Editor’s Note

This year marks many great changes for The Chestatee Review. In addition to publishing our annual I learned this technique in an art appreciation class back in 2012. The process, writing contest winners and the works of art students, we’ve added three new sections that though frustrating at times, grew on me. As an aspiring photographer I like to showcase the talent of UNG’s student body. The three new sections this year are Visual Poetry, Faculty Favorites, and Special Topic Winners. To keep up with our growing content, we have made display this different look to people. Instead of just taking one picture of them The Chestatee Review larger this year; a change that I think aptly reflects the new direction that we’re sitting in the car I took around 300 pictures, printed them off in 4x6 format, and going in. We’re now on the forefront of establishing a solid community of creative and committed arranged them in a way to abstractly rebuild the car. I used extra pictures for the students who can take these accomplishments and skills with them for the rest of their careers. background and cut them into various shapes to change the “texture.” I have been honored to serve as editor this year and am thankful to so many who have helped me and the progress of the magazine as well. First, I’ll thank the student staff that show up for 8 a.m. This particular piece was a wedding present for my brother Matt and sister-in-law orientations to tell new students about writing and publishing, bounce ideas around about how we can make the magazine better, and, the best part, do all this for free. Then, there are our wonderful Faith. Matt has a unique hobby of purchasing old cars, fixing them up, and then faculty advisors who are just as passionate and committed as we are and help us in more ways than selling them. This particular car, a ‘52 Chevy Deluxe, was one of his favorites. we can thank them for. Other faculty who take the time to encourage their students to submit work and attend our events are a blessing and prove that UNG faculty truly care about the enrichment of their students. Lastly, I want to thank the student writers, without whom none of this would be -Jessica Blaisdell possible. It is sometimes easy to lose sight of why you love something, but I am constantly reminded of the true wonder that is reading good writing through you. I hope that you enjoy our magazine, and we’ll see you next year.

Amanda Adams Editor-in-Chief The Honeymoon Ride Jessica Blaisdell Contributors Table of

Editor-in-Chief Amanda Adams2013- 2014 Contents BansheeVisual |Rachel Andrews Poetry8 Quietly | Jennifer Manzella (art) 9 Assistant Editors Silence of the Birds | Jill Raden (art) 9 Emmy Dixon, Sarah Madsen, Esther Stuart Beltane Night | Sarah Madsen 10 Beltane Night | Cortland West (art) 11 Creative Non-Fiction Artistic Editor Colorado | Brittany Barron 12 72 Contingency | Amanda Adams Courtney Torres Colorado | Jason Combs (art) 13 75 Tango | Rachel Andrews Did You Know Your Name is Exactly 79 Bunt or Die | Taylor NeSmith Student Editors One Foot of Iambic Pentameter? | Esther Stuart 14 Rachel Andrews, Brittany Barron, Lea Blessing, Veronica Harris, Name | Carrie Reilly (art) 15 Elizabeth Jordan, Andrew MacDonald, Samuel Soto, Lindsay West Tears From the Sky| Joshua Hellums 16 FormalFanny Price: Essays Feminist or Failure? The Case Trap | Belinda Parker (art) 17 for the Problem Heroine of Mansfield Park | Faculty Advisors Unheeded Warnings | Andrew MacDonald 18 82 Esther Stuart Karen Dodson, Diana Edelman-Young Silence | Alejandro Imperial (art) 19 Between Two Worlds: Life and Death in A Whole Bushel of Apples | Alexander Tait (art) 19 87 Sylvia Plath’s Poetry | Brittany Barron Faculty Readers I Am Not a Writer | Mason Guevara 20 Excess in Moderation: An Exploration of William Ellenberg, Kristin Kelly, Michael Rifenburg, I Am a Work of Art Myself | Ciarra McConnell (art) 21 the Warnings Against Too Much Twelfth Cameron Williams, Patricia Worrall Night in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night | Emmy 93 Dixon When I Met Someone New | Brittany BarronPoetry23 Writing Contest Judges The Old Man and The Sea | Brittany Barron 24 Bradley Bazzle, Elizabeth Lunday, Mary Katherine Mason, Power | Stephanie Ray 25 100ArtUntitled | Ashton Thompson Robby Nadler, John Brown Spiers 101 Pink Flamingo | Jessica Denton 102 Home | Jill Raden One-Act Plays27 Ladies Who Brunch | Emmy Dixon 103 Melody | Nichole Simotes 35 Tea and Temptation | Sarah Madsen 104 Miniature Nesting Bowls | Carolyn Nooney 41 All Those Who Wander | Linda Gillot 105 Leather Briefcase | Sue Compton

Theft at the Museum | ShortJansen Castleberry Fiction50 Pancakes | Steven Lock 56 But Ghosts Don’t Exist | Cassey Smith 63 Fate of Snitch the inCement Fashion Stuart |Esther 6 Dude The Seger’sAbidesLinda Hero The All Myth: Dude WantedDude Was His Rug |Ross McIntire Back C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. M.A.G.I.C.|Jordan Ford Oriental Spice With and School |Emile Rice A Modest Proposal For an Issue of Biblical Censoring ofCensoring aPsycho |Josh Ferguson Misunderstood | Casey WarnockMisunderstood |Casey Special Topic Winners The | Fallen Justin Johnston Proportions Stuart |Esther Faculty Favorites Phommavongsy 113 109 107 127 123 119 118 115 Miscellaneous Events Page 141 139 137 136 134 133 130 129 128

Staff Bios Judge Bios Rules For Submission Writing Contest Information Awards Received FestivalSouthern Literary Mic NightOpen PoeDown Drive Book

wonderful experience and we hope to expand to include many many include to expand to hope we and experience wonderful

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We shared our staff’s poetry and collaborated with UNG’s UNG’s with collaborated and poetry staff’s our shared We art. art.

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more departments in the coming years. coming the in departments more The Chestatee Review Chestatee The

What isitlike? Visual Poetry

defines a poem inspired by a piece of piece a by inspired poem a defines

The literary term “ekphrasis” “ekphrasis” term literary The staff flipped this term. term. this flipped staff Rachel Andrews Rachel “Banshee” ” ” The Chestatee Review Spring 2014

BansheeRachel Andrews

I want to hear the silence. Quietly I want to know what it sounds like. Jennifer Manzella Have you ever heard a silence so loud, It was like a banshee’s scream? Ringing in my ears Howling in my mind Never leaving Always there Always wailing, What is it like? Absolute quiet. Absolute peace. I crave the absolution. Like a tick that can’t be burned A light that can’t be extinguished A demon that can’t be vanquished It is always there. Distracting, Depressing, Discouraging, Silence of the Birds Frustrating, Jill Raden Take it away. 9 8 The Chestatee Review Spring 2014

Beltane NightSarah Madsen ‘Twas Beltane when it happened I watched the games and merriment then, And found a man I fancied The first of May dawned clearly, Then beckoned him with finger And all us to the blooming glen bent Did go, as we did yearly. To celebrate unmercied. We waited ‘til the moon hung high, ‘Til every star was shining, Then made our way to that hill nigh The pole with ribbons twining. Circling the hill balefires bright, Did cast long shadows dancing. And in between the pyrelight I fancied fauns there prancing. They gathered up the maids all fair And gentlemen unmarried To circle round the maypole there A ribbon each we carried. Around and round our merry way Until the trimmings tired, And each us on that night in May A perfect match acquired. Then the moment came at last, The ruler’s royal crowning And after every vote was cast I blushed, in applause drowning. They raised me up and on my brow Placed a wreath of blossoms bright And at my feet they all did bow 11 10 My true subjects for a night. Beltane Night Cortland West The Chestatee Review Spring 2014

ColoradoBrittany Barron

God made landscapes, but that’s irrelevant To you now as you kiss him in a picture. Maybe love fends the sickness, but I still See it prolonged in the throat of the canyon. Your cut stuck bones pin me pick at me. Thin like baby’s fingers. You held my little fingers. Between you in Colorado and me in Georgia There is no god for sisters. No blessings pass between. Dry wildflowers dyed sand and stone: Disparate gods distempered with distance. I look at another canyon. Cut with edges and ends. There’s no shape of a man.

Colorado Jason Combs 13 12 The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Did You Know Your Name is Exactly One Foot of Iambic Pentameter?Esther Stuart I like the way your name feels when I say it. The way my tongue flicks against its roof While uttering the last syllable As if to swallow your entirety whole. There’s no way to translate it to touch. No way to put it into words. Nothing emulates the sensuality Of your syllables against my teeth. But if you lean over me So I can meld our lips together, I’ll explore the cavern that echoes my name so sweetly And write your name across its walls Just to teach you how to say it. 15

14 Name Carrie Reilly The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Tears From the Sky Girl why do you cry Joshua Hellums You can wipe a wandering tear from her cheek force her focus back to the book she read And claim you’re saving yourself in a slow prayer but a word never uttered has no magic on the soul it all becomes regret in cheap bondage A prison where we are only granted visitation rights To a soul we wished to call home You can pick the locks sometimes Talk from the heart, and give meaning to the tears coming from inside but there was still the lacking of a complete shelf when she found herself at the landmark that reminded her of the circle she was going in the shackles always relocked themselves the sequence like deja vu Funny… It seemed so different this time but she had to admit the circle she traveled in slowly got wider, more elaborate the more she picked the locks to her conviction Could she hear the voices in her unconscious quire? they only sang her salvation when she was lost never quite capable of hearing the oracle reading the lines of her quest. But there were drawings on the inside of her eyelids They glowed to meaning when the sun began to rise Even with the starting pistol held to her head she could never really start But she would catch the sunset feel a sorrowful goodbye, set the horizon on fire But yet again she only got half the message Trap half the answer to her question Belinda Parker 17

16 Why do I cry when I look to you? The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Unheeded Warnings Andrew MacDonald Silence Alejandro Imperial

I hear the Sound of Silence echoing down the halls, bouncing eerily between the wooden pillars to the Silent Springs and past the pond of Walden. Upon the ground the red fruit sits, frozen, juices dripping from the bite, staining the air with freshest scent and tears of mother’s misery. Oh, how can such a tundra wasteland, wrought with icy touch, thrive like kudzu during the warmth of summer? A Whole Bushel of Apples Alexander Tait 19 18 The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 to change something. different angle. To make you feel something. I see myself as the canvas You either appreciate it looking out at the world for what it is to you at surface value and asking myself what I wish to be or it speaks to you and grabs hold of and how I want you to feel. I Am Not a WriterMason Guevara your soul. What I think is what you made me I am not a writer, moment, think. Or rather, even if it is barely or not at all Art may change your mood at the Free thought is an illusion, I do not like to consider myself a writer, noticeable. moment everything we think is affected by the nor an artist of any kind. or it may change your life. world around us. The beauty of art That is why I see myself and others not Go ahead, I am art. is that it does not require direction; as artists paint my picture. Every single event in my life it can go where it may but as works of art themselves. I will show you what I am. up to this point and there are infinite possibilities. We are art creating art. has been another stroke on my canvas. I suppose I see all things from a Like most art, I am a result of my experiences, I can be difficult to understand at and the people whom I would view as first. artists Some may never understand me. are the ones who, I am abstract. for better or worse I may speak to you, and in any way great or small, I may say nothing and you walk away. made me who I am today. I do not expect you or anyone to I am a work in progress, understand my paint is still wet and can easily be my thoughts, words, or actions. smeared. I am not made to please the masses. I am always changing. I do, however, want you to feel New strokes are constantly being added; Something some places have been painted over That was because of me. but nothing has or can ever be completely erased. I want to change your life in the smallest way; I have no idea what I will end up small enough that you can take it with becoming, you though you will only ever get and never lose what impact I had on a general idea of what I am, you. because by the time you finish Big things change, observing me little things often slip by unnoticed, in my current state, that’s life. something about me will have already changed. If I can change someone’s life through my art Even by simply observing me I will feel accomplished. 21 you will add something to my canvas 20 That is what I believe art’s purpose and I will take something from the is: I Am a Work of Art Myself Ciarra McConnell st 23 1 Brittany Barron Barron Brittany Fight back fight don’t You breathing I keep beliefs my Swallow Still waiting wreath flower my For maiden Deemed a worthy bravery. my Recover won who told me I the boy To but the truth won I’ve When I met someone new The of blue waters Acadia dilute in to drown No water meant to be graceNever Nor comfort a girl for the waves. speak over Who can’t (see also: 12, 24, 87, 104, 141) inspiring friend, Hannah Lou. her mom, Deborah, her sister, Sabrina, and her greeting cards. She is especially thankful for sing along to Taylor Swift songs, and give out loves to take pictures of her dog, practice yoga, Brittany Barron is a Southern, spitfire poet who We’re two spoons spoons two We’re Of salt Sift disperse and rubble Rocks Skin the wounds Coat them with My cold Aquarius suffering Shadowed At its best. poor Ophelia rests Even Overruling girls the drowned At the bottom of some pool It took but a few minutes Little determination gloryMuch But I drown Struggle curse Kick years ofFor alone When I Met I Met When SomeoneNew Brittany Barron

“When I Met Someone New”

Poetry

At the bottom of the bottom some pool” At Overruling the drowned girls drowned the Overruling “Even poor rests Ophelia “Even poor rd 25 3 Stephanie Ray Stephanie make a career, one day, out of one or all of these passions. do with reading, history, and pop culture. She hopes to year of college. Along with writing, she loves anything to Stephanie Ray is an English major just ending her second Power Alexander, it not there when Was Conquered with no defeat? Or when Caesar his laurel wreath? Clutched What of witch the pretty Anne, Who charmed the king? And the poison said drip from the Borgia ring? To - Left with his muddy muddy Left with his footprints On the hardwood with lemon She soaked The tea unsweetened and Boiled until black bitter Counted the medicines And pills and heart attacks daughtersister Wasted girl be him at She knew it’d the end the world She’ll leave With an old man and the sea Postlude He hopes she’ll wait there meet him at the To gates Or no one will thousands ofBut she’s leagues away - and the and Sea The The Old Man When the city fell, It fell at her feet ask him She won’t together for Put it back me III an old man now He’s he needs a He believes sea fill all his pain To So his daughter trades Her heart for water: Eternity IV end at the sea We without a but You, toned up shirt, tie slacks, jacket, Black father day, your Today’s virgin Look at your daughter cerebral Ivory, not glorified you’re No, V wife, the third She, After her mother and sister, Last and least Brittany Barron Barron Brittany

nd

Prelude and daughter Father the city lights watch grips a stranger, He, her shoulder She shudders the unfamiliar From contact him But she loves as pity can As much deceive His blonde accident She wishes He called her princess In fifteen years She’ll forget she what called him I The city falls blood A pity for you, father other daughter Your town leaves to for you And waits die complain And you I’m hard on you II 24 He failed to notice 2 st 27 1 Emmy Dixon Emmy Why look at that, Clemmie. They’ve a spinach a spinach They’ve look at that, Clemmie. Why I dunno ‘bout that. You know it ain’t a meal without some meat. it ain’t know I dunno ‘bout that. You just gonna you get know the You do this. we EveryEvery dang week week. : 22, waitress, nose ring and purple, spiky hair. Very pale. Atheist. Heavily pregnant Atheist. Heavily pale. Very spiky ring and purple, nose hair. : 22, waitress, : Ladies Brunch Who Characters in a large around 70, with dyed red hair worn wears bun. She white woman : A very obese, TRUDY a lot of of She is a lifelong member costume jewelry. and cheap makeup in the First Baptist church her town. though not because with a cane, walks around 70. She woman CLEMENTINE: A thin, black She has been a lifelong colorful, old-fashioned suits with enormousshe needs it. She wears hats. member of Hill Baptist church. Rose EVANGELINE and unmarried. meet for and CLEMENTINE, brunch at a Shoney’s friends, TRUDY lifelong Setting: Two They are both Southernrestaurant in the rural but Baptists South after church on Sunday. attend different churches. Present day. (A buffet one end of bar is set diagonally against the stage. A booth is set up in the center with the side-view facing is at the other end of the audience. A hostess station out towards booth sits in the stage. EVANGELINE the and CLEMENTINE enter and stop at the empty hostess station) reading a book. TRUDY (Gestures the sign with the special) towards TRUDY: you? I think that sounds just delightful, don’t omelet on special today. CLEMENTINE: on meat if need to cut down you how Oz on the TV telling about been hearing Dr. I’ve TRUDY: omelet might do us both some good. I think a spinach cholesterol. your to lower want you (CLEMENTINE lets out a loud sigh) CLEMENTINE: Sarah Madsen “Tea and Temptation”

One-Act Plays

boy. I’m here for your soul.” your for here I’m boy. “Well that’s obvious, dear dear obvious, that’s “Well The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 buffet, same as me. Why we gotta go through all this? You ain’t gonna have spinach no more than me. (EVANGELINE waddles off stage. CLEMENTINE and TRUDY squeeze into the booth)

TRUDY: Well, excuuuuse me for caring about my health. TRUDY: Well, she’s a new one. Did you see her hair? Who does that? Poor girl has a ring through her nose, too. Kids these days. If ever someone needed savin’. Speaking of saving souls, it sure does CLEMENTINE: (She puts one hand on her hip and points with her cane) And I don’t? Which one of us work up an appetite. I’m near starved. goes on a walk every day, all the way to the end of the street and back? CLEMENTINE: Oh tell it! I do know that. (Laughs) Maybe my Charlie’s not so bad. (Reaching across TRUDY: You know I have bad knees. It’s on account of spending so much time praying for your for TRUDY’s hand) We better pray for her together. soul. (The ladies clasp hands and pray) CLEMENTINE: (Chuckles) More like polishing the preacher’s, errr, silver. TRUDY: Dear Father, in all your great glory, please look down on this poor lost lamb. Give us your TRUDY: (Crossing herself) I’m praying for you right now, Clemmie, right now. power, oh Lord, to lead her back into the flock. Amen.

CLEMENTINE: Good. Extra prayers never hurt nobody. Myself, I’m praying I get seated ‘fore I CLEMENTINE: Amen! You know we done brought three new souls into the flock today. It was have to hurt somebody. a heartwarming sight to be sure, them poor lost children fallin’ down on their knees in front of the whole congregation, begging for the glory. Praise Jesus! TRUDY: Amen. My belly’s eatin’ itself. TRUDY: Praise Jesus! But only three? We had five souls brought home to the Lord today. It was CLEMENTINE: That’s one helluva job. truly beautiful, Clemmie, if only you’d seen it. The light coming in through the stained glass, oh, it was like Heaven itself! TRUDY: I’m warning you, Clemmie. You best stop. (Much louder) Come ON! Where is everybody? We’ve never had to wait like this before. CLEMENTINE: It sure is somethin’ what lots of money can do.

(EVANGELINE looks around the side of the booth and sighs loudly) TRUDY: Now what is that supposed to mean?

EVANGELINE: You ladies come on over here and I’ll get you some coffee in a second. CLEMENTINE: Only that y’all over there at the First Baptist sure have paved your way. Us over at Rose Hill let our deeds do the talkin’. (They walk to the booth. EVANGELINE is still reading) TRUDY: Now there’s no call to go gettin’ all snippy. I can’t help that our offering plate is near TRUDY: Excuse me there, miss, are you working here or just visiting? overflowin’ at every service. I don’t know what’s put you in such a mood, but just because we’ve been friends for near on sixty years doesn’t give you the right to take it out on me. EVANGELINE: (Not looking up from her book) Just a second, only one more paragraph. CLEMENTINE: (Reaching across the table, she grasps TRUDY’s hand) I s’pose you’re right. I am sorry, (CLEMENTINE and TRUDY stare at her silently, shocked. A moment later EVANGELINE looks up) dear friend. My tongue’s feelin’ ‘specially sharp today. That no account son of mine, God bless him, ain’t worth the rags I wiped him with. EVANGELINE: (Referring to her book) It’s just so good! But I’m sorry ladies, I suppose you’d like some breakfast. TRUDY: And what’s he gone and done now?

CLEMENTINE: You be supposin’ right. Now, are ya gettin’ up or are we joinin’ ya this mornin.’ CLEMENTINE: (Throws her hands up) What has he done? It’s more like what ain’t he done. Never worked an honest day in his life. Don’t know how he came out so rotten when my girls are so sweet. EVANGELINE: (Slowly dog-earring her page and sliding out of the booth, she gets to her feet cautiously, 29 and it is obvious she is heavily pregnant) I’ll be back in a minute. Please, (gestures towards the booth) make TRUDY: He should have joined up in the Army, that’s what he needed. A little discipline. You see 28 yourselves at home. how good my Jack came out. The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 CLEMENTINE: Good? Jack maybe works hard, I’ll give him that, but he’s a right jackass and it took her to come back before, we might well starve now. don’t I know it. At least my Charlie’s got a kind disposition, even if he just lays up on my couch all day. TRUDY: (In a low and urgent voice) Clemmie, that girl has no wedding ring on. We have to do something! TRUDY: The Army made him tough is all. That’s the only way he could’ve survived the war. At least I’m not buying his groceries. (Dismissing the subject with a wave of her hand) Where is that waitress? (Ladies look shocked when EVANGELINE almost immediately reappears with two mugs of coffee) If she’s gonna wait until she’s had that baby to bring me some coffee-- EVANGELINE: (Sets down coffee, holds her pad ready to write) Ok, have you decided? CLEMENTINE: Oh come on now, be nice. You know it’s hard to be on your feet all day, ‘specially when you with child. CLEMENTINE: Can I ask you a question, sweetheart?

(Just then EVANGELINE re-enters and goes over to the buffet to check it over; the ladies watch her, getting more EVANGELINE: Ummm, ok. impatient) CLEMENTINE: Do you know Jesus as your personal savior? CLEMENTINE: (Calling out to EVANGELINE) Hey girl, we gonna get some coffee or somethin’? Ain’t nobody got time for this. EVANGELINE: Well, I, no offense ma’am, but I don’t believe in Jesus.

TRUDY: (Addressing CLEMENTINE) Now Clemmie, don’t be so hard on this poor lost soul, she TRUDY: (Fanning herself) Oh goodness, did you hear that Clemmie? Sweet girl here is doomed to knows not the way. (Turning to EVANGELINE) May I please get some coffee and some Splenda? Hell if we don’t do something. And the baby! We must save the baby. Watching my sugar, you know. CLEMENTINE: This calls for somethin’ drastic. (Addressing EVANGELINE) I’d like to invite (EVANGELINE makes her way over to the booth) you to join me at Rose Hill church next Sunday. It might save your immortal soul, if’n it’s not too late! EVANGELINE: (laughing) Sorry, ladies, I forgot you were over here. EVANGELINE: I think you-- CLEMENTINE: (Gesturing towards TRUDY) Ha! How could you forget that? She ain’t easy to forget. TRUDY: Now listen here, young one, I’m extending a coveted invitation to come to Sunday services at First Baptist-- TRUDY: (Laughs and gestures towards CLEMENTINE’s hat) Yeah, how could you forget such a sight? CLEMENTINE: (Pointing at TRUDY) BACK OFF! This one’s mine. EVANGELINE: Yes, well, that’s some hat. Very, ummm, colorful. Do you ladies need another minute, or are you just getting the buffet? TRUDY: Now why would this young girl want to be coming up there with you?

TRUDY: I’d like a minute to look at the menu, please. CLEMENTINE: And why not? (Addressing EVANGELINE) We do have an award winning Gospel choir, you know, and we love new mothers, even ones not married. CLEMENTINE: (Addressing TRUDY) Now what do ya need to do that for? You know you’re gettin’ the buffet. Same as last week, same as last month, same as last year. You just wastin’ my time TRUDY: (In a hushed voice behind her hand) Well, because it’s a, umm, a colored church. This is a fine with this nonsense. young white girl, Trudy. Her cheeks couldn’t be whiter. (Looking over EVAGELINE appraisingly) In fact, she actually looks kind of sickly. We better hurry. TRUDY: That’s not fair! I’m thinking of maybe getting something different. It’ll only take me a minute. EVANGELINE: I can hear you perfectly well, ma’am. I assure you I am not sick and my soul is quite fine, thank you. Now what can I get you for brunch? EVANGELINE: Errr, I’ll just bring some coffee. Be right back. 31 TRUDY: Mind you, dear, we don’t open our doors to just anyone. This is special. You have real 30 CLEMENTINE: (Sitting forward, she says sharply to TRUDY) Dangit! You let her get away! As long as promise. I could see it right away. The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 CLEMENTINE: Oh, of course, please, you can have it. EVANGELINE: Thank you, I’m sure. Now, shall I just put you both down for the buffet? TRUDY: No, really, Clemmie, it’s yours. CLEMENTINE: Yes, of course we’ll have the buffet, just like I said at the start. But you keep in mind what I said. You’re welcome anytime at our church. We’re always ready to lead a lost lamb. CLEMENTINE :Oh no it’s not.

(EVANGELINE rolls her eyes and walks off) TRUDY: (Eyeing the bacon and slightly laughing) Look at me. Do I look like I need that bacon?

TRUDY: I bet she’s a devil worshipper. I sensed it right away. I heard on the TV that having a ring CLEMENTINE: Will you stop it? You look great! Now get that bacon. in your nose was how they recognize each other. And that book she was reading? Stephen King. TRUDY: I insist, love. I bet there will be some more any minute. Look, there’s the fallen Angel CLEMENTINE: Now that don’t make no sense at all. She’s just a poor lost girl, not some devil now. (Points to EVANGELINE bringing a container from the kitchen) worshipper. Let’s pray she finds Jesus before it’s too late for that poor baby. (Disappointment crosses their faces as she dumps sausage links into the nearly empty bacon bin) TRUDY: The baby! I can’t just sit here praying, Clemmie, I’ve got to do something! TRUDY: (Addressing EVANGELINE) Sweetie, is there anymore bacon back there? (TRUDY pushes her coffee cup off the table and coffee spills over the floor.) EVANGELINE: Nope. That’s it for today. Didn’t I tell you the kitchen was closed? So sorry. May CLEMENTINE: Trudy! I suggest prayer? Perhaps Jesus will turn this sausage into bacon.

TRUDY: Whoops. (EVANGELINE exits without looking back)

(EVANGELINE waddles over with a handful of napkins and drops them over the mess) TRUDY: Well, there went her tip. This is just no good at all.

TRUDY: I’m so sorry, dear, but while you’re here, can I tell you about my Lord and Savior, Jesus CLEMENTINE: I know. How can they call themselves a restaurant if they ain’t got any bacon on Christ? He can save your soul, you know, and the soul of your sweet babe. a Sunday mornin’?

EVANGELINE: Look, lady, for the last time, I’m not interested. I know all about Jesus. My father (TRUDY reaches out with the tongs and places the bacon on Clementine’s plate) was a preacher. How else would I get a name like this (pointing at her name tag). He used to quote bible verses while “not sparing the rod.” Now I suggest you get your breakfast before it’s gone, because TRUDY: I sure did have my heart set on some crisp fried bacon this day. But you should have it, the kitchen is closed. with all my love, dear friend.

(EVANGELINE turns and walks away, kicking the empty coffee mug out of her way) (CLEMENTINE places the cooling bacon on TRUDY’s plate)

CLEMENTINE: Well. He clearly shoulda used a bigger switch. CLEMENTINE: For Pete’s sake, Trudy, take the dang bacon before you drool all over the floor.

TRUDY: It’s really no wonder she’s in trouble. I’ll not spare her another thought. My prayers will TRUDY: Well, ok, if you insist. But I really think you should have it, bein’ half-starved and all. But only be for the child. you know me, not one to argue over much.

CLEMENTINE: Amen. CLEMENTINE: Now what does that mean, you reckon? Maybe I will have that bacon after all… (Reaching over to snag it from TRUDY’s plate) (They get up and head for the buffet. They make their way in silence around the bar, each starting from an opposite end. They meet in the middle at the bacon bin. Simultaneously reaching for the last piece of bacon, their tongs clutch it TRUDY: (Holding her plate out of CLEMENTINE’s reach) Oh no you don’t! (Smacks 33 desperately) CLEMENTINE’s hand) 32 nd 35 2 Sarah Madsen Sarah . Dressed like he was an extra in some weird in some weird an extra he was guy. Dressed like I don’t know, just this know, I don’t (locks door, peers out front door, window) (locks – Demon. Ageless. Takes on the appearance of Takes – Demon. Ageless. a tall, slender 40 year old male. (speaking on the phone) Tea and and Tea Temptation Characters: a plain t-shirt. Frustrated, over jeans and a button-up Wearing early 30s. – Male, JOHN FAUST unpublished writer. MEPHISTO a top hat. Slight British accent. Has several but in eccentric period clothing with Well-dressed tail, etc. features: Horns, typical demon-like roomSetting: The of living a loft apartment. Most of with the the room is neat and tidy, ofexception with papers a desk in the corner and other typical desktop which overflows is mounted on in notes and scribbles covered board/cork A large white board that’s clutter. chair with its back to us. beside the desk. There is a swivel the wall Scene: Enter JOHN through the front looking frazzled. He has a laptop bag, door, a large cup of coffee, and holds a phone to his ear. JOHN: period drama. getting oil changed, him when I was my I saw me. following he was but I swear know, I don’t Yeah, too many places to just outside of and even after I left the dry cleaners, that’s Now the coffee shop. be coincidence. think I go do you Why there? Their is okay, coffee (listening) Of today. working was course Kelly but once I’m published… (listening) Yeah, but man, that barista…She might think I’m nothing now, famous Faust, Dan. John I’m telling you, name everywhere one day, see my laugh, but you’ll you no then. be able to say She won’t author. as if(JOHN sets his things down by the door and continues to hover near the windows for someone. The watching swivel chair slowly turns around revealing MEPHISTO sitting patiently.) man. Bye. on Monday, at work see you (pause) Yeah, too. money, your that bet. I’ll take Ha! I’ll take (hangs up) (TRUDY (TRUDY What was that? What was Oh for Christ’s sake, ladies. What would Jesus Jesus What would ladies. sake, Oh for Christ’s

(see also: 93, 141) deadline away from her masterpiece. called life. Majoring in procrastination, she lives on the edge, just one perfect stories, many of which are inspired by this messy business priorities are her four perfectly imperfect children and her imperfectly Vacillating between contemplations and calamities, her highest In her spare time, she is a junior at the University of North Georgia. A little irreverent and a little intoxicating, Emmy Dixon is a firebrand.

Come on now, you started it. You poked first. When you poke the bear, don’t be don’t the bear, you poke first. When poked started you it. You Come on now, eat cannibalism. One really shouldn’t be like (Laughing a bit) Because that would Why you, you, – you, you, Why be a swine could you pink cheeks, those round with and well, smellier, Ruder, partially the chewed bacon) (Chewing, she pauses and opens her mouth to show TRUDY (Throwing her hands up in disgust)

First you try to steal the girl’s soul and now this? You’re just a small, mean woman, mean woman, just a small, this? You’re soul and now try First you to steal the girl’s TRUDY: been. have Always Clemmie. CLEMENTINE: buying your by it up to you Let me make Trudy. But I’m sorry, get back. surprised when you poked that bacon no way. really need don’t meal. You not? And why TRUDY: reenters from the kitchen) (EVANGELINE CLEMENTINE: kind. their own head) up her plate from she dumps it over CLEMENTINE’s (Picking the bar, TRUDY: 34 What? What am I, Clemmie, huh? Faster? Smarter? What? More resourceful? huh? Faster? What am I, Clemmie, TRUDY: CLEMENTINE: yerself. help it. I can’t diabetes and I have know go do ya? You wanna there, Oh you TRUDY: sniffs and turnsface away) her has her head turned and starts to stuff TRUDY snatches the bacon while (CLEMENTINE it into her mouth) (Seeing the bacon disappearing,on the bar) her foot and slams her plate down stamps she howls, TRUDY: that bacon! Spit it out! I want now! it! Stop it right have I won’t CLEMENTINE: through (She mumbles the mouthful) Yummy. Brunch is on you? EVANGELINE: CLEMENTINE: CLEMENTINE: think? The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 (JOHN turns, sets his cup on the coffee table and jumps when he sees MEPHISTO.) (dramatic pause)

JOHN: (startled) How did you – but who – what – (squares his shoulders, voice full of bravado)How did I’m here for your soul. you get in my apartment? JOHN: My…my soul? But – (pause) Wait, is this because of my name? Because I’m not him. I’m MEPHISTO: (stands and bows with a flourish, removing his hat and revealing his horns)Mephisto. Helper not even a doctor! And you’re not the first one to make that joke. Ha ha ha, very funny, you can go of men, lover of night, twister of words, weaver of deals. So glad to make your acquaintance. And, now. Take your Earl Grey tea with milk and honey with you. as far as your question, my dear John, I’ve been here all along. MEPHISTO: Oh no, your name is just a happy coincidence. I pick my clients purely on their own JOHN: What do you mean you’ve been here all along? That doesn’t even make any – (pause) Wait, merits. I wouldn’t base something like this purely off of a name. Mephisto? JOHN: Then why are you here? I haven’t made any deals or – MEPHISTO: (bows again) At your service. MEPHISTO: No, of course not! Don’t get ahead of yourself, dear boy. We have to work up to JOHN: The Mephisto? Mephistopheles? that part! It’s all about the pacing. (slyly) And here I thought you were an author.

MEPHISTO: The one and only. Accept no substitutes, exchanges, or second-rate imposters. JOHN: I am an author! Not that those hacks in New York would know talent if it hit them in the face. No one can sell the Great American Novel anymore, no, it’s all about werewolves and teen (JOHN looks skeptical) girls and kissing. My novel is two hundred times better than that 50 Shades of Midnight trash, but do What? You don’t believe me? (gestures. JOHN’s coffee cup levitates off the coffee table and floats across the I get published? No, all I get – (pause, self-consciously) Nevermind. stage to MEPHISTO’s hand) MEPHISTO: It’s okay. You’re right, though, you know. No one appreciates your brilliant work. JOHN: But…how did you…. But what if that could change? What if you could get published? Get people to not only read your work, but really understand it? Recognize its brilliance? MEPHISTO: Simple, my dear boy. But please don’t judge my abilities by that common parlor trick. I’m so much more skilled than that. It was just the easiest way to get your attention. JOHN: Oh man, to have that. That would – (pause) Oh, no. Nope. Not falling for it. I’m not selling my soul, so you can just go peddle your demonic temptations elsewhere, thank you very (holds up the cup in a “cheers” motion and takes a sip, then coughs and chokes) much.

Black coffee, John? That’s simply barbaric. You need far more help than I thought you did. MEPHISTO: Oh. Alright then. Sorry for bothering you. Good luck with the book. (turns to leave)

(reaches behind him to the desk and picks up a teacup that wasn’t there before. Takes a sip and makes a sound of JOHN: Wait. You’re just…leaving? pleasure) MEPHISTO: Well, yes. Earl Grey, with a little milk and honey. Now that’s the only acceptable method of delivering caffeine to you bloodstream. Unless, of course, you want a transfusion, but I wouldn’t recommend JOHN: Just like that? You’re just going to give up and walk out? that for you. MEPHISTO: Why not? You’ve already stated you have no desire to agree to any terms. To stay JOHN: Uh… and harass you further would put me on par with a common door-to-door salesman. And I am anything but that. MEPHISTO: Yes, yes, of course. Look at me, getting all distracted. You’re probably wondering why I’m here. JOHN: Yes, but, you can’t just leave! Where’s your commitment to character? Your follow- through? You can’t just give in like that. There’s no drive, no conflict! C’mon, man, I expected (JOHN nods) better out of someone like you. 37

36 Well, that’s obvious, dear boy. MEPHISTO: Very well, then. You’re the master wordsmith. The author of the greatest novel of The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 the decade. What would you suggest I do? JOHN (as MEPHISTO): You’re right, my dear boy! Of course you are! And I won’t have it be said that Mephisto is skimping his clients! What else would you want? Name it and it’s yours! Well, for starters, you’re not even going to try to trick me into it? JOHN: (Almost to himself) Rising action … MEPHISTO: I could, but that approach is so overdone. It’s become expected. Even… (with MEPHISTO (as JOHN): A multi-book publication deal? distaste) predictable. (JOHN steps up to MEPHISTO and they face each other square on. With each new line, they take another step You do have a good point. You don’t want to be predictable. It’s a story-killer. JOHN: until they seem like they’re dancing, with JOHN obviously leading.) (paces, thinking) JOHN (as MEPHISTO): Easy! How about challenging me to a game of chess? MEPHISTO (as JOHN): With one of the big publishers! MEPHISTO: Boring. Anyway, that’s Death’s modus operandi. JOHN (as MEPHISTO): Naturally! JOHN: Well, you have to do something. MEPHISTO (as JOHN): A sizable advance, of course. (paces, thinking) JOHN (as MEPHISTO): Of course! I tell you what…let’s do a little role play. I’ll be you, you be me. That way we can really delve into MEPHISTO (as JOHN): Yes! And – (stops as if at a loss for words and the dance stumbles for a moment) the characters and get a glimpse at their deeper motivations. Maybe it will give you some inspiration. JOHN: (recovering) And a place on the New York Times Bestsellers list! (MEPHISTO leans against the desk and gestures for JOHN to start.) MEPHISTO: (steps up to lead the dance) Only the best for the best! Yes, well…(clears throat and speaks, mimicking MEPHISTO’s accent) Now John, you really haven’t given this much thought now have you? Imagine all the things I can give you? Fame! Fortune! A fancy JOHN: (step left) A car! No – A cherry red Ferrari 458 Spider hard top convertible! sports car tailored to your specifications! Just name your price. MEPHISTO: (step right) Exquisite! MEPHISTO: (mimicking JOHN overdramatically) No! I will not give into your vile temptations, villain! JOHN: (Almost to himself) And climax! (Each phrase punctuated by dance steps) And Kelly Taylor… the luscious barista…with her best friend…in matching outfits… laid out across my brand new… JOHN (as MEPHISTO): Come now, dear boy. Think about it! I could hand it all to you on a thousand thread count…black silk sheets! silver platter, no effort required on your part. Just a little agreement and it’s all yours! (With that last word, MEPHISTO spins JOHN out and across the stage.) MEPHISTO (as JOHN): Never! I will get by on my own talents and my own merits! My own hard work and sweat and tears and grueling hours! Anything else would be shallow and MEPHISTO: Magnificent! (bows to JOHN with a flourish of his top hat)I do believe you’ve done it, meaningless! my dear boy! That’s certainly getting you some bang for your buck there! All of that for the small price of your soul, collected at the time of your death. JOHN (as MEPHISTO): Nonsense! But if you insist on doing this without help, I can simply get At the time of my death? That seems rather…morbid, doesn’t it? your foot in the door. You can’t get anyone to buy your wonderful novel unless they read it, right? JOHN: I can get that manuscript of yours on the desk of a prestigious agent. Once they read it, well…I MEPHISTO: Yes, yes, but that stipulation is non-negotiable, I’m afraid. But it’s simply routine, wouldn’t have to do much, now would I? purely customary. You know how it is, I’m sure. MEPHISTO (as JOHN): Well, no. I mean, if you’re not going to do anything other than make

JOHN: I don’t know… 39 sure they read it, I suppose that’s not that big of a deal. But it doesn’t seem quite fair to sell my soul

38 for something as simple as that! I’m worth so much more! MEPHISTO: Come now, think it through. With all of the money you’ll be making, you could afford the best doctors and live a long and happy life. You wouldn’t have to see me again until at rd 41 3 Linda Gillot

every use? Oh, Ma! Here. Let me help you! Let me help you! Oh, Ma! Here. Ma? (Panics) A small town in the southeast U.S. A small town Current day All Those Who Those All Wander Cast of Characters: mother and who finds with her to live home who has come back divorcee A 60-year-old BETTY: herself in the throes of anymore. know decisions for a person she really doesn’t to make having age signs that her who is showing is woman independent, hard-working feisty, MA: An 85-year-old, She is at the stage more apparent to others than to herself, where it is often up with her. catching She has become an expert at covering that she is not remembering everything. although she is aware her forgetfulness with humor. Place: Time: roomSetting: The of living during the 70s and 80s decorated it was a house that looks like Betty arrives home from work around looks goes to hang up her sweater and purse, PM. As she opens the door, 6:00 offas a teapot is whistling right around the room, she immediately senses that something isn’t stage. She goes offstage indicates that she shuts offto the kitchen and a click a as she begins slowly ceases to whistle the stove. The teapot frantic search throughfor her mother. the house Ma? Ma! Where are you, BETTY: into the living room back Betty walks and looks around. more out of She walks quickly the room through another onstage) walking back while A toilet is heard flushing.door. (Says Ma, how many times do I have to tell you to flush after you to tell many times do I have Ma, how into the living room.Betty comes back is slightly ajar. Moves a little more through which quickly another door, to have some panic in her voice. Begins from(Calls again offstage) disheveled, Scuffling and grunting is heard. The door fully opens onto the stage and Betty enters holding a somewhat momentarily for Ma to settle down. Waits confused-looking Ma upright and helps to a nearby chair. her (holds Now then. How about a nice game How then. ofNow chess? coffee, daydreaming over studying, and (see also: 10, 142) writing over everything else. plain character-building sons. She prefers lattes over Cumming with her husband and two wonderful, both inside and outside of Georgia. She lives in attended literary festivals and writers’ conferences pieces published in The Chestatee Review and has of North Georgia, Sarah Madsen has had several Currently an English student at the University

Maybe you’re right. That does seem reasonable. right. Thatdoes seem reasonable. you’re (nods) Maybe

eighty! Perhaps even a hundred! even eighty! Perhaps out hand) hand. They shake.) MEPHISTO’s takes then (JOHN hesitates, so great to be able to It’s dear boy. with you, Pleasure doing business Wonderful! MEPHISTO: I wish all of a discerning,deal with such intelligent yourself. man like you. just like clients were my sly smile) (pause, be paradise. simply My job would 40 least JOHN: OfMEPHISTO: it is! I’m nothing if course a deal? have (pause) So…do we not reasonable. The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Ma, what happened? MA: Maybe you left it on when you went to work this morning? You know I don’t like tea that much. Can’t imagine what I’d be heating water up for. MA: (Looks bewildered and disoriented) What the hell do you think happened? (Beat) My guess would be that I fell. BETTY: No. I didn’t leave it on when I went to work this morning, Ma. You turned it on this afternoon for some reason. BETTY: I can see that. How long have you been laying there? MA: Huh. Guess I can’t tell you why I’d be boiling water for anything. MA: (Looks confused) I- I- couldn’t really tell you. BETTY: It doesn’t really matter why you turned it on, but the real point is that you left it on. And BETTY: (Looks around, concerned) And where’s that cane I got you? then you fell. Do you realize you could have burned the house down? And if the house burned down, you would have been laying there, in the bedroom not able to get up? Not able to call 911. MA: Couldn’t really tell you that either. I think I mighta taken a nap while I was down there, Not able to get up and… though. You know, whenever I stay up and watch that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I always have to take a nap the next day. MA: Oh, Sweetie, you have such a flare for the dramatic. (Waves to dismiss Betty’s concern) None of that stuff happened. Everything’s fine. I didn’t get hurt. Look at me. I’m fine. Really. Just think BETTY: Ma, are you trying to be funny? I really need to know if you’re ok. (Beat) Well, are you? of it as me taking a little nap on the floor, that’s all. (Beat) I did get awful hungry while I was laying there, though. MA: Am I what? BETTY: Ok. Sure. A nap on the floor. That makes sense. (Shakes her head and stares at Ma. BETTY: Are you ok? Pauses.) You sure you’re okay?

MA: Oh. (Looks around, then down at herself, still somewhat confused). I think so. I guess I’m alright. MA: I’m sure. Honest. I told you. I’m fine.

BETTY: Well, did you trip over something? Do I need to get rid of those rugs? Did your leg give BETTY: Then tell me about the rest of your day. Did you get a chance to read Language of Flowers? out? Did you pass… I can’t wait for you to finish it so we can talk about it.

MA: Hey, slow down. Betty, I dunno. I was just walking along and the next thing I knew, I was MA: No, I was busy all day. I didn’t have time to read. staring at the floor. BETTY: Busy doing what? I mean besides leaving the tea kettle on and falling down? BETTY: Well, Ma… MA: Don’t forget “trying to burn the house down.” (Begins to gain composure and appears to contemplate MA: (Smooths her clothes out and begins to regain her composure) What difference does it make? I fell down, Betty’s question). Well, let’s see. Oh, that’s right. I went for a walk. okay? It’s no big deal. Really. I’m 85 years old for cryin’ out loud. Old people fall down. BETTY: A walk? I thought our agreement was that you would stay inside during the day until I BETTY: It is a big deal. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Do you think you were hurrying to could get home to walk with you. Where’d you go? go shut off the stove? MA: It was such a nice day. I decided to walk to the drug store. MA: The stove? No. I don’t think so. Why would I be doing that? BETTY: Really? Did you have any money? Were you planning on buying anything? BETTY: Well, maybe because the teakettle was whistling like crazy when I came in? MA: (Says indignantly) Yes, in fact, I did have money. MA: It was? Oh. (Beat) Maybe. (Beat) I guess I didn’t know it was on.

BETTY: Really? Where’d you find money? 43 BETTY: Well, it was.

42 MA: (Beat) In your closet. (Beat) Behind your summer shoes. The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 BETTY: You mean Daddy’s old silver coins? your head when you fell?

MA: Yes, I guess so. I don’t know who they belonged to, I just know they were there and it was a MA: Gosh, I dunno. Maybe I did. Do you think I did? Why? nice day, so I decided to go shopping. BETTY: Well, Daddy’s been gone for over two years now. You know that. BETTY: So what’d you buy? MA: He has? Did he up and leave me the way that no-good jerk-of-a-man left you? MA: Nothing! If you could believe it, that guy at the checkout wouldn’t take my money. And he knew my name. “Helen,” he says. “Where’s Betty?” I told him you were at work, then he takes my BETTY: Ma, can we leave my divorce out of this? items and tells me to come back when you were home! Then he had the nerve to call the manager. Like I was some kind of common criminal or something. MA: Well, your Daddy would never leave me. We had some tough times after the War. We survived it, though. And we had you. And if we survived that, we could survive anything. (Beat. Smiles coyly) BETTY: Ma, that was Charles. He’s been at Dunaway Drugs forever. Of course he knows you. I meant all the hardship, not you, Sweetie. And of course he knows you’re not supposed to be out shopping without me. He called me at work. It was nice that the manager drove you home. BETTY: (Teases) Sure. Right, Ma. (Says seriously) But you do know Daddy didn’t leave you, don’t you? (Beat) You remember. He passed away? (Beat) Really? You don’t remember? MA: Sure, real nice. (Beat) So much for privacy. It’s enough to make you paranoid. So, anyway, what’s for dinner? MA: (Thinks) Oh. (Beat) Yeah. That’s right. Of course I remember. Sometimes it’s just easier to play a game with myself that he’s still here. Like he’ll just come walking through the door at any BETTY: I didn’t plan on anything for dinner. You were going to fix dinner tonight, remember? time. It makes him being gone easier.

MA: (Sheepishly) I was? BETTY: Oh, Ma, I know. I miss Daddy, too.

BETTY: Yeah. That was the plan. (Sighs) Oh well. (Drops into the chair beside Ma). I’m exhausted, MA: No, Sweetie, I don’t think you do know. Sometimes when you’re at work all day I get so lonely. Ma. How ‘bout we order pizza? And sometimes your daddy comes to see me and we have these wonderful visits. We laugh, look at old pictures, and remember how things used to be. MA: (Pauses) You know Daddy don’t care much for pizza. BETTY: (Shows shock/concern) No, Ma. I guess I didn’t know that. (Pauses) But you do understand BETTY: What do you mean, Daddy doesn’t like pizza? (She brings out her cell phone and calls) I’d like that he’s not really here. Don’t you? a medium delivered to 547 Elmwood Lane, please. Yes. Make it a hand-tossed with pepperoni and banana peppers with extra cheese. OK. Thanks. (Clicks the phone off) MA :(Answers sadly) Yes. Of course I do.

MA: Well, he don’t. BETTY: I have to wonder, though, what Daddy’d say if he knew you were staying alone a lot of the time, and that you weren’t always able to remember things. BETTY: Who doesn’t? Who doesn’t what? MA: Oh, knowing your daddy, he’d probably be pissed. MA: Your daddy. He never did care much for that I-talian stuff – noodles, spaghetti, macaroni – you know, starchy stuff. BETTY: Ma, do you think it’s time for us to start talking about Holbrook again? Remember that nice place we went to visit? Where they had the bright apartments and they had so many activities BETTY: (Asks hesitantly) Why are we talking about what Daddy liked or didn’t like? for the residents to do?

MA: Well, it’s almost time for him to be home from work. We better come up with something MA: You mean the home?

pretty quick. You know he can get pretty cranky if dinner’s not on the table when he gets home. 45 BETTY: No, Ma. It’s not a home. The assisted living place.

44 BETTY: OK, now you’re scaring me. (Begins to feel around Ma’s head for bumps or bruises) Did you hit The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 MA: Sure looked like a home to me. hands.

BETTY: They do your laundry, clean your apartment, fix your meals, plan activities for you. And BETTY: I’m sorry, Ma. I’m sorry that it seems like I’m against you. they’re there when you need them. Why, Ma, it would be like living in a resort. I wouldn’t even mind living there. MA: (Dejectedly in an almost pouting way) Well, I never would have kicked my mother out of her house.

MA: Then maybe you need to go there; seeing as how you can’t seem to live without help. BETTY: I’m not kicking you out of your house, Ma.

BETTY: Exactly what is that supposed to mean? MA: And my mother never would have served my daddy pizza for supper. And I’d never expect your daddy to eat pizza after working all day. MA: Well, ever since that pea-brained, self-centered scum bag left you and took everything with him, seems like you’ve had to depend on me to help you survive. BETTY: Well, I’m not serving your daddy supper tonight. Or my daddy. And if you had any recall of our conversation this morning before I left for work, you would have had dinner ready when I BETTY: Oh, is that how it is? You’re taking care of me? Funny. I thought I was taking care of you! got here tonight. Instead I found you prone on the floor (makes air quotes) “taking a nap.” (Begins to lose her patience) Ma, you couldn’t afford to stay here if I wasn’t taking care of all the bills and the house payment. The house payment you have because you and Daddy took that cruise to MA: Well, why do I always have to cook for you? Here you are living in my house and I have to do Alaska you couldn’t afford. everything. It’s just like when you were a kid.

MA: We were celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary! Didn’t we deserve something for 50 years BETTY: (Sighs heavily) Ma, I work all day. I pay for everything. I have a cleaning lady come in every together? (Gets angry) Didn’t we? It was our dream. And if we had to re-mortgage the house to do two weeks. I guess asking you to cook once in awhile is too much. (Begins to turn away) Oh, never it, so what? mind. Talking to you sometimes is like dealing with a toddler. (Pauses. Takes a deep breath and turns back toward Ma) This isn’t really about cooking and cleaning and paying bills anyway. This is about BETTY: (Quietly sighs) Yes, Ma, I guess it was. It was what you deserved. (Pauses) But now do I you not being safe when you’re by yourself. We’re going to have to do something about it. deserve to worry about you being alone all day and then coming home to find you on the floor? Do I deserve that? MA: Well, I’m not doing nothing about it. I’m perfectly fine here. This is my home. This is where I’ve lived for most of my adult life. And you’re not sending me off to some nursing home where I MA: Betty, it was just an accident. I fell. I forgot the tea kettle was on. You don’t really think those have to look at people bent over in wheelchairs with drool dripping into their laps. are grounds for throwing me out of my own home, do you? BETTY: Holbrook isn’t a nursing home, Ma. It’s assisted living. Assisted – you know, as in they help BETTY: Throwing you out of your home?! Do you think that’s what this is about? you. And there are people around all the time in case of another incident like today. What incident? MA: Well, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You don’t have a pot to pee in. Making yourself believe that MA: I need you here makes it okay for you to move in and do whatever you want. Like you can just kick BETTY: (Stares in disbelief) You falling. Remember? my ass to the curb and take over my house. MA: (Says quietly) Did I really do that? BETTY: Ma! Do you really believe that? BETTY: (Looks incredulous) Yes, you did. MA: Well, it’s how it looks to your father and me. MA: Are you sure? I don’t remember doing that. BETTY: (Angry) To you, Ma. It’s how it looks to you! Daddy is gone. He’s not thinking anything right now. He’s not seeing through anything. He’s dead for Christ’s sake. (Shouts) Ma, do you get it? BETTY: Yes, Ma, it happened. And this isn’t the first time. Daddy’s dead!!

MA: (Pauses) Getting old is a bitch. 47 MA:(Pauses, then says quietly, tearfully) OK. OK. I get it. I know that Daddy’s dead. I do. Ma closes BETTY: I know. I get it. Look at me. I’m no spring chicken either. 46 her eyes, folds her hands, fingers entwined, rests her elbows on the arms of the chair, and rests her head on her folded The Chestatee Review MA: You are compared to me.

Betty goes over, sits on the floor next to her mother. She puts her head in Ma’s lap. Ma strokes her hair.

MA: You’ll always be my Betty Boop, though, no matter how old you get.

BETTY: (Snickers) You haven’t called me that in years, Ma.

MA: Well, I haven’t forgotten everything, you know. Short Fiction

BETTY: (Sits upright, puts her hand on Ma’s knee) It’s coming you know. We’re going to have to figure something out about you, Ma. We can’t just keep putting this off.

MA: Oh, I know it. And, my Betty Boop, I’m afraid it’s going to be sooner than later. In fact, to be honest with you – I guess I’m really just plain afraid.

BETTY: I am too, Ma. (Beat) I’m afraid of losing you.

MA: Well, you’re losing me one way or the other, Baby. I don’t think I’m always here any more. I feel like I’m just not with it all the time. Y’know, sometimes I just feel kinda (Beat) lost. “One by one, people began to pair off and BETTY: (Pauses, then as she stands) Hey, remember this? “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” Remember when we read Lord of the Rings? I loved that poem. discuss the crazy circumstances that had

MA: (Shakes her head) I do remember that poem. Isn’t it crazy how I can remember something like that I memorized a long time ago, but I can’t remember what I did an hour ago? led them to this event. It was starting to BETTY: It is crazy, Ma. But, I won’t let you get lost. You may wander a little, but I won’t let you get lost. (Betty reaches out and helps Ma out of the chair.) Hold on nice and tight, now. feel like gym class all over again. So, I did (As they walk toward the kitchen, Ma shuffles along a step behind Betty as a child might do.)

I’ll call Holbrook tomorrow so we can go visit it again. For now, c’mon. Let’s go set the table. something that wasn’t offered in gym class

MA: OK. Sounds good. I’m hungry. (Beat) Hey, what’s for dinner anyway? (They walk off stage toward the kitchen. Lights fade.) and headed over to the bar.”

Linda Gillot is a retired elementary school teacher with a Jansen Castleberry Master’s degree in Education. She is a lifelong learner and is enrolled at University of North Georgia “just for the “Theft at the Museum” fun of it.” This was her first experience trying her hand at play writing, and she has to admit that it’s a lot harder than it looks. She lives in Gainesville, Georgia with her husband of 45 years and is enjoying being grandma to four 48 granddaughters, ages two months to four years. What fun! st Spring 2014 of twenty-seven people made their way down the ethics of the Hall of Biodiversity because the first hallway. Through the corner of a of the low guttural sound that came from the room, I could see the entrance to the Hayden bowels of the museum. It began as a small Planetarium. The glass cube that made up the rumble, but turned into a full blown siren. The 1 planetarium seemed to be melting as rivulets of group looked around at one another in alarm rain cascaded down the walls. In that moment, as the siren echoed through the halls. Sound Theft at the all I wanted was to be curled up on my couch, in reverberated from the marble in the lobby to the pajamas that had been warmed by my radiator, glass planetarium. It felt as though everything watching television. The sound of the rain sent was shaking even though it was probably only a chill up my bare legs and suddenly my black our eardrums. As suddenly as it started, the noise Jansen Castleberry Museum cocktail dress didn’t seem as chic as it had in the stopped and a frazzled Beatrice came rushing crushing desperation that was a singles’ cocktail humid summer walk to the museum. I rubbed out of the hall. Her blonde hair had gone from When I stepped out of the subway hour? He flashed a small smile my way, but I my arms as I walked and tried to warm up from sleekly resting on her shoulders to becoming a station onto 81st street, the clouds parted into convinced myself it was more out of sympathy the imaginary chill. disheveled mess. A light pink flush filled the area the most torrential of downpours. I try to credit than interest. That’s one of the lessons that I Beatrice made a short pit-stop in the Hall around her cheekbones and it took a moment myself with not believing in fate or cosmic signs, had learned since moving into the city seven of Biodiversity. Her hands were clasped behind for her to find her voice. but this was a fairly clear signal that tonight was years ago. If someone in New York City is her back as she waited for the entire group to “If you could all gather in the Milstein going to be just as terrible as I had imagined. smiling at you, either they are a tourist, or you’re gather together. Hall of Ocean Life, the cocktail hour will Regardless of signs, I stood in the lobby of embarrassing yourself. Since he had a nametag, I Finally, she cleared her throat and began commence,” she announced as she tucked a the museum where the long counters of ticket was pretty sure he wasn’t a tourist. to speak, “I have been informed that the Hall piece of flyaway hair back behind her ear. booths were quickly becoming deserted. As each Keeping the confidence boost in mind, is not yet ready. Would you please wait here for The group followed her through the arched employee left their post, they cast a rueful glance I sat down under the skeletal remnants of a just a moment while our staff finishes their final doorway and was instantly shadowed by a large in the direction of the new arrivals. dinosaur. He stood large and towered over me as preparations? Thank you for your patience.” model of a whale that rested slightly under the This was not how I intended on entering I tried not to glance up. The idea of a creature The group remained silent as Beatrice gorgeous blue dome of the ceiling. Small tables what may be the lowest moment of my life: a that big with moving eyes and scales made my scurried into the doors that led to the Ocean had been set up in the lower deck of the hall singles’ cocktail hour at the American Museum skin crawl, but I didn’t have to worry. That Hall. We were all standing incredibly close to and there was a bar set up in the corner. Twenty- of Natural History. May I note that it was hardly dinosaur had been dead for millions of years. one another, but just as any New Yorker knows, eight of us milled around for a moment before a voluntary singles’ cocktail hour. This was a last- Before I had the chance to wonder if dinosaurs close proximity does not mean small talk. Even Beatrice slipped out the door and we heard it ditch attempt by people who think they are my were forced by their society to find soul mates at an event where small talk is the only activity lock. well meaning friends. by the time they turned thirty lest they become that is encouraged, there were no volunteers For a moment panic rushed through “Come on, Ginny,” they had pleaded, labeled as spinsters, I was interrupted by a to start up the name game. It was only when me. Had anyone else heard that door lock? “You like museums and drinking. Go meet young, blonde curator. I looked up that I began to fully take in my Every single one of us wore the same confused someone who likes those things, too.” “Welcome to the SciCafe Cocktail Hour! surroundings. I had been to the museum a dozen look on our faces. Disbelief and a reluctance to What they don’t realize is that women I’m Beatrice and I’ll be your guide tonight. If times on field trips; museums were our school’s mingle filled the room until finally, one brave guy who like singles’ cocktail hours at museums you will please follow me down this hall, we will closest and cheapest distractions. It wasn’t until a walked over to a brunette woman and began a and men who go to singles’ cocktail hours at commence our cocktail hour in the Milstein Hall few years ago that the childlike wonder began to small conversation. One by one, people began museums will most likely always remain single. of Ocean Life. If you have any questions, please melt away and all I started to see in the dioramas to pair off and discuss the crazy circumstances They will also probably hoard animals and die do not hesitate to ask.” were dead things. Small creatures were stuffed that had led them to this event. It was starting by choking on a microwavable dinner, but that’s Her smile was so earnest that I almost and posed into “lifelike” positions and skeletons to feel like gym class all over again. So, I did neither here nor there. felt like this was an okay way to spend a were on display for the world to see. The whole something that wasn’t offered in gym class and Wednesday night. Like very lonely cattle, our I caught the eye of a younger guy in his thing felt wrong somehow and it was almost as headed over to the bar. As I was ordering my 51 clean white shirt. With no more than twenty group trudged along behind our smiling guide. if I were violating these creatures’ privacy. drink, I felt someone stand next to me. I turned 50 five years on him, how could he know the Heels clicked on linoleum flooring as the group There wasn’t enough time to think about and was surprised to see Nick Cohen: the local The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 weatherman. “So, what brings you here, Ginny?” bring an umbrella this morning.” couldn’t help but to smile back at him. I got lost “This night is turning out to be stranger “The over eagerness of my closest He laughed and pointed to his dripping in our conversation before remembering to look than I expected,” he said with a good natured friends. And you?” curls, “I sincerely apologize. To be fair, I wasn’t back at Beatrice. She was nowhere to be found. grin. “The same, oddly enough. It’s almost prepared either.” Nick saw me panic and began looking around It took me a moment to respond. like they won’t be happy until I’m part of a Before I could come up with a remark, too, mimicking me like a small child. For some reason, I was taken aback to see couple again,” he lamented. Beatrice walked into the hall with her arms “What is it?” he asked. the local weatherman having to resort to a “Again?” firmly tucked by her sides. I shrugged, “Just checking for an update singles’ cocktail hour at a museum. Not that I “I’ve been divorced for six months. “Some of the Bayet Collection of on those stolen fossils.” considered him a celebrity, but it was jarring to Apparently, it’s now time to get back out there.” Fossils have been stolen from the premises this “Oh, and what did you find out?” see him standing anywhere but in front of a I looked down at his hand in search of evening. If any of you saw suspicious activity or He was laughing at my eye roll when the green screen. the invisible dent of his wedding ring knowing know who the suspect may be, please alert me doors opened and three officers walked into the The gears in my mind finally clicked that it wouldn’t be there. He noticed the or another employee immediately.” room. Beatrice was right on their heels. together and I smiled, “Yeah. It’s definitely movement of my eyes and a smile twitched on We all looked around at one another in Her voice was shaky as she spoke, strange.” his lips. disbelief. Stolen? Something had actually been “Everyone, please form three lines for His short curly hair was still damp from “It’s alright. My wife of six years stolen from a museum? Wasn’t that just for questioning. Thank you.” the rain and occasionally a droplet would find its decided that she didn’t want to be married to me criminals in cartoons trying to steal the crown She stepped into the background as the way onto the side of his face. He quickly wiped anymore. To be honest, I didn’t really want to be jewels? haphazard group formed three semi-straight it away with the sleeve of his sport coat. married to her either. It worked out.” Nick turned back to me, “Someone must lines. They really shouldn’t have gotten us drunk “Do you know what’s going on?” “And yet you’re still looking for someone really like fossils.” before a police inquiry, but I guess no one His question was the kindling on this dying to inevitably break your heart?” “They must,” I nodded. expected for there to be one. conversation. He laughed, “Call me optimistic, but I My eyes wandered over to Beatrice who Nick sipped his vodka and tonic behind I shook my head, “No, I don’t. That guess I am.” was now pacing in the corner. She pressed her me as we stood in silence. Me being 5’4,” most alarm was awful! I thought a dinosaur had re- His eyes met mine and even behind the earpiece tightly to her ear and awaited further guys were comfortably taller than me, but animated or something.” reflection of his foggy glasses, I could see the instruction. Nick hovered over me at a handsome six feet. “That would be awful,” he replied with a optimism buried in the green of his eyes along “So,” Nick smiled, “you do comedy. Everything seemed to be looming over me courteous laugh, “but they also have mummies with flecks of blue and gold. Mind lightening the mood with a joke?” tonight from the skeleton in the lobby to the and who knows what else that could come back “What do you do, Ginny?” It took everything I had not to roll my weatherman right behind me. I dared a glance at at any moment.” I took a deep breath, “I’m a comedian.” eyes. I try to keep my job to myself, but the him and found him staring right back at me. An unpleasant chill ran down my spine “Really? That’s cool. Like, stand-up first thing someone says after I tell them I do “What a mood ruiner,” he murmured as at the mention of the decaying mummies in the or…?” comedy is, “Tell me a joke!” Considering the he nodded his head in the officers’ direction. glass cases resting silently two floors above us. “I do a lot of stand-up and improv circumstances, however, I decided I could tell I shrugged and savored the last few sips Sensing my discomfort, he quickly down at the UCB.” my favorite joke. of my cocktail, “At least they didn’t take our added, “But I’m sure they have a plan for that “That’s amazing. Big names come out of “Why did the monkey fall out of the drinks away from us.” kind of thing. Do you come here often?” there…” tree?” I asked. “They probably should have. How did “Singles’ cocktail hour? No, this is my “It’s a wonderful community to have Nick stood there for a moment as if he some of these people get drunk so quickly?” first time. Do you?” such horrible pay,” I laughed, mainly because could actually think of an answer before playing “It is one of the marvels of humanity.” More droplets cascaded down his face as being poor isn’t something to mention on a first along with a spirited, “Why?” I looked ahead and watched the officers he shook his head, “No. This is my first one as encounter. “Because it died.” at the head of the lines take each person aside well.” To my relief, he gave me a warm grin, “Boy, you’re cheery.” and question them before thanking them and He offered a hand to me and smiled, “Meteorology, believe it or not, isn’t the highest I smiled, “That’s my favorite joke.” letting them out the door. Even though I knew I

“My name is Nick. Could I ask for yours?” paying job in the world. I do the weather on “Somehow, Ginny, that doesn’t surprise had nothing to do with the disappearing fossils, 53 “Ginny,” I said as I returned his Channel 3.” me.” I was afraid the guilt would show on my face like 52 handshake. “Not very well. You didn’t tell me to Another smile crossed his face and I it did as a child. Even if I’m innocent, my face The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 reflects guilt like a mirror. who had shown any interest in me at this event? to married in twelve seconds. I turned to make He pulled a small, white object from his pocket I explained my innocence to the police As we stepped out of the hall, he slipped sure he couldn’t read my thoughts and found and handed it to me. I looked at the palm of my officer and must have been convincing because his hand into mine very swiftly. I prayed that my him staring straight ahead. He seemed to be a hand and saw a rock. Upon further inspection, he let me go very quickly. I smiled at Nick sweaty palms would keep themselves in check. calm, confident driver which made me feel safe. within it was a tiny imprint of clawed foot. while he chatted to the same officer. I heard We kept walking until the path led us back to I pulled down the mirror to check on my bangs Something inside of me wanted to drop it and a comment about the weather and saw Nick’s the dinosaur skeletons hovering above us in the and saw something out of the corner of my eye. run, but the other part of me simply asked, shoulders shrug over the laughter. lobby. He had a bag resting in the backseat and I rolled “Why?” “You’re all clear, Mr. Cohen. Have a nice “I always loved dinosaurs. Jurassic Park is my eyes. Men and their sweaty gym bags were a “Why not?” he replied, “Why not live a evening,” the officer smiled as he opened the my favorite movie,” he mentioned as we stopped love affair I could never begin to understand. little?” door for both of us. for a moment to stare up at the milky white Nick parked the car a few blocks away “Go skydiving! Go-karts! Anything “You too, sir.” Nick replied. carcass. from the restaurant and, after he rustled through but fossil stealing!” I found myself whispering We were back in the Hall of Biodiversity I shook my head, “I’ve never seen it. the bag in the backseat, we walked toward the frantically. I cradled the fossil in my palm and when we resumed our conversation. I could I’ve been afraid of dinosaurs ever since I could Time Warner Center. I felt his hand slip into waited for him to take it back. feel that we were supposed to be leaving the remember grasping the concept of giant running mine, just as warm and soft as it was back in the “After my divorce, I realized that I’ve museum due to the security guards lining every lizards.” museum. For a moment, I wondered what I was never gotten anything that I wanted. I’d never door in the building. I was glad I got to finish “You have to see it!” he insisted as we getting myself into. “Ginny,” I warned, “he’s a done anything risky and crazy. I wanted those my drink. Nick and I walked back through the made our way toward his car. “Although you great guy. Do not ruin this for yourself.” fossils, so I carpe’d the diem and took them,” halls that we had walked earlier. The rain had might enjoy it more if you were eight years old.” “You hungry?” his question brought me he paused, “I’ll return them soon, but just for begun to slow into hard droplets that hammered I remained silent. He led me out of the back into the present. tonight, I want to feel like I took control and got on the glass. I stopped to look out of the glass lobby and back down the stone steps that I had “Starving,” I replied. something that I wanted.” cube as we passed the Planetarium and noticed walked up earlier. The parking deck was one “Excellent,” he grinned, “can I tell you a “How are you going to return them?” I the guards eyeing us. Nick turned to me and block down the street from the museum and the secret, Ginny?” asked, incredibly skeptical. gave me his trademark smile before shepherding rain pelted us like small pennies. My heels caused His use of my first name, so casual, “With the help of my accomplice. That me along. I felt myself getting panicked that my my footsteps to echo loudly throughout the made me happier than it should have. He can be our second date,” Nick looked at me, time with him was about to end. Even though parking deck as we headed in the direction of reached into his pocket and I swore I could his green eyes overflowing with hope. My“ I’d only met him less than two hours ago, I his car. It smelled like a damp cave and I stared see the outline of my heart pumping under the fingerprints are all over them now,” I thought. wasn’t ready to leave him. There were so many at the slick, glistening concrete until I saw his fabric of my dress. “Maybe,” I sighed. things I wanted to talk to him about. feet stop beside a car. “Sure,” I nodded. For now, maybe would have to do. With “Worst case scenario,” I thought, “I’ll see him “Hop in,” he invited as he opened the We were standing in the middle of the the fossils in our pockets, Nick Cohen and I tomorrow while I get ready for work. He’ll be the one passenger door for me. Time Warner Center’s lobby. A location not headed up the elevator and waited for a table in front of the weather.” I couldn’t explain it, but I gratefully slid inside and waited for terribly fit for secret-telling, but if Nick felt where we could eat a nice, quiet dinner. luckily I didn’t have to. him to join me. He slid into the car with careful comfortable here, so did I. He made sure our eyes met before ease and backed out of his parking space in one starting his next sentence, “Listen, I don’t swift, smooth motion. want to sound presumptuous, but you’re really Suddenly we were out of the parking interesting.” deck and driving through the city. A brief “Thank you” moment of joy and excitement passed through Jansen Castleberry is an English major at the “You’re welcome,” another smile, me as I allowed myself to imagine a future with University of North Georgia. She lives in Atlanta, “Would you maybe like to go and get some him. “How long have I been dating the weatherman? Georgia. She is currently wrapped up in a love dinner? There’s this new place in Columbus Oh, just a few years. We’re very happy and I never affair with creative writing and Spanish. If she isn’t Circle that I hear is really good.” forget my umbrella anymore! Who needs The Weather writing, she is either reading or watching stand-up 55 For a moment I hesitated, but quickly Channel app when you’ve got a personalized text from 54 nodded. Who was I to turn down the only man your husband?” Whoa. We just went from dating comedy in a pair of pajamas. nd Spring 2014 some pancakes later.” The two men got out of highly recommended you.” the car. “And I’m not giving any money to this “You’ve come for me to read your guy. It’s all on you.” fortunes,” the bearded man said. Blaze could 2 “Trust me, Blaze,” Jack said as they not tell by his tone if this was a question or a reached the door, “This is going to be worth it.” statement. He rang the doorbell. “Not mine,” Jack said, “Just his. You The door opened and the two men see, he’s been having a hard time lately. And we Steven Lock peered inside but saw nobody. They exchanged thought that. . .” Pancakeswould have no effect on Jack. In the nearly a brief look before walking inside and closing “You thought,” Blaze said. I thirty years that he and Jack had been friends, the door behind them. They looked around at “Okay. I thought that it might be good he had been dragged into so many situations he for him to come to you. My cousin, the one I laze sat in the passenger’s what Blaze thought was the tackiest living room B objected to that it would probably take some mentioned a moment ago, his name is Jeremy, seat of Jack’s early 90’s model Honda. The car he had ever seen. The floor was covered in divine power to count the exact number. He really nice guy, he came to you and said that you was blue and splattered with rust, and the tires shag carpeting the color of dirt. The light was sometimes questioned aloud to Jack why they were a tremendous help to him.” were going bald in much the same way that Jack dimmed and the air smelled of incense. Against had remained friends for so long. There was “I’ve helped many people,” the psychic was. Blaze, who still had most of his hair, stared one wall was a couch the color of blended peas. never any reasonable answer other than once a said, “Please, gentlemen, have a seat.” He swept out the window, studying the house. It looked In front of it was an off white wicker coffee bond of true friendship is forged, it can never be his arm in the direction of the couch and chairs. normal from the outside, white vinyl siding, gray table, and on the opposite side of this were broken no matter how different the two people Blaze and Jack each took a chair. The psychic sat shingled roof, concrete driveway leading to a two two armchairs the same shade as the couch. are. They sometimes laughed about this, since on the couch, positioning himself in the middle car garage, a yard full of thick, green grass, and The walls were painted cream and had Native they had become friends in such a ridiculous so that he was between the two men. “Now,” the grouped together in a cul-de-sac with four other American decorations hung on them. From the way. They were in the same fifth grade class, and psychic continued, “Blake, was it?” nearly identical houses. Even the sky overhead next room, the doorway to which had a curtain during roll call on the first day, they discovered “Blaze,” Jack said. seemed to be a shade of blue that only exists in of beads in place of a door, drifted the sounds they had the same first name, Everett. Neither “Ah,” the psychic said, stretching a suburban paradise. It was the kind of house in of Johnny Cash, which is what most struck of them had met another Everett before, and friendly smile across his face, “Blaze. Why don’t which Blaze pictured a nuclear family living. One Blaze. The music seemed out of place in a room they felt that having this name in common you start by telling me about your troubles?” with a vanilla last name like Smith, Jones, or the like this. He would have expected Pink Floyd, created a magical bond between them. While “I really don’t want to,” Blaze said. name of a color. They would have a dog named The Beatles in their later years, or even one of everyone else began calling them by their “Tell him,” Jack said. When Blaze Buddy or Max, and all their first names would The Rolling Stones’ more trippy tunes. Yes, surnames, Blaze and Jackson (soon shortened said nothing, he nudged Blaze’s shoulder and be as commonplace as their last. Billy and Suzy thought Blaze, this place is much more “Paint It to Jack), they referred to one another as Everett, repeated, “Tell him.” for the son and daughter, the father would be a Black” than “Folsom Prison Blues.” giggling each time they did so, like it was a “Fine,” Blaze said with a sigh, Dave or Robert, and the mother would probably As Blaze continued to study the room, a secret joke. As they grew older, the joke became “Whatever. My wife recently left. . .” be named Barbara, a name which Blaze had man wearing a blue silk robe and a fez came in less funny, more childish, and they resigned to “Wait,” the psychic said, holding out a always found strange. From the Greek, meaning through the beads. He was tall and had a thick, addressing one another as everyone else did. hand, “Don’t say another word. I’m having a stranger, yet everyone seemed to know at least dark beard. He walked with his arms held out, “I saw a diner down the road,” Blaze revelation. I can see,” he put the fingertips of one woman with that name. causing the sleeves of his robe to drape down, said, “I bet they have some really good pancakes. his other hand to his temple, “I can see that your “I don’t know about this,” Blaze said, turning his arms into bats’ wings. When he Let’s just go get some pancakes and forget about wife has recently left you.” for what he guessed was about the forty-second spoke, it was in an English accent. “Hello,” he this whole thing.” “That’s incredible,” Jack said, through a time. said, “How may I help you?” “We can get pancakes after,” Jack said. “Hi,” Jack said, extending a hand, which gap-toothed grin.

“We’re already here,” Jack said, “So we 57 “But I skipped breakfast.” “No,” Blaze said, wanting to slap his might as well go through with it.” the bearded man briefly shook before returning

56 “No you didn’t. I watched you eat.” friend, “No it isn’t. I was literally in the middle Blaze groaned, although he knew it his arm to its previous position, “My name is Blaze sighed. “Fine. But I better get Jack. This is my good friend, Blaze. My cousin of saying the exact same thing.” The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 “Please,” the psychic said, “Let me customers, and no one wants to go to a psychic “You have a cat. His name is--” means something to you. But it could mean continue.” that sounds like Tony Soprano. So if it’s all the “I know my own cat’s name. Now shut something bigger. I once read a man’s fortune “Oh,” Blaze said, “Don’t let me hinder same to you, I’ll just stick to the fake voice.” up.” who got a W, and he became a world famous your revelation.” “Oh,” Blaze said, “Oh, that’s good. “Alright,” the psychic said, “Are we musician.” “I can also see that your wife leaving That’s clever. I’m intrigued now. I thought you ready?” When neither of the other two men “Who was it?” Jack asked. you,” the psychic closed his eyes, “has brought were gonna be some freak with a crystal ball. said anything, he reached into the bag. His hand “That’s not important,” the psychic said. you much grief.” But you really know how to sham a person.” came out with a small number of wooden tiles “There was no famous musician,” Blaze “Oh, no,” Blaze said, “It felt great “Sir,” the psychic said, the English and, with a sweeping gesture, he scattered them said. actually. I laughed out loud when I came home accent now returned, “I assure you. I may onto the table in front of him. He flipped over “There was. I’m just not at liberty to. . .” and found all her stuff gone. Then I called up all use this voice for business purposes, but my the face down tiles, and busied himself with Blaze interrupted him by blowing a my friends and we had a party that night.” predictions are nonetheless. . .” rearranging the tiles until he seemed content raspberry. “Sir, please,” the psychic said, “I’m “Oh, don’t try that,” Blaze said, “Just get with where they were. Blaze and Jack watched “Fine,” the psychic said, annoyed, “If trying to work.” on with it, will you? I skipped breakfast and I’m him do this, and as soon as he was done, they you must know, it was Jack White.” “Well,” Blaze said, “Excuse the hell out getting hungry.” both leaned forward slightly and peered down at “Wow,” Jack said, “The White Stripes are of me.” “You didn’t skip breakfast,” Jack said, the series of letters. one of my favorite bands. That’s. . .” Blaze ignored the look that Jack gave “How many times are you going to say that?” “Zwtnojn?” Jack said, “His future is “That’s just another gimmick,” Blaze him. “Let’s just get on with this,” Blaze zwtnojn?” said, “Just like everything else he says.” “Your marriage,” the psychic said, “It said, “Don’t you have some Tarot cards or “Hey,” Blaze said, “It’s worth 26 points. “No,” the psychic said, “It’s true. I was had been deteriorating for quite some time, had something?” If I played that on a triple word score, I’d have living in Detroit at the time. Mr. White was it not?” “No, sir,” the psychic said, “I don’t quite the advantage.” working as an upholsterer, and he came to me “This is ridiculous,” Blaze said, “Of use Tarot cards.” He reached into his robe and “Each letter symbolizes a certain event and. . .” course my marriage was already in trouble. pulled out a brown cloth bag, pulled shut by a or circumstance,” the psychic said, “However, “Whatever,” Blaze said, “Just get on with Nobody loses his wife suddenly.” drawstring. certain pairings of letters cancel out the the reading. I skipped breakfast and. . .” “Blaze,” Jack said. “What’s in there?” Jack said. meanings of the individual letters and create “You did not skip breakfast, damn it,” “No,” Blaze said, “Don’t. You’re the The psychic smiled in his friendly way. a new meaning. Now, let’s see what is in store Jack said, “You already tried that.” one who dragged me here to put up with this. “Scrabble tiles.” for you. A Z means car trouble, so you might “Oh. Did I? Fine. Just get on with it.” I mean, a psychic? Seriously? That’s what you “Scrabble tiles?” Blaze and Jack asked want to stop by a garage and have them run The psychic put his hand out over the thought I needed? There’s not even any such simultaneously. a diagnostic. This W is tricky, because it has a tiles and said, “Now, the pairing of T and N thing as psychics. This guy is a sham. I bet that’s “Yes, gentlemen. I can read anyone’s pretty vague meaning.” means a stain on your shirt, and the paring of O not even his real accent. Hey, psychic man, is fortune using Scrabble tiles.” “What?” Blaze said, “Vagueness? From and J means orange juice. . .” that your real accent?” “I see,” Blaze said, nodding, “Well. I you? Never.” “That’s original,” Blaze said. “I’m sorry?” the psychic said. thought you had a good show for me, but now “What does it mean?” Jack asked. “So, it’s safe to assume that you’re going “Your accent seems pretty fake.” I see otherwise. So if you’ll excuse me, I have a “Music,” the psychic said. to get some orange juice on your shirt sometime “Why would I use a fake accent?” plate of pancakes waiting on me.” “Music?” Blaze said, “I listen to music soon. And an N means that you’re going to lose “I don’t know. You tell me.” “You’re not going anywhere,” Jack said, all the time. Most people do. That’s hardly something.” The psychic stared at him for a moment, “I’m paying for this, and I say let the man read precognition.” “Like my wife? Because it’s a little too then let out a sigh. For a moment the air of your fortune, whether he wants to do it with “No, no,” the psychic said, “It’s more late to predict that.” mystery cleared, and when he spoke again, his Scrabble tiles, or tea leaves, or the fleas on my specific than that. It means that something very “No, sir. It means that you’re going to 59 voice was different. “Look, man,” he said, “I’m dog’s back.” significant involving music is going to happen lose something trivial. Probably a small object

58 from New Jersey, alright? But this psychic thing, “You don’t have a dog,” Blaze said. to you. That could merely mean having an of some sort. I really wouldn’t worry too much just like any other business, relies on repeat “That’s not the point,” emotional response to a piece of music that about that one.” The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 “That’s all you have for me? Car trouble, out-of-context conversations. Sunshine blasted your shirt. And the waitress spilled orange juice. copy of. . .” He trailed off. music, an orange juice stain, and misplacing through the windows, bouncing off every On your shirt.” “What?” Jack said, “What is it?” something?” reflective surface it could find. Blaze and Jack sat “And we’re in a diner that serves orange “This song,” Blaze said. “The reading isn’t over, sir. For me to in a booth near the entrance. Blaze had ordered juice as a beverage. A beverage that a lot of “‘Wonderful Tonight’? I thought you complete the reading, you must draw one more pancakes with a side of bacon and vanilla Coke. people drink.” liked Clapton. Do you want me to change the tile from the bag.” Jack had only ordered a cup of coffee, which he “At lunch?” station?” “You can’t do it?” Blaze said. had hardly touched. “Whenever they want. The psychic “No. I do like Clapton. It’s just. . .” The The psychic shook his head. “It’s very “I can’t believe I still let you drag me into made a prediction that something commonplace corners of Blaze’s mouth twitched downward. important that you draw it yourself. And you things like that,” Blaze said. would happen, and he got lucky. Now drop it.” “This song played at my wedding, remember? must make sure to only grab one tile. The final Jack didn’t respond. He hadn’t said After paying the check and leaving a I haven’t heard it since Ava left.” She danced tile is the most important one of the reading.” anything since they had left the psychic’s house. tip, the two men exited the diner and began across his mind, her white dress flowing behind “Fine,” Blaze said, “Hand me the damn “Oh, come on, Jack,” Blaze said, “Don’t walking towards Jack’s car. Jack had fallen silent her, her golden hair glittering underneath the bag, and let’s get this over with.” worry about anything he said.” again, and Blaze was trying to fill the silence by veil. She laughed and twirled, fading as she The psychic held the bag out and Blaze Jack still said nothing. suggesting what they could do for the rest of completed her turn, leaving behind her the took it. He reached into it and, without much “Just forget about it, would you? It was the day. image of her empty closet. regard, pulled out a tile, which he studied for a all a show. Nothing he said is going to happen.” “We could go bowling. We haven’t done “No. No. No. No,” Jack said. “Blaze. second and then shrugged. “It’s a blank tile.” Blaze took another bite of his pancakes. “I that in a while. Or maybe go see a movie. I This isn’t good.” “Oh,” the psychic said, a sullen look mean, I respect your opinions. You know that. don’t really know what’s playing, but we could “Don’t, Jack,” Blaze was becoming a shadowing his face, “Oh, dear. That is very But you’re wrong about this. The guy was full probably find something that looks. . .” He put little angry again, “It’s all just a coincidence.” unfortunate.” of shit. I mean, if there was such a thing as his hand up to his face. “Man, it is bright out “Three coincidences in a row? Come “Why?” Jack said, his voice shaking precognition, then why. . .” here. Where are my sunglasses?” He checked on. This is for real, man. If that psychic were a slightly, “Why is that unfortunate?” Blaze was interrupted when a passing his pockets, finding nothing. “Did I leave them sham, there’s no way he could have gotten three The psychic held his solemn gaze on waitress tripped, spilling the glass of orange in the car?” When they got to the car, he began predictions right. Why can’t you just believe that Blaze for a moment. “I’m very sorry, sir. I truly juice she had been carrying, and splashing it searching the floorboards, the seats, the glove this is happening?” am. But a blank tile. . . A blank tile signifies onto Blaze’s shirt. compartment, and the visors. He still found “It’s a popular song. And we’re listening death.” “Oh, my goodness,” the waitress said, nothing. “I must have lost them somewhere.” to a classic rock station. They play it all the Jack turned his head to Blaze. Worry “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I “Two,” Jack said. time.” clouded his eyes. just tripped.” “What?” Blaze said. “But it’s significant to you.” “Death?” Blaze said, falling silent and “It’s okay,” Blaze said, “It’s alright. It was “That’s two now. Two predictions the “So what? Ava and I picked a popular looking down at his lap. After a moment, he an accident.” psychic made have. . .” song to play at our wedding. I’m sure it’s played lifted his head, and quickly stood. “Jack. Pay this The waitress gave him some napkins to “Get over it,” Blaze nearly shouted, at a lot of weddings. I’m sure that it’s significant man, and let’s go get some pancakes.” He walked wipe his shirt off and cleaned up the juice that “Can we just go?” to a lot of people. So why don’t you just stop out of the house without another word. had gone onto the table and floor. After she left, Jack cranked up and pulled out onto the telling me that some crazy, bearded guy knew Blaze looked at Jack to find him staring right at road. They rode in silence for several minutes, that all of these things were going to. . .” II him with eyes as wide as vinyl records. until Blaze had calmed down and once again There was a loud boom, and the car “What a waste of time,” Blaze said, “What?” Blaze said. tried to make plans for the day. began to sputter and decelerate. Jack pulled it taking a bite of his pancakes, “And money. That “What the hell do you mean, what?” Jack “We could go down to the flea market. over to the side of the road as it came to a stop. guy was such a hack.” said, “You just got orange juice on your shirt.” I could find some nice sunglasses for cheap, He looked over at Blaze. The diner was in the midst of lunch “Oh, come on. Spills happen all the probably. And there’s this guy there who sells a “Car trouble,” he said, “Four for five. 61

60 rush. The air was cluttered with the din of frying time.” bunch of old books. He has some pretty good Now do you believe?” food, silverware scraping against plates, and “But the psychic said orange juice. On stuff sometimes, too. Once he had this signed Blaze didn’t return his friend’s gaze. rd 63 3 “Yeah, if She left “Yeah, find her. I could ever to start service the have we “Andrea, she whispers Charlie-Bear,” you, “I love I try to say. too,” you, “I love death is supposed my how This isn’t in the next room. I hear a video playing Cassey Smith What Stacy?” about She sent us a during her first semester in college. I tried with the divorce. done she was text saying the Charlotte was but nothing. looking for her, want I she starts to sniffle. only one I had left,” soothe her pain. to hug her, she used hair like My mom smoothes my now.” to before bedtime. ear and leaves. in my to happen. I should be gray and wrinkled, grandchildren, children, surrounded my by a long “she lived They should say, family. friends, the best mother and happy life” and “she was not I should be ninety-seven, in the world.” seventeen. Embarrassing home videos compiled together father I hear the time my life. to celebrate my room. My friend caught me dancing in my and I in the fourth grade dancing talent show One More Baby “Hit Me to Britney Spears’s my The science fair competitions I won Time.” If and senior year. junior, sophomore, a it were graduation. see my Why they’d month from now, me? I want to say otherwise, but my but my otherwise, to say I want What am “I miss her so much. I lie here listening to everyI lie here listening and teardrop her tears fall me, mother over I feel my time for the service,” it’s “Andrea, in a She’s going to be okay. it’s “Andrea, only daughter. your “Charlotte wasn’t But Ghosts Ghosts But Exist Don’t trapped. “She looks so beautiful,” every whisper, as ifthey say, a bride stroll gracefully watching funerals are the opposite But the aisle. down of The do not lace and the pillows weddings. ring upon no There’s the same meaning. have head resting Rather my in this box. the pillow White lace is delicately in an eternal slumber. intertwined about the bodice of knee-length my I am beautiful, but gone all the same. dress. I try cheek. my nose and slide down upon my She I wish I could move. but I can’t. to flinch, is wheezing, out of breath, but the tears still footsteps Heavy my pillow. I hear a few hit flow. my mother. by soft carpetnear stop muffled My mother whimpers male voice. whispers a low, and tries to breathe. “I…can’t…leave…her.” better place now.” much few times She wheezes a move. mouth won’t her breath. before she can catch she –,” all I have She’s I supposed to do now? dragging “– pauses, air to steady herself, in stale all I had.” had. She was “What’s that?” he said. “What’s said. what?” Jack “What’s He walked pointing. Blaze said, “That,” and stood over men stopped The two a “It looks like followed. it, and Jack towards have must It it. run over have must raccoon. You gotteninto something important up and made car goyour wonky.” smoking the last ofthe mangled raccoon, their at it, Blaze As they stared down cigarettes. and that observedhad become, flattened it how had from it in strings the blood that trickled He thought again ofa syrupy thickness. the he had eaten for lunch. pancakes reflects this view of the world through his writing. everything and to take few things completely seriously. He films. His personal philosophy is to be skeptical of writing, his hobbies include reading, cooking, and watching Steven Lock is an English major at UNG. Along with

“Blaze, this is serious. If is serious. this “Blaze, right he was truck.” a tow “Shut up and call I’m here. a problem have we Blaze, “No. “What?” Blaze said, looking at him, his got to the around out and went Jack at his feet. Blaze stood, staring down quit.” I thought you “Yeah. Blaze said, taking a cigarette “I did,” They smoking, stood together,

62 “Just shut up and call a tow truck.” call a tow shut up and “Just right he was then the other predictions, about all last one.” about the not going best friend. . .” to let my “Die? Because some becoming uneven, voice me a going I was freak in a fez said to? Give He got out ofbreak, Jack.” the car. let it happen. I won’t I won’t “Blaze. other side. let this one be true.” up and said, he looked moments, After several any?” have Do you “I could use a smoke. got a light, too?” “You from Jack, When Blaze had smoked in silence. enveloped a quarter of his cigarette, smoking more slowly half who had smoked than Jack of his gaze his, shifted to something behind the car. The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Death is the end. There’s nothing else. black men’s dress pants with hand-me-down a loan for said trip as your graduation present, Explain that.” The dead shouldn’t be able to hear and feel. black dress shoes with scuff marks. The other unbeknownst to you. You like to study and do “You don’t have to. Some prefer to keep This is illogical, impossible. Is this permanent? wore the same black two-inch heels she bought crosswords. Do I have to continue? This is dull.” up the habit, but it’s only necessary when you What happens when they bury me?! Too many for my great grandfather’s funeral. Mom. I feel “Are you a jerk for a reason?” have to speak.” questions without answers. Why? I could be in a a cool, tingling sensation. It feels like rain, but “I am assigned to you. That’s reason I stop breathing, readying myself for coma. This could be a dream. I could’ve gotten it’s another teardrop. She leans over and throws enough.” the burning in my lungs. It never comes. It feels in a car crash and blacked out. That’s it! There is a single rose behind me. Wait, the… I look “What do you mean ‘assigned’?” unnatural so I stop. always a logical explanation. down beside me and see my box, six feet under. “I mean, they assigned me to be your “Okay…so, why am I just now waking The congregation re-enters the room. I’m floating over a rectangular pit, but the air partner.” up? Shouldn’t I’ve turned into a ghost right I hear a loud thump above my head and beneath me feels solid. “I’m not stupid.” when I died?” my mother’s now-muffled weeping. What’s “What the…?” I stop. My throat feels “We all believe what we want to believe.” “Movies and books are all wrong about happening? I feel a quick jolt and I slide a bit to thick like I just woke up. It sounds strange. He looks at his watch, “Well, get up. We have the subject. The truth is that your spirit can’t be the side. Moments pass and then I’m at an angle. I put my hand to my chest to calm business to take care of,” he snaps his fingers. released until your body is buried. Until then, They do know that someone’s in here, right? myself. Breathe. I can feel the lace on my white “I’m not leaving.” you’re stuck within yourself. You can’t see or There’s another loud thump, this time from dress. I look down and can see right through “You don’t want to see your body buried move, only hear and feel. Your spirit is trapped under me, and a hard push causes me to slide, myself. I start to tremor, holding my transparent and everyone leave, trust me.” within your body. The time between death and yet again. I hear an old engine start. body. His gaze turns to the ground for a the awakening differs. You were lucky.” About ten, maybe twenty minutes later, “Ghosts don’t exist,” I whisper and wrap moment. When he raises his head, he starts to “So when did you awaken?” the car stops. Someone turns off the engine and my arms around my knees. walk away. He looks over his left shoulder and “The moment I died.” I hear the sound of a car door shut. They open “Apparently they do,” I hear a male says, “I said come on,” disappearing into the “For how long?” the back door and my box is slid out of the car. voice, young - not raspy like the other man. I forest lining the cemetery. “Five days, I think.” He frowns and Another thump and I know I’m above my “final look around, but everyone is enveloped in their My mom is the only one left. It’s his eyes look distant. “Come on, we have a resting place.” I’m going to be in here forever, own conversations. No one acknowledges my embarrassing to stand, more so to walk. My schedule. Our assignment will be up soon, always listening, hearing and feeling myself presence. Then I see him, leaning against a hands go right through her in an awkward hug. I partner.” He winks at the mention of partners. I decompose. I hear someone leading another nearby tree with his arms crossed. Ebony hair, love you. roll my eyes. prayer, but I’m too busy to pay attention. I try to expensive black suit, and translucent. Tears mark my cheeks as I enter the “Assignment? Partner? I don’t even lift my arms so I can open the lid, but I can’t. I “You know, I had a feeling you were forest. Sunlight fills the spaces between the trees. know your name.” We walk deeper into the hear a click and the box starts to lower without going to be difficult. You science geeks never It’s bustling with life. Squirrels climb. Fish swim. forest. me. I feel pressure on my back. My mind, or is it understand that anything is possible,” he says. Deer eat. A rabbit stops in front of me. “Hey, “My name is James. Your sister is our my spirit, is ripping from my body. “You don’t know anything about me.” little guy,” I say. It doesn’t turn. first assignment. She owes someone money, and My eyes open for the first time. I see My voice is low, steady. I straighten my posture “It can’t see you.” He has his hands in she’s about to get into a lot of trouble.” the cloudless sky. I sit up. Ashwood Cemetery. and set my jaw. He rolls his eyes and lets out a his pockets. He looks amused. “I’m supposed to help her? Like a I haven’t been here since my great-grandfather sigh. “I know.” guardian angel? Is she like my unfinished died. I turn my head slightly to the left. “You’re Charlotte Baker of Roosevelt “Liar.” business or something?” Everything is bright and green. I try not High School. The one who died in a car crash “Shut up.” “Unfinished? You haven’t even started to focus on the moss-covered, decaying crypts Friday. You have two friends: Amber and Anna. “I’m just saying that animals aren’t yet,” James smiles, “No on both accounts. and crumbling tombstones. I turn even more You and Anna received academic scholarships to attuned to the supernatural as much as they Just because you die doesn’t mean your life is to see the massive floral monstrosity next to my MIT. You’ve wanted to be a scientist since age think they are.” finished. You don’t lie around for the rest of 65 grave, framing my senior class picture. I frown six. Before that, a zookeeper. Your favorite dish “They? The animals?” eternity. The living need our help. They wouldn’t

64 and turn to my right. is ravioli. You wanted to travel to Europe this “No, stupid. The living.” survive without us.” I see two pairs of legs. One covered in summer with your friends. Your mom took out “Okay. So, how come I’m still breathing? “So, we work for the rest of eternity? The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Where’s the fun in that?” voice is low. eyes widen. Her mouth slides down and opens “I don’t know.” She looks down and “We can mess with people, move things “No, there’s no way. She’s been here the into a long, high-pitched scream as she moves to the left. She gives me a quick glance before around, close doors. You name it,” a quick whole time? Why didn’t she just come home?” backward until she hits the wall. She chokes a bit speaking again. “Twelve? Fourteen…grand?” mischievous glance, “We just can’t move or “Come on,” he says as he walks up the from lack of air, catches her breath, and screams She bites her lip and stares at the mattress. touch anything living.” stairs and passes through the entrance. again. “Is it twelve or fourteen?” “This is going to be great!” I raise my The carpet is stained and ragged. The “Stace. It’s me …your sister?” She A deep breath. “Fourteen thousand five fist in false enthusiasm. place smells like sweat and smoke. How does she doesn’t stop. “We’re here to help.” I raise my hundred and eighty,” she whimpers, “I’m sorry, “I knew you were going to be sarcastic.” live like this? Four flights of stairs later, we pass hands, palms facing her. She jerks her head alright.” She closes her eyes. “I didn’t mean to. He rolls his eyes, but I ignore it. “We need to be through her door. She’s in bed, a dirty mattress around until she finds him in the doorway. “This I just,” she looks around, defeated, “I just got a at your sister’s now.” with a blanket on it in the far corner. The deep is James.” little over my head.” “How are we supposed to get there?” brown hair we once shared was gone, replaced “I don’t care. You are not my sister,” “Mom could’ve helped. All you needed “I’ll guide you the first few times, but with strawberry blonde. The mascara that she says, “I’m dreaming. This is a horrible to do was ask.” My voice sounds harsh. She you’ll learn how to transport yourself.” smeared in her sleep enhanced the dark circles nightmare. Impossible.” turns to the left, her eyes threatened by tears. I He holds out his hand. I take it and a under her eyes. Stacy was slim all of her life, “Stacy, what are doing here?” hear a long, overdramatized sigh from the door. millisecond later, the scenery changes. The trees but now I can see the outline of her ribs where “Ghosts don’t exist.” We both look. morph into tall buildings. Pavement replaces her shirt rode up over night. James frowns as he My face turns a bit red. I frown. “Someone’s coming up the stairs.” grass. Open space in front of us transforms inspects the situation. “Apparently they do,” I mutter and gesture James’s head disappears through the door. “It’s into cars. We’re in the road! I drop his hand and A wrinkled paper is next to the door. towards my body. She gasps as if she believes, Hudson.” dive to the side before a car hits me. James is Eviction notice. She has three days. I shake my but catches herself. “How do you know what Hudson looks still there, doubled over with tears streaming head as I look around. The kitchen is bare and “No, impossible. Charlotte isn’t a ghost.” like?” down his face. The cars pass through him. “You smells like mold. “You need to wake her,” James “If you didn’t run away, you’d know it’s “Wouldn’t you like to know,” James says should’ve seen your face,” he says between says. possible. No joke, I swear. Cross my heart and and gives me a devilish smile. He turns away. laughs, “It was priceless. And I thought you’d be “How am I supposed to do that?” steal my gummy bears,” I say, using our secret “I asked you a question.” boring.” “Shake her? Pour water over her head? swear from childhood. Her jaw drops and her “I know,” he replies, “And I answered.” My face turns a shade of transparent I don’t know. You’re her sister. I’m sure you’ve eyes fill while she looks to the wall beside her. Stacy gets up and throws on a dress red. I stand, straightening my dress and adjusting done it before.” “No.” that hasn’t been washed for days. How did she my posture, and ignore him. “We have things to “I thought we couldn’t touch the living.” “Stac-” get this way? She winces as she runs a comb do, James,” I scowl, “Show me what I have to “That excludes your assignment. I’ll “Give me a second.” A few minutes through her tangles. Someone knocks on the do.” His laughing dies down to an entertained make sure she doesn’t run away. This place is pass. James sighs. “Okay, okay. Patience.” She door. One of Hudson’s men shoves the door smile and we walk in silence with the occasional bad, but a mental institution is worse.” narrows her eyes at him and then turns her gaze open. “Great,” Stacy says as she inspects the snicker. “So, only she can see us?” I smile to me. “Let’s say I believe you. Why are you broken doorframe, “Do you know how much We stop at an old apartment building. thinking of talking to someone, especially Stacy. here?” that costs?” The two suited men are silent. It looks abandoned with the graffiti and old “For the time being, yes. Now go.” “We’re here to help, but you need to tell “You avoiding me, deary?” says Hudson posters on the front. It smells of pavement and I walk to the bed and kneel in front of us the truth.” as he walks in. Stacy shakes her head while urine. “Why are we here?” I ask. her face. Being this close allows me to see the “We know about Hudson. How much backing away. He notices the eviction notice on “This is where your sister lives.” premature wrinkles and the thinning hair. I shake money do you owe?” James says. the floor. “I heard about that,” he points to the My mouth partially opens and my chin her. “Go away,” she mumbles. I shake harder. “Hudson? Who’s Hudson?” I say. paper, “You owe everyone money, don’t you?” tilts down slightly. I look at the building with “Go away,” her voice rises, “I said go away.” She “The one I owe the money to,” Stacy He laughs while she cringes. “How much does 67 new eyes. My breath hitches, and chest pains opens her eyes and I feel self-conscious. How do says and then gulps nervously, “I have until this place cost?” He looks around the kitchen,

66 start. “It can’t be,” I whisper. I look? Dead? Scary? Both? Tuesday.” “Twenty bucks a month? This is filth.” “She’s in there right now. Top floor,” his She rises to a sitting position and her “How much, exactly?” I probe. He pushes a dirty plate off of the table. It hits The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 the floor and shatters. floor. “Who’s in there?” “How much is your rent?” I ask. for the living.” I make a small smile. “Why are you here? It’s not Tuesday “No one.” He looks into the apartment “One-fifty.” “It’s not all bad,” James says, “You get to yet,” she crosses her arms. from the doorway and snaps. The other man in “Then, why the eviction notice?” spend the foreseeable future with a handsome “See, here’s the thing. I need it now.” He the suit goes into the apartment. “I owe five hundred.” lad such as myself.” He smiles. Stacy laughs. laughs as her eyes widen. “You better not be messing with me.” “Get dressed. No more excuses.” “Yes, of course, how could I forget,” I “What? I-I don’t have it.” She looks “I’m not.” We are waiting for the subway an hour say as I roll my eyes. “This is us.” to everyone in the room, eyes landing on me. The man returns from the apartment. “I later. She’s on a dirty bench, silent, arms crossed The sky is dark when we call a taxi and “Help me.” I look to James who shakes his head. didn’t see anybody, but there’s a window open. and nose wrinkled like a four year-old. arrive at the house twenty minutes later. The “Help you? I need it now. I can’t help He must’ve went through there.” “How did this happen?” I ask her. James large white two-story hasn’t changed. We walk you.” Hudson turns to Stacy. “I told you not to watches the living with a frown on his face. She to the entrance, James walking straight through. “I’m not an idiot. What about your mess with me, girl.” doesn’t say a word. Four knocks later, my mother opens the door. money? You’re loaded. Why do you need to “I didn’t, I swear.” She holds her hands “Started as a girls’ night out at Hudson’s She looks older, even though I just saw her this collect now?” up in surrender. Hudson slaps her and she falls casino,” says James, “I think her words were ‘I morning. She’s a train wreck with her tangled “I promised a client a large sum and the to the floor. Her hand goes straight to her cheek got this’ as she went all in. Got fifty grand. The hair and baggy eyes. Chocolate ice cream stains banks are closed on Sundays, deary. Plus, people and her eyes water. next week, she came back. Wanted to win fifty her white shirt. Her eyes widen. The wrinkles will notice if I withdraw half a million in cash. I “I’ll give you one more chance. more. Went that way for about two months. around her mouth become more defined as a knew you wouldn’t have it. Alex.” He snaps his Tomorrow, eight a.m.” He starts to walk away, Lost it all. Good apartment, friends, everything. smile takes over her face. It becomes a tearful fingers. Alex limping behind. He stops. “And if your Owed like forty grand by the end. Been paying it reunion, topped with a long hug. “I just need more time,” she says as little friend is here when I come back, you’re off ever since.” “What are you doing here?” Mom says she backs away. Alex grabs her and throws her both dead.” He vanishes down the stairs with his “How do you know that?” Both of us as they enter the house and walk down the screaming body over his shoulder. henchmen. say. hallway. They enter the kitchen and sit at the “More time? I don’t think so.” She sits up, hand still on her cheek, and He shrugs, “I have my ways.” A smile table. “We need to do something,” I scream to cries. “What am I going to do?” I slide down the forms and he raises his eyebrows. I laugh, but “I need fifteen grand.” James. wall beside her. James crouches in front of her Stacy looks away with a frown. The subway “Maybe a ‘Hi, mom. I missed you. Can “What do you suggest? We can’t touch and removes her hand from her cheek. arrives. we talk?’ would have been better suited for this the living.” “It’s just a little red. It’s going to be a “Why didn’t you come home?” I ask as occasion. After all, her youngest daughter just I run to the kitchen and grab a chair. nasty bruise though,” he says. we sit. died,” James says to Stacy. It’s solid in my hands, unlike my mother at the “Mom will know how to get the money. “I thought I could get away.” Her voice Mom’s smile disappears as she shakes cemetery. My breathing accelerates as I raise She can help,” I say, but Stacy shakes her head. lowers. “They were always fighting. It was all a her head. Her eyebrows scrunch together and it above my head. I feel powerful. I’ve always “I can’t go back. What would I say? ‘Hey, big joke.” A sudden cynical laugh. “I wanted you her face turns slightly red. Her eyes narrow as wanted to do this. The three men are walking Mom, here I am. Can I have fifteen thousand to live with me after you graduated. We didn’t she looks at Stacy. out the door, Alex with my screaming sister last. dollars?’” She starts choking. “I can’t.” need Mom and Dad, the double holidays and “What is wrong with you?” Mom’s voice I swing and hit the back of his legs. He falters “I’m tired of this. We’re going,” I stand alternating weekends.” She looks away, “But that rises. “Your sister dies, you don’t attend her and lands on his face. My sister falls into the and jerk her arm, “How much money do you was before.” funeral, and then you come here and ask for hallway. Alex groans from the floor. have?” “You don’t have to worry anymore,” I money?” “Nice,” says James. He holds his fist to “I’ve been saving up for my rent.” make a sad smile. “I’ll never graduate. All that “I’ll pay you back, I promise.” Stacy me and I bump it with mine. Our smiles fade “How much?” says James. She finally work for nothing. That’s the real joke…I didn’t starts to cry. when Hudson returns. stands and walks to her purse in the kitchen. accomplish anything.” “That’s not the point, Stacy. Charlotte 69 Stacy stands. “Tomorrow. I’ll get your “One hundred and two dollars and “You found out what happens after is dead and this is what you come home for?

68 money by tomorrow.” twenty-seven cents,” she pulls out the wrinkled death.” She smiles and lightly hits my arm. Money? What has gotten into you? I don’t even Hudson looks at the broken chair in the bills. “Yeah. I’m a human services specialist know you anymore.” The Chestatee Review “Don’t be mad.” Her stare shifts to me isn’t it?” He smiles. for a moment. “Yeah…what do we do now?” “I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.” “We leave.” Creative “Tell her,” I say. “But what about Stacy? How can I just Stacy looks at her hands as she tells leave? What happens to her?” Mom about why she left, Hudson, and her “She’ll pay Hudson, move home, go to massive debt. Mom’s anger slowly disappears. college.” Non-Fiction Stacy doesn’t mention my presence. He looks to his watch. “It’s time. We A long pause. Stacy squirms in the have to go.” silence. Mom stands, her chair sounds like a I soak in the aura of the room, scream when it slides on the wood floors. She remembering every detail. Goodbye for now. leaves and Stacy sobs. Moments later, Mom We go to the living room. They’re asleep on the returns, holding an envelope with a blue bow on couch. I kiss my mom’s forehead and try shaking it. my sister awake, but my hands go through her. I “This was supposed to be Charlotte’s try again with the same result. graduation present, but--” She stops. “I’m “She’s not our assignment anymore. This going to give you this, but you have to promise is all now her imagination. You’re, depending me something. I’ve lost one daughter. I’m not upon her belief system, in heaven.” I don’t reply. losing another. I want you to come home.” Stacy Tears make my vision blurry as I stare at them. I “I imagine that I looked like a member of smiles. “And you’re going to college.” love you, Mom and Stacy. “I’ve missed you.” Stacy hugs Mom. “Cheer up, they’ll be fine. We can “I’ve missed you too, honey.” transport anywhere you like before our next a community theater ensemble who was I leave and climb the stairs. I can hear assignment,” James says. them talking about me while eating ice cream. “Well, I’ve always wanted to go to trying to get into character as a rugged My body tingles as I cross through my bedroom England.” We leave the house. door. It’s just how I left it. The bed is still made, “Oh god,” he screams, making me jump and homework sits on my desk. James walks in. and stops us both. lesbian type in someone’s roommate’s “Nothing’s changed. I know it’s only “What?” I look around for trouble. been a couple of days but…” I trail off, unable “We have something in common.” He to describe it. smiles as I hit him on the shoulder. new play.” “It’s weird not being part of their world, Amanda Adams “Contingency” Cassey Smith lives in Winder, Georgia with her oddball parents, caffeinated younger sister, and rowdy Chihuahuas. She dances to pop, indie, and alternative music, dabbles in doodles, and takes up nature photography on weekends. The one constant in her life is the writer within that shouts for attention. 70 st Spring 2014 a decent comb over. He shook my hand were covered with boxes. They read “PURPLE vigorously, the earplugs that dangled around his POWER Industrial Strength Cleaner/ neck shook when he did so. Degreaser.” 1 “You. Must. Be. Amanna,” he barked, “Now this is what you gonna be doing,” Marine-style. he said, pulling a knife from his back pocket and I nodded and smiled. “Yes.” He still had quickly hacking through the top of a box. “I Amanda AdamsContingency my hand in a vice. bring you a pallet of jugs. You open these boxes, a rugged lesbian type in someone’s roommate’s Another, much younger man approached take one sticker, and pop it right on the front as our arm wrestle was ending. He was familiar here. Stack the done ones back on the pallet.” took a sabbatical from school new play. I to me in the way that Parking-Lot Jessica was. He paused. “Watch how you do it, too. Get too in June of 2009. Sabbatical here Pulling into the Nampac parking We had gone to high school together. many crooked and they’ll fire your ass. That’s meaning that I dropped out lot, I was struck at how many cars were “Ste-ven!” Jeff shouted, “Show Amanna what happened to the last temp.” before they could kick me out. After an entire there. I knew that most of the people in my where she’s working tonight.” I nodded and smiled, going over the wasted year, moving back home and getting a hometown worked in places like this, as it was Steven shrugged. “Come awn.” As he steps again in my head. working-class job seemed like the right choice. a manufacturing town, but I was struck by the turned, I noticed his shirt. A Confederate flag As the first two hours passed, the I knew all that I needed to already, and like the bleakness of a giant tin building, shrouded in was flanked with a Pit Bull and a Rottweiler. The monotony of straightly placing stickers was generations of laborers before me, I could get smoke pouring from industrial-sized ducts, faded text read, “My Right One Is Made of Iron, welcomed. The black rubber mat that I got to by without having to rely on a degree. surrounded by a sea of battered cars. I thought My Left Is Made of Steel. If My Right One stand on was springy, so I shifted my weight A cousin of mine, Shelly, who worked of my father, who must have seen a similar Don’t Get You, My Left One Will.” from one foot to the other. One foot to the at a staffing services company in town, passed setup every morning and every afternoon for the “Hold on there!” Jeff shouted, dragging other. One foot to the other. Someone had left the word on to her mother, who then called better part of forty years. Did he think the same out “there” for a full three seconds. “You gonna an old AM radio sitting on a nearby table, and it my mother, that if I needed some quick work thing on his first day? He was my age when he need these,” he said handing me a hairnet and a quietly played a re-run of the previous morning’s she could place me somewhere immediately. I started his factory job, too. pair of earplugs. Swap Shop, a show devoted to people calling assumed that I would get to work somewhere As I crossed the parking lot, looking I nodded and smiled again. “Thank you.” in about things they had for sale. One woman where my talents would really shine – a busy for an entrance that didn’t seem like a port for I followed Steven through the factory. had three rabbits that she was giving away. The office, co-piloting a big rig across the country, a truck to deliver something in, a girl I went to Large, industrial shelves flanked all sides, filled next man had an old STIHL weedwacker for building cabinets Amish-style. However, I was high school with, Jessica, sat smoking on the from top to bottom with white plastic containers thirty dollars, or best offer. During a commercial offered the graveyard shift at a plastics plant trunk of an old Cutlass with a woman I vaguely of various sizes. Giant, wheezing machines, for Ebenezer Baptist Church, a place of hope, called Nampac. I took it, desperately needing the remember showing up for school functions with manned by people of a similar stance to Jessica’s a man in a grubby collared shirt the color of eleven dollars an hour, assuming that I had the her. A mother, I assumed. She had been warped mother, hissed and shot steam up toward the mustard entered through the plastic curtain. type of steadfast work ethic that would get me by time it seemed. Her tiny frame was hunched grey ceiling. “Well hey there!” he waved over the din, promoted quickly. over, the long cigarette dangling limply from her “This here is where the money’s at,” “I’m Tommy.” He pointed a chubby thumb at The night of my first shift I dressed in mouth. Steven gestured, putting on his hairnet. “They himself. “I’m the supervisor.” what I assumed would pass for normal factory Trying to muster a heavier accent, I start you at fifteen an hour, and all you do is I smiled. garb. I borrowed a flannel shirt from my dad, asked: “Do y’all know where the front door is? fiddle with them damn machines all night.” “I just came back to introduce myself rolled up the sleeves and tightly tucked it into It’s my first day.” Silently, and without pause, I raised my eyebrows and made a face that I and let you know that the fifteen-minute break my jeans. The boots I wore belonged to my both gestured around the corner of the building. assumed was one of awe. bell’s about to ring here in a minute.” father, too. Old and cracked, they seemed to go The large grizzled man who greeted We passed by what seemed like miles of I nodded. “Thank you.” well with the shirt. In hindsight, I imagine that me in the front office had a weathered nametag 73 machinery, following a series of yellow arrows Supervisor Tommy was not wrong. The I looked like a member of a community theater that read Jeff. His wispy grey hair was thinning

72 on the concrete, through a curtain made of large break bell rang, and everyone on the floor made ensemble who was trying to get into character as in spots, but he still had enough to manage slabs of clear plastic. Several stainless steel tables a quick procession outside. Following suit, I nd 75 2 I looked the image over carefully, carefully, the imageI looked over going“What are we to name him?” I going to pick, I think Dad’s “Dunno. Dad? Naming an animal? I frowned. relating to the infamous “Bloody relating to the infamous something to Mary” might have started Savannah do with this. the to follow eyes for my too quickly to draw, this.” “Like effortlessly skillful sketching. had I face. focusing on the penned horse’s the like horses with “dished” profiles, known and horses with straight elegant Arabians, most Quarter like Horses and profiles, but the fact that this horse Thoroughbreds, going were to get the one we had a profile like a fairy almost like scribbled before me was tale. that. met a horse with a face like I had never Andalusian and the exotic that were Horses like horses… show the dramatic Lipizzaner - movie met Before I even horses. horses… expensive him. He seemed mesmerized by I was Tango, ever the most foreign horse I would to me like forged by meet, despite the fact that he was North years sharpened by America herself, untamed. The Spanish Mustang is not a breed. its contributing as a landrace, known what’s It’s to North America by breeds brought over European settlers and explorers that escaped into the wilderness way and found their own from sea to shining sea without the assistance of mankind. after studying the napkin carefully. asked though.” Rachel Andrews hat’s he look like?” I asked I asked like?” he look hat’s out there, screaming for her out there, were “W “Uhm, he’s got a roman nose.” She got a roman nose.” “Uhm, he’s her blankly. roman nose?” I stared at “A She grabbed“Like…” a napkin off the my oldest sister, Savannah. She was always the always She was Savannah. oldest sister, my as I was as far horses, authority on all things concerned. Asking what a horse that she had made perfect sense like before looked seen never for the state of Fortunately to me. thirteen- my she had at least rose-colored glasses, year-old heard a description. probably hoping that would patiently, answered be enough for me. room/ sitting in the living were We counter. ofkitchen the old cabin in the middle of a tree aunt owned farm in North dad’s Florida that my used. If I probably but never today, back I went creepy be able to sleep the how for wouldn’t the it was little, when I was but place really was, hear the roar of To a bobcat coolest thing ever. in the dead of the night, though it sounded like screams of a treat for me was a dying woman, me probably make it would then. Now back in the middle of It was pee myself. a hundred- plus acre pine tree farm, completely secluded. If a woman life, nobody would hear her die. To add to the add To hear her die. nobody would life, the main bedroom had a line ofcreep factor, full-length mirrors in place of closet doors. cool. These days, even funny, then, it was Back mirrors at the deepest corners play of my marathons a few too many creepy movie psyche; Tango Exactly like the first two hours, the next hours, the first two Exactly like Before I could go Supervisor home, smoking a cigaretteMy dad was and ones were replaced with new, blank ones. The ones. blank replacedwith new, ones were same episode of Shop had begun the Swap I shifted again. calves. crept my up A dull ache on the springy more quickly weight black my mat. on jugs, stickers blindly smacking spent six were only interrupted spent trying a lunch by to figure a burrito that came out to microwave out how of smoke and another silent machine a vending ofbreak. By the end stopped the night, I had the front of on grooves minding the little the and label went container that dictated where the fell. just placed it where the sticker After a work. had to inspect my Tommy condescending lecture about the purpose of the the jugs (“to line up them stickers on grooves car read in my released. The clock I was by”), 8:03. The sun was meant that it was 7:03, which just dragging itself beaming the tree line, over I was home. eyes on the drive right into my exhausted. drinking a cup of when I coffee on the porch I huggedpulled in. Before he could speak, him, directly to bed. him, and then went thanked I skipped sixteen hours later, up, When I woke that I thought and applied to every school work All but one sent rejection letters. me. take would That all I needed. was (see also: 141) must read or we must barbarize. For now, she reads. Amanda Adams agrees with the Howellsian idea that we

The as dreary outdoor area was the as ofI expected there to be some kind When the whistle blew signaling the end

74 made my way out, pulling a smushed pack of pack smushed out, pulling a way made my of out Reds Fortuna I knew pocket. back my that if with in common I had smoking anything, these people. and concrete to tin walls As opposed interior. was all dirty stucco. the patio pink-brown floors, with a tables lined the middle, Six battered picnic littering the perimeter. chairs few sparse folding filled to glass ashtrays sat two table On each right that had been smoked the brim with butts filter. to the down all Every job that I had before, chatter. work functioned on restaurants and department stores, ofsome basic level griping everyone that kept nothing. there was on a united front. Here, up a to strike Trying met with silence. I was brief I made conversation, contact with a eye in one of slouched withered old man who was He grimaced and instantly the folding chairs. and her mother were Jessica away. looked on the edgeperched of A long a picnic table. mouth, while cigarette from Mom’s dangled fun I For stared blankly at her cell phone. Jessica count oftried to keep of the number times she I stopped when the infrequency startedblinked. to bother me. of in. I shuffled back slowly break, everyone stickers. post and started on my to my back went stickered as the more jugs, had delivered Steven The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 This couldn’t possibly go well. According to the man, Tango had a fiery father rode him, he would swing the saddle up whites of his eyes gleaming, winding up in a rear After a moment’s pondering, I asked, personality and needed a very experienced rider, without hesitation, and Tango wouldn’t balk, but to strike down at me. In that moment I didn’t “How do you say mustang in Spanish?” It was so Savannah was the one to go out into the field I always saw the concern in those brown eyes as see my life flash before my eyes. What I saw a natural choice, I thought. After all, he was a and catch him. Each of us took turns holding a sliver of white would reveal his fear. So when were a pair of metal horse-shoes, catching the Spanish Mustang, and as far as I was concerned his lead rope and getting our pictures taken I saddled him, the two of us completely alone light and my eyes as they began their wretched Spanish was a plenty exotic language. with him. When my turn came, I’m not sure at the annexed barn and arena across the street descent toward my stupefied face. My sister thought for a moment before what I expected. I was inconsequential to him. from the main complex, I moved slowly and Salvation came in the form of a brown pulling her English to Spanish dictionary out of His brown eyes looked beyond me, my family, patiently. My rides on Tango were always brief, mass of wild fury as Tango body-slammed her backpack on the ground beside her barstool. and the fenced pasture. It was like he never as it wasn’t riding that I was really interested in Diablo with a force I never would have thought After all, going on a two-day trip to get a horse stopped looking for freedom, even though the with him. I wanted to be in the presence of an the small horse capable of. Tango stood over me was no excuse not to do schoolwork. She last three years of his ten-year-old life had been animal that had known what it was like to be as as I rolled onto my side in a belated attempt to thumbed through the pages until she found it. spent in captivity. On that day in the green, hilly free as an animal can be. move out of the way of Diablo’s hooves, and “Mesteño.” panhandle of Florida, I saw the red plains of Just how much my time with Tango my eyes fell this time on Tango’s hooves instead. I nodded thoughtfully. “We should call Nevada. meant to him, I might never have known, Unlike Diablo’s hooves, which glistened him that.” Savannah rode Tango without a saddle though, had it not been for one summer day from a recent polish and trim, Tango’s were “You can suggest it to Dad. He’s going and with the lead rope tied to either side of his at Horse Heaven. With the sun’s petulant rays John-Wayne-Rough, with fraying edges and to name him, ultimately.” I shrugged. I was in no halter for makeshift reins. As soon as the owner thrashing down onto my flesh, I went down the hair from his fetlocks curtaining the upper hurry to say anything, since my suggestion was took his hands off the rope, Tango was gone, to the “gelding pasture,” the field where the edges. At the sight, I froze. Even though Tango clearly the best. The minute I told him the name hooves flying down the length of the pasture. neutered male horses were all kept, intending to had delicately placed his stone-hewn anchors so I had come up with, he was sure to agree. Savannah didn’t even flinch. After his initial catch Tango for a trail ride around the property. as not to hurt me, I would do myself no favors The next day we loaded into the white takeoff, she rode him at a walk around the field. What I didn’t know was that there was a new by moving out of the safe zone my mustang Chevy Suburban after checking that the trailer He was like a completely different animal by the stable-hand on staff that day, and his knowledge had established for me. With his nostrils flared hadn’t come disconnected somehow during time she got him back up to us. Perhaps he had of the turn-out schedule left something to be and ears pinned, he sent a clear message to the the night. It was going to be a long drive back been expecting spurs and straps and whips, the desired. There was a horse named Diablo and astonished Thoroughbred; a message that I was home to Horse Heaven Ranch, and as per my typical “cowboy up” method of horse-breaking. his name fit him perfectly. Diablo, Spanish for Tango’s herd mate, and that Diablo had crossed father’s usual travel style, we would only be I cringe to think about it- that sweet-tempered “Devil,” hated everyone- a condition doubtlessly a sanctified line in daring to cause me harm. stopping twice on the six-hour journey. I pouted mustang, his first time being ridden, having to caused by years of abuse at the hands of racing As soon as Diablo was back on his feet, in the backseat, arms crossed with indignation. cope with what would seem like an attack, when “trainers” and impatient jockeys from his time Tango lunged again, his hooves flying over my “Tango” wasn’t nearly as good a name as training, not breaking, was all he needed. as a race horse. Perhaps they thought they prone form without so much as touching me, the one I had come up with, as far as I was Fast forward a year or so, back home could beat him faster. Diablo was meant to be and chased the larger horse across the pasture concerned. to Horse Heaven Ranch. Tango wasted no turned out alone, in a smaller paddock where he before I had so much as a chance to wonder It was an hour from the cabin in the time becoming Alpha of any band he was couldn’t attack anyone, as he was wont to do. what had just happened. woods to the house where the mustang’s owners a part of, but it didn’t take me long at all to It happened almost too fast to process, I stumbled to my own feet as the rest lived. As soon as my father parked the SUV, learn that Tango was a gentle soul. When he yet at the same time it felt like slow motion. of the herd scattered, using the time and space I was out of it and going for the fence where was frightened, he turned to face the danger I was dancing my way through a crowd of Tango had granted me to get the hell out of I could see plenty of horses and ponies lazily rather than bolting at full speed in the opposite about ten horses, each waiting to be brought that field. My heart was pounding at a rate I had grazing on the verdant grass. I barely paid direction. He never kicked, reared, bit, or in for dinner, when something slammed into never felt before or since, and it was all I could attention as my parents talked to the owners of bucked. When I would saddle him, I always me, sending me shoulder-first into the gravel- do to make it back to the main barn office. My 77 the place- just enough that I was at their heels as proceeded delicately. Not because he would act covered, dusty ground. My heart nearly stopped only thought was to let someone know that

76 soon as they turned to go to the pasture where out in fear, but because I knew that, despite his when I looked to where the force had come Diablo was in the wrong field and needed to be the horse was kept. co-operation, he still had that fear. When my from and saw Diablo, ears flattened and the moved before he hurt someone. rd 79 3 I envisioned Coach Wolfe’s head shaking Wolfe’s Coach I envisioned I heard the box, Standing in the batter’s respected coach in our school. in our school. respected coach ofHis expectations our team those of higher than were a brain patient preparingto have unheard was Wolfe Questioning Coach surgery. the to play especially when it came to how of, game of experience was softball. His coaching but in the bottom of years, my far beyond the us inning when a single hit could send seventh not game, I would to the state championship risk bunting for anything. in anger and disappointment if I ignored his bunt sign. If I popped up a bunt for an out, and pace back his head and shake he would forth across the dugout. If up to I squared his shake would he bunt and missed the pitch, Ifhead and pace some more. and I swung away certainI was completely ignored his bunt sign, I knew a roaring volcano. explode like he would if and hit a ball to score either I swung away one or both of the runners he would on base, be outraged that I missed his sign. However, in the end. All be positive the outcome would of mind as these scenarios raced through my I stood with one foot out of box the batter’s eyes and I closed my practice swings. taking my inhaled deeply as I stepped both feet into the My life depended on this defining box. batter’s Buford High coaches, moment. My team, my reputation, another state record, my School, and all of the parents in the stands depended decision that could send us to the state on my game championship or send us home. ofloud racket and the ringing parents cheering Taylor NeSmith Taylor ot following ot following N For the last five seasons, the Buford seasons, the last five For Bunt or Die or Bunt my coach’s sign was a risk I would normally a risk I would sign was coach’s my round of especially in the semi-final take, never and senior year, the state tournament. my It was up to bat in the bottom ofI was and the seventh one out with We had on runners final inning. a single trailed by we and second and third base, the bunt sign in an me gave run. Wolfe Coach My heart dropped to attempt to load the bases. the pit of In the current stomach. situation, my normally batter his or her would give a coach the overheard I briefly the signal to swing away. teammates in the my astonishment expressed by dugout sign from Coach the bunt when they saw heart, told to In my I knew the task I was Wolfe. ofhad a small chance complete I looked success. Adams, Coach first base assistant coach, to my for confirmation The was given. on the sign I look that ghostly complexion and bewildered my decision to ignore painted his face finalized the bunt sign. softball team brought home a state High School title and gaudy championship championship break the Earning our sixth title would rings. state record of state the most consecutive titles ofchampionship any team for any sport in record the previous year by set the Georgia. We championships, Winning in a row. winning five lightly not taken especially in softball, was Our community, around Buford High School. along with the entire state of Georgia, expected Because he had a us to bring home another title. handful of have, didn’t many coaches rings that the most honored and well- was Wolfe Coach had fallen in love with Tango, and they could and they Tango, with in love had fallen than I spend with him far more time to dedicate “urban called the boys mom teasingly could. My your like and acted as they dressed cowboys,” with their baggyclassic skater boys, shirts and I their shoulders. and hair that reached jeans, one night, with Tango playing them watched had set, but before the air after the sun well had cooled. That of babysitter stood a mustang and onto his back swung patiently as the boys in walk his sides so he would lightly kicked bother They didn’t direction he chose. whatever stand he would with a halter and lead, knowing miss will always I still as long as they wanted. where that he’s know but I will always Tango, bridged the gap have of I may he belongs. trust then I didn’t but and people, Tango between for me that I worked. never realize that it was (see also page 8, 141) UNG. put to paper. Rachel is the Secretary of the Writers’ Guild at renowned author of as many sci-fi/fantasy novels as she can a horse rescue/retraining operation, and becoming a world- creatively, and playing video-games. She dreams of running Rachel Andrews spends her days horseback riding, writing

I have never told anyone in my family in my told anyone never I have if they would Perhaps parents knew, my

78 what exactly happened that day. I informed the day. happened that what exactly manager wrong field, but in the was that Diablo he had attacked anyone from telling I held back he had an aggressive knew that Everyone me. for his handling were streak, and the directions times about read all too many have but I clear, and it knows, in the only way an animal acting because ofbeing put to death it. I suppose I just the one to ring that alarm to be want bell, didn’t last strike. this horse’s and to announce let After all, who would sold Tango. have never go of life? daughter’s their the horse that saved and the price of horses, had five But we board object I couldn’t added up when multiplied. I would anyway. Not much, sale. to Tango’s but I had met his miss him, I knew that much, sons A mom and her three new family-to-be. The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review of cowbells and air-horns. I heard my teammates my lips. Surprisingly, I was greeted with a firm cheering me on as the umpire said, “Batter up!” smack on my helmet and a tight squeeze around As the pitcher began her wind up, I squared my shoulders. I couldn’t help but smile. I looked up my bat for the bunt. The scene began to over to first base for Coach Adams’ reassurance, move in slow motion. I glanced at my assistant and I saw him give me the “thumbs up.” I felt coach for a split second and saw the perturbed a huge burden lift off my shoulders, but I was look on his face about the bunt sign. In that mortified to discuss the missed signal with Formal Essays instant, I drew the barrel of my bat back over Coach Wolfe when we returned to the dugout. my shoulder and watched the most perfect strike Ultimately, the game ended with a score leave the pitcher’s hand toward the middle of of 4-3. My hit won the game and guaranteed us the plate. I began my swing. All of the noise and a spot in the championship game. My teammates motion outside of the park was muted. I heard all greeted me with huge hugs and exclaimed, the wispy sound of the seams spinning through “Great job, Taylor!” Coaches from other teams the air as the ball traveled towards me. I kept my and parents in the stands came up and high- eyes on the center of the ball and brought my fived me as I packed up my equipment outside hands straight to the point of contact. Suddenly, of the dugout. Our postgame meeting was full I heard the crack of my bat as it smashed against of positive remarks and a speech to prepare us “Although Fanny has often been the core of the neon yellow ball. The noise of for the championship game the following day. the crowd quickly flooded back into my ears as I forgot about the crucial decision I made to I watched the ball sail between the center and neglect Coach Wolfe’s batting signal because disparaged as the problem heroine of right fielders. I took off running full speed with of all the excitement and celebration I was a boost of adrenaline running through my veins. drowning in. As I gathered my belongings and I saw Coach Adams jumping up and down like talked to my parents, I heard an unwanted, the Austen universe, Fanny should be an excited, small child. My stomach twisted in yet very familiar voice calling my name from a knots as I rounded first and looked for Coach distance. It was unmistakably Coach Wolfe. My Wolfe. He had a concentrated look on his face heart pounded so fast that it skipped a couple praised for arguably overcoming the and flung his arm in huge circles as a signal for beats and continued at an uncountable pace. me to continue running to third base. I safely But when I saw the cheesy grin plastered on his slid into third base and was terrified of what was face, my nerves calmed a little. He wrapped his direst Austenian circumstances.” to come from the stern, six-foot man hovering arm around my shoulder and said, “Taylor, let’s above me. take a little walk. I’m so proud of your hit and I stood up to brush the red brick dust the outcome of the game, but the next time you Esther Stuart off my pants and fearfully looked up at the man ‘miss’ my sign, I will make sure to ‘miss’ your I dreaded to face. A timid smirk formed on name when I make the next line-up.” “Fanny Price: Feminist or Failure? The Case for the Problem Heroine of Mansfield Park” Taylor NeSmith graduated from Buford High School in May 2013. She played softball and was an honor roll student her entire school career. She’s currently majoring in pre-nursing to become a pediatric Registered Nurse. After working for a few years, Taylor plans to go back to school to become a Physician’s Assistant. 80 83 Spring 2014 Spring She [Fanny] powerfully withstands powerfully She [Fanny] the male gaze of Henry Sir Thomas, by Edmund and even Crawford, looked being consistently avoiding that renders her free ofat, a choice Her symbolic gaze, male influence. ofrequires and emotions, her views no confirmation or justification from or the larger picture the public world of or publicity. business, politics, (571) If tied to Fanny’s anything can be Fanny’s entire perspective is fairly unique in is fairly unique perspective entire Fanny’s view Fanny’s its discernment and constancy. of herself is not dependent and others on also nature Her self-effacing others’ opinions. of avoidance her adds to this by people’s other gazes and refusal to be judged them. Anna by this clearly: Despotopoulou states at or paid does not need to be looked Fanny most ofattention to like the other female (and many of in Mansfield male) characters the “I fancy Miss Mary states, Even Crawford Park. Price has been more used to deserve praise indicating that though Fanny than to hear it,” has a firmcharacter and sense of it is not self, 99). It is this due to others’ influence (Austen strong, irrevocable sense of self and principle ofevents throughout the that carries Fanny the novel. sense of Her it is Mansfield itself. identity, transformation from family outsider to family Two center starts with her claim on the house. own: the spaces are specifically named as her The attic is attic bedroom and the East Room. designated hers simply because it is her given by is claimed bedroom, but the East Room The reader can see this when herself. Fanny herself “naturally and so artlessly worked Fanny generally now admitted to into it, that it was Fanny a schoolroom, be hers” (132). Formerly also forms ties to intellectual growth through When looking at conquering the East Room. as a feminist symbol, this is significant Fanny Fanny and Mansfield Fanny As stated previously, Fanny’s entrance Fanny’s As stated previously, is fairly isolated at Although Fanny progression. Several things make Fanny an ideal Fanny progression. make things Several symbol. Her backgroundfeminist is that of a member ofsecond-rate household, much her Fanny’s to men. second-rate were women like view of herself is innate and not dependent on the opinions of Claiming a physical others. establishing herselfplace as her own, against and gaining acceptancecompeting women, by marks her journeyprinciple male characters to unique sense of Fanny’s center. the matriarchal female stereotypes, over achievement identity, not and gradual her, acceptance from men make but the ideal feminist only a feminist character, symbol. is ofinto the novel girl with no control a young is displaced from her original Fanny her life. over home to Mansfield. The whole transferal is hint at asking without the slightest executed It is assumed that wishes. about her own Fanny into better society is what she wants the move She then the authorial figures around her. by up to becomes the poor relation only brought good whim ofon the charitable society her more Fanny’s such. successful relations and treated as Mansfield displacement and readjustment into is reminiscent of the feminine struggle of being and defined and judgedby archetypes gender and predominant thoughts roles dictated by suffer from the The reader can see Fanny ideals. displacement and “the idea of its being a wicked thing for her not to be happy” about it (Austen interesting to note that in the same 12). It’s the youngestparagraph, it is stated that Julia, making her Bertram is older than Fanny, child, in the everyone Thus, the youngest in the house. house is a sort of and authorial figure to her, it is these figures that impose the idea that it is despite being for her not to be happy wicked from her original family. away taken Mansfield, it is in part due to this isolation that she gains a unique sense of In fact, self. Although Fanny seems to embody a seems to embody Although Fanny of Mansfield Park of Mansfield problem heroine ofproblem heroine Yet novel. the problem at endeavor first not Austen’s was this novel was not the blunder Park Mansfield a novel. of trying a new author her hand at writing. created strong, female had already Austen protagonists and Sense in Pride and Prejudice Mansfield on and Sensibility before working to the reader is why the question given So, Park. Bennet the author who created Elizabeth would as the Price purposefully decide to cast Fanny heroine of In a feminist reading of a novel? the Elizabeth Bennet seems everything that is texts, of in a female character and positive progressive is everything that is not. the time while Fanny yields closer inspection feminist nightmare, It is necessarysurprising to note that, results. and continual constant passivity despite Fanny’s she does become the center self-effacing nature, of the conclusion at the Mansfield universe of manages to compete with Fanny the novel. as Mary such stand Crawford, adversaries several Sir up to strong authorial figures like Thomas, and change the affections of Bertram Edmund or character with little to no change in her own judgment. This is an amazing feat for a character social position that begins in the least favorable of protagonist, any Austen that many and one In view heroines do not achieve. other Austen of it cannot be said all these accomplishments, Price to be seen that it is impossible for Fanny Furthermore, it would as a feminist character. as a symbol ofbe easy to view Fanny feminist

Fanny Price: Feminist or Failure? Failure? or Price: Feminist Fanny The Case for the Problem Heroine Heroine Problem the Case The for Esther Stuart Esther

ane Austen has been the subject of has been ane Austen

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82 both criticism and praise for well over a century. a century. over both criticism and praise for well and a healthy characters, vivid Witty dialogue, dose of attracted readers and sarcasm have she Although work. to Austen’s alike scholars as insular has been criticized for things such and formulaic plot, it is arguable perspective topic is Austenian that the most controversial Debatably the most unusual Park. Mansfield has often Park Mansfield of novels, Austen’s especially the “problem novel,” been nicknamed trouble Modern readers have in recent times. tones moral, conservative embracing the overtly of combined with the seemingly bland the piece of atypical characters Even works. Austen typical are caught praising Mansfield fans ardent Austen only for its solid formPark and use of authorial monologue. criticism, the brunt ofreceives the criticism shoulders. is placed squarely on the heroine’s extreme difficulty embracing fans have Austen and preachy self-efficacy, passivity, Price’s Fanny while In other works, nature as a heroine. and protagonists as Emma Woodhouse such Elizabeth Bennet are strong, admirable women, seems to portray the proper character Fanny’s Marilyn Butler, as frail and helpless. woman is a British literary states “That Fanny critic, 1). It failure is widely agreed” (qtd. in Pawl in Fanny general, is difficult for many to like making it nearly impossible not to dub her the

st 1 The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 since she is laying claim to a male-constructed to family center can be traced through Lady witty, and intelligent, yet also pragmatic and share everything. She supports both men in space. Like a man, Fanny commands the room, Bertram’s attitude towards her. unfeeling at times. She also exhibits shallowness their professions. She continually encourages giving her the liberty to do what she wants in The Bertram sisters serve as Fanny’s and an obsession with prestige and popularity. Edmund in his endeavors with the clergy, and it it and, as P. Keiko Kagawa states, “in the East rivals in family affection as they are largely John Halperin conveys this by arguing that is ultimately Fanny who provides William with Room Fanny’s self-construction seemingly the favorites. To make matters more difficult, “Mary Crawford is socially ambitious and the promotion he desires via Henry Crawford’s continues unopposed by the strictures of they express no love towards their cousin that immediately trains her guns on Tom Bertram affections. class or gender” (139). In fact, the only thing she is “so odd and so stupid” for not being as because he is ‘the eldest son of a Baronet’ Henry acts as the vehicle that cements that seems to be caught in Fanny’s self is the accomplished as they are (17). The sisters also and will someday have a park and a ‘spacious Fanny’s place into the Bertram family. After house. Fanny is disheartened every time she is embrace a few female stereotypes. They are modern-built house’” (8). In fact, it is not flirting with both the Bertram sisters, Henry threatened to be separated from it. The reader depicted as shallow and easily insecure. When unreasonable to conjecture that Mary’s goal in turns his attention to Fanny whom he proposes can see Fanny’s anxiety is purely towards the meeting the Crawfords, the girls’ reaction is marriage is to marry someone important and to as the first girl he seems to be serious about. house when she states that “I love this house dualistic as “Miss Crawford’s beauty did her no become a trophy wife. Mary’s preoccupation Fanny again sets herself apart from the usual and every thing in it” expressing no love for the disservice with the Miss Bertrams” yet “she was with feminine hobbies such as fashion and being woman and refuses him. She resists what no people. (Austen 23). Fanny’s claim on the house most allowably a sweet pretty girl, while they “out” shows her rigidly clinging to gender roles. other woman in the novel has been able to, and will later establish her belonging there, and thus, were the finest young women in the country” Fanny manages to triumph over Mary simply she does it more than once. Henry is persistent is the true first step of her feminine progression. (39). Maria and Julia can also be seen as women by being herself (as she does with all the other and continues to propose, but Fanny stands Miss Price and Her Rivals given wholly to passion and lacking self-control. female characters). Fanny’s rivalry with Mary firm and refuses. This refusal leads to Fanny’s Ironically, though Fanny is depicted As Kathleen Anderson puts it, “Maria and can largely be seen as more of a battle of ideas confrontation with Sir Thomas. Throughout as a feminist figure, almost all of the other Julia portray a wild unrestraint; Maria sacrifices and qualities rather than actual events. With all the novel, Sir Thomas usually looks at Fanny female characters serve as adversaries in one everything and Julia nearly sacrifices everything the female characters, Fanny is successful when as something akin to a daughter even calling way or another. Many of these adversaries to physical passion” (1). Fanny is differentiated she differentiates herself from them and proves her “my little Fanny” (Austen 153). Sir Thomas can be interpreted as embodiments of female from the two as less accomplished because she herself better than typical female stereotypes. is fond of the obedient girl, but her refusal stereotypes. Mrs. Norris exemplifies the will not learn “either music or drawing,” usual The Menfolk and their Matriarch of Henry angers him. He goes to Fanny’s old, nosy meddler who is not happy unless occupations of young ladies at the time (Austen Significantly, unlike the women in own room to persuade her to accept. Yet as everything goes her way. She gets offended 17). Fanny breaks the typical gender role in Mansfield Park, the vast majority of the male Cohen says, “When Sir Thomas begins to by simply not being the first person to be told this way, and like most norm violators, she is characters’ feelings are generally favorable scapegoat Fanny concerning her rejection of about important news. Mrs. Norris’s snobbish criticized for it. However, Austen rewards Fanny toward Fanny. Much of the reason for Fanny’s Henry Crawford, he can only go so far; her nature leads her to openly pick favorites and by the ironic fall of both accomplished ladies. It success at the end of the novel is her bonds very timidity makes him averse to tyrannical insult Fanny repeatedly. Mrs. Norris is also one is the catastrophic events surrounding the sisters with the male characters. Although she is only dictation” (683). Although he does send her to of Fanny’s rivals for being the matriarch of the that lead Fanny to return to Mansfield after her a 19th century woman, Fanny unconsciously Portsmouth in an attempt to persuade her again, household and arguably the only real contender exile to Portsmouth. proves herself able to fit in with male society as soon as a crisis arises, he arranges for Fanny for the position other than Fanny. Fanny largely Mary Crawford is arguably Fanny’s only as an equal often through the use of her to return to Mansfield. Fanny proves to be the conquers her by simply ignoring or tolerating the threatening rival in Mansfield Park. They share own feminine charms. For example, Fanny one character that Sir Thomas cannot control, old meddler’s bullying. In the end, Mrs. Norris many positive similarities such as intelligence acts fairly motherly toward Mr. Rushworth. yet she also proves to be someone he needs. banishes herself from Mansfield because of and discernment, yet Mary is a dangerous She helps him learn his lines, stands up for Ultimately faced with his own failure in raising one of her ill-chosen favorites of the Bertram rival because of her wit and charm, which his engagement with Maria, and endeavors his children and Fanny’s success of character, Sir family. Another stereotype seen is Lady Bertram overpowers Fanny’s. Fanny also has to contend to treat him kindly despite others insulting Thomas is forced to recognize and accept Fanny who is the typical female “ditz” who never with the fact that her love interest, Edmund, him. Their interaction shows Fanny to be the as his equal. It is this acceptance that finally seems to know what is really going on. Although is most decidedly in love with Mary. Mary’s more intelligent and sensible of the two. She allows Fanny to become the family center of technically the matriarch of the family, Lady downfall, however, can be summed in her also surpasses him in strength of character as Mansfield. Bertram has little activity in managing the house own words when she states “Selfishness must Rushworth is more impressionable than she. Although Fanny has often been or family affairs. She becomes increasingly always be forgiven, you know, because there is Other examples of this are Fanny’s relationships disparaged as the problem heroine of the 85 fond of and dependent on Fanny in the novel. no hope of a cure” (61). Mary is depicted as a with William and Edmund. Fanny acts as

84 Austen universe, Fanny should be praised Fanny’s transition from fringe family member sort of moral femme-fatale. She is beautiful, confidante for them both with whom they for arguably overcoming the direst Austenian nd 87 2 Brittany Barron Brittany touch [the poppies]” or their “fumes” (3 and 9). [the poppies]” touch The red poppies symbolize vitality. untouchable she can the poppies, as she “cannot touch” Just red desire nor attain their bright neither touch offor life (3). Her lack her also reveals touch oflack her The reveals speaker companionship. she laments, desperation for interaction when “If could marry mouth my a hurt that!” like the speaker “marry,” (12). By using the word Marriage, to her, to find love. indicates she wants is relief her hurt from to and from her inability She has lost share her life with someone else. herself accepting what in her pain and is beyond The the describes speaker life can offer her. (7). mouth just bloodied” poppies’ skin as “A symbolize fresh, new blood that The flowers Poppies self. her wounded is not a scar unlike survive bloodshed, but she cannot. She needs but her to access their resilience in order to live, The poppies are to be too powerful. hurt proves her destruction. reveal her idols and, as such, “I cannot touch,” When she repeats the words mournsthe speaker her limitations as a human instead of a poppy (3 and 9). Furthermore, her idols are unable to aid her as she grows tired. and While the poppies are able to “flicker” no matter the circumstances, to live continue feels exhausted merely looking at the speaker with Colour:them (3). In “Coming to Terms Laure de Nervaux- Visual Aesthetic,” Plath’s Their ylvia Plath’s poetry lives in the poetry lives ylvia Plath’s S The poem “Poppies in July” uses color in July” The poem “Poppies Between Two Worlds: Life and Life Worlds: Two Between Poetry Plath’s Death in Sylvia mysterious world of world mysterious the dead and the horrific ofworld Her imagery and themes the living. around life and death. The poetry’s revolve both, yet these feel the pull toward speakers opposing forces cannot be reconciled. poetryconflicts persist throughout the and death’s and create constant pain. Life’s leave which complexities haunt the speakers, them unable to find their true identities and unsure if can be attained or if love it is Their dangerousacceptable in such states. them yet draws they are alive pain proves from the world death, isolating them toward color to capture around them. Plath employs the strained co-existence of vitality and pain encounter where balloons could her speakers rescue her from boredom, while a red eye could Caught from emptiness. transport her away of worlds the two between life and death, the fully accept one as home. never speakers imagery wishes to expose the life the speaker where she connects with another a life to live, exists out ofperson, which wants She her reach. her pain to “do no harm” just as the red poppies the “do no harm” her, (Plath line 2). Unlike without “opiates” and “capsules” live flowers she “cannot repeats(10). The how speaker Academic Search . Web. 1 May 1 May . Web. Mansfield Park.” Mansfield 54.3 (1987): 669-93. Mansfield Park.” Mansfield 7.1 (1975): 6. . Web. 1 May 2012. 1 May . Web. Academic Search Complete . Web. 6 Apr. 2012. 6 Apr. . Web. timidity, it is necessary that those to point out timidity, ofare some the very aid in her qualities that persuaded to The is never fact that she success. principles or other changethose characteristics like is praised in characters is something that nickname, Park’s Mansfield Elizabeth Bennet. is apt in the sense that it “the problem novel,” Fanny problems at its heroine. the most throws simply her problems by manages to overcome being herself to her character and holding fast her, Modern not like may readers and principles. the ultimate underdog whose Price is but Fanny victory pinnacle of is the optimism. Austenian Web. 1 May 2012 1 May ProQuest Research Library. Web. Academic Search Complete Works Cited Works 38.3 (2009): 342-358. Literary Reference Center (see also : 14, 50, 107, 113, 143) cry words. she possesses the discipline to beat blank pages until they Literary Festival contest. As a seasoned writer and student, Romantics, recently placed in the annual, regional Southern Chestatee Review and Kudzu. Her play, The Modern works have been published in magazines such as The Esther Stuart loves to write anything and everything. Her 99 (2004): 569-83. 35.2 (2006): 125-143. . Web. 1 May 2012 1 May . Web.

Fiction 16.2 (2004): 287-315. 2012. 2012. 1 May Web. Press. Hopkins University JSTOR. The Johns Complete Studies Women’s Modern Language Review Women’s Studies Park.” Women’s Mansfield

Pawl, Amy J. “Fanny Price and the Sentimental Genealogy “Fanny of J. Park.” Amy Eighteenth Century Mansfield Pawl, 86 Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005. Print. York: Barnes & Noble Classics, New Park. Mansfield Jane. Austen, ELH. Park.” System at Mansfield M. “Stabilizing the Family Cohen, Paula and the Construction Gaze ofDespotopoulou, Anna. “Fanny’s Space in Feminine Park.” Studies in The Novel with Mansfield “The Trouble Halperin, John. Spaces at The (Re)Building Architect: Austen, “Jane Keiko. Kagawa, P. Anderson, Kathleen. “Lounging Ladies and Galloping Girls: Physical Strength and Femininity in Anderson, Kathleen. and Femininity Strength Physical “Lounging Ladies and Galloping Girls: circumstances. Fanny’s struggle parallels Fanny’s circumstances. the struggle of history. throughout women ofto establish a sense She had self was that independent ofconstruct. the popular She sets herselfcontinually apart from other female for acceptance strives stereotypes and also faces Fanny society. within a male-dominated her challenges than successful. Her and is more relation to family center is rise from the poor recognized as symbolic ofone that should be the feminine struggle, not synonymous with probably will Although Fanny feminist failure. and her passivity to be criticized for continue The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 Gavoty writes, “Colour is not only the visual space. Now there is more room for banality the speaker’s carelessness. She fails to consider imagery symbolizes watching. It is as if the eye but also the rhythmical matrix of the poem; the and ugliness. Their brightened world returns to what “something” is or if it is dangerous. As watches her. When she rides into the eye, she couplet stanzas and the lines of varying lengths plainness with its “straw mats, white walls” (12). long as it takes her away from wherever she is, gives into it. The red color imagery allures the register the pulsating intensity of the flowers… The world shrinks, for the balloon becomes a she allows it to do so. The awkwardness of the speaker with its contrast to “stasis in darkness” while the short, clipped sentences reflect [the “shred” and the boy’s fist is “little” (30). The words “heels and knees” creates a feeling of (1). However, the berries with hooks are red speaker’s] intermittent perception” (124). As “shred” disappoints him, for the “funny pink uneasiness that insinuates the speaker’s ride is with “blood” just as the “eye” is red (13 and 31). Plath alternates between long and short lines, world” he thinks exists within it is now gone not as fantastical as it seems (6). The freedom Therefore, the eye she rides into is no different she reveals the speaker’s confusion as to why forever (24 and 30). Life turns out to be as she believes her destination will provide is not from the life of berries she leaves. Since the “red the poppies are different from her. She asks, small as a shred, too. Barbara Hardy explains as promising as she thinks. She fails to see that eye” is only a part of a whole just like the “heels “Where are your opiates?” (10). She seeks from in “Enlargement or Derangement?”: “Life (or the world she rides toward is no better than the and knees” of the other figure in the poem, it the poppies insight about how to cope with love) speaks in the cheap-jack voice” (76). Red, life she runs away from. In the darkness she cannot complete her (6 and 31). Just like she her human life. However, the last line of the the color of vitality, comes to symbolize a bleak flees, she has experienced, in addition to pain, “cannot catch” the other figure, she will not be poem stands alone, which represents the final world. It is now useless in the boy’s hands, for it overflowing life, for she describes the berries as able to “catch” the eye (9). She thinks the bright, mark of the speaker’s separateness from the is “a world clear as water” (Plath 28). Therefore, “black sweet blood mouthfuls” (13). She flies blossoming color is a way for her to escape the poppies’ vitality. The loneliness of the last two the world is empty as water. Underneath the away from the berries that fill her to the brim “darkness” of the life she leaves behind (1). words “colorless. Colorless” acknowledges she red, the world the balloon presents is nothing and away from her problems instead of facing However, it is ultimately as empty as the berries cannot find in the flowers what she needs (15). and leaves no hope for finding a fulfilling life. them. As she flies, she allows pieces of herself that are “shadows” (14). Furthermore, the She could try to make “[the poppies’] liquors Therefore, underneath the speaker’s skin, she is to “flake” and fall down around her (18). As she words that contain the letter “s,” such as “flies seep to [her],” but it would not turn her red or nothing. Furthermore, red represents all that the “unpeel[s],” she strips away “dead hands, dead / Suicidal,” create darkness and uncertainty of any color at all (13). By being “colorless,” she speaker cannot have. She can never be as free or stringencies” (20-21). Although she becomes what awaits the speaker (28-29). As John Nims has exhausted all colors (15). Therefore, she has “delight[ful]” as the balloon once was (15). At “one” with the other figure in the poem and explains in “The Poetry of Sylvia Plath”: “The exhausted life. She is stuck “in this glass capsule” first, the balloons appear to be all the speaker finds a substitute for life, she fails to find an poet seems to carry on a sound as long as she neither alive nor dead and all alone (13). She needs in life, but they cannot float forever and identity separate from this figure (5). She can can” (52). This way, she holds on to her illusion considers potential salvation in the red poppies, hide her dissatisfaction. The balloons “scoot to only live vicariously. Though the speaker calls of freedom for as long as she can. The darkness yet the recognition turns out valueless and leaves rest, barely trembling” and the emptiness inside the figure “White / Godiva,” it is just another of the sound carries her into the eye when she her in her state of death-life. of her remains (8). When the balloon pops and idol who is unattainable (19-20). Therefore, the “flies / Suicidal” (Plath 28-29). Although the Similarly, the poem “Balloons” uses loses its grandeur, it takes away a life worth freedom she thinks waits for her is unattainable speaker uses the word “suicidal,” she does not color imagery to symbolize disappointment, living and any possibility of happiness for the as well. The berries with their “hooks” try to commit the act of suicide. She is not alive when for the promising world the balloons offer speaker. bring her back to her old life (12). However, she is unpeeled, but she is not dead as she rides disappears in an instant and the speaker The color red appears again in the there is no stopping her. The quick rhythm of into the eye, either, so she chooses to live in questions where she belongs without it. The poem “Ariel” to symbolize the promise of the poem matches the speaker’s fast pace toward “the cauldron of morning” (31). She runs away balloons that “have lived with us” and take “up a new life for the speaker, which ultimately her destination, which is a red eye. As the poem from the present to another possibility without half the space” leave the speaker alone in a offers more emptiness. Emptiness pervades progresses from non-rhyming to rhyming the knowledge of what awaits her. Since she world she cannot bear (1 and 4). The balloon the the poem. The speaker’s diction reveals this stanzas, the speaker’s journey becomes more cannot find the pieces to make herself whole or boy holds symbolizes a blissful, innocent world emptiness with words such as “substanceless,” dangerous. In the first stanza, the speaker draws something that is already whole, she finds only that offers escape from a stolid life of “dead “cannot,” “shadows,” and “something” (2, 9, out her lines: “Stasis in darkness. / Then the emptiness in transient worlds. furniture” (11). However, the balloon dies, too. 14, and 15). The speaker tries to escape her substanceless blue / Pour of tor and distances”; The theme of emptiness continues When the boy pops his balloon, it turns from an empty, dark life and ride into a fulfilling life. however, in the last stanza, the speaker moves in “Sheep in Fog,” for the white and black 89 object that brings joy to “A red / shred” (29-30). Sensing the possibility of escape, the speaker quickly and recklessly with end rhymes: “The imagery creates a world of total isolation. The

88 It is no longer an entire balloon; it is a part. If it exclaims, “Something else / Hauls me through dew that flies / Suicidal at one with the drive title “Sheep in Fog” begins the poem with a is not whole, then it no longer takes up so much air” (15-16). The word “something” reveals / In the red / Eye” (1-3 and 28-30). The eye heavy haze that haunts the speaker’s words. The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 The speaker calls herself “A flower left out,” neither world, she keeps herself from love and her; therefore, she leaves herself vulnerable live in a world where blood pools through a implying that she is isolated by the white fog confirms her isolation. to the moon’s stare and pull. The unrhymed, coat, love leaves scars, or the red poppies bloom from the “far / Fields” which “melt my heart” In the poem “Edge,” the speaker reveals fragmented couplets mirror her separated self abundantly in the frosty, wrong month. As (10-12). At the beginning of the poem, the the woman’s death is not an escape from her and the moon’s wholeness. Plath manipulates Caroline Hall explains in “Late Poetry”: “Death speaker reflects, “People or stars / Regard me stark existence, but only traps her in a white, the couplets in order to break the woman into is at once the act of loving, the lover, and the sadly, I disappoint them” (2-3). She perceives stunted life and isolates her further from pieces, such as the lines “Her dead / Body” only possible place to find love” (92). However, that they, from their place in the dark heavens, fulfillment. The most important word of the and “Her bare / Feet,” while the moon stays the speaker cannot accept love or death. The merely look upon her judgmentally and refrain poem is the title, “Edge.” In “Ariel, Plath on whole (2-3 and 6-7). The diction of the last line, first warning of love’s painful context is when from helping her. Although they are with her Edge,” Deborah Gentry writes, “[There is] the especially the moon’s “drag,” connotes heaviness the speaker boasts, “Even the sun-clouds this physically while they watch her, she still feels sense of recklessness, of teetering with wild and unending pain that the speaker has yet to morning cannot manage such skirts” (Plath 1). emotionally isolated. However, she helps to gaiety on the edge of an abyss” (87). An edge experience (20). As Helen Vendler describes She recognizes the beauty of the poppies, but cause the separation, for she “hold[s] a stillness” is not an end; therefore, the woman’s death in “An Intractable Metal”: “Complicated, rich, she fails to notice, at first, that the beautiful (11). Her short, matter-of-fact lines reflect her does not turn out to be the “accomplishment” obdurate, and significant forms…are shadowed landscape is fraught with death. Poppies should resignation to the fog, such as “All morning she believed it would be, but the beginning of by others, diaphanous, elusive, obscuring, and not bloom in October. Therefore, this love is the / Morning has been blackening” (8-9). The a new torture (Plath 3). The speaker describes blank” (8). In the poem, the moon overshadows not the love gift the speaker wants it to be. She repetition of the word “morning” is staggering the woman’s pain by characterizing her with the woman and takes over her life in order to starts to question herself, for she wonders, “O as though she is disenchanted with the length of “bare” feet (6). The word “bare” describes not make her as blank as it is. Although the woman my God, what am I / That these late mouths each day. Furthermore, the word “blackening” only the woman’s feet, but also her identity (6). tries to find freedom in death, the moon keeps should cry open” (10). When she asks what she represents a light that continues to darken. She Her dead children’s absence leaves her stripped her bound to life where she has been all along is, her tone turns frantic and monstrous. The has given up, for she fails to recognize who down and looking for fulfillment. Death traps and holds more disappointment for her in the last lines of the poem reveal that the speaker watches her and does not seem to care about her in bareness, for the woman’s perfection purgatory it creates. feels something is wrong with her. The poppies her ignorance. Then, the train “leaves a line of is an “illusion” (4). The woman desires to In “Poppies in October,” the speaker she thinks of as lovely at the beginning now breath” and leaves the speaker without a means return to some state of happiness when she recognizes that she may find love only in death, “cry” and are “late” (11). She blames herself for of escape from isolation (4). When the fields folds the dead children “back into her body” yet she hesitates to accept it from the red turning what was once beautiful into something “threaten / To let [her] through to a heaven,” (13). However, the woman and her children poppies. Again, as in “Poppies in July,” the color ugly in an icy, dead landscape. By changing her they offer to let her go and leave those who will unhappily reunite. In the lines “Each dead red is employed to represent pain and vitality, mind about the poppies, she reveals her fears watch her (14). Their offer is the only hint of child coiled, a white serpent, / One at each specifically here as they relate to love. The about acceptance, especially acceptance of love or kindness toward the speaker in the little / Pitcher of milk, now empty,” the white poem’s first stanza uses a metaphor to compare herself and love. Steven Axelrod describes the poem, yet she sees it as malicious since the color imagery describes the children as threats a woman’s wound to poppies blossoming in speaker’s mercurial personality in “A Woman heaven is “starless and fatherless” (15). In spite to the speaker (9-11). They will leave her in a October. In awe, the speaker describes the Famous Among Women”: “[She is] uncertain as of feeling isolated in the white world of fog, she stolid, white state. Her children are similar to woman’s wound: “[Her] red heart blooms to the attractiveness of the ‘figure’ she presented does not want to be alone with “a dark water” the “sweet, deep throats of the night flower” through her coat so astoundingly” (Plath 3). … [and as to whether the figure would] prove (15). Here, the sudden change in color imagery that appear unforgiving and unwilling to grant The speaker’s tone fills with admiration as if powerful enough [to conquer her turmoil]” is drastic. Even in her loneliness, the white her wish for bliss (16). The word “deep” she could only wish for a wound as beautiful (161). Also, the speaker is unsure of love’s world symbolizes life and purity, while the dark denotes incessant distance; therefore, she has a as the woman’s. The image of the blood seems attractiveness and strength, represented by the world symbolizes death and obscurity. While she long way to go in her bareness. This sense of forceful and almost takes over the woman; beauty of the red poppies. The love of the gift resists the blackness, neither world satisfies her. indefiniteness continues throughout the poem. however, the fatal wound is the object of the vanishes when she starts to feel uncertain. Just She is not pure like the white world when she The moon watches the woman as she “stare[s] speaker’s affection. The speaker describes the like poppies should not bloom in October, she only “disappoint[s]” and does not see a way to from her hood of bone” (18). The word “stare” newly blossoming poppies and the wound as “A should not be here. She blames her presence for 91

90 belong in the dark heaven either (3). She waits implies that the moon keeps the woman’s dead gift, a love gift” (4). The gift the poppies and the late poppies. Therefore, the love gift should on someone or something better. By choosing body tied to life. Her feet no longer ground wound indicate is death. The speaker can only not be here either. She cannot accept the gift of rd 93 3 Emmy Dixon Emmy There references to are numerous The Lord of Misrule a person was own throats, with hard cider in hopes of with hard cider throats, own a this celebration good time, crop” (8). Over the by loved from one principally evolved the upper crust by peasants to one enjoyed of including Queen Elizabeth Tudor. society, time McCabe also explains that in Shakespeare’s one that included much the celebration was and of feasting and revelry, imbibing. course, The of beverage drink a wassail was choice composed was which Wool, as Lamb’s known of apples and spices (8). This drink remains ale, Night parties. Twelfth significant to modern but play, drinking and eating throughout the one quotation pares this concept to its core. question, “Does not our asks the When Sir Toby consist oflives the four elements?” Sir Andrew but I think it rather so they say, “Faith, replies, consists of eating and drinking” (Shakespeare the gastronomic a 2.3.7-10). Continuing theme, with specifically a cake decorated cake, festively was inside, a bean, coin, or religious figure baked an integral part of The Night revel. any Twelfth was enough to find the extra bit person lucky master or mistress ofcrowned the festivities. Many texts refer to this person as the Lord of Misrule. appointed, often through a lottery or game of the the bean in as discovering (such chance , Twelfth Night However, a careful . However, hen first reading William The appetite may sicken and so die.” (1.1.1-3) and so die.” The sicken appetite may W Twelfth Night is a religious holiday that Night is a religious holiday Twelfth “If be the food ofmusic on; play love, Give me excess of me excess Give it, that surfeiting, Excess in Moderation: An An Moderation: in Excess of the Warnings Exploration Night in Twelfth Much Too Against Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or What You Will Night or What Twelfth You Shakespeare’s the what in the world one is left wondering title has to do with the play examination of history the of Night the Twelfth ofcelebration, coupled with an investigation the dark underpinnings within the contained the play many parallels between reveals comedy, the reader ultimately leaving and the festival, with a deeper understanding of the subtexts The weeds. wit’s disguised by that are so cleverly meant to prepare the audience for what title was to set the mood rather than reveal to come, was us a shows the content. In Illyria, Shakespeare Night. in perpetual Twelfth that is living world He demonstrates the dangers of and a life, such through the use of of several the more self- Feste and Viola, he specifically characters, aware the audience to see the wisdom ofallows excess in moderation. peasants. initially celebrated primarily by was In her article of “On the Last Day Christmas,” Carol McCabe relates that an important feature of doing a “kind of was the original festivities pagan dance around apple trees while drenching the roots of not to mention their the trees,

Ariel Ascending: it is they desire. They accept cannot desire. it is they life or death with but love, is, what love knowing without them. They pain, scares its accompanying try world yet this world to fit into, to find another does the speaker In “Ariel,” appears dark, too. after she rides into the what comes not say leave the poppies in July,” In “Poppies red eye. speaker Each colorless and alone. the speaker She merely exists between nor dies. neither lives cannot find either where she forever worlds two or an identity. love New York: Twayne, 1998. Print. Twayne, New York: Works Cited Works Ed. Ted Hughes. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992. Harper Perennial, New York: Hughes. Ed. Ted Sylvia Plath, Revised. Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure ofSylvia Plath: The Wound Hopkins UP, London: John Words. The Collected Poems: Sylvia Plath. The Collected Poems: Ed. Paul Alexander. New York: Harper and Row, 1985. 46-60. Print. Harper and Row, New York: Alexander. Ed. Paul

Print. 1985. 1-12. Print. Harper and Row, New York: Alexander. Sylvia Plath’s poetry vacillates between poetry between vacillates Sylvia Plath’s 1992. Print. Lang, 2007. Print. Peter New York: Ed. Paul Alexander. New York: Harper and Row, 1985. 61-79. Harper and Row, New York: Alexander. about Sylvia Plath. Ed. Paul Writings Print. 2011. 110- Brain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, and Tracy Sally Bayley Sylvia Plath. Eds. 128. Print. Plath.

Ed. Paul about Sylvia Plath. Ed. Paul Ariel Ascending: Writings Intractable Metal.” Helen. “An Vendler, 92 love because she cannot accept because she cannot the death that love cannot accept she life without However, ensues. know it, she does not for without either, love, is. love who she is or what ofthe push and pull Her imagery life and death. charms the conflicting and themes underscore ofand disappointments and death. Just life its sweetens death living, when life seems worth however, speakers, the poetry’s seduction. For nor death gives Neither life emptiness prevails. what for they fail to know them what they want, Axelrod, Steven Gould. Steven Axelrod, Gentry, Deborah S. The Art of Deborah S. Gentry, of Dying: Suicide in the Works Kate Chopin and Sylvia Plath. Hall, Caroline King Barnard. Plath, Sylvia. Hardy, Barbara. “The Barbara. of Poetry Hardy, Sylvia Plath: Enlargement or Derangement?” Representing Visual Aesthetic.” with Colour: “Coming to Terms Plath’s Laure de. Nervaux-Gavoty, “The of Poetry Frederick. John about Sylvia Nims, Ariel Ascending: Writings Sylvia Plath.” The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 cake), to head the Christmas festivities that the pagan fests of old were combined into have known what to expect from a play titled too much time in the darkness of Twelfth Night. were held in nearly every house or university of one celebration to honor the Epiphany, which after such an event. Twelfth Night and the Logan explicates further, “It is as though we are quality, and even at the Royal Court (“Lord of is the holiday designated to honor the day the alternative title, What You Will, when preceded allowed to be at once asleep and awake; our own Misrule”). This figure was in charge of planning Magi visited the infant Jesus. Twelfth Night is, by the conjunction or, imply that the titles are fantasies, ‘what we will,’ are newly discovered to the jollities and “lording” over them. He often therefore, simply the eve of Epiphany, one of interchangeable and roughly synonymous; us. The sorts of things we learn about the night- had a court of his own, which was a play on the holiest of days in the Christian calendar. therefore, the audience would have been world of the psyche are profoundly disturbing” the true royal court. Frequently, the person However, since the celebration is derived from expecting the unexpected. They would have (227). In other words, Shakespeare used his play chosen as Lord of Misrule was actually a student pagan roots, it was frequently celebrated in a been anticipating identity shifts, pranks, to show the audience some of their deepest or servant who was then able to rule over his decidedly unchristian and largely Bacchanalian disguises, cross-dressing and copious amounts desires, and often people were very disturbed by betters for a period of time in a truly order- manner. of ale. The concept that makes this play unique those subterranean yearnings. upsetting and, no doubt, power-intoxicating A key feature of Saturnalian festivals, in terms of atmosphere is that the audience One of the disturbing things (at least for manner. as well as Twelfth Night, was disguise. In her would have had the understanding that Twelfth the Elizabethans) found in the night world of There are several characters in Twelfth article, “The Holiday That Time Forgot,” Night is only a temporary state of being; they Illyria is homoerotism. In fact, Logan says that Night that could be considered, at least in part, a Sandy Levins relays how the Twelve Days of would have been taken aback to find that there “As soon as Viola/Cesario becomes an object of Lord of Misrule. However, Feste most embodies Christmas festival (of which Twelfth Night is is nothing temporary about the festive state desire, we are drawn into the night world” (232). the elements of character necessary for this the end) included masques and mummers from in Illyria. In his article “Twelfth Night: The When one considers that Viola and Sebastian are mock rule, specifically, his nearly omniscient its initial inception. Mummers, as they were limits of Festivity,” Thad Logan confirms this basically androgynous to begin with, it is only a awareness of the pranks, cross-dressing, known in England, were basically masked street idea with his statement, “What gives Illyria its short walk to bisexuality in the very least. When and complex identity crises that are carried performers. Highly improvisational “actors,” distinctive atmosphere is our sense that in this Orsino first meets Viola dressed as Cesario, he throughout the play. It is as if he is a puppet they were known to go door-to-door pleading world such a reversal is a way of life. For most remarks: master set on high, his job simply to move the for food and drink. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew can of the characters, every day is a holiday” (227). Diana’s lip players to and fro. A prime example of this be construed as mummers in this play. Though To the audiences of this play, the idea of the Is not more smooth and rubious; thy omniscience can be gleaned from Feste’s bold not necessarily masked, they do go from one world in a continuous state of confusion would small pipe statement, “Foolery, sir, does walk about the place to another boisterously begging food have been alarming. Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and orb like the sun; it shines everywhere” (3.1.32- and drink. An example of this can be found There is a crucial difference between a sound, 3). With this elegant observation, he elevates in Act II scene III when Maria is chastising Sir typical holiday party and a Twelfth Night party And all is semblative a woman’s part. himself from clown to king by cleverly pointing Andrew and Sir Toby for their loud singing. and that difference is partially responsible for (1. 5. 29-33) out the foolery of everyone else in the play. A Feste compliments Sir Toby’s fooling, and Sir the disturbing air of the play. Logan explains It is clear by this description that Viola is not Lord of Misrule character is not, however, a Andrew replies, “Ay, he does well enough if that “As its title suggests, the world of this play a very convincing man. When this is followed custom specific only to Twelfth Night. There is he be disposed, and so do I, / too; he does it is a night world, and festivity here has lost its later on by Olivia’s apparent interest in this very a long history of the Lord of Misrule extending with a better grace, but I do it more natural” innocence” (224). In other words, this is not feminine man, lesbianism rears its disquieting back into the pagan festivities of Saturnalia, a (2.3.71-2). They are clearly acting as mummers your grandmother’s holiday party. However, head. festival worshipping the god Saturn. in jolly Twelfth Night style. Thus in combining while it is true that the play is full of dissolute Sex and homoerotism are major The Christian holiday, Twelfth Night, all of these elements, drinking and feasting, revelry, he cautions that it “is not an enticement themes of this play (and, not coincidentally, is actually derived from that same Saturnalia parties ruled over by a lucky and unlikely figure, to licentious behavior, but it is [instead] an of Saturnalian festivals of old) as “Viola festival. The Collingswood Shakespeare masques, mummers and a general devil-may-care invitation to participate imaginatively in a pursues Orsino [while she is dressed as a man] Company affirms that “The holiday of Twelfth attitude, a picture of the definitive holiday party Saturnalian feast” (225). Here he is saying that who pursues Olivia who pursues both Viola Night emerged from the Roman Saturnalia emerges. Shakespeare did not intend to start a Bacchanalia [while she is dressed as man, though as an 95 festival and pagan Yuletide, fertility rites and The citizens of England at the time with his play, but wanted simply to allow his acknowledged effeminate man] and Sebastian,

94 extended feasts celebrating the onset of the this play was first produced were familiar with viewers to indulge in fantasy for a bit as well as who is pursued by Antonio” (Logan 232). All Winter Solstice.” They go on to explain how the ultimate holiday party, and they would to demonstrate the dangers inherent in spending of this frenzied pursuit of any and everything The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 on two legs is a natural reaction to the pervasive of Feste moralizing to the other characters, way to end a comedy, to be sure, and quite a these graces to the graves, / And leave the world feelings of mortality that infiltrate nearly every perhaps the most powerful moments, and contrast to the final scene of the other major no copy” (1.5.197-9). Viola’s comment is meant passage. certainly the most poignant, can be found in moralizer, Viola. to remind Olivia of her purpose, which, by the Mortality and morbidity are also majors his songs. Logan states that “All. . . of his songs Viola provides a much gentler type standard of the day, would be to marry and have themes of Twelfth Night. Thad Logan says that direct our attention to aspects of experience we of lesson than Feste, but no less impactful. It children. She does eventually marry, though not there are “twenty-nine references to madness might prefer to forget: death, the swift passage is only Viola and Feste who are not suffering at the behest of Viola, and it is this marriage, as in the play, twenty-two references to disease, of time, and the fact that, on the whole, life is from delusions or subjected to the chronic state well as Viola’s, that turns a potential tragedy into twenty-five to devilry, and thirty-seven to likely to bring us more pain than pleasure” (229). of festivity that the rest of Illyria has fallen a comedy, albeit a grim one. destruction and death” (236). The constant Specifically, in Feste’s first song, his lines “Then prey to. So, while Feste functions primarily Viola and her antagonistic partner Feste, references to mortality work to develop the come kiss me, sweet and twenty; / Youth’s a as a commentator, Olivia’s role is to prompt through their shrewd observations about life, atmosphere of the night-world of Illyria. stuff will not endure” (2.3.45-6), is a reminder action. Gibson explains that “Her dramatic expose the hidden nuances in this melancholy They also work to give purpose to the often to drink up one’s youth for it will not last. Age function is to lead Olivia and Orsino out of comedy. There are several meaningful subtexts purposeless lives of the main characters. Lisa will capture every person. In his second song, their fantasies about love and help them realize concealed within the lines, but perhaps the most Marciano says in her article, “The Serious Feste contemplates unrequited love and its cruel what true love can really be” (158). She achieves powerful message is this: it is important to live Comedy of Twelfth Night: Dark Didacticism consequences. He sings: that purpose, at least superficially, but while she life to the fullest, but not to the over-full. All in Illyria,” that Twelfth Night “brims over with Come away, come away, death, clearly represents the positive aspects of love elements of the play work in concert to relay the situations in which characters who are aware of And in sad cypress let me be laid. in her steadfast loyalty to Orsino, this kind of lesson that attempting to prolong Twelfth Night mortality try to bring others to reform by means Fie away, fie away, breath, martyred, unrequited love also helps to give beyond the bounds of custom will result in a of knowledge” (3). This idea of moralizing I am slain be a fair cruel maid. the play a gloomy visage. When Viola says the chaotic and malevolent society. characters is clearly illustrated repeatedly and (2.4.49-52) following to Orsino, in response to his question Another interesting parallel can be found works to develop the idea that the audience Another song that Feste shares with the of what she could know of love, one can almost in the word epiphany. It can be either the holiday is intended to leave the show with a sense of audience reveals the malevolent underbelly hear the audience give a collective sigh for this Epiphany that celebrates the coming of the festive restraint. While a weak case can be made of this play, as it continues the mocking of young woman: Magi, or it can be a sudden, impactful revelation. that the Puritan-like Malvolio acts as the head Malvolio that appears to be intended to drive the Too well what love women to men It is essential to note that both meanings are moralizer, in actuality, the two characters that Puritan to madness. Feste sings: owe. represented. First of all, the entire play can best show this concept at work are Feste and In his rage and his wrath, In faith, they are as true of heart as be summarized as an eve of Epiphany party Viola. Cries, ‘Ah ha’ to the devil, we. (Twelfth Night), which is naturally followed Feste is the fool in this play, and Like a mad lad, My father had a daughter loved a in the morning by Epiphany itself. Inside the according to Rex Gibson, his primary function is “Pare thy nails, dad?” man world of the play, the party also ends with an not to simply provide laughter, but to “comment Adieu, goodman devil. (4.3.109-113) As it might be perhaps, were I a epiphany, but of the second variety. It is at that critically on contemporary behavior” (160). In This is unquestionably a solicitation to madness. woman, moment of significant revelation that there is other words, he is a moralizer. A large part of It is, however, Feste’s last song, and not I should your lordship. (2 .4.101-5) reconciliation and marriage for several players. his manifest power in such a role is because, as coincidentally the last words of the play, that She continues to make rather astute observations Without the marriages, it would not be difficult Logan explains, “Feste acts in the play as a link leaves a truly lasting impression of the relentless about the nature of love as well as the passage of to turn this comedy into a tragedy. between different sets of characters, moving ravaging of time continuously explored in the time in her attempt to walk a fine line between the While very little about the namesake freely from one group to another, like the spirit play. In this song, Feste travels through the opposing worlds of the masculine and feminine, revelry is literally represented in Twelfth Night, of festivity incarnate in the world of Illyria” major stages of life from child to old man while which are best represented by the separate upon closer inspection, one finds that the (229.) His ability to mix and mingle with all of simultaneously evoking images of uncontrollable courts of Orsino and Olivia. A particularly vivid play is pervaded with the feeling of a Twelfth 97 the characters, freely spreading his messages, wind and rain, which worked to remind the example of her entreaty to mind the hourglass Night celebration that has been deconstructed,

96 means that his voice is a dominant one. audience of the relative unimportance of man in of time is given to Olivia when Viola says, “Lady, personified and amplified. Thad Logan While there are multitudinous examples the grand scheme of things. This is a remarkable you are the cruell’st she alive, / If you will lead concludes, “in Twelfth Night what the characters The Chestatee Review and the audience come to are the limits of festival, and at the extremity are violence and indiscriminate passion” (237). Shakespeare used this much loved holiday celebration as a tool for teaching the wisdom of excess in moderation. The festival implied with the title is as cleverly Art disguised within the lines as Viola is behind her false machismo, but it is omnipresent all the same.

The artwork showcased in the magazine is by UNG students who have been chosen for a scholarship. The works presented cover all mediums, and wonderfully represent the extensive art classes offered at UNG, as well as the immense

Works Cited talent of our art students. “Collingswood Shakespeare.” Collingswood Shakespeare. Collingswood Shakespeare Company, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. Gibson, Rex. “Characters.” Twelfth Night. Cambridge School Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. 158-163. Print. Levins, Sandy. “Understanding Twelfth Night-The Holiday That Time Forgot.” Twelfth Night. Historic Camden County, 2005. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. Logan, Thad Jenkins. “Twelfth Night: The Limits of Festivity.” Studies in English Literature (Rice) 22.2 (1982): 223-238. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. “Lord of Misrule.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. Marciano, Lisa. “The Serious Comedy of Twelfth Night: Dark Didacticism In Illyria.” Renascence 56.1 (2003): 3-20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. McCabe, Carol. “On The Last Day of Christmas.” Early American Homes 30.6 (1999): 6-9. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. 98 Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Rex Gibson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print. The Chestatee Review Spring 2014

Untitled Pink Flamingo 101 100 Ashton Thompson Jessica Denton The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 103 Home Melody 102 Jill Raden Nichole Simotes The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 105 Miniature Nesting Bowls Leather Briefcase 104 Carolyn Nooney Sue Compton 107 The reader might think I skeptical (Banned Books Essay Contest) that I present a modest proposal to the reader. proposal to the reader. that I present a modest A begin a mass censorship movement. must We reader might point out the unoriginality quick of indeed, been tried Censorship has, this idea. it is here I before and with little success; but to the reader. to pose a question like would and Cujo What Candide, do Harry Potter, in common as texts other than their briefhave history of of censorship? Theanswer, is course, is the exact problem. absolutely nothing which role Censorship has not fulfilled its intended any because no one has deigned to make standards for it. suggesting authority by my am overreaching wholly parameters for censorship; and I must it is with is why agree which with his wariness careful deliberation and thoughtfulness that found the perfect ruler to with which I have measure appropriateness of After literature. it is clear that logically, considering the choices base of servethe Bible must as the pivotal the Only after censoring new censorship movement. this hellish behemoth will literature begin to offslake it has so acutely from which the decay the dragon, will slay we suffered. And after we be able to censor other literature according to its If simple. Censorship will be childishly contents. one can find it within the annals of then a Bible, be censored. it must t is a melancholy prospect to those t is a melancholy After years of quiet observation, I must I destined to walk through the bookstore to be through the destined to walk confronted with the plethora of bad literature I think all readers harbored within the shelves. can agree amount of that the vast ill written to the deplorable state books is indicative of literary trends and is a great grievance to The sophisticated readers everywhere. modern string of bluntly be called bad books what can has birthed evils as the elementary such reader, talentless author, the the reader with bad taste, ofand, worst successful all, the talentless, nonsense has flooded the So much author. to way who could find a that anyone shelves sift through all the rubbish in the accumulated no doubt be modern house would publishing ofheralded as the saviour the literary canon. the purpose ofHowever, goes this essay far that ofbeyond merely sorting through the badly of phrased novels spelled and awkwardly the day and seeks a real solution to the problem. and academics, found critics, confess I have literaryother such experts’ to the responses More decisive and ineffective. problem lacking action than that of mere disdain and criticism black calling the kettle Clearly, be taken. must the only solution has not made it new; therefore, of it out. It is in this vein is to throw thought

A Modest Proposal A Modest of an Issue Proportions Biblical For Stuart Esther

Winners

Special Topic the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Allan Poe. ofworks Edgar the In addition to our large annual writing contest, The Chestatee Review hosts small, themed themed small, hosts Review Chestatee writing writing contests to accompany important dates dates in literary history, or to add another element to events that we host. This year, the two two the year, This host. we that events to element additional writing contests that we introduced were an essay contest that urged writers to discuss to writers urged that contest essay an were the purposes of censorship for Banned Books Week, Week, Books Banned for censorship of purposes the and a horror flash fiction contest to accompany our our accompany to contest fiction flash horror a and yearly PoeDown, a celebration of all things scary via via scary of things all celebration a PoeDown, yearly 109 is, while hidden a book that needs to be a book that needs American Psycho Josh Ferguson Josh under violent actions and fantasies, the story under violent actions and fantasies, struggle, and ultimate failure, of one man’s culture that to find meaning in the consumer of Patrick Bateman The world surrounds him. of any is fast, stylish, and completely void real substance or meaningful relationships. and to The novel is narrated by Bateman, matters; he him, appearance, above all else, clothing, others’ continuously lists and itemizes personality while telling us little about their The only concern Patrick seems to have at all. Williams, is when about his fiancé, Evelyn Although he decides to end their relationship. affairs, he knows that they both are having reason why Patrick still has no real underlying The only he wants to end their relationship. compassion Patrick shows towards a woman in the novel is when he allows his secretary, Jean, whom he had planned on killing, to leave Although he does not explicitly unharmed. tell the reader why he chose not to murder Jean, this is the only time Patrick shows any The novel kindness, albeit a small kindness. begins not like one would expect a story about a serial killer to, with instead of a spree of of tears” violence, Patrick is “on the verge because he thought he would not be seated at a The conversation that is good table (Ellis 39). carried out while sitting at this table is riddled American Psycho is American Psycho read.

Less American Psycho ret Easton Ellis has written many ret Easton Ellis has written many B , although his most controversial , although his most controversial Than Zero his 1991 novel American is book, by far, in the York The novel is set in New Psycho. by one eighties, and is narrated as a confession Street yuppie, or Wall man, Patrick Bateman, a Bateman has young, upwardly mobile person. friends, and, as the title indicates, if any, few, is a psychopath, so he feels no empathy charming towards anyone else. Bateman is and smart enough to hide his psychopathic him, and tendencies from the people around that “he’s has convinced everyone he knows is not the boy next door” (Ellis 18). Bateman as he is often at all what he seems, however, which he consumed with homicidal impulses, carries out at night, often killing prostitutes and the homeless, but as the novel progresses, delving he begins to lose his grip on reality, further into psychosis, struggling, and often failing, not to attack coworkers and hide his The world around Patrick true sadistic nature. drives him further into madness, revealing the ugliness that permeates not only himself, but This graphic look everyone around him, too. at the world was met with disgust, launching protests and causing the world to delve into a censoring frenzy in attempts to stop the spread violent novel. of Ellis’s is not a book that deserves to be censored; books, including the very popular novel books, including the very popular Censoring of Censoring a Psycho (Banned Books Essay Contest) will have to be dislodged ancient from their will have of advocate staunch the most Even places. is cast out Hemingway might balk as censorship bleakness ofinto the Sadly, literary obscurity. be dismissed will probably many other favorites all and Twain Homer, Dickens, from libraries. in order to ensure the safety be eliminated must of Shakespeare obviously, And literary integrity. any to linger on our shelves cannot be allowed there will Indeed, verses. longer with his bawdy We may to our sensibilities at first. be a shock if miss these vile texts; however, even are to we quell the imminent threat of we bad literature, of forgetmust about the tickling the our senses, broadening of refreshing and the our minds, experience of The modern new perspectives. put these things out ofreader must to mind and utopia prepare for the coming Renaissance found in the opening of A 451. Fahrenheit of entirely devoid world inappropriate content and offense.

Of there will be enormous course, Of the wide array considering of course,

108 held as a moral a book so widely protest to from libraries should be banned compass it is this misconception but everywhere, has that for to poison our children the vile text allowed The pressed to find reader will be hard too long. as with heinous content packed another book so incest, dismemberment, Rape, the Bible. murder, foul language, abound and sex vandalism, in the Bible as maggots proliferate rotten if Clearly, corpses. one considers the matter be a catalogue of the Bible must logically, the the morally literarily inappropriate rather than than judge Rather its words, men by adequate. it is only natural that the modern reader judge ofthe worthiness their contextual all texts by distance from this heinous book. there will, at first, topics and issues in the Bible, be a gargantuan amount of books censored. Many of the texts already settled into the canon The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 with Patrick and his colleagues spotting people Spy magazines obtained copies Classification (OFLC) “classified American case of American Psycho in the Australian state of across the room and debating who the person of the manuscript, described the Psycho as ‘Category 1 Restricted,’” which, along Queensland. This type of total censorship not is. Each believing the person to be a different controversy at Simon & Schuster, with demanding the book “be sold sealed, to only prevents children from reading the novel, man, this mistaken identity of colleagues and and detailed the book’s gruesome only those over 18 years of age” prohibits but adults as well, who are certainly mature coworkers happens often throughout the novel, scenes of women being tortured and libraries from lending the book to minors enough to decide what their values are in regards revealing not only that the characters are too killed. (O’Brien) (Brien). The Australian state of Queensland to a novel’s content. superficial to lean the names of the people that Word about the novel’s misogynistic content decided to take the extra step and outright ban The best art is able to reflect upon and are around them daily, but that the characters quickly spread. Simon & Schuster, in response the sale of the novel altogether. American Psycho be relevant to the world during which it was see themselves as interchangeable, too. to the controversy, quickly cancelled the is the first book since 1969 that has been the created. While periods of heavy censorship Having long since lost their identities, only novel, refusing to continue working towards target of such censorship by the Australian give many artists something to rally against, materialistic desire remains. Ellis’s ability to distributing the book. Simon & Schuster CEO government. using their art to voice their objections, capture the shallowness of the eighties culture Richard E. Snyder later claimed, “It was an Censorship is defined as “suppressing censorship certainly is not necessary for good was praised by some, with the New York Times error in judgment to put our name on a book parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, art. The perceived correlation between good stating that the novel “captures a seedy and of such questionable taste” (qtd. in McDowell military, or other grounds,” however, censorship art and periods of censorship does not indicate scummy aspect of our time” (Cohen). 13). This delay in the book’s publication was should only be done keep mature material out that censorship causes the art produced The controversy surrounding American short-lived, however, when a deal was made of the hands of young children until they reach during the period of heavy censorship to Psycho comes not from the theme of shallowness within 48 hours of the books cancellation that the age where they may be able to understand become better. It could possibly give artists and materialism in society, but from Patrick’s would allow the publisher Vintage Books to and interpret the work for themselves (“Censor,” a target to aim their works at, making their multiple murders, which he describes with the move onwards with the novel’s publication. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Censorship creations relevant to the world and the general same itemized attention to detail and impersonal National Organization for Women called for a should only apply to children, not to the population. This relevancy, not censorship, is coldness that he describes other people’s nationwide protest of Vintage Books. Tammy general population, because adults should have necessary for good art. Censorship, however, clothing. Critics of American Psycho have claimed Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the freedom to: Read, view, experience any and the controversy surrounding the banned that the graphic descriptions of Bateman’s the National Organization for Women called material, obscene or otherwise, and decide for work can certainly generate attention for the murders are unnecessary and cheap attempts to the novel ‘’a how-to manual on the torture and themselves whether or not they find it to have piece and help to push it into the public eye, sell books. Ellis, in an interview with The New dismemberment of women,” and demanded the any artistic value The responsibility to prevent possibly causing more people to experience the York Times, defended his work, stating, “Bateman book be stricken from the shelves of bookstores children from being exposed to questionable work, or in this case know about and read the would describe these acts of brutality in the across the nation, claiming that the women of material should belong to the parents of the novel. The controversy, protests, and censoring same numbing, excessive detail and flat tone that this country will no longer tolerate gratuitous children, whose duty it is to raise their child caused by American Psycho generated a great he recounts everything else -- his clothing, his violence for the sake of profit and entertainment into the kind of person that they want them to deal of media attention about the book and its meals, his workouts at the gym. It seemed to me (O’Brien). Publication was not stopped, and become. This decision should not be left up to author, Bret Easton Ellis, who was able to do that he would not avoid telling the reader what American Psycho was released in 1991. Countries the government. Australia and New Zealand’s an interview with the New York Times about he does when he murders people. For me, it was around the globe had picked up on the message R18 rating, preventing the sale of the book to the uproar surrounding his book. Protests an aesthetic choice that made sense” (Cohen). of the protests, and stepped in to monitor the anyone under the age of eighteen, are done with were even covered by CNN, making the The detailed murders, especially the killing and sales of the novel. German officials claimed good intentions, but the responsibility to prevent release of his novel international news. The desecration of women, caused Ellis, as well as that the content of American Psycho would be children from reading the novel does not rest controversy surrounding American Psycho his publisher, Simon & Schuster, to experience a harmful to minors, while in New Zealand the in the hands of any legislative body, because did have repercussions, though, with the New considerable amount of public outcry. Maureen novel received a rating of R18, which prohibits material that may be deemed objectionable by York Times reporting that Ellis “has received O’Brien of Entertainment Weekly reported, the sale of the novel to anyone under the age a government official, whether the objection is 13 anonymous death threats” (Cohen). This Female employees at Simon & of eighteen, and the novel must be sold shrink- on moral or political grounds, may not be seen controversy aside, the message of American Schuster, the book’s original wrapped in the bookstore to prevent minors as objectionable to the parents. One problem Psycho is still just as applicable to today’s

publisher, caught wind of its content from reading any part of the book. Australia that arises with allowing the government to society as it was to the society during which 111 and began to protest its publication. took this notion one step further, however, when hold power of censorship is when a certain the novel was originally published.

110 Soon afterward, both Time and the Australian Office of Film and Literature work gets banned completely, such as in the While the technology, music, and 113 I feel something like sand irritate I feel something like the But all I see is black. Esther Stuart Esther them from chattering as it rises up my legs past as it rises up my them from chattering I’m suddenly grateful that it is too dark hips. my I death embraces me. thick to see what slow, like chest climbs up my scream as the muck some expired beggar for its last morsel. reaching of but sandy arch feet. I try it away, my kick to manacles pull me further I can feel the down. chin.. chest. My My waist. my up to flow velvet for acceptance ofMy toes reach inescapable, but there is only terror at the realization that I can no longer mouth again scream. I open my as a cold, grainymy mouth and gob into flows teeth. It scrapes the back crunchesmy between of throat filling everyof crevice my my innards. entirely submerged, head back, my I throw frantically for a light, a sound, searching something to mark the end before its all snuffed out. he cold sensation seeps into my he cold sensation seepsmy into I struggle, hands are bound, and but my T back creeping into my spine. It’s even in the even It’s spine. creeping into my back nose as I breathe it in. I open air stinging my mouth to trymy a sound. The and make air earth. Like My feet sink Musty. tastes damp. as I spread out into something soft and inviting the wet, where I am. I feel toes wondering my My feet sink toes. grainy my slop gush between mystery liquid. deeper into the smooth, velvety Rising, not so comfortable it disturbs me. It’s duty ofespecially fast, but with all the solemn a me--heralding the engulfs it slowly pall bearer, inevitable. the amoeba simply allows the clumsy exertion that I notice how now It’s calves. my to swallow skin Its brush the sensitive with my cold it is. of causes goosebumps thigh my to run all the I grind to keep teeth vertebrae. my up my way (PoeDown Flash Fiction Contest)

Fate of the Snitch Fate Fashion in Cement American American American American Psycho American Psycho The message of fantasy that Bateman describes to the reader. to the reader. Bateman describes fantasy that these acts happened though, Unfortunately, culture that is materialistic in the violent, makes This sad truth our reality. take on materialism and satirical Psycho’s today as it was when violence just as relevant released twenty-two years the novel was first ago. but it to the world today, may be relevant and censorship, of hatred is still the target being monitored by shrink with its sales still sold to wrapping the book before only being Bateman The novel ends with Patrick adults. around him, confused, wondering if the world really and the events that he experienced, touch with happened, or if he has finally lost into insanity. reality and has fallen completely world This ending once again mirrors the and within which we live, as governments with a censorship are consumed organizations novel while bloodlust, violently attacking the message. failing to acknowledge the book’s The ridiculousness of these demonstrations of censorship leave the reader of Psycho wondering if they could truly live is in a world where such blatant censorship too, have lost their grasp permitted, or if they, Bateman in on reality and have joined Patrick the depths of madness. Works Cited Works American Seattle Times Wal-Mart Worker Trampled to Death by Frenzied Black Friday Friday Black Frenzied to Death by Trampled Worker Wal-Mart was released, the was released, , explained Times New York New York: Vintage, 1991. Print. New York: American Psycho.

A Wal-Mart worker on Long Island, Wal-Mart A

Sept. 2013. 24. Sept. 2013. 1991. Web. 06 Mar. 25 Sept. 2013. 1991. Web. 08 Mar. Shoppers”. The Seattle Times. 29 Nov. 2008. Web. 27 Sept. 2013. 2008. Web. Nov. 29 Shoppers”. The Seattle Times.

clothing that people desire have changed have changed that people desire clothing Psycho since American 112 materialism has not, with every passing year every passing year has not, with materialism riots that break reporting about news stations shopping day known out on the infamous in 2008, Five years ago, as Black Friday. of the Stephanie Rosenbloom reported, “ by customers died after being trampled N.Y., the doors early Friday . . who broke through other at least four was over, . before the night a woman who was eight people, including months pregnant, were taken to hospitals” disregard for This complete (Rosenbloom). material the well-being of others to obtain and gain certainly fits in with the shallowness ugliness of consumer culture that theme Psycho presents, but it also fits another of violence of the book as well; the acceptance in his by our culture. Bret Easton Ellis, interview with the why he chose to catalogue each of Patrick why he chose to catalogue each of acts of violence in such detail, and Bateman’s a serial killer why he chose to make Bateman According to Ellis, he wanted to show at all. become “how desensitized our culture has The aforementioned to violence” (Cohen). the acts of Black Friday violence, especially seem like trampling of a pregnant woman, they would be just another sadistic act or “Censor” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2013 2013. Web. Merriam-Webster, “Censor” Merriam-Webster.com. 26 2006. Web. 9. Nov. Vol. MC Journal. Filth in American Psycho.” “The Real Brien, Donna Lee. Times The New York Critics of “Bret Easton Ellis Answers Psycho’.” Cohen, Rodger. ‘American Bret Easton. Ellis, Entertainment Weekly Controversy.” Psycho’ Gothic: The ‘American O’Brien, Maureen. “American “ Stephanie. Rosenbloom, The Chestatee Review The Chestatee 115 ~Dr. Shannon Gilstrap The first way in which in which The Dude both Theway first Ross McIntire McIntire Ross is the story of named Jeff a character Lebowski. The as he prefers to be called, becomes Dude, the victim of a case of This identity. mistaken rughappens his valued when he is soiled because the same name as a millionaire, happens to have trophy with a young namesake, title’s the movie to a pornographer. money By wife who owes virtue of that, he is thrust into the intrigue of the the Big Lebowski’s a kidnapping involving Theenlists the help of Dude wife. his friends, Maude as the unlikely as well and Donnie, Walter to aid daughter, the Big Lebowski’s Lebowski, compensation for his rug. him in receiving solving the rugWhile never problem, The Dude the twisted tale ofdoes unravel the fabricated kidnapping of in very much Bunny Lebowski the style of eye story of a private the 1950’s. conforms to and deviates from the traditional that he is presented heroic pattern is the way at both the beginning and the end of the film.

.

The Big Lebowski The Big Lebowski The Big Lebowski (Breznican 1) The Big Lebowski n the fast paced frenzy of the Before the film is dissected, a summary I “Often professors ask students on an assignment to apply a studied rubric to a text in order to gauge The Dude Abides Linda Seger’s Abides Linda The Dude Seger’s Wanted Dude The All Myth: Hero Back His Rug Was insightful and engaging research paper.” Ross’s engagement with the movie and his clear understanding of Linda Seger’s hero myth rubric resulted in an America that we live in, we value hard work, hard work, value in, we live America that we and a real go-getter In long hours, attitude. there lived Los Angeles in the early nineties, hero that possessed none ofan unlikely those things the A man whose desire to keep qualities. caused a series of they were way that only events I’m talking about The Dude film can bring us. said in his USA Today Anthony Breznican here. article strange forms that, “Heroes take in the realm ofthis is certainly and brothers,” the Coen the case with , the protagonist, The Big Lebowski In the movie, and deviates from The both abides by Dude, while role because, the traditional hero mythic qualities ofretaining the overall hero a mythic he does not experience a significant figure, end. the movie’s change by is necessary for a little context.

on The Big Lebowski, coming to some interesting conclusions about this heroic non-hero, “The Dude.” Overall, standard rubric. Rarely do students take up this more difficult critical task; Ross, however, did so in his essay also often put in the assignment the suggestion that the student consider ways that the text deviates from the a student’s critical analysis skills. Many students choose to just draw point-by-point connections. However, I The Chestatee

Faculty

Favorites endeavored to find away to recognize student University University of North Georgia Georgia English faculty are tasked tasked with reading hundreds of essays, the excellence so apparent in our student body. student body. in our so apparent the excellence

narratives, narratives, poems, and other academic work each semester. semester. Because of this, they have, perhaps, the keenest keenest eyes in finding and exemplary efforts talents that get lost in the deluge of academic work that may never be submitted for publishing. We at We publishing. for submitted be never

Review work work that may have fallen through the educatory cracks. To aid To this effort,we askedfaculty membersto submitto us their favorite pieces that they received during the Fall 2013 semester. The 2013 pieces semester. published here are handpicked by various faculty who believed that these hidden talents embody embody talents hidden these that believed who faculty various The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 In Linda Seger’s “Creating the Myth,” she seriously. As he says in the movie, “That rug situation. In a post-coital conversation with hero is an interesting play on Seger’s idea within describes the hero being introduced “in ordinary really tied the room together.” Maude, The Dude unravels the truth behind the the film because a “war hero” would seem to surroundings, in a mundane world, doing Yet another element we see from kidnapping. The fact that this epiphany happens be the obvious choice for a hero, but within The mundane things” (Seger 388). This first beat of the traditional heroic myth pattern in The Big when it does is no coincidence as Maude also Big Lebowski the opposite is true. Other shadow the hero myth is mirrored in The Big Lebowski Lebowski is the role of archetypes and helper serves as Seger’s good mother archetype in figures are also mixed into the film. The nihilists, as The Dude is shown in a Los Angeles Ralph’s figures. We see the third beat of Seger’s hero that she “nurtures” The Dude’s suspicions perhaps, exist as “the negative side of the hero” buying half and half and writing a check for myth as The Dude is describing his assault to throughout the film because of her “superior in the film (Seger 393). While The Dude doesn’t sixty-nine cents. The Big Lebowski also utilizes his two most trusted confidants, Walter Sobchak intuition” (Seger 392). Maude also carries The claim to be a nihilist, he certainly doesn’t believe the final beat of Linda Seger’s hero myth in the and Donald “Donnie” Kerabatsos. After Dude’s child at the end of the film, giving a in much, at least not to the negative extent of suggestion that there may be a “Little Lebowski” conferring with them, the generally amiable literal mother form to the archetype. this particular group of nihilists. on the way. The film takes, quite literally, Seger’s Dude becomes convinced, by Walter, that the The shadow figure archetype figures Although The Dude doesn’t exactly suggestion that a hero must be “reborn as the other Jeffery Lebowski, the Big Lebowski, is heavily in The Big Lebowski. The Big Lebowski fit in to the mold of the mythic hero that hero” (Seger 390). These two beats are used who should compensate him for his rug. “His may be the exact opposite of The Dude. Where Seger describes, he does retain his hero status within the film to imply, perhaps, that the only wife goes out and owes money all over town The Dude is late on his rent for his crappy within the filmThe Big Lebowski. The Dude’s hero that does not need to be transformed is and they pee on your fucking rug?” Walter apartment, The Big Lebowski lives in a mansion unwillingness to change suggests that he has The Dude. The Dude is shown at the end of the shouts. Walter here exemplifies the trickster with servants and assistants. The Dude is single this frenzied world we live in all figured out. The film going about his business much in the way archetype that Seger describes as a “mischievous whereas The Big Lebowski has a trophy wife. individual beats of Linda Seger’s mythic hero he was when we met him in Ralph’s – “Takin’ ‘er archetypical figure who is always causing chaos, The Big Lebowski had a “Chinaman” take his pattern find an unlikely home together in perfect easy for all us sinners,” as the movie’s narrator disturbing the peace, and generally being an legs away from him in Korea, whereas The Dude syncopated rhythm within the world of The Big says. anarchist” (Seger 393). This is further typified “smoked a lot of Thai-stick…and hassled the Lebowski. I don’t know about you, but I take Another way in which The Dude both when Walter accompanies The Dude on the ROTC.” In nearly every conceivable way, The comfort in the fact that a hero can find a host in conforms to and deviates from the traditional ransom drop and tosses his “dirty undies” as a Dude differs from the Big Lebowski. This fits a guy like The Dude because, if The Dude can pattern is in his taking on the challenge “ringer” for the million-dollar ransom entrusted perfectly with Seger’s assertion that the character rise to a mythic hero ideal, anyone can. while simultaneously maintaining a complete to him from the Big Lebowski. will be “the opposite of the hero” generally unwillingness to care about the challenge. He The Big Lebowski further uses the heroic “opposing the hero” (Seger 393). This unusual goes so far as to want the thing that changed – myth archetypes, most notably the helper figure, the soiled rug – to go back to the way that it was. to aid The Dude’s journey. The helper figure, We see the second beat of the hero myth used according to Linda Seger, often arises from within The Big Lebowski here. Seger describes very unlikely sources. One helper figure of the “something new enter[ing] the hero’s life” which film is found in The Big Lebowski’s daughter, sets the story in motion (Seger 388). We see this Maude. One wouldn’t immediately think that the in The Big Lebowski as The Dude is assaulted in antagonist’s daughter would help the protagonist his apartment by the “carpet pissers,” as he calls along the way. In this case, an apparent falling them. From this point in the story we see a fire out has occurred along the way between Maude lit in The Dude to receive compensation for and her father, causing a desire to seemingly help Works Cited his valued rug. We also see this a second time anyone but him. She sees her father as vain and Breznican, Anthony. “Coens mold two new unlikely heroes in ‘True Grit’.” USA Today n.d.: in the film as The Dude is informed of Bunny greedy when we are first introduced to her in Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. th Lebowski’s kidnapping, which shifts the quest the film. This is based on her skepticism of the Seger, Linda. “Creating the Myth” Signs of Life in the USA. 7 ed. Eds. Sonia Maasik and Jack 117 from The Dude’s rug to the intrigue surrounding validity of the kidnapping ploy. This cynical view Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 386-395. The Big Lebowski. Dir. Ethan Coen. By Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Perf. Jeff Bridges, John

116 this apparent kidnapping, even though The about her father and the kidnapping situation Dude never truly takes the second challenge very helps The Dude make sense of a very confusing Goodman, and Julianne Moore. PolyGram Films International, Gramercy Pictures, 1998. 119 ~ Dr. Diana Edelman-Young Jordan Ford Ford Jordan No use. This it. is I rip off and sling my blanket my to me. to me. Christmas computer into the tastefully decorated impassioned left and let out an tree to my I, a subscriber of must Why ROAR! Lifetime a connoisseur of Network, Movie Netflix, a ofworshipper specials, holiday ABC Family be subjected to a profound shortage of sappy recovered, on my romances??!! Here, holiday my to you I give albeit pine-scented, laptop, It is apparent that screenwriters and demands. forgotten the things that make directors have precious finals wasting worth Christmas movies is a list oftime on. What follows required or strongly suggested elements that will ensure that in the background of will be played movie your and gift wrapping marathon every girly sleepover s I lounge green cozily in my A “Towards the end of the semester in World Literature II, our class read several twentieth-century a clever acronym, that is truly the icing on our Christmas fruitcake.” communicate her ostentatious demands to Hollywood. The work culminates in a revelation of the group's name, and red striped pajamas, covers tucked in tucked covers and red striped pajamas, of swaddling a cocoon-like uncomfortable warmth, I dare to pull one arm free into the surrounding and type “NETFLIX.COM” chill My eyes dartinto Google Chrome. desperately from suggested to suggested movie movie, “Seen it…seen it…seen mind utters, while my a button that, “Comedy,” I ultimately click it.” if chipping have would could wear, hyperlinks paint and an indention the exact shape and size of My hand is turning blue and returns a cursor. to its fleece home to regain strength as the my I am saddened by When it does, page loads. Christmas FIVE cheesy – yes, selection. Five frantically, I scroll audience. my await movies of for a hidden cove searching timid Christmas trying lost and scared, way to find their movies, curled up on her couch flipping through movie channels until she becomes moved, in true manifesto style, to true manifesto, Jordan's essay had me laughing from beginning to end. It begins with a poignant image of her C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. M.A.G.I.C. movies on television. Brilliant in its timeliness to the season, its satirical tone, its accuracy, and its style as a national, global. Jordan chose to write a "Christmas Manifesto" lamenting the shortage of "sappy" Christmas creative essay option. They could write their own manifesto, serious or satirical, on any topic they wanted--local, manifestos--Black Panther, DADA, Surrealist, Futurist, among others. For the final exam, I allowed students a

~Monique Kluczykowski For they hadn’t lived a life like his, or gone his, a life like lived they hadn’t For through his troubles and their place, They their path, they have know scared those people aren’t Of ahead of the world this “bright them, future” that casts its dark shadow his thoughts onto him, changing Down And turning into a nervous him of wreck a human he expected was how cooking, stress, bills, Taxes, to survive? learned about life is that family When all he’s last doesn’t That sky the is only blue because of the ocean, be used and that a semi-colon should not complete sentences that Unless there are two together need to be linked where into a world thrown I see, This boy nothing is free for searching cluelessly, who walks This boy some sort of object of recognition So that at least one thing on this alien plane can seem normal to him forgottenhimself, and left to fend for This boy, and the Lions Against the Wolves The and the Bears Snakes The Eagles and the Doves to feel, Understood. be able Will never Misunderstood “I chose to submit Casey’s poem because itwas the best of my portfolio submissions; his

Casey Warnock Casey Warnock imagery is powerful and I was impressed by his grasp of the poem’s larger themes.” Born into a false family, never truly never seeing the Born into a false family, truth and with eyes glazed over, I see, This boy together lips stuck chapped and his place in the world, know Will never true see his never potential and unkempt with hair this boy, see, you For clothes unclean that dark by Has been forced into submission beast of call Society we which he in a shell like through his childhood He went told, was with nice So that he could “get a nice home, people” to look after him a a little too late he realized, that even But maybe not protect him shell would the horrorsFrom of misunderstanding he will feel his entire existence not but they were “nice,” his families were True, his own an They like fed and clothed him, but he still felt injured alien with shelter, a rescue from the animal Or maybe a sad face and big, watery eyes, but never Hoping for a home and a true family, truly his cage leaving to a diploma, a “ticket given was At 18, the boy “the secret to success and a career” life,” shaking his But those people standing there, 118 or understand know never hand, they would The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 during the month of December and beyond. unlimited supply of soul-crushing one- decorating a Christmas tree, playing in available for online streaming and the resulting To succeed, you will need: liners directed at the leading lady. the snow, and/or gazing at each other “serious, fearful, timid, ardent, vigorous, • A quirky, creative leading lady who is across crowded rooms. determined, [though ultimately] enthusiastic” TERMINAL ILLNESS just clumsy enough to appear relatable, o search for a different one (652). But even with OPTIONAL • while retaining model good looks and A moment. This is no ordinary moment, every quality listed above and unlimited viewing but the one in which our leading lady the wardrobe of an early 2000’s teenager. • An old man who speaks in “fortune access, a Christmas movie could easily fail. and her handsome man realize they are She must either be a die-hard romantic cookie” and finishes every sentence with The last requirement is a staple of the irrevocably in love with one another. or a cynic in denial. a wink and a knowing smile. He is an holiday season. What forces a man to fall in Suggested moments include playing old friend or grandfather of either the love with a woman who has kidnapped him TERMINAL ILLNESS and singing a Christmas song together, o leading lady or handsome man. He is at gunpoint and convinced him to pretend OPTIONAL sharing a childhood Christmas memory, crucial to the emotional growth of the to be her fiancé for the weekend (“Holiday or landing on top of each other after • A handsome, corporate, workaholic jerk characters, despite half of his lines being in Handcuffs”) -- Stockholm syndrome? falling. who is either dating or has dated the utter gibberish. WRONG. What transports a woman into a leading lady. He must find Christmas I understand that times are difficult for magical wonderland formally known as her snow TERMINAL ILLNESS and all related sentiment boring and/or o romance and kindness, but this is ridiculous. globe (“Snowglobe”) -- LSD? WRONG. What STRONGLY stupid. Take, for instance, ABC Family’s “25 Days of causes a woman to relive Christmas Eve twelve RECOMMENDED Christmas” schedule; only five of the movies times until she finally understands the meaning TERMINAL ILLNESS NOT of Christmas -- a bump to head received in the o • An entirely improbable situation. featured this year are romantic comedies (“ABC RECOMMENDED first scene of the movie?MAYBE. Prospective film makers should take cues Family Schedule”). Meanwhile, the only channels More than anything else, Christmas EXCESSIVE HAIR from recent holiday movie scenarios: a adequately producing holiday movies refuse to o Magic is the final component that takes the GEL STRONGLY woman pays an actor to pretend to be make them available online, leaving them near “impossible” and elevates it to the “slightly less RECOMMENDED her fiancé at a family weekend, hilarity useless. During these troubling times, I feel impossible.” It’s what drives the sale of cookies ensues (“Holiday Engagement”); a compelled to quote fellow romantic Valerie • with little Santa Clauses on them. It’s what keeps Another handsome man, though more woman forces a man at gunpoint to Solanas: “Life in this society being, at best, an the Hallmark channel afloat. It’s what convinces handsome than the jerk. He loves pretend to be her fiancé at a family utter bore and no aspect of society being at Melissa Joan Hart that she should still be in Christmas, believes in love at first weekend, hilarity ensues (“Holiday all relevant to women, there remains to civic- the movie business. It’s what lifts low budget sight, and has a job that he’s passionate in Handcuffs”); a woman must relive minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only movies from cheap to charming. It is with about, though not obsessed with. He Christmas Eve until she gets it right and to” lay on the couch with our eyes glued to the this declaration that I announce our collective must volunteer at a soup kitchen, give realizes what is truly important, hilarity Hallmark Channel (Solanas 667). Solanas, being name for the first time: TheC razy Holiday presents to orphans, or, at the very least, ensues (“Twelve Dates of Christmas”). a veteran manifesto writer herself, understands adopt a shelter dog. He must have a the struggle of finding a good movie to watch, Radicalists In Search of The Most Awesome secret crush on the leading lady. • A mob of overeager, poorly-timed although she holds a particularly high standard and Sappy Movie About Girls/Guys Infatuated Christmas carolers mouthing “Silent for the acting that most of us Lifetime addicts at Christmas, or C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. M.A.G.I.C. TERMINAL ILLNESS o Night” to a prerecorded dub. do not; she was once quoted as saying, “He is OPTIONAL a half dead, unresponsive lump, incapable of • A montage of the leading lady and • giving or receiving pleasure or happiness” (668). A frazzled, over-bearing mother who handsome man partaking in Christmas Perhaps a bit harsh, she speaks volumes about considers her daughter the ultimate activities, including, but not limited to:

the declining quality of these themed movies. 121 spinster. She must own at least three drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows Even Tristan Tzara understands the “momentary tacky Christmas sweaters, a multitude and whipped cream, riding in a horse-

120 madness” of finding that the perfect movie isn’t of ill-fitting khaki trousers, and an drawn carriage, ice skating awkwardly, 123

~Jessica Cooke Like most Asian-Americans raised in Like there is no such thing as over-achievers, only thing as over-achievers, there is no such children In most households, underachievers. for their be praised and rewarded would On A’s. ethic in making straight hardworking household, having family in my the contrary, sets the bar of and expectations, straight A’s hour result in a two would A’s anything below parents did not “swim across my lecture on how the big ocean to America from refugee camps I cannot ever just so their kids can be stupid.” parents because no matter what complain to my been through been through, they have I have With his broken harder. something much in home “Oh, back father explains, English, my Thai soldier try I had to to kill me. country, build a boat out of seven bamboo when I was in year old and swim across the deepest river Southeast Asia . . . with a goat back!” on my These their expectations of guilt trips displayed the greatness from me. they wanted I a traditional household, I do not talk much; impassive quiet, I listen, and I do what my stay all Asian parents, Like parents tell me to do. me to be a doctor — saving want they would up people. stitching pushing out babies, lives, the potential to go into the Although I have Emile Phommavongsy Emile Phommavongsy am an Asian, not a B-sian: Asian

“In this essay, Emilie comes to terms with the benefits, risks, and alternatives associated with the Raised in a traditional family, I have to I have Raised in a traditional family, Oriental Oriental Spice With School Rice and cultural heritage of her family, of her national identity, and of her academic self in an American classroom.” with a capital “A.” My peers have dubbed me an My peers have with a capital “A.” for an is synonymous which achiever,” “Asian who was child I am the eldest “over-achiever.” born household, in a strict Buddhist-traditional I have with strict Buddhist-traditional parents. grade,been taking viola lessons since second and I am good Although at math and science. first language, I can speak not my English was Instead offour different languages. a having to not go out and, excuses I make social life, I am Laotian, or as instead, study and do chores. “What ocean?” Despite say, many people would cultural status as being that “smart,my over- ethnicity my Asian,” doctor wannabe achieving of as the lowest is perceived in the Asian the low Although these generalizations from culture. American and my Asian culture, my family, my mixture they are a sweet classmates seem bitter, blended together industrious to mold my academic identity. up to the expectations oflive hardworking my parents and the external pressure of what I Throughout my should and should not do. taught me that parents have my entire life, I ed. Vol. F. F. ed. Vol. rd 3 ed. Vol. F. New F. ed. Vol. rd 3 . Web. 30 Nov. 2013. 30 Nov. Netflix. Web. Works Cited Works . Web. 30 Nov. 2013. 30 Nov. Netflix. Web. The Norton Anthology 1918.” of Literature. World . Dir. James Hayman. Perf. Amy Smart and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. ABC Gosselaar. Smart Amy Mark-Paul and Perf. Hayman. James . Dir. Dada Manifesto . Web. 30 Nov. 2013. 30 Nov. Netflix. Web. . Dir. Ron Underwood. Perf. Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez. ABC Family, Hart Mario Lopez. ABC Family, and Melissa Joan Perf. Underwood. Ron . Dir. . Dir. Jim Fall. Perf. Bonnie Somerville, Shelley Long, and Jordan Bridges. Bridges. Bonnie Somerville, Long, and Jordan Shelley Perf. Jim Fall. . Dir. . Web. 30 Nov. 2013. 30 Nov. Netflix. Web.

. Dir. Ron Lagomarsino. Perf. Christina Milian, Josh Cooke, Matt Keeslar, Luciana Carro Matt Keeslar, Cooke, Christina Milian, Josh Perf. Lagomarsino. Ron . Dir. York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013. 667-68. Print. Norton & Co., W.W. York: Johnson Production Group, 2011. Group, Production Johnson 2008. 2011. ABC Family, and Lorraine Bracco. Family, 2011. Family, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013. 652. Print. 2013. 652. Norton & Co., W.W. New York:

Tzara, Tristan. “From “From Tristan. Tzara, 122 . ABC Family, 2013. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. Dec. 6 2013. Web. . ABC Family, Abcfamily.com Schedule.” Family “ABC Holiday Engagement Holiday in Handcuffs The Norton Anthology of Manifesto.” Literature. “S.C.U.M. World Valerie. Solanas, Snowglobe Twelve Dates ofTwelve Christmas The Chestatee Review The Chestatee The Chestatee Review Spring 2014 medical field, it is not for everyone, and it is technology, my people are perceived as lazy, threatened. off and disregard it by saying, “Oh no surprise. most certainly not for me. Why would my sluggish, hedonistic, forgetful, and stupid Soltan acknowledges that complexity, chaos, It’s because you’re Asian.” American students parents want me to be a surgeon when I can compared to the other Asian cultures. Due and turmoil within social form and order create often deep-fry my academic achievements and barely hold a spoon in my mouth without to being financially unfortunate and with few clarity and consciousness in which students gain successes into a greasy pot of stereotypes, but spilling the cereal? In Sir Ken Robinson’s options for a bright future, many Laotians work discipline from. In response, I feel like there there are a lot of problems that are invisible to lecture, he specified, “I meet all kinds of people at manual labor to support the family. Many is educational discipline that erupts within me others, such as the strain to uphold the Asian who don’t enjoy what they do. They simply Laotian women drop out of school to work in from the chaos of this cultural hierarchy, a form status. For most Asian-Americans, this is the go through their lives getting on with it. They the sex industry or human trafficking business in and order through which I have suffered. In the model minority stereotype that often spreads get no great pleasure from what they do. They Thailand. Around the globe, many do not know hierarchy, the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Hindi the unbearable pressure to excel. Although that endure it, rather than enjoy it, and wait for the much about Laotian people because it is rare people are “the business owners.” The Japanese is the case, the external outlook of my peers weekend.” Robinson explains that if I do not to find a Laotian doctor or a Laotian “success are the “technology wizards.” The Koreans are can be one of the reasons for my disciplined love what I am doing as a career, then I will story.” Numerous countries often discriminate the “beautiful idols,” and all throughout the list, mental activity. In Soltan’s article, she articulates never be happy, work will never be fulfilling. In and have racial issues with my people due to the each Asian country has a role. On the bottom of that “You cannot achieve this discipline without agreement with Robinson’s statement, having stereotypes that overshadow my culture. For the list, the Laotians are the “gangsters, bums, being able to control your emotions and your many passions inspired the best in me by example, although Thailand is a neighboring and lowlifes.” Although I am only part Thai self-centeredness; and being able to focus your motivating and bringing out perseverance that I country with similar culture and language, many from my mother’s side of the family, I would mind on one subject or object over a reasonably did not know I had. I could enjoy playing in an Laotians who live in Thailand often hold lower tell people that I am full Thai. In all honesty, I long period of time.” Soltan explains that a orchestra or creating my own business in France, status jobs as construction workers, taxi drivers, was ashamed and embarrassed of my Laotian student must be able to push aside and control but instead, my parents want me to pursue and street vendors because of the discriminatory background due to the negative perceptions of all emotional factors in order to have a prepared something that could possibly endanger lives. In attitudes by Thai-Chinese inhabitants. This is my race. Despite the stereotypes that weighed mind for discipline. Although I understand the respect to my parents’ hard work and sacrifices, because Laotians are not as “beautiful, smart, or me down, I realized later in life that my values logic behind Soltan’s argument, I disagree to an I try to keep them happy with my achievements. as hardworking” as the other races. People make and my drive to succeed were more tasteful than extent because being self-centered allows me to Despite the fact that I have a drive to make them decisions about my race not based on the truth the generalized, bitter perceptions from other discipline myself. According to my forty-eight proud, I do not want to pursue what my parents but based on those perceptions. races. Much like watching a sledge hammer hour activity log, I study for three hours each want me to pursue. Throughout my entire educational shatter a glass ball in slow motion, I want to day after school in order to keep my grades up. While there are perceptions that being career, the false labels have always been my break out of the concrete and transparent yet To most, this may not be surprising. However, of Asian descent has its perks, like being a motivation to succeed. In her article “Better vulnerable form of social and cultural order. if I performed below expectations, then I feel super-achiever, there are perceptions about the Living Through Consciousness: Why You Between balancing my reputation and my as if I might lose the invisible Oriental crown Laotian culture that I hope to prove wrong. Should Take Your College Education Seriously,” parents’ expectations, I persevere and work hard that people seem to place upon my head. I deem Within the Asian culture, there is a sub-category Margaret Soltan states, in school in hopes of changing that negative this important because compared to all of Asia, of stereotypes where the “lowest of the low” We see the form and order [of view of my ethnicity and earn respect from the I am no one, due to my race. However, in a are the Laotians. As a matter of fact, compared emotional life and the humanities] world. classroom, I have a significant role. Although to the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and even not as pure and abstract but as Under the intense watch of American it is based on my peers’ model of minority the Vietnamese, my ethnicity is looked down something emerged from chaos, peers, the external pressure to exemplify the stereotypes, it gives me a sense of respect upon with disgust, while in the perception of something which has suffered Asian stereotype at school is quite opposite because I am someone. Besides being afraid Americans, Laos is a small country that is often into being . . . . Discipline, then, than the negative stereotype of the Laotian of my parents, the reason I stay studious and invisible. There are many topics and concerns the discipline of the truly liberally culture. When I receive a bad grade, people gasp dedicated to school is because if I lose my title, on why such generalizations are perceived that educated, is a tenuous thing; it the perceived smart, studious Asian girl will turn

and intently look at me as if the world were 125 way. The topic of social class and intellect is understands itself as an internal experiencing an apocalypse. They exclaim, “But into a humiliated, average, mediocre student like often brought up. Because of the country’s condition which has suffered how could you get a bad grade? You’re Asian!” her American peers. 124 traditional values and slow adaptation of into being, a being delicate and However, when I get a good grade, they brush it Although I do not want stereotypes to 127

~Karen Dodson Justin Johnston Justin Johnston

“All of my 1102 students are required to write and explicate their own poem. Justin’s A Marine is forged, forged in island heat in sacrificial blood and sweat in unshed tears. Called to the far side of the world, his metal is tested fire tested by ammo fire he sends to his enemy by ofto the enemy his brother beside him fallen before him. to the enemy his brothers survive. not all For He carries the fallen home, home to his own, home to the folded flag. own. to the fallen’s He hands the folded flags battle more or less the He won but lost something less and more on the inside. in island heat, Forged in sacrificial blood and sweat, in remembrance of the fallen, a marine sheds a tear, finally. since he wrote for my class, and I believe a poet has emerged from the battlefield.” that we can understand and share in the emotions of the experience. Justin has honed his craft poem stood out to me as one that brings a distant and foreign experience to most of us to a level The Fallen The (2008): n. pag. Web. Sep. 2013. Sep. Web. . (2008): n. pag. Works Cited Works

Education Seriously.” University Diaries Education Seriously.”

Robinson, Ken. “Bring on the Learning Revolution!” TED Talks. Long Beach, CA. Feb 2010. CA. Feb Long Beach, TED Talks. “Bring on the Learning Ken. Revolution!” Robinson, Lecture. College Your Should Take Soltan, Margaret. Through You Consciousness: Why “Better Living 126 define who I am as an individual, my family, family, my who I am as an individual, define roots have and traditional peers, American a that deliver inflected assumptions culturally in turn which into blends life, my spice into parents realize that my I academic identity. my me because they believe from expect much though Even the best for me. in me and want I see in a traditional way, family raised me my ofanother way of the American way life — Iflife. every parents set stepthat my I followed lose the many passions that I would out for me, burn bringing great within me, to dissatisfaction Through this understanding, I hope to being. my find some sort of what happy balance between of as a career and the expectations I want my Concerning the stereotypes ofparents. cultural to make that drive have I will always hierarchy, culture; I and my family, my a name for myself, a sense of crave will always and attainment pride Passion, Laotian.” to be more than a “low-class determination and perseverance, are the sizzling ingredients together and sautéed that are mixed burning a hot, Of fire. over because course, of best to serve Asian background, it is always my ofwith a bowl rice. The Chestatee Review The Chestatee 129 October 30, 2013 October

and a musical fox, respectively Brittany Barron and Esther Stuart PoeDown

celebrate PoeDown as Ms. Scissorhands

122.

zombie baby.

of English on the Gainesville campus as a Professor Anita Turlington, Department Chair Events Page Events To celebrate Halloween we throw a gothiccalled throw event literature-themed we Halloween celebrate To contest, costume in the compete read scary Participants stories, PoeDown. and watch horror movies. This year, we included a horror flashThe fiction read on pagecan be winning piece event. the accompany to contest

donated books.

Samuel Soto sorts through

Maysville Public Library

Esther Stuart, Rachel Andrews, and Veronica

Harris carry books to be loaded up and sent to Events Page Events

which will be sent to Maysville Public Library will be sent to Maysville which donated books.

Book Drive Book

Elizabeth Jordan sorts through

In honor ofMonth National in SeptemberLiteracy TheReview Chestatee books, and children’s adult 100 over collected We a book drive. hosted A small collection of the books received. 128 131 Spring 2014 Spring February 26, 2014 February November 14, 2013 14, November

Students look on during Open Mic Night. stand-up comedy. stand-up comedy. Events Page Events

Open Open Mic Night of the evening.

Our biannual Open Mic Night is a hit among students and faculty. and Open faculty. is a Mic Night hit among students Our biannual to music perform ranging from live Participants acts, many different

One of the many talented guitar performers 130 133 Romantics” March 28 – 30, 2013 28 – March read from Esther’s winning play “The Modern Rachel Andrews, Esther Stuart, and Mason Guevara authors. congregate to meet the showcased Groups from different colleges Columbus, Georgia. Georgia. Columbus, The Things They Carried. reading from his book winner Tim O’Brien National Book Award Every year The Chestatee Review competes in the Southernin the competes EveryThe Literaryyear Review Chestatee an writing and illustrious publishing among competition southern Festival, in University Columbus State at held were This festivities the year schools. Southern Festival Literary writing

Southern The Chestatee Review’s exemplary publications. exemplary

Literary Festival Every Every year, the first and second place winners in each category category of contest contest are sent judgment for to the Southern Literary Literary Festival. An organization of schools in the southeast, culminating each spring in a festival hosted by a different member school each year, The Southern Literary Festival includes The Southern Festival Literary each year, workshops and readings from well- known authors known well- from readings and workshops as well as an awards ceremony to honor students who won regional contests and member schools with with schools member and contests regional won who “Tea andTemptation” by SarahMadsen placedsecondinthePlays

134 “Between Two Worlds: LifeandDeathinSylviaPlath’s Poetry” by “Ladies Who Brunch” by Emmy Brunch” Dixon“Ladies Who placedthirdinthePlays “Contingency” by AmandaAdamsplacedthirdintheCreative“Contingency” The Chestatee Review Chestatee The Brittany Barron placedthirdintheFormal Essay category.Brittany Barron at the 2014 Southern Literary Festival: Literary at the2014Southern Awards Received Literary Journal category.Literary Nonfiction category. received anhonorablementioninthe

category. category.

and an opportunity to compete in the Southern Southern the in compete to opportunity an and

cash prizes, publication in that year’s magazine, magazine, year’s that in publication prizes, cash

to submit their work. Winners in each category win category in each Winners work. their to submit

from all disciplines are welcome and encouraged encouraged and welcome are disciplines all from

short fiction, and creative nonfiction. Students Students nonfiction. creative and fiction, short

sections: poetry, one-act plays, formal essay, essay, formal plays, one-act poetry, sections:

writing contest for UNG students in five five in students UNG for contest writing

h Cette Review Chestatee The Literary Festival. Literary

Writing

Contest hosts an annual annual an hosts 137 third person). disqualification. Roman size 12 font. Roman submissions per category will be accepted. Failure to comply with these rules to comply Failure will result in automatic except in UNG campus newspapers or publications. in UNG campus newspapers or publications. except include your name anywhere in the body ofinclude your the work. Paginate your stories, plays, essays, and long poems, but do not but do not and long poems, essays, plays, stories, your Paginate Prepare a cover page for each submitted work that contains the page submitted work for each Prepare cover a Send your entrySend your do not copy the entry as an attachment; into the You may submit works in more than one category. No more than 5 No category. in more than one works submit may You Stories, plays, and essays may not exceed 5,000 words; poetry not 5,000 words; may not exceed may and essays plays, Stories, exceed 100 lines for either one poem or a group 100 ofexceed related poems. body of email. Put the category your in the email subject line: poetry, following information:following title of UNG student name, author’s the work, Entries must be submitted as Microsoft Word documents. Documents documents. Word be submitted as Microsoft Entries must must be double-spaced (poems should be single-spaced) in Times New be double-spaced (poems should be must different emails for each. Works submitted cannot have been published submitted cannot have Works different emails for each. fiction, etc. Iffiction, etc. sure to send make submitting in more than one category, number, mailing address, telephone number, and 50 word bio (written in and 50 word telephone number, mailing address, number, Rules for Rules for Submission

Poetry Short Stories One-Act Plays Essays Formal writing contest! Third Place: $25 First Place: $100 Second Place: $50 Annual Writing Writing Annual Creative Nonfiction Creative The Chestatee Review Festival writing contest. Festival [email protected] Categories for submission: Send submissions via UNG email to Deadline: November 1, 2014 Deadline: November Contest Information Contest Winners receive cash prizes and publication in cash prizes and publication in Winners receive

winners will automatically be entered into the 2014 Southernwinners will automatically be entered into the 2014 Literary Winners will be announced in December 2014. First and second place Winners will be announced in December 2014. First Submit your original, unpublished works to the annual Chestatee Review Chestatee Review to the annual works original, unpublished Submit your 136 139 Spring 2014 Spring earned is a baker who is a baker Nadler Robby becoming ended up (somehow) the former poetry for the editor literary journal His writing CutBank. a Fulbright and has been awarded and Award, Voices a Discovered literary in various it has appeared journals Gulf including Lana Coast, and Unstuck. Turner, Mary Katherine Mason in English Education her B.S. State in 2005 from Kennesaw and her M.A. in Literary Studies She from Georgia State in 2011. anticipates graduating from Georgia in 2015. Her State with her Ph.D. dissertation narrative examines and authorial anxiety devolution in the 18th-Century British novel, strong although she maintains a She taught interest in Film Studies. ENGL 1101, 1102, and 1502 as an English Instructor of at University for North Georgia in Oakwood years from 2011-2013. She two currently composition at teaches Georgia State University. is a freelance ’s stories appear in stories ’s Bradley Bazzle Bradley England New Review, The Iowa Epoch, Review, New Ohio Review, The Phoebe, Beloit Fiction Journal, His writing has and elsewhere. House, from the Ledig awards won New Ohio CollegeHumor.com, Stuart (judged by Dybek), Review gave which Review, and The Iowa Award him its Tim R. McGinnis from an MFA He has for humor. and is working Indiana University on a PhD in English at the ofUniversity Georgia. Elizabeth Lunday in writer and author specializing written three arts She’s culture. and books: The Modern Art Invasion, ofSecret Lives Composers, Great ofand Secret Lives Great Artists, 30,000 has more than which into copies and has been translated A graduate languages. ofeleven and the Christian University Texas ofUniversity North Carolina, she Texas. Worth, in Fort lives Spiers is a Ph.D Brown John ofcandidate at the University Georgia, where he studies fiction and non-fiction writing, and near in a with his wife, he lives, which ofhouse overfull animals. uses third

Judge Bios The Chestatee Review To To give our staff members an opportunity to submit their work, work, party judges for our annual writing contest. These contest. writing annual our for judges party judges judges either work in a writing-related field, or thank this year’s judges for picking great work. work. picking great for judges year’s thank this have have been extensively published in their category. All judging decisions are final, and winning choices winning and final, are decisions judging All are published are in the and magazine sent to compete in the Southern Literary Festival. We would like to 141 Emmy Emmy Spring 2014 Spring is an English Major and buys stuff. buys as humanly possible by night. by possible as humanly Rachel Andrews an aspiring novelist. She spends her days horseback riding, video gaming, and above service a full run to is dream Her writing. all, much as write and day, by equestrian facility A little irreverent and a lot of fun, Dixon is a junior at the University of North she where Georgia is contemplating a B.S. in Psychology. Her writing is inspired by four perfectly imperfect children and the messy business they call life. In her spare time, she since August 2012. A has been editor-in-chief of her of faith’s endurance. 1 John 4:7. 1 John endurance. of her faith’s she plans on graduating eventually. she plans on graduating Amanda Amanda Adams Brittany Barron is an English major at the University of North working Georgia. with Dr. She D and loves her English students 1101 and the Learning, Center & Leadership. for She Teaching, thanks God that a Flannery O’Connor project reminded The Chestatee Review junior junior at the University of North Georgia, functions

Staff Bios beautifully. come together The Chestatee Review as a club, open to all students who are interested in helping. The group that participated participated that group The helping. in interested in the compiling and editing of content this year were passionate about the magazine’s development magazine’s the about passionate were and were immensely hardworking. Through the dedication dedication of the 2013-2014 staff, this magazine has The Chestatee Review Spring 2014

Diana Edelman-Young teaches composition Veronica Harris is an English Major, Esther Stuart is your average, boring college Courtney Torres is an English major at UNG and literature on the Gainesville campus of the specializing in writing and publication. student that never goes clubbing, bar- working hard towards a career as a book University of North Georgia. Edelman-Young She enjoys writing, reading, and anime, hopping, or dancing. Instead, her hobbies editor. Writing and art are duel passions earned her Ph.D. in British Romanticism (with and plans to become a creative writing include choking on dust from old books, for her which she gets to explore through a minor in Anglo-American modernism) at teacher, write an award winning novel, and yelling at video games in frustration, playing her staff position on The Chestatee Review. the University of North Carolina—Chapel continuing her education after college. drinking games with horror movies, and Courtney hopes to one day finish writing her Hill in 2005. Her areas of interest include staring down a blank page until words own books she has started. literature and medicine and women writers. appear.

Elizabeth Vaughan Jordan is a rising junior Sarah Madsen is the Vampire Mistress/ Karen Dodson is an Assistant Professor of English at the at the University of North Georgia majoring President of The Writers Guild at UNG. University of North Georgia. She has earned an Associate’s in Political Science. This is her first year on She has been previously published in The Degree in Secondary Education from DeKalb Community The Chestatee Review. Among other things, Chestatee Review and has a short story in the College, a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Piedmont she attempts to write, cook, paint, and sew. forthcoming anthology A Chimerical World: College, and a Master of Arts degree from Western Carolina. One day she will make a hungry, sweater- Tales of the Seelie. She lives in Cumming with She is currently pursuing her PhD at Georgia State University. wearing man very happy. her husband and two wonderful, character- Professor Dodson’s scholarly interests include Eighteenth- building sons. Century women poets and Milton studies. She is also a 143 member of UNG’s faculty creative writing group, the Women 142 Who Write. 144 Place:“ButGhostsDon’tThird Exist”by CasseySmith Second Place:“Pancakes” by Steven Lock attheMuseum”byFirst Place:“Theft Jansen Castleberry Short Fiction Place:“Power”Third by Ray Stephanie OldManandtheSea”bySecond Place:“The Brittany Barron IMetSomeoneNew” byFirst Place:“When BrittanyBarron Poetry Place:“AllThird Wander” Who Those by LindaGillot Second Place:“Tea andTemptation” by SarahMadsen by Emmy Brunch” First Place:“LadiesWho Dixon One-Act Play Too Much Twelfth NightinShakespeare’s Twelfth Night”by Emmy Dixon theWarnings Against Place:“ExcessThird inModeration:AnExplorationof by BrittanyBarron Second Place:“Between Two Worlds: LifeandDeathinSylviaPlath’s Poetry” Mansfield Park” by EstherStuart heroine of First Place:“Fanny Price:Feminist or Failure? Case fortheProblem The Formal Essay Place:“Bunt orDie”by TaylorThird NeSmith Second Place:“Tango” by Rachel Andrews byFirst Place:“Contingency” AmandaAdams Creative Nonfiction Contest Winners

2013

extend additional thanks to all at Burman Printing for helping for helping Printing to all at thanks Burman additional extend

life for for life

who have helped by providing a warm and inviting campus campus inviting and warm a providing by helped have who

the word to their students, and members of administration administration of members and students, their to word the

tough choices for us, other faculty who assist by spreading spreading by assist who faculty other us, for choices tough

like to thank our writing contest judges who make the the make who judges contest writing our thank to like

skill make our publication unparalleled. We would also also would We unparalleled. publication our make skill

magazine each year. Your continual dedication and and dedication continual Your year. each magazine

and faculty advisors are the driving forces behind the the behind forces driving the are advisors faculty and

year’s publication possible. Firstly, the student staff student the Firstly, possible. publication year’s

The Chestatee Review Chestatee The

its sincerest thanks to all that helped make this this make helped that all to thanks sincerest its

The Chestatee Review Chestatee The us turn out a great magazine each year. each magazine great a out turn us

Thank You

to thrive in. Lastly, we want to to want we Lastly, in. thrive to would like to express express to like would