TRAVELERS by ANDREW L. JAMESON (Under the Direction of Judith Ortiz Cofer) ABSTRACT This dissertation is a collection of short stories that explores interrelated topics such as family, responsibility, and personal growth. The Introduction provides insight into my composing processes as a creative writer, primarily through an extended analogy—my comparison of writing and reading fiction to no limit hold „em poker. I reveal how the nuances of this game, particularly any interactions with fellow poker players, are similar to the shading and tracing of fictional characters, situations, and devices. Telling a story and bluffing your opponents are both means to the same end: creating a believable lie based on experience, intuition, and skill. Ultimately, however, this Introduction does not tell anyone “how” to read this collection but simply reminds us of the ways in which the smallest details can make an impact in transforming a mundane moment into something memorable, even life-changing. Each of the stories in this collection presents characters on a journey of some sort, whether figurative or literal—more often, both. For example, in “Samaritan,” the first story in the collection, a boy‟s thirty-mile walk to his uncle‟s house leads a delivery man to contemplate his own life‟s journey while helping the boy reach his destination. Many of the characters are searching for something, but they have not yet reached the point in their lives at which they can name or imagine it. These intangibles are key in stories such as “Debts,” “Possessions,” and “The Distances Wear on You,” among others. In “Objects Awaiting Motion,” Les struggles with his own search for meaning but eventually seems to find it in suicide, leaving his wife and children “awaiting motion,” at the cusp of their own journey without him. Finally, the title of the collection, “Travelers,” comes from “Just Act as Normal as Possible,” in which the narrator reflects upon his father‟s difficult journey through addiction, rehab, and recovery: “You had the look of a traveler who had been away from home for a long time.” All these travelers, sooner or later, experience the commonplace and the extraordinary, the burdens of life and its joys, as they grope toward their destinations. INDEX WORDS: short story, addiction, fatherhood, marriage TRAVELERS by ANDREW L. JAMESON B.A., Clemson University, 1996 M.A., Clemson University, 2001 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2010 Andrew L. Jameson All Rights Reserved TRAVELERS by ANDREW L. JAMESON Major Professor: Judith Ortiz Cofer Committee: Reginald McKnight Douglas Anderson Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2010 iv DEDICATION For Misty, always v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Judith Ortiz Cofer and Reg McKnight for being such generous teachers and, ultimately, good friends. Matt Forsythe, whose editorial eye is almost always spot on. My parents for being supportive and patient. And, finally, thanks to my wife, Misty, without whom none of this would have come to fruition. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 The Rail .....................................................................................................................1 Bad Tells, Good Tells: The Details Better Add Up ..................................................2 Feeling It ....................................................................................................................7 Heroes or How to Be Your Own Man .......................................................................9 Pay Attention ...........................................................................................................13 2 SAMARITAN ..............................................................................................................16 3 WALKING POINT ......................................................................................................24 4 THE KEYS ..................................................................................................................36 5 IN THE EVENING ......................................................................................................52 6 JUST ACT AS NORMAL AS POSSIBLE .................................................................65 7 DEBTS .........................................................................................................................78 8 THE DISTANCES WEAR ON YOU..........................................................................93 9 POSSESSIONS ..........................................................................................................103 10 FIRST TASTE ...........................................................................................................117 11 THE SPEED OF LIGHT ...........................................................................................125 12 PAPER ROUTE .........................................................................................................150 13 OBJECTS AWAITING MOTION ............................................................................169 vii 14 PARSIMONY ............................................................................................................179 15 LOVE‟S AUSTERE AND LONELY OFFICES .......................................................181 16 LA GUERRE .............................................................................................................201 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................219 NOTES .........................................................................................................................................220 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The Rail I discovered no limit hold „em poker at the same time I came back to writing fiction. One night my friend Hunter took me to play in a hold „em tournament at a dim pool parlor called the Brass Rail. He explained the basics as we drove there. I already knew the values of most poker hands—a pair, a set, a straight, a flush—from playing five card stud with my grandmother when I was just a kid and we both couldn‟t sleep. We bet with pieces of peppermint and butter scotch candy. As Hunter laid out the few immutable rules, the patterns of the game, it all seemed simple enough. And yet what I discovered that night and many nights afterward was a game involving endless variables. It required careful calculation as well as gut instinct. But the side of the game that really drew me in was the realization that above all else poker was a matter of reading people, their intentions, their personalities, their fears and desires.1 This need to decipher and explore the intricacies of human behavior is also what drew me back to writing short stories. In both pursuits something very important is at stake. Some may say, for poker especially, but also for any writer who hopes to make a living from his art, what is at stake is simply money. Of course, many of the poker players we see now on television are fabulously wealthy. Some writers do okay, as well. But at the Brass Rail, we didn‟t play for money. If you won the tournament that night, you got a twenty dollar bar tab for next time. That was it. So why 2 did forty or more people show up two times a night on Tuesdays and Thursdays? They loved what the game itself gave to them. They loved what they learned about themselves and other people. They probably liked the camaraderie, the way they felt connected with a diverse group of individuals who would sit down and talk and laugh and compete with each other for a couple of hours. If you think about it, this may also be a fair assessment of why people read stories. They want that connection. They want to be part of a character‟s world, because it brings the readers closer to their own world. Most professional writers will tell students or aspiring writers, “I don‟t do it for the money.” Don‟t, they warn, expect accolades and fat book contracts. Invariably you will fail if this is your reason for writing. Unlike poker, writing is a solitary and ultimately rather feeble way to make a living. But while the act is solitary, the writer continually lives with and explores the nuances of a whole host of people. He also must develop a sense for his potential readers. He must figure out how to tell his characters‟ stories so that these theoretical readers will see what he sees. Writers and readers; we are hopelessly entwined. Writers are readers in so many ways. This is where the Brass Rail comes back in. For me, it was a source of material and information, a controlled lab experiment, and a proving ground, all rolled into one. Could I tell a story, make a bluff, reel in the suckers, seduce and convince my reader or opponent? It was all there. Bad Tells, Good Tells: The Details Better Add Up In my favorite commercial for the on-line poker site Full Tilt, Danish pro Gus Hansen is shown betting a progressively larger number of chips until, finally, his opponent folds. Hansen‟s voice over, however, is the interesting part. He begins by saying, “I‟m about to tell