My Brother Gets Locked In a Chest
An interview by John Paul Welch, age seven
John Paul: Tell me about your brother being locked in a chest?
Mary Louise: There was a bathroom and then a big sleeping porch off the back of our house on 4th and Ash downtown. In the middle of the hallway leading to Mother Father's room there was a big cedar chest with two large doors that opened and were lined with cedar. We used to ask, "What's in there?" Mother would say, "There's nothing in there that you want to play with, so just leave it alone, and don't go in there. You don't need to go in there. Don't open it. It's Mom and Dad's." But one evening I walked by the box and could hear something. It was a very strange sound. So I rushed back to Mom and Dad and said, "We'll have to open it up." And there was my brother Ferdinand curled up in the corner. So it was a happy ending. Yeah, he was happy to get out of there. He came out very fast.
John Paul: Were your brother's punished who did it?
Mary Louise: I don't recall what became of it. And I forgot who it was, I think it was my brother Ferd, who was still alive when my book came out. I wrote a book of the story of my life recently. He was the first person I gave it to. His care takers would call me and say, "He is waking up every morning and saying, 'Where's my book? Where's my book?'" Every day he wanted to read and go through it right up to in his last days. He was the only one of all my brothers and sisters that got a chance to see it.
