Days of Uncle Ernest - Chesapeake City and the World – Lizzie, Chapter 6

Days of Uncle Ernest - Chesapeake City and the World – Lizzie, Chapter 6

Lying back there under the tree, I must have daydreamed a while, but when Uncle Ernest lifted my feet so he could sit, I was alert and ready to hear some more of his strange adventure. “Yeah, Moose,” Uncle Ernest said as he took a slow, pleasurable swig from his freshened drink, “when we boarded the sailing skiff, the Miss Ann, Lizzie rigged the sails like an expert, and before long we were underway—cruising gracefully up a river she called the ‘Tums.’ She was a great gal, Moose, but it's a shame she had so much trouble with the English language. Later on, I noticed the name of that river on a sign. Printed clearly on it was ‘The Thumes.’ Now, I would pronounce that ‘Thumbs.’ Wouldn't you?

"Huh? Sure. I guess so. So what, Unk?"

"Hey, I didn't let her funny talk bother me any. I don't look down on people with poor speech. Besides, she was pretty enough to talk any way she wanted to. But that river was really busy with commerce—sailing and rowing vessels—and they all gave us a wide berth. Some of the captains of the large vessels started with surprise and bowed deeply to Lizzie and she would always curtsy back. ‘What’s that all about, Lizzie?’ I asked.

“ ‘Oh,’ she replied nonchalantly, ‘they’re just my subjects, Ernie.’ Now, Moose, when she talked like that I sure was sorry I had ever got mixed up with such a lunatic, especially when she was in the middle of an unfamiliar river, manning a sailboat that I knew nothing about. But, except for those occasional irrational statements, she was terrific and I had a great time with her on that river.

“What happened next I don’t like to talk about because it’s so gruesome. As we sailed smoothly along we saw a long, stone bridge looming in the distance. As we got closer I could see lots of buildings—different sized shacks really—sitting right on the bridge.”

“Wow! No kidding, Unk?”

“Right you are, and I could even make out a chapel and some military towers with cannons shooting out the sides. Then it happened; I saw them ... and they were disgusting. Just before we sailed under I looked up and saw five or six human heads stuck on stakes all along the bridge. They were in varying degrees of decay—some with eyes bulging or missing, and they all had jagged, chopped-up necks dangling from the stakes, uneven where the ax had chopped through.”

“Gross!” I cried. “That’s disgusting; I’ve never heard of anything like that ever happening, not even in Cecil County. Tell me some more, Unk.”

“Aw, Moose,” Uncle Ernest said softly, “I guess I should have left that part out. But, anyway, when we came out from under the bridge there were more heads stuck up on the other side, believe it or not, and one was different from the rest because it was the head of a woman.

“It was fairly fresh because of the blood crusted on her chin. Her long, black hair was whirling in the breeze. When Lizzie saw the head she gasped and when she looked over at me I saw tears rolling down her cheeks. She buried her face in my chest and held me hard for a few seconds. Then, when she grabbed the tiller again, I asked, ‘What’s that all about, Liz?’

“ ‘Oh nothing.’ she said, catching her breath in short sobs. ‘It’s political and I don’t want to talk about it.’ She looked straight ahead as the sobs subsided. I glanced back at the bridge once more and saw gulls, crows, and other carrion birds circling and swooping in for snacks.”  [To be continued Friday, 8/10/2012]