Twisting Topeka

by Lissa Staley

  They swung along to Jeepers Creepers. Vivian grew dizzy and sick to her stomach. She hardly ever drank hard liquor. Unless this was something worse? Drugged, maybe? The paper seal had already been broken on the bottle.

  She lost track of where they were among the dancing couples, and squinted, puzzled, when Paul paused behind the bandleader and said something Vivian couldn’t hear.

  Moments later, the band struck up Intermezzo, and Paul drew her tight against him. What a smooth operator, I’ll bet he was asking for slow dances.

  Vision blurring, she let her head drop onto his shoulder. Nice, broad shoulder, strong arms but tender somehow. She drifted along to the next song, I Only Have Eyes For You.

  “That’s it, sweetheart,” she barely heard him murmur.

  The next thing she knew, she was outside the pavilion gates. She clung to a pillar while Beverly argued with Paul about—what? She tried to follow the words.

  “I’ll see to it she gets home okay,” Paul said. “I guess she can’t hold her liquor, that’s all. She’ll be all right.”

  “You have to get back to the base, don’t you? I’ll get a cab. You’ve done enough as far as--”

  Julia interrupted from somewhere nearby. “Daddy will be here any minute.”

  Paul spoke again, sounding irritated. “Now, Beverly honey, don’t be that way. Jealousy is unbecoming.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself. Go away and let me take care of my friend.”

  Atta girl, Beverly. I knew you couldn’t be in cahoots with spies. Well, I hoped you weren’t. Vivian smiled muzzily at her friend.

  “No skin off my nose. It’s what I get for trying to show local rubes a good time. Give me the tin, Julia.”

  “Vivian has it,” Julia said. “I gave her one of the tablets, I hope that’s all right.”

  “Vivian has it where?” Paul growled. He made a grab for her purse, and somewhere in her foggy brain, instinct sparked. She gripped the pillar and smacked her knee into his crotch with a satisfying thwock. He folded in front of her, bleating a curse.

  Vivian closed her eyes and slid down the pillar, out cold.

  *****

  When she woke, she found herself tucked into bed in a blindingly bright room. Her mouth tasted vile. A nurse in starched whites hung a clipboard on the end of the bed. It sounded as loud as if she had hit the metal bed frame with a sledge hammer.

  “Where am I?” Vivian rasped.

  “Menninger Hospital, hon. How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been turned inside out. What happened?”

  “You had your stomach pumped. You’ll feel better in a while.”

  The nurse opened the door to leave. As she exited, Mr. Humphrey and Beverly walked in.

  Mr. Humphrey’s face came close to cracking into a smile. “Miss Andrews, back among the conscious. If you’ve had time to worry, we have told your employer and family that you are on your way to visit your beau, newly reassigned to a base in Virginia. Accompanied by your friend Beverly Ryan, as chaperone. Which will be the case in a few days.”

  “You’re bringing Jack stateside? Wonderful! And you got Sgt. Dawson? Did you catch the rest of them? Julia didn’t know anything, it was her father—”

  “They’ve figured all that out.” Beverly crossed the room to sit on the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me what they asked you to do?”

  Vivian pointed. “He told me not to. When I came out here for my fake job interview. I guess you’ve figured out, too: this place is no mental institution--they’re after spies.”

  Mr. Humphrey cleared his throat. “Strictly speaking, Menninger’s does still provide care for mental patients. But there are people here whose skills are important in wartime. Their work as the central office of OSS is an adjunct to the original purpose of Menninger’s.”

  “What was the deal with the Pyramidon? Was there a hidden message in the tin?”

  “No, but you were on target suspecting a role in espionage. Abwehr uses invisible ink and Pyramidon is an essential ingredient. The message can only be revealed with a special reagent we are still trying to duplicate. Dr. Detrick has been supplying Pyramidon to heartland Fifth Columnists. He and Sgt. Dawson are in custody, along with some of the musicians from the Lake Shawnee dance. Information was being passed on sheet music using the invisible ink. This band travels extensively in the US. From base to base, in fact. We are learning a great deal about the breadth of the spy network.”

  “I always liked Dr. Detrick,” Beverly said quietly. “He seemed like a good man.”

  “Perhaps. The doctor tells us he has a brother in Switzerland who was sending the Pyramidon.”

  Vivian nodded. “Uncle Joseph, Julia said.”

  “Yes. Their parents were living in Austria, under occupation. Both sons were coerced into espionage, told it was the only way to keep their parents alive. That may be considered at his trial.”

  “But now will the Nazis hurt his parents?” Beverly asked.

  “Intelligence we’ve obtained indicates both parents have died, but the brothers were never told.”

  Vivian frowned. “And Julia? She’s kind of a flibbertigibbet. She can’t have understood what her father was asking her to do.”

  “She was, as you say, unaware of her father’s true activity. He took pains to protect her. Sgt. Dawson’s interest in you three distressed him, and the doctor has been cooperative since exposed.”

  Beverly took Vivian’s hand. “But was Sgt. Dawson trying to get rid of Vivian? Is that why he slipped her a mickey? Did he know she was onto him?”

  “We believe his motives were more…basic in her case, Miss Ryan. He claims he was unaware the liquor had been adulterated. While not yet confirmed, we suspect the drug was intended to eliminate Dawson. We chose you to observe him instead of one of our operatives, in hopes we wouldn’t tip him off. But it seems the organization had already decided he was a liability, taking too many risks.”

  “And Dawson hasn’t got any noble reason to betray his country.” Beverly jerked up her chin. “He’s just in it for whatever gives him the biggest payoff. Rotten. Kudos to you, Viv, for helping catch him.”

  “Thank goodness this is all over.” Vivian sighed as she ran a hand through her tangled hair. Beverly pulled a comb from her pocketbook and held it out.

  “About that,” Mr. Humphrey said. “You two impressed the team here. I’ve put forward the idea of having you assist OSS with another matter, while you are at the Virginia base. If you are amenable to that?”

  Vivian met Beverly’s gaze and half-smiled at what she saw there. “Tell us more, Mr. Humphrey.”

  Afterword

  Fiction writing is one way of reframing our past and present to express ourselves and our desires for our community. We all envision a different Topeka. Each day, choices are made which change the narrative – our community’s future pivots on individual actions, election results, and every possible diversion point in between.

  The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library has published four community-written novels since 2012. In those projects, each author contributed a chapter to advance the story. The writers were challenged to build on the chapters before and leave possibilities open for the chapters that would follow. Working together to edit and publish a cohesive novel was a learning experience for everyone involved.

  For the 2016 Community Novel Project, we offered writers a greater opportunity to collaborate on the writing, workshopping, revising and editing of the work, supported by skills-based workshops throughout the year. The writers themselves determined the theme and parameters for the anthology, provided feedback to each other on story elements, and copy-edited the manuscript.

  At the January 2016 organizational meeting, writers brainstormed over a dozen thematic possibilities. We asked them focus on identifying a project that would work cohesively in an anthology and reflect positively on our community, and to consider the marketability of the theme to our readers. As a group, we chose to create a collection of alternati
ve history or speculative fiction stories set in the Topeka region. We asked interested writers to imagine “What If?” stories. What if something in the past happened differently than it did in real life, leading to a different present? What if you looked at things happening right now and speculated on what the future could hold? What if a big change pivoted on a small moment?

  Eighteen writers crafted wonderfully diverse stories, and then revised their work based on feedback from their peers. By engaging a community of writers in content creation, publishing, and marketing through a hands-on collaborative project, we model techniques that each writer can use in their own personal writing career.

  Join us to read, write and publish at tscpl.org/novel.

  Lissa Staley and Miranda Ericsson

  August 2016

  Project Organizers

  Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library

  Author Biographies and Interviews

  Annette Hope Billings

  As Mercy Would Have It

  The story of the 1964 murder of Topekan Gladys Johnson, which sparked Annette Hope Billings’ As Mercy Would Have It, has held a place in her memory since she was seven years old. Though most known for her poetry, the author also enjoys the challenges of story development in short stories, novels and plays. A nurse for four decades, she retired early to pursue writing on a full-time basis.

  Her award-winning collection of poetry, A Net Full of Hope, was published in 2015 and is available in e-book and paperback on Amazon at: tinyurl.com/anfohbook. She is due to release a chapbook of affirmations, Descants for a Daughter, this summer.

  What was the inspiration for writing your story?

  A murder of a child is not something I’d usually consider writing about, but I’ve always had a clear memory of the distress in my home and community when a young African-American girl was murdered in 1964. I was only seven at the time, but my memory of it is that of a much older child. I am a grandmother and the idea of incorporating a loving grandmother in a story based on that event felt good. I was also inspired to not let the murder of the child be the end of her in my story.

  What’s the most important writing advice you’ve received? What writing advice would you share with other writers?

  The best advice I’ve received is often given to writers, but I certainly rings true for me. It is “write what you know.” I think we often underestimate the value and power of our lived experiences. The best writing comes when a writer realizes they harbor a gold mine unlike anyone else’s gold mine.

  How do you make time for writing? Do you write on a schedule, or write for a certain amount of time each day, or do you only write when you feel inspired?

  I am immensely blessed to not have an 8 to 5 job syphoning off time and energy from my writing. I try to write every day, but there are many marketing/scheduling items that I have to devote time to also. Even as a full-time writer, I still feel I have more ideas than I have time to write about. I consider this a blessing as writer’s block is a foreign term to me (knock on wood!). I believe I have particularly faithful muses who have waited patiently for me.

  What is your most memorable moment from this year’s Community Novel Project?

  I think it was the moment I realized I was actually making my story better the more I edited it! It made what remained a much better read. I liked being able to “let go” of words-- even those I had labored hardest to write. In that moment I realized what it means to honor the story more than any particular word, sentence, or even paragraph.

  Annabelle Corrick

  Psychic Shift

   

  Annabelle Corrick usually writes contemporary fiction, with occasional lapses into light verse. Her stories often involve a “what-if” element. In “Psychic Shift,” the inciting incident actually occurred, the take-off point being the identity of and the effect of the encounter on the young man in the meditation garden. Recent publications include stories and poems in Well Versed, The Poet’s Art, and Kansas Voices.

  Why did you want to participate in the Community Novel Project?

  My participation in the Community Novel Project evolved from attending the Fiction Writing Basics Workshop on February 23. Its focus was on short story writing, my primary mode of late.

  What was your inspiration for your story?

  One of the workshop exercises used the Menninger Foundation as a famous Topeka/NE Kansas name to spur ideas for a “what if”/ speculative story. I recalled a childhood experience hiking onto the Menninger grounds with a friend and surprising a lone patient in a meditation garden. What he looked like and his amazed expression has stayed with me. I wondered about the extent of the impact on him and what it might have been if he were suicidal. I knew three persons associated with the Clinic who had been. I recalled my realization that psychotherapeutic treatments didn’t work for everyone because those three didn’t survive it. What if the intersection of one troubled patient with two happily carefree, errant children caused the most positive outcome and a new direction for psychiatric care? Recalling the expression on the patient’s face led me to pursue that twist of fate. He was handsome in a very refined and perfect way, hence the speculation that he might have been an actor trying to succeed at a time when more rugged types were in vogue.

  What’s the most important writing advice you’ve received? What writing advice would you share with other writers?

  My writing (playwriting) teachers at K-State said, “If you want to be a writer, write.” So did Epictetus back in the first century, but they never cited him. The Fiction Writing Basics Workshop focusing on short story writing also included this advice. If you’re already following it naturally, then you’re on the right track. It’s probably no coincidence, though, that Epictetus had to be a Stoic philosopher. Would he be surprised that he’s not in spellchecker?

  How do you make time for writing?

  Work schedules for creative writing are a lot like outlines and synopses—highly recommended necessary tools that cannot always be easily followed due to pesky variables.

  Jamie Crispin

  Test Year

  Jamie Crispin certainly has a way of viewing society. A self-proclaimed feminist with a master’s in sociology, her writings tend to point out society’s quirks with a dystopian twist. Her interests include traveling between parallel worlds, running after her toddler son and listening to podcasts. On most days, you can find her patiently awaiting the second season of FireFly. Test Year is her first short story.

  Why did you want to participate in the Community Novel Project?

  I decided to participate in the Community Novel Project so I could start “walking the talk”. It has been a dream of mine for years to write a book. But there was one issue. I didn’t know where to start. I feel there is no better way to add life into an intention then to take action. So, I told my novice self I had to start somewhere and that somewhere was the Community Novel Project (CNP). The CNP created a safe, nurturing and explorative environment for my writing experience. The workshops provided me with information I could apply immediately. The deadlines helped me stay on track. And the support of the CNP staff was truly inspiring. Now, I feel I can officially call myself an author – even if I just wrote one short story!

  What was the inspiration for writing your story?

  I live on the same block as Randolph School. I have seen it in every season, in all weather and throughout many events. The building is an inspiring backdrop and I have many storylines about Randolph School. I paired that location with my love of dystopic fiction and found that the story found me, in the end.

  What have you learned about writing fiction from participating in this project?

  Easy – I learned that short stories may not be my genre. But for me, it was all about finding success through the completion of this process. The Community Novel Project pushed me outside of my comfort zone, which I realized had to happen so I could grow. In the end, I am so proud of my final product even if it is not perfect.
I would not have been able to achieve these results without the peer editing, deadlines and informative workshops. Now, I feel I can apply this knowledge and confidence on a larger scale. So, if you are reading this and considering participating next year then DO IT! Every minute, every edit and each draft was completely worth the effort. Without a doubt, I am a better writer from this experience.

  What’s the most important writing advice you’ve received? What writing advice would you share with other writers?

  I attended the workshop on editing with Morgan Chilson and found it not only enlightening, but extremely useful. The speaker said, “Sometimes, you have to kill your babies!” Of course, in this context, “babies” are parts of the story we hold especially dear to our hearts. I found when I was struggling with editing that it was due to a personal connection to a specific line, character or concept. If I stepped away from my work and saw it through the reader’s eyes instead, then I was able to make better judgment calls during the revisions. In the end, many of my “babies” were cut during the editing process. It was a difficult lesson, but I did manage to produce a stronger and more cohesive story. It is the best advice I can give to others. Don’t let your brilliance blind you.

   

  Aimee L. Gross

  Dance with the Devil

  Aimee L. Gross savors all varieties of storytelling, but a ‘What If’ story might be her favorite--to read and to write. The library anthology gave her a chance to pursue both an interest in Topeka history and WW II espionage tales. All the details in “Dance with the Devil” are founded in truth, including an obscure pain-killer used by Nazi spies. The only twist is the revelation that Menninger’s was the antecedent of today’s CIA--a fabrication and the speculative aspect of the short story. That is, unless an SUV full of men in black turns up at her door after publication…