I: SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN
“Maydelle Country Wines,” I said into the receiver.”
“Therman? This is Johnny Lally. Where are you? I’m at the winery and there ain’t no one here.
I said, “You’re where?”
“At the winery. And you better hurry, cause some bastard has left a trailer full of junk in your front yard.”
“It will take me about three-minute walking. I can run down, but that would take twenty minutes due to the fact I would have to stand back up several times.
Grabbing, shoes, putting socks in pocket for later, shades, cane.
My drowsy wife asked if I wanted her to run me down. Quicker to walk and I said so. She said she would be down later. I gathered my dog, Minka, and was down the hill in four minutes.
Even with my bad eyes I could see the fifty-three foot trailer in the parking lot. His vision being normal he saw me and started yelling, “Thurman! Long time no see! Is this your dog?”
“That’s Minka. She is about as blind as I am. Let her smell you good and then she can see you.” So that’s what she did. Smelling Johnny as a human, she went and lay down on the porch.
Then I walked to where I could shake hands and touch the trailer, we decided to look inside, then go sit and talk. Throwing open the doors he said, “What do you think?”
“I think that is a lot of dark you brought me.”
Then I could make out an antique Victrola type thing. Upon further exam it contained six record needles instead of the normal one. There was a record on the turntable, so I turned the crank and it started to spin.
I laid the stylus on the record and heard a man’s voice stating, “This is Green Stars by the Battlefield Brass Band”. Followed by a tinny scratchy musical number
Johnny produced a light and shined it on a box with three piano keys on it.
It was a brailler but not like any other I had ever seen. I felt around above the keys and found a name on it. In braille was the name “George 1890”.
“There is a whole lot of papers in braille. Thousands of records, miles of reel-to-reel tapes, and as a guess, about ten to twelve thousand recordings. Not to mention the several electronic looking things that I haven’t got a clue what it is supposed to be.”
“I could not take my eyes, or hands off George.
It was like the car in that Stephen King story. But unlike his demonic car, this was very different vibe to it. Like the other side of a coin. It was more like the spirit of a hippie. Touch me, hug me, love me, I am your friend. It seemed like it was calling to me.
“Hello, sailor, looking for a good time?” It can only be described as love at first sight.
“How much do you want Johnny?”
“I want the filing cabinets and some of these shelves. As for the rest of it, this is the day your Santa came to town.”
II: Give me forty acres and I’ll turn this rig around.
After I regained my reality, I suggested that we go into the winery and talk shop. Stepping into the tasting room, I bid him welcome to Maydelle.
Moving around to behind the bar, I produced a bottle from the cooler and poured some for Johnny.
“It’s been a coon’s age, but you know that. I think I sold you that metal wine rack by the door. What did you do with the heavy countertop?”
“We incorporated it into the house, the wife loves it.”
“Your boy does this as good as you ever did.”
“As for the boy and his wine making skills, his teacher was a Master, you know. My turn for questions, how did you find this?”
“Serendipity, Therman, or I thought at the start, but not sure anymore. It started with a lonely road in Nowhere, Nevada.
“I was rolling along when I blew out a tire on my trailer. Luckly there was a gravel road about a hundred yards up, so I turned off there to safely change my tire.
“What I normally would do is back on the road and take off. That day I was curious, so I followed till I found a turn around. Five damn miles! Out in the desert was a large storage unit made of brick, surrounded by Constantine wire. As I drove around the thing I found a metal gate on the far side. On the fence was a sign that read ‘Property of the British Empire. This property will be auctioned off on August 6,2001 promptly at 9:45 A M.’”
III: Monday Monday
“I was there about nine and waited for others to show up. Fifteen minutes later a black Bentley pulled up beside us and two persons got out, one male and one female. The male opened the trunk, removed a folding desk, and a folding chair. He stood back. The woman laid her briefcase on the desk and opened it. Removing a small stack of papers, a purple envelope and a rubber stamp with pad. The male brought a umbrella on a stand. He placed it over the woman’s head and then stood under its shade also.
“There they were both in their black suits and Ray-Ban shades on. She sat, steepled her fingers together and waited without a word. Nothing was said, they just glared at me, and my helper who is named Winslow.
“We waited in the hot sun for others to join us.
“At promptly 9:45 The woman stood up.
“She cleared her throat and began to speak, ‘I am E. B. Poundsworth, Royal Clerk Grade twenty-five, and my associate Robert l. Harris from the Law firm of Waters, Waters and Rains London. You are to bid on the items contained in this venue. I will start the bedding at three hundred.’
“I only brought one hundred thousand in traveler’s checks, with me so I stood still with my hands crossed.
“’Do I hear 275?’”
“I stood frozen.
“’Mister Lolly, how long do we want to play this game?’
“My mouth flew open and I asked how did they know my name?
“’Sir, only one truck has been down this road in seven years. Only one truck has driven around it like it was the walls of Jericho. We knew who you were, sir, even before your Polaroid image had dried and developed. So, Johnny, do you mind if I call you Johnny? So, Johnny? How much did you bring?”
“I stammered out “Not three hundred thousand, that’s for sure.’”
“’Let’s start over,’ she said, ‘and please do not assume what you believe is real. You are bidding on this venue containing the contents of the Thomas Walker School for the gifted and talented. The bidding will start at three hundred dollars US.’”
“I stood even stiller.
“’Johnny, it is wicked hot and I have to travel to Carson City. So would you kindly stop being such a wanker and put in a bid.’
“Just as a joke I said four dollars and fifty cents.
“’Sold. Sign here, here, here, and here.’ She stamped the pages with the rubber stamp, like they had offended her, and handed me a receipt for four and fifty. Three minutes later their car was dissolving into a dust trail. Gone.
“While I secured the papers in the cab of the truck, my helper Winslow walked to the fence.
“’I’d stop the walk if I were you,” he told me.
“’What’s wrong?’
“’It’s melted.’”
“Walking over to see what he was talking about. I seen that the hinges were welded shut. After a long day, and that we didn’t bring anything to cut steel, we went back to town to find something to cut with and some backs to help lump.”
IV: SING SING A SONG
Rocking his now empty glass, his narrative also seemed to run out of juice. So, I refilled his glass and he started up again.
“Let me tell you about Mr. Winslow. Mr. Winslow can only communicate while singing. You heard of a singer named Mel Tillis?”
“Yes, he was the fellow who only stuttered if he was not singing?”
“Well, Winslow’s head can only handle things as music. Everyone thought he was… Well, let’s say he was not wired to code…
“My family is now, and has been forever I guess, involved with a organization called Vicky’s Kids.
“They sent me Winslow as a strong back if nothing else. Well, I have learned that the little jukebox is a Mensa quality genius. Genius Smart is to dumb a word to describe him. You will get to meet him in a bit, he’s bringing a trailer with some old metal filing cabinets, for you to trade. But enough of Winslow.
“So we got the torch and started on the gate.”
”No, no, hell no. Tell me about Winslow,” I laughed. “Has this Vickey sent you other people to work?”
“Yes, lots of lumpers and stackers but, but never a Winslow. Way I was told the story, he never spoke or acted like he heard words. Noises and sounds, but not words. Stand and yell at him, nothing no reaction at all. Now the weird thing is that any other noise he could hear from silverware, cats, cars and trucks. HE COULD HEAR EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD JUST NOT WORDS.
“One day between three and four years old his Uncle Jeremy picked him up from day care and on the way home his uncle slid an eight-track tape into his car player. It was Queen’s A Night at the Opera. They drove home listening to Bohemian Rhapsody in the speakers.
“Uncle J was asked to be his driver for the week seeing the car was in the shop. Anything for his sister and for the next week they listened to the same tape to daycare and back.
“Finally, it was Saturday and there was no place to go, his mother started cooking breakfast for the family. While removing the egg carton from the fridge, Winslow came running into the kitchen and slipped.
“His velocity also brought his mother to the floor breaking a whole dozen eggs.
“That was the last straw in a long stressful week. Cleaning the mess up she started to cry.
“According to the story is when Winslow stood, he was able to look his mother straight in the eyes and said he sang ‘Mama, sorry I made you cry. Wished I’d never been born at all.’
“Well, that was a surprise, his mother thought, but wasn’t she warned about echolalia. There were children of a certain age that start repeating thing like a parrot.
“Needing to call Jeremy to ask for his driving services. Even though the car was repaired, she could not afford to get it out of the shop until Friday. Cooking oatmeal instead of the eggs she had planned, she fed Winslow then call her brother.
“Then she called and explained the car, and just in passing she mentioned the eggs.
“’He did WHAT?’
“She explained what had happened in a bit more detail.
“And like a bolt of lightning, Jeremy was at her house, picked the boy and took him to spend the weekend with him.
“Winslow will sing you about that weekend. They ate chips and dip, Pizza and drink soda with ice cream. They also ate Beatles, Stones covered in Cream, not to mention the Dead and of course Bob Dylan. Music the whole weekend even at night and during nap time just turned way down low.”
“And now he works for you?”
“Yea, but I don’t think for long. Too darn talented to not be of great value with the right training.”
That was when we heard the truck pulling into the drive. “Come on, Thurman, let’s go meet Mr. Winslow.” We walked out of winery just in time to see Chuck jump out of the driver’s seat.
“Hi, Chuck, but I was expecting Winslow.”
“He walked in and quit today.”
“Say what?”
“Yes, Sir. Walked right in and up to Debra in personnel. Laid his keys and uniform on her desk and placed them down, along with an audio tape and he sang that He had the time of his life, and he owes it all to us.”
“We all watched as he got into a Black Bentley that had his mother and two other people already inside.”
“Let me guess one female and one male?”
“Damn right Sir, how did you… “
Turning to me he said “See, Thurman, feels to me like I didn’t so much find this stuff as I was led to it. Do you need help with this? If so I can lend you some hands.”
“No, the boy has a lot of helpers, I’ll get some of them if needed.”
“Well, I’ll give you six weeks to empty my trailers. See you in six.”
Then he drove off down the drive.
V: Sweet Dreams are made of these
I started on the trailers. I worked my way from the doors through the papers, boxed recorders to the front, taking several days.
There at the back of the trailer, which I guess would be the front. Either way there was here. That was where heavy equipment was stacked. It was there I had my flashback.
Stacked there was twenty brand new, well they were brand new some forty years ago, Perkins braillers still in the boxes. That sent me back to when I got my first machine. It was at Canton.
Let me tell you about the town of Canton, Texas. Many years ago, the town of Canton held court on the first Monday of the month. So, everyone who had business with the county showed up on that day. After some time, someone thought it would be a good place and time to sell their excess of chicken eggs. Then came the chickens themselves. Cows, plows, dogs, until there was everything out and around the town. If you are wondering, it is the same way today.
Me and my wife took our friends, James and Edward, to see the place. They had heard about the town and wanted to see it.
After about an hour or so we broke up. Our friends went to look at some of that green glass that James liked. While the wife went to find us some ice cream cones, leaving me alone to browse.
I came across a table with some CD’s, dishes, a wheelchair, potty chair, and other used medical things. What got my interest was a gun barrel gray Perkins brailler.
The poor thing was just sitting with a piece of paper in its mouth. I gently touched the keys and then started out brailling “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” I surprised even myself that I remembered the whole alphabet. At the time my vision, which was never top shelf at the start of my life, let’s just say that over time ice melted and they became diluted. What I’m saying is I could see it then and knew it would have a place in my future. “How much for the Brailler?”
“Not for sale,” said the voice back.
I started to walk off. “You want it? I was told by my aunt that I was to give it to anyone who could use and wanted it. She hates the damn thing anyway. She was always angry about Vietnam. My uncle went off to war and all she got back was a broken blind man, full of Agent Orange and a brailler. It’s to go in the dumpster if no one wants it. The box was worn and damaged, so I chunked it away. My aunt is moving into an assisted living center near her half-sister in California. Moving on and finally ready to let that crap from her old life, as she calls it, go.”
I thanked the voice and walked off with the Brailler.
It felt like my first car, even farther back to my bike. Computers, also my passport. All were freedoms to me.
Freedoms to travel. My use of cars and bikes was ending soon, and the computer and passport were still in my future. Here I stood with the freedom to communicate in the now. A shining cell of light in a darkening world. I still have it to this very day. I named it Louis. Even now the time has moved on and the computer with a text-to-speech program is the norm now, I still use it at once a month, just to remember how.
Gathering up our friends, we headed home.
I pulled myself out of my memories and went back to work.
VI: AULD LANG SYNE
Six weeks to the date, if not the hour, the rumble of a tractor trailer pulled up to Johnny’s trailer.
I walked to the passenger’s side of the truck and waited for Johnny to open the door. After several seconds and no Johnny, I walked around to the driver’s side.
There I found Chuck lowering the trailer onto the truck.
“Hi, Chuck. Did you bring Johnny with you?”
“Johnny died. Didn’t anyone tell you? Forgive us but like everyone else, our minds have been elsewhere since September eleventh. And me with kids in the military. Yes, he was sitting working on a list of stuff that MGM wanted to lease for a movie shoot later next year, and just went to sleep.”
Chuck climbed into the trailer while still talking and started pulling on the straps.
“His old heart just up and stopped. You did a nice job tying everything down.”
“Yea the boy’s people did that. He does know how to hire good people.”
Chuck climbed down and, after asking my forgiveness again, drove off.
I didn’t do much the rest of the day, just sat in the rocker, drinking coffee and thinking. I never got to hear Winslow’s resignation aria.
Tomorrow I will start sorting this stuff out. I think there is a story in there somewhere. Going to start with a stack of journals.
But not today.
Rest in Peace Johny Lolly.
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