The Tin Nose Shop by Don J Snyder

Author:Don J Snyder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Legend Press

ghosts

It takes only a week for the copper version of the mask to take shape, about half the time Sam thought would be required to match its contours to the plaster mould. The work progresses quickly because Lansdale is so agreeable and accommodating. He never has any complaints. He never points out any imperfections. He claims that the mask fits precisely enough even when Sam can see that it doesn’t and there are sections of it that still remain to be hammered into shape. Oliver observes this and it worries him that Lansdale might just be humouring Sam, pretending to go along with the plan when, in fact, he has no intention of ever wearing the finished mask. But gradually he lets go of these concerns and tells himself that, after nearly three months in the castle, Lansdale is just eager to be finished so that he can make his way home.

Soon Sam begins rising before dawn to paint the mask. After preparing the copper by cleaning it with vinegar and sanding its surface lightly, then applying two coats of enamel, he is pleased how the acrylic paint adheres.

Normally he will keep at his work until evening, but today Oliver sends Lansdale to get him so the two of them can begin knocking down a crumbling brick wall in the courtyard while he sits sunning himself and delivering his sermon.

“Listen carefully then, lads. Here is the architecture of life. We are born unwittingly. We grow up steadily. We betray our dreams reluctantly. We turn old inevitably. We become ghosts permanently. The important thing is to find a way to feel at home in the world. And the best way, is physical action. Knock down a wall and rebuild it.”

Lansdale is breathing hard through his mask. “Easy for you to say, sir,” he manages to remark.

Sam has never really welcomed physical labour. Perhaps the result of too many chores at the farm growing up. His arms and legs are still as thin as rake handles as they were in his boyhood. The first time he lifted a sandbag his second day in France, he staggered under its weight before it knocked him over backwards and he ended up sitting on the ground with it in his lap. A couple of men had a good laugh from that. He had been trying hard to look the part of a soldier, but he was fooling no one.

Now as he lays into the brick wall, he thinks how Ned would delight in this task. He always loved knocking things down. From the time they were little boys, he talked about being a steam shovel operator when he grew up. He would be swinging his sledgehammer so hard at this wall that his feet would leave the earth. And Sam would be trying for all he was worth to keep up.

In an hour they have hit their stride and are soaked in sweat. And Oliver was right; they both look as if something has been lifted from their shoulders.

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