You are in the parking lot just off
Cedar and across from the east entrance to the Beachwood Place Mall waiting on
Carol and Kim who are in the pediatrician’s office with Brennan whose rash now
covers most of his body and he has had a fever overnight.
1124
hours. Poor little guy. He did not sleep well. Carol had an eye appointment for
tomorrow but canceled it and we are staying on until Thursday when we have to
go home to get clothes to go up to Aunt Catherine's funeral in Columbus. It has
been raining and I hear thunder mostly coming off the lake. This is a good time
to work on Brothers - 5.
Let's get to it, boy. First, it may be
easier to begin editing from the original for continuity. I'll help, then, if
need be, you can compare it with the auto-reduction to fifty percent. -
Amorella
1156
hours. I had begun editing and did not discover a place to stop until I was
into 800 and some words. Here are the lines preceding the stopping place.
** **
“People
used to say this cemetery was haunted,” said Robert in a matter of fact style,
“but they are all dead.”
“That’s
funny, Rob. Good one.” Rob always has the good one liner, thought Richard.
Sharp as a scalpel Rob used to hold in his right hand. Neither said anything
for a while. “We know these people.”
“Yep.
I’ll be in here before you are,” deadpanned Robert.
“Yep,”
mirrored Richard, “You always come in first.”
** **
I
have Robert foreshadowing, "I'll be here before you," and then I
jokingly say, "You always come in first." I was referring to the fact
that in the story Robert was born first, but now today almost a year and two
months after Bob's deathanpassing this takes on a more somber meaning. Of
course in real life I was born first, Bob was a year younger. In remembrance of
my friend Thomas Robert Pringle who graciously allowed me to fictionalized him
as my twin brother I would like to end this section here. It is a haunting
statement in real life, especially with the sounds of thunder that I take as a
salute to Robert in the background. (1212)
Time marking the thunder as if someone were
going to check. Is that audacity or what? - Amorella
No,
Amorella, it is not audacity. The real life existential setting is a fact as
are the large drops hitting the car roof. Obviously I had not read this section
so closely. I did not catch those lines.
You caught them this morning. That is what
is important here and now. Let's go back and trim a few lines then we'll have
completed The Dead - 5. - Amorella
1500
hours. I have completed Brothers-5.
I agree. Add and post. - Amorella
***
The Brothers - 5 NFD
Robert and Richard
walked west on Walnut down to the end of Grove Street and crossed at the north
entrance of John Knox College Cemetery into oldest section, the far west side
at the top. The oldest of the grave marker stones and trees, one of which that
has been officially estimated to be over four hundred years old, topped the
hill overlooking the river.
I have known these
gravestones since I was a small child, thought Richard as he and Robert walked
the narrow tar and stone chipped cemetery road south off the end of Grove
Street. The stone and stained glass mausoleum stood straight ahead. Richard
asked, “Do you remember the size of this place?”
Robert grinned,
“Sixty by eighty feet, something like that.”
“That’s pretty good.
Rob. I know it has about three hundred crypts.”
“I’d forgotten that.
It’s a pretty good sized building in relationship to the cemetery.”
“Particularly this
old cemetery section,” added Richard. Once at the large steel and stained glass
door both hand cupped their eyes so they could peer in at the beautiful piece
of stained glass fifty-six feet away that terminated of the south end. Between
the glass and themselves were square pillars separating the first bank of
crypts to the east and west, then a second bank, and then yet another third
bank of crypts just before the outer wall. A wooden podium stood centered just
in front of the stained glass blues, yellows and greens. On either side of the
podium were Doric columns. The entire interior was a white and gray Vermont
marble.
Richard backed from
the door. “I’ve the key,” he said. “The city service department loaned it to
me.”
“We haven’t been
inside here for an age,” gleamed Robert.
“No, we haven’t. I
want to see our great grandparents’ crypts and take some pictures.”
“For your book?”
“No, no pictures in
the book. However, when I was studying the history of the place I discovered
something I did not know.”
“What’s that?”
“There are symbols
of the world’s seven great religion within here. Well, they are supposed to be
anyway.”
“I didn’t know
that.”
“Neither did I.” He
turned the key.
“Wait,” hesitated
Robert. “Let’s go around the outside first. Remember how we pretended this was
a great ancient artifact when we were kids?”
“Here we are seventy
and the place still looks ancient to me. It still looks like something out of
an Indiana Jones movie.”
Glancing southwest,
Robert commented, “Look at those massive limbs. This could have been a hanging
tree.”
“I don’t think it
ever was though,” noted Richard. He pointed down the hill. “We used to play
along here.”
“Good guys versus
the bad guys.” Robert’s smile dissipated. “We didn’t know much difference back
then.”
“Nope,” responded
Richard, “it was fun just playing. We still have the sky above, stones, trees
and grass, and the Dead below. This place was always good for philosophizing.”
He continued, “when you look at an aerial picture of the cemetery from about
fifteen hundred feet, it looks like the bottom of a circuit board.”
“How’s that?”
responded Robert.
“I downloaded a
satellite photo and from that height the tombstones look like solder joints on
the bottom side of an integrated circuit board.” Richard added, “It is just the
opposite the top of a circuit board where the board looks similar to city
blocks and freeways.
“What’s the point,
Richie? They are all man made.”
“I know that,”
replied Richard sarcastically. “But thinking about the pattern of the cemetery from
the air is interesting."
“Robert chuckled, “Richie,”
he paused appropriately, “Is your analogy is making the Dead or their coffins
as transistors.”
“Maybe the similar
placements of stones and trees makes this place haunted? The circuit board
analogy is something I think Merlyn might agree with. ”
"The Living and
the Dead complete the circuit at the cemetery; pretty good, Dickie."
Robert paused, the said, "Old town people used to say this cemetery was
haunted, but now they are all dead.”
“That’s funny, Rob.
Good one.” Rob always has the good one liner, thought Richard. Sharp as a
scalpel Rob used to hold in his right hand. Neither had a word for a few
moments.
“Yep. I’ll be in
here before you are,” deadpanned Robert.
“Yep,” mirrored
Richard, “You always come in first.”
726 words
***
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