{"id":926,"date":"2020-08-01T12:58:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T19:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/?p=926"},"modified":"2020-08-01T13:11:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T20:11:14","slug":"sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/2020\/08\/01\/sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xiv\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheltering in Place at the Magdalena Arms: Episode XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In our last episode, Lon sought solitude in the Magdalena Arms garden before fleeing other tenants who have their own need for respite. In this episode readers will meet or renew their acquaintance with Ramona, erstwhile bad girl, currently employed as a cannabis store manager, and her younger girlfriend, the frustrated actress Jackie, as they toke and talk with frazzled landlady Dolly, trying to figure out when Mrs. DeWitt’s missing daughter might have been born.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missed the earlier episodes? You can find them all here<\/a><\/em>. Or start from the beginning with <\/em>Episode I<\/em> <\/a>and use the \u201cnext\u201d button at the top the screen to move between episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut lots of theaters are doing virtual things,\u201d said Ramona, flicking on her lighter and inhaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackie sighed hugely, as she settled herself next to Ramona on the wooden bench by the burbling backyard fountain. She took the pipe from her girlfriend and after sucking in the soothing smoke, said: \u201cRamona, the kind of acting I do is about interacting<\/em>. It\u2019s about physical presence<\/em>, and what happens between actors when they really listen<\/em>.\u201d She gesticulated helplessly, \u201cIt\u2019s everything that\u2019s forbidden these days!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this effort to express herself, Jackie sagged back in her corner of the bench. At twenty-eight she was still  a slender sprite of a girl, wearing her usual uniform of jeans and black turtleneck. Her piquant, expressive features and her youthful energy had finally brought her the beginnings of onstage success, just before the pandemic hit. Now the tempestuous series of emotions that had once chased each other across her mobile face, as if blown by a lively spring breeze, had been whittled down to a monotonous trio: indignation, dejection, and anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramona held out her hand for the pipe, searching for something to say. Jackie was inconsolable on the subject of her cancelled show, and every attempt Ramona had made to comfort her served only to aggravate the thwarted thespian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the older woman stayed silent, and waited for the medical marijuana to mellow out the miffed mummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The screen door thunked and Dolly appeared, mask on chin, bandanna wound around her bleached curls, a furrow in her brow. \u201cWhat a day!\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cAny for me?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramona expelled a cloud of smoke and handed the pipe to Dolly, who collapsed into a hammock chair as she sucked in a lungful. \u201cAaahhh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It always amused Ramona to recall how disturbed Dolly had been when Ramona had first introduced marijuana to the Magdalena Arms. For a long time the perturbed landlady had tried to persuade Ramona to give up her toking for more traditional cocktail hour tippling. It was only after wrenching her back while rehanging the entry hall chandelier that Dolly had swapped her martinis for \u201cMary Jane\u201d as she insisted on calling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHard day at the office?\u201d Ramona asked. \u201cI\u2019m beat too. Business is booming, which means we barely get a break.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly was too intent on her own concerns even take in this silver lining in the cloud of pandemic bad news. \u201cWell, first Angelo gave Lon an illicit trim, and unfortunately he got caught, and I had to play the heavy. Then\u2014\u201d Dolly stopped and chewed her lip. \u201cWell, never mind. I don\u2019t want to broadcast tenant business. Oh, but\u2014\u201d She sat up and leaned forward, waving the pipe energetically\u2014\u201cYou haven\u2019t heard the news! Mrs. DeWitt had a daughter!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of the dramatic discovery distracted even the solipsistic soliloquist, and Ramona\u2019s mind was already whirring into action as Dolly wound up, \u201cSo we\u2019re going to organize ourselves into a kind of detective bureau and track this girl down!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the green entrepreneur opened her mouth to get more details, Jackie burst out, \u201cWouldn’t it be something if it was a Magdalena Arms girl? What about Ilsa? She\u2019s adopted!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIlsa the clog dancer?\u201d Dolly narrowed her eyes and gazed at the agapanthus, as if looking for Ilsa and her clogs. \u201cI dimly remember her. Was she on the third floor, before I renovated?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not a clog dancer,\u201d Jackie informed the landlady, \u201cShe\u2019s a publicity girl, for a cartoon company.\u201d Her mouth drooped. \u201cShe\u2019s probably doing great through this. People can still draw, in confinement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry Jackie,\u201d Dolly reached over and nudged her with the pipe. \u201cThe pandemic can\u2019t last forever. Pretty soon you\u2019ll be back onstage, and more in demand than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramona knew Dolly meant well\u2014the landlady had always had a soft spot for the aspiring actress\u2014but this was the sort of remark that generally provoked a long self-pitying rant from Jackie about how time didn\u2019t stand still, how her very identity was in question, how disoriented and despairing she felt.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jackie took a breath and opened her mouth, Ramona interjected, \u201cMrs. DeWitt\u2019s daughter can\u2019t be Ilsa, not unless Mrs. D. got pregnant when she was in her late forties. This mystery daughter must already be a mature woman herself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy, you\u2019re right!\u201d Dolly laughed, a little self-consciously. \u201cI guess I\u2019ve been picturing the DeWitt descendant as a young girl, you know, with huge hairbows, like in those old pictures in Mrs. DeWitt\u2019s scrapbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re an orphan!\u201d Jackie looked at Ramona with awe. \u201cWhat if\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not that mature,\u201d Ramona fished a scrap of paper from one pocket of her plaid pants and pulled a pencil from the other. \u201cLet\u2019s figure this out. When do we think Mrs. DeWitt had this kid?\u201d At Dolly\u2019s helpless shrug, she declared, \u201cWell, that’s our first order of business!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the kind of logic problem Ramona enjoyed. Patiently she questioned Dolly, and scribbled notes: the pre-war boarding school years, the estrangement from her family, the years as a chanteuse in Berlin, \u201cI’d guess she had her daughter in the early twenties?\u201d Dolly hazarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re not guessing, we’re establishing a date range,” reminded Ramona, writing busily.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Jackie, in a hazy counterpoint was listing off all the orphans in their circle. \u201cIsn\u2019t Lon adopted? And what about Arlene, that creepy girl who lived here in \u201965 or \u201966, around when I moved in? Pam has no family, right? And wasn\u2019t Beverly raised by her aunt?\u201d She clutched the arm of the wooden bench, her voice suddenly panicked. \u201cWhy are so many of us orphans? What must it mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just coincidence,\u201d Ramona tried to calm her paranoid paramour. \u201cAnd Pamela\u2019s got a family, they\u2019re just not on speaking terms. Dolly, when did you say Mrs. DeWitt was born?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said<\/em> 1900,\u201d Dolly replied, as Jackie muttered, \u201cIt\u2019s just like in Village of the Damned<\/em>, all those creepy kids\u2026it must<\/em> mean something\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I always suspected she shaved a couple years off,\u201d Dolly continued. To Jackie she said, \u201cThe Arms has always catered to castaways, kid\u2014there\u2019s no big conspiracy. Why, you were one yourself, once!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackie leaned back, open-mouthed. \u201cAm I <\/em> Mrs. DeWitt\u2019s heir?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her elders abandoned their attempts to reason with the loopy girl, as they calculated birthdate ranges and Ramona\u2019s scrap of paper got covered with their figuring. The slant of the late afternoon sun cast half the garden in shadow and gilded Dolly\u2019s bleached blond curls, as she leaned forward to peer at the paper. Above them unseen residents began to stir, starting preparations for their evening meals, the punctuation point of another empty day. From an apartment on the second floor came a thunk-thunk-thunk, as if someone was chopping carrots, or maybe hammering ice for a cocktail shaker. Maxie\u2019s laugh floated out on the evening breeze, along with the smell of frying onions. A radio blared on and was turned down to a low buzz of news, which was drowned out by Terry’s voice calling, \u201cPatsy honey, how do you feel about a salad?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d said Ramona finally. \u201cAssuming Mrs. DeWitt did not <\/em>have her out-of-wedlock child after becoming housemother at the Magdalena Arms in 1924, and based on calculating her fertility beginning between 1910-1915, given the uncertainty of her birthdate,\u00a0 we\u2019re looking for a woman somewhere between the ages of 53 and 67.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReally? So old?\u201d Dolly pulled the scribbled over scrap out of Ramona\u2019s hand and peered at it. \u201c\u201960% ROI,\u2019\u201d she read. \u201cMimimum start-up cost, $2 to $5k.\u201d She wrinkled her brow. \u201cI don\u2019t see that date range.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramona snatched the sheet back. \u201cThose are about something else, never mind them. I\u2019ll copy down all our calculations and pass them on to Pamela. She\u2019s organizing things, you said?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She’d intended to keep her new scheme quiet for a while, but it was too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know what that\u2019s about,” Jackie stiffened. “Ramona wants to cash in on the cannabis boom and open her own shop!\u201d There was a bitter edge to the comment that made Ramona wince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, good for you!\u201d Dolly\u2019s heartiness, Ramona knew, was only more fuel to Jackie\u2019s resentment. The younger girl jumped to her feet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going up,\u201d she announced abruptly. \u201cCapitalism is a big buzz kill!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly blinked fuzzily as the door slammed behind the irate actress. \u201cWhat\u2019d I say?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next: In the Night Kitchen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We return to the Millie’s wrestling match with her pork loin, as she descends to the deserted basement kitchen late at night and has an unexpected encounter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our last episode, Lon sought solitude in the Magdalena Arms garden before fleeing other tenants who have their own need for respite. In this episode readers will meet or renew their acquaintance with Ramona, erstwhile bad girl, currently employed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[247,249,218,246,215,211,250,227,245],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-siping-at-the-magdalena-arms","tag-acting","tag-cannabis","tag-dolly","tag-jackie","tag-lesbian-career-girls","tag-magdalena-arms","tag-maryjane","tag-mrs-dewitt","tag-ramona"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}