Salvage Yard - Chapter 5

First Row: Skunky, Big Kitty, and Dozer

Second Row: Orange Kitty, Raccoon and Chickadee, and Little Kitty

Top: The Man  

C h a p t e r   5

Dozer heard the back door open, and light poured out in a big rectangle across the ground; the silhouette of the man cast within it. He peaked out of the entrance to his dog house.

Out came the man, staggering and singing, “May, oh May / You were mine, all mine / In happy times / Then you went away...” He repeated it in a more and more slurred version as he weaved back and forth across the path that led down to the car pile. Eventually he stopped at the bottom of the pile and looked up, swaying back and forth.

The big bottle was in his hand and about half empty. He raised it to his mouth and guzzled. Then he pulled the cap out of his pocket and twisted it on to the top of the bottle. With great effort, he pushed the bottle into the top of his large overalls.

In the next moment the man was climbing. There was an interesting method that he used. The system worked for him no matter what state he was in, and he knew it quite well by now. There were hand holds on the first couple crushed cars at the edges of their bumpers. He then raised his right leg and got a foothold on the dented window frame of the next car.

From there it was much easier. There were a few tires to struggle over and he slipped briefly sending two of the tires that were directly under the car tumbling down and into the yard. Dozer raised his head.

But undeterred, the man stepped the rest of the way up the tangled heap and to a steel set of beams that led right to the passenger's door of the blue car. He'd reached the summit. He fished around for the cable to plug into a DC socket he'd rigged to supply power from a battery down below. Opening the door, he climbed in the car and slid down to the driver's seat.

The car was tipped in that direction and the man was held by gravity against the driver's door. He clicked on the radio and turned it up as loud as he could. The music came blasting out; the oldies station, playing hits from the 1960's and 70's. Out came the bottle, and down went another guzzle. Then came the singing along with the radio. Dozer lowered his head onto his paws and tried to sleep through the din.

About an hour had past and the man was very excited, grabbing the steering wheel and pretending to drive. Occasionally he honked the horn which still worked fine. He rocked from side to side. He didn't notice that the car was slowly changing its angle. Each time he rocked to the right, the car – which had formally been held in place by the old tires that he loosened; the ones that fell to ground when he was climbing – straightened up. He was no longer pushed against the driver's door. And he laughed and hooted at being able to feel more like he was on the road.

However, the car KEPT tipping as the twisted frames of the cars below creaked and began to give way. He stopped singing and sat there staring forward at first and then looking from side to side. He made one little chuckle to himself and took another swig off the bottle.

That's when it happened. In a single motion, the car tipped heavily to the right, shifting its weight. He slid over to the passenger's side too, and said, “Ah Oh.....” That caused the car to slip down the pile with a series of heavy crunching noises. He put his arm against the window, but it shattered. This left his hand outside the vehicle while it crashed down sideways, pinning his wrist under the full weight of it, outside the window's edge.

He shouted out it pain. Dozer stood up and ran out of his dog house, but was stopped by the chain around his neck. The cord that supplied electric power to the radio was disconnected in the rubble and all was dark.

“Help!! Help me. Oh...PLEASE! Someone!” cried the man. Unfortunately he knew full-well that the location of his property at the end of a half mile long road placed him far out of the range for anyone to hear. He sobered up fast. Pulling as hard as he could, he was still not able to work his wrist out from between the car window and the sand below it. “HEEEEELP!!!” he screamed, but even that was muffled by the roof.

Many thoughts ripped through his fearful mind. He was totally alone. No one ever came to see him, even in the daytime, unless by appointment. So he really was stuck and out of luck. He was encouraged by the fact that he could still feel and even move his fingers a bit. Yet, the movement he had was in the wrong position to push his wrist up.

Dozer barked louder than he'd ever barked before. “Ruff!! RUFFF!! Ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff... RUFF!” Over and over he tried different patterns. Soon, both Orange Kitty and Little Kitty arrived at the dog house fully awake from all the racket.

“What's up, Dozer? What's wrong??” asked Little Kitty.

“The man, the man... He's in the old blue machine! It fell off the pile and onto its side! Looks like he's trapped inside, but I can't really tell from here.”

They all looked down the path at the blue car. They heard the man talking to himself and moaning. Then came a sight they hadn't seen in many days. Striding by the roof of the blue car walked Big Kitty, Little Kitty's former mate. He inspected the situation closely and then looked up the path to see the three other animals staring.

With a kind of unconcerned trot he traveled the path and stood in front of them. “So, you finally made friends with the dog huh?”

Orange Kitty spoke up first, “His name is Dozer, and we ARE now good friends. He helped save Little Kitty from a trap today, set by the man.”

“Well then! Looks like you got back at the man. He's in a bit of a trap himself I see,” said Big Kitty.

“No, no! We didn't have anything to do with that,” Dozer replied with a raised brow. “He was drinking from the bottle and...”

“Let me guess...” interrupted Big Kitty “...he got into the machine, singing away and it toppled over?”

“That's right,” said Dozer.

“That's not his only problem,” said Big Kitty. “I just walked right by and noticed his hand is stuck under it, with the machine's roof resting on it. I thought it was a glove at first, but then the fingers moved. He, ah, didn't sound very happy either.”

“I can't believe I'm going to say this after what happened today,” Little Kitty said hesitantly, “but, shouldn't we try to help him out?”

Orange Kitty whipped his stare toward her, “Are you serious?? Who knows what he would have done to you once he had you in the big cardboard box!? I think he deserves what he gets.”

“It seemed that way to me too, Orange Kitty. But then again, I remembered how scared I was in the trap; how hopeless I began to feel... I'll bet he feels even worse.” She sat down and her tail moved from side to side.

They stopped talking for a while. And down near the blue car they heard the man moan every now and then, “No....no....it can't end like this...it can't...” His voice was getting softer.

Dozer shook himself as if he'd been covered with water. “The man doesn't treat me well anymore, but he has brought me food every single day since I can remember. He and his mate adopted me from a big metal cage a long time ago, when I was just a pup. If he isn't around anymore, who will feed me? And since our deal this afternoon, Little Kitty, you won't get special food like the eggs I promised you.”

Orange Kitty was ready to agree with them, but it struck him suddenly that they were not exactly equipped to get the man out. “We are WAY too weak to move that machine, Dozer. Even if we wake up Skunky and Chickadee, who could find Raccoon, even then, even if we all pushed at once we wouldn't be able to move that machine...”

“I know,” said Dozer.

Skunky had slept through the whole affair. He still had time before he had to get up to get into the trash can before sunrise—but then he heard two notes. He turned over and was half awake. The two notes came again. He opened his eyes and through the darkness just outside his den hole, came the voice of Chickadee's mate, “Follow me,” it said.

“What?” He replied back into the night air. But all he heard was a fluttering. He got up and stretched, then worked his way up and out of the den. There were strange noises at the top of the embankment. He heard the two notes again, in faster procession.

He climbed up the embankment and over the edge, walked through the woods a little way and saw that Raccoon, with Chickadee riding on his head, was there to meet him at the edge of the woods.

They all made their way across the side yard and down into the back where the other animals were gathering and discussing something that sounded important, under the light of the open back door.

When they were all together, the cats and dog filled Skunky in on the situation. Skunky was even less inclined to help the man after being scared by the shiny tool that made that huge noise the afternoon before. But he came around to the idea of assisting after a very moving speech made by Little Kitty, and seconded by Dozer, who reminded Skunky that the man also “supplied” the food in the trash can each morning. This made an impression on Skunky.

“OK.” Skunky sat and thought. “What could we possibly do?”

They all fell silent again. Chickadee whispered something into Raccoon's ear, and they departed, Raccoon and his bird passenger, down the trail toward the blue car.

Skunky wanted to pace back and forth while he thought, but around Dozer's house were so many holes in the sand that he kept tripping and falling into them. After being frustrated by this and sitting in a particularly large hole, Skunky realized what might work. “Dozer!!” he yelled.

Dozer and the rest of them all turned around and looked at him. “What, Skunky?”

“Did you dig all these holes?”

“Of course. It's my other talent besides chasing Little Kitty.” He smiled.

“Dozer! That's the answer!”

Meanwhile, Raccoon had brought Chickadee right up to the car which lay on its side. She saw the hand under it. She whispered again to Raccoon, and after she flew up to the passenger's window, which was open and above the man, Raccoon turned and walked back up the path to join the other animals.

When he arrived in their presence, he heard Dozer saying “...It's great! It's a wonderful idea...but...I'm chained to my house!”

“So we just need to unchain you,” replied Skunky and he looked at Raccoon. Then they all looked at Raccoon.

Now, Raccoon never spoke but he understood things very well. He was smart and crafty, but best of all he had hands like the man. He could do things that paws just weren't able to accomplish. And when he caught the hint about what the others were proposing, he got to work on the latch that connected the chain to Dozer.

The man was now curled on his side and silent. Chickadee sang her two notes and he slowly looked up at her above him. Beyond her were the stars twinkling in the clear air. “Oh bird,” he said. “What have I done?”

She hopped down into the car and perched on the radio nob. “Man,” she said.

He looked at her, confused. “Now I am hallucinatin'...”

“No,” she said, “I am real and I have come here to tell you something.”

He moaned and shook a bit in the cold air. “Why? What have you got to tell me.”

“I spend much of my life in the sky. And when I'm way up there I sometimes hear things from far away.” She came down further and landed on a piece of crumpled dashboard. “They are voices; what I hear. And they come to me from a place beyond this world.” Tonight, when I flew up high to get a better view of what was going on in your yard, I heard one.”

The man moaned.

“You once had a mate.”

“Yes,” whispered the man, “May. She left me here in this messy world, when she went to heaven.”

“May spoke to me,” said Chickadee, and her voice began to change. It dropped in tone and became fuller. “She gave me a message to tell you.”

The man began to weep. “Oh...if it were only true...”

“IT IS.”

His eyes widened. That was no longer the voice of a little bird, but of a woman. It was so familiar; so gentle. “Whaa...howw?”

His eyes were blurred with tears, but he no longer felt the pain in his wrist. A light penetrated through every window of the car, even the one that pinned his wrist to the ground.

Looking around the car, he discovered that he was upright again. Bright green trees rustled in summer breeze outside, and he saw the figure of a young woman sitting in the driver's seat.

“Robert,” she said.

“MAY! Is it you? Is it really you?”

“Yes, honey. I can only stay for a few minutes." Her blonde hair swayed in the celestial sunshine of another world. Her soft white skin shone. She reached out and gingerly stroked his face with her delicate finger tips.

He began to sob. “May, my sweetest flower! You, with the butterfly eyes... Why did you leave me? Why did you have to go? I've...I've been so lonesome. You don't understand how dark the nights are...”

“Yes, Robert, I've watched you.”

“Oh...lord...I'm so ashamed. I've become bitter...mean.” Robert looked away.

She pulled his face back to her gaze. “Your heart was broken and the hope flowed out like warm water onto the icy ground. You looked for reason where there could be none.”

“I know. I know...” Robert's tears ran down his face and over her hand.

“You are about to be given a new chance to live again and it will come in a form you never thought possible, from those who you have overlooked, even mistreated.”

“What do you mean?”

“When this happens, when you are free again, will you do me a favor?”

Robert smiled. “Yes May, flower. Of course!”

She beamed her gaze into his eyes with an intensity and passion that he had forgotten she had the power to produce. “Learn to love yourself again. Learn to love yourself as I loved and still love you. And then share this love with those around you, even the littlest ones.”

“Yes, May,” Robert choked, “YES!! Of course! I will. I WILL!”

In a growing ocean of brilliant and sifting luminescence, shimmering with splashes of golden hues, followed by colors that flew around them and sang like birds, she said, “Then we will be together again; forever, in the Place where I live now. This, I promise you!”

“May! May, don't leave me again!” Robert cried. “Just stay a little while longer, May. Stay with me...”

A giant whooshing sound, like a mixture of wind and water swirled around them, as May was gradually absorbed back into the Light from which she had come. And before she faded away, he heard her say... “Love yourself as I have loved you.”

Gravity seemed to reassert itself and he was on his side again, shaking in the dark. He looked up at Chickadee—now re-framed by the stars in the window above her. And she spoke with her own voice, saying...

“It is only from the bottom parts of the world, where the rust of our past taints the waters of our present that we can truly appreciate the sky. When I am in flight I don't really see the sky. But I do see the world below. It is filled with action, struggle and danger.

“Please remember what you have seen this night. May is with you all the time. All creatures are ONE. All are ONE...Everything is ONE.

“You will eventually be with May again, but you have much more to do around this yard before that happens.”

The man smiled, “Thank you little bird. I am ready to change everything. I am ready to find...Everything.”

Chickadee bounced back up to the radio dial and then out of the window without looking back.

Raccoon fiddled and fiddled with the latch on the chain. The other animals stood around him in a circle and watched, mystified by how he could try so many different techniques for undoing the chain. Chickadee landed on his head and sang her two notes to the sky. She bent down and observed the chain carefully, then whispered in Raccoon's ear.

Raccoon stopped and stared off into space for a moment then blinked his eyes a few times, before looking back down.

Silence fell across the group, and then............. CLICK!!

Dozer shook off his chain and stood proudly, with his face illuminated by the light of the back doorway.

Then he dashed away down the path toward the blue car. He stood for a moment and cocked his head to the left and then to the right. That was all he needed to form a plan. Like one of the Robert's machines, but even faster, he dug and dug right next to Robert's hand. He saw the fingers move a little.

“Dozer?!!” called the man from behind the roof of the blue car. “DOZER!!! Good boy, good BOY!”

Dozer growled happily when he heard the man talking to him. It didn't take long for a large pile of dirt and sand, leaves and stones to form behind Dozer. Then he stopped, backed up, and started digging on the other side of Robert's hand. In no time that hole was excavated as well.

Then, ever so carefully, Dozer bent down and began to scrape the dirt out from under the hand, by digging sideways, from hole to hole. Finally he felt his foot break through one hole into the other and the dirt beneath Robert's hand dropped away, allowing him to pull it out. “Yay!!!!!!” shouted Robert – so joyfully that all the animals who had now gathered in a group around the car – shouted, each in his or her own way!

There was a lot of clunking inside the car as the man repositioned himself and then climbed up and out of the driver's side window above them. He held one hand with the other and beamed with the biggest smile down at the animals.

He had expected to only see Dozer there, but was delighted to see a crowd. Skunky raised up on his back legs and then stomped down hard on the ground. Big Kitty and Orange Kitty purred so loud everyone heard them. Raccoon clapped his hands. Two tiny songs played above them as chickadee and her mate flew and danced in the air. And Dozer ran around in circles, barking and howling.

Robert climbed down and stood among the celebrants. He noticed Little Kitty over by the bumper and looked at her with a warm smile. And she stood up and slowly walked to him. She started purring. She made a happy “brrrroooopp” sound and then rubbed up against and around his legs.

Robert reached down with his good hand and lifted her under her stomach, off the ground and up to his face. She nuzzled him and licked his cheek.

Just then the purple clouds in the distance turned to orange, then to gold, as the sun cast its first rays of the new day across the tips of the tallest pine trees.

“Let's all go inside and get somethin' to eat!” suggested Robert. “And I'll call the doc.” Behind him a parade of happy animals followed. They all went in through the back door, even the two birds.

In the weeks to come, Robert straightened up the yard. He raked the lawn and planted grass. He pulled out his old paint cans from the basement and painted his house in bright colors that reminded him of the ones he saw flying around May.

Over the summer, he made a long heated shed with a row of doors, where each of the animals could have his or her own space. He even added extra doors in case any other ones came to stay. He filled the shed with soft dry hay and set down blankets. There were bowls for each animal and he fed them all every single day. For Little Kitty every Sunday morning he left a delicious cheese omelet.

Of course any of the animals were certainly allowed to come inside Robert's house and visit any time they wanted, because he made a big swinging door on the back and a mud room space so the cold wouldn't get in.

On winter evenings they would all sit around the living room and enjoy the man's singing. With her mate, Chickadee remained as the translator.

The seasons came and went. And each year the yard grew more beautiful, as he slowly divested himself of the old metal, tires, batteries, plastic and other scrap.

Even the old blue car was given to a young man named Rick who often came to help Robert do maintenance around the yard and who lived at the other end of the long street. Rick fixed it up to mint condition.

When Rick graduated from High School, Robert gave him enough money to pay for his whole first year at college, where he met a lovely girl...named...June. They married and bought some of Robert's land. There, inspired by Robert's story, they started a refuge for animals, and they called it: “Salvage Yard.”

* * *

“It is only from the bottom parts of the world,

where the rust of our past taints the waters of our present,

that we can truly appreciate the sky....”

CHICKADEE—SALVAGE YARD

* * *