So This Is How The World Will End: by Rick Castro 5/5/2020
auntie nicky's dormant cabin
The crows have taken over my auntie Nicky’s cabin.
I can see them fly onto the eves, then ... where do they go? They disappear into the dormant palatial ski lodge, abandoned and forgotten for thirty years.
My vantage point to view this phenomena is from my cousin Minguini’s, (not his real name) shed. He hooked it up just for me to use whenever I want to connect WiFi. The shed is cool. It has a comfy day bed, cute discarded furniture and a fridge!
cousin minguini's shed- auntie nicky's cabin right background
I’m here pretty much everyday, even though my sister is right next door. She arrived yesterday morning unannounced. When I went over to greet her, she wouldn’t open the door. The excuse is I might be contagious, but she never said that. I tried to call her at the beginning of the plague, and she wouldn’t take my calls. Reluctantly she’d text a couple days later. I texted about using her WiFi, she said she didn’t know the password. Now I’m asking her in person behind a screen door and her non-response is, “oh, I’ll have to find it.” I will not be asking again, in fact I’m through with her. As my therapist said; “when she remarried, she made her decision.”
I am now making mine.
So once again, even though my sister & her Christian-cult husband are right next door, I am at my cousin Minguini’s shed on his WiFi. Looming to the West is auntie Nicky’s abandon cabin. It is huge, like a desert Manderley without Mrs. Danvers. Weathered and ashen the wooden estate sits there like a stubborn old broad in the glaring sun.
Where are these crows going? I fantasize breaking in and discovering a huge cabin full of birds! Like Tippi Hedren in the Hitchcock classic, they attack me, but Rod Taylor isn’t here to save me.
Ok my curiosity has reach the point of a cat. I want to see what the crows are up to. Over the years there are rumors that Nicky’s cabin is rat infested. Is it also crow infested? I have to find out. I walk over to the fence separating Minguini’s property to auntie Nicky's. If I was younger I could scale it, but I am too old now. I will fall and break my neck. I’m also wearing those flimsy pony hair slippers I had repaired in Hesperia a while ago. Remember? I wrote about it HERE- These slippers are not made for 60something old men scaling chainlink fences.
Ok, I’ve found a tall chair and metal folding chair, this should do the trick… Nope, too precarious. Ok, I’ve found a step ladder, I am set! Nope still too short. Since I threw my back out a few years ago I am extra cautious. I know! I'll walk over to the West side entrance. From what I remember, the gap may be wide enough for me to slither through.
I walk down Minguini’s long driveway making my way down the road to the West side entrance of Nicky’s abandoned cabin. There’s the gate… Nope I’m too fat to fit thru this, even though I recently lost 25 lbs, I would need to loose another 50 lbs to get thru this narrow gap.
Awww there’s a cute little bunny…. and look where it went! Underneath the fence in a sandy wash. The bunny is now inside Nicky’s property! I follow the bunny’s clue and flatten myself as much as I can and slide under the fence. The hot sand feels good against my chest. I am in! I am now wandering the property of auntie Nicky’s haunted ski lodge. It is amazing… so still… I have all these memories, looking at them now they’re dead. Frozen in time. The cabin is so weathered, but I remember it in its full glory. I remember the huge fireplace with open bricks every so often. This confused me, until Uncle Mike explained the openings created more heat. I remember one winter we were all at Nicky & Mike’s cabin. The fire was raging. It was so toasty. All of a sudden a huge flaming log rolled out of the fireplace and onto the rug. Without hesitation uncle Mike picked up the flaming log and threw it back into the fireplace. That was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen to date.
Sorry, I got lost in nostalgia. I follow the bunny and now I am standing in front of Nicky’s cabin. Suddenly there are two black crows, they are huge! They fly away in anger, cawing at me that I have invaded their territory. As I get closer I see the most spectacular thing I’ve seen in a longtime. A large crow’s nest with at least two crow chicks, (is that what they’re called?) maybe more. The nest is huge and messy. It looks soooo……. occult. Like a massive omen looming in the late afternoon sun. I am mesmerized. It is not often I see something I’ve never seen before. I’ve never seen this before. I take a picture, then feel like it’s sacrilegious to do so. Not in a religious way, more like in an invasion of privacy way. The crow chicks look so vulnerable.
I decide to give them their privacy. I wander down back to the sandy wash where I entered, and there is the bunny! He isn’t afraid of me, its like he was waiting for me. He doesn’t move at all. He knows me, (maybe it’s reincarnated auntie Nicky!) he knows my soul. I slide back under the fence of auntie Nicky’s mystical property and I am back in the real world. The parent crows are across the road perched ontop a telephone pole, waiting to see what I would do, and I did nothing. I only observed and learned.
I remember a commercial when I was a kid…. something like, “It's not nice to fool mother nature.” I didn’t and she accepted me. Now back to my mundane Christian sister & brother-in-law neighbors, invading my privacy and the sanctuary of Bee’s cabin.
So this is how the world will end.
copyright- rick castro- 5/2020
my sister's christian-cult cabin
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