Saturday, September 29, 2012

POOR LITTLE DEAD RED PAINT GIRL'S NAME IS MATILDA

That night they 'threw the bones.' It not really so hard a do. Y'all might think it sick'ning, but y'all think that 'bout lot a thing. Got a cave back in the woods. Maybe it an old mine. I do not really know. But it look like a cave. Red Paint folks use it for like a chapel. Talk-To-God Man live in it. He got a bed. It just two old mattresses, but that all right. Got two little bit banged up 'IGLOO' coolers for water. Everybody need water. 

Mommy - Woman and Daddy-Man tote her in. The little girl, I mean. Lay her down on a rough, stone slab. Got flowers on it and everything. Other folks shuffle in after. Mortals, vampires, couple Jersey Devils... they all here. Few other disembodied spirits drift in too. Talk-To-God Man light candles. He got a lot a candles. Most of 'em old red ones from a closed up steak house on the Black Horse Pike. He like red candles. Couldn't get no table cloths a go wit' 'em. Somebody's son-in-law got them.

Mommy-Woman start singin'. It more like a hum, actually. Red Paint folks rock a little bit from side to side. Everybody else jus' stand quiet and respectful. Jersey Devils put on pants. More like purple, nylon thongs, to be truthful. Still, you gotta give 'em something for makin' the gesture. Daddy-Man say somethin'. It in a real old way a talkin', so I cannot tell you what it is... not word for word. He jus' say bye-bye and that he love her and 'spects a see her in this world and the next.... Both a them cry a little. Mommy-woman hiccup some. Sniff back a bitsy snot. Talk-To-God Man look at 'em. He nod. They nod. He pick her up and put her in a little quartz trough..... like what horses would drink from in The Glass Menagerie, if the Flintstones made it. Then he pour a lot a water on her. Say some more old talk. Light charcoal 'round it, put on a big, rough, copper lid (more like a bashed up rectangle that just happen a fit) and plop back down. Guess he forgot, 'cause three heartbeat later he motion for everybody a set down and they do. Some a the human beans grunt a little (two fart), but they all manage to get down. After that we just wait. 

It get hot in there. Folks starts sweatin'. Smoke snake up through cracks in a roof, but that don't cool it off none. Pin Head Mel get cranky. His mama rock him some. Jersey Devils start sweatin'. Get real lathery, jus' like a horse. After a while they pulls off them thongs. Got to, else they want a die.

Don't smell no dead girl cookin. Guess he threw somethin' in the water. But she boilin' up real good. Meat gotta be off them bones by now, 'specially seein' how it jus' soft, little girl meat. 

Talk-To-God Man ass walk over and look in to see. Then he say - It done.... I took a peek. Look like boiled chicken what cook too long...... Then he say - Rise up! Rise up and fly! Taste the sweetness of the sky!......... Ain't no sky in there. But that what he say. Guess part a the service in English. 

He throw off the lid. Ladle in some water. Steam start risin' real good. Mommy-Woman say she see her. Say she see her little girl, Matilda, in the cloud. Folks start noddin' and buzzin'. Soon everybody see her. Pin Head Mel clap his hands. He happy. But his mama shush him up. 

Only thing is, she really in that cloud, 'cause I seed her too. Daddy-Man say - who done it? Who kill you?......... Matilda say - I sorry, Daddy. I not mean a go so far........ He tell her not to worry...... Girl say she jus' wanna get good at 'slow jumpin''. That their word for levitatin'. She say bad man, plain human man, come outta trees. He a archer man, huntin' muskrats and varmints. Mus' a lost his job, but still got a taste for meat. You know how it is? Seed her sashayin' 'round, wit' her bottom up off the ground. Got scared. Started prayin'. Guess his God mus' a told him a shoot her up, 'cause that what he do. Six heartbeat later she dead, but he keep on shootin'. After he yank out them arrows an' use 'em again, mostly for shootin' crows, but least he got somethin'. 

Edith say huntin' man what ain't Piney don't stay 'round here. Daddy-Man say - How you know he ain't Piney? Not all folk got the hoo-doo like we do........ Pin Head Mel laugh some more. He like poetry.

Annie say - Y'all want me to find him? I kill him up real good....... But Sarah tell her not a butt in. 

Somethin' gone happen. I can guarantee. Daddy-Man want it to happen..... They all do.

Me? What? You wanna know what Mister Never-You-Mind do?... Well, I tell you. I jus' shimmy-sham up through that mine roof and find her. Matilda, I mean. She not know where to go. She not know what a do. So I help her. Take her to a place legally part a heaven, but wit' some kind a telephone line to what y'all got 'round here..... That way she say 'hi' to her mama every now and then..... I figure it best that way.....

Bet y'all talk to folks in that part a heaven all the time..... only you all call it 'dreams'......

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