A pile of bones

The warlock beat the brass pot the witch screeched out the tune
Around the bone pile dancing beneath an autumn moon
Fruitbasket for his headgear a scarf of black she wore
A minion of no power a nemesis evermore
“Come out you evil black cat. A heinous trick we moans.”
“Hiding mama’s dentures in a pile of broken bones.”

Railroad

Sweat running down his face the ten year old boy knocked on the unpainted plank door.  "Just a minnit." A short,  big nosed, hatchet faced, old man stared down at the boy. "What you want, boy?"  "My mom's gone to Tuscaloosa. She told me to come down here and stay with you till she got back."  "Who are you, boy?" "Names Joe, sir." "Joe who?" "Joe Skinner." "When's she gonna be back?" "I don't know."  "Where you all live?" "Across the railroad bridge, a ways down the road." "Well come on in, close the door, or the fly's'll eat us up."  His eyes still adjusted for the bright outside light the boy could barely make out coats and clothing hanging on nails on all four walls. An unmade bed off to the right and a chest of drawers against the wall at the foot of the bed. A framed black and white photograph of a frowning middle aged woman rested on top of the chest spot lighted by sun rays through the large window. The old woman's eyes stared at the boy. The boy mesmerized by the picture stared back. Then with a jerk broke eye contact with the woman in the picture and followed the old man into the next room: a kitchen with its small woodburning kitchen stove, a small table, two chairs, and a home made cabinet. The boy followed the old man out the back door to a narrow sun bleached grey porch. "Git a couple dippers of water out of the rain barrel and put em in the wash pan. Wash up it'll make you feel better." The boy picked up the wash pan and stepped down off the porch, walked to the corner of the house, pulled the dipper off a nail and was about to dip it into the rain barrel when the old man grabbed him by the hair with one hand and the seat of the pants with the other and crammed him into the rain barrel. The water began to bubble, then boil and the old man screamed, and released the boy, stumbled, and fell to the ground moaning. A low rumble came from the barrel as it exploded in a cloud of steam. A red headed creature half the size of the boy walked out of the steam, reached down to grab the old man. But the only thing remaining was the old mans clothes. Screeching laughter came from the roof of the house and a two foot tall tar baby jumped onto the red creature. "We got here first" the tar baby screeched. "Its our world, you know there's not enough of the two legged animals left to feed us both."

Wagon Ride

Yesterday wasn't all that great. A trip to town was in a mule pulled wagon shaking as four iron strapped wooden wheels did an erratic dance across holes,  ruts, and river rock in the sunbaked dirt road. Our rear ends soon aching from the wooden seats endless pounding, labored breathing from stifling dust, little rivulets of sweat burning our eyes, itching dust streaked faces and a mid summer sun that burned our body and soul, and had no pity on man or beast. Mouth dry as an unplowed cotton field. Pop pulled over and we climbed down from the wagon, scooted down the red clay bank to the shallow creek. "Watch out for the minnows, don't drink any". We cupped our hands and scooped up cold clear water that gushed out of the earth from an underground river that began somewhere far away. Thirst quinched, dirt streaks washed off of our faces, and momentarily cooled by the slightest of breezes we climbed back up the bank, got in the wagon and the torture started all over again.

Diamonds and Stones and Yesterday

We were born in yesterday - we may go there once again - But tomorrow we can't see - For today's always the end.   Norris Trimm

-

Welcome aboard. Take a seat. Strap yourself in. We're ready to start. Don't let all the gauges, and dials, and readouts scare you. They just show the status of the micro time module embedded in my brain. All it takes from me is three verbal commands: Load Startup sequence. Activate reality window.  Enter time stream. {Need to warn you: the time machine makes the me you see at the controls  the same age as the me you see in the time we visit. Don't worry; it won't let us go back too far.} Close your eyes and hold on tight. A little turbulence is normal.  The buzz you hear means we're in transit.  Barely hear it now. Gone. We're there. Now slowly open your eyes. We're on the top floor of Townsends hardware store, in the old mans office. He's my step dad; Freds dad. Looks like he's already read the funnies to Fred, Alley Oop, Katzenjammer kids, and Dick Tracy. That pretty lady is my mom, Vivian.

-

Moving us a bit forward. A little jerky. Sorry. Software still tweaking itself. This is the front room of the Section House next to the railroad track. We lived here when the oil tanks blew up across the river. The explosion woke Fred. He fell off the bed, and landed in the chamber pot. [no inside bathroom back then.] The little black dogs name is Toby, she shakes like that all the time, either cause she's happy or afraid Freds gonna give her a bath. Lets go out back: don't slap at the honey bees, they won't sting you if you don't mess with them; but even if one does Granny's tobacco juice can make it feel better. That little house down the hill is where Travis Locketter lives, he almost chopped off my finger with his axe; Granny doctored it with a gob of mutton suet and then wrapped it in a cloth bandage. She never uses medicine, just Indian herbs; except for asifidita. There's Granny now, skinny as a broom stick, hollering for Fred; he's probably hiding cause he knows she's got that nasty tasting asifidita out to doctor his sore mouth.

-

Going forward a couple more years. I'll be easier this time. Now we're out in the country. That's the outhouse you smell, next door is the barn. Watch out for Jenny, the horse, she'll kick your brains out. You can pet Charlie, though; he's tame. We'll get a cup of feed out of the sack; smells good don't it? Got molasses and corn and all kinda good smelling stuff in it. Tastes good too. Take a chew. It's ok. Just don't swallow it. After you suck the juice out of it spit out the solid stuff. Here, give Charlie a little.

-

We'll take a bigger jump this time. A little faster. If all the stuff whizzing past makes you dizzy close your eyes. Slowing down, slower, slower. Here we are. That little white building in front of us is the police station. The kid in the cell shaking the bars and crying is me. In trouble again.

-

Forward once more. Keep your eyes open this time. Outside you can see me running through the rain, across the muddy plowed field, mud built up on my brogans so thick I can barely run; still I keep trying; don't wanna go back to the Boys School. I get caught, though. See? The big boy thats holding me by the neck of my jacket is a trusty. When he gets me back to the barracks he's gonna stand me against the wall and bang my head into it two or three times. Oops. That little beeping sound you hear means we're running out of time. Haha. That's funny. Time machine running out of time. It only works for about ten minutes at a time. then we gotta go back and let it recharge a while. We'll try again tomorrow.