Stepping back

Dear Reader, as the rain visits most of the day and night I lie under the covers and considered the flow of this tale. In particular I imagined the character Larkin as she prepared for her journey to Paris. What DOES she look like? And most valuable to the telling, I wondered what it was like to discover the gifts of being 'one eared' rather than two. What sort of adventures with her specialness has prepared her? The daydreaming of a writer of myth can go in many directions, for now, it seems stepping back is the way to go and perhaps you know this about 'going backward', one can never predict what was unnoticed in time seemingly done with...

In this form of storytelling, Readers, this stepping backward includes a plethora of clues for the adept. Ferret them out if you can, and make a kind of collection you view again as the story unfurls, that is moves forward and then sometimes backward.  

Her birth was a most welcomed event. Larkin was dreamt of, and her name given as an agreement. She would be a brave and adventurous one. Both Calypso, her Gram, and Maydene her Great-Aunt were present for her birth. Both women were trained in the arts of birthing and though they were not biological sisters their connections literally threw them together in 1968.

"There'd been a mix-up with booking too many people for the number of seats on this aeroplane," Maydene explained. "I volunteered to be 'bumped off' ... it sounds such a gangsterous condition. But harmless really. I am as loose as a goose you see. No tight shedules for me. A day late will make no never mind to me, nor my hosts awaiting me."

The stranger on the receiving end of this long ramble nodded and beamed at the tumble of words from this obviously British speech. It was that 'make no never mind' bit that tweaked Calypso's interest. "Anyway, I have been upgraded to First-Class. I think it was my charming demeanor that did it. At any rate, for whatever reason ... I am Maydene Short," she extended her many-ringed hands to her travel mate. "Calypso. Just Calypso." Unlike the blonde bomb shell, Calypso was not then, and would remain so until her final days, a person of many words. What Calypso was very good at was listening. She was observant. Though this talkative woman would learn the many details of Calypso's life in the years to come, it was important to remain in the dark (in a manner of speaking) about the fullness, the birth name that included Lena M. on legal documents. Some secrets aren't really, but, that's a story for another time.

The Hawaiian Airlines DC-10 was headed for Seattle. Calypso freshly graduated from high school, was enrolled at Cornish College of the Arts. Back then, it was called the Cornish School of Allied Arts. Music was a family tradition. Traditional Hawaiian music and, classical piano. There was plenty of financial support to groom the young Calypso, and as history would have its way with her Cornish provided a ground level from which she would become something all together new. The first-class seat B2 was a graduation gift from her grandmother.

Maydene Short, London born, was freshly tanned after a three-week holiday on the Island of O'ahu. She'd gotten to know the Northshore of the island very well. She swam, snorkeled and ate papaya and apple bananas drizzled freshly speared and grilled fish with fresh limes; or ate the fish raw with roasted kukui nuts chopped and fragrant with red salt from the island of Kaui. The locals embraced her, and welcomed her into their homes. It was that accent, and her unpretentious warmth. Plus, she could take care of herself. No push over or easy meat, Maydene was not after sex, though she enjoyed the company of men. There was a brain under those blonde waves, and a healthy understanding about childbirth, and all the reasons for having and raising children.

She was the youngest of six children. Both her parents were doctors, her father in General Practice, her mother a pioneer as Professor of Nursing. Deanna Short, R.N. and Ph.D of Nursing had five difficult hospital births. It was Maydene who was the only Short to be delivered by a midwife. Seated next to Calypso Maydene Short was on her way to a small town just north of Seattle to live with Stella Goldman and her husband Mathew Goldman M.D. Maydene was beginning her training as a midwife. It was her choice to study with the Childbirth Pioneers and founders of the La Lache League.

While the jet burned diesel fuel over the Pacific Calypso and Maydene Short learned a lot about one another. Rum and pineapple juice cocktails loosened the normally quiet part-Hawaiian maiden, and the unexpected lightning storm ignited the imagination of both these women. Some things would embroider themselves with familiar patterns, other art was just beginning to have a name. Between then and now, some memories would need to be forgotten to make space for different futures. Have you ever wondered where a forgotten memory goes?