Episodes 15 and 16: The Girl at the Tiller
“Hubert" - modeled by Charlotte Rains Dixon’s beloved Chip. Charlotte is an author, writing coach, and friend - check out her substack at https://wordstrumpet.substack.com/ and the website for writing workshops offered by Charlotte Rains Dixon and Deborah Guyol at https://www.letsgowriteworkshops.com/
Episode 15 begins: Celia Prewitt has a secret. The episode follows 81-year old retired highschool teacher Celia Prewitt, her granddaughter Olga, and her ghost-dog Hubert.
Episode 15 Excerpt
It would shock just about everyone to discover she has a secret.
It isn’t that she used to play the trumpet and the trombone, making a big cheerful sound at rallies and parades and even, for a few years, as part of the orchestra for the Looser Island Community Theater. Most people know about her musical background, and even if they didn’t they could have guessed from the fact that she still gives music lessons to a few select students. Anyway, far from shocking anyone, the islanders are tickled to think of diminutive Mrs. Prewitt tootling on the trumpet or blasting on the ‘bone.
And it isn’t that she used to be a teacher at the Looser Island High School. During the decades when Mrs. Prewitt was teaching, that was almost the only career open to a woman who worked rather than staying home with her children. Also, many of the adults who grew up on the island were her students, once upon a time. She was very strict, according to those who’d had her as a teacher, especially with the boys, but you have to be strict if you want to get anything through those thick skulls and raging hormones, Mrs. Prewitt always says.
Most people even know what she wanted to teach was math—algebra and geometry and pre-calculus, “the logical arts”—but that wasn’t what women did in those days. Women taught English or home economics or French or Spanish. So she taught English Literature and Spanish, and if some of Shakespeare’s more lyrical and powerful scenes got short shrift in her Lit class, and the students in her Spanish class never learned to trill their “r”s properly, well, that was what came of having a shortsighted principal who assigned classes according to gender rather than the teachers’ talents.
Really, Celia Prewitt doesn’t seem the type to have secrets, but if anyone had known she was hiding something, they might have wondered if it was somehow related to her granddaughter, Olga.
Read the rest of the episode, and subscribe here https://sharilane.substack.com/p/episode-15-the-girl-at-the-tiller
Episode 16 Excerpt
It’s now the week before the Fourth of July, Charlie’s last chance to find his muse. He appears in Mrs. Prewitt’s living room again, and this time he plays “America the Beautiful” with fewer mistakes.
Mrs. Prewitt praises him, and he glows at her praise, a pinkish light like sunrise on his acne-scarred cheeks. She suggests he let the parade organizers know he’s ready to play in the parade, and he says, bashfully, Okay.
Realtor, Water District Board Chair, and unofficial Island Siren Cherry Duluth is heading up the parade committee this year. Mrs. Prewitt knows Cherry is just this side of terrifying to Charlie, possibly because of rather than in spite of her sexual exploits. On the other hand, both teacher and student know one of the many lovely aspects of living on a tiny island is that (almost) everyone is supportive of the island’s young adults, who are practically an endangered species, and (almost) everyone will cheer long and loud at Charlie’s attempts, regardless of his success and his skill, or lack thereof.
“Shall I r-r-run through the song again, Mrs. Prewitt?” Charlie says.
“Yes please,” Mrs. Prewitt says.
This time, Charlie’s rendition is even better, the tune almost recognizable.
“Excellent,” Mrs. Prewitt says.
“B-B-But Mrs. Prewitt?” he says.
“Yes, Charlie?”
“I s-s-still . . . I still feel patriotic.”
And Celia Prewitt feels an almost perverse pride in his statement, and relief, knowing that she hasn’t stolen Charlie’s innocence, and more importantly that he’s making his own decisions, not adopting others’ ideas indiscriminately.
See? Hubert says, wandering over and curling up under the piano bench where his ghostly form is barely visible against the old beige carpet. I knew he’d find an even keel, given enough time and patience.
Read the rest of the episode, and subscribe herettps://sharilane.substack.com/p/episode-16-the-girl-at-the-tiller
Photo by Lord Runar from Getty Images (adjusted to match the story line)
