"It's Been Two Years" - Part Twelve - "I Am Around"

"It's Been Two Years"

Part Twelve

"I Am Around"

            “Was that shadow?”

            “No... it SWISHED; I heard that... that; what I SAW

            Swish... there... as I step

            At the top of that stair;

            The third floor landing.

            It... is it IT? ...  It was DRESSED...:  It... went INTO that front room

            The right front room.

            On the third floor.

            She?

            Was dressed; her dress... swished.

            IS THAT “WHY?”

            This mansion is STILL... an old sea captain’s mansion.

            I am almost at the top of it;

            This mansion.

            And I find there the “WHY?” it IS THERE

            To be KEPT THERE (in this third floor front room).

            KEEPING this THERE... THERE.

            And I am that skeleton’s KEY?

            Cadence didn’t SEE THAT.  She didn’t HEAR that.  Did see.

            OR DID SHE?  SHE’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

            I put the cat food dishes back EXACTLY “Why?”

            Is that her dress?

            Is the HER in THAT dress?

            Is that “WHY?”

            “Don’t be bothered by the clutter.  Please.  I know you won’t be.” said Cadence.

            Before that step; my top step onto the third floor landing... of the old (sea) Captain Snow’s mansion... I had,

            Just like I’ve said

            Put the cat food dishes back

            “Exactly”.

            And returned to my ‘the third chair’ seat

            Almost

            For when I was standing up and

            Cadence said, looking up at me from her seat, that

            “THERE IS A PAINTING OF HER PINNED UP INSIDE”

            I didn’t know that she was talking about what I had just roped mentally as:

            “Her

            OLD ANTIQUE CHINA

            DISHES

            HER GREAT, great, great, grandmother who bought “the precious littles”

            Is there too” (Part Eleven [B])

            I did not realize

            That she (Cadence) was reading my mind.

            I think?

            No...:  I feel.

            She said that there was a “pile” of “old paintings” “inside” but that “her portrait

            Is pinned up... upstairs,

            And always has been.”

            Then she (Cadence) stood up before I could sit down and

            Started off toward the shed door

            To the first shed

            That lead

            To the kitchen door and I followed

            With her saying nothing and I being too stupid to notice that.

            We went through the kitchen (that was not the temperature of hot blood – Part Two) and on through the rooms to the front of the mansion and toward the front stairs except that Cadence stopped at an

            Empire period (style) card table UNDER that front stair... in its own ‘dark’ ‘spot’ to:

            THERE on top of THAT (this table) were a ‘pile’ of... old... dirty... loose and dry... oil paintings on canvas... apparently never ‘stretched’ (never mounted on wooden stretchers...).

            I... looking them through... found them to be ...pieces of old oil paintings of... ‘nothing’... that sort of looked to be as if someone once was being taught to oil paint with “HOW OLD? (are they) sorting through my mind TOO as I looked and did that TOO; the dating... “WORLD WAR ONE at the latest maybe... 1880?”.

            “They are nothings”

            ALMOST

            For one or two... no now three and FOUR are showing FACES of someones and that there is a LANDSCAPE of just outside right here looking from the street back at the mansion and yard “isn’t that not?” I think... NO:  FEEL.  And that one there:  That one is weird... must be

            From the Bible?  Or else someone painted that SCREAM way, way out of nowhere way, way RIGHT HERE in this MANSION screaming and it even scares me NOW to see it is a disemboweled naked MAN dying with SHADOWS of HIMSELF (?) running away “WHO PAINTED THAT?” one:  “It is”... “better be” from the

            Bible.” then

            “Jesus” I was saying to myself about the whole painting pile and

            Cadence started up the front stairs...

            Of the old (sea) Captain Snow’s mansion...

            So I follow along QUICKLY only slashing my eyes across the old tall clock across from the in-the-dark Empire card table where it is pushed against ‘that wall’ just where it is suppose to be.  “IT’S A GOOD ONE”... I... with my eyes... FEEL.

            We didn’t stop on the second floor and went right around up front (of the mansion) to the stairs to the third floor... but the sun... light ...burst through the front window there so it was radiant there; at the stair bottom steps... up to the ‘dark up there’ third floor with I... following behind Cadence who, on these stairs ‘moved spry’ ahead of me.

At the top step of mine

That’s where the swish was

Of the dressed

Figure

Going into that front room

I am sure.

But WE just went right along with me following to that room’s closed door that

Cadence just turned the knob and opened in to this ...radiant sun light from the front window

TOO otherwise dusky dark “BEDROOM?” or was ALWAYS used a “STORAGE” for it was choked

 GOD DAMN FULL of... well

            OBVIOUSLY

            ANTIQUES but

            That far wall in the center DOES have ‘pinned up’ “HER PORTRAIT” Cadence said.

            It was not ‘pinned up’.  It was tacked up; a stupid detail I noted.  But it seems to GLOW too in the dusky light... I feel... but... I was a little unstable right then so HER FACE seemed to be spiritually FREE from the portrait and that caught me that it was like SHE was ‘pinned up’ herself there until it was ok again to ‘go’.  Yeah... like she was just doing that; hanging there, until... well... WHAT?

            “IT’S her I am PRETTY SURE” said Cadence and I was like “HER WHO” and “No it is not her mother so is NOT her... great, great grandmother with THAT DRESS and she’s YOUNG ENOUGH THERE (in her portrait) to NOT be that so grandmother MAYBE my guess is GREAT grandmother did SHE paint this SELF PORTRAIT is THAT WHY the EYES are moving to NOT look me dead EYE I AM

            The skeleton KEY; her skeleton KEY?

            IS THAT WHY I AM UP HERE?

            “It’s been two years”

            Since I

            ...that first

            Old broken bowl that

            Old Captain; the old sea captain, Snow.

            That HE brought back to

            HER

            HERE

            SHE

            IS HER HERE

            Granddaughter?

            Cadence is the GREATEST

            Granddaughter

            Feeding the cats

            On HER old china that SHE

            Is in this mansion of

            DIRTY DIRT TOO and

            I have just found this all

            Out.

            Or have they found me out;

            That it is I who has scrambled

            UP onto the rocky shore to see

            This wreck.

            It is she; this tied to this mast?

            It has been two years

            Only.

            We are back down the third floor stairs upon the second floor landing in the radiant sun light there

            Without saying a word or

            Looking around much at all

            In that room

            I recall.

            Cadence stops there in front of me to look out the window; the sun lighted window.

            She then turns to me to look me; my face, my eyes.

            “Did you see her?” she said.

            “Yes.” I say.  “Yes I did”.

            “I knew you would.” she said.

            Then we went back down to the first floor landing, before the closed front door.

            Cadence opens that door and sun light that is radiant

            Comes in as she steps out of the open doorway, down the steps, down the path spry to the sidewalk and then, looking to her left, out into the street to hard look left down the street.  I follow out onto the front door step.

            Cadence starts back towards me on the front step

            In the radiant... sun... light

            As I KNOW WHY I am just that very moment only

            The Old Sea Captain Snow himself

            Alone standing there on the front mansion step

            Of his own old sea captain’s mansion

            In an old New England Village.

            “The Library (book) Sale starts this afternoon the sign is out I can see it.”

            Says Cadence to me from the base of the steps.

            “You are around I know where to find you.” She continues.

            “I am around Cadence.” I say her as I step down the front steps.

The End