Snake by Shrineheart on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Grandad wasn't himself today. He was really upset about something. Something a nurse said to him. He'd been ranting all day, causing trouble, throwing things, bickering, being a real nuscience. Refused to see mom and dad, even Katie, only wanted to talk to me.

He wouldn't tell me what the nurse said directly, just kept going on about time. Time and how it doesn't stop, even if the watch stopped. He was really freaking out. I sang Edelweiss to him, something we used to do together at family reunions...it seemed to help. When he finally calmed down, he started doing that thing he does, like he's talking to me but not talking to me at the same time. It's like he's having two conversations and can't keep them straight.

He started talking about those clockmakers again. The ones he knew when he was a kid. I never met them, hell, I haven't even seen pictures of them. He's always talked about them though. How good they were at their work, how wise they were, how much they taught him. He talked about the war today too...which was weird...

I mean, he's talked about it before but this time...

He's never told me what happened to the clockmakers he knew. Always vaguely mentioned that they had died at some point, but that was all. But today...he started crying. He was really choked up, told me that two had died on the trip to America and that the others had worked with him here. Which is REALLY weird, since no one in the family knows who he's talking about. Dad doesn't remember anyone, he thinks that they're some craftsmen he knew early on in New York. But Grandad seemed pretty firm that he'd kept in touch with these guys all the way up til the 80's.

THEN he started talking about machines. Like, the ones from the war. Now, I've seen walkers before, who hasn't? There's only one in like, every museum you visit. But he was talking about something else. The kind of things you see in the old vet journals. Creepy things with human skulls and bones...

While he's talking, he pulls out this journal, shoves it at me and has me look through. At this point I'm missing half of what he's saying cause he keeps slipping into German. Doctor says that's from his age and the heartattack more than anything else. The journal was just as bad, half German, half English, and all kinds of confusing. It was pretty old too, I mean, most of it was from the 80's and 90's. There were these sketches of watches, skylines, and these recurring sketches of dolls. The same few dolls over and over and over again, in different poses, with different faces... It was pretty damn creepy at first but, they looked really alive, like they were people in doll suits. They had distinct looks and expressions. Then I get halfway through the book and we're back to the creepy shit. I MEAN REALLY CREEPY SHIT THIS TIME.

This page just freaked me right the hell out. I mean, he has all of these pages with these happy go lucky little dolls and the next thing I know there's just page after page after page of them lying in very DEAD looking positions and this SNAKE THING. Grandad was bawling by this point. I shut the journal and sang to him again to calm him down. When I tried to give him the journal back he refused and said something that really got to me, "Nein, bitte. Take it, take them, Brandon. They are yours now." After that he seemed to go off again and went back to talking about yesterday's applesauce like none of it had happened. When I tried to mention it or ask, he just didn't seem to hear me. He saw Mom, Dad, and Katie after that and did fine.

But that really bothered me. What did he mean -they- are mine? They who? The dolls? The stories? That's what the journal seems to be. My German's not the best but it all seems to be anecdotes about these clockmakers with pictures of the dolls.

Makes me think of my psychology teacher and what he's said about people becoming emotionally attached to objects. Maybe this is Grandad's way of going through some trauma from the war or something? I don't know. I didn't show Katie though, it's probably freak her out. Didn't show Mom or Dad either. I don't really want to give them any idea Grandad might be violent or something, cause he's not. He's just old...and sick...

And he probably won't be around much longer...

Brandon Schultz Boston, MA January 2006

^ A little Back Story for Rag N Bone.