Coon Hill - Part Six - "The Gamekeeper... From Occupied Japan

Coon Hill

Part Six

"The Gamekeeper... From Occupied Japan"

            Before... the magic dust... of divisional chatter... of I... with the spirit-be... of ANY old house... about my purloin of their... old stuff... becomes a ‘death chair’... of itself and... of I (?)...:

            I don’t believe

            In ghosts.

            I don’t.

            I ‘find things’ that are long lost... mostly of medium monetary value... ‘antiques’ and ‘rare books’... ‘in old houses’ and I take that; ‘those things’ ‘out’ and... ah... ‘sell them’.  Yeah; that’s what I do.

            So a ghost is... well... what are they gonna do ‘with it’ or

            ‘About it’?

            Haunt me... on the staircase... from the attic... to the front door (wide open) leading... to the ‘my truck’?

            And so ‘my hair’....?  Is fine?  ...too?  (Part Five)  Wasp fine ID card fine coat and tie fine my supple sentences to myself upon the art I ‘am finding’; knowing my hand and seeing through the

            Old haunted darkness with the dirty dust soiled “Bat shit?” and my flashlight illuminates the attic ridge and affirms that is true with little motions and squeaky noises; “bats”.

            So I don’t really have a lot of time for old dead women who want to touch my hair.  I’m not that interested.  They come with the territory.  Even their sock drawers become ‘pat’ and ‘old news’.  Unless, of course, they hide something REALLY good ‘in there’.

            She went to a girl’s camp here is her song book.

            Her great grandmother’s platter ‘she used it’.

            The Disney Pluto dog cereal spoon?  She used it?

            I am the gamekeeper... from Occupied Japan?

            The division of the ...platters.  No... it is not a division; there are only two more.

            And there are not any cups and saucers either.

            Just an old hand carved wooden wash rod... long used... then long ‘put away’.

            “Hey she doesn’t have a washer and dryer.  In here.”

            What did she do?

            “She didn’t” (do laundry).

            “She threw it out and wore new or... sent it out”  Oh.  Ok.

            “She didn’t have a vacuum cleaner?”  “No... she had a woman come and use

            A vacuum cleaner.

            She took it with her when she left”

            “There are no rugs in here anyway.”

            “How did she live like that; with this old plumbing.  Live like that?”

            “There are some old books in here.”

“There were always old books in there.  Put them in a box and put them in your truck”.

            “Hey:  This one’s about Africa.  It’s pretty old.”

            “Yeah.  Just take it; all of ‘em”

            “You want to look?”

            “No.”

            “No:  Leave the curtains.”

            “That’s most of it out of there.”

            “Get the chair out.”

            “Where should I put it?”

            “In the dumpster.”

            “You don’t want it?”

            “No”.

            The handful of postcards were not hers:  “Probably her mother’s”.

            Her great grandmother’s dresser box ‘she used it’.

            Her Father’s desk top advertising give-away ‘flip’ calendar she used it?

            I am the gamekeeper

            From Occupied Japan?

            Now how are you gonna be a ghost around me when I’m doing that?  “Don’t touch my GOD DAMN HAIR JESUS”.

            “Aren’t you afraid of the bats?”

            “I’M WEARING A HAT.  What do you think I’m wearing it for?”

            “Yeah but I mean...”

            “THEY AIN’T GOING NO WHERE and it’s almost empty up there anyway.”

            “What about the room.”

            “I’m doing that.  Stay out of there.”

            “Whose room was that?”

            “How the fuck am I suppose to know”.

            “You always seem to know stuff like that.”

            “Put this in my truck; cab.”

            “What is it?

            “It’s a stupid little pewter mug; measure:  TANKARD.”

            “It looks old.”

            “IT IS OLD.”

            “It’s pretty nice.”

            “One sixty-five.”

            “I can buy it?  For that?”

            “It’s signed inside on the bottom.”

            “Who signed it?”

            “GOD DAMN IF I KNOW.  Put it in the truck.”

            “Rachel just brought in the food.”

            “Then go eat it.”

            “You want something?”

            “Yeah.”

            Pause.

            “I’ll get to it.”

            “Your gonna like...:  What’s in the room?”

            “Nothing... go look.”

            “I can look?”

            “No.”

            “But you just said to go look.”

            “Yeah you can do that.  But you CAN’T... LOOK...; because you don’t know what your looking at.  Don’t anything.”

            “I... ah... HEY:  That painting was in there?”

            “IS in there.  Don’t touch it.”

            “Don’t touch it?”

            “DON’T TOUCH IT”.

            “Is it a good painting?”

            “It’s a bad painting.  Don’t touch it.”

            “How do you know it’s bad?”

            “Because you looked at it.”

            “I looked at it?”

            “Get out of here.”

            “Here?  Why?”

            “I want to talk to the ghosts.”

            “The ghosts?”

            “They know more about this stuff than you do.”

            The framed photograph of her as a baby with her mother ok.

            Her great grandmother’s teacup ‘she used it’.

            The tin box with nothing in it?  She used it?

            I am the gamekeeper... from Occupied Japan?