April 21, 2008
BECAUSE TAKING ONE’S INHERITANCE FOR GRANTED IS OFTEN A BIBLICAL AND FABULISTIC INEVITABILITY
| BERRIEN C. HENDERSON |
For Art the next morning turned him toward two letters of equal importance though differing subject matter. One came with the discovery of the barrels he’d tossed the night before into the pond. Now they lay on the back porch and covered in a sheet like a shroud grave-clothes for a thing redeemed. On top of the wrapped barrels was a note:
Art,
You shouldn’t be so quick, even in drunkenness, to throw away your heritage. So, I made sure to clean up your mess of it, get all the mud and muck and fish-shit off the steel and out the barrels and lightly oil it. Here it is along with some free advice.
It is not what a gun has done, but rather what is has come to mean in the symbolism of your family’s history. I remember the squirrels you shot with it. Do you? I’m sure, too, it has gathered dust in a corner, most notably during your years of college when academics and other things besides home took precedent in your life. Very well. But to whore it to a place with 300% interest (at least!) just to redeem it and hurl it into the pond?!? Who in the hells do you think you are? You have done no less than forgotten who you are and where you’ve come from.[signed] Nyna Faye Evangeline
To take his mind off further self-loathing and thoughts of Eva’s tending to her own business on her own damned side of the pond, he went to the small breakfast table where he’d placed the day’s mail. A smattering of junk mail and notices fanned out on the grimy tabletop along with a 9″ x 12″ envelope. Yes, it finally came, he thought, quickly tearing into the package.