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The Precious Jules

Blackstone Publishingerschienen am01.07.2022
A deeply felt family narrative that examines the fine line between selfishness and what passes for love.

After nearly two hundred years of housing retardants, as they were once known, the Beechwood Institute is closing the doors on its dark history, and the complicated task of reassigning residents has begun. Ella Jules, having arrived at Beechwood at the tender age of eight, must now rely on the state to decide her future. Ella's aging parents have requested that she be returned to her childhood home, much to the distress of Ella's siblings, but more so to Lynetta, her beloved caretaker who has been by her side for decades. The five adult Jules children, haunted by their early memories of their sister, and each dealing with the trauma of her banishment in their own flawed way, are converging on the family home, arriving from the far corners of the country-secrets in tow-to talk some sense into their aging parents and get to the root of this inexplicable change of heart.

The Precious Jules examines the thin line between selfishness and what passes for love. This family story asks what is best for one child in light of what is perceived as the greater good, and just what is the collective legacy of buried family secrets, shame, and helplessness. The Precious Jules is a deeply felt family narrative that will make you fall in love with these flawed and imperfect characters standing on the threshold of an awakening they never expected.



Shawn Nocher is the author of the critically acclaimed novel A Hand to Hold in Deep Water. Her short stories and nonfiction articles have been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, Pithead Chapel, MoonPark Review, Writer's Digest, and Electric Literature, among others.

She teaches in the master of arts writing program at Johns Hopkins University, has given wings to two children, and lives with her husband and an assortment of sassy rescue animals in Baltimore, Maryland, where she writes in a room of her own.mehr
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BuchGebunden
EUR29,00
BuchGebunden
EUR38,50
TaschenbuchKartoniert, Paperback
EUR19,00

Produkt

KlappentextA deeply felt family narrative that examines the fine line between selfishness and what passes for love.

After nearly two hundred years of housing retardants, as they were once known, the Beechwood Institute is closing the doors on its dark history, and the complicated task of reassigning residents has begun. Ella Jules, having arrived at Beechwood at the tender age of eight, must now rely on the state to decide her future. Ella's aging parents have requested that she be returned to her childhood home, much to the distress of Ella's siblings, but more so to Lynetta, her beloved caretaker who has been by her side for decades. The five adult Jules children, haunted by their early memories of their sister, and each dealing with the trauma of her banishment in their own flawed way, are converging on the family home, arriving from the far corners of the country-secrets in tow-to talk some sense into their aging parents and get to the root of this inexplicable change of heart.

The Precious Jules examines the thin line between selfishness and what passes for love. This family story asks what is best for one child in light of what is perceived as the greater good, and just what is the collective legacy of buried family secrets, shame, and helplessness. The Precious Jules is a deeply felt family narrative that will make you fall in love with these flawed and imperfect characters standing on the threshold of an awakening they never expected.



Shawn Nocher is the author of the critically acclaimed novel A Hand to Hold in Deep Water. Her short stories and nonfiction articles have been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, Pithead Chapel, MoonPark Review, Writer's Digest, and Electric Literature, among others.

She teaches in the master of arts writing program at Johns Hopkins University, has given wings to two children, and lives with her husband and an assortment of sassy rescue animals in Baltimore, Maryland, where she writes in a room of her own.
Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9781094058337
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Erscheinungsjahr2022
Erscheinungsdatum01.07.2022
Seiten100 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Dateigrösse3605
Artikel-Nr.9600294
Rubriken
Genre9200

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe



3
Belle

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Friday, April 17, 2009

Belle s cell phone is ringing on the kitchen counter, playing the theme to the movie Jaws, which, unbeknownst to the caller on the other end, is the ringtone Belle selected for her younger sister Tess. Tess s calls are almost always an alert to the latest crisis. But at this moment, on this rainy spring morning, Belle is too busy getting her children out the door for school to pick up her sister s call. No matter. Tess is tenacious and will call back every three minutes until Belle finally picks up.

Spring in Massachusetts, to Belle s way of thinking, is nothing more than a series of broken promises. The buds of the oak trees pearl on the branches and birdsong trickles from the tops of the trees in the early morning, but the sky remains thick with a gray mist and the ground is mud-soft, sucking at her kids feet as they and a myriad of other raincoated children stream from their homes to converge on the corner and wait for the school bus. A spring snow is still a possibility.

Mothers up and down the street peek from their side doors and from under the eaves of garages. Belle buckles and buttons her children in sync with all the other mothers of Longmeadow. Admonishments are tossed out reminding the children to neither lose nor remove their raincoats on the way to school. Belle looks up and down the street, straight up into the sky, and wonders if there will really be a spring this year-with the sky so dark and the air so heavy-and here it is, April already.

The phone starts up with its percussive ringtone again. Tess is relentless. She doesn t have children, and so she can t possibly understand what Belle s mornings are like or the fact that every minute is choreographed. Belle s three children, but especially Jack, must be pushed, prodded, and herded through every step of their day.

The street is slate black and shining, last night s rainwater and a small stream of runoff gurgling along the curb. Six-year-old Jack is like a cat, rising on the tips of his toes to sidestep a puddle. Though he ll stop in his tracks to squat down and watch a worm wiggling on the asphalt. But his twin brother, Tobi, will undoubtedly slap his own small rubber-booted foot down-smack-into the running water and the only question that remains is will he manage to splatter his big sister, Kitty, with enough rainwater to cause a shriek and the hurling of at least one insult. Belle does not like discord amongst her children, would forbid it altogether if she could.

This time Tobi manages to do the inevitable deed with Kitty already safely clustered among her friends. She hardly notices his foolishness, and Belle is relieved. Watching from under the eaves of her side porch, she is left wondering if the water flowed over his boot and poured down into it so that he will spend the day in a sodden sock. It is likely that Belle will think of this at least two more times today. It s a long drive from her Massachusetts suburb to Baltimore, and she has plenty of time to think of these things. She worries that Kitty will leave her raincoat in the fifth-grade classroom again. She has three raincoats. Every child in Longmeadow has three or more raincoats. Two of Kitty s are MIA and if she leaves this one at school, she will be without a raincoat for tomorrow. The missing raincoat will be at the center of tomorrow morning s chaos-Saturday s donut run, chauffeuring to skating lessons, birthday parties. Belle s husband, Ben, capable as he is, will have no idea that it has been left at school, likely in the company of her other raincoats. He will flip through closets, dig in backpacks, search the car, and continuously instruct Kitty to find the darn thing. She will have no recollection as to where it could possibly be. Eventually, he will force her to put on her winter jacket instead. There will likely be a few tears.

At breakfast this morning, Jack and Tobi wanted to know how long their mother would be gone. Belle told them she wasn t sure, a few days, maybe longer. She knows this is hard on Jack, especially. Kitty, on the other hand, knows it all to be an adventure, this unplanned stretch of days without her mother at the hub of it. She is eleven and looks forward to slipping into her mother s role, so long as she is assured of her return. I ll take care of the boys, Mom, she said.

Well, thank you, Kitty. I m sure your father will be a big help as well.

That s right. Ben came around the corner with his coffee cup in his hand. Kitty Kat and I will hold down the fort. He patted the top of his daughter s head with his free hand. Don t worry about a thing, he said.

It is important to Belle that the children know she understands their concerns about her absence. Also important that they know she is not worried, that she knows they are in good hands with their father. And that she will be back. She will always come back.

Jack stops and turns to where she stands at the door, runs his small hands beneath the wide straps of his backpack, and rocks his body side to side. She urges him on with a blown kiss. The other children have gathered at the bus stop by now and Belle can see the flash of the yellow bus beyond the pine grove across the street, making its slow way to their block. I ll be okay, Mom. Don t worry, she hears him say. And in this way, he is much like his namesake, Belle s older brother, Jackson-or Jax as they call him-trying to ease whatever misgivings have worried their way into Belle s head.

But unlike Jax, school doesn t come easily to Jack. He s too distractible, according to his teachers, unorganized, constantly forgetting or losing things. Up and wandering the classroom in the middle of a lesson, drawn to the rain dripping down the windows or the way the class guinea pig is chewing up an empty paper towel tube. Sometimes singing bits of songs out loud at his desk. When he s not at school, Belle is good at getting him back on track, steering him with a gentle hand to his shoulder when she needs to hurry him through the grocery store, knowing when to stop and give him her full attention and in that way head off his frustration at not being heard. She s tried to tell this to his teachers, tried to explain that there are ways of handling Jack that are much more productive than calling him out in class in such a way as to embarrass him. Sending him off to school in the morning often feels like she s sending him into enemy territory.

Belle tightens the sash of her robe as she makes her way back to her kitchen. She has three missed calls from Tess. But before Belle can decide whether to call her back now or wait until she s dressed, the house phone rings.

I was hoping you d left already, Tess says.

Nope-it s a little crazy around here in the morning, Tess. Belle feels the resentment blooming, the seed of it unfurling whenever she is pulled from the business of her own young family and back to the complicated one she was born to. She can hear Tess huff on the other end. What s wrong? Belle knows the huff is a foreboding thing with Tess.

Are you kidding? Everything, everything about this is wrong.

I know. We ll be there soon, Tess. We ll figure this out.

They re both insane, Tess says. Mom more than Daddy. I know this is her idea, Belle. Daddy can t be on board for this. He always said Ella was better off there, always said that. Always said it was best for all of us-remember?

Belle can only nod her head, knows Tess is asking a rhetorical question. Have you talked to the boys? The boys, Jax, George, and Finney, are now grown men but will always be referred to collectively as the boys.

Oh, yeah. It s a mess, Belle. Tess tells her that George s bitchy wife is insisting he see the girls ballet recital tonight, so he won t be coming down until tomorrow. Finney-well, who can know with Finney? He will likely find a way to back out at the last minute-patient emergency or some such shit. And Jax, the one they can usually count on, is flying standby out of California so who the hell knows when he ll show?

Belle feels a small flip in her stomach. Goddammit, is all she can say. Jax has to be there. She doesn t want to do this without him. To her way of thinking, he s the only one who has any chance of convincing their parents that this is a terrible idea, a dangerous and half-baked idea that can only end badly. Still, the possibility of changing their minds is a long shot, at best. It s not like their parents actually consulted them. No-they just made up their minds to do this precarious thing and bring Ella home to live with them. They didn t consult the young Jules children when they sent Ella away thirty-two years ago-didn t even tell them until the night before she was to leave. So it would follow that they would suddenly, on what appears to be a whim, decide to bring her back. Permanently.

By the time Belle hangs up the phone, her husband, Ben, is back in the kitchen, picking up banana peels from the table and stowing the milk in the refrigerator.

Why does it always look like a troop of monkeys has been through here every morning? he wants to know.

Damn it! she says, suddenly spying Jack s math book on the floor beneath the kitchen table.

I got this, Ben says. I ll drop it off on my way to the office.

Between the two of them, she and Ben manage to be a safety...

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