Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Chapter Two: Reason #1

To understand Simon’s reasoning it will help to know a little of his past.

Simon was the first born child of Mr. George and Mrs. Celia Loomin. The Loomins lived on an old farm out in the hills of eastern Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Loomin were a poor couple. They were poor because they could not grow corn.

You see, if you go back a bit in history—before Sheila saw “Crow Boy” on the mountain, before Mr. and Mrs. Loomin gave him his name, before Mr. and Mrs. Loomin were even born—Great-great-great-great Grandfather Loomin stepped onto a piece of land and shouted to the empty space around him, shaking his fist in the air;

“On this land corn will grow!”

That is how the Loomin farm began. It has been a corn growing farm ever since.

But Mr. George and Mrs. Celia Loomin could not grow corn. They blamed it on the crows. The fact is crows had lived on this farm as long as any Loomin and corn had always grown before. This fact did not matter to Mr. Loomin. He insisted, “It’s them crows makin’ us poor, Mrs. Loomin, or my name is Prince Charmin’!”

Well, Mrs. Celia knew her husband was not Prince Charming, so she too began to blame the crows. When she saw them, perched on her clothesline, staring black eyes and dark iridescent wings, she shivered.

“It’s all your fault,” she would yell, swinging at them with handfuls of wet laundry, “it’s all your fault!”

The night when Simon was born his father said to his mother,

“Mrs. Loomin, thems stolen this from us too. Thems blasted crows.”

“What could he mean?” Mrs. Loomin wondered out loud.

The midwife timidly placed the baby boy in his mother’s arms. Mrs. Loomin looked at her baby. She said nothing. The baby, Simon, began to cry. Mrs. Loomin looked at her baby. She said nothing. One of Simon’s little hands with curled finger tips reached out from his blanket. Mrs. Loomin looked at her baby. She saw in him the crows that perched on her clothesline. Mrs. Loomin spoke,

“It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault.”

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