A Stormy Night
The building Lowell let us stay in was the General Store that his father owned in his old town. It was the most special one in the entire Red Oak II. Inside the store was a large open hall and in the back of the store was a storage room and a small bathroom. There was no shower but a sink and toilet was more than good enough for us. I washed my face and hands in the sink and wiped the rest of my body with a damp towel. A whore's bath, Lowell had told us that was the name for it. I have to say whore's bath was very refreshing for me.
A patch of grass would've been plenty for us, but a whole store building to stay in? We became a staying-over guest from mere passer-by's and we were inside s store building in Missoura. Lowell liked to separate the lower part of Missouri from the North and called it 'Missoura.' In the corner, there was a wood stove and tables that looked as old as the building itself. Sumi and I put our laptop on the round table and started to write our travel log.
'Today, we enter deep into our journey. I started to feel this sometime today, then suddenly….' I wrote this and suddenly, for sure, it started to really pour with gusts of wind. The roof was rumbling and walls made squeaking noise. The ceiling went dop-dudop-duddadop. The window panes were clattering, and the walls went kwikity-kweek. The romantic mood abruptly turned into eery feeling.
"You know, in movies, the towns people come to 'take care of' the outsiders at nights like this, holding all sorts of farm tools in hands." I said half-jokingly.
"That's actually scarier than ghosts." Sumi said curling in her shoulders.
"Right. The ghosts disappear in the morning, but people being territorial continue on during the day."
"Remember 'Deliverance'? They encounter terrible local people. So scary."
Suddenly, the front door swang open. We looked up in surprise. There was someone standing at the doorway and looking in our direction.
We also stared him in silence. For a while, we were lost for words. If we were in our house, we would say, 'Who is it?' But we were in someone else's empty building. It actually took some time to think up what to say. Most of all, I had to summon my poor English grammar and began saying, "We…. arr… tra…vel..er… so, ….." But Sumi said in simple, precise and fluent English that we were visiting and Lowell had let us stay the night here. The person standing at the door said that he was Rose's son and he thought it strange to see lights on in the empty building. He then said good night and left. It must be also unusual that someone stayed in this building over night. I admit, it is pretty strange thing to ask to stay for the night at someone's house in this day and age. We finished writing down brief description of today's journey and lied down on the sleeping bag spread on the floor. The old ceiling panels were visible in sight and it became special again that we were staying here.
"It's pretty amazing that we're sleeping here. Don't you think so, Sumi?"
"Yeah, I know. It's pretty, this building. I like that old wood stove, too."
"The building squeaking also makes me think there's something about this place."
"What about this place?"
"Spirits. Ghosts are shaking the panels one on each panel, right?"
"I know! There were religious fanatics lived here and they killed people while doing some sort of exorcism, then buried the bodies underneath this building. That's why there're evil spirits roaming around here."
"Wait. Should I bring the camp axe from the car? Shouldn't we have something with us?"
"No, Jingoogk, we shouldn't do that."
"Why not?"
"You know that's how people get killed, one by one. While you are gone, something could happen to me, then you. Besides, how can I tell after you're back, if it's really you?"
"You're right. Let's pick a password. Shinkyo-dong! The town we lived when we were in Korea."
"You can't say that out loud? The ghosts already heard you."
"Uh, um. No, no, we said it in Korean. Zombies and ghosts here use English."
"Okay. Then go. Bring me some chips and peanuts, will ya?"
"Where are they?"
"You look around. They should be somewhere behind the driver seat."
"Sumi, I think I better stay. We shouldn't be apart, as you said. Let's hold together tight and go to sleep."
I closed my eyes for a long time but didn't fall asleep. I had been fighting with the squeaking of walls for some time, then I began to feel sleepy. But soon enough, the rattling of the windows woke me up. This whole process repeated several times. There was a thunder in a distance. Whenever the lightning hit, the inside of the building brightened up like in daylight. Flash! One, two, three, four, five…. Craacckkk! Five miles. Sumi opened her eyes. She mustn't've been asleep. Splatt! We started counting together. "One, two, three…" Kaboom! Three miles. Again, splatt! "One, tw…" Boom! One mile. And then? Sumi and I prepared ourselves.
Splaaattt!! Kaboooomm! Lightning hit right above our heads, and the noise ripped the sky apart. Simultaneously, the front door split open, letting the bright light and rain spears pour in. If there was a dark figure standing in the doorway, it would definitely have been an evil spirit, but there was nothing outside the door. Another lightning struck but no evil spirit or terrible townspeople came. Only rain and wind rattled the door noisily. A thought crossed my head, 'Who is going to close that door?' Now that the inside the blanket was all warm and cozy, I didn't want to get out to close the door. If there would've been a scary ghost, I would've asked it to do it for me. A terrible group of townspeople that despise outsiders didn't come by here when we needed them. It was four in the morning and no one out walking around in this storm. I had to get out of the blanket eventually and put the latch across the front door.
When I laid back down, thunder, lightning, wind, windows rattling and the possible corpses underneath the floor still made me feel uneasy. As the thundering subsided and the rain and wind dissipated, I slowly fell asleep. If Lowell hadn't let us stay here, we would've been camping outside in this storm….. zzzzzz.
Cock-a-doodle-do!
This time, the sound of a rooster had woken me up. Seven ten. The donkey that brayed eeee-ahhh until late at night was quiet. He must not be an early riser. Outside the front window of the store only showed calm and serene landscape with no trace of the storm from last night.
Morning in Missoura
The sky that the storm recently passed still looked gray, but the ground was shining and moist making it more vibrant than under the midday sun. Old car, old airplane, metal sculpture and old building…. the sight from yesterday was added with the trees and plants that are refreshed, the town of Red Oak II began to stir and started growing more beautiful than the day before.
The weather in the Midwest seemed unpredictable. The vast flat land has no peak in sight. The grassy fields stretch as far as where eyes meet the horizon. This openness gives no shelter to the clouds and the restless wind only blows in one direction. In the summer, the moisture from ground boils up to form the cloud but has no control but to throw down thunder and lightning wherever the cold wind from far tells it to. Many days of accumulation may come down all at once in one night. And the ground with no hills of peaks remain mute receiving everything that's pummeling down on it. It goes up during the day and upside down, it pours out spilling everything over night. The sky and the ground pass the water up and down, connected in columns of water pipes for a few hours then quiet down all at once. That is the weather here. In between the heaven and the earth, people, animals and houses have to endure it all. That's why the border between the sky and the ground is only a straight line. Nothing of the human shoud dare to invade it.
A Cup of Coffee
We made omelet in the back porch of the General store building then headed to Lowell's home. He was just coming out of the house and we had coffee together with his wife in the front yard. From where we were sitting, there was a good view of Red Oak II. Maybe Lowell had placed his home in such a way that while smoking his corn cob pipe, he could enjoy the outcome of his project and also plan a new one. As we talked about Lowell's new plans for Red Oak II, our travel stories and other stories of our lives, Lowell sometimes smoked the corn cob pipe. Milford the gray cat and Geisha the black and white cat rolled over on the grass often catching our hands petting their soft coat.
A Stroll with Lowell
After the coffee, Lowell wanted to show us some place that we hadn't seen. It was the area where Lowell had first appeared when we first met him. Beyond the wide tree shade, there were Lowell's previous studio, his first house when he moved here, his daughter's house and few other houses and gardens. They were private and uniquely decorated. Lowell's stroll route was also unique. A visitor would view it from the front taking the wide paths, but Lowell walked through narrow space between eves of two adjoining roofs, then a path behind house and through a back door. It was the route he takes in his daily routine. A visitor wouldn't be able to see this convenience, function and joyfulness. The visitor and the dweller: This two different ways of seeing one thing made me realize why the old homes that were transported to some of the museums that we visited on the way here felt so fake. It was the lack of 'necessity'. The real life space shows the effort and endeavor for what is necessary, but museums certainly lack that aspect. Lowell's place is full of evidence of this effort and endeavor. This is why Red Oak II is the true living-history.
After the stroll with Lowell we said our good-bye's. One night seemed like many days of excitement. When will we come back to this place again. I suddenly felt like someone who's lived all his life. It was because Red Oak II came into my life as a precious jewel of a place. Sumi and I put the purple beans and hand drawn map given by Lowell on the dashboard of our car, the green Passat Wagon, aka Nok-Cha(green tea: 'Cha' in Korean is a homonym of car and tea) and turned on the engine.
