Another Two Old Gents

Once I grew used to the idea, it would still be hard for me to get to know the two old gents who replaced the two who had gone. There always had been two old gents populating the bench outside Blackwoods Supermarket – near the Town hall car park – opposite the Bookworm bookshop – all in a town that tried to be a village.

The previous two old gents had occupied that bench for it seemed forever – at least two decades just by my reckoning alone. Most of the time, they hardly grew older than they originally were.

The town went on day by day, with little change. Mrs Clark of the local Blackwood family, with the ear of each recurring holder of Mayoral office, was a stickler for keeping all change at bay. And shop signs were kept in position even when the shops using them had changed completely. Some called it laziness, others the credit crunch – but any change seemed to be a badness in itself whatever the bigger badness that the change may have changed into a goodness.

So when – overnight, as it were – the two old gents that had long held fort outside the supermarket in sedentary male gossip changed into two completely different old gents, I was perhaps the first to notice. My philosophy of life involved things staying the same by only changing gradually....so gradual, in fact, the changing was barely perceptible. So, here my sense of accustomed reality was challenged.

As witness, I was not alone for long. The Bookworm proprietor came out with the usual array of cheapies to stack outside in all weathers. He double-took the bench opposite with the two new old gents sitting on it. He then looked at me – triangulated, as I was, beside the car park entrance in relation to him and the two gents together as one.

But not an unchanged tableau for long. Mrs Clark, now squaring the set piece, was soon spotted scowling beside her Austin Mini.....all of us as if in an ancient sepia photograph being taken by an unseen onlooker who is new to the town.

From Blackwoods Supermarket comes the Undertaker in front of the first of two cheap coffins upon the shoulders of faceless procession.

Written today and first published here

Summary of DFL's Readings Aloud

SUMMARY OF DFL READINGS:
CARETAKER: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=57&page=1
MY GIDDY AUNT: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=37&page=1 - Published in Year's Best Horror Stories 1992
SNAIL TRAIL: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=23&page=1 - Abridged by Amy Ewbank
THE HOUND by HP Lovecraft: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=22&page=1
THE TELL-TALE HEART by Edgar Allan Poe: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=25&page=1
DOWN TO THE BOOTS: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=24&page=1 - Published 'Dagon' 1989 and 'Shadows Over Innsmouth' 1994
MELTDOWN: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=27&page=1 - First published in 'The Starry Wisdom' book (1994)... foreshadowing the 2009 global meltdown?
WATCH THE WHISKERS SPROUT: First published: 'Cthulhu's Heirs' (Chaosium Press 1994) Republished: 'Weirdmonger' (Prime Books 2003) http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=33&page=1
UNCLE ABSOLUTELY: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=34&page=2
CELLIANO: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?action=play&catid=2&linkid=44&page=1
ECLAIRCISSEMENT (poem): http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?linkid=46&catid=2
CANDLE DREAMING: http://www.ligotti.net/local_links.php?catid=1&linkid=56
----------------
PUBLIC READINGS:
THE GRINAGOG: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1585
THE PROVENANCE OF SOULS: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2778
GRASS: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=677
TUGGING THE HEARTSTRINGS: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1794
WORK NOT STRICTLY DONE, BUT NO FURTHER ATTEMPTS WILL BE MADE: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1208
THE MISSING ARROW: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=811
GRASS (2) or THE MISSING ARROW (2): http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=814
BUILD A CHARACTER: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2615

Regarding the links below, please download from yellow bar at the foot of the page as shown. Please let me know if this presents a problem.
The Brainwright (1990): http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah81a60/n/VN650137_WMA
Snail Trail: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah80985/n/VN650019_WMA
Bloodbone: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah805g3/n/VN650031_WMA .
The Piano: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah80501/n/VN650032_WMA.
Small Fry: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah8052c/n/VN650036_WMA.
Egnis: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah8054f/n/VN650041_WMA .
Padgett Weggs: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah8055a/n/VN650085_WMA.
When I was An Old Man: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah80559/n/VN650086_WMA
The Tallest King: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah80567/n/VN650108_WMA
In Unison: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah80572/n/VN650139_WMA

NOTE: Reading aloud of my novel THE HAWLER: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_hawler_read_aloud.htm