Coy - Appendix - "The Library" - "Good Question"

Coy

Appendix

"The Library"

"Good Question"

            “Good Question”.

            I hate that; that verbal tennised ball tunk of a...

Line of REASON.

            My reason?

            NOT YOUR REASON.

            Patronizing.

            Greedy?

            “Equipment failure?”

            “Stand back behind the... red velvet cables please”.

            Put out the orange cones.

            Settle back in your grandfather’s ...mangy old armchair

            After selecting an ‘old volume’; an ‘odd volume’... to

            “Peruse you say?”

            Your damn finger prints are the only DUST SMUDGE on

            The top spine end edge of the

            NOT BEEN OFF THE SHELF SINCE

            Great grandpa...

            “Yeah”.

            That right....:  He didn’t read the damn book EITHER.

            It... was ‘too dull’ “after a few pages”

            “I nodded off”

            “I think”.

            The Savage Estate “Library” (Part Twenty-Two at the very end and Part Twenty-Three [A]); the room... lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves ‘filled’ with “OLD BOOKS” and... desks “FULL” of “OLD PAPERS” and... “BOXES OF OLD LETTERS” and... an old mirror hanging on the wall with a cloth over it to “HIDE” the “old sea captain’s” FACE that’s “your SUPPOSE to be able to  SEE IT (his face) THEY SAY”.

            “Jesus... Christ” and they; the local outsiders (insiders?)... DO ASK

            About it (“THAT LIBRARY”)

            “IN THERE”.

            For the first five years... ‘or so’... they “PRETTY GOOD LIBRARY (of rare books) IN THERE I HEAR”... to me.  The last decade... after the first five years... the same THEY... figures I already “GOT IT” ‘in boxes’ so’s I’s ah gonna ....HAVE ‘em ALL OVER TO THE BARN and let ‘em have a

            “RARE BOOK PICK” “I just was ah hope that I’s ah COULD... LOOK... around?”

            “Good Question.

            You miserable old duck scrotum.”

            “BRING YOUR (old) BOOK BAG; WE’RE gonna have a (rare) BOOK HUNT”

            “Can I just get in a little EARLY because I don’t DO WELL in the CROWDS”.

            “Good Question.”

            That room; the “library”, Helen keeps... had keeped... had kept... has kept... IS KEEPING... LOCKED (“you out”) WITH... the key locking the door to the room STILL IN THE  KEY hole where it has always been.  SHE... unlocks it and ...LOCKS IT... when ever she what ever.  THE KEY... ‘stays put’ and NO ONE

            ELSE

            EVER goes in there that I know of ...except ME... on odd occasion ...with Helen... for a few minutes.

            NO RARE BOOKS ...or ANY old book or... ANY BOOK.  “PAPERS”, OLD PAPERS, LETTERS, old photographs... OR... OR... .OR... have “EVER” “LEFT” that room (THE LIBRARY).

            AND I DON’T CARE

            TOO.

            And I told you why.

            Way back when;

            “That Savage Estate

             IS DRY”. (Part Twenty-Two)

            What that means ‘in the library’... and starting with the ‘old books’... is that ALL of them “OLD BOOKS”... not only are not worth any money but are also of ZERO interest to “ANYONE” other than their ‘decorative value’... because NO ONE... ever, will ever, wants to ever, is going to ever and “EVER”, etc.,... ‘gonna read ‘em’.

            EXCEPT FOR YOU, of course, whose MORAL hygiene mantras “WILL MAKE YOU (me?)”... READ... every damn book ‘in there’?

            BOSTON... in, for example, 1867... was a New England book publishing hub (Hartford CT was too) with MANY... published books; ‘enough to go around no problem’.  AND old (‘Captain’) One John... being ‘stiff collared’ and ‘in town’ (in Boston) ALWAYS ...gentlemaned HIMSELF ‘a reader’ so would ‘always’ ‘the book store’... and “I’m IN A HURRY” “NO PROBLEM CAPTAIN SAVAGE SIR I’LL PUT A (big) BOX TOGETHER FOR YOU IT’LL BE ON THE TRAIN”.

            “Thank you William.  And here’s something for the wife:  Let her get herself...” (an Easter bonnet).  (Or what ever)  (and oh was THAT a pinched nickel).

            That “BOX” of ‘the latest published’ ‘hot off the shelf’ “WENT NORTH” on the train and... then by wagon... to the Savage Mansion’s “LIBRARY ROOM”.  One John never read ONE book.  Ever.  The women unpacked the box, put the books on the shelves and “READ THEM” meaning in actual fact:  “POKED AT THEM” by their choice... until the NEXT BOX... repeated that process.  Eventually the “LIBRARY” was “FULL”.  THAT’S WHY we (Hiram and I)... keep finding “BOXES FULL OF OLD BOOKS” in ... like... “THE BARN”.

            Aunt Winnie “bought books too.” said Helen after even she got “sick of” “all these old books”... that “no one ever read and is ever going to read.  Ever”.  Too.

            GET THE PICTURE?

            Or better:  “GOOD QUESTION”.

            Old One John could... probably... barely read.  The ...womens... “read” the

            SPICEY

            READ.

            RIGHT?

            “YEP THEM SOME READERS IN ... the Savage mansion’s front parlor” “of evening”.

            EVEN today most people with most books, or some books or... the “THEIR” books... do not read them.  NO:  THEY DO NOT READ THEM.  THEY... ‘have them’.  Actually “READ” them is ...as rare as an actually RARE book.

            After forty to fifty years of ‘viewing’ ‘home libraries’ I... need but a FLICK (as opposed to a RAKE) of my eyes from a ‘safe distance’ (across the room) to ‘appraise’ a ‘home library’.  A FLICK:  “I can tell by the spine ends” AT A SAFE DISTANCE... ‘if I’m going to have to... go there’ and actually ‘look’.  NOT TOUCH... just ‘look’.

            A nasty hardball truth to one?  No sugar on your medicine spoon?  I am a dealer.  I am a rare book dealer.  I am a rare book scout.  I know ‘safe distance’

            COLD.

            I know the Savage Mansion’s library room

            COLD.

            “It’s dry”.

            “Good question:  You can KEEP the OLD BOOKS”.

            Same for the... old papers... about, like... NOTHING; hay in the barn, pocket watch at the ‘fix it’.  A boat at a dock.  A horse in the barn.  A train to Boston... and back.  A church.  Many schools.  More many ‘receipts’ “PAID”

            IN FULL and

            SAVED

            FOREVER.

            “YOU CAN TELL WHAT THEY WERE DOING FROM READING THEM”:

            They were doing NOTHING.

            The letters record that doing NOTHING in insipid perfect pen craft ink over and over again for decades including ‘today’s weather’ too... neatly tied “TO SAVE” in little stupid bundles.  Emily Dickerson did the exact same thing and ‘hid’ the bundles in the bottom draw but... BUT:  SHE WROTE ABOUT HOW insipid and insufferable “THAT” and those people... “WAS” (IS: it is still being done... ‘oh my email’ SAVE FILE ...titled “Delete folder are you sure?”

            Delete it.

            Please.

            ONE of the old desks is LOCKED and “I cannot find the KEY”.  It’s “FULL OF”.  I cannot wait... to ‘get in there’ and READ the OLD LETTERS... each night

            One

            Before

            I go to bed.

            Forever

            And ever:

            “WE SHOULD WRITE (RIGHT?) A BOOK!”

            “Two members of the Savage family

            DROWNED in their own PUKE” is the opening line

            Of the book “WE SHOULD; RIGHT”

            “Right?”

            “GOOD QUESTION.”

            And “...so like...” the cast characters Mr. (Dump) and Crap Pile are, to no surprise... STILL ‘sniffing around’ THIS (the Savage Estate Mansion’s “LIBRARY” “ROOM”).  I can’t sleep at night for they are ‘so good’ at...

            GOOD QUESTION.

            But I bet you can FIGURE that out TOO.  WHY DON’T YOU LET... both of them ...on separate appointments... come view YOUR LIBRARY ROOM.  WHO...will drown in their own puke THEN.  THERE... IN THERE... with YOUR ‘old books and papers”.

            YOUR old letters that

            You wrote and

            DIDN’T BURN.

            BONFIRE?

            “Good question” on that.

            IF ...your gonna ...talk... (expostulate) about... home libraries, books, rare books, ‘manuscripts’, ‘archives’, ‘old letters’, ‘old documents’... “PLEASE”:

            “Yes, yes, yes, yes... and yes, yes and yes” one COULD drown in one’s own puke “in there”; the home library.

            Best keep up the ...coy façade of fabricated myth... of old New England DRY (and modestly desperate... but never “hang myself in the barn” desperate; only “suffer” evenings in the ...front parlor... of an ‘old sea captain’s mansion... on the coast of old New England... desperate).

            “But what WILL HAPPEN to THE LIBRARY?”

            “Good Question”.

(“I JUST LOVE THE OLD PHOTOGRAPHS”).