This is a continuation of the story about the Giant Bible and what I found in it.
Keith Morrison Voiceover . . .
Because every story needs one.
“The word “memento” means to remember. We all keep them.
If you think of life as a series of pages that flip from day to day, seemingly forever, to become our own book. Every important day, its own page; every big moment, its own chapter. Sometimes we cut-out the meaningful parts and leave cute little mementos in between those pages. We do it as a way to save our best days forever. These are the times we keep closest to our hearts.
Usually these mementos are the happy and the joyous events. The birthdays. The weddings. The little babies delivered into a big new world. The happy times. That is what we all expect and what we all hope to do.
What does it mean when the mementos we find are not the happy events? What do we make of reminders of deaths? Or church fires? Or a mother forcing her little 5 year old daughter to write a birthday card?
Perhaps, what ends up as a keepsake in a book is important. What is more important, though, is how and why. Why are there mementos of death, when there should be keepsakes of life?
Our story today will try to answer those questions.”
. . . Non-Keith Morrison Voiceover
We all have keepsakes and mementos to remind us of happy times. We sometimes keep them in our favorite books. That’s what humans do.
Not psychopaths. They keep trinkets. Of things like death, church fires and birthday cards my mom, Hannibal, forced me to write when I was 5 – in 1982, etc. etc.
A Bible Full of Trinkets
More on the Bible I told you about last week and what I found in there.
This is what it looks like. See, I wasn’t kidding when I said it was giant.
Image courtesy of PFFK #7
As I mentioned in last week’s Episode, this Bible had been missing for decades, and I had really mostly forgotten about it.
Until January 2021, when it turned up on the 2nd floor of #6 Accosted in one of the many giant multi-story wooden cabinets Hannibal likes. I had looked in this cabinet many times before. There is a little entertainment area right next to it, and that is where all the TV remotes are usually kept.
Let Me Entertain Me
Here’s a funny story about that little entertainment area.
The layout to #6 Accosted is typical for slapped together homes of the modern era. This particular house was built by Mrs. Gomer’s husband, Mr. Gomer.
The front door of #6 Accosted consists of a door, full length window “pains” to each side and a glass window arch above the door.
We will cross that door when we come to it. It looks like this.
From Google Maps then Twisted
The window panes have been covered with a translucent dark film to obscure the view. Hannibal did that.
So, if you were standing at the door trying to peek inside to see what kinds of shenanigans were going on, you wouldn’t see much.
If, however, you looked up and behind, you would see remnants of swallow nests which had been knocked down. Hannibal did that too.
H.R. Huff n’ Puff
When we open the front door, we see the stairs directly in front of us. The stairs are so close to us that we can actually see all the way up to Fredo’s desk on the second floor. So close, that if you accidentally tripped while carrying bags of groceries, your head would hit the second step, and the groceries would end up on Fredo’s desk.
The stairs along with the entire second floor -- including the bathroom -- are carpeted in the usual spud colored beige. Why would anyone do that? I mean about the stairs being right in front of you. And also about the carpet. And also about the carpet in the Bathroom. There is a sky-light in the bathroom, though, which is really great. For drone operators and spy satellites, that is.
I don’t know why front doors would ever want to open directly to stairs. That shouldn’t happen. Unless, of course, you are talking about those 10 ft wide Oak stairways, which branch out left and right at the top, and sit beneath ornate lead glass windows which glow and whisper green when the Sun is about to set.
Stairs like that are pretty great, unless you are living in an Agatha Christie novel, in which case I would seriously consider getting out of there . . . fast.
But that isn’t how the spudlike stairs at #6 Accosted are set up. They line a wall to the right, go straight up and have no windows anywhere nearby.
On the wall to the right we see pictures of me and my siblings(?) going all the way up to the second floor.
Fredo’s most precious picture is displayed there, of course -- that would Myron making a tackle during a football game. Probably his only one, ever, I’m guessing, because Myron was a terrible athlete.
When you get to the top of the stairs, to the immediate left, we see Fredo’s desk and a computer. That is where he does his two or three hours of work every week.
Ahead of us we see a large sofa sitting on top of a rug that -- for some reason -- has been nailed to the floor through the regular carpet. Probably to hide some evidence. I really regret never prying that rug up, because I’d love to know what is under there.
A TV screen is mounted on the wall to the left opposite the sofa, and the giant multi-level wooden cabinet where I found the Bible sits between them against the wall.
Slappy Happy
So, the funny story goes like this.
We used to sit up there on the sofa and watch movies with my Nieces. We would grab a giant bowl of popcorn, turn out the lights like in a movie theater and watch whatever movie we wanted. Or sometimes we watched Masha and the Bear, Nancy Drew or Gooseberries. There was a character in Gooseberries called Slappy, who was a demonically possessed ventriloquist dummy -- you know, just like Myron?
Anyway, my Nieces were terrified of Slappy, so if they ever wandered upstairs by themselves I would walk up behind them and say -- “oh, look. It’s Slappy. Hey Slappy, what are you doing up here?” My Nieces would then run downstairs.
And, yes, I know it’s actually called “Goosebumps“, so no need to write me a polite letter -- unless you want to.
OK. That’s not the funny story. This is.
Freedo Gonzales
This one time at the entertainment area, my Nieces and I just sat down to watch a movie. We had the giant bowl of popcorn with us and fired up the 6 or 7 remotes it takes to watch movies these days.
The lights were still on though, because Fredo was up there at his desk, wearing reading glasses, looking at printouts of feeder cattle results. The numbers in the columns are usually tiny, so he has to hold the page close to his glasses. Even then, he usually still can’t read the numbers, so he lifts his glass up and holds the printout even closer -- squinting.
Meanwhile, we are still trying to watch the movie, but the lights are on.
This is where my youngest Niece, age 7 at the time, leans her body forward and turns her head to stare menacingly at Fredo’s back. Fredo is still squinting at little numbers, so he doesn’t notice.
She swings back to upright position, looks up at me and shrugs as if to say -- doesn’t he know we are watching a movie?
She leans her body forward for a second time, turns her head to the left again and says:
“Fredo, when are you leaving? We are trying to watch a movie!”
Fredo leaves.
I love my Nieces.
What the Bible Told Me So
I read this Bible most nights, mainly because it makes me feel closer to my Grandparents, Muff and Dayton, who gave it to me -- and to my parents -- but mainly to me.
Here’s the presentation page.
Image courtesy of a scanner, which is really a printer except the toner mechanism or something is busted so it doesn’t print, but it does scan!
Two weeks ago, I said of the 6 people who died in 1982 who knew Hannibal, only one seemed natural -- my Great Grandma -- Margie. She was 88 years old and died of heart failure. That would not be uncommon at that age.
Last week I said my view changed after finding Margie’s obit keistered in between two pages of said Bible. I had never seen it before.
Here is what I remember about the Bible after I found it.
Since say February 1, 2021 I have read the Bible every evening. So it has been open at least 2,045 times. This count is just for my daily reads.
Throughout summer of 2021, I would sit outside, under the cherry tree and open the Bible at 2:11 pm. Whatever verse appeared to me, is what I thought I was supposed to focus on. Some days under the cherry tree were emotional and profound.
Some days I would look up and see a hummingbird or a butterfly or a gold finch. Like this little guy.
Image courtesy of PFFK #7
Those moments were so reassuring, especially at a time when my family had just launched an active campaign against me. Along with the Bible, nature held one of the most valued and trusted places in my heart.
During these afternoons, I would flip through the pages. Every item placed in the Bible, had been put there by Hannibal. The earliest I can find dates to 1979 and the latest to 1988.
In addition to Margie’s obit which I only just found, here are some of the other things is in the Bible. The main themes are around my deaths and me.
1. A handmade Mother’s Day card, by me and dated 1979. I most likely made it in Sunday School
2. A birthday card to Hannibal for her 31st, that Hannibal forced me to write; my subconscious rebelled and I wrote “Happy Birthday to Ho”
3. My Grandfather, Dayton’s funeral program, that had the wrong date for his birth date. After finding it in the Bible, I placed the program with the page of Psalm 23, which was printed inside his program
4. A cut out of Dayton’s obit from a newspaper
5. The dedication for the rebuilt Methodist Church which had burnt down in a fire in 1979
6. On a page titled “Family Tree Husband’s Genealogy” there are 23 handwritten entries of family member’s birthdays, written by Hannibal. On the page titled “Family Tree Wife’s Genealogy” there is not one entry, it’s totally blank
7. The page titled “Children” Hannibal only lists me. Not my sister(?) or Myron.
8. For the page titled “Deaths” Hannibal wrote out Elva Fowler July 1977 (her Grandma)
9. A notepad piece of paper where Hannibal wrote “Carmen Earl Puryear died April 22, 1981 age 63, Anderson, MO. Margie 417-845-6172” Anderson, a town of three other people, is 6 miles from Pineville, a town of three people. Hannibal misspelled Carmon’s name. Probably on purpose.
No doubt I have not found everything in here yet.
I will cover some of these in Part 2 – For Paid Eyes Only. For now, I will leave you with the Birthday Card.
This still makes me laugh. I did not remember writing this. So for fun I looked at it under UV light, and I could see a little tear drop. Then it all came back to me. I was sitting at the kitchen island, on a stool. Hannibal was behind me, grabbing my hand, forcing me to write “Happy Birthday”. I was crying.
It was 1982.
