Dave’s Anatomy: My History As a Writer #94: The Past As a Good-Bye: “Gimme Shelter”

As a guitarist and a Rolling Stones fan, it’s natural that some of my stories come from those things. I write a lot about musicians:  realistic stories about the trials of being in the music industry, stories where musicians encounter the supernatural, tales of musicians and their relationships. I can draw on my own experience, my knowledge of music, and elements in popular culture for plot ideas. And I created an ongoing character, Sossity Chandler, who toils and plays in bars and small venues until she makes it big and becomes a pop music superstar. The story for today, “Gimme Shelter,” uses that particular song as a jumping off point for a story about a guitarist who has found his niche in the world of music writing and his on/off girlfriend, Orion (Orion is pronounced like the Lake in Michigan, not like the constellation). He learns a lesson about himself from the song.

Orion

In the story, Eliot is with Orion. In their early days they both have aspirations to make it as musicians, and they both faith, though in different ways. Eliot ends up going into the academic world, earns an advance degree, finds a job, and is able to make it the world of scholarship. Orion tries to establish a career as a singer but has little success. She lives a hard-scrabble life, working from gig to gig, hardly making enough money to get by. Eliot’s career takes a turn when he grows weary of purely academic writing and pens a book on British acoustic guitar players. It is an unexpected best-seller and catapults him into the world of music writing.

He maintains a relationship with Orion. They continue as occasional lovers. He gives her money when he senses she is barely getting by. When he does research on themes related to music and popular artists, she often accompanies him. Just off a breakup with a woman he had hoped to marry, he goes with her from their home in Grand Rapids to Lansing, where she is playing a gig in a bar. On the way up they listen on old Rolling Stones records and comment on the music. Despite the fact that he talked about her in an article on upcoming blues artists that was published in Billboard, her career is not going well. She is out of money. He does the usual thing of giving her a large amount of cash to buy them drinks. She will keep the substantial cash that is left over.

As he is watching Orion play, a woman sits down with him. She is also a college instructor and likes his writing. They talk literature. She mentions an article he has written about Michigan author Bonnie Jo Campbell. She says she likes his analysis of the story: “The main character’s interpretation of his relationship to Belle when they were teenagers is the opposite of her interpretation. He saw himself as her savior and champion in those early days; she saw him as someone who sexually exploited and took advantage of her.” He mentions a similar theme in Julian Barnes’ novel The Sense of an Ending. It is obvious the woman is coming on to him, but in the middle of the conversation he has an epiphany—a moment of realization. He says he needs to go, she leaves her phone number. He thinks about Orion and how he has treated her:

As he picked up his guitar case, he realized how he had exploited her—yes, he told himself, exploited described it perfectly. In graduate school he had depended on her for emotional support when he was fatigued, discouraged, or overwhelmed—frequent occurrences for graduate students. More than once she had typed papers for him. She had always been willing to sleep with him when she sensed he needed it. She stuck with him when he was down and as a “friend” when Janelle was cutting him to pieces. She had always been there. Through the years she had borne his whining and condescension like a patient mule. She had supported him emotionally. And how had he responded? He had screwed her, given her money when she was broke, attended her concerts—and when he attended her concerts, they usually ended up in bed together. Exploitation—flat out, no way to sweeten what he had done with a euphemism and no excuse for it.

Eventually, as he and Orion have agreed, they do a couple of songs together. Afterwards, he says he wants to talk to her. She senses his agitation and wonders what is going on. He asks if she knows a place where they can go to talk. Still puzzled at his behavior, she suggests a coffee bar she knows that is open 24/7.

I let the reader imagine what will result from his epiphany, his moment of realization (a technique made popular by Irish writer James Joyce in his short story collection Dubliners). The fact that he has seen his behavior in this new light is at least hopeful.

The story appeared in the online journal Intellectual Refuge. Read it here.

For additional titles, check out my Writer's Page.

A great read is my vampire novel, Sinfonia:  The First Notes on the Lute, A Vampire Chronicle, Part I.  Get a copy here.

I would to hear your comments. Happy reading.  

Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer, #93: Ghosts and Justice: "Plantation Ghost."

Ghost of Hamlet's Father

Ghosts are not just ghosts. They appear in stories not just to scare us but to teach moral or sociological lessons. The four ghosts that appear in A Christmas Carol—ghost of Marley, of Christmas Present, Christmas Past, and Christmas future—are part of a novella about social justice and fairness for the poor. The ghost of Hamlet’s father asks for revenge after he is murdered so his brother can make himself king. The ghost in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, described as “spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom,” is an icon calling attention to racial injustice and the suffering of African-Americans during the years of slavery in the United States. In my story, “Plantation Ghost,” I try to illustrate some aspects of racial conflict in America through the presence of a ghost. The story calls focuses on this, but also illustrates the complications of being black and white in our society.

Rebecca Hayes, the bass player in Sossity Chandler’s band, is black. She has been dating the band’s drummer recently, who is white, but they have split up—sort of. Rebecca has caved in to pressure from her family to break the relationship off. But that has not been as easy as she has imagined it would be. For one, she loves Todd and he loves her. During the story she goes in to confront him and ends up making love to him. She is frustrated, as he is, knowing she has to take decisive action to end the relationship but not really wanting to.

When the band is doing a series of concerts in Alabama and Georgia, Rebecca and Sossity share a room at a plantation that has been turned into a B&B. Rebecca wakes up in the middle of the night to see a tall, slender black woman dressed in garments that suggest the 1800s standing at the foot of her bed. The figure vanishes and Rebecca writes it off as a dream. At the breakfast table that morning one of the guests asks if anyone there saw the ghost. Rebecca asks about it and finds out more:

“She is one of the most well-known ghosts in the area,” the white businessman, who had a heavy Southern accent, was saying. “This place was deserted for years because of her. More than one family moved in and the ghost supposedly drove them off.”

“Did the ghost go away?”

“A few people say they’ve seen her, but I guess she’s a little calmer—so calm she hasn’t rattled chains or terrified anyone lately.” Everyone around the table chucked at this. “People who have seen her identify her as a woman who worked her as a servant in the Reconstruction era, though, sadly, we don’t even know her name. She died a victim of racial violence, I think.”

Since racial violence was a delicate subject, the guests quickly moved the conversation elsewhere.

Later, the ghost appears to Rebecca and speaks to her. She tells the story of having been chased by ex-Confederate soldiers after the civil war and being shot. She staggers into a swamp for safety, finally collapses and his found by a white man who nurses her back to health. He lives alone, has lost his wife, and eventually Shoshanna and he fall in love. He is able to pass her off as a farm and worker and mistress, which the other men in the area can tolerate. They live together ten years and have two children. Charlie, the husband, eventually dies during a typhus epidemic. Shoshanna gives the children to relatives to raise and goes off to seek employment. She finds work at a plantation with white people who are fair and kind to her.

But by that time the Ku Klux Klan has become active. They don’t like the family that has hired Shoshanna and begin to harass them and her. One night they come to lynch her. In the struggle, one of their number drops a pistol on the ground. It goes off and kills her. The family buries her and leaves the plantation. Shoshanna becomes a ghost. She haunts anyone who has any connection with the mob of men who killed her—which is most everyone in the town and surrounding area. The plantation sits empty for years until someone from the north buys it and opens it as a bed and breakfast. Rebecca suggests that since Shoshanna has told her story and the direct relatives of men who murdered her are all dead, she can go to her rest. Shoshanna does not reply. She vanishes.

As Rebecca and Sossity are getting ready to leave, the woman who runs the place gives them a tour of the servants’ quarters. A box of old books she is giving away sits on a table there. Rebecca come across Shoshanna’s diary. She tells the woman it might be valuable, but the woman insists Rebecca take it. On the way home, Sossity asks her about Todd. Rebecca says it is over with them. Sossity argues she needs to defy her family and convention and pursue the relationship, since she really does love. Sossity tells Rebecca that she needs to do what is right. Her reply is, I think, some of the best lines I’ve ever written:  “I love him. No doubt about that. You told me I needed to do what was right. But sometimes you can’t do what is right in life. Sometimes you have to do what is wrong.” The story end on an unhappy but perhaps sadly realistic note.

“Plantation Ghost” appeared in The WiFiles. Read it here. The journal, no longer published but maintaining an archive, has a straight-line format, so you'll have to scroll down to get to my story. It's number four in the line-up.

Here's a video for my novel, Sinfonia: The First Notes on the Lute. Vampires, love, music, passion, and intrigue. Also, Shakespeare, and Queen Elizabeth.

For more titles, visit my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments.