The sunset had turned to darkness and Joseph Schexnider’s eyes began to droop. The drifter was in the mood for a long night’s sleep if only he could settle into a comfortable position. Problem is Joseph was stuck in a chimney…
The one atop the bank in Abbeville, Louisiana.
Abbeville is one of those postcard towns with 19th century buildings that have been very carefully restored. It was an easy scamper, and the dare-devil kids spent many a day exploring the rooftops.
“We played up there a lot,” Jason Herbert stated. “But I don’t remember anyone ever going around the chimneys.”
Jason is a detective in Abbeville and went to elementary school with Joseph. “He was just another kid,” he grinned. “Nothing really stood out about him.”
The townsfolk remember Joseph as a lanky, rambler with a slow and easy nature.
Not so quick.
Robert Schexnider said his brother started to run off when he was nine or ten. “He told me he’d seen every state in the country.”
A city councilman, Francis Plaisance, reveals a telling story. One time Joseph disappeared with the circus to New York, only he was stranded when it traveled overseas.
“He didn’t have money to get back home,” Francis said, “so the church helped out with a plane ticket.” There was a dilemma when Joseph couldn’t find his way around the airport.
“We ended up having a pastor up there walking him through it,” grinned Francis, “and put him on the plane.”
Next thing ya know, the gypsy disappeared again—for almost thirty years—until he was found in the chimney by a worker.
Everyone had an opinion or a story, yet there is no evidence of any skullduggery.
“My mother worried about him,” sighed brother Robert. “But I just said, ‘Mom, that’s just Joseph being Joseph.”
There’s one thing for sure, no one has to worry ever again that Joseph will feel one of his traveling moods.
RIP gentle wanderer.
May Your Glass Always Be Half Full
_________________________
You can check the Loose Bloggers Consortium
for their view on “moods”
Conrad http://instantfossil.blogspot.co.uk/
Delirious http://lifeonalimb.blogspot.com/
Maria/Gaelikaa http://gaelikaasdiary.blogspot.com/
Maria SilverFox http://www.silverfox-whispers.com/
OCD writer http://iamdumberthaneinstein.com/
Padmum http://padmum.wordpress.com/
Paul http://blackwatertown.wordpress.com
Ramana http://rummuser.com/
Will Knott http://willknott.ie/
Grannymar http://grannymar.com/blog/
