Down the Line

 

This isn't mine, but I am passing it along:

One letter makes the question, the answer, substitute the "W" with a "T."

What?

Where?

When?

Gender (Haiku)

 

Sexuality 

In just a few words

Do it; Have it done

Learning (Haiku)

 

Between ignorance

Learning is a continuum

Assimilation

Character Sketch of the Wizard of Beckwith Coven

 

They call me Old Tom, the kids who play in the forest do.  “Four-score and more, not an hour more or less.  And to deal plainly, I feel that I am not in my perfect mind.  Methinks I should know you, and you, but I am mainly ignorant as to what place this is, and for all my skill, I know not these garments, nor I know not where I did lodge last night.” I woke up in a large, hollowed, fallen tree. I wake up every morning in various locations in the forest.  I am a person of the forest, have been for many years.  The kids know me and tease, but I pay no attention to them.

Even though my recall of more current events is not what it was, my memory of things past is accurate and clear.  The Beckwiths, of whose family I may be a part, are of great interest to me.  I know the good and the bad about them and tolerate them just the same.

My association with the witch, Hecate, is as old as I am. The start of it has been long lost in time.  We may even be related.  We trust each other and work together to maintain the unity of the coven.  This may qualify me as a warlock, but I don’t care much about titles.

Now that Christopher Stark is no longer alive, there will be controversy about the fortune and the disposition of the mansion and the grounds.  Wainwright is insufferable and Stark is greedy.  We shall see how it pans out.  Meanwhile, the dead don’t want to let go.  As for me, “pray you now, forget and forgive, for I am a foolish, fond old man.”

It may look familiar, King Lear.

Decorum (Haiku)

 

Your opinions

Should never be given first

And information  

Peace (Haiku)

 

Sometimes taken out

Hearing aids are optional

For peace and quiet

Saul Kentucky

 

Now let me see, it was July 4th, but I don't recall the exact year.  I could research the logbooks to find it but it really isn't pertinent to the story.  Suffice it to say that it was 1996.  We got up at a decently early hour, about 8 o'clock, and we had the day off.  Our office was closed for the holiday.

"Carola, let's go find Saul." Her reply, "Are you serious?"

It was before GPS; we had a Rand McNally Road Atlas for reference.  We set out for an obscure dot in Perry County, Kentucky. It was a pleasant day, summer, sunny, and not too awfully hot.  We followed the map but then things got a little confusing.  There were no signs that said Saul this way or that, nor indications of how many miles it was to there, nothing in the form of information signs.  So, I pulled into convenient store parking lot.  "Can you tell me how to get to Saul?"

"Go down the road to a big rock, turn left and it's up the road a short piece."

We did, and just after passing two very large, huge, rocks standing alongside the road, I thought, wow! And pulled up into a driveway.  There weren't many houses in the area, so don't think I had a lot of choices, I simply picked the most convenient, parked and went up onto the front porch; knock, knock.

"I'm looking for Saul?"  There was no emotion registered at all.  Completely neutral, she said to the interior of the house, "He's looking for Saul." A man came to the door, stood behind her, and said, "Go back to the road by the big rock and turn right." I said, "Thank you." and left without even trying to start a conversation.

At the road, I turned right and went up the hill.  Not very far up the road was a gas pump and convenience store.  I stopped in front, went in and asked again about Saul.  He said, "This is Saul."   There was nothing to indicate a town of any kind.  So I said, "I'm looking for Iree Bowling."  He said, "Iree lives up in the holler, take the first road on the right and go up about a quarter mile or so." 

I went up the road but must have missed it because there were no roads off to the right.  I pulled up into a driveway and knocked on another door.  A man answered.  I asked him about finding Iree Bowling.  He said go back to the road, head right, then take the road to the left and go about a quarter mile up into the holler.  Then he asked, "Are you in the needy business?  We're needy." I replied," We're not in the needy business anymore."

Off I went, and sho' nuff, there was a dirt lane off to the left.  We turned in and went to an old farmhouse.  I put the car in park and went up to the porch and knocked.

A woman answered and I asked if she knew Iree Bowling.  She said, "I'm her daughter, she's inside in the bed." I said, "How do you do? There's someone I'd like you to meet."  I waved to Carola, who was still in the car and motioned for her to come on up.  I introduced us to Iree and started to explain, showing her some letters.

She was amazed.  Carola had seen an article in a 1967 Sunday Parade magazine newspaper insert about Saul Kentucky and that the people there needed children's clothes.  She proceeded to find the source of the article, contacted him and he gave her the name and mailing address of Iree Bowling.  What followed was a lot of packages of clothes for kids, toys, and books.  Iree was good about thanking her for the help and wrote letters appreciating the goodness.

Iree's daughter took Carola into the house and to Iree's bedside, where they made their acquaintances.  I sat on at the porch outside with the son-in-law, Bascom.  He was about my age.  We told each other jokes.  Surprisingly enough, each of us had heard the other's jokes before.  That was amusing to both of us.

Iree's daughter, whose name escapes me, told us of a television crew that came through and recorded a documentary about them.  It was one of the Kennedy family’s daughters.  I'm talking the John F and Robert Kennedys here.  As a follow-up, when we got back to Louisville, I looked for it and found the book, American Hollow.  The book deals with the difficulty of getting out of the hollow.

We spent the entire afternoon there.  Talking about lots of different things, Iree's daughter showed us quilts she'd made.  There was also a curious arrangement of chairs in the yard.  They were set in an irregular line, not quite a semicircle, and although they were empty, I could tell they were used by gatherings of friends, probably to sing gospel music.  I had a vision of them filled with people, singing their hearts out.

We left Saul and made our way back to Louisville and were home before dark.  Carola felt somewhat fulfilled by the trip to Saul.  I didn't realize it at the time, but she continued the practice that her mother had, of sending care packages.  Rose, Carola's mother, regularly sent packages of essentials and little luxuries to her family after the devastation of Germany during WWII.  Like Iree's family, Rose's family never forgot the kindness.