Lincoln in the Bardo(27)
In this they can be like wild dogs let into a slaughterhouse—racing about upon the spilled blood, driven mad by the certainty that some sort of satisfaction must be near at hand.
hans vollman
My goodness, I thought, poor fellow! You did not give this place a proper chance, but fled it recklessly, leaving behind forever the beautiful things of this world.
And for what?
You do not know.
A most unintelligent wager.
Forgoing eternally, sir, such things as, for example: two fresh-shorn lambs bleat in a new-mown field; four parallel blind-cast linear shadows creep across a sleeping tabby’s midday flank; down a bleached-slate roof and into a patch of wilting heather bounce nine gust-loosened acorns; up past a shaving fellow wafts the smell of a warming griddle (and early morning pot-clangs and kitchen-girl chatter); in a nearby harbor a mansion-sized schooner tilts to port, sent so by a flag-rippling, chime-inciting breeze that causes, in a port-side schoolyard, a chorus of childish squeals and the mad barking of what sounds like a dozen—
roger bevins iii
Friend.
Now is hardly the time.
hans vollman
Many apologies.
But (as I believe you must know) the thing is not entirely under my control.
roger bevins iii
The crowd, having suspended its perversities, stood gaping at Mr. Bevins, who had acquired, in the telling, such a bounty of extra eyes, ears, noses, hands, etc., that he now resembled some overstuffed fleshly bouquet.
Bevins applied his usual remedy (closing the eyes and stopping as many of the noses and ears as he could with the various extra hands, dulling, thereby, all sensory intake, thus quieting the mind) and multiple sets of the eyes, ears, noses, and hands retracted or vanished (I could never tell which).
The crowd returned to its abuse of the soldier’s sick-mound, “Badger” Muller pretending to piss upon it, Mrs. Sparks squatting over it, screwing her face into an ugly grimace.
Look here, she grunted. I leave the coward a gift.
hans vollman
XLII.
And we proceeded on.
roger bevins iii
Walk-skimming between (or over, when unavoidable) the former home-places of so many fools no longer among us.
hans vollman
Goodson, Raynald, Slocum, Mackey, VanDycke, Piescer, Sliter, Peck, Safko, Swift, Roseboom.
roger bevins iii
For example.
hans vollman
Simkins, Warner, Persons, Lanier, Dunbar, Schuman, Hollingshead, Nelson, Black, VanDuesen.
roger bevins iii
These were, it must be conceded, in the majority, outnumbering our ilk by perhaps an order of magnitude.
hans vollman
Topenbdale, Haggerdown, Messerschmidt, Brown.
roger bevins iii
Underscoring the exceptional qualities of those of us who soldiered on.
hans vollman
Coe, Mumford, Risely, Rowe.
Their places were so quiet, and from these, at dusk, as we whirled out of our respective home-places, nothing whirled out whatsoever, and the contents of their— roger bevins iii
Sick-boxes.
hans vollman
Lay down there inert, discarded, neglected.
roger bevins iii
Regrettable.
hans vollman
Like discarded horses waiting in vain for beloved riders to return.
roger bevins iii
Edgmont, Tody, Blasingame, Free.
hans vollman
Haberknott, Bewler, Darby, Kerr.
roger bevins iii
These were a chirpy, tepid, desireless sort, generally, and had lingered, if at all, for only the briefest of moments, so completely satisfactory had they found their tenure in that previous place.
hans vollman
Smiling, grateful, gazing about themselves in wonder, favoring us with a last fond look as they— roger bevins iii
Surrendered.
hans vollman
Succumbed.
roger bevins iii
Capitulated.
hans vollman
XLIII.
We found the gentleman as had been described to us, near Bellingwether, Husband, Father, Shipwright.
hans vollman Sitting cross-legged and defeated in a patch of tall grass.
roger bevins iii As we approached, he lifted head from hands and heaved a great sigh. He might have been, in that moment, a sculpture on the theme of Loss.
hans vollman Shall we? Mr. Vollman said.
I hesitated.
The Reverend would not approve, I said.
The Reverend is not here, he said.
roger bevins iii
XLIV.
In order to occupy the greatest percentage of the gentleman’s volume, I lowered myself into his lap and sat cross-legged, just as he was sitting.
hans vollman The two now comprised one sitting man, Mr. Vollman’s greater girth somewhat overflowing the gentleman, his massive member existing wholly outside the gentleman, pointing up at the moon.
roger bevins iii It was quite something.
Quite something in there.
Bevins, come in! I called out. This is not to be missed.
hans vollman I went in, assuming the same cross-legged posture.
roger bevins iii And the three of us were one.
hans vollman So to speak.
roger bevins iii
XLV.
There was a touch of prairie about the fellow.
hans vollman Yes.