Part 6 (2/2)
And since no one had bothered to say which cousin went first, there was a surge of phantoms on the air, a huge tide-drift of storm and unseen wind.
Four different expressions lit Grandpa's face. Four different earthquakes shook his brittle frame. Four different smiles ran scales along his piano teeth. Before Grand pa could protest, at four different gaits and speeds, he was run out of the house, across the lawn, and down the abandoned railroad tracks toward town, yelling against and laughing for the wild hours ahead.
The family stood lined up on the porch, staring after the rus.h.i.+ng parade of one.
”Cecy! Do something!”
But Cecy, exhausted, was fast asleep in her chair.
That did did it. it.
At noon the next day the big, dull blue, iron engine panted into the railroad station to find the Family lined up on the platform, Grandpa leaned and supported in their midst. They not so much walked but carried him to the day coach, which smelled of fresh varnish and hot plush. Along the way, Grandpa, eyes shut, spoke in a variety of voices that everyone pretended not to hear.
They propped him like an ancient doll in his seat, fastened his straw hat on his head like putting a new roof on an old building, and talked into his face.
”Grandpa, sit up. Grandpa, mind your hat. Grandpa, along the way don't drink. Grandpa, you in there? Get out of the way, cousins, let the old man speak.”
”I'm here.” Grandpa's mouth and eyes gave some birdlike twitches. ”And suffering for their sins. Their whiskey makes my misery. d.a.m.n!”
”No such thing!”
”Lies!”
”We did nothing!” cried a number of voices from one side, then the other of his mouth. ”No!”
”Hus.h.!.+” Grandma grabbed the old man's chin and focused his bones with a shake. ”West of October is Cranamockett, not a long trip. We got all kinds of folks there, uncles, aunts, cousins, some with and some without children. Your job is to board the cousins out and-”
”Take a load off my mind,” muttered Grandpa, a tear trickling down from one trembling eyelid. ”But if you can't unload the d.a.m.n fools,” advised Grandma, ”bring 'em back alive!”
”If I live through it.”
”Goodbye!” said four voices from under his tongue.
”Goodbye!” Everyone waved from the platform. ”So long, Grandpa, Tom, William, Philip, John!”
”I'm here now, tool” said a young woman's voice. Grandpa's mouth had popped wide. ”Cecy!” cried everyone. ”Farewell!”
”Good night nurse!” said Grandpa. The train chanted away into the hills, west of October.
The train rounded a long curve. Grandpa leaned and creaked his body.
”Well,” whispered Tom, ”here we are.”
”Yes.” A long pause. William went on: ”Here we are.”
A long silence. The train whistled.
”I'm tired,” said John.
”You're tired!” Grandpa snorted. tired!” Grandpa snorted.
”Bit stuffy in here,” said Philip.
”Got to expect that. Grandpa's ten thousand years old, aren't you, Grandpa?”
”Four hundred; shut up” Grandpa gave his own skull a thump with his fingers. A panic of birds knocked about in his head. ”Cease!”
”There,” whispered Cecy, quieting the panic. ”I've slept well and I'll come for part part of the trip, Grandpa, to teach you how to hold, stay, and keep the resident crows and vultures in your cage.” of the trip, Grandpa, to teach you how to hold, stay, and keep the resident crows and vultures in your cage.”
”Crows! Vultures!” the cousins protested. ”Silence,” said Cecy, tamping the cousins like tobacco in an ancient uncleaned pipe. Far away, her body lay in her bedroom as always, but her mind wove around them softly; touched, pushed, enchanted, kept. ”Enjoy. Look around.”
The cousins looked.
And indeed, wandering in the upper keeps of Grandfather's head was like surviving in a mellow attic in which memories, transparent wings folded, lay piled all about in ribboned bundles, in files, packets, shrouded figures, strewn shadows. Here and there, a special bright memory, like a single ray of amber light, struck in upon and shaped here a golden hour, there a summer day. There was a smell of worn leather and burnt horsehair and the faintest scent of uric acid from the jaundiced beams that ached about them as they jostled invisible elbows.
”Look,” murmured the cousins. ”I'll be darned. Sure Sure!”
For now, quietly indeed, they were peering through the dusty panes of the old man's eyes, viewing the great h.e.l.lfire train that bore them and the green-turning-to-brown autumn world swinging by, all of it pa.s.sing as traffic does before an old house with cobwebbed windows. When they worked Grandpa's mouth it was like ringing a dulled clapper in a rusty churchbell. The sounds of the world wandered in through his hairy ears like static on a badly tuned radio.
”Still,” Tom admitted, ”it's better than having no body at all.”
”I'm dizzy,” said John. ”Not used to bifocals. Can you take your gla.s.ses off, Grandpa?”
”Nope.”
The train banged across a bridge in thunders.
”Think I'll take a look around,” said Tom.
Grandpa felt his limbs stir.
”Stick right where you are, young man!”
Grandpa shut his eyes tight.
”Put up the shades, Grandpa! Let's see the sights!”
His eyeb.a.l.l.s swiveled under the lids.
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