“Who’s that a picture of?” Detective Kelly asked.
“William Faulkner,” Joe responded, then added, “You take sugar?” Kelly nodded. Looks like a bank teller. “Is he important?”
“He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950,” Joe replied.
Kelly smiled. He’d been led to believe that Joe was retarded. He’d been misled. Didn’t that blonde in the bar say that Joe was smart?
“No, 1949,” Joe corrected. “Bertrand Russell won in 1950, although I don’t know why a physicist would win in literature. Have you read The Sound and The Fury?”
“No,” the detective responded, taking a seat at the table. Everything looks familiar-like I’ve been here before.
“I could lend you a copy,” Joe offered.
Kelly shook his head. The last novel the detective had read had been in high school. He couldn’t remember anything about the book except its title- Mr. Blue. Solve the homeless problem by having people live on rooftops.
Wasn’t that Mr. Blue’s great insight? The suicide rate would soar.
Joe added, “I’ve got a pretty good library upstairs if you’d like to browse around. Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy, Camus. You should read Crime and Punishment. Right up your aisle.”
“I’m not much of a reader,” Kelly confessed. “Maybe you could give me a tour some other time.”
“I guess solving the mystery of disappearing garbage isn’t exactly what you hoped for.” Joe spoke so softly that the detective found himself leaning over the table to hear.
“What do you mean?” Kelly asked.
“The crowning achievement of a long career,” Joe explained. “I heard you were retiring.”
The detective nodded.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t offer you something with a bigger bang,” Joe added.
“No one goes out with a bang.” The detective smiled. Everyone wants to make my life more interesting.
Joe smiled uncomfortably as if he had touched a nerve with the officer and regretted it.
“So how deep is it?” Joe asked.
Didn’t the blonde say something about a younger sister?
The detective looked past Joe at the wall behind him. He’d seen walls like it in 52 Division when there was a big murder case going on. He’d never worked on a big case.
Joe smiled. “Pa used to quiz us every week on the new clippings. He was a self-taught man. Didn’t think too much of the educational system.
Said it produced morons and lawyers. Some say there’s not much to choose between the two.”
The detective laughed.
“Do you know a woman named Mary Hendrix?” he asked.
“Should I?”
“She knew your wife.” Did she say that? Or was it something about a sister?
Joe rubbed his finger across his nose. He’s going to lie, Kelly thought.
“Possible,” Joe responded. “June had a lot of friends before we were married. Can’t remember anyone named Mary Hendrix.” The detective wondered if he should mention the unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps Joe had never been told. Must have been years before he knew her.
“What did she say about June?”
The detective tapped his finger on the table. It caught Joe’s attention.
“Said she didn’t like school.”
Joe laughed. “That sounds like June. She hated books. I think the house tortured her. She told me that books were a collection of lies and wishful thinking. June believed in reality. She liked to have a good time.
June was unfaithful. I didn’t like it but not much I could do about it.
Maybe it was my fault. Never had any ambition. Never wanted to become anything. June wanted me to become rich. You ever feel guilty for being yourself?”
“Can I ask another question?” Kelly ignored Joe’s inquest. Don’t get sidetracked. Don’t let someone else set the table.
Joe nodded.
“It strikes me as odd that you have all these electrical outlets, lights, and appliances. So why are we using a Coleman lantern to light up the room?”
“I like the smell.”
“Do you have a television?”
Joe shook his head. “No radio or toaster. Hooked my refrigerator up to a battery when I could no longer buy ice. Got nothing against technology. Just don’t see why we have to keep changing it.” Joe took a sip of his coffee. “Tell me about my well.”
“I lowered a rope down the hole,” Kelly began. “I had about a hundred feet. Didn’t reach the bottom. I’ll have to get some more rope but there’s no telling if the line hasn’t just curled up on the bottom without me knowing.” Left the rope out by the well. Got to remember to get it back.
“Wouldn’t the line go slack if you’d reached the bottom?”
“Possibly,” the officer answered. Of course he’s right. The blonde was right. Joe is no moron.
“There’s got to be a bottom,” Joe said.
Kelly stirred his coffee. “Doesn’t it bother you, Joe, that you have a hole next to your house that is that deep? Aren’t you afraid of falling in it?”
“Pa built the brick wall around it to keep us kids away. I think he called it a well to alleviate our fears. We got used to it being there. He used to tell us that the night sky was also a hole. If you look up at it, it goes on forever. Pa never saw much use in space flight. ‘Going to the moon,’ he used to say. ‘Might as well throw money down a hole.’ The hole did bother June. She’d have nightmares about something crawling out of it. ‘The gates to hell,’ she used to say. June had a hell of an imagination. Talked about shadow people. Ever heard of them, Detective?” Kelly shook his head.
“June saw figures around the house in the shadows. Not people, but blobs that resembled humans.”
“Teenagers,” the detective suggested.
Joe nodded. “That’s what I told her. Always after me to move.
Wouldn’t stay home alone. Scared her to be here by herself. Maybe that’s 10 why she ran off. I guess I should have moved, but she married me when I was living here and I figured that was part of the bargain. And I had all these books. I could never bring myself to pack them up in boxes. They were like children.”
“Did you have children?”
Joe took a sip of coffee then reached over to the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of brandy. He poured a few drops into his coffee and offered some to Kelly. The detective accepted. Joe reached behind him and grabbed a cup for the officer.
“Two kids.” Joe passed the cup to Kelly. “One of each. The boy was as smart as a whip. The girl was slow, but quite a beauty, like her mother.
She took them with her when she left. June never wanted kids but she took them. Never had much use for them while she was living here. Let them run wild. Maybe she was too young for kids and I was too old. I miss them. June wasn’t a happy woman, Officer. She was miserable when she married me and I guess I wasn’t the type to cure her of that.
You got any kids, Detective?”
Kelly shook his head.
“Can you stop my neighbors from dumping their garbage into my well?” Joe asked.
“Yes, I think so. It might be easier if we put a lid on the hole though.”
“I tried that,” Joe responded. “Teenagers took it off. June said it was the shadow people.”
“I mean seal it permanently,” Kelly suggested.
Joe finished his coffee. “Permanently?”
“Well, we could try to fill it in,” Kelly said. “But if it’s as deep as it seems that could be quite an expense and I’m not sure the city would pay for it. But they might go for a cap if I can prove that it’s dangerous.” Joe leaned across the table and smiled.
