The Three Miss Margarets

by Louise Shaffer

  On her first night there he ordered something from a Chinese restaurant, but they went to bed and let the food get cold.

  IT WAS THREE DAYS since Laurel left Charles Valley. At the meeting of Habitat for Humanity, Peggy finished signing a check for four thousand dollars to cover the cost of the roof on a home the group was building for a family.

  “Will you be working on the house this weekend?” the president of the work committee asked her, as the meeting broke up and they headed out the door.

  “I’ve got my hammer and nails.”

  “By the way, my son found a puppy at the dump this morning. The poor little thing was trying to run, but one paw was pretty badly torn up. Buckshot would be my guess. I called over at the shelter but they said they’re full up.”

  “Where’s the dog now?”

  “I told Tommy he could put it on the back porch until I had a chance to talk to you. There’s no way Big Tommy’s going to let us keep it.”

  “I’ll follow you home and pick it up,” said Peggy.

  And as she got into her car she thought how life kept on going. Houses needed roofs and stray dogs needed homes. The world didn’t stop because she was waiting to hear what Laurel McCready was going to do next.

  “WE HAVE A PROBLEM,” said the nun who ran the interdenominational outreach program for all the churches in the area. She’d come into the thrift shop where Li’l Bit worked two afternoons a week. “We need drivers to take the Faranelli child to her chemo treatments in Macon. The other children are home from school for the week, and, frankly, the mother is overwhelmed.”

  “I’ll take her,” said Li’l Bit. It would be good to have more to do. It would keep her from thinking about Laurel in New York.

  “I’LL CLEAN UP THIS BURN for now, but you have to get this child to the hospital. I’ll call ahead for you,” said Maggie, to her last patient of the day. It had been unusually busy, which was all to the good. Otherwise she would have spent the day fussing about what Laurel McCready was doing all this time in New York.

  JOSH’S BUILDING HAD A GARDEN on the roof that was called a common space. He told her he liked to go up there in the evenings sometimes for a little peace and quiet. Given the fact that there were four other couples up there, peace and quiet seemed to be a relative term. Still it was one of the few places she’d found in Manhattan where you couldn’t hear any noise from the street. Not a lot anyway. She huddled deep into the coat Josh had lent her and looked up at the sky. He said you almost never saw the stars because of the city lights—but the moon was full.

  “Well?” he said. He was standing next to her; she saw the little puffs of his frozen breath out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look at him. The bright sky of the city was behind him; his face was shining with the cold. He’d just asked her—again—if she wanted to stay in New York with him.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Stay until you do.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Anything I can do to help you make up your mind?”

  He was probably the nicest man she’d ever find. He was sexy and he was already halfway to being in love with her. If she stayed in New York he would see to it that she didn’t have to struggle. She would live in his half-million-dollar apartment. He would even find her a job; he’d already told her that. Josh was the hero her ma had been waiting for, the man who would take care of them. Laurel wondered what it felt like to have someone take care of you.

  Down below her on the street a car alarm went off. Dogs started barking. She looked up again and thought it probably wouldn’t be too long before you never even missed seeing the stars.

  “You really love this city, don’t you?” she said.

  “It’s my home.”

  “I know.”

  “You don’t have to make up your mind right now.”

  But she did. She had to make up her mind about a couple of things. “May I read your book about Vashti?” she asked.

  “It’s a rough draft.”

  “I know. May I?”

  “Yes.”

  By the time she finished it, he had ordered in some pasta from a Tuscan restaurant.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “It’s going to be a great book, Josh.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Makes me wish I’d known her.”

  “She was an amazing woman.”

  She nodded. “I got that. I liked the way you wrote the end. About her going full circle.”

  PEGGY WONDERED IF SHE SHOULD GO INSIDE and get an afghan for Maggie. Even though the sun was still shining, it was too cold to stay out on the porch. But none of them wanted to go inside yet. Because Laurel had been gone for four days, and somehow it was easier not to be cooped up indoors. Although they weren’t admitting it.

  Whatever happens, I can handle it, Peggy thought. But Li’l Bit and Maggie are too old for the humiliation.

  I’ll be all right, Maggie thought. At my age, what can they do to me? But Li’l Bit and Peggy are still young enough that they could be hurt.

  I’m tough, Li’l Bit thought. But Peggy and Maggie are so breakable.

  There was the sound of a car coming down the gravel driveway. Li’l Bit and Peggy got up and moved to the edge of the porch. Maggie made herself take a deep breath.

  Laurel got out of her car and started walking across the lawn to the porch. She was carrying a brown paper bag. “I’ve been away for a few days,” she said.

  “To New York—we know,” said Li’l Bit.

  “Did you have a good time?” asked Peggy.

  “I thought there was something I wanted to do there—but there wasn’t.”

  “Oh,” said Maggie.

  “Can I offer you something to drink?” asked Li’l Bit.

  “Actually I brought some beer, if that’s okay.”

  “Beer. Why didn’t I think of that?” said Li’l Bit. “Would you like a glass?”

  “I can drink it like this,” Laurel said.

  She sat on the front step. Li’l Bit sat back in her father’s chair, and Peggy returned to her rocker. Maggie swung gently on her swing.

  “Laurel, have you ever thought of adopting a dog?” Peggy asked.

  “Tomorrow I’ll get in a supply of beer,” Li’l Bit said, to no one in particular.

  PHOTO © BILL MORRIS

  LOUISE SHAFFER, a graduate of Yale Drama School, has written for television and has appeared on Broadway, in TV movies, and in daytime dramas, earning an Emmy for her work on Ryan’s Hope. Shaffer and her husband live in the Lower Hudson Valley.

  Visit her website at www.threemissmargarets.com. Shaffer can be reached at www.contactshaffer.com.

  THE THREE

  MISS MARGARETS

  A Reader’s Guide

  LOUISE SHAFFER

  A Conversation with Louise Shaffer

  Laurel Selene leads the author Louise Shaffer into the office of the Charles Valley Gazetteer for an interview that will run in the paper sometime in 2004. As they make their way to the back where Laurel’s desk is, Shaffer looks around in awe.

  Louise Shaffer: Wow! This place looks exactly the way I pictured it.

  Laurel Selene: I imagine that’ll be true for just about anyplace you go in Charles Valley.

  Louise: You mean because I—well, “created it” sounds kind of grand. You know, like singers calling themselves artists, which always makes me antsy, because I think you should wait for someone else to say it. I mean, maybe you aren’t really. Maybe you’re just someone who’ll be forgotten in ten years. Mozart was an artist, but I’m not sure the boy group du jour is. (pause) What were we talking about?

  Laurel: You have a tendency to wander, don’t you?

  Louise: Usually. But before we start, there is something I want to ask you.

  Laurel: Shoot.

  Louise: How weird is it for you to be interviewing me when I’m the one who, you know . . .

  Laurel: Created me? (Shaffer nods.) Probably about as weird as
it is for you to be interviewed by me.

  Louise: Okay. Glad we got that out of the way. We can start now.

  Laurel: Thanks. I did some research on you, and I found out that writing wasn’t your first career. You started out as an actress, and—

  Louise: (breaking in) Anyone who read my book jacket knows that.

  Laurel: Maybe we need to set some ground rules here. You may be the creator, but I’m the interviewer, okay?

  Louise: Sorry. Yeah, I was an actress. I did Broadway, repertory theater, prime-time TV, commercials. I toured the country in a rock musical which, for a woman who thought vocal music ended with Puccini and had no sense of rhythm, was kind of a stretch.

  Laurel: And you acted in the soaps. Or do you prefer to call it “daytime drama”?

  Louise: Not really. That dates back to a time when we were trying to be Serious Culture, but it never really stuck. Which isn’t to say that I don’t have total respect for the soaps, because I do. We did the same amount of work in one day that nighttime television did in a week or ten days and we . . . I’m wandering again, right?

  Laurel: All over hell and creation. So you won an Emmy and three nominations for acting on a soap opera called Ryan’s Hope. Then you were nominated for the writing Emmy six times for your work on As the World Turns and Ryan’s Hope—have I got that right?

  Louise: Actually one of the nominations was for All My Children, but I like the way you managed to slip that in. Very slick.

  Laurel: I try. So with all that why did you decide to start writing novels?

  Louise: I’m not sure I actually did decide to do any of it. For one thing, I’d always written. When I was a kid I wrote plays, short stories, even some really bad poetry. But then I discovered acting and it was so much easier, and there was applause as soon as you finished, which was really nice for someone who, as you pointed out, has a short attention span. Because you have to wait a couple of years to find out if people like a book you’ve written.

  Laurel: Sounds like approval is important to you.

  Louise: Are you kidding? I’m an approval junkie.

  Laurel: And you really think acting is easier than writing?

  Louise: Maybe it isn’t easier, but writing means more responsibility. It’s your ideas and your story on those pages. But I think they’re different sides of the same kind of work. It’s about the characters, after all. I use all my acting techniques to write my characters. For instance, I tell each piece of the story from one character’s point of view. So it always has a personal component and bias.

  Laurel: Could you explain that, please?

  Louise: Let me relate it to acting. If you’re playing Lady Macbeth, you don’t see yourself as a shrew who married a man with the IQ of an artichoke and drove him to commit murder; you see yourself as a loving wife trying to help your husband reach his full potential. That’s your point of view.

  Laurel: Okay. Any other—um, techniques?

  Louise: Keep it motivated. When I was acting I never did anything unless I understood why I was doing it and could justify it in terms of my character’s past and what she wants in the present. As a writer I make sure that happens with all of my characters. Except, sometimes I need a character to do something for the sake of the plot that isn’t right for her. When I was acting, I’d just say, “I’m sorry, this isn’t something my character would do.” And then it was up to the writer to fix the problem. Now I’m the writer and the “problem-fixer.” I spend a lot of time talking to myself. Well, yelling at myself really.

  Laurel: So how did you start writing again?

  Louise: Actually it was the Emmy that did it. And an earthquake. Three months after I won the Emmy I was fired. And I couldn’t get any more work because I was over forty. As a producer friend of mine (who is no longer a friend) said to me, “Sweetie, you’re just not sexually viable anymore.”

  Laurel: Did you hit him?

  Louise: Nah. I was an actor, I was used to taking abuse. Besides, he was a producer, and as an actor you’re always thinking that maybe someday he’ll have a part for you and you’ll get to make a comeback. I mean, look at Gloria Stuart. (pause) I think we’re both wandering now.

  Laurel: It’s catching. So how did an earthquake make you start writing novels?

  Louise: First, I need to back up and tell you I married a southern boy, which was the smartest thing I ever did in my life.

  Laurel: If you say so.

  Louise: I know you’ve had a hard time finding what we used to call in the soaps a romantic interest here in Charles Valley. But trust me, this place is a walk in the park compared to the dating scene in Manhattan. Especially if you work in show business. The statistics alone are—

  Laurel: (interrupting) Okay, okay. I watch Sex and the City, too. About novel writing . . . ?

  Louise: Like I said, I married a southerner, which meant I had a wonderful southern mother-in-law. My husband and I and his two kids were out in Los Angeles trying to revive my dying acting career when this huge earthquake hit. A freeways-shifting-under-the-cars-and-whitecaps-on-the-swimming-

  pool-size earthquake. Three people got through on the phone to L.A. that day, and one of them was my mother-in-law, Clara. She wanted to know when her son was going to stop dragging her grandbabies all over the place and come back home where he belonged.

  Laurel: Home being the South.

  Louise: Also known as God’s Country. I’m still not quite sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew, I was living in an old farmhouse in this beautiful town in rural Georgia. At first I thought my life was over. I’m a big-city person and here I was surrounded by nature. But then everything started coming together. Like I said, I’d always played around with writing, but I never had a story to tell. Well, I started making friends, because in a small town in the South you just do. I know you can’t make generalizations about people, but it seems to me that there is a certain breed of woman in the South. They’re smart and strong and they accomplish the most incredible things, but they still remember last Thursday was your birthday and get you the card on time. And even if they haven’t seen you in months they ask how your mama is doing after that hip surgery. They just blow me away.

  Laurel: The Steel Magnolias thing.

  Louise: And it goes deeper than that. I met women who were so strong in their beliefs. We’re talking heavy-duty moral compass. I come from a mindset where you’d die before you’d make a value judgment. But these women were totally convinced they knew what was right and what was wrong. And in one case, I felt she’d take responsibility for that—even break the law if she thought it was necessary—to right a wrong or protect someone who was vulnerable. And she’d live with the consequences. That was what gave me the core idea for The Three Miss Margarets.

  Laurel: That kind of answers my next question, which was going to be, Why did a woman from Connecticut want to write about the South?

  Louise: I don’t know how you could not want to write about the South, or paint it, or something. It’s so full. The food is so rich and good, and the music, and the flowers. There’s nothing like the way Georgia explodes in the spring. And there’s a sense of history—more than that really, it’s a sense of legacy. That’s one of my favorite themes. I love any book that explores the impact of the past on the present. That said, one of the things I worried about was making sure I kept the book true to the South. So my husband read every page as I was writing it, and if he thought I’d slipped he’d say, “You’re talking Yankee-speak here.”

  Laurel: So it was the move to Georgia that started your career as a novelist.

  Louise: I was too scared to take it on right away, so I wrote for the soaps first. Writing is very lonely and acting is total collaboration, and I needed to ease into the isolation, I think. On the soaps, I was a staff writer, which kind of split the difference. But eventually I got to a place where I’d had the story for The Three Miss Margarets in my head for so long that I had to see if I could put it on paper.

  L
aurel: And the title of your book? Did you know three women named Margaret who were good friends?

  Louise: Not exactly. But I did know of three women who all had the same name and were behind-the-scenes powerhouses. They were older, they came from money (although that was never mentioned), they counted their kin by the dozens and the time their families had been in the town by generations. They weren’t friends who hung out on the porch together like my three Miss Margarets, but they did keep tabs on one another. Kind of like rival queens. And then there was a woman I adored who had a childhood nickname, and when she grew up everyone just attached Miss to it, like Miss Li’l Bit.

  Laurel: So what’s up for you next? Working on anything new?

  Louise: Right now I’m writing a sequel to The Three Miss Margarets.

  Laurel: Really? What’s it about?

  Louise: A character who only got mentioned in the first book, someone named Myrtis Garrison.

  Laurel: Grady’s mother.

  Louise: And you.

  Laurel: Oh.

  Louise: So I really can’t tell you anything more.

  Laurel: No, I can see how that would be—

  Louise: —too weird.

  Laurel: Yes. Well, I want to thank you for your time.

  Louise: Is that it? You don’t need anything more from me?

  Laurel: Not unless there’s something else you want to say. You are the creator.

  Louise: But you’re the interviewer.

  Laurel: Yeah. (pause) So, that’s it.

  Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion

  1. When the three Miss Margarets took the law into their own hands, there were fatal consequences. Do you think they were justified in what they did?

  2. As we discover early in the novel, Josh is not exactly who he appears to be. Do you think he is a trustworthy character? What exactly are his intentions, and how do they shift? How do your feelings for him change throughout the novel? Do you think he and Laurel are ultimately meant to be together?