Earnest
Page 25
The house looked dignified and proud, a dowager who’d seen plenty in her time, including a recent war between two perfectly good people, and a move from the property she’d graced for one-hundred-and-thirty-five years. She’d survived it all, and now she’d finally found an excellent resting place. Though a little of her paint was peeling and a few of her steps were uneven, she commanded respect.
Her gingerbread was intact, and her front porch offered respite from a busy world. Her old wavy-glass windows reminded that world of an earlier age. Anna had planted lobelia, nasturtiums, and geraniums in the window boxes so the house boasted color, like jewels. The lion’s puzzled face embossed on her front doorknob suggested that the world was a perplexing place, but the bear’s-tongue doorbell reminded everyone to laugh.
“The house looks good, don’t you think?” Jeff asked.
“She got through the move like a trooper,” Anna said.
“I like our flagstones better than the concrete sidewalk that went to her before. It fits her better,” Jeff said.
Anna could tell from his use of “her” that he got it. Grammy’s house was not an “it”—she was a “she.” Though made of wood and glass and bricks, she was like a living thing with a body and soul. For many more years, she would offer shelter as Grammy had. Grammy would live on in her, and from her turret windows, she’d wink at the world.
From the street, Anna could see through an upstairs window into Lauren’s hair styling studio and used bookstore, which in a couple of weeks would reopen, along with Plant Parenthood and Joy’s Gift Shop. Lauren was rolling buttery yellow paint on a wall, and Joy was brushing antique white onto the interior trim. Soon nobody would suspect there had ever been a fire.
Jeff had shocked Anna, Lauren, and Joy with news of Mrs. Scroogemore’s offer to sell them the house for a dollar. He’d insisted on meeting her to pay it himself so Joy wouldn’t have a chance to strangle her, and he’d told the three women that they each owed him thirty-three-and-a-third cents. His co-coach and attorney, Alan Biggs, had drawn up the papers for the sale pro bono, and Anna, Lauren, and Joy had pitched in their savings to buy the lot.
After Jeff arranged for the house mover, Joy quit comparing him to the Twit, and in Wild Savage Love she named a helpful British sailor “Geoffrey” after Jeff. Anna said that getting the house went way beyond too-good-to-be-true. It traveled to the realm of beyond-your-wildest-dreams.
What also went beyond Anna’s wildest dreams was the love that had been poured into the house the last few weeks. Besides April Pringle, Mr. Webster, and Alan Biggs’s help, others in the community had offered support. On work Saturdays, like today, Peggy LeClerc brought over complimentary sandwiches for lunch from the Chat ’n’ Chew, and one afternoon Ted Carcionni stopped by with a new shiny red fire extinguisher. David Connolly, the Elder Hunk, arranged for a ten percent discount on renovation supplies at Chuck’s Hardware, and that had lowered the materials’ cost when Jeff had rewired the house. Dr. Nilsen presented Earnest with a doghouse won in an auction raffle, and he and Jeff set it on a brick foundation by the back door.
On moving day, Lloyd McGregor had stationed himself and his bagpipes in front of the lot, and, as the house arrived, had played “Amazing Grace.” The move really was an amazing grace, Mayor Maksimov pointed out to Anna. “Gamble was divided about this house, but now everybody’s happy. The people hell-bent on progress will have Cedar Place, and you and your friends saved history. No one will forget the past.”
Now Anna embraced the past, present, and future. She’d decided that they were equally important because they were all part of the eternal flow of time. The good and bad of the past had formed her, and in the present she experienced the now. The future—well, Anna intended to swoop toward it like the butterfly had swooped across the lawn to greet her destiny. As the past, present, and future flowed into each other and blended together, Anna would hope for the best and expect even more.
At the end of their new stone path, Jeff took Anna into his arms and kissed her. In their past was happiness and misery, about like everybody else on earth, and in their present was a real, as opposed to a floral, smooch. In their future would be a wedding and children, to whom they’d resolved to be conscientious parents. And, of course, in their past, present, and future was Earnest.
He could not sit by and watch the two people he loved most in a clinch like that without expressing his opinion, which, like many dogs, had to do with joy. He rose to his paws, and, on his healing leg, he barely limped around Anna and Jeff, like he was drawing a magic circle that they could never step out of again. In that circle was the present moment, which Earnest seemed to know—as well as Grammy ever had—was a gift everyone was meant to enjoy. And in his circle, with that gift of the present moment, lived love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could never have written Earnest without the kindness and support of special people, to whom I owe sincere thanks.
First, my agent, Cullen Stanley, and my editor, Michaela Hamilton, stood behind me from conception to completion. Their presence made all the difference in my work. Steven Zacharius, my publisher, buoyed my spirit each time we met. Kristine Mills Noble again designed a beautiful cover. With grace, Karen Auerbach oversaw promotion, and Paula Reedy, production. Vida Engstrand’s and Alexandra Nicolajsen’s hard work and dedication were huge gifts.
When I needed expertise, generous people answered my calls for help. Kirkham Johns escorted me through the world of mediation. Jane Allan shared her knowledge of city planning. Fritz Jorg answered my questions about insurance, Luke Carpenter explained fighting fires, and Bill McClain was my soccer consultant. Janice Hill and Rachel Strohlmeyer, DVM, opened their big hearts and talked with me about Earnest’s vet care. And Diane O’Connell contributed editorial wisdom that strengthened the story.
Almost everyone I consulted was a dog lover, but most especially my neighbors, Paul and Peggy Zuckerman, who talked with me about Maggie, their yellow Lab. Much of her now resides in Earnest, such as his lust for blackberries and his propensity to sprawl on his back in his flasher position. Paul’s devotion to Maggie is everywhere in the book.
Other friends were there for me in one wonderful way or another: Jimmy Wolf, Debby Harrison, Linda Anthony, Wendy Hubbert, Marielle Snyder, Patty Johns, Natalia Ilyin, Kathy Renner, Gisele Fitch, Suzanne Kerr, Julie Valentine, Alexandra Kovatz, Darryl Beckman, Clell Bryant, and David Sackeroff. I can’t imagine writing—or living—without them.
Finally, I am blessed with family who shored me up while I wrote Earnest. My niece and dear friend, Lonnie Matheron, was my personal poet laureate and the contributor to Lauren’s poetry post. Bridget, my loyal German shepherd, kept me company in my office and provided constant support. And, most of all, John, my beloved husband, kept me going through months of work. I always say that I could never write a word without him, and that’s the truth.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
EARNEST
Kristin von Kreisler
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The following discussion questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Earnest.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Are Earnest, Anna, and Jeff all earnest? Do you think they equally show sincere conviction and try to do the right thing? What stands in their way? How do they overcome it?
2. What part does time play in the story? Why is the present so important? And why does history matter? What influence does the past have on Anna, Jeff, and Earnest? How might it impact their future?
3. Does the house seem like a character in the story? Does it have a life of its own? Does it change and develop? How does the house remind you that the past, present, and future are all part of each other, as April Pringle says?
4. What lessons does the butterfly teach? How do they apply to Anna, Jeff, and Earnest?
5. As individuals, do Anna, Jeff, and Earnest handle hardship well? How does it make them grow?
6. Why is Gamble central to the story? D
oes the name have special meaning? Does the small town affect Anna and Jeff? Is the community important?
7. How do Anna and Jeff respond to the various holidays? Do their responses reveal their character?
8. Did you mind that Jeff signed up on Northwest Singles.com? Is he right or wrong to want to date again? Are you glad when he gets thwarted? Why or why not?
9. Did you find yourself taking sides with Anna or Jeff? Did your sympathies change as the story unfolded? Did you feel they were equally to blame for the breakup, or was one more responsible than the other?
10. How did you feel about Mad Dog Horowitz, Lincoln Purcell, and the mediation? Did you think that Anna or Jeff should have gotten custody of Earnest, or should they have shared him?
11. What role do flowers play in the story—both in Plant Parenthood and in the house’s garden? How is the New Dawn rose’s name and history significant?
12. At the end of the story, are Jeff and Anna very different people from how they were at the beginning? How have they changed? What specific factors brought about the change? Did Earnest change too?
Kristin von Kreisler will be happy to meet with your reading group by Skype, or in person if you’re in the Seattle area. Contact her at www.kristinvonkreisler.com
Photo courtesy of Natalia Ilyin
About the Author
Kristin von Kreisler is the author of the acclaimed novel An Unexpected Grace. Her passion in life is writing and speaking about animals. To get stories for her work, she followed a grizzly bear for a week, went hang gliding to see how an eagle felt soaring through the sky, and watched in awe as millions of bats emerged from a cave at dusk like clouds of smoke. Twice she talked about animals for three hours in the middle of the night on the popular radio program Coast to Coast. In five minutes, anyone who meets her for the first time knows of her concern for animal welfare.
Kristin’s first two books, The Compassion of Animals and Beauty in the Beasts, pioneered the topics of animal emotion and morality. To research, she collected thousands of stories of animals who had performed acts of kindness, generosity, and courage. Her third book, For Bea, a memoir about a beagle freed from a medical lab, received warm praise from fellow animal lovers. “Bea is unforgettable,” said Mary Tyler Moore, and Betty White called the book “a lovely story.” Kristin’s books have been translated into twelve languages, and The Compassion of Animals was a Book of the Month Club selection. With her first novel, An Unexpected Grace, Kristin expanded her readership into the world of fiction.
Before her books about animals, Kristin spent ten years writing art and drama reviews and feature articles on subjects ranging from edible flowers to the trafficking of Eastern European women. Her articles have appeared in anthologies and textbooks and in the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Woman’s Day, Family Circle, and Reader’s Digest, where she was a staff writer. She has taught English at the University of Hawaii and journalism at California State University at San Jose.
She lives on an island in Washington, where, she says, she’d rather work in her garden than breathe. Her kale grows to looming giants, and her lavender and catmint are sirens calling bees. From her desk she watches ospreys and seals, and every hour a ferry passes by. She and her husband, John, renovated a historic Victorian farmhouse, where the island’s first postmistress and sheriff once lived with their seven children. During the renovation, newspapers dating from 1879 were found under layers of wallpaper, and the yard yielded up a long-buried rusty revolver.
Since childhood, Kristin has shared her life with cherished cats, dogs, birds, and fish. Her current animal companion is Bridget, a frisky German shepherd adopted through Washington German Shepherd Rescue. Kristin’s husband and Bridget are her family, and her plants are some of her many friends. She welcomes all creatures to her peaceable kingdom, including an otter who wanders through the yard each day after her swim.
You are invited to visit her on Facebook or at www.kristinvonkreisler.com.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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Copyright © 2016 by Kristin von Kreisler
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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eISBN-13: 978-1-4967-0044-5
eISBN-10: 1-4967-0044-9
First Kensington Electronic Edition: February 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0043-8