05/21/2014 Yorick

Prompt was a picture of a scull.

Alas Poor Yorick!

It was a warm May afternoon, and since Mother’s Day had come and gone, Mart was busy preparing the ground to plant his first garden at the house that he and Diana had recently bought.  Well, if the truth be known, the bank still owned most of it,  but it was a fairly safe bet that he truly owned the square of ground that he was now prepping as a garden.

The house was well built.  There would be no major energy problems for either heat or cold, and there were plenty of windows for cross ventilation, which would be very helpful in the summer when the heat would inevitably rise to the highest point of the two story house.

But the house was also old. The property boundary was even older because, according to the survey papers and the land history, after years and years of crop rotation, the land had been fallow pasture for many decades.  Mart hoped that with this history, he could produce a good garden.

Mart grabbed a shovel and stepped off the boundary of the garden.  He knew that he would have to borrow a small lawn tractor or a tiller, but he also figured that he could dig post holes at the four corners to be ready to build a fence.  He dug three holes, finding no obstructions. But on the fourth hole, after the first two loads of dirt were tossed over his shoulder, the shovel bit into an object with no give.  He knelt down and brushed dirt away to reveal a bit of bone.  He got a spade and, holding the bone carefully with one hand, dug around the object until it popped from its muddy hold.  When Mart looked at it, he dropped it in surprise, for it was obviously an elongated skull.

He couldn’t help letting a famous quote pass his lips.  

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio;

a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy;

he hath borne me on his back a thousand times;

and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!”

Mart sighed and thought, “Well, it is obviously not my Yorick,  but it was someone’s family pet, sometime.  This fellow probably carried toddlers on his back or pulled a wagon full of laughing children.”  

Suddenly, Mart’s reverie  was interrupted by a flying bit of red fur followed by the squeals of his own young son.  He remembered that Diana and Joseph had gone to pick up their new puppy this afternoon.  He watched as the puppy chased its tail, and the young boy turned around in circles, imitating the dog’s actions.   

“Daddy, what are we going to name the puppy?  You said you had already had one Reddy, and we need to name this one something different.”

“Well, Joseph, let me tell you.  There was a character in one of the plays by William Shakespeare named Yorick.  Now Yorick was a court jester.  That means his job was to entertain the king and make him laugh.  He was also sort of a playmate to the young Hamlet.  There is a painting of Hamlet as a child riding on Yoricks' back as if he is riding a horse.  

“Since this puppy will be your first playmate,  I think we should call him Yorick, because he is already your playmate and making you laugh.“

“Yorick.  Here, Yorick, chase me!”

Mart watched as boy and dog ran off to play.

Mart looked at the skull on the ground.  “I think I will try to find all the bones and re-bury them somewhere, maybe along the fence line.  

“The poor fellow can be king of the hill and rest in peace until other pets follow him across the rainbow bridge and come to keep him company for the rest of time.”

Thank you to my editors, Vivian and K.  They tried to teach me, really they did.

However, any errors are, and always will remain, my own.