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.