she rooted past untidy bundles of canceled checks , dead c , d , and 9-volt batteries ( for some reason she had never been able to shitcan old batteries what you did with old batteries was throw them in a drawer , god knew why , it was just the battery graveyard instead of the one the elephants were supposed to have ) , bunches of rubber bands and wide red canning-rubbers , unanswered fan letters ( she could no more throw out an unanswered fan letter than a dead battery ) , and recipes jotted on file-cards .