by Paul Harding, 2009
Finished as fast as I could – like abstract art – all over the place, written like his notes of nature while on acid. It did have a main story in between the “trips.”
A man is dying of cancer – laying in his living room – memories of his father, an epilectic, who left them because his wife was going to have him committed. He was a loving, gentle, creative man who sold pans, brushes, soap, etc. on his wagon over the dirt roads of Maine. He never made much money. He thought his wife loved him but she was a cold-hearted woman – couldn’t stand him or their 5 kids. He moved one night to Philadelphia – sold his horse and wagon, started as a bag boy, met a wonderful woman who loved him, married him, and helped him in his seizures-took him to a good doctor and his seizures all but stopped. In 1953, he went to visit his grown-up son.
This son is the one who is dying of cancer – and as he dies, he remembers his father. This son, George, was a tinkerer – clock repairer, loved all his clocks. Set in 1900’s (early).