Charles McKeithan

Joe Willard wishs kidlit a Happy Birthday

"In your copious spare time..."
she began her email.
She knows all about my copious spare time becuase the aniversery of when I began to work on a one week bathroom remodel project is comming up in a few months. I just need to fix one leak and the floor tiles...and some base board......

So when she asked "could you fit in a little acting gig for me"?, I could little refuse. Beth will not ask for something unless she really wants it, or needs it. She is not frivolous. Besides, it being an acting gig made it tempting all by itself. Add to that the challenge of live improvisational role play and I was all ears.

Armed with an apple in one hand, and a copy of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" in the other, I approached the cottage reciting a breif list of facts regarding my Character.

Joe Willard.
defended betsy's essay about apple blossoms being rosey when the teacher accused her of being too flowery
Betsy met him at his Uncles Shop when he was twelve. He was eating an apple and reading a copy of "The Three Musketeers".
Independent
intelligent.
beat her in an essay contest Soph and Jr years
she won in Senior year
they Dated, then had a break up
she went to europe and when she returned they married.
he worked in the store, wheat feilds, as a reporter, then joined the army.

I had gleaned all this from a brief summary of all Twelve books in the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. And now I was about to face my audience. Joe would be attending a tea in honor of his wife's birthday. And everyone in the room knew more about Joe and his wife than I did.

The tingling thrill of terror that lingered as I stepped up to the table full of finger sandwichs and chocolate mini-cakes is, I think, what replaces my need, as a teenager, to steal stoplights and fire hydrants. The rush of risking getting outright busted in the act.

I faced my inquisitioners. A lovelier tribunal could never have been assembled. They ranged in age from 8 to middle aged, and the twinkle in their eyes matched the smiles on there faces.

I had a sudden flashing sense of what it must be like to play Santa, and the first kid was about to ask if I was really santa and to prove it by telling him what he had asked me for last year.

Thankfully, they were far kinder than that. The introduction came from one of those in on my invitation, the rest did not know that Joe was joining them for tea.

Apple blossoms....say something about apple blossoms.

before my lips could move, one of them handed me a small handful of apple blossoms and pronounced a rememberance of my foundness for them. One item off my short list of "things I know about Joe", but I was able to dovetail it into a brief discussion of my ire at Mr Gaston the teacher who disliked Betsy's Writting.
Impressive, believable, well done.

too well done

Under the assumtion that I obviously knew my stuff, the comments and questions began to fly. I was able to parry most questions with brief answers based half in knowledge and half in phylosophic retoric that could have come from Joe or Charles with no line drawn between them. Helpful leading questions came from Beth next to me that lead me in the right direction or steered me back on course.
I was asked about what I thought of (enter name of character I dated but cant remember now here) and when I gave a nonplussed answer the follow up question was what was it like concidering she was a twin?
Charles briefly took over and with a devilish smile made a slightly sugestive comment about mens day dreams about dating a twin. Beth dove to recover as she pointed out that the other twin was a boy.
Somehow it all dovetailed back though when it turned out that Betsy had dated the boy and..........

Well it's really all a bit of a blur. The hardest comeback was the lemon pie.

One of the ladies nodded at a minerature lemon pie and grinned as she said" we have those in honor of you".

Pregnant Puase you could run a herd of rabid accountants through.

"Oh yes" I replied and nodded with a knowing smile of found memories long past. "Thank you" no really you shouldn't have awww shucks....

I looked at Beth....

HHHEEELLLLLLP MEEEEEEEEEEE!

She looked back at me. And just smiled.

somewhere in my subconcious, the little elf that keeps my files in order was yanking open drawers and rifling through cabinets, He tripped over a cruppled note that said "after married life, Betsy had to make alot of ajustments to the chores of cooking and housekeeping"

I lept out into the black....

"Yes, Betsy had quiet a time with that didn't she"?
oh please she did din't she?!!?!?!?

Apparently she did. They were satisfied with that answer.
And so the afternoon went, a dueling stretch for the mind that left me well satified and the ladies all seems pleased enough that Joe had made a passing grade in his attendance.

We all left the garden with smiles, and for that I must thank Beth, and all the ladies of the Tea.

And Now I have to go find these books and start reading them myself, becuase I NEED TO KNOW what the story is about the lemon pie......

Posted by cmckeithan at April 10, 2005 11:03 PM