Dear Readers,
I went down into the tunnel and saw "Fisherman" Jones down here again. I have a name for him now at least!
I got startled when he said he thought he saw a tunnel shark. He said he didn't really see it, and also to please stop listening.
In real life I got to try pierogi lately! :) They were fried ones with sauerkraut and mushroom filling. They're quite nice! Very happy I got to try them at last!
Further on in the tunnel I saw someone in a boat! They said "Ahoy!" to me and I recognised them as Mr. Salvi! I asked him what he was doing in a boat down here. He asked me why I was home from school and I said "I guess I kinda dropped out!" and he said "oh dear...". He said this was his side hustle, as a junkman. He called it "Salvi's Salvage". I asked him if he wasn't mowing lawns anymore and he said he was still doing landscaping but he was also a "purveyor of fine goods for the discerning antique enthusiast.". He asked if I wanted to come along for a boat ride back into the tunnel and I said "Uh... sure!"
I noticed that when he speaks the font is a little bigger. Maybe he has a loud voice and is hard of hearing?
He said he needed a second pair of hands. I was a little nervous of this so I called out to the teens and told them I was going on a boat with him, probably to cover my back or something.
The scene changed to us in the boat in a dark place with no music. He was saying something about folks driving past between Fort Lucenne and Willow Grove and they liked going to antique shops out here. He summed this up as part of his side hustle.
I was impressed and asked him if they knew it was garbage. He retorted that it wasn't garbage and I said sorry. He said we were coming across something now.
We disembarked on what I called an island of garbage. He said my garbage was his priceless antique, once it was cleaned up a bit and told me to look for and find something. I asked him was this thing safe to walk on and he said yeah, that years of sediment and rocks and junk... I interrupted him here and laughed that he called it junk too! Then he got quiet.
I walked around on this very dark little island and found two things of interest. One was a garbage bed and the other was a garbage axe. I chose the axe! It was so big and axey :)
I could only take the one thing so I chose this axey axe. I showed Mr. Salvi the axe and he said it was a nice find! It looked like an old fire axe from somewhere. I called it an axe murderer garbage axe cheerfully and he said that yeah, you could conceivably murder someone with this, but you had to sharpen it first. I told him I will sharpen it and he asked me if was planning on murdering someone! I told him I kept my options open! Oh dear indeed!
The scene shifted back to sailing and another story from Mr. Salvi about a mower who ran over their own foot with the mower. I screamed in horror at this. He said that guy still comes to work but with a limp, that he's still gotta work. I was pretty glum on hearing this. :(
He then brought up the needing the second pair of hands thing. He wanted me to shine the light around on some bats to get them to scatter away from where he was going. He didn't like bats at all.
I shone the light on some bats and they scattered. He again said how much he didn't like bats and I said they were cute! He disagreed strongly! I asked if I could take a bat home and he said not on his boat, that he'd sooner swim back!
We came across another garbage island. He asked if I was gonna check it out and I said jokingly I was going to stay on the boat. Of course I was gonna explore! He laughed and said I was sarcastic like my dad :) I asked him if he still talked with my dad and he said he does, that he gets his meats from him once a week. He said that last autumn they and some of the lads from the factory days went up to Stuter's old hunting camp. I asked if they got anything. He said Ed Gress got a 6 point buck.
This island was considerably more dense with garbage than the first one. I had a choice between salvaging a coconut monkey and Dracula teeth. I decided "Blah!!!!" and took the Dracula teeth. I showed them to Mr. Salvi and he said that was a market that never went away. He advised against actually putting them in my mouth. I was a little too enthusiastic about them!
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