Grandpa ...kentucky backwood writer... (standard:drama, 2107 words)
Author: stanley mcqueen kentucky backwoods writer	Added: Apr 24 2007	Views/Reads: 3274/1981	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
spiritual intent...

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

killing me too see him so low and sorrowful pa told me that time 
sometimes can heal a man heart and i  hope pa is right so grandpa well 
become like he was before happy and loving life and jokeing and all the 
things that make life more plesureable. i had followed him threw the 
corn rows when i was a little boy i had watch his sweat fall on the 
rought corn ground and seen him smile and bragg on good crops of corn , 
and now all i see is  sorrow in his face, something i had never seen 
before and this was so terriable the sickness of the heart... 

i wish you.d come to the corn field with me and pappy. we could all sit
out under the the big oak tree and have lunch together, the way we used 
to i think this might night feel better   moving around a little 
getting off this old proch stoop a spell might help you more that you 
could think  i tell him. well boy i dont feel up to hardly  nothing any 
more..well boy i will think on you suggestion he said” but for now im 
heading for the hay he  said looking at his old rail road pocket watch 
that had been given to him by his Father.. I watch as he went inside . 
it wasn,t long till i turned in to bed for i new i  had  a full days 
work waitng for me tomarrow.. 

morning come again to the mountain and i was off to work in the  corn
fields chopping out tall hog weeds that were growing in our corn 
fields, where we was working lay close to the point that where grandma 
was buried and it was quite a walk up here this corn field . it was 
near lunch when me and pa spot a form coming up the narrow wagon road 
that lead to the top of the ridge where the corn patch stands, it 
appeared to be grandpa and i was glad to see him coming hopeing that 
mabye he would cheer up after gettting out some night take is mind off  
thisorrows, we watch as this from get bigger as he pokes along with his 
old cane that he made himself out of a small hictory tree, he had 
carved a snakes crawling up the cain and it look so real it was nigh 
scarely.. 

when he reached the field pa said i thought that was you pappy the way
you walk and all i was nearly sure it was you paw explained” well boys 
lay them hoe down and join me over under the oat and i got something to 
tell you boys he declared: we lay down our corn hoes and followed 
grandpa under the shade of the giant tree that we had rested under many 
a time up here while working the corn field. we settle down each of us 
setting on a saw stump and  grandpa give his talk,, boys as both of you 
know well that i have told you about my brother Arnold Bishop and what 
kind of man he was when we was young men and after i married he was 
making moonshine whisky and lived around the hill from me and your 
mother , the law ketch him to make a long story short  and sent him off 
to the prison in brownvillle, well he assumed i was the one that turned 
him in for making moonshime and made a vow never to ever speak to me 
again this side of eternity.. well just last night i lay down to sleeep 
and went off to sleep as i allus do, and i have a dream or a vision or 
something , i dreamed that i was setting on my porch and it was full 
daylight and warm and pretty, and i l seen sombody comeing toward the 
shack and i looked better and sure enough it Was Arnold my brother who 
i new was suppose to be dead, becasue i went to his funeral ,, we 
hand,t spoke in many a year because of him thinking i had turned him 
into the law then,, well boys Arnold look  young and never had a grey 
hair in his head and he was smileing and right happy like, and i say 
Arnold is that you? and he said it sure is he replied” well brother 
you,ve been dead nigh now twenty years and how could you come back 
right in broad daylight and be right here before the porch i,m setting 
on i asked him? well brother i come back to earth for  two reasons 
number one is that i want to say im sorry for thinking and believing my 
own brother would turn me in for boot legging making whiskey... he said 
as plain as day grandpa explains? what happen to me is this i died as 
you know and before i passed away i asked the Good master to pardon my 
lifes deeds and that i was sorry for being such a hopeless drunks and 
whiskey maker. well atter i done that i felt all new and clean inside 
as thow someone had washed my heart with lye soap... atter i died and 
was carried up to heaven God explained to me plain that you was not the 
one that told on me and God said that he wanted me to know that fer 
sure Arnold declared, now brother arnold said  God let me come back 
just to set things streaght with you  he explained” and one other thing 
mary  was sent up there in heaven as you know sometimes back and when 
she found out God was going to let me come back to square things up 
with you. she asked me to tell you not to worry about her dieing and 
that she is fine and things up here  are just so wonderful that it is 
beyond saying and knowing to  those still clothed in the flesh .. she 
made me promise that i tell you that she is just fine.. she said she 
knowed you be heart sick because of her passing on and all, and she 
said to keep the old farm up and don,t forget to fed her chickens . and 
to quit setting on that old porch and quit feeling sorry for yourself 
he added” well boys i woke up on his last few words and i was broken 
out with sweat and i got up and lite the lantern and set a while 
pondering on my dream or vision what ever the case may be he added” now 
boys im a new man , and i come up here to see if you lazy no account 
son of mine and grandson would be up to going fishing after these weeds 
has been chopped out of this standing corn... he smiled that old 
familer smile again, and said these words and chuckled if i had brought 
a hoe i would help you boys out, but as you both can see i never and 
then he laughed  at his own words,  it seems that Grandpa sorrow has 
pass and how glad my heart feels knowing hes back with us on the green 
flush ridges of the hills of our old old Kentucky home... the end


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