Friday, May 9, 2014

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


"It's Been Two Years"

Part Seven

"The Old Sea Captain's Stuff"

(B)


            This fall (2014)... “WHEN”... Cadence is ‘moved’ from the Captain Snow mansion...:
            “WHEN” she is “MOVED”... this moment will be the
            FIRST TIME
            The Captain Snow (New England Federal sea captain’s) Mansion
            Has
            Ever
            ‘Been empty’:
            Having no one... from the Snow family
            Living in the mansion.
            This will be the first time that if... ANYONE... knocks on the door... no one from the Snow family AND... no one at all... will answer that knock on the door.
            The first time.
            Ever.
            Cadence knows this.  I know this.  Does anyone else know this?  When Cadence is escorted off HER property... the only living creatures in the Captain Snow mansion will be ...mice, rats, squirrels, bats... and the expectant gathering of stray cats about the ‘back door of the shed’...
            Waiting to be fed.
            This is not about a well kept mansion on a well kept New England (Maine) Village street in a well kept New England village with well kept citizens with well kept vehicles and well kept clothing upon well kept bodies with well kept hair carrying well kept church attendance and well kept schools with well kept....:
            This is “WHY?”
... burning in ...Hell.
            So I will change the “WHEN” of Cadence’s ‘escorted off her property’ to
            “IF”.
            And go off to poke at this ‘The Dreadful News’ from another reach... of my own hand... into the darkness... that IS THIS Old New England... as it really is.


            I
            Spy
            James Hutton’s old broken bowl... and let it rest in his hands... but never I... be I
            To forget.
            Never... ever... forget that bowl is broken; the old broken bowl
            That Captain Snow
            Held up to inspect with a
            Critical art eye of Asian ceramic study; a
            Bowl
            “I will bring back
            With me
            For her
            I love you”.
            IF... there is THAT bowl from ‘in there’ (the Captain Snow mansion) and THAT bowl is a broken bowl so ‘passed on’ though broken to be so broken that
            Finally
            No one
            For one
            Baby step missed
            It
            AND ‘EYE’
            ‘Got it’.
            We; Hutton and I, feel we know ‘what it is’
            And, of course, the criminal within the reader... knows
            “HOW VALUABLE”
            It is?
            But these criminal readers do NOT know “WHY?” of ‘what is next’?


            When Seacus comes back with each ‘load’ from the ‘cleaning out’ of the ‘remodeled’ apartment... he is the perfect man returning from the perfect task of ...perfectly... accommodating a perfect heiress to a ...very much NOT perfect old sea captain’s estate.  Helen... delighted in ‘selling’ Seacus “EVERYTHING” (the ‘cast off’ of HER choice found in the hoarder’s hoard of her basement rooms full of hoard of her hoarding... she... did that and does that still...:
            Seacus ‘barrel headed’ ‘everything’ “not nailed down” “I GUESS THAT CAN GO TOO.”
            And I sat on the OTHER END of that ‘that can go to I guess’ and... WELL:
            We all know NOW that Seacus as a picker had already rolled ALL the numbers over in his head on the ‘way over’ to ‘my place’ so... picker picking loads before a picker picking too that load... it is easiest to “just give you a price” “for everything” “except that maybe THAT ONE I keep out for Shirley SHE COLLECTS THAT you know”.
            So then I would ‘buy it all’ with ‘my money’ already doing that so I only had to hand over ‘his profit’ ‘on top of that’.
            And close the barn door... behind Seacus’ empty truck.
            And wait until he ‘went back’ to ‘do it again’ “NEXT WEEK I THINK OK”.
            And I already explained that ‘I don’t want that stuff’ ‘anyway’
            Because of the ‘way’ pickers feel about antiques so...
            “WHAT?” do I want?
            I want “WHY?”
            And the ‘old sea captain’s stuff’.
            And this is how... within this dainty setting...
            I get it.


            I wait... with Seacus long departed... and a darkness pestering behind the closed barn door.  OH of course I set out a ROCKING CHAIR for old Captain Snow to sit in while he ...screams at me.  Don’t I accommodate him... well... while he sits to watch ...his own estate...
            Go to Hell?
            And I sort it... I do.  Before his own eyes I sort ‘it’ looking for ‘just him’.  Do I find him?
            Of course I do.  And I find much more.
            Too.
            “WHAT COULD YOU BE TALKING ABOUT FINDING?”
            I find my “why?”
            And no one else is there... so it does become a very private “why?”.
            Two examples to show how this “why?” ...be:


            The ...old rose medallion teapot; from an abundant Chinese trade porcelain (1810-1860 best period) made for ‘export’ ‘to the west’... from the east... turned up with four ‘chipped’ plates... in a plastic (under the sink type) bucket... so I didn’t look at that at all until just the old Captain and I were alone... again.  HE... I feel... too knew that I KNEW that I FEEL that he HELD that teapot up for HIS EYE to see the “SHE WOULD LOVE”... “IT”... TOO so HE DID BRING it home and SHE DID LOVE and...
            Broken
            It was; it did become and cried
            She did so He did
            Take it down into the village to “HIM”
            “SEE IF YOU”, a country jeweler, “EVER” “COULD FIX THAT” (the broken spout) and “TOO” (the handle).
            And the jeweler did... that... by drilling... and stapling in BRASS while slipping LEAD into the spout to ‘cover the hole’ “THAT PIECE WAS LOST”.
            “It works again”; that teapot DOES... and ‘used it’ she did... ever after...
            Including
            The day
            She died.
            “OH forget the plates they are just fine with their ‘CHIPS’... but that TEAPOT
            SHINES
            From years upon the old broken teapot repaired... “SHE USED IT” dirty... dirty... tea stained DIRTY.
            And its LID is ‘missing too’.
            “REALLY?”
            “Broken?”
            “Too?”
            No...:  It is probably ‘still somewhere’ ‘in there’ (The old Captain Snow sea captain’s mansion).  Somewhere in there still ...is a little old WAFER of a ...Chinese export rose medallion LID... that I...
            Will never ever ever never ‘drive by’ that MANSION without saying
            To myself
            “It is in there”
            “Too.”


            THAT is ‘old sea captain’s stuff’ of “I seek” “WHY?”.
            The old captain just set in his chair... and watched while I
            Found that.
            But I shouldn’t be too nice about this for...
            I found so much ‘other crap’ that ...could only be
            “WHY?”
            Too.


            See now that Helen (Snow) Cransmore is a well done girl.
            A proper school dressed girl who has enough so she does not
            Look out over a kitchen sink much ever at all so CAN
            Hoard her self by herself with “I LIKE THAT” too so THAT
            Carries her whimsy UPON her breeding.
            And it is her breeding too; not the shoes she wears for those are only to
            Show
            Her breeding and that this ‘her’ cannot
            Be bought by them (the shoes) at all so:
            Yes that is right what I just said.
            And I know this very well because I can do that
            Too.



            That is why when my arm reaches to poke at a ‘that’ it is
            Qualified by my eye to be an interest-of to I
            And very usually reaches “why?”
            Without even my
            Very effortless try.





            It is a patch box*** true and I pictured it
            In my mind first although I ‘knew it’ already
            From my studies of these sorts of things and that it
            IS a ‘new one’ but what a one for HER (Helen) to
            Naturally (as meaning the same naturally as Cadence names
            Her cats)
            “Yes” for HER (Helen) to “PICK THAT ONE OUT” and keep it
            While throwing away the gift box
            Like a good Wasp family does and no framed photographs of
            “WHO GAVE ME THAT” also “TOO”.
            THAT is where their becomes a “WHY?” because I
            Can THEIR touch THEIR very reasoning for IT IS
            Old sea captain’s stuff THEIR TOO
            With its old boat on the lid ‘flying flag’ and INSIDE
            A saga born and IT TOO BE a
            Sea Captain saga
            From old New England too so that to Helen
            “Is perfectly normal” and understood “NATURALLY”
            to be the
            “ONE I WOULD HAVE PICKED OUT”.
            Set out; displayed.
            KEPT OUT a WHILE
            And then ‘put away’ for the
            “Remember that” so to
            “GO BELOW” the surface of her
            Hoarder’s hoarding to be LOST
            IN THAT SEA
            And die there drowned in a ‘box full of it
            “Is not old”
            “Pretty though MAYBE”
            “No...
            I let it go too”
Seacus says of it...
To it
In the palm of his hand.




            And then I look at it in the barn later in the palm of MY hand alone
            With the old sea captain himself rocking back a forth saying
            As to how that really is “WHY?” Helen.
            Too:
            “She is
            Shreve Crump and Low” he mutters over his old
            Cane top
            And through his mouth of crooked teeth.






***:  A true and classic English made Battersea Box; a small decorated enamel covered... upon base metal... box fitted with gilt gold plated brass hinge harness and here showing on its lid a sailing ship at sea flying a United States flag with interior printed text proclaiming this to be a fair representation of the “Master” “Benjamin Shreve”  ship “The Governor Endicott”, “1819”, “in Salem, Massachusetts” “ancestor” to the Shreve, Crump and Low (Boston) mercantile dynasty, “1800 – 1975” (this last date the commemorative date of this box’s make) and having a true English Battersea box maker’s mark; “Bilston and Battersea Enamels Halcyon Days, London”, on the bottom... in perfect condition and in perfect ...production... (meaning this is not a reproduction) of the ‘exactly be as’ the late 18th century specimens.  This (1975) box would have been ‘gifted’ within a small jeweler’s style box, here ‘perished’ (thrown away)... as it should have been... in a good... old... New England... Wasp... home.




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