SO I KEPT OUT AN EYE for a circle of birds. And suddenly up ahead of me one mornin I seen what I knew was the bitter town of Sweet Janine because there was a circle of birds over it. These must be the famous rathawks keeping out an eye for the famous smart white rats. And then night fell black on me and asleepin in an old shed I heard the terrible calls of the rathawks all night long and I shivered and thought this is a bitter town. Next mornin I went straight to a sign that says SAVINGS AND LOAN and in there I returned the golden baitbox of money to the Savings and Loan bank personally to the President named Fred Shanks. Would you possibly be kin to a Shanks that used to run a Show? I asked this President named Shanks. My distant cousin, said President Shanks—real distant, never met the crook that used my name on a bunch of hot checks and almost reduced the surplus of this Savings and Loan Bank to a zero. The police was after him but they never caught him. Oh my God another posse, I says, and this one after Old Shanks—there was a posse out after everbody, a posse was ahuntin the hunters that was afleein the posse, soon there would be a posse hunting a posse. What is this world, you wan hear. But in all my runnin and huntin I was yet to see one posse.
This President Fred Shanks told me about the desgracia of the Show. That the Show was gone. That the Show was fallen into ashes on the ground from a terrible fire caused by a rampage of Heracles the Lion that after all the years suddenly got back his feroz, Heracles become again feroz as he was in his old wild days before the Show and leapt up on Old Shanks and tore out his throat and then tore off his old balls and pulled aloose his arms and tore him to pieces and the Show caught all afire and burned down to the ground, everthing. But where is Heracles the Lion? I asked. At large, said the President. All the towns are keepin out an eye for him and there are a dozen posses. What is this life, what is this world, I says, My God and Jesucristo.
And then Fred Shanks pulled out a newspaper story of it and said that there it told that a Dwarft was almost a hero fightin to the last the terrible conflagration with big buckets of water twict as big as he was until, newspaper said, the fire got him. They found him kneeling in a shape of prayin and when somebody touched him said a whole Dwarft fell into ashes on the ground. My God a whole Dwarft of ashes. What is this world? But looked like Eddy the Dwarft prayed, he must have remembered my Biblia Blanca, that I told him and he wouldn’t listen but I guess he did guess that some of La Biblia got into his little Dwarft ear ‘bout as big as a snail. Must’ve prayed, little Mescan Dwarft Eddy Gonzales that said he was an atheist. God save his lonesome little soul. I’ll remember him a minute now, in this afternoon; but he was still a mean little codger. You wan hear?
The piece of the newspaper that the President Fred Shanks showed me did not mention nowhere the gilded chair or the jewel wagon. Guess they’re ashes too. Shanks give that golden chair to me when I was young I’d seen him nailin and sawin something secret many days, said twas a secret what he was amakin and then seen on his fingers gold, seen gold; and then he called to me one night to come and see and twas the chair of gold. Set in it, he said, go on set in it and I was ascared at first to set in something gold like that; but Shanks got hold of me and carried me in’s arms, gentle then, to the chair and sweetly set me down, into the golden chair. And twas lust of me, lujuria, that made him do it, lujuria, lust that made him build a chair of gold. I saw some tears, I’m pretty sure, in Shankses eye. Thank you Shanks, I said, and I felt good then do you hear, Oyente? Wouldn’t you, if somebody’d give you that and’d built on it and built on it; wouldn’t you? Felt good? So Shanks I’ll remember a minute right now in this afternoon under this old trestle that you told me that you loved me that one night long ago in the jewel wagon, called me your joya morena, Mescan words I told you, means a dark jewel, a jewel in a jewel wagon that you bought for me, you said. And oh I guess I got to remember that there uz times when you uz gentle with me suave and I’ll ‘member them for just a minute too, before I forget you forever; and I remember so many times I saw you so feroz of me in jealousy and that I saw you take a knife at me to keep me all your own if I should have a feelin’ for another; even for the Dwarft you took at knife at me to make me swear to you he never touched me and I swore to you I never let him touch me, twas a lie Old Shanks my God I’ve had one half the world of Satan on me why should I turn down one pore Dwarft to learn God’s Bible? You wan hear. And so I say to you Oyente that I have to give just one warm thought for Old Shanks again right now here before you as you listen: he half lost his sad mean mind for me and I have seen him beg me beg me just to say I love you. I forgive and I make amends of my forgiveness to lost Shanks, especially for the chair of gold which even then could not make me say to Shanks I love you, not even for the jewel wagon that he give me, this was in the early days when I was young and come to him to get a job with the Show you will remember Oyente how I told you, how I revealed myself to this man Shanks out in the fields when I was young and run away from the China Boy do you remember? Sí. Now I want to say before God and Jesucristo and before you Oyente that I forgive and make amends of my forgiveness to lost Shanks. But when he saw that he would never have me all his own that is when his mind got mean on me because he couldn’t have me, onct I took a piece of glass, of a beer bottle, and put it at his lips to harelip him if he would try to touch me once I slept with a great big rock beside my pillow that I would bash in’s head if he come at me in my sleep and in some nights I’d wake up when the little dog barked—bark ‘bout as big as a little bitty mouse—and see at the window Shankses face, demonio, of wanting my body while I slept naked on my bed it was so hot in that jewel wagon. And one terrible night I felt him on me in the dark I thought twas a hot animal from the Sideshow, wet and hair and hot and quiet and with my piece of beer bottle under my bed with my piece of glass I cut his lip and give him the scar on’s lip forevermore until he died by the feroz of Heracles the Lion, hairlipped, Shanks had the sign of’s lust, lujuria, of’s madness over me cut upon his lip, he’d been cut, a little pink curl on’s lip that he’d run his tongue on, over and over, twas a sign of his madness and I knew it; and he never come at me again. Old Shanks.
About the story of the newspaper what was the name of the town I asked this President Fred Shanks and he said I don know, newspaper does not give name of the town. But who cares the name of the town said Fred Shanks you are apprehended hereby for robbery of a Savings and Loan Bank. How do I know who somebody named Hondo Holloway is, he said, you had the money on you! And President Fred Shanks threw me into jail in this bitter town.
But what had happened was that over in the Missoura jail Ethelreda had told Sam Policheck of her killing of Hondo Holloway with her big hand when he come to beg forgiveness, for the murder of her sister Sweet Janine. And God and Jesucristo helped Ethelreda sweeten up her nature and beg forgiveness for diggin the hole bigger for me and helped her talk to Sam Policheck about excaping through the hole away from Missoura jail and into the world. Your wife Nan Policheck has been a long time deceased said Ethelreda, and I would like to free you from your own jail. World outside has got a lots that you don even know about. Includin me, added Ethelreda. So would you understand that there was Sam Policheck ahelpin dig the hole bigger—for himself—and for Ethelreda! And one night Sam Policheck followed Ethelreda through the hole that he had helped make big enough; and they both come out into the world free and both full of forgiveness and glad that they was free and wanting to make amends to all of those that had been thrown into the cell of Missoura jail by Sam Policheck.
First thing that I have to do, Ethelreda says to Sam Policheck, Ethelreda said, is make forgiveness amends to Hondo Holloway. How can you make amends to a dead man asked Sam Policheck, Ethelreda said he said. Take him off of the cold stone slab at the Morgue in the terrible town where I lived, says Ethelreda; and where he has laid ever since I struck him the fatal blow. So first thing they done, this excaped couple and the last ones of all of us to leave the old Missoura jail and to board it up forever, since the town was plannin to open up a new one in a shoppin center it was goin to build next to a cultural center it was goin to build, somebody said; meantime all crooks run free in the town; first thing they done was to head for the bitter town where pore lonesome Hondo laid cold dead on a slab of stone all this time without a livin soul to claim him with a sign on him that said PERSON UNKNOWN. And to take off the sign and carry him back to boarded-up Missoura jail and bury him there under the Rose a Sharon where so much had been buried—Old John and the golden baitbox of Savings and Loan to name two. What are the others? I don know guess I was exaggeratin. No I wasn’t because Nan Policheck was buried in that jailyard too but not under the Rose a Sharon. Anyways Ethelreda laid Hondo Holloway in the ground of Missoura jail under the bloomin Rose a Sharon tree that always was abloomin, never anybody saw ever that sweet little tree ‘ithout a blossom on it. Old ground’d been dug up so much just opened up on its own before Ethelreda when she lifted up her great big hand, didn’t even have to dig, ground just opened up to take body of Hondo Holloway in it, seemed like he was home. This’s what Ethelreda Johansson told me.
So big Ethelreda made her forgiveness to Hondo Holloway by diggin with her own big shovelin hand, the very one that struck him down to death, iz grave. And next to the grave of Old John where the cardboard tombstone made of a box top said OLD JOHN printed long ago, whenever it was, when was it my Oyente do you know? can you follow all the years and all the happenings that I’ve told you, how many years? how many things happened? What is this world Oyente? You wan hear. But now I felt better about my friend Hondo cause I knew where his grave was and said that I’d one day go back to the Missoura jail to put flowers on it. But guess I didn’t have to since I’m sure sweet Rose a Sharon tree dropped flowers enough on it night and day, flowers on the grave of Old John, too.
And one night when there was heard a big esplosion in the bitter town of Sweet Janine the jail door of mine opened like in La Biblia Blanca like in San Pablo, and when I run through the open door I found Ethelreda and Sam Policheck arunnin through the streets, we was in a reunion together! God and Jesucristo had brought us together again in a miraculous, in a milagro.
Why have you returned to this bitter town? I cried. And with my God Sam Policheck the Bohunk. I says this Bohunk out loud to him this time after what he had done to me, thrown me into Missoura jail. Everthing has changed all the past is forgotten and all is forgiven by everbody, cried out Ethelreda. And when I says I hope that includes pore Hondo Holloway that come to you in a pure heart and you wiped him down out of his life, pore Ethelreda Johansson cried biggest tears I’ve ever seen, they fell on the sidewalk of that bitter town like pancakes. You could hear her big tears flop down on the sidewalk. I was ascared a little, to see such a great big person acrying like that; and then she told me what I have just told you, about her amends of buryin Hondo Holloway off the cold slab into the blessed ground of Missoura jail that opened up to take him in. I’ll go take flowers to iz grave she cried. Please, said Sam Policheck. Not back to Missoura jail. Although I second everything that is happening, said Sam Policheck, a very changed man. Nan Policheck was a little woman a good woman and a good little wife for a jailer, said Sam Policheck. But a little woman. Now I have me a good big one, Ethelreda Johansson, and ever-thing has changed I am no longer of a jail and have boarded it up and buried the keys under the Rose a Sharon by the hole of everbody’s excape, said Sam Policheck. We have come, said Ethelreda right into what Sam Policheck was saying, for me to get a few of my things before the desgracia hits the town. Well I have just excaped from the jail of this town because of a terrible injustice of a President Fred Shanks but a mysterious esplosion busted open my jail door and I am at large again, I said.
The mysterious esplosion was a part of a warning, said Ethelreda, that there is about to begin an infernal battle to the death between rathawks and rats, we have for a long time known this would happen it was even prophesied by a famous Medium. What was the Medium’s name? I asked. How would I know? answered Ethelreda. I thought it might be Gloria Ox, I said. But Ethelreda went right on into what I was sayin. Medium, Ethelreda went on, said that it will be preceded by a mysterious esplosion and a bloody battle will demolish the whole town forevermore. That is why I have returned to get a few things. Let em demolish it, I said, it is a bitter town. A town of nastiness, said Ethelreda, excuse the word but it is a nasty town. What happened to you in it? I asked. I have never told my story, said Ethelreda. Now that the town of my life is about to be demolished, I think I will. You’ll have to be brief, said Sam Policheck. I’ll hurry, she said. We were two sisters in a nasty town. Bitter, I said. Please, said Ethelreda. I have only a few minutes and my time is limited. My sister Janine and I suffered at the hands of a nasty town. That is a gringo espression, I said, that a town would have hands. Please, said Ethelreda. My time is limited. They were always, since we were just girls, trying to take advantage of we girls. Who? I asked. The town, said Ethelreda. I may, she said, not have to tell this if I continue to be interrupted and with such a limit on my time anyway, because of the coming any minute of this town’s demolishment, as history and the Medium decreed that it would. Gott! said Ethelreda. It was the only time I ever heard her speak foreign. What does that mean translated? I asked Ethelreda. Not into Mescan but into Anglo. God said she. In Swedish—or German, I can’t remember—we are Swedish, or my father was, with some German thrown into it. My mother Innisfree was Irish—so I am part Irish and part Swedish with some German and my mother had some Scotch in her so I have that, too. I hate to rush you, said Sam Policheck, but only to remind you that time is limited. I’ll hurry, Ethelreda said. My father Hans Johansson ran the oldest bakery in the terrible town. He made the best bread in Texas, up every morn to bake it in a four-o’clock oven. The only sweet thing about the nasty town was that the smell of bread was being smelled by the people before dawn. But… I said. Please, cut in Ethelreda. I was only going to say, I said, that if the people of the terrible town were so nasty why was it good that they smelled your father Hanses bread every morn? He should have laid out a nasty smell over that nasty town. Please! cried Ethelreda. When I have such limited time! cried out Ethelreda, almost raising up her big hand. Perdóname Usted! I said. Señora. Señora Ethelreda Johansson Policheck. A beautiful name, Sam Policheck put in. But Ethelreda went on with her story. But my father was treated so nasty when somebody found an unmentionable object in a loaf of rye that he was forced to close down his ovens. The whole nasty town treated him like a dog and tried to run him out of town. What was the object in the rye? I asked. An unmentionable object, answered Ethelreda, but an object that is supposed to keep you from having babies. Which set the town against each other, two sides, those in favor of sexual pleasure and those in favor of just having babies. A condom said Sam Policheck. My God, I said. Who won, which side won? Please, said Ethelreda. My father Hans was forced to run out of the nasty town. What about your mother? I asked her. My mother Innisfree? said Ethelreda. Locked us up, we two girls, in our house and run out of town with my father Hans, saying that they would be back. But they never come back. So we were two girls waiting for some help. One sweet one and one great big one I says to myself. Who come with the help? I said to Ethelreda. Hondo Holloway, she said. O my God, I said. How did Hondo get there? Hiding out from some people who were after him, said Ethelreda. By a lake outside the town Hondo had pulled a man’s arm out of its socket and the people were after him. He was only trying to help up the man because he had fallen into the lake and was adrownding. Hondo was so surprised by what he had done, that the man was crying out in pain from the arm that was pulled out and dangling, Hondo was so mixed up that he jumped into the lake, just where the man had been, and tried to drown hisself. Ethelreda said Hondo said. You wan hear. He did not know his own strength, la mensura, how to measure his own strength, I says to Ethelreda. Like me, said Ethelreda. Sí, I says. But pore Hondo Holloway died from it. I told you how much forgiveness I have given Hondo Holloway, cried out Ethelreda. How much amends can a woman make? she cried out, pore murderer. Perdóname, I says, Señora, escuse me. God knows, went on Ethelreda, how Hondo excaped from the lake and got into our basement which was so boarded up by our father Hans and our mother Innisfree Johansson. But we found him one morning. Janine did. My sister Janine. Sweet Janine! I says. Ethelreda said that you might as well to have a white butterfly in your house as to have Janine her frail white sister in your house. Sometimes said she thought a white scarf like a veil was afloatin around her and twas Janine; or said if you would think of in your mind’s eye—we have no such espression—of a petal of a dogwood then that would be Janine; said she was a white saint said she was pure snow. Sweet Janine! I said and thought of Hondo Holloway that loved and killed her but didn’t even know that he was doin it. I am having to rush my words, said Ethelreda, so I will rush on. So we had a nice life in the boarded-up house me and Janine and Hondo Holloway; that is, until…I am feeling the beginning shudder of the demolishment of the town! panted Ethelreda. And suddenly before she could say us any more of her story there was a terrible sound more than I can say to you, twas demonio, and we run, me and Ethelreda and Sam Policheck, out of the town that was beginning to be torn to pieces by the infernal battle of the rathawks and the white rats. And before we parted again, never to get to hear the rest of Ethelreda’s story, I give to Ethelreda Johansson Policheck back the little curl of hair that once was Sweet Janine’s and everbody forgive everbody once again and then run on their way to excape the fall of the bitter town.
I run on, and up on a hill I looked down and saw like of the evil cities of La Biblia flames and esplosions of the terrible destruction wrought by the rathawks and the rats and heard, even over the esplosions, the demonio cries of the rathawks shrieking over the bitter town of Sweet Janine.
And I went on my way awanderin.