{"id":962,"date":"2020-09-20T23:21:22","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T06:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/?p=962"},"modified":"2020-09-20T23:21:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T06:21:22","slug":"sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/2020\/09\/20\/sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xxi\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheltering in Place at the Magdalena Arms: Episode XXI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Previously:<\/strong> When Mrs. DeWitt’s will revealed a missing daughter, Pam found a project to pull her out of her pandemic doldrums. But just as the unemployed career girl swings into action to organize the hunt for the missing girl, an unexpected obstacle derails the former doyenne of dress!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missed the earlier episodes? You can find them all\u00a0here<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0Or start from the beginning with\u00a0<\/em>Episode I<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>and use the \u201cnext\u201d button at the top the screen to move between episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making Plans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know Lois,\u201d Pam said as she buttered her toast, \u201cNo one\u2019s living in Mrs. DeWitt\u2019s apartment now. I was thinking that it might make sense to turn it into a kind of command central.\u201d She made a note on the pad next to her plate. \u201cI\u2019ll ask Dolly about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d said Lois, helping herself to the marmalade. \u201cThat makes more sense than transporting files over here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She would have applauded Pam\u2019s idea, no matter how picayune, so pleased was she to see her partner once more full of pep. \u201cMore coffee?\u201d she held the pot poised over Pamela\u2019s cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease.\u201d Pam scribbled another note on her pad. She was dressed in a crisp polka-dotted blouse this morning, with a matching lime green cardigan tossed over her shoulders. She\u2019d even pressed her pants. The couple had spent the previous evening pleasurably organizing supplies for today\u2019s tasks. Lois had applied alphabetical labels to accordion files and assembled bankers boxes, then filled them with pre-labeled hanging folders, color-coded to match the spreadsheet she\u2019d created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She ticked off items on her own list: Blank labels, markers, staple remover, manila folders<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was intoxicating, the old filing frenzy, flowing from brain to fingertips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wonder how long this will all take,\u201d Lois speculated. \u201cWeeks? Months?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, I don\u2019t think it will be near that long,\u201d Pamela disagreed, with robust confidence. \u201cMrs. DeWitt left so many papers and with so many of us combing the files, and you and I tabulating results, we\u2019re bound to make rapid progress. It\u2019s only a matter of time before someone stumbles across a vital clue. Why, if Phyllis and Laura find adoption papers at the city records office tomorrow, we\u2019ll be done before we\u2019ve started!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pamela paused, and frowned as if realizing what that would mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat seems unlikely,\u201d Lois reassured her. \u201cIf Mrs. DeWitt gave no one a hint the whole time she was the Magdalena Arms house mother, it stands to reason any details on this secret daughter are buried pretty deep. I still can\u2019t believe she wouldn\u2019t have said something to the older tenants like you and Dolly, who knew her before\u2014\u201d Lois coughed delicately, \u201cThat is, when she was in better health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before her unfortunate attachment to gin<\/em>, Lois had been about to say, before she remembered not to speak ill of the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was pretty far gone when I moved in, in fall of \u201955,\u201d said Pam bluntly. \u201cYou know\u2014kind of in a haze, reciting poetry when you came to her with a plumbing problem. Mrs. Payne-Putney had just died, and I guess she was still pretty grief-stricken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe school friend,\u201d said Lois. She made a note on her steno pad: Schooling\u2014school friends\u2014names<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember one verse she was always repeating,\u201d Pamela reminisced. \u201cAbout how earthly joys have fled and all the flowers of youth lie withering and dead. Something like that. I did wonder,\u201d she paused, \u201cwell, if she and Mrs. Payne-Potter might have been\u2014an item,\u201d Pamela chose her word carefully, \u201cat boarding school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lois tried to picture Mrs. DeWitt as a young boarder in love with the future Mrs. Payne-Potter, and failed. She kept imagining a girl with Mrs. DeWitt’s disheveled gray pompadour. Still–her landlady had been young once, and with her penchant for poetry….after all, everyone knew that boarding schools were hotbeds of same-sex lust!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phone rang, interrupting their silent ruminations on Mrs. DeWitt\u2019s possible past passions, and Lois jumped up to get it. Pamela rose, too, taking the breakfast dishes to the sink to scrape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe should get going soon,\u201d she called after Lois. \u201cIf that\u2019s your Mrs. Pierson, don\u2019t let her keep yakking about the end of the world for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam hummed a little tune as she rinsed and stacked the dishes. She was drying her hands on a dishtowel when she heard Lois exclaim, \u201cOh no!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam poked her head into the hallway. Lois was clutching the phone to her ear. \u201cPoor Beverly!\u201d moaned Lois. \u201cIs she\u2026\u201d she listened. \u201cWell, is there anything we can do?\u201d Another pause. \u201cNo, of course not. No, you must follow protocol\u2026I agree, that would be best\u2026I only wish there was something we could do to\u2014well, keep us posted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lois hung up the phone and turned reluctantly to Pamela, dreading the effect of her news. \u201cThat was Dolly,\u201d she said. \u201cIt seems\u2026well\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething happened to Beverly?\u201d Pam prompted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeverly\u2019s come down with Covid,\u201d Lois told her girlfriend. Ignoring Pamela’s startled, “What?” Lois rushed on, \u201cand under the circumstances\u2026well, Dolly thinks, and of course she\u2019s right\u2026\u201d Lois couldn\u2019t delay any longer\u2014the bad news had to be broken: \u201cWe\u2019ll have to postpone our daughter-detecting project!\u201d she blurted, and then watched as Pamela sagged, like a rag doll with it’s stuffing suddenly sucked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Dolly holds a meeting and Laura makes a phone call.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously: When Mrs. DeWitt’s will revealed a missing daughter, Pam found a project to pull her out of her pandemic doldrums. But just as the unemployed career girl swings into action to organize the hunt for the missing girl, an … 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":[263,259,215,214,211,262,227,264,221,231],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-siping-at-the-magdalena-arms","tag-boarding-school","tag-covid","tag-lesbian-career-girls","tag-lois-lenz","tag-magdalena-arms","tag-missing-daughter","tag-mrs-dewitt","tag-mrs-payne-putney","tag-pamela","tag-sheltering-in-place"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","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=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}