            So I did ‘let nature take it’s course on that’ right from the start and... that worked fine.

            Stuff number two:  The ‘poke around’ boxes of old (rare) books Arlington found when he went out on his ‘always’ daily poke around rare book ...man... at work.  I covered it before:  He acquired and nothing more ever except to put it (an old book poked) into a box.  When the box was full, it was stacked in down in the ‘basement’ next to the furnace and... ‘leave it there’... (book, box, boxes) ‘forever’.  SHE SAID “WE HAD TO MOVE SOME OF THOSE BOXES OVER THERE SO THEY COULD WORK ON THE FURNACE THEY ARE REALLY HEAVY”.

            I let it go at that... excepting to notice that “SOMEONE” had looked in SOME of... a few of the... boxes (ground hogged a few) (Part Sixteen).  This brings us into Part One’s “Damny Books”... as the ...groundhog.  Damny... is a skillful groundhog of... boxes of old books so... that’s how I knew it was ‘him’; “skillful”.  So I let that go too.  I mean... do YOU want to carry the boxes “UP” and “LOOK AT THEM” in the living room and, too... “LOOK THEM UP” (on the ‘her smart phone).  Ok...?  Should be a ‘no brainer’ at this point.  Soooo...:

“I like the way they (the stacked boxes) look” in the basement.

            Stuff number three... begins to move ‘all this’ ‘decidedly’ in the ‘my favor’.  Forgot about this (?); the boxes of Arlington’s mother estate contents all boxed up by NOT ARLINGTON and “MOVED” in whole moving trucks to Arlington’s ‘house in Maine’ and

            Discovered by I right away (1969) and forever there after box or two poked by I and my eye to purloin if possible any “ANTIQUES” (including as fore noted actual old rare books scattered in these boxes too).  Yes.  Please:  I did that.  For ... ever.  Always a box or two ‘poked’ on each ‘visit’ to the “old book room”, et al.  So by ‘date of death’ I was very... very... very-very familiar with “ALL” of “THAT STUFF” and had ‘done stuff’ like sort out the gene pool of the family and the ‘great... great... great-great grandmother’s HER THINGS and how all that had “PASSED IN THE FAMILY” to, ah... ‘wind up’ in the... ‘Arlington’s house’... still in the boxes... stuffed everywhere.  Okay?  So there is me that knows about these boxes and

            The Ms. Housekeeper knows about these

            Boxes

            For, like, forty years TOO so... like... she...

            “Doesn’t care about that stuff” because she and I and Arlington have, over and over ‘gone through’ and ‘looked at’ “that stuff” “for like... forever” and the end pivot point for Housekeeper Her is that the boxes “are in my way when I vacuum” “like forever”.  Until Arlington died and that (the vacuuming) stopped and... like... she ‘never touched them (these mother’s house boxes) ever again.

            NOT THAT YOUR GONNA BE SMART ENOUGH TO ‘add this’ into an ‘old (rare) book purloin package? 

            Just because Arlington and I and the housekeeper look in the damn boxes for forty years ... does not mean... Arlington sells me the antiques we find in the boxes... .  Got it?  GET IT?.  Who knows about ‘antiques’?  Who knows this and looks in the boxes.  And says NOTHING.  I mean “WHY?” ... “SHOULD I”.  So... it’s like... a... well... MINE.  In both senses.  And I ... MANAGE IT so... I know... about the... ‘antiques’ in the ‘boxes’ and NO

            ONE

            ELSE

            DOES.

            To this day.

            So I a “You sell me” your dead great... great... great-great... grandmother’s BROKEN dark blue English Staffordshire transferware (large) platter... for ‘two bucks’... who knows this has happened?

            WHO?

            NO ONE

            But me.

            I mean:  “IT’S BROKEN” and “IT WAS MY... _____‘S”.  Or does this all just stop at the “it’s broken” station?

            So... I know what I’m doing when it comes to a

            HOUSE FULL

            Of ‘that kind of stuff’.  And there is no one else ‘around’.

            For four years.  Closed up.  Heat on.  Driveway plowed.  Walk shoveled.  What does one think?  Ms. Housekeeper goes over once a day to “LOOK UP” old (rare) books on her smart phone.  MAYBE three days in one week and then once in one week for three weeks and then once “I WAS OVER THERE” and then

            “WHEN DO I GET (inherit with clear title) THE HOUSE (and ‘the stuff’)

            “IT’S TAKING A REALLY LONG TIME!”

            I wait.