Monday, May 3, 2010 - I asked Wireman
what time it was
943
We were... |
| I asked Wireman
what time it was
943
We were able to ride all the way to the gate of
the first Heron's RoostI never would have bet on
it, but we didThe foliage closed in one final
time - banyans and scrub pines choked with gray
beards of Spanish Moss - but Jack bulled the
Mercedes through, and all at once the undergrowth
drew backHere the elements had washed the tar
away completely and the end of the road was only a
rutty memory, but it was good enough for the
Mercedes, which jounced and bucketed up a long
hill toward two stone pillarsA great unruly
hedge, easily eighteen feet high and God knew how
thick, ran away from the pillars on either side;
it had also begun to spread fat green fingers down
the hill toward the jungle growthThere were
gates, but they stood rusty and halfway openI
didn't think the Mercedes would quite white leather chanel handbag fit
This last stretch of road was flanked on both
sides by ancient Australian pines of imposing
heightI looked for upside-down birds and saw
noneI saw none of the rightside-up variety,
either, for that matter, although I could now hear
the faint buzz of insects
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Jack stopped at the gate and looked at us
apologetically"This old girl ain't fitting
through thatWireman paused to look at the ancient,
lichen-encrusted plaques fixed to the pillarsThe
one on the left said HERON'S ROOSTThe one on the
right said EASTLAKE, but below it something else
had been scratched, as if with the point of a
knifeOnce it might have been hard to read, but
the lichen growing from the little cuts gouged in
the metal made it stand out: Abyssus abyssum
invocat
"Any idea what that means?" I asked WiremanIt's a warning often given to new
lawyers after cheap replica chanel handbag they pass their bar examsThe
liberal translation is 'One misstep leads to
another' The literal translation is 'Hell invokes
Hell'" He looked at me bleakly, then back at the
message below the family name"I have an idea
that might have been John Eastlake's final verdict
before leaving this version of Heron's Roost
forever
Jack reached out to touch the jagged motto, then
seemed to think better of it
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Wireman did it for him"The verdict, gentlemen
and rendered in the law's own language
Sunset at 7:15, give or take, and daylight's a
fleeting thingWe take turns with the picnic
basket
xi
But before we went anywhere, we paused inside the
gate for a good look at Elizabeth's first home on
Duma KeyMy immediate reaction was dismay
Somewhere in the back of my mind had been a clear
narrative thread: we'd enter the house, go
upstairs, prada replica handbags and find what had been Elizabeth's
bedroom in those long-ago days when she'd been
known as LibbitThere my missing arm, sometimes
known as Edgar Freemantle's Divine Psychic Dowser,
would lead me to a left-behind steamer trunk (or
perhaps only a humble crate)Inside would be more
drawings, the missing drawings, the ones that
would tell me where Perse was and solve the riddle
of the leaky table
A pretty tale, and only one problem with it: the
top half of Heron's Roost no longer existedThe
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house was on an exposed knoll, and its upper
stories had been torn completely away in some
long-ago stormThe ground floor still stood, but
it was engulfed in gray-green vines which had also
swarmed up the pillars in frontSpanish Moss hung
from the eaves, turning the veranda into a cave
The house was ringed with shattered orange tiles,
all latest dior bag that remained of the roofThey poked up like
giants' teeth from the swale of weeds that had
replaced the lawnThe last twenty-five yards of
the shell drive had been buried in strangler fig
So had the tennis court and what might once have
been a child's playhouseMore vines crept up the
sides of the long, barnlike outbuilding behind the
court and scrabbled along what remained of the
playhouse's shingles
"What's that?" Jack was pointing between the
tennis court and the main houseThere a long
rectangle of evil black soup simmered in the
afternoon sunMost of the bug-drone seemed to be
coming from that direction
947
"Now? I'd call it a tarpit," Wireman said"Back
in the Roaring Twenties, I imagine the Eastlake
family called it their swimming pool
"Imagine taking a dip in that," Jack said, and
shuddered
The pool was surrounded by cartier tank louis willows |
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