woodburning stove 1 of 3

he got it for cheap 

the woman said her parents had stored it in their barn since before she was born

Good thing for us our parents had a barn otherwise we would have been living with all the stuff they appropriated inside the house all the things they gathered for someday in case this or that bits and pieces of their grandiose dreams which I could see though they couldnt would never amount to anything or be realised

                       

The things they held onto to went fallow  unseeded and unturned all their lives

My folks God rest their souls were like squirrels hiding nuts or making shabby nests that fell unclaimed residing among refuse and bitter dry straw

he said I hear you though perhaps you ought concede that the things they hoarded they cherished

they were bits and pieces puzzle pieces if you may of imagined dreams                         

You might also consider that unrealised dreams are and remain worthwhile 

                                                              Arent they

Well I . . I . . . . I never thought of it that way 

Thats really quite lovely quite sweet

Im not sweet

Perhaps you just ought to say thank you when someone compliments you

he nodded 

          I reserve my thanks for second place
I never want anyone getting the wrong idea about me I know me and Id be hardpressed to vouchsafe anything on my behalf    

That said however  my words gold  You can take me by what passes out of my mouth  Im like Seusss Horton the elephant

        I meant what I said and I said what I meant  A hunred percent  

that was how their give and take their negotiation was transacted  how he acquired the woodburning stove for his one-room house the rose and auburn the thrills of bright yellow plumes raucous abstracts behind the saturated grate-toothed mica half of the house his living space faced west the other half his bedroom desk and chair faced the rising sun through unblinded and uncurtained windows

the woman said her father found it in a Mennonite community he often traveled through and stopped to trade

her father said he was told it was manufactured in Germany the 1930s

the unusual glass fixed in its door wasnt glass at all  it was spotted mica

he took up the wood floor where he wanted to place it and laid flatstone

he extended the stone hearth to also provide for an iron stacker he welded for storing wood inside

between the acquired stove and the existing fireplace he was pleased that they would throw ample heat if weather demanded

his learning curve regarding the stoves working was weirdly steep and natural

he seemed to remember his mother saying that as a young girl she spent her summers on a relatives farm in Indiana

there she learned to cook and bake on a woodburning stove

maybe something sifted or shook up his genetic memory or recall sometimes curious things were in the mica or moving behind it which caused him pause and to look the stove didnt confound him in the least

some months after he completed its installation realised his unguessed kitchen talents he received an invitation to hunt elk from a friend who lived in Montana 

his acquaintance wrote that he intended they would ride ponies up into the mountains   

arriving he was mildly disappointed  he wished his friend would have said he had extended invites to others

not four hours in riding up to the base camp on the West Fork of the Bitterroots he thought to himself  AwChrist Ive done this before  he tried not to let his enthusiasm for the hunt falter

at the hunting cabin the other men unpacked their heavy Weatherbys which hung in scabbards alongside their horses bellys

taking them in hand they copped obscene postures acting as if the long rifles were extensions of their cocks  laughing they harassed him Yawanna touch this beauty

he smiled  No thank you  I my prefer my .270

he was grateful that in their playing they didnt point them at each other but gazed their large bores into the hard ground or creamy skies trussed on ridges of Engelmann Spruce and whitebark pine   

there were times he was certain something was inside the stove looking out watching him suspiciously  he was certain there wasnt a man among them who served

not that that would be a comfort

when his friend introduced him to the others at the corral before riding out he told them that he was known as The Deerhunter 

          Youve seen the film yah deNiro called Deerhunter but it has nothing to do with hunting deer

You say dont you that hunting is about killing with a single shot right Thats your take on it what you say hunting ought to be right

Correct

oohs and aahs went up in a chorus from the high-caliber collective

only two days in he realised his caution regarding the other men was justified sometimes a cool draft bled out of the quiet stove it didnt descend the flue it smell of charred fat and bonel  they were exactly as he thought  Fuckin coboys

just below a ridge he hunted he suddenly pitched himself down into the dirt on his belly as gunfire erupted overhead bullets whistled slammed into the pines sheared limbs plumped and kicked up earth like in a firefight

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1555,  Saturday,  21  5. 16

1051,  Twosday,  24 5. 16