In the story,
"The Harbor Seals," I returned to my ongoing character, Sossity
Chandler. I have published over thirty stories about her and the stories take
place at various times in her life, so I have constructed a character biography
that I often consult so I don't contradict things. In this story comes at a
time in her life when Sossity is having what we call a "celebrity
melt-down." She has risen from obscurity to become a superstar celebrity
with a string of number-one hits, a popular band, a husband and two children.
Then her world collapses. Her husband leaves her after an affair with one of
her best friends, who was a roommate in college. Sossity begins to drink and
engage in outrageous behavior. She ends up in jail for a couple of DUIs and has
her driver's license suspended. She almost dies from a drinking bout that
brings on alcohol poisoning. Or course, the public revels in her suffering. She
then emerges from court with a disagreeable divorce settlement that splits custody of her children in such a way that she does not see them for long
periods of time.
A friend of hers,
Daya, who has had a spiritual awakening in her life a few years back, lets her
stay at a remote cabin on the coast of California. Sossity takes several
bottles of whisky and goes to be alone, to write down some thought—and to get
drunk.
She
gets drunk, but also is impressed, in her sober moments, with the beauty of
nature. The place she is staying is known for the harbor seals that live along
the shoreline. She sees them in the morning light. Thought not feeling
particularly creative, she does respond to their presence:
She hoped to write but had only managed one haiku in
four days:
the horizon moves
a seal’s sleek
form on the beach
ebony alive
Not the best haiku
ever written, she thought, but when you’re stone-staggering drunk you can’t
expect to do a whole lot better.
Sossity also learns that a pack of feral dogs has been
killing the seals and sometimes attacking bathers and campers in the area. She
drinks herself into a stupor one night.When she gets up in the
morning, she finds the feral dogs have come through the door to Daya's cabin.
Terrified, she screams, shouts, and throws anything she can find at
them. They snarl and bark, but her efforts finally drive them away. Rattled, she
sits down. Noting how messy she has allowed the cabin to become, she straightens the place up,
showers, and dresses in new clothes. She goes down to a place called the Harbor
Inn. On the way she passes two harbor seals who stare at her with curiosity.
At
the inn, she meets two people, Anjani and Vasava, who look to be Bengali. She
invites them to sit with her. They are, they say, from across the Indian ocean
and have heard of Daya, whom they describe as "a venerable holy woman.”
Anjani plays and has brought along her guitar, a beautiful old Gibson that is a
collector's item, which the couple say they found washed up on a beach and
repaired and restored. She plays what she says is a folk song of her people.
Sossity replies that it is one of the most beautiful songs she has ever heard
and asks if Anjani will teach it to her. She replies that Sossity will remember
it.
In
the midst of their conversation, Vasava abruptly tells her that her resolution
to make things right is a good one. Sossity replies that she has "said
some stupid things." Anjani says she understands. Her people, she says, "have
suffered much through the ages. We have
been killed and hunted, our lands have been taken from us, the environments we
live in fouled and destroyed. We have
survived by patience and by living close to nature. The song that appealed to you so much was a
hymn that praises nature but that also evokes the flow of her order and her
embrace."
Sossity plays some of her songs on the Gibson guitar.
A crowd gathers. Her fans comfort and encourage her. After she has
finished, she goes to her car to get a notebook and write down Anjani and
Vasava's address. When she returns, they are gone. She finds Anjani's guitar
and this note:
Sossity—we are sorry we left without
saying good-bye, but we needed to go. The guitar is yours. Keep it as a
token of our love. We want you to have
it. Play it and remember all we talked
about. The two of us are returning to our people. Remember us, despite this rudeness. You will find healing with patience, as we
have. You will thrive and grow by your
allegiance to doing what is right. You
think you were the loser for doing what was right. Such is not the case. You are stronger and closer to being a truly
holy woman yourself with your pursuit of what is in keeping with
propriety. When you play the guitar,
remember this.
----Anjani
and Vasava
She looks for them. She does not see them. But she
does see two harbor seals flippering their way down the back and sliding into
the water. When they are gone, the tune they hummed for her returns to her
mind. She will eventually record it as the lead song to a new release that
marks the beginning of her comeback as an artist and her return to stability.
The story was scheduled to appear in Stupefying Stories but the
journal went on hiatus and the tale never was published. This is
the first blog I've written on a story that never got into print! I'll have to
start submitting it again.
For additional titles, see my Writer's Page.
One of the best "Sossity" stories I've written, and one of my earliest publications, is "The Snow Demon"--a horror story reprinted by Zimbell House. Get a copy here.
I would love to hear your comments.
Happy reading.
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