Epilogue Blood Farm 9
The
finality of THIS Blood Farm auction… took three hours longer. This included eating my lunch by
fetching a sandwich from the lunch box in the truck and standing at my post
gobbling it. It included the fire
chief eating, eating and eating from his found food source including his
gobbling of a large bowl of homemade chili. It also included engaging small talk with a smattering of
information burdened fellow dealers mulling about the sale (“They found a pair
of portraits in a bedroom but they’re not here that I see”, etc.). “I never went in the bedrooms” I
reminded myself. “Who would have
the portraits?” “Who ever found
them first… and took action”. That
there could have been a pair of portraits of Alice’s ancestors; the true
Captain Blood, that she slept beneath as they hung on her bedroom wall… was
more than a “probable”. Those
notions joined the long line of falling dominoes and… enhanced the fall off at
the edge of the earth to include a realization of just how LITTLE of the estate
I had actually seen.
The
seven bid. And bid. Upon objects they should have. And shouldn’t have. They bought what they LIKED and did NOT
buy as a comprehensive conquest of their ancestor’s heritage. I didn’t care. I didn’t even follow their bidder
paddle waving floor fights with the hostile dealers. I did see the desk “go”. $3,500. plus premium.
It took about forty-five seconds.
Eventually lot 421 was purchased by the seven. The purchase was enhanced, as I watched after the thirty-
five dollar hammer drop, by the auctioneer glaring up to his rear-of-the-hall
right with an expression that I translated as a “WHY DID YOU STOP BIDDING!!!?”
grimace. Maybe THEY ate the chili
TOO?
Soon
after that lot the sister in charge began roaming the hall. I watched, waited and engaged.
“You’ve
done very well today.” I opened.
“OH
YES. Everything. Well. Except a FEW.
They bid so HIGH”.
“I
saw the highboy and the desk. Also
the clock parts. Hold on to
those. In fact you should get them
out of here before they disappear.”
“Disappear?”
“Ah…
get lost. You don’t want to loose
them”. I realized as I spoke that
they COULD get lost; the seven had bought many lots and there was … a lot of
stuff loose on the floor… little of which I had seen anyone grimace over.
“I
think my husband has it” she said.
I said nothing more. She
looked directly at me. “What do
you thing of the desk?” she asked.
“It’s
very nice.” I said while going “Didn’t we already do this?” to myself. She kept looking at me.
“Do
you know it has a secret hiding place in a drawer?”
I
looked at her face. “Yes.” I said.
“YOU
DO?” she said.
“Yes. The center drawer”
“Do
you know there’s a PIRATE PAPER in there?” she asked
“Oh
yes; a slip”
“You
do NOT.” She said.
“It
has a drawing of a schooner and says Captain Blood this is wrote with my blood
your old master”. I said clearly.
“YOU
DO!” she said and touched my arm.
“What do you think it MEANS?”
“Means? Really means?” I said. “I’m sure… that is, I BELIEVE, it is
the front leaf from a log or day book that Captain Blood’s old master wrote
that on as a jest one day when visiting and finding only the Captain’s book and
no captain at home. The Captain
tore it out and saved it in the secret cubby”.
The
sister was looking hard at me. I
sensed that she didn’t fully understand AND agree with my explanation. “But he was a pirate.” She said.
I
took my queue. “Of course. They were ALL pirates along the
coast. But you shouldn’t say that
to people. They saw themselves as
respectable merchants”.
She
looked at me and smiled. “We’re
going to have it FRAMED”.
“Framed? I’d just leave it in the desk. It ties the desk to the Bloods.”
She
gave me a blank look.
“Of
course… it will look very nice framed.” I said as I mentally pushed the Blood
Farm desk… of the edge of the earth.
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