Worn Collars - Part Twenty-Eight - "Four Years" (D-1)

Worn Collars

Part Twenty-Eight

"Four Years" (D-1)

            For this to work... out... for... me... I will need some ‘give and take’:  For I to purchase the ‘it all’ of Arlington St. John’s estate contents... consisting of the now well understood threesome (his mother’s estate things, the boxed ‘(down by the) furnace’ books and... the old rare book room contents)... I will have to find... and exploit... some ‘give’ in order for me to ... “take”.  This is because Damny is in charge?  Yes... of course THAT but BEHIND this ‘that’ be too... ‘ability’ and Damny has, I have suggested... that; ability.

            He has ability.  To do this (purchase the ‘it all’ of Arlington St. John’s... estate contents).  I don’t... what?  Want this?  To happen.  Well... yes... I guess... that is true.  Selfish of me to put up a fight for the old... dead... rotten man and his rotten old (rare) book collection.

            Damny boxes Arlington’s book collection up in his mind carefully separating the ‘good’ from the ‘good’ from the ... ‘good’?  He does and he is good enough to know good and that Arlington’s old books are good to be good enough to be good

            For Damny.

            So I need... some give and take to ...give Arlington’s old books to me to

            Take.

            Not that Damny cares; it is all very clinical to him “Sir”?  NOT QUITE as clinical as my eye (I) feels he... feels so I.. eye... that and ‘cut slack’.  I do not want his ROPE of acquisition (“I WANT”) to become taunt... “around me”.  And... waiting... is in this too.  So where is the ‘give’ that makes for... I... a... take?  Is it going to be an ‘unpleasant’?  Or ‘do I’ myself?  Or... is it a natural occurrence; an act of nature that... “I”... GIVE” (Damny says and does this)... to I ...so I... naturally... ‘take’.

            I feel I like that last the best.  The reader may ‘think’ about it.  But for I, I FEEL it is the most logical...or:  Oh it cannot be that... a ‘logical’.  That means an I just gets it; a ‘give’ that allows me to ‘take’.  With ‘no contest’.  And this NOT noticed... too.

            There are two steps to this.  One is easier and directed more to those ‘furnace books’ while the second... incorporates this first directive, carries it into the old book room and ‘bets the house’.  It is a ‘put down’ to Damny that is the ‘give’?  I suppose.  I start at the furnace books... in their boxes.

            Down cellar... or in the living room (carried there by Steve); which box is which?  Or is it witch box is witch box.  Who looks.  Who knows.  Who cares.  Why?  To review:  All these old books in the boxes are Arlington’s coming and going ‘about’ ‘old book finds’ that he nominally purloined from bake sales and trash piles and librarians and bingo halls and summer clearance sales, fall festivals, winter carnivals and ‘spring has sprung’ type sources for (from) over forty years.  Is there something... ‘good’ (a true rare book)?  No.  But ‘none the less’ Arlington was more than able to act on a discernment and... discernment... he could act (do) too.  So... box by box by book by book “HE” “must have found something”.  Damny knows this too.  So then it would be the BOOKS; the actual ‘these old books’, and ONLY these books, that would ‘prove’ this furnace lot.  And what... could ‘prove’ mean?  IF Steve likes power tools and Arlington never had one (a power tool) and Damny knows this for BOTH... would he ‘able’ to ‘prove’ that... for himself.

            I bet not.

            Examples?

            Johnny Appleseed.  In “old book” form.  So... on the inside top of one box is one book that is titled “JOHNNY APPLESEED  A PIONEER HERO”.  “Yeah.”  1994.  Hardcover.  Printed pictorial paper covered boards (binding... “the covers”).  Ill. (illustrated).  34 pp. (thirty-four printed pages).  General held-in-the-hand appearance suggests the book’s design to be an intentional ‘vanity press’ (special-pretty-printed) style ‘look’ (appearance).

            Everyone likes Johnny Appleseed... right?  Or are indifferent... due to the “Yeah.  Hadn’t thought about him much.  Huh.” options.

            So the book is there; on top of the box.  It’s about Johnny.  Damny sets it out... of his way... on the floor... and pokes the rest of the box.  Steve doesn’t accidentally step on the book but ‘comes close’.  Damny puts the book back on top of the books in the box when he’s done with his poke in the box.  Time elapse 2.4 minutes.  Maybe.  Damny rolls through the poke of the ‘all the’ boxes.

            I never touch the boxes.

            I never poke the boxes.

            I never see “Johnny”?

            Actually I ‘see’ and ‘touch’ Johnny.  When the poked box is closed with Johnny on top the... books in that box do not settle back to the ‘tight’ packing job Arlington did when he packed the box fifteen (?) years before.  So... the fold flaps sort of stick up and, sort of, pop open so that... this happens whenever that box is moved so that... the “Johnny Appleseed” book sort of... is... exposed and I

            Look down at it sitting just inside the folded cardboard box top and...:

            I like Johnny Appleseed... as an American History Action Figure.  So... like... I SEE it (the book) there and LOOK DOWN AT IT.  PICK IT UP.  TURN TO THE TITLE PAGE.  LOOK AT THE PUBLISHING DATE ON THE BACK OF THE TITLE PAGE.  And... oddly notice... due to my ‘furtive glance’ professionalism, that TOO, the published book is a ...reprint... of an article that was first published in “Harper’s Monthly Magazine” in “1871”.

            “Cool.”

            And, as I said... I like.... “Johnny” stuff.  So... know... that ‘it (Johnny stuff) isn’t around’.  I put the book back on top of the books in that box.  That’s it.  Just a fluke.  Right?

            No.

            That book... is SOOO.... Arlington... that I...

            THAT I...

            MAY

            BE absolutely sure that ...THAT

            ALL

            Of the ‘boxes of books down by the furnace’ are FILLED FULL and closed up with... books “JUST LIKE THAT”; the ‘Johnny Appleseed’ book.

NOT... physically ‘just like that’ but... content wise (including cultural, intellectual, philosophical, aesthetic...i... cal, subject... i... cal, Art... i... cal and... eye appeal-i-cal, et al... old books... just like that. I...

            Am sure... because Arlington... I am sure... would do “THAT” (his ‘taste’); put into the boxes.  I like that; books like Arlington ‘would like’ and ‘do that’ with.

            Does Damny ‘like that’... too?

            And I “know” (may bet-on-self) that Steve ‘is out’ on ‘this’.

            Damny sells popular mystery titles ‘hardcover in dust jacket’ to... popular mystery readers who... “I LOVE THAT BOOK”.

            Are there any mystery books in the Johnny Appleseed box of books?  Did Arlington (ever) read a mystery book?  Did he... poke around and find old mystery books and... pack them in boxes down by the furnace?

            NO.

            So I start with Johnny ...in my mind... a ‘go from there’ mentally bouncing the boxes of old books off of “WHAT” Arlington would actually “LIKE” of ‘poking around old books and TOO... Damny... “where’s he at in this” and

            OK another example?

            “The book doesn’t even have it’s covers” and is a “piece of crap” to ...Steve who “ANYWAY” that box ANYWAY.   So that book sticks out of the top and

            So like...

            I poke it (the sticking up book) and “Hey; I know this”.

            “What is it?”.  You Say?

            It is a “Weems” “Washington” (Mason Locke Weems; “LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINTON).  Later edition; “Philadelphia” “1836”.  “Ahhhh... who cares”.  So... in ‘on a shelf’ in... Arlington’s rare book room is, among other ‘reference books’ (“books about books”) a copy of The Grolier Club “ONE HUNDRED INFLUENTIAL AMERICAN BOOKS PRINTED BEFORE 1900” that... I know... Arlington ...read... over and over... sort of... so

            I like... notice the ‘I know’... that connects that (to the Weems) because I know that ...notice that... TOO with the Weems for THAT’S WHY the whipped copy is in the box because the Grolier Club has the Weems biography of Washington as their number twenty-seven showing an ‘odd’ edition with a ‘rare imprint’ (Augusta, Georgia, 1806)... so like

            “WHY?”

            HUH?

            Because this-that-the... this book of THAT edition... being the FIRST edition OF... the this-that-the... IS just like the “Johnny Appleseed” myths TOO so... that... like... YOU read the Grolier entry with its description entirely... and... discover that WEEMS fabricated the George Washington-cuts-down-the-cherry-tree MYTH and first published it (first edition of) in the 1806 Georgia “TWO KNOWN COPIES” edition.

So I know that.  And Arlington knows that.  And I know that Arlington knows so

I know that is why Arlington has a beat-up late edition ‘on top’ of one of his boxes:  BECAUSE on page fourteen is the Washington CUTS CHERRY TREE DOWN myth.  Arlington poked it.  He found it.  He rescued it.  And put it in the box.  I poke it.  I find it.  Do I rescue it?  OF COURSE.

            Does Damny know?

            We know Steve doesn’t.

            Does Damny know?

            “NO.”

            And this ‘that book’ is, too, just like ‘all the books’ in the down by the furnace boxes... except that this one, AS I SAID I WOULD... ‘carries’ to Arlington’s rare book room.   Too.

            I know and UNDERSTAND what kind of books are in the furnace boxes.  Damny knows too but ...I bet... does... not... ‘understand’.  It is a natural process.  Of ‘give and take’.  

            I could be doing this to ...your books?

            I wouldn’t bother.

            You... ‘don’t have anything’?

            Arlington; a ‘box of his books’?

            He... probably... ‘has a something’

            Or two.