Lincoln in the Bardo(49)
the reverend everly thomas
The happy mob of us children gathered about a tremendous vat of boiling chocolate, and dear Miss Bent, stirring it, making fond noises at us, as if we were kittens.
roger bevins iii
My God, what a thing! To find oneself thus expanded!
hans vollman
How had we forgotten? All of these happy occasions?
the reverend everly thomas
To stay, one must deeply and continuously dwell upon one’s primary reason for staying; even to the exclusion of all else.
roger bevins iii
One must be constantly looking for opportunities to tell one’s story.
hans vollman
(If not permitted to tell it, one must think it and think it.) the reverend everly thomas
But this had cost us, we now saw.
We had forgotten so much, of all else we had been and known.
roger bevins iii
But now, through this serendipitous mass co-habitation— the reverend everly thomas
We found ourselves (like flowers from which placed rocks had just been removed) being restored somewhat to our natural fullness.
roger bevins iii
As it were.
hans vollman
It felt good.
the reverend everly thomas
It did.
hans vollman
Very good.
roger bevins iii
And seemed to be doing us good as well.
the reverend everly thomas
Looking over, I found Mr. Vollman suddenly clad, his member shrunk down to normal size. His clothes were, it is true, decidedly scruffy (printer’s apron, ink-dotted shoes, mismatched socks) but nevertheless: a miracle.
roger bevins iii
Becoming aware of Mr. Bevins staring at me, I glanced over and found him no longer a difficult-to-look-at clustering of eyes, noses, hands, et al.—but a handsome young man, of eager and pleasing countenance: two eyes, one nose, two hands, ruddy cheeks, a beautiful head of black hair in that vicinity so previously overgrown with eyeballs as to make hair a redundancy.
An appealing young fellow, in other words, with the proper number of everything.
hans vollman
Excuse me, the Reverend said somewhat shyly. May I ask? How do I look?
Very well, I said. Quite at ease.
Not afraid at all, said Mr. Vollman.
Eyebrows at the proper height, I said. Eyes not overly wide.
Hair no longer sticking straight up, said Mr. Vollman.
Mouth no longer an O, I said.
roger bevins iii
And we were not the only beneficiaries of this happy blessing.
the reverend everly thomas
For reasons unknown to us, Tim Midden had always gone about dogged by a larger version of himself, that was constantly leaning over to whisper discouragement to him; this behemoth was now gone.
hans vollman
Mr. DeCroix and Professor Bloomer had become unconjoined and, no matter how close together they walked, did not rejoin.
roger bevins iii
Mr. Tadmill, disgraced clerk, who had misfiled an important document, causing the collapse of his firm, and had thereafter been unable to find other employment, and had begun to drink, and lost his home, and saw his wife placed into a sick-box due to excessive worry and their children dispersed to various orphanages in light of his ever-increasing dissipation, usually presented nearly bent to the ground with regret, shaped like one half of a set of parentheses topped with a sad sprig of white hair, quaking all over, moving with extreme caution, terrified of making even the smallest mistake.
But now we saw a spry young tow-headed fellow just embarking upon a new position, full of high hopes, flower in his lapel.
the reverend everly thomas
Mr. Longstreet discontinued his groping, burst into tears, begged Mrs. Crawford’s forgiveness.
roger bevins iii
(It is just that I am lonely, dear girl.) sam “smooth-boy” longstreet
(If you wish, I can tell you the names of some of our wildwoods flowers.) mrs. elizabeth crawford
(It would be a pleasure to hear them.) sam “smooth-boy” longstreet
Verna Blow and her mother, Ella, who normally manifested as virtually identical hags (though both had died in childbirth, and had therefore never grown old in that previous place), now appeared (each pushing a baby carriage) youthful again, utterly ravishing.
hans vollman
Poor multiply raped Litzie became capable of speech, her first utterance consisting of words of thanks to Mrs. Hodge for speaking for her, during all of those mute and lonely years.
elson farwell
Mrs. Hodge, dear woman, accepted Litzie’s thanks with a dull nod, looking down in wonder at her own newly restored hands and feet.
thomas havens
Those miraculous transformations among us notwithstanding, Mr. Lincoln was not stopping.
roger bevins iii
At all.
hans vollman
On the contrary.
the reverend everly thomas
Seemed to be walking faster than ever.
roger bevins iii
Intent on leaving this place as quickly as possible.
hans vollman
Ah, me, mumbled Verna Blow, whose restored youthful beauty struck me as wonderful, even in that moment of colossal defeat.
roger bevins iii
LXXVIII.
I called for the Bachelors, who came at once, and hovered above, dropping down (in their dear and naive mode of attentiveness) tiny graduation caps, as I explained that we were in a desperate situation, and asked them to go forth across the premises and bring back whatever additional help they could enlist.