by Tony Nalley
I don’t know how long I stood there, lookin’ out upon my town; cause time itself seemed to stand still in those moments of complete calmness. But when I turned from my view from the slatted windows, I found myself before the massive cathedral bell!
It was the one from my vision! And it was enormous!
I was both excited and terrified! Excited that I was there, yet terrified that my vision was true!
Its magnificence rested upon a large wooden wheel, which was held by two wooden braces on either side of it, allowin’ it to rock in a circular motion as it was rung.
The bell was made of an older discolored metal, for the patina had tinted its surface with age.
It was a most wondrous site to behold! Words were written upon its surface, but not in a language that I could understand.
“The words must be written in French!” I thought to myself.
I quickly took out the pencil and paper that I had placed in my pocket earlier that morning and I did a quick “rubbing” from the bell’s surface. “Lyon 1821 Jesu-Maria Entendre la parole du Seigneur toutes les nations, et il déclare dans les îles comme une distance qui Jérémie 31:10”
“That’ll do!” I thought to myself as I folded up the paper quickly and put it back into my pants pocket for safe keepin’. “I’ll check the translation when I get back to the Library!”
I laid my hands upon the bell’s surface then, to feel the coolness of its touch. It was like sayin’ goodbye to an old friend that I might never see again. And then I walked back through the poorly lit doorway, and began my journey back down the steps of the tower’s wooden stairwell.
The way back down wasn’t nearly as hard on my legs as it had been on the way up. But while slippin’ and fallin’ down em’ wouldn’t have been a viable option for me neither, I still took extra precautions on my way back down. I mean ...I only jumped over every other step!
I busted out through those big church doors and ran out of the churchyard just about as fast as I possibly could go …once I had gotten back down to the ground level! I might’ve even been seen by a preacher man on my way out, but I was movin’ so fast that it was really hard for me to tell. It was really all a great big blur! But I felt like I was bein’ chased! Like I was bein’ hunted! So I ran faster!
I knew that my Mama would be comin’ after me soon. So I had to get back to the Library and at least be lookin’ at a book or somethin’ …just in case she just so happened to have come inside to find me!
The stop lights didn’t work to my advantage this time though, and I had to stop and wait for a whole bunch of cars! Thank goodness none of em’ was our car! I was awfully thankful for that! The last thing that I needed to happen was for me to be standin’ at a stoplight and see my mama and little sister come pullin’ up in our car …right there beside me!
I reached the Library safely and was just roundin’ the back corner by the sidewalk when I looked up and I saw our car was sittin’ in front of it!
Ours was a great big long white car, and I could see it sittin’ in one of the parkin’ spaces in the front, where my mama had dropped me off. The front of the car jutted out into the road a bit from its space, so I could see it pretty clearly. But I couldn’t see if Mama was sittin’ in the car or not, cause I stopped right then and there …before she could have seen me, and immediately decided upon an alternate route!
The way I figured it was that if my mom was still in the car, then maybe she had just gotten there herself and was waitin’ on me to come out of the Library. So as I figured I had to go in the back way so that she could see me comin’ out the front! That was the only viable plan I could think of. And so far as I knew, she hadn’t seen me outside and she hadn’t come in to the Library to get me. Unless of course if I found her standin’ inside lookin’ at me when I went in!
I opened up the back door of the Library and I walked into its musky smellin’ archives. I looked around cautiously, between the angled book shelves and over the tops of the books, checkin’ to see if Mama was in there someplace, lookin’ for me. But as far as I could tell, she hadn’t come in! So I made a quick ‘b line’ for the front door!
The Library ladies looked at me funny, but I didn’t mind.
I walked through the front lobby and out through the front door like I had been in there the whole time!
“Hi Mom!” I said as I sat down in the back seat and closed the car door. “Have you been waitin’ long?”
“No, we just got here a few minutes ago.” Mama replied. “We finished up early. Did you have enough time to find what you were looking for?
“Not really.” I said. “But I’d like to come back again and check out a few other things another time, if that’s okay?”
“We’ll see.” Mama answered.
Mama didn’t seem to suspect me of nothin’. So I reckoned that she didn’t realize I had been someplace else at all! I was glad she didn’t question me about it, cause I always prided myself on tellin’ the truth.
If Mama had questioned me …all that I had as an excuse to support my adventures was my way of deciphering words in such a way as to be able to do whatever I needed to do. I mean, I wasn’t lyin’; at least not from a certain point of view! But since technicalities really only worked if you had a lawyer with you at the time, and since parents usually overruled as many technicalities as kids could possibly present ...I really didn’t want to have to venture down that road if I didn’t have to.
I thought about that bell tower then as we were drivin’ past it on the way back to our house and about how it would feel to be up there all of the time by myself, lookin’ out over the whole town and all. I wondered what the words were too, the words that were written on the side of it; the ones that I had ‘rubbed’ on the paper that was now safely folded up inside of my pocket.
I rolled down my side window and let the air blow into the car against my face to cool me off.
And I listened to the church bell as it began to ring.
Fourteen
Of Blood or Name
Summer was endin’ in less than a week. And I don’t know as if I ever said it out loud before or enough, but ‘I really hated school!’ There were always a bunch of teachers there tellin’ you what to do! And there were always a bunch of kids there too! Kids who you really didn’t care enough about to see em’ over the summertime but you still had to put up with em’ again for a whole nother’ year in a place ya really didn’t wanna ‘be’ at in the first place! I really hated school. Except for lunchtime and recess I guess, but if I’d had my druthers, I’d druther have not been at school!
I didn’t have a way of translatin’ the words that I had gotten from off of the bell that day with the limited amount of recourses that I had available to me at my house, so I figured that I had to find a way to get myself back to town somehow and do some further investigatin’. The best idea that I could come up with was to spend the night at Colby’s house, and then me and him could walk from there up to the Library or wherever. It was the last week of summer and all, so I figured it wouldn’t be that hard for me to get to stay over there, since he’d already stayed at my house. His house was right down from McDonald’s, so we could stop there if we needed to get a drink or a coke or somethin’. Well again …maybe not …since we didn’t have no money or nothin’.
Colby’s room was absolutely amazing! He could put up any kind of poster or whatever he wanted to on his walls …and his mom didn’t even say nothin’ to him about em’ at all! There was one great big poster that he had of a skeleton lookin’ monster named Eddie, from a Rock band by the name of Iron Maiden that I don’t know how he could even sleep in there by himself with that thing lookin’ at him like it did! It was creepy! Weird music too! But everybody’s different, I reckon.
Anyways, I did get to spend the night! And the next mornin’, me and Colby headed right out for town …right after his mom and dad had gone to work that is. That gave us pretty much the whole day to get to wherever we needed to get to, an
d then get back again to his house before anybody ever knew that we were gone!
Of course we had to make a quick stop down there by the creek first, so that Colby could show me somethin’. I didn’t know exactly what it was, cause he wouldn’t tell me! But I was assured that it wouldn’t take us too much time. And then we could go on to the Library afterwards just like we’d planned.
“It’s just down here a little bit further.” Colby said. “I found it the other day when I was out exploring!”
We walked along side of the creek bed, upon its banks, stumblin’ and steppin’ over big rocks and downed tree limbs, and grass and dirt. The way was overgrown with weeds and brush as we pushed our way through. And we walked by way of the woods the rest of the way, down to the place where Colby lead.
“It’s right up here Toby!” Colby said excitedly. “I found it chained up to the rocks over there around the bend a ways further down, with nobody around it and with no name on it or nothin’!”
The water was deeper at this part of the stream. I couldn’t swim and neither did I want to!
The creek bed had made the whole area surroundin’ it a wet and muddy mess. So I wasn’t goin’ any closer to it than I had to. But I did like the sound of the cool runnin’ waters as they splashed against its rocks and then rolled along lazily beside me. It brought with it the fresh smells of life that permeated all around its watery edge.
“There it is!” Colby exclaimed and then he stood there with his arms folded, just waitin’ for my reaction.
“There it is! So …what do you think?” he exclaimed again.
I could tell that Colby was heartily excited by the way he was jumpin’ around and stuff. It was like he had just discovered a lost Christmas present that had pushed itself all the way around to the back of the tree! “But Hey!” I thought. “This wasn’t friggin’ Christmas! This was July!”
“What are you talkin’ about Colby?” I replied. “All I can see is a boat.”
“That’s it!” He replied. “That’s what I found! It was chained up to an old rock so I just went and got me a hammer and I chiseled it off! And I became the ‘Captain of my own destiny’!”
Colby always had a unique way of lookin’ at things. What other people might have seen as the takin’ of someone’s personal property by unlawful force, Colby saw as freein’ said property from its captors!
“Colby, that’s called stealin’.” I said. “You can go to jail for stuff like that!”
“It’s not stealing unless it belongs to somebody, Toby!” Colby said as though he was kinda startin’ to get mad at me. “Besides, there weren’t nobody’s name on it and there aint been nobody out here lookin’ for it neither! So as far as I know it was abandoned.” he continued. “So that makes it mine!”
Colby was my best friend. But it didn’t mean that we agreed on a whole lot of stuff! Like that time we were down there fishin’ by the creek and he wanted to fish from one of those rocks over there on the other side of that waterfall! Now I’d have to admit that it was pretty ‘danged’ awesome standin’ over there with all those waters just fallin’ down all around us and splashin’ us! And feelin’ the mist as it rose up into the air and come right back down on us again! Standin’ there beneath that waterfall was fine! But I told Colby, I said, “I couldn’t swim” and all, and he knew that!
So I told him too that, “if I slipped off of one of those slippery wet rocks while I was gettin’ over there and ‘drownded’, then he was gonna have to come in and get me cause I couldn’t swim!”
Well …of course he didn’t agree to that cause he said that he wouldn’t be able stop laughin’ long enough to come in and get me! So when I did slip and fall into that creek, beneath about three feet of those roarin’ creek waters just like I told him I would …well it was all he could do to keep from laughin’ himself to death!
I mean my face hit that water and everything and I liked to drowned!
Well, when I caught my bearings again and stood up, I was madder than a hornets’ nest! But he did keep his word! He just kept on laughin’ at me!
So I wasn’t gonna fight him over the wrongs or rights about whether or not this was or was not his boat! This weren’t any life or death situation like that other one was! He never did hardly ever listen to me anyways …so I just dropped the whole subject and made a point of lettin’ him know that we needed to be headed to town if we were to be gettin’ up there and back in time …so that no one would know we’d been gone!
I could tell that he was aggravated at me though, cause I wasn’t as excited as he was about havin’ that there boat. But I didn’t care! Me and Colby didn’t always see life the same way. To me it was a clear cut case of stealin’. And I wasn’t havin’ no part of it!
We left the woods shortly thereafter, and we walked along the concrete streets and roadways towards town. We talked alot about the things that I’d discovered in Mama’s encyclopedias and I told him about my journey to the bell tower of St. Joseph’s Church.
But Colby didn’t believe me.
“You didn’t really climb up into that bell tower!” Colby said. “You’re just foolin’. I’ll bet you never even left the Library.”
“I did too!” I replied. “And I don’t care if you believe me or not Colby! I know what I did and I got proof of it too!”
I reached into my left front pants pocket and I pulled out the piece of paper that I had made the ‘rubbing’ on from the Cathedral Bell and I showed it to him.
“See!” I said. “I got this from the bell when I was up there!” And then I handed it to him.
Colby took the paper from out of my hand so fast that it almost ripped right in two! It about half way made me mad cause if he tore that up after I had worked so ‘danged’ hard to get it then somebody was gonna get whooped for it! And I was in just such a mood that I wouldn’t have minded dishin’ out a whoopin’ on him neither!
“What’s all these words mean?” Colby asked as he walked slower …then turned back towards me and walked backwards down the road, not watchin’ where he was goin’.
“I believe it’s in French.” I replied. “I don’t know if it means anything or if it can even help us find out anything related to the ‘werewolf’ cave, but it’s proof that this whole town benefitted from its alliance with France and the friendship between Father Flaget and their King. And since there were also French writings upon the walls of the cavern, the evidence suggests that there is a connection between the ‘werewolves’ and France itself!”
“You’re so full of bull crap!” Colby said and then he looked at me serious. “So you really did climb up into that bell tower?” He asked as I shook my head ‘yes’ in reply. “Well then …I’m impressed, Toby!” he said in near disbelief! “I’m really impressed!”
I guess I basked in the glory of my new found admiration in those moments as we walked along the road that passed “My Old Kentucky Home State Park” and still further up and into the middle of downtown Bardstown. The air was clean and crisp as we walked along and talked.
As we strode along those streets …we enjoyed the scenery and then we took our rest beside a statuesque monument that sat across the street from the public Library within the courts square. We sat by an oddly shaped wooden boat, painted a dull shade of gray. And we rested for a moment.
“Who is this Monument for?” Colby asked as he looked around at the back of it like he thought it really looked stupid or something. “And who built this old boat?”
“I bet it won’t float as well as mine does!” He continued as he smiled a sly smile.
“That’s a monument for John Fitch. He invented the steam boat.” I replied. “And stealing a boat aint the same as owning it” I continued as I made it a point to reply to the other part of Colby’s statement. “That’s all I’m sayin’!”
I stood up then from out of the shade and I walked around to the front of the Monument to read from its plaque:
“Beneath this monument are interred the mortal remai
ns of John Fitch soldier and inventor born at South Windsor, Connecticut, January 21, 1743: Died at Bardstown, Kentucky, July 2, 1798. At the outbreak of the American Revolution appointed a Lieutenant of a New Jersey company of the first regiment, and later employed as armorer for the troops by the committee of safety for the province of New Jersey. In the fall of 1785 he presented drawings of his proposed steamboat to the American philosophical society and endeavored to finance experiments by selling maps of his explorations and by petitioning the assemblies of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania for assistance. On the Delaware River, August 22, 1787, John Fitch launched and successfully operated a steamboat before a distinguished gathering which included the framers of the American Constitution then in session. During the years 1786-7, laws granting Fitch exclusive rights to navigate by steam were enacted by several states. On July 26, 1788, he launched another steamboat using a stern paddle wheel and on April 16, 1790, his steamboat established and maintained scheduled sailings on the Delaware. Congress granted John Fitch a patent August 26, 1791 signed by President George Washington. King Louis of France likewise granted the American inventor a patent on November 20th of the same year. In 1796 Fitch constructed still another steamboat using a form of screw propeller. He reaped neither profit nor glory from his inventions, which contributed toward the revolution of Navigation. Erected A.D. 1927 in compliance with the act of congress approved February 12, 1926.”