Monday, July 6, 2009

Part 10 - Sparklers, Flying J truckstops and ominous conversations


Hey there, champion.

Third of July here...I guess it is there, too, but without the cultural significance of being the eve of your independence day. Does the patriotic American part of you light some sparklers in honor of our struggle?? I'm at work. I'm actually the ONLY one at work..the rest of my co-workers are at various local beaches and Heidi's in the north woods of Wisconsin on a pontoon boat. I was a little upset (read: bitter) earlier, but I'm hanging out on a rooftop with the boys later, so that'll save me from going stir-crazy.

I went to the poisonous plant show at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and was more than a little underwhelmed. What they advertised as a curated show was no more than the result of some volunteers walking around the grounds placing signs next to anything that could be construed as "dangerous." Not "poisonous," but dangerous. Cut grass and sugarcane were on the list; cut grass because it can slice you open and sugarcane because it can be distilled into "demon rum." Quite a stretch, I think...though maybe they saw me last week in Los Angeles and THEN made their decision to include it.

I was hoping to see some nasty-looking purple berries that would stop your heart in two minutes just from looking at them. I wanted to come face to face with plants that sprayed ricin out of their supersoaker-like flowers. I'm guessing there might have been some liability issues with my version of the show. My mind just drifted for a second and I thought how funny it was that I went to a poisonous plant show, because I'm reading this book about poisonous plants. I think I need some rum!

My section is ferociously marked up. It looks like the wall of a bathroom stall at a Flying J truckstop.Aside from being a very messy section, it is also a very intriguing section. Rowan's bitterness toward Cater is palpable. She admits to being resolved to let Reshevsky escort her through New York. Before heading upstairs, Rowan reflects about how her aunt's doting on Cater makes her seem like a fragile adolescent. After this thought Rowan heads upstairs to freshen up her clothes before her sojourn to the city. Looking for Millie the maid, Rowan happens to overhear a conversation between her aunt and James Kee in his office. James implores Aunt Lucy to "...get rid of her." We are to presume that "her" refers to Rowan.

A very interesting editor's note springs up in the margin, here. He or she wonders if the aunt is being sarcastic, believing that "disposing of her" is a bit drastic, even within the fantastical set of circumstances unfolding in "The Greenhouse."

The two go on to debate about how dangerous it is to keep Rowan around. Aunt Lucy wants to keep her, Kee wants her gone. Kee then instructs Lucy to "do as he says" demonstrating who is actually running things at Pleasant Plains Farm. Millie then discovers Rowan in the hall and the two skitter hushed into Rowan's room, agreeing each to keep whatever they hear a secret.

A few minutes after the terrifying event, Rowan's fears begin to fade, though in their place a "conviction" sets in that something is "seriously wrong" at Pleasant Plains Farm.

....like, no doi!!

The chapter breaks and the tone changes...like waves on a beach. Serene/Terror. Serene/Terror.

You know, Boz Scaggs's "Lido Shuffle" is a very underrated song...Caren's gone so I'm listening to music...low volume, though.


So the last page looks like one of my world history papers in 10th grade. It's got red lines and margin notes all over it. It's just missing the "C -." Only about twenty words survive. In the margin someone characterizes the drastic tonal shift between the end of the "get rid of her chapter" and a more positive interlude in the next with Reshevsky and Rowan running through New York like school girls (cue Diana Ross's "I"m Comin' Out.") The strange thing about the notes is that they appear to be written by Antonia; however, they are written as a third person: "An accident with overtones of murder and an ominous conversation have just occurred, building up an apprehensive mood. Now this mood is completely dispelled. The frightening events are forgotten with the lighthearted beginnings of this chapter."

Perhaps Ms. Lamb is just trying to keep the editor focused. I dunno.

That's all I got sistah.

You're up..oh one other thing that makes this whole operation so strange and serendipitous; the girl that replaced you, Phoebe, looks EXACTLY like Rowan on the book jacket. It's kind of freaky. Pictures are forthcoming - she wouldn't let me photograph her yesterday..said she wanted to get some sun at the beach first.

Ah, the beach.

No comments:

Post a Comment