Free Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

asked.

    Q__ P__ calm & collected though returning to the hedge etc. Taking up the clippers & continuing work. All thoughts of dark-haired dark-skinned specimens, Ramid & Akhil & Abdellah & the rest beneath the roof at 118 North Church & even Velvet Tongue flushed away in those quick seconds like shit down a toilet.

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    This property Q__ P__ is CARETAKER for why can’t I be such for life, if I so wish?
    The P__ family house, large & dignified red-brick Victorian, 118 North Church Street, Mt. Vernon, Michigan. None of the P__ family live here now except Q__ P__ CARETAKER.
    It is a job that suits me. Like Mr. T__ says, such responsibility is good for a man.
    It was after World War II Grandma says University Heights began to change. Coloreds began to move in & whites to move out in a steady irreversible stream to such suburbs as Dale Springs. Oh I will never forgive the Germans for that war ! Grandma says.
    The foundation of our house was laid 1892 & it is still firm. The cellar Grandpa P__ had renovated in the 1950s (as I have been told, I was not born yet) is such that there are two sections: the new, & the old. The new has a poured concrete floor & reinforced walls with beaverboard paneling. The gas furnace is here, water heater, fuse box, washer-drier etc. CARETAKER’s work bench & such tools as my electric power drill & newly purchased Cherokee chainsaw.
    The old section of the cellar is never used. Not as large as the new but it is still sizable, approximately the length & width of the kitchen. A hard-packed dirt floor & the ceiling rafters low (not six feet from the floor) & filthy with cobwebs. Walls termite-ridden & rotted. Except for seepage the cistern is dry of course, not used for forty years. A strong smell of drains in the rainy months but I have installed a second pump. Convinced Dad it was necessary to maintain the property, & it is.
    To penetrate the depths of the old cellar you must move slowly & cautiously, stooped over. You need a strong flashlight. You need sharp eyes. You need to be able to go without breathing deeply because of the smell. You need a will not easily broken.
    It has been months now & the cistern has almost been converted & will be ready for use soon. Though I will have some awkwardness I guess getting my “operating table” into it—a folding table, a dinette from the Salvation Army where I got my locker is probably the best bet.
    My locker I should mention is in my room. Scrubbed clean & sprayed with Lysol & used for clothes, shoes, etc., & the quart bottle of formaldehyde containing a good-luck memento from BIG GUY & the bottle itself carefully wrapped in aluminum foil & taped. & magazines, videos, Polaroids, etc. Always kept locked.
    The old cellar & the cistern are the crucial places of course. A healthy ZOMBIE might live for many years there for who would know of him? who except Q__ P__, CARETAKER? & if a ZOMBIE is a failure there is the earthen floor for safe & sanitary disposal. & there is a new door replacing the old rotted door & last week I purchased a steel padlock from Sears for added security.

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    Q_ P_ CRAZY FOR SQUIRREL!!!
    —I wrote in red Magic Marker inside a toilet stall in the Humpty Dumpty on Lakeview Boulevard, Dale Springs, where SQUIRREL worked as a busboy. It blew my mind to think SQUIRREL would use the toilet & puzzle over those very words with no clue who “SQUIRREL” was let alone “Q__ P__”!
    How many strangers’ eyes would fix upon “Q__ P__ CRAZY FOR SQUIRREL!!!” with no comprehension what these words mean. What a fantastic fireball-power in my cock.
    SQUIRREL’s busboy schedule at Humpty Dumpty (near as I could determine) was Wed.-Thurs.-Fri. 12 noon to 6 P.M. Summer work I guess. One evening parked in my van in the parking lot & waiting for SQUIRREL I saw him exit at the rear at 6:06 P.M. & there was a woman (probably his mother) in a station wagon picking him up but other times he rode his bicycle (kept at the rear with two or three other