Rice Street Bones
(Part Two/ Mike Harztell)
A
Sketch
March, 2006, Rice Street, St.
Paul, Minnesota
A sketch story, is a very short literary
story, and in this book there are a few. The sketch was invented in the 16th
Century, and not in particular with a plot, it was created to show or depict
unusual settings, here is the second part of Mike Harztell also known as ‘Bones’
a drifter on Rice Street: the first part was a story in the book “A Changeable Banquet”
now for the second part, of less degree and substance of course.
If you read part one to Mike Harztell’s
story, “Last Time I saw Bones” in the previous book, “A Changeable
Banquet,” it was liken to an
old friend who I went to High School with; now
an old friend that sleeps on the streets of Rice Street, in St. Paul,
Minnesota, has since 1977, to the present,
2016, a cracked egg you might say, figuratively speaking and with no
disrespect. But Mike is still cheerful, a kindly man. Always was, but when he
came home from overseas as a soldier, perhaps drugs, or alcohol, something
changed his mindset. I believe his mother wanted the best for him, for Mike,
there was no curably ambitious road for him ahead. He became one of God’s sparrows.
But in High School, back in 1965, he was
in school activities, such as: Cross Country, Track, Soph., Class Adv., Board,
a Choir, and the ‘W’ Club. So Mike was not always that cracked egg, nor the
street person he is, trailing with his dogs and wagon of goods, his life
possessions.
Talking
to my cousin, Larry, he spoke briefly concerning my old friend, Bones, saying: “My concern usually was that I'd find him sleeping with his
dogs out in the below zero weather. I offered him a shelter several times but
he always refused. He was a nice guy and I'm sure he was concerned for his
dogs. The shelter wouldn't allow him to bring in his animals. I'd give him a
few bucks and wished him well.”
#1192/10-23-2016
Information provided by Larry Siluk
(Police Officer)
To be in the forthcoming book: "Nowhere into Nothing"
