Page 51 - No 5

,ag Spring 1989 Hobo Jungle Page 51

( Continued from Page 48) of the awesome power of the Ouija. We along with his father. And no wonder.
Where did he go at that ungodly should have stopped then, but we His father was a dark person, with eyes
hour of the night? Is it possible he spent didn't. We were literally shaking as the that shone hatred and anger. If I was a
16 hours (les.s one hour for travel) a day, plastic slider came to rest on the letter cynic, I would almost say you could feel
six (sometimes seven) days a week in F. The f.... Nothing came to mind. By the darkness over his land. But I believe
that homble box of a store filled with now the marker was literally racing the darkness came from him, not from
dirty laundry sacks, waiting on cus­ around the board on its own. We could the land.
tomers and marking the backs of shirt barely keep up with it. In one long surge On one occasion the young man
collars with id numbers in indelible ink? of energy, it swooped past the letter A showed up unannounced when my wife
If that were the case, where then did he and shot right across the alphabet, stop­ and I were smoking pot. We were
get the Ouija boards, the radios, the ping short on the letter T. F-T ... ft .... The relieved when he showed no surprise.
watches, the gunny sacks, the cars, the ft.... It made no sense. I pushed the Nevertheless, we felt some apprehen­
candy, the toys, the animals, the cloth­ board away disgusted. sion from then on and attempted to
ing ( oh, we knew where he got the cloth­ "There's no word that begins with keep the goods from view. Unfor­
ing!), the an)thing-you-ever-wanted or F-T," I said. "This is stupid." tunately, even to this day I have never
asked-fors that accompanied his every We got up and went back into the lost the habit I acquired in the Bronx of
visit? kitchen where my wife and a few friends leaving the front door unlocked. That is
That was the question my daughter were awaiting the results. a hard .thing to explain to some people
and I posed that very afternoon that he "Well!" they wanted to know. "Any­ today. It's just that as long as I'm not.
and Cece left us, leaving the Ouija thing?" robbed of my body I want the door of
board behind: Just how did Uncle I spelled it out. "T ... H ... E .... " I my home to be open to anyone who
Charlie get all those things stuffed into paused. "F ... T," I added, spitting out passes.
the gargantuan trunk of his Oldsmobile It came as no surprise to discover the
98? How indeed? the ft. "The ft. .. ," I said. young man was coming into the house
I said it again, slower this time: "the
We purposely w e n t into the ft." And again. "the ft." The fourth time to steal pot. What made me particularly
downstairs bedroom where it was com­ it hit me. "THEFT!" I screamed. angry though was that the criminal did
fortably dark (but not so dark we not gain entrance through the unlocked
couldn't see the board) and quiet ( so we "The fucking thing spelled theft. He front door. No. The son-of-a-bitch was
could concentrate). This was our first steals the stuff. That's what I always sneaking into the house via a back stair­
question and we intended to give it our thought. Holy shit!" By this time I was case (which we knew nothing about)
all. We sat on the bed opposite one racing around the kitchen like a mad­ that led to a sealed panel in the closet
another, our fingers pressed lightly m.an. '.'I can't believe it! Who ever would of my daughter's bedroom. Had I not
upon the ... Ouija? (I suppose that's what have thought of the word 'theft'? She arrived home at the very moment young
it's called.) couldn't have," I screamed, pointing to Mr. Military school was tear-assing out
My daughter posed the question. my daughter. "She doesn't even know the back door at the sound of my ·
entrance, I would never have suspected
how to spell it. I'm not even sure she
She looked up at the ceiling and in a knows the word. And I certainly never a thing. If he had walked in the front
voice filled with seven year old would have thought of it. Steal maybe, door and taken the stuff I probably
spirituality she asked, "Oh Ouija, where but theft? Never!" wouldn't have even cared.
does Uncle Charlie get all his stuff?"
She looked at me. It took five people more than an hour I ract:d up the road after him, but he
"How was that?" she asked. to calm me down, but what's an hour quickly got the better of me, so I ran up
when for the first time in your life you're
the path to his parents' house and
"Great," I said. confronted with stealing. rapped on the door. When "We Can't
We stared at the board in silence. Some years later we were living in a Handle Him" came to the door, I told
For a while the marker seemed to slide beautiful old farmhouse on an estate in her "I just caught your son stealing out
around aimlessly, first toward me, then Danbury, Connecticut. The owners of of a secret doorway in our house and
toward her side of the bed. Suddenly it the property lived in a house just up the why the hell didn't you tell us about that
picked up speed, and acquired a more road, far enough away so that we ran you son-of-a-bitch I'm calling the
regular motion, almost circular, as our into them only occasionally when they police," and ran off.
unconscious tugging became more at­ came to mow the grass or fix the plumb­ The kid denied it straight to my face
tuned. Finally, the marker came to a · ing. Their teenage son, an only adopted in front of his mother and the cops, so
definite stop on the letter T before it child, attended military school in New blatant that I decided I'm not pressing
picked up speed again. There was no York State ("We can't handle him", his charges, this kid is in enough trouble
doubt that it stopped on the T. We both mother said), but he was fond of visiting already, �d we dropped the whole
agreed. The next full stop was the letter us when he was home on holiday. He thing and moved away.
H. T-H. No clues there. Then came an seemed a fine young man, intelligent, • • •
E. T-H-E ... THE. The what? We knew with a terrific sense of humor. He hated Do you ever wonder when you do
we were on to something big. Just get­ military school, but he always got in something totally by accident, could
ting this far was enough to convince us trouble at home. He just didn't get you ever do the same thing exactly the