Chapter One, Episode 158 - Revelation - Situationally Theirs

Review, Revision, Edit and Update

“How your characters act and react - how they think and feel; how they handle obstacles and respond to people, places and things - is story. - Nancy Lamb, The Art and Craft of Storytelling”

In this episode, I introduced more fully the unexpected character of Carrie Tyler. What I had failed to do was clearly identify who, in the series, she was related to. I suppose I was assuming that everyone read everything and remembered that she is Emelina Beaufort's daughter. Another issue about character development by the same author discusses the authenticity of a character and building empathy. I did not want this to feel like poor Carrie was dropped from the sky but had a purpose for her presence in the story. My revisions today, besides some minor sentence structure issues, have connected Carrie's story to the larger story of Situationally Theirs.

Revelation

People at the hospital kept calling her Mrs.Tyler, her legal name, but she hadn’t been that for quite some time, losing any contact with her husband after their second child was born. On his way out the door, he said he would be back soon, but only called her a couple of times. When she hadn’t heard from him for a month, she contacted his brother. He was talking with him regularly and didn’t want any further contact from her. Carrie had been half expecting to hear that, but from her husband, not his brother and definitely not over the phone. She had yet to change her name. Legally, it was such ball of knotted yarn she had only ever started it. Raising two kids on her own meant working two, sometimes three jobs, just to pay her bills, and put away a small nest-egg by giving up things for herself. If her mother and father had not been so amazing, the outcome would have been very different.

~~~~~

Carrie was disappointed in herself. Her thin, weakened body betraying her, she could do nothing by lie limp and drained between cold hospital sheets. Inside, she was restless and wanted to leave the hospital, her bed and her room, desperately longing to continue her search for her birth mother. She had come so far. All the way across the country, working at whatever job available, only to get to Alberta and the shut down that came with the spread of the Covid19 virus. Jobs were not only scarce, they were practically non-existent. Applying for financial aid from the government, she had to stay in one place, barely scraping by until she was enrolled. Fortunately she had the security of an unchanging email address and a good telephone plan. Unfortunately, she had to dip into her meagre savings so those few bills would be paid at least for a time. Cheap hotels, motels and on some nights a doorway, a copse of trees or under a bridge were her lot. When options for shelter were becoming increasingly limited, she dug deeper into hard won savings for the most inexpensive but sturdy camping gear in whatever store was still open. After losing her last job, when its doors closed, and reviewing her situation, she knew she was in much deeper trouble. There was nothing good about it except that she had, not just a goal, but a location where she might find her birth mother. She had carried this most important clue everywhere.

~~~~~

It was after the children had gone to bed. Carrie and her parents settled themselves in the living room. After a few minutes of silence, Carrie’s mother began fidgeting “Anyone want coffee or tea, hot chocolate? I’m going to put the kettle on. A little plate of cookies would be nice, don’t you think?” Mrs. Carter nodded to her husband “Ed, why don’t you get those papers that we want to show Carrie.” Carrie stood and followed her mother. “Mom, I’ll come and help you. Dad, hot chocolate is your favourite at this time of night, isn’t it?……with whipped cream?” On her way by her dad, she kissed him on top of his head. Ed Carter felt his eyes tear up. “What would I do without you, you sweet girl.” Forcing a serious and stern demeanour, he went to his den for the Adoption papers. This weekend would tell him if he would lose his 30 year old little girl or not.

“We decided we couldn’t put it off any longer.” Carrie’s mother barely kept eye contact with her as she started to talk. “Put off what, mom? And what are those papers you’ve got hidden in that folder, dad?” Always able to talk to her parents about anything from the time she was a little girl, this was an unusually tense situation. They were so nervous. “Who wants to go first? Please, I really don’t like this.” Carrie laughed nervously. “Is one of you dying or something? Are you criminals finally found by the police? Are you not really my parents……..?” Her eyes stinging with tears, Carrie didn’t know whether to sit frozen or to run. “Oh, Carrie, we’ve always wanted to tell you but there was never the right time.” Mrs. Carter put her teacup down, splashing tea on her dress. “Carrie, you have always been my little girl and always will be.” Ed smoothed the adoption papers out on the coffee table. Mrs. Carter reached for the folder and took something out of it. She leaned into her husband and whispered. “Can I give this to her, Ed?” Her husband nodded and patted her hand. “Now, mother, let’s just slow down. We need to listen to what Carrie has to say first.” The silence thickened and spread. “I don’t have much to say. You are my parents…adopted or birth parents….it doesn’t matter. I love you both and you are my mom and dad.” Even so, there were a lot of tears and some anger after years of that secret slipping between them like a dangerous silken scarf. Once the secret was revealed, they all understood much more about each other. Her parents knew that they had done the right thing for their girl. Carrie’s need to know her birthmother was born that evening, made real in an old black and white photograph, a name printed on the back: Emelina Eliot. 

“There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that 

before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way.”

~ Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing