THE HEART OF THE PARK
Hazel Weaver's ann. "It gets damp as you go down," he said, looking
around vaguely. Hazel Weaver shook
him
off. In a second, he gripped
his ann again and stopped him. He pointed down through the trees.
"Muvseevum," he said. The strange word made him shiver. That was
the first time he had ever said it aloud. A piece of gray building was
showing where he pointed. It grew larger as they went down the hill,
then as they came to the end of the wood and stepped out on the
gravel drive way, it seemed to shrink suddenly.
It
was round and
soot-colored. There were columns at the front of it and in between
each column there was an eyeless stone woman holding a pot on
her head. A concrete band was over the columns and the letters
M
v
S E V M
were cut into it. Enoch was afraid to pronounce the
word again.
"We got to go up the steps and through the front door," he
whispered. There were ten steps up to the porch. The door was wide
and black. Enoch pushed it in cautiously and inserted his head in
the crack. In a minute he brought it out again and said, "All right,
go in and walk easy. I don't want to wake up theter ole guard.
He ain't very friendly with me." They went into a dark hall. It was
heavy with the odor of linoleum and creosote and another odor be–
hind these two. The third one was an undersmell and Enoch couldn't
name
it
as anything he had ever smelled before. There was nothing
in the hall but two urns and an old man asleep in a straight chair
against the wall. He had on the same kind of unifonn as Enoch and
he looked like a dried up spider stuck there. Enoch looked at Hazel
Weaver to see
if
he was smelling the undersmell. He looked like he
was; Enoch's blood began beating again, and the sound was nearer
this
time like the drums had moved up about a quarter of a mile.
He gripped Haze's arm and tip-toed through the hall to another
black door at the end of it. He cracked it a little and inserted his
head in the crack. Then in a second he drew it out and crooked his
finger in a gesture for Haze to follow him. They wept into another
hall, like the last one but running crosswise. "It's in that first door
vonder," Enoch said in a small voice. They went into a dark room
full of glass cases. The glass cases covered the walls and there were
three coffin-like ones in the middle of the floor. The ones on the walls
were full of birds tilted on varnished sticks and looking down with
dried piquant expressions.
149
