Ok, I say Emily is insulting a lot. Which she is. But I'm also using Emily's name as a stand-in for her creator, Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli. Because a lot of Emily's thoughts and attitudes are shaped by her creator, obviously, so I'm guessing that most of Emily's opinions on the natives come from her. All right, all right, enough of my griping. On with the recap!
Emily has arrived at Harry's and gives us a very detailed description of it. And also describes his vehicle, which sounds a bit mongrel so I'm picturing this:
B-Eating-U
Emily and DD talk a bit about the old logging roads and the roads that have been put in by oil companies. DD thinks that everyone who has the mineral rights ends up like Jed Clampett or something. Which is stupid. And I do know this for a fact. Because mostly what they do is drill, cap it and leave it. If you're lucky you might get a check every month. And this is personal experience. Now, maybe there's other factors at play but that is the general idea. I have yet to hear of anyone striking it insta-rich. And I'm only going into so much detail about it here because *SPOILER* it's an important plot point later. One that I found highly implausible.
Anywho, back to Emily and DD. Emily thinks about Weird Harry a bit. He apparently wears a funeral suit (in case he dies while working, of course), is razor-thin, never looks people in the face when talking to them and wanders away to pick up stones and leaves. So. Me on a good day. He is apparently near ninety because he worked for the logging camps in the '20s. I only go into so much detail with her because Harry is a recurring character. How recurring I don't know. I've only read the first and second book in this series. Emily pissed me off so much in the second book that I gave up. For you, dear readers, I'll see what I can do.
Anywhat, they wonder if he's home and turns out he is. Emily takes a moment to ponder the thought that while Harry wears the suit all day, every day, year-round, it never smells. He only smells like wood smoke. Gee, Emily, maybe he washes it. You know, like people do with their clothes. Amazingly E.K.B. manages to avoid the "dirty shack guy" stereotype and Emily notes that Harry's house is clean but cluttered.
Harry is really quiet and Emily figures out that he's scared but she doesn't know of what. Maybe it's having the police in his house or maybe it's just women in general is her assumption. She goes off on a tangent about a professor her ex-husband was friends with at U of M who (ironically) was very handsome and taught poetry a "class filled to overflowing with dewy-eyed sprites clutching their spit-worn Emily Dickinsons to fluttering bosoms."
And if you have any guesses as to wtf she means by spit-worn let me know 'cause I've got no fucking clue. I'm picturing a spit-covered book and it's kind of gross.
Then she says that she herself is a kind of spit-worn Emily Dickinson. Since she was named for her Emily has decided that she's just like Emily Dickinson. Except she's not. At all. But Emily "decided early in life that there was something tragic about me, too" She just can't figure out what.
Anywhere, now that we're off that tangent. What follows is some painfully slow back and forth about whether or not Harry knows 'Miz' Poet or not. Remember her? The head?
DD insists he knows her, he insists he doesn't for two pages. Then they switch gears to how the head ended up in the garbage can and he again insists that he wasn't anywhere near the road that day.
He gives them some possum stew and they warn him that people are going to be searching the woods for the rest of 'Miz' Poet the next day.
Once away from Harry's house DD tells Emily that Harry was lying. Emily thinks she means about knowing 'Miz' Poet after all and figures DD's right because everyone knows everyone but that's not what DD means. She meant about being out to the road. Remember that possum roadkill waaay back in Chapter One? Well, he's now happily resting in the stew Harry gave her.
Emily tries to say "Nu-uh! No Way!" But DD insists "Yes, way!" and points out the missing possum from the road. Emily says that maybe the crows got it and DD points out that if Harry hadn't been out to the road then how would he know how many crows there were. Which I don't get because crows are everywhere here. Any given day you can say there's a lot of crows and have a chance at being right.
Emily's not too keen on eating the soup now that DD has pointed out that it's Roadkill Special. And said roadkill was resting not too far from a disembodied head at one point.
End of Chapter
A fairly short chapter today. Looks like next chapter they go visit some of 'Miz' Poet's friends. Should be a blast.
Hope everyone had a good and safe holiday!
This Saturday I'm going to be starting episode recaps of X-Files. I've been thinking about it for a while and I figured now would be a great time to do it since the show is going to be on again (YAY!). So, pop back here on Saturday to follow me and my adventures with 'The Enigmatic Dr. Scully' and Stone-Face Mulder.
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