| ((Part Three, concerning Elsie Evens and Earnest | | | | reprimand Bryan, and Bryan would stand like a |
| Manning) (1920-2003)) | | | | statue listening, and the man or woman, or |
| She was a young white girl, and had a little ski | | | | whomever, was driving, would start back up the |
| jump for a nose and her hands were strong. Long | | | | road, Bryan would again grab that bumper. The |
| before the time during which I knew her (having | | | | boys just let him grab it, gave him a whirl of a |
| not been born yet), she was a meatpacker | | | | trip. |
| working at SWIFTS' slaughterhouse, in South | | | | He never really had a girlfriend, and when he did |
| Saint Paul, across the Mississippi River, from St. | | | | find one, got her pregnant, she left him, and he |
| Paul, Minnesota, and drove to work in a green | | | | went into his father's garage one day, started his |
| 1950-Chevrolet, owned by her longtime boyfriend, | | | | father's car up, locked the doors, laid under the |
| Earnest Manning, and they'd often go on long rides | | | | car's frame and went to sleep forever. Two |
| on the weekends through the streets of St. Paul, | | | | week before that, he asked Jesus in to his heart, |
| up by the North Shore, and thereabouts. She | | | | Chick Evens prayed that day with him. |
| never married him. Later on in life, after her | | | | For many years she acquired a few friends, |
| father Anton had passed on, and his monies left | | | | some from her childhood school years, others |
| for distribution, she had purchased the large house | | | | from work, but mostly it was family. Sometimes |
| they (Anton, Elsie and the two grandkids) had | | | | around Christmas, in a playful or talkative mood, |
| lived in, by giving up her portion of the inheritance. | | | | she'd tell about how she got paper dolls for |
| As a young girl she was quiet, hard working, had | | | | Christmas, it was all her father could afford. But |
| lived with her several sisters and brother in an | | | | she'd talk briefly on it; not wanting to blather on |
| orphanage after her mother had died in 1933 of | | | | old sentiments, like her Russian father, the |
| double-pneumonia. Her hair was darker brown | | | | laughter was short lived. |
| than light, and to many people she seemed very | | | | The story of Elsie Evens and her forty-year |
| stern, and strong and at times outspoken. | | | | courtship with Earnest Manning-(tall he was, with a |
| Everyone in the neighborhood wondered why she | | | | thin mustache, and hair combed back, which |
| never married Earnest, who also worked as a | | | | became-) of which she became his unspoken |
| painter like her father, and he worked out where | | | | companion, is a very curious story. It is at best |
| Elsie worked, at SWIFTS Meats. | | | | awkward, and at the same time delicious, in a |
| Her hands and knuckles were extraordinarily large | | | | way, like the twisted apple tree that grows |
| and had a rough and scaly surface, reddish with | | | | everywhichway, but produces nice sweet apples, |
| harsh looking scabs, due to allergies she assumed | | | | in the orchards of Donkeyland, she was the only |
| and the doctor assumed and called Eczema: a | | | | one perhaps so independent. Had it not been for |
| term for different types of skin inflammation | | | | Mr. Manning though, finding a house in his |
| (dermatitis). And it brought on a constant | | | | neighborhood for sale, for Tony-Chick Evens' |
| itchiness, forming the redness to near the bones; | | | | grandfather, to relocate, because the state had |
| at times dry as a desert well, irrupted by soaps | | | | ordered the old man off his own property, to |
| and detergents, cleaning products, lotions and | | | | build a complex of houses for the poor, the whole |
| creams. Once on a hot day in July, in 1987, she | | | | household would not have moved from Arch |
| prayed she said, and thereafter-now a new born | | | | Street over two miles to Cayuga Street. It was |
| Christian-forever more, she forgot all about having | | | | that simple. |
| Eczema, it had disappeared never to return: as | | | | The death of her father had set a train of new |
| would be the case to her forty-years of smoking | | | | ideas, and thoughts for Elsie she was now more |
| cigarette after cigarette. | | | | independent than ever before, perhaps not to the |
| Donkeyland had forgotten-or perhaps never took | | | | liking of Earnest. Her children now grown up, she |
| into account of-the older folks of the | | | | found a new passion. She talked to her passion |
| neighborhood, but they never bothered them | | | | and allowed no one to interfere, she became a |
| either, there was an unspoken code, you never | | | | born again Christian, and there was a strained |
| talked back to one of the parents of the gang | | | | eager quality in her voice to set things right with |
| members of which perhaps there were thirty or | | | | Him, between her relationship with Earnest in |
| more, or stole from them, or hurt them in | | | | particular. She told him, as plain as it could be told, |
| anyway, it was near to the unpardonable sin: the | | | | and as blunt, that if she had to pick between |
| seeds of something very awful. And as I say this | | | | Jesus Christ and him, it was Jesus, that either he |
| I must point out two occasions, and only two that | | | | was to marry her, or break the relationship off. It |
| I ever heard of: Reno one morning stole some | | | | wasn't as easy as it sounds, as I make it sound. |
| tools from Mouse, and it became so unbearable | | | | And in his eyes, he looked devastated, he was |
| for him to live in the neighborhood, he voluntarily | | | | ten-years her senior, and growing old quickly, |
| brought them back, but a scarlet mark was | | | | drinking picked up, and he died in 1990, perhaps |
| pinned on him forever (that was back when Reno | | | | three years after that statement, proclamation, |
| was starting to take drugs, alias, in time he'd be | | | | perhaps of a broken heart, and a swelled liver. He |
| sent to prison for that very reason, and that is | | | | just could not marry her, plus, his children of |
| where he'd die). The second case, was when | | | | which he had two were set on not letting the |
| Lorimar Williams brother, Bryan, tried to pull the | | | | money escape their presence. |
| air conditioner out of Anon Evens' house, Elsie | | | | In any case, the two had become different, no |
| spotted him as she came home from work. | | | | longer were they much alike, each other in their |
| Because of his mental deficiency, the police was | | | | own world you might say, and not much room |
| not brought into the case, and it was hushed | | | | for God and Darwinism. Earnest did say one |
| up-somewhat in the neighborhood. He was the | | | | prayer one day over the phone with Chick Evens, |
| clown of Donkeyland, I guess we all them. He'd | | | | and forgot he had said it a week later, he had |
| run after a car in the winter, any ole car, grab | | | | asked Christ into his life, and let's hope he meant |
| onto its bumper, and take a skiing ride up Cayuga | | | | it. |
| Street free, and when the car would stop, and | | | | |