"It's Been Two Years" - Part Seven - "Old Sea Captain's Stuff" - (A)

"It's Been Two Years"

Part Seven

"Old Sea Captain's Stuff"

(A)

            In the early chapters of this antiquarian vignette... I ‘left hanging’.

            I left hanging that... in the fall of two years ago I ...with his consensual participation... ‘barrel headed’ Seacus and sent him off to Helen (Snow) Cransmore’s basement apartment ...below her home... that she had filled with her ‘hoarding of antiques’ AND... hoarding of ‘etc.’ too... to... as we surmised... ‘clean out’ that apartment so she could have it remodeled to... have her daughter and probable future son in law ‘be able to live there’.  We surmised. 

We succeeded in penetrating the hoard by purchased lot and... continued that penetrating purchasing for... the next year and a half until we had ‘emptied’ ‘it’ (the rooms).  The rooms never became truly empty.  We didn’t ‘get all that’ but we did a fine ‘thinning out’.  Hoarders... are skilled... and dexterous with their skills... at ‘keeping’ ‘that’.  But we; Seacus and I as a team... have.. ‘done good’ ‘in there’.  We are, at this precise moment (Spring 2014) actually ‘out’ meaning that we have no commercial pry bar at work... ‘raising’ any ‘antiques’ from Helen.  The apartment is ‘done’ (remodeled)... we understand... but ‘have not seen’.  “It”.

            “Yet.”

            “Oh.” said James Hutton... to me...  when I spoke to him about that... situation.

            I carried the ‘left hangings’ forward to March of this year and reported my ‘fill the oil tank’ emergency visit to Cadence Snow (Helen older sister)... in the family’s ancestral sea captain’s mansion ‘Defiance’ and how I ...when there... substituted her offering an heirloom tea service with my “I”... and “eye”... of gathering eight hundred dollars worth of ‘stuff’ in her barn to... ‘raise’ ‘the money’.

            Then I reported my return visit to Cadence; a courtesy visit (a courtesy for who?) a few weeks later and that:  THIS visit revealed “The Dreadful News” that Helen’s work on the apartment in her home was not for her daughter’s usage but to be the “WHERE” to put Cadence when ...Cadence... “IS” “MOVED OUT” of Defiance “YOU CANNOT STAY IN THERE ANOTHER WINTER”.  Despondent with this The Dreadful News, Cadence leaned it upon me in this second visit and I... with a save-self captivating scramble of ‘war plans’... suggested she could fight back against the move and WIN that fight by using her... VAST... and well known locally...  hoard... of ...old stray cats.

            These ‘left hangings’ were then truly left hanging for a ...raunchy recording of the two sided (‘the front and the back’) fatal formula of the ‘antiques store’ on the coast of Maine.  That... may well seem to be a great distance from Helen and Cadence but... I remind... that in their initial appearances in earlier vignettes (blog posts proceeding this longer extension of this old New England family saga) Helen’s first basement ‘selling’ in this saga was to James Hutton ...now truly understood as how he is... THE picker for THAT ‘antiques store’.  In the  middle of the serendipity of that ‘first basement sale’... there was noticed an ‘old broken bowl’ that I ‘wanted’, that Hutton would not sell, that he ‘displayed’ this bowl for his personal vanity AT the ‘antiques store’ AND THAT ... WE BOTH... understood this singular antique to be a... THE singular antique... that he ‘got’ from Helen that WAS FROM the old sea Captain Snow’s mansion and the HE; the old sea captain himself... had brought that ‘home’ to Defiance on ‘his ship’ from ‘a voyage to Asia’... during the... WHAT DATES?

            Well... as early as 1800... he went to sea... and ...he finished ‘aboard ship’... in the 1850’s ‘at least’ and ‘probably’.  He; the old captain... probably had ‘little love for (being on) land’.  That means HE ...would have preferred to ‘perish’ ‘at sea’ “if possible” “please”.  Hutton... feels... this.  I ...feel... this.  We do not THINK THIS.  Please understand the difference... in order to understand what is ...happening... ‘next’.  This leads to the “WHY?” at the end of the last chapter. 

            Do I want Cadence’s old tea service?  Of course I do.  Did I want the ‘stuff’ from her barn?  Of course I did.  Which do I want more?

            The stuff.

            Why?

            BECAUSE OF “or is it actually a WHY?”

            “I am seeking”.

            Returning to Seacus’ first commercial visit to Helen’s basement... hoard... WHAT... it is now becoming understood... was I... seeking... IF IT IS TRUE... that most antiques are not valuable and of, really, ‘no interest’ to... a veteran picker like I.  WHY BOTHER to ‘clean that out’ when all there be is a nominal monetary gain... for I?

            Because of the Hutton’s bowl.  That is why.

            I want that bowl.

            And

            Anything else that... is ‘like that’... from... ‘old Captain Snow’s... ‘estate’. 

I want the

“Old Sea Captain’s Stuff”.