The Letter, Part Three: Muddying the Waters, Clearing the Air
Originally posted on September 10, 2009
Continued from “Reading Between the Lines”
Radley: You know, if you hadn’t said anything. I may never have made the connection.
Jacie: I….I guess. I just felt that I should. Bein’ as we have mutual friends and acquaintances, I thought it best to clear the air, so I won’t be acting like a guilty fool every time I happen to bump into you.
Radley: Were there really so many parallels between your situation and that of my hapless heroine?
Jacie: Way too many. Until…. until when she…. until the way it all ended. Your play, I mean.
Radley: So you said, in your letter. I, however, saw Daisy’s suicide as an inevitable conclusion.
Jacie: *vehemently* Giving up the way Daisy did was not inevitable. She had a child – a child who needed her - she could have concentrated on her boy. Instead she took the cowardly way out.
Radley: Not everyone possesses the inner resources to carry them through such trials. Sometimes it takes too much courage to cling to hope, especially when you discover there really isn’t any.
Jacie: That’s your opinion.
Radley: I see you still feel as strongly as ever, that my character’s behavior was inauthentic.
Jacie: And I see that I must have offended you after all. I apologize again, Mr. Radley, for questioning your skill as a playwright. It’s for certain you know what sells, after all.
Radley: Selling my play had absolutely nothing to do with the way I chose to write my character.
Jacie: Maybe I’d best be looking for an empty table, and leave you in peace.
Radley: A difference of opinion isn’t always a bad thing, Jacie, and a disagreement need not result in angry feelings. I promise you, I am not offended, nor do I wish you to leave me “in peace.”
Jacie: All right. If you’re sure. *regards him closely, then says with some humor* So…. I started out clearin’ the air and ended up muddyin’ the waters.
Radley: Often it’s wisest to leave muddied waters alone, until they’ve had a chance to settle and become clear again.
Jacie: Are you sayin’ in that fancy way of yours, that we should change the subject?
Radley: *smiles* That indeed is what I’m saying.
Jacie: I’m in favor of that.
Jacie: Maybe you would be willin’ to tell me about your job at the theater?
Radley: Certainly. I don’t work for the theater directly. I’m serving as a writer in residence for the next…… well, for as long as I care to stay, I suppose.
Jacie: How does a writer-in-residence arrangement usually work?
Radley: I really don’t know; I only know how Asher and I have worked it out. We knew each other slightly in New York, and he wrote me recently, asking if I knew of any aspiring writers who would enjoy the experience of writing at a small theater in an out-of-the-way location. I found myself at loose ends and more than ready for a change, so instead of recommending someone else, I came myself.
Jacie: What we hillbillies call home must feel very strange to you, comin’ from New York.
Radley: Strange maybe, but strange can also be inspiring. Really, Jacie, I find it difficult to believe you are any more hillbilly than I am, in spite of your occasional colloquialism and rather charming “drawl.”
Jacie: Oh, but you’re wrong. We MacOnochies are hill folk to the core. Scratch us and we’re likely to bleed moonshine. *lowers her voice conspiratorially* I hear tell my great-granddaddy was a ridge runner.
Radley: *lowering his voice in response* Really. And have you personally carried on that tradition?
Jacie: Oh no, I took after my Granddaddy instead, and took up singin’ and playin’ the fiddle. That tradition has now lasted into its fourth generation – thanks to Ben.
Radley: Ben…. your son?
Jacie: Yes, my one and only, and the light of my life.
Radley: If you don’t mind my saying, you look too young to be the mother of a college student.
Jacie: That’s right nice of you to say, Radley. Truth is, I had Ben when I was barely eighteen, but where I grew up, that makes me a late bloomer. I have to say, I expected you to be a lot older yourself, bein’ as you’ve had so much success with your career and all.
Radley: I don’t believe age matters all that much, in my chosen profession. After all, age is only a number, Jacie - I haven’t felt young for a very long time.