CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

March 11: Sarcophagus Returned_Free Read_827 word count

         The U.S. Government has successfully repatriated an apparently stolen artifact to its country of origin: Egypt. A formerly unidentified sarcophagus was caught by an alert and clever Miami Customs Inspector, who noticed its lack of documentation and reported it accordingly.





http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/north/US-Returns-Ancient-Sarcophagus...























This morning I completed The Phantom Logging Operation, one day short of three months since I began it on Dec. 12. That's WAY too long . A novel per month is much better. Karen Wiesner, a prolific author in multiple genres, recommends “first draft in 30 days,” and in fact, has written a book for Writer's Digest Books, entitled:

First Draft in 30 Days: a novel writer's system for building a complete and cohesive manuscript, published 2005.








From The Phantom Logging Operation

Chapter 42

         Nothing would do now, but that I confront Testament Corporation, after first locating an attorney who would be willing to go to bat for me on this. I pulled the pocket spiral from my pocket and reached for a pen on the table, then started on a new list, headed “URGENT.” First, in the morning drive to Collins Junction, find a bank other than the one holding the account to which the Testament lease remittance fees were paid (the First Stoneforth Bank & Trust of Collingham County), and open a new checking and a new savings account. Second, go to First Stoneforth Bank and remove almost all of the funds within my Savings account there, and then deposit them in the two new accounts, mostly in the Savings to draw interest.





         Second, I would ask around in the Junction to discover if any other attorneys specializing in civil practice and estates were located there. If not, I would have to expand my search, but for certain, tomorrow I would find a lawyer. Likely not in Madison Mills, true enough, since Testament Logging Corporation was headquartered there; but I would go as far as Kenosha if I must. That would be mean an overnight stay; but if Attorney Benton Squires was the only one in the Junction, and Madison Mills' spate of attorneys proved to be all hand-in-pocket with Testament, I would just have to go farther afield. It would be worth it, just to spit in the eye of Testament Logging Corporation and to break its purported putative control of my life.





         I needed to find an attorney right away to record a new Will for me. But tonight, I could write up a holographic will. I had no witnesses, but hopefully it would tide me over until I could locate an attorney tomorrow who had no ties to Testament. Perhaps I could get Todd to witness it tomorrow-no, Todd was too bound to Testament, for jobs the Tow Division pulled in. Testament paid him way too highly, above and beyond the work actually done, to ever think he would block them. Now I was even beginning to ponder whether he had hired me for weekends and part-time on weekdays, not because of my sterling diesel mechanic abilities and the glowing reference recommendation letter from Joe Burton of Joe's Garage in Urbana, but because I was, all unbeknownst to me, currently Testament Corporation's pet duck.





         Clearly finding and reading my purported Last Will and Testament had had the effect the County Tax Assessor's notices, the plat maps, and dealing for the past week in the Land of the Dead had not: my innocence was destroyed, my eyes had been opened, and now cynicism ruled. I wondered what my Mamma would say about all this, then I remembered that Mamma must have known something of it, maybe a lot of it or even all of it, because quite obviously  I could not have been Testament Corporation's only fair-haired boy. I was not born until February 1930, and the first instance of my name being used or my signature being forged was February 1932, when I just turned two. So clearly Daddy-or maybe even Mamma-had to have been Testament's choice of pets, before me.





         Although there were still many sets of papers to read through, I knew now that tomorrow would be a very long, very emotionally difficult day. I remembered that I also needed to contact somebody to exhume Mamma's casket in Champaign and move it here to the old Calhoun Family cemetery. I would need to see the Seventh Day Adventist pastor in the Junction about performing a memorial service at the grave for the re-interment. I had originally thought to ask Attorney Squires to handle the exhumation, transfer, and re-interment, but that was now out of the question. Perhaps I would even have to drive back to Champaign to file papers there with the County, requesting Mamma's exhumation and transfer. I really hoped not; but I would do whatever I had to, in order to return her to the family plot. For my beloved Mamma I would do what I needed to do, no matter how difficult or trying.