The Mockingbird Legends
A Postmodern Gothic Tale. Coming of Age Rural in a Dissolute Time.
Thirty-six
It was half past lunchtime when Willa came over. She said hello to Lena and Milo and Lili got up from the table and they descended two levels to the dungeon closing two doors in their wake, at the top and bottom of the second staircase. The room held the damp cool of a dug well. Willa sat on the couch and Lili sat folded on the floor against the far wall like a virgin supplicant before her idol and said this cool feels nice, it is nice on the back. Willa said she should have worked up more of a sweat getting there. Lili wore a light lipstick that she never used to wear in the field and there was a faint murk under her eyes. Lena keeps pressuring me to go to church, Lili said. To confession, even.
-What?
-Confession.
-You’ve sinned?
-Lena seems to think so.
-If only it were so easy.
-To sin?
-To be absolved.
-You think I’ve sinned?
-I ’ope so, in the interests o’ this palaver.
There was a voice from outside the doors from the top of the stairs. Lili – muted by the laminate but Lili still jumped. It was Milo. I am coming down. They heard the top door open and his heavy footfalls and the bottom door opened and he stuck his leonine head in. It is nice and cool in here. Mind if I sit with you, he said.
They stared at him.
-Just kidding. Don’t look at me like that. Look, Lili, take your time. But don’t be too long. I will be in peaches to the east by bush. Bring second orchardcar when you come.
-Okay dad.
-You look good thin, Willa, Milo said. What – you need more vitamins?
-I need one of your peaches.
-Have three.
-Okay, Milo.
-Have some wine before you go, you didn’t have wine with dinner Lili. Not too much. Just don’t be too long. You are my only slave, remember. He closed the door and they heard him go up the stairs whistling and out the other door, closing it too.
-He’s right Lili said, you do look thin.
-I haven’t slept well in a while, Willa said. He’s so handsome for an ol’ guy. And happy, fer a change.
-My dad?
-Yer dad. Who did you think – Lachlan? He’s handsome fer an ol’ guy too.
-Ha-ha. Yeah, Milo seems like a new dad. I hope it’ll be okay. We have lots of bugs now and not much help but he keeps saying he can feel God around him again and that’s the most important thing. He said this fall he will bury his gold with a spoon and when he’s done it will be earlier than when he started. Whatever that means. He didn’t even mind when I took the morning shift at Philbert’s.
-Ah, yes. Brilliant move I must say.
-You think that cos it was your advice.
-That’s true, but also yer killin’ three birds with one stone.
-Three birds?
-Yer gettin’ off the farm a bit, yer makin’ some extra jingle, and best of all yer helpin’ Richard out with his mom, with Anthea. He’ll be seein’ you as essential in no time. Family even. Didja see him outta his drawers?
-Parts.
-And?
-I question God.
-Weh! Sounds promisin’. Are you goin’ to get us some wine’n tell me about it?
-I don’t want any wine, I have to work and I’m already tired, and i gotta get up early. And no i’m not going to tell you about it.
*****
It was early morning when the young woman pulled back the heavy latch that secured the door at the end of the hall on the second floor from without and entered the room. The effect was that of opening a stagnant terrarium and she was shocked at how close the conditions remained at the close of the night.
The old woman sat in her chair in her sweated shift adjacent the window. A half empty pitcher of water and a plate of shriveled and indeterminate foodstuffs were on the bedside table. She addressed the woman as she approached but got no response from the slumped and motionless form. She went directly in front and addressed her but the crone just stared off through the panes. She told her she would have to do her rounds and check the other rooms, and when she asked her if there was anything she wanted her to bring when she came back or do before she left the old woman pointed a bony finger at the window.
The young woman hesitated only a moment before she shook her head and went to the window and pulled out the wedge at top and heaved twice before the swollen frame ascended in its runners and jammed tight at the apex. She took the dusty stick from the sill and installed the prop unnecessarily. When she turned back to collect the plate of uneaten food the old woman was smiling now, rocking vigorously. The young woman smiled back. Better, huh?
Better, the old woman smiled as from the peak of the great walnut tree outside there poured through the opening in splendid beseeching abandon the lyric of the mockingbird.