Page 62 - With Lexie O'Hare, Big Intervale (Part Two)

ISSUE : Issue 43

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1986/8/1

I cut off the Shake-and-Bake--no more itch. (Were you in a dream?) Not like a normal dream. I sleep and I wake up knowing I was dreaming. It doesn't appear like that. It's like I'm real, I'm just there. (And about Willie, he lived with you a- while in Massachusetts?) Yes. In Boston. 1925-26. (He had a little drinking prob? lem?) Yes. And I took him away. My parents were worried about him. He'd go away and he'd take a team, you know--they wouldn't know where he was. But he had friends and he'd always get home. (So you took him a- way to Massachusetts, and he lived with you.) Yes. And my husband got him a job at the Commonwealth Chevrolet. And when he in time appeared the next summer (in Cape Breton), he knew my father couldn't make it--200 acres and two bams. My dad was getting old then. So Willie went home. And he never went back to the States. He died here, 4 years ago. (A long time later?) A long time later is right. What puzzlied me, wasn't it funny, that it was a Boston street, where Willie lived with me--why wasn't it here? Why wasn't it up at his house? A short time after he died: I had just got up like I did when I lived there (in Massa? chusetts) . And the apartment was exactly the same as when I lived there in 1926. Ex? actly the same. Well, it must have been in my dream • I was just going around and I heard a knock on the front door. (Lexie knocks three times on the table.) I walked over and I opened the door and Willie was there • And he had his hand out and I said, "Oh, Willie." He was in the vestibule. (And there were other people too?) Yeah, but they were all to one side, and he was standing at the door and he had his hand out when I opened the door. And you know, he was dressed just like we laid him away. And he looked wonderful. I gave him the brown suit. And I wasn't a bit surprisedo I said, "Willie, let's go sit down." And I caught his hand, and I was just leading him over to the window seat--this is where we used to sit and look out at what was going on down below-- and everything disappeared.... (And the people in the hallway?) Happy. The happi? ness on their faces. And I couldn't hear a word they were saying, but they were just so busy talking--but the expression on their faces! And the same thing happened here a couple of months ago with the Shake-and-Bake. And you know, I went to bed and I'm thinking. That must be Mary--you know, my sister-- she was only 22 when she died. But before she died, she didn't look (like the girl I saw). I have a picture of her with her hus? band. She was a great, great girl. I al? ways wanted to be like she was, but that never was to be. She was the most wonder? ful person, wherever she went, she was dearly, dearly loved. There wasn't a boy in the country anywhere but had a crush on her. And you know, she was jolly and witty and she never really cared. (The next day, visiting with Lexie again, she said she was glad we had talked about the Shake-and-Bake story. When she went to bed afterwards, she realized it wasn't her sister Mary who had given the information, it was a little girl she knew in the 5t"ates:) They had this little girl. They were a very very very nice couple--the fa? ther and mother--it was marriage formed for them. She never met him until she met him in the States--you know, they pick their wives for them--the gentleman's fa? ther and mother. And he married a very lovely Jewish girl. And I got acquainted with them. We were wonderful friends. And they had a little girl and she was bom with club feet. Dear little thing, they used to bring her into the store to see me. And I fell in love with her and she fell in love with me. She'd be wanting to come in to see Lexie and they'd take her in. So MacLean Industrial SuddM ''' "Serving Atlantic Canada" %.|| INDUSTRIAL - MINE AND MILL SUPPLIES 207 Kings Rd., Sydney, N. S. (902) 564-5540 First, we were the Number One selling Import in Canada. HYLnoni Now, we are the Number One selling Car. Period. (62)- 34 State St., Sydney 539-7999/539-2999 VAIAJE -pU3S'. BRETON ENERGY LTD. 94 JOHNSTONE STREET, BOX 1900 SYDNEY 539-4949

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