Old Man Lacey hightailed it one
day
he was a boy he couldnt say when
he could only say that the
fixture of the man over the hedges and chainlinked fence who sat in his backyard in a vinyl-strapped chaise lounge beside
a low white-painted metal side table a sweating glass of beer on it was gone
gone as day passes or a slight
breeze kicked up cooled his sweating skin and dissipated too
he didnt remember a big fuss
among the adults an as-a-matter-of-fact
acknowledgement at best
he was after all Old Lady Laceys
husband and no one knew what kind of man might tolerate her
he understood later that scarcely a
step behind the Old Man the coals still warm still shedding grey ash she beat it down
to the courthouse and filed desertion and divorce papers
the clerk who lived up the street
around the corner told his grandmother and mother that she dressed him down at
the top of her lungs in her corrosive voice as a no-good a scoundrel a drunk a
dillydaller then gasping eyes near-bulging took a curt breath and spewed a
selfish Godless man
immediately afterwards Old Lady Lacey argued
and tried to submit paperwork shed brought to the courthouse completed in a
steady clear hand completed years earlier according to the date beside her
signature to marry
Jesus Christ in absentia(her ace in the hole)
the clerk now bemused her foot
casually at rest on the first broad step of the staircase to his grandmothers
house sheepishly admitted she muttered to Mrs Lacey under her breath Whos in absentia
she said Mrs Lacey offput shrilled
and left declaring that the citys the states and the USs secular concerns and
beliefs would not inhibit her she would
take the Lord as hers ecstatically ecclesiastically Matthew 19:6 she declared
And no
man shall put it asunder
Mrs Lacey is one for the books
she remarked casually looking up she
started My goodness she lives right next door
his grandmother turned ever so
slightly and saw she was looking at her address stenciled on the postbox on the
front porch railing Yes she said Next
door
Ive said too muchI hope not too
loudly she hastily excused herself
backed down the walk and turned to go down the street in the opposite direction
of Mrs Laceys home
his mother touched his knee as he
sat beside her That my dear is a good
reason and example why we do not speak
of others If you ever have something to
say of someone you tell them to their face
hed been telling people to their
faces since
he didnt have to ask Mother May I
it went without saying
it was a stellar lesson for a
young boy to learn though unbridled by the example when notes began coming home
from school pinned to his shirt -- at school he protested Put it in my hand Ill
be sure that my parents get it -- his parents his grandmother were flummoxed by
his audacity not that it was incorrect several teacher conferences principal
conferences allowed his reasoning was sound but firm in his conviction he
refused to step away he preferred the debate unfortunately disrupting the
classroom
none of the other children sided
with him or encouraged him
Authority must have seemed
different to them he thought
he also overheard his father say too many
times Who the hell do they think they are They put their pants on one leg at a time
Theyre no different than me
a teacher confided Hes a terribly
critical listener And thinker Anything
he disagrees with his hand is up Not waving Just stabbed into the air and firm
Like a stick in the mud Precisely a stick in the mud Its funny you rarely see a
saying personified Hes impossible not to acknowledge He refuses to relent We
have our hands full and youll have your hands full until he leaves home
he and Old Lady Lacey had nothing
in common or between them except her leering her abject distaste of him or any of the neighbourhood kids and the abuse
her son Edwin chose to level on him
emboldened by this lesson hed rather climb her long scarecrow body cloaked in a
drab housedress pull her unruly hair than ever again provide her satisfaction or deviant pleasure
of a little boy fearing or upset by her
they tangoed until his parents could afford a house of their own
afternoon,
Saturday, 23 7. 16
1300, Monday,
1 8. 16
