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
placeI 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
* * *
1555, Saturday,
21 5. 16
1051, Twosday,
24 5. 16
