Wings of Heaven (standard:Inspirational stories, 3493 words)
Author: stanley mcqueen kentucky backwoods writer	Added: Apr 12 2007	Views/Reads: 3546/2360	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
written with spirtual intent

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

any common garden, I cleared this patch of ground just to grow food he 
brags” he picked a hand full of green beans and show me how pretty they 
was growing here. Now boy I want to show you my pride and joy he said 
looking excited like at what he was going to show me,, where is your 
pride and joy at I asked “ just around the woods away not awful far 
come on he said “ follow me, I followed as he requested and we come 
soon to a pen like structure, inside the old slabbed up pen I looked 
and there was more possums than I would have ever dreamed was in Muddy 
Fork country.. What on earth are you doing with all them possum pens up 
like fatting hogs would be kept..I asked”do you eat them I added? Mercy 
no boy they are my little friends.... you know what they got a good 
life I bring then food that I carry from the township boarding house 
kitchen slop, miss turner gives me plenty of scraps enough to fed them 
proper , look how bulging their sides are they are mud fat he laughed a 
sissy laughed..it get awful lonesome boy here all the time when im by 
myself he explained” well they are my little buddies and they seem to 
enjoy my feeding them, They got there living made they are fat and lazy 
and I get a new of new possum along he brags, I think I have about 
seventy-five in all it's hard counting them rascals he admits”well I 
never seen as many possums in my born day I informed him, Well Boy I 
know you t best person I ever meet in these parts, everyone else make 
fun of me and laugh and calls me old crazy names and such' but not you 
boy your kind to me and im grateful to have made friend with the likes 
of you he tells me and looks humble at me..What about Tom I asked? how 
you meet him? Well what is so strange boy...”. “is im the only one that 
can see poor old Tom, he is always following me ever where I go and 
helps me find junk piles and such.. He is a kind soul like you, he 
never makes fun of me and he talks to me and keeps me company sometimes 
he don't show up here in the morning and I have to travel alone, but he 
comes pretty often don't you Tom he asked” a invisible Tom that I 
cannot see ...Tom said' he likes you boy and he said that you was a 
good fellow in his book he added ‘ smiling” you asked how im meet old 
Tom he said” well one morning he just come up walking up the path there 
and said “ howdy and we got to be good friend and you know what? boy I 
like Toms' company..” If you can come up here tomorrow I will show you 
something that most folks have never been even close to he before he 
changed the subject from Tom...what that I asked” boy I have a eagle  
friend that roasted on that far ridge there he points to a ridge that 
lays west of where we are now. And he talks to me and I take him dead 
mice that I kill in the woods just to fed him.. You mean too tell me he 
can talk with a voice like a human can I asked” yes he sure can he told 
me that someday he was going to carry me off this old ridge and take me 
to a place where people eat out of pretty shindy plates and have nice 
clothes  to wear and fancy big setting chairs to set in and the likes 
he said” he sure told me that boy for sure he added” well I never heard 
of and Eagle speaking like a man would speak I confessed” it's the 
truth Boy he tells me things and I listen to him , he is a beautiful 
bird , he explained” so if you would please meet me tomorrow and I will 
take you over to see him for yourself he advises me” I don't have to 
work tomorrow and I be pleased to go see you friend the Eagle, as for 
now I must hurry on off this ridge toward home it almost Milking time 
and I have to help paw milk the cows ever evening I said: knowing that 
is was getting late and would not be long till dankness fell, I said:” 
good bye to the old man and hurried home. That next day was Saturday 
and I help paw milk and headed off to the ridge where I was to meet the 
old man and he was up there beside his shack and has two mice in a 
little sack which I supposed he was going to fed the eagle ,we headed 
off toward the ridge that we around here called copperhead point I 
dreaded to tread along those old rocky places going up there knowing 
that paw has always told me that this point was full of poison snakes. 
We walked probing along with two large sticks that we had cut for 
threshing poles so we might run the shakes off before we might step on 
, it was a long scarey walk up there but we finely made it to the Hugh 
rocky bluff overhangs, this looks like a copperhead breeding ground I 
tell the old man .. Don't   fear  snakes boy just keep a keen eye and 
we will be fine he promised? We waited at the base of the bluff and I 
was getting impatient on waiting for the bird that he said could talk 
like a person, and soon I heard the sound of the screech of and eagle, 
and then it form appeared bo be coming our of the west it soured above 
us for quite a while and circled like it was looking for prey.. The it 
happen the large bird swooped toward a tree that was near by where we 
were standing and it come to gentle landing not fifty feet from where 
we was standing, I told you Oliver it was friendly with me see there 
for yourself it like me it trust me because I fed it good fat mice he 
declares” but it probably want come any closer because you're a 
stranger and all he explained” he takes the two  dead mice from the 
brown sack and tossed the two mice toward where it was perched, the 
giant Eagle was so pretty setting there and the sun was making it 
feathers glisten in the sunlight, I had never been this close to one of 
these native birds of Muddy Fork county and to me this was quiet a 
treat, Old crazy York as he was called seem to have a way with animals 
and him hearing Bird talk was something I was having a hard time 
believing for the most part, and him being sort of off in his head 
might  be that he just thinks the Eagle talk to him is what im 
thinking, he stands there and admires the pretty bird that he calls one 
of his best friend, and also has promised him to be carried away from 
this place to another place where men eat out of fancy shindy plates, 
and wear fancy clothes and such and smoke big expensive cigars, this 
was strange that he would have told me about such doings.. The eagle 
swooped down and retrieve the two mice one at a time and the flew, away 
with one big screech and then it set a course north away from where we 
was standing.... What you think now Boy he said” right proud , well 
York you have a way with critters and such and I don't know how you do 
the likes of this but it seems like they are drawn to you somehow and I 
would not try to even explain at all I said” to him 

we headed back the way we had come into this thick ridge country and I
continued to watch for copperhead snakes, York talks  to Tom his 
invisible buddy , and asked me to take a break because Tom cant walk to 
far at a time without getting tuckered out... I just humored him and 
went on like Tom was with us and a real person like we were, and he 
told me that Tom had taken a liking to my good kind manners and that 
Tom thought I was a good young man, I told him to thank Tom for the 
bragging on me , and he said Tom said”your welcome...it just two day I 
had taken a liking to York he was just misunderstood by the folks here 
in Muddy Fork.. But I saw him as just a old man that suffered a blow to 
his head probably by some robbers a long time back and had suffered 
brain damage,, he was a sad case for the most part not knowing his past 
or kin folks or anything about himself was pitiful... When we got back 
to the main wagon road and was going to part to each our own ways, he 
said something to me...boy its been a pure pleasure getting to know you 
and sharing my animals and junk and stuff with such a nice young gent 
as you and boy I know that this will be the last time I will see you , 
because ,I'm thinking that I going to die very soon, I feel awful bad 
he said” and I do expect to die soon, and boy not much will be gone 
just and old man without a past is all ,, maybe you will feel better 
after a rest at your shack I said” maybe so he replied and we parted 
with a good bye.. It was about three days when I got the news from the 
lady that run the boarding house in the small township of Muddy Fork .. 
York had not been to get possum slop and she got worried about him and 
sent the county sheriff to ride up to his shack and check on him , and 
the sheriff found him setting in that old rocking chair slumped over 
dead... When I got the news of him dying , there come a grave sadness 
upon my heart , I could hear his voice in my head saying someday the 
eagle is going to carry me away to a place where men eat out of fancy 
shiny plates and smoke cigars and wear good clothes and such,, I I 
asked paw for enough lumber to build him a pine box and paw give me 
leave to use good cherry wood that was seasoned and was laying over the 
bottom rails of our barn shed. He deserved a good box and a good 
funeral and I was aimed to see he got one , I rode to the rev shack and 
told him that I wanted him to say good words over York corpse, he said 
yes he would be happy to preach his funeral, he told me that York had 
helped him at his farm for many years and that he always treated him 
good , because he knew his mind was lacking, I rode into Muddy Fork and 
spent ten dollars on a suit to be put on him and they had his body laid 
out at the boarding house parlor, me and molly shed his old ragged 
clothes and washed him in the big boarding house tub and she shaved his 
beared and we clothed him and got some help putting him in the pretty 
cheery coffin.that I had made        with my own hands, he looked to be 
a younger man laying there in the box with a clean face and a new suit 
on him,,, he looked at peace and I was comforted in my heart that I had 
done these deeds for him... he was a short time friend but a friend, 
who I new I would never forget him.. Sadness is a terrible things and 
grief is akin to sorrow, I had never lost anyone that I love to death 
and this was the first for me,.... it was on the next day that his body 
was laid on paw corn wagon and paw and I hauled him to the graveyard 
point to have his funeral, many of the goose rock saints follow our 
wagon walking to the graveyard point where the dead of Muddy fork was 
laid ... the good rev was among us to preach over his funeral...yes it 
was blue sad day for me , knowing I would never see him on this side of 
life again .. The Rev was preaching and the coffin was on boards over  
the grave when , from the south I hear the screech of and eagle , and 
the eagle come closer and closer and then.,  It circled and circled 
then it soured over where York coffin laid . Then it closed it wings 
and made a graceful dive and swipe the top of the closed coffin with it 
powerful claws... then it make big wings flaps that carried it mightily 
up and away from whence it come,... then my mind goes back to what York 
had told me ...that some day the eagle would take him away from the 
ridges to where a man sets at a big full dinner table full of food and 
he eats from fancy shiny dishes, after seeing that happen before my 
eyes now my hurt in my heart gone away .. Because the wings of heaven 
has carried my friend up and away from his  life miserys and to..that 
end im happy for him and glad... That next day I went to the possum 
pens and let all his possum out so they could fend for themselves and 
be free to find food for themselves, then as I was headed back off the 
ridge I took one more looked at the broken old rocking chair that York 
had said was a king chair , and you know what it was just as he said a 
king chair.. He is was the king..........the end 


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