Next chapter in the novel

The first sentence is bound to be the hardest, M.

"The Librarian's Fifth Wife". The key to the story is not so much Jane receiving the wooden box that contains the satchel but the identity of the person who sends the box to her. That part of the story has yet to be discovered, lived or even imagined. I have to wonder at this point in the tale if this blog should sit awhile, stew in it's own juices. I know that the crate still needs to be sanded, lined and painted. I know that there a few more things that need to be gathered and placed in the box, and then, when that's all done, the box will need to be sealed with brass screws and fittings and put to use. I want that crate to be able to sit on the floor and look like a low end table, or, with proper padding, turned into an ottoman. I want it to blend into it's environment, to disappear for awhile into my life but be forever a constant.

So, back to characters. Here's a partial list:

Skip and Jane Waken and their daughters, Casey, Poppy and Rosemary
Roger and Colette de los Santos, and their children Bill, Porter, Martha and Joseph
Some characters: Sue (aka Snake Lady), Rosie (aka Mi Novia) and then there's the real Rosie as Jane the second. Betty (Friar Tuck) and her man Edgar, Sigmund and his darling wife JM are close friends and the rest of the cast will drop into the story as they come. The brunt of the story will take place in Morgan Bay, the county of Chinook (ie The Morgan Bay Branch of the Chinook County Library System). States are states, big cities are big cities, those names stay the same. Places like In-n-Out and Disneyland and the Effiel Tower all stay the same as well. Organizational event names will be altered slightly and bigger even names, like say, United Way or the Foursquare Church, will changed for the sake of their bean counters and law dogs.

So,who will be the likely suspect to send off the box to Jane? Will they be in contact? Will they meet at the end? Will it be the Librarian's 5th wife? Will it be the Librarian's kid? Will she finally get to be with the Librarian again or will she just be meet up with that final character to toss his ashes in Red Rock State Park? So much to figure out. From here I don't see how Mi Novia could possibly be on hand to see the end of the story, but she is curious about it and wants to see it written, so know she will be written into it. Hell, it was my letter to her that really got this thing off the ground so why not? What about Friar Tuck? She's a loyal friend and was there at the beginning of the story. I think she would be interested. I know for certain that My Estranged One will play a large part of the tale, if only because of the role our children played in our end game and the way that those letters written to you were discovered. I know that she would rather eat rat poison than be the person to send that box on it's way to you someday, but she'll be a key character nonetheless. I wonder if Punkin will figure big into the story, if she'll be the one who will be tasked or will task herself to deliver the news to you, to Jane.

I know, too, that by going somewhere new and fresh that new characters will be built into the tale. New places mean new adventures, ones that will either water down or amplify all that was lived before it. What I do see coming up, though, is someone open and caring enough to bear this tale, someone who can see and appreciate what the price of this tale was, someone who can understand that while the story of the two lovers is over it has the half life of a spent nuclear rod. Yeah, it may be over but it's still "hot". Hence the box, hence the instructions for it's delivery, hence the opening chapter of the book when Jane gets the box from the Parcel Post driver.

Now, that's where the story begins. What does she want to do with the box? Has she "conveniently" forgotten everything? Will the box be filled with a backstory, the story of The Librarian's life, or just with tales of his life lived after their adventures were over? Will it contain a ledger of his travels after he leaves the state? Will she already know the price he paid for loving her (the loss of his marriage and his job due to found writings), and will she have lived a guilt filled life because of it? I see the book weaving a contemporary narrative with an awful lot of flashback, but the flashback will be told from pages of the book, or manuscript, or diary, contained in the box.

I think it's important that Jane finds her way back to some of those places mentioned, does some of those things that they did together. It's key that she gets out her heavy skillet and makes a pear clafouti, gathers the grandkids together and burns off the sugar topping of a creme brule, that she stands on the edge of the Sound and look out towards the sunset at Kopachuck, that she finds her way up to Washington Pass on the edge of autumn before the snows and then works her way down past the copper green rivers to Sumner to stand once again in the aisles of blooming dahlias. It'll all be part of her past, a past that she'll realize she buried deep, that will really swell the tragic end of the story.

Maybe it won't be a tragedy, but it'll be bittersweet. A life, or lives, squandered, a great love wasted. Knowing Jane, I have to wonder if she'll even want to bother, knowing how far it is behind her, or if a character device like a grandchild or one of her daughters will fall upon the box after she's opened it and insist that she take a drive to see those places he mentioned, to honor the man who went the rest of his days loving her. That's a big part of the story, too, M. Those kids, the ones who, in the end, discover that she traded riches and comfort for love. Or, on the Librarian's end, that he ended up the way that he did because of that hard ending to their story. I picture one or more of the characters on Jane's end not so keen about God, and that he or she will wonder what the heck were she was thinking, trading off true love for bible passages and a big house. I know, I know, I shouldn't go there but, this isn't a sweet nursey novel, not one built up to be sold to Christians as an "inspirational" romance. Baby, it's based on a true event. Autobiographical fiction, yep.

So, what to do about the next chapter of real life? I know that if things were different, if the kids were closer and I was already moving along with life, my own life, I would stay here in the Northwest, that I would try to find a way to get Mi Novia to play a bigger role in the story. She's a bit rough but she's real. As a couple we're much, much different than you and I ever were or could ever possibly be. But, you see, maybe that's the point. I know I need someone who also has spent time a bit of time dancing in the graveyard of old loves, someone who has had an equally hard time finding their way back to that place in life and relationships that says "I'm worthy, love me for who I am". One thing for sure and that's that we're both a bit beat up. Our hearts and souls are ragged and on the edge, almost to the point where love, real love, is beyond recognition.

Maybe that's important, too. Maybe I was supposed to end up here, here in this very raw and worn place, so I could write a story that really allows for tears and hurt to rise to the surface, to make all those nerve endings jangle. I want the reader to feel this story as if they are living it, or, if they haven't, at least be able to stand to the side of the tale and weep for that couple who had to set down one of the most beautiful love stories in the world just so that they could go on and live lives of integrity.

Something like that.

Okay, gotta go, it's time for a bit of storyboarding. I think it'll be a page turner.

Your WHMB