Episodes 15 and 16: The Girl at the Tiller
Celia Prewitt has a secret . . .
“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)
Episode 8: The Many Uses of a Meat Mallet
A crime has been committed, but Gloria is as much victim as perpetrator, and Sheriff Tom must decide what to do.
Sheriff Tom decides
Excerpt
You may wonder why the islanders have an almost verbatim transcript of the confession carried around in their heads, or why there are some variations on the theme. For instance, some people assert Gloria went into detail here about Seamus’s sexual prowess; others say that’s hogwash—Gloria is too circumspect to reveal lurid details, and somewhere along the line someone must have padded the story.
As if it needed padding.
The answer to the question—how do the islanders know what Gloria said?— isn’t terribly interesting, but you might as well hear it, so you can focus on Gloria’s story.
After the arrest, Sheriff Tom carried Gloria’s confession in his heart and in his head until it felt like the words were strangling him, and one night, months later, when he’d had too much to drink (which is ironic, as you’ll soon see), he shared the story with Larry. The two men were sitting in Retha’s Bar and Grill. Retha and several others heard, and each of them told just one other person, someone they trusted to take the secret to his or her or their respective grave, and in very short order the entire island knew this part of Gloria’s history.
So now, many of the islanders are purveyors of the cautionary tale, and they tell it word for word, like the old oral histories.
Read the rest of the episode, and subscribe, here
Episode 6: Once More into the Fray
Larry has been hired by Katie Marchel to sue the Apple Cart Grocery for discrimination (Katie’s French, and Lauren makes her re-stock the French onion soup and the French fries . . . ) And then the call comes: the agency’s found a child for adoption.
And her name is Katie.
Read the rest of the episode, and subscribe to receive episodes by email twice weekly, here
Excerpt:
Larry goes to his study to draft a letter demanding that the Apple Cart Grocery cease and desist harassing his client, but of course he finds he cannot write such a letter, not to Lauren, she of the husky laugh that makes anyone nearby want to laugh too, even if it’s not clear what the joke is, who orders chocolate volcano cakes just for Larry, because she knows they’re his favorite.
. . .
Beatrix shoves his hand with her nose. You’re being ridiculous, she tells him.
“Once more into the fray,” he mutters.
And then he realizes he’s got it wrong. The Shakespearean quote is “Once more unto the breach.” From some forgotten dusty corner his brain dredges another, later part of the quote:
“Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage.”
Can he find hard-favour’d rage against his friend?
No, he cannot.
And then he remembers “Once more into the fray” is actually a quote from the movie, The Grey. The movie where everyone dies in the end.
So much for the value of perseverance.