Stone Overcoat - May, 2004

May 2004

It turns out I was not very good at bingo but I really enjoyed playing. We mostly played what I learned to be American bingo with the B column going 1-15 and I going 16-30 and on in letter until 75. Not a lot but some times we played the British version which I did not even know existed and it has only three rows instead of five rows and it goes up to 90 and I learned if you are playing the British version you want to buy six cards because then you get a number on every card every time or something like that and I think it makes a lot of sense because you have a better chance of winning consistently. I read about yoga once and some thing that stuck with me was a bit about consistent consistency or some thing along those lines. I did not pick up much beyond that. A lot of it made a lot of sense and seemed very simple and did not actually have as much to do with bending into uncomfortable posishions as it got made out to be. That has a lot to do with it I know but it seems like it is more about how to behave and how to view the world then it is with if I can touch my toes or not. One big thing about American bingo seemed to be there is no way to really have a better chance of winning than to buy more tickets. I think there is only a certain number of tickets I can play with before they get to be too much to look at and I start missing some and once I start doing that then having more tickets then any one else does not seem to matter as much any more.  It took me a little bit of practice but once I started to know exactly which numbers were in each row I stopped listening for the letter and just started looking for the number and since I already know what order the letters come up its actually really easy to play fast but there if you start playing catch up on a letter because you have so many cards then you are falling behind and there is no catching up in bingo. Maybe this is a funny thing to be impressed by but I saw some people using a bingo dabber in each hand and they had a lot of cards and really seemed to be playing to win. I saw some of them win a bunch too but I do not know how much they spent playing so I do not know how much they really won but some of them seemed happy when they won so I guess they won some thing just the same. 

It probably sounds like I am looking down on people for how they live and I hope it does not sound like that but I know I am not very good at writing so I think there is a chance I am not coming off proper. If some one is happy spending a lot of time playing bingo and losing more than winning I cannot say they are wasting there time. Maybe they are wasting there money but it is not my money and I would not like being told how to spend my money. The people who show up and are not happy I can not say any thing about either because I do not know what there day has been like. Maybe it is wrong but the people who are never happy are the ones I worry about. There are a few people I know like Kevin and Mike and Nansee and Pope and Arleen and Faith and those are just the ones who sit around me. They do not talk a lot not even to each other and we know them more kind of because some people knew them from when they were kids but some of them no one have talked to in years. So when I say I am worried about how the people spend there money I am not worried about the money being spent because it is there money. I am worried about how they are feeling.

Lotus seemed to have a good time and we talked a lot about a lot which seemed to bother the people around us. We did not swear very much because it is an older crowd and in Screaming Ridge, Alberta, and we knew that would get people upset. In fact while some people did not care we were there and a few were happy to welcome us some people seemed to not be happy at all because people not as old as them were in the place. I can under stand it I guess because maybe they are worried about us being rowdy or loud or swearing and I think it is fair because maybe that is what they have had happen in the past. 

Any way one night we went to bingo one night and both of us were not having the best day. I remember it because in the day I had to take Townes to see Doctor Thunder because he was very upset with me and growing and hissing and snapping at me. I was able to get him into his crate to carry him but it was not easy and I remember Doctor Thunder telling me I did not hurt Townes getting him in to the crate but he did a good job on my arm and it could not hurt to see a doctor too and I thanked her for the advice because cats can carry a lot of infecktion I have heard. It turned out Townes had an infecktion in a tooth and he had to get the tooth taken out and I did not like what I had to pay because it was another bill when I already had a lot of bills. When I took time to think about it I know the money was worth it because Townes is worth it. But the paying the money was not the best. I do not remember the date in May but I could look back and try and find the date if it was important is what I want to say. I am not so sure it matters any way. 

The important thing is that we went to bingo and Lotus told me she earned a promoshun at work and the new job started on the coming Monday and I said that is great. She told me she felt a run of good luk coming her way and I am very happy she felt that way because she deserves every thing good. Her new job sounded very hard and when she xplaned it to me I did not really under stand much of it. Too many numbers confuse me and it is not that I can not do the basics but trying to figure out how often or likely some thing is to happen does not make sense to me and the same goes for how money grows in a bank. Lotus told me about intrest and asked me what I thought and I told her I did not find it very intresting and I think it is the funniest thing I have ever said. The truth is that I do not really under stand how interest works good enough to do it as a job like the one Lotus has. She worked with more money than I will ever see in my entire life I think. Any way she had a big job to start and we both hoped there would be good luk coming at bingo.

When we got to bingo we did not get our regular seats and it does not seem like some one should care about it but some people really care about it. I know I really like having my regular seat to sit in and Lotus always tells me its just a seat and where my seat is does not make different numbers come up and she is right and I complain about it for a bit when we sit down. I know my regular seat or not my regular seat is not a big deal but it is still not my favourit. What Lotus always told me is I have to do what the moment demands and if we do not have our seat we do not have our seat and to get over it. The usual people came in before the games started and they sat in there usual seats if they could and they complaned about there seats if they did not get there usual seats. Most every one got over new seats and the same people who are not happy win or lose are also not happy with even there usual seat. 

The jack pot was never big enough for any one to quite there jobs and move to an island but 500 dollars is 500 dollars and 1000 dollars is 1000 dollars and there are ones that are 50 dollars and 100 dollars. Some times a win is a win and it does not matter what it looks like to some one else. I had never won the big ones before and I had never seen Lotus do it but I remember us winning enough here and there to make it fun to play. The first game we played I got close but when I looked at the card it was not very close at all. Lotus did not get very many squares and did not seem to care much if she won or lost.

Over the night I remember Lotus won a lot of cards and it felt like she would win all of them and it is very xciting to feel that. I wanted to see her win the jack pot but she wanted to leave. Lotus is smart and she said she won a lot of money over a lot of cards and she felt good and I said that was good. I did not win much but I did not lose much and got to spend time with my friend so it was good too. When I walked into my cabin there was four dead mice at the door and I knew Townes had been busy. I was grateful he did what he was able to do but cleaning up the bodies was hard to do. In a way the mice were a surprize because I almost always found them in the morning not early in the night but it was in May and when ever it was in May was closer to summer than spring so maybe that had some thing to do with it. Since I still had my boots on and my jacket and my gloves on I grabbed the mice and put them in to the box by the door and took my shovel and I took them out side to bury. 

With there not being a lot of snow I thought I would go back a bit farther than other times because I thought why not. I did not bring my lantern with me and I do not know why I did not. I have been reading what I have been writing and I think I have must have been thinking I do not go very fast in life and maybe going another 200 or 300 meters into the woods behind my plot of land would be a change. Still the sun was down a few hours and going into the woods in the dark was not some thing I tried and do often and not with out my lantern to see. I do not think that is even some one who plays it safe but it is some one who is looking at a good idea and a bad idea and choosing the good idea. What ever it is it did not get as dark as I thought it would and I kept walking farther even when the ground got soft and I could press my foot down in it. I did not think the ground should have been that soft in May and I kept walking because it was still light enough. The farther back I went it stayed just as light or maybe it got a little more dark but it was not any thing that could stop me. I kept walking another 100 or 200 metres before I stopped. I am not sure how far I had walked because the light seemed to be in a funny place in between fading and dark. 

I set the box of mice down and I pressed my shovel into the ground. It was easy to move the earth a foot down and it was not very long before I had dug two feet. My low back was sore and I must have dug for longer than I thought I did. The light did not change and that seemed funny to me but the time between seasons could be a funny thing. The dirt was so easy to dig and it felt good to do. Digging felt simple and I think even when I had a simple life it was not as simple as I thought it was. Running the farm was not easy and I did not know what I am doing. I liked that only the weather and nature could tell me what to do and that felt good but it was not what I am good at doing. I was not paying attention and I stopped digging and I am glad because I think I would have dug another foot and I am glad I stopped because under my feet in the ground I saw something made of stone and started to dig around it. 

It was not hard work to move the earth and I dropped down to my knees and looked at a weird stone box and it was all carved with signs I did not recognize. I do not know much about langooage and I do not think I even know mine very well. I reached out and touched the box and it was cold and I expected that because it was buried in the ground in the winter and it made sense it was cold. I do not know what kind of stone the box was made out of because it felt more thin then any thing I know. As I said I have never been very good at not taking the safe road and maybe it was Lotus getting a new job or her string of winning at bingo or the way I have watched Townes seize every moment in front of him but some thing said to feel around the box so I did started to clear more dirt away until it was free. I ran my fingers over and I did not feel any sort of seam or latch or lock or any thing at first. I remember swearing and pulling my finger back because the nail on my pointer finger pulled back on a rough spot I must have missed. Some people are grossed out by blood but it does not bother me. I am not some one who loves seeing blood or who loves seeing an injury because I think that is sick but seeing my nail pulled back a bit and some blood on my finger. I shook my hand and pulled the box to me and sat back on to my ass. Maybe the box was 2 feet long and maybe 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep. I might be off a little bit on the numbers because I am not good with measuring but about that size seems right. 

I have never seen a box glow unless it was plugged in or a machine or computer. I pressed my sore finger on to it and I did not think about doing it and a red line started to run out and around the box and it popped open like the line was a seal. I am still not sure what I saw when the top slipped away. If the box was 2 feet long maybe the skeleton was almost that long and the skull seemed fill the front half to the box and it looked bent a bit. The skull and teeth were big for the body and the teeth had edges like a fishing knife. What kind of animal it was I am not sure but I had never seen any thing like it. Maybe more cat than dog because the body looked light like a spring and it has teeth and claws like a cat. When I ran a finger over the box it felt funny and not the same as it did at first. There was maybe an edge on its seems or maybe it felt like it had sand on it. Some thing did not seem right and for the first time I worried a bit about it and I put the lid back on.

I worried about what I had disturbed and I knew if I just bareed it again some one might come and try to dig it up even if it was at the back of my plot of land. The forest is some thing I could never put a fence around and call my own so even if I had a paper with my name on it saying it was mine like my farm I would not be able to do any thing about keeping some one away. What I would do would be close the box and put my coat over it and bring it into my cabin and I would think about it for an hour and then I would bury it in my basement. If the worst thing to happen was some one found a 3 foot hole with nothing in it what they would have thawt is Paul Bristol is digging a whole and they would not have thawt twice about it. If they dug a whole and found what ever I found they might do some thing different and I know how some people act when they find some thing. They come back and they dig up more and they dig up more and they dig up more and some times it is never enough until they have dug up every thing and there is nothing left. The conversation I had with Lotus when she asked me about what I would do if the oil companies and the gas companies and our even our goverment came knocking because they wanted what ever was near my house was ringing in my head. I would take the box and I would bury it under my cabin some how and then it would be safe and I would be safe.