Every Little Thing She Does is
Magic
Author’s Notes
Thank
you Kate, for the advice and the fast edit.
This
story starts approximately one year before "The Scare". "Tainted
Timeline" aside (April!!), Jim and Brian have just left for college; Jim
had just turned 17 in July, Brian will turn 18 in October. Trixie, Honey and
Diana are 15; Mart and Dan are 16 and Bobby is 8. The year is 1991. Pay no
attention to that man behind the curtain--the great Oz has spoken!
The
title comes from the song by The Police.
Quoted without permission, but respectfully.
The Spring dance reference is from the ending of
#30, and the (a pox on this particular KK!) reference to Trixie pulling down her
sleeve to hide the bracelet is from #10. As
if you didn’t know that already!
J
Chapter
2
·
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" –
lyrics & music by Sting, performed by the Police
·
"Hard Act to Follow" – lyrics &
music by Tim Finn, performed by The Split Enz
Quoted without permission. Come-n-get-me, neener
neener neener!
J
Chapter
3
·
"Is She Really Going Out With Him?" -
Lyrics & music by Joe Jackson; quoted w/o permission, but of course, my
dahlinks!
And
I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel sorry for Jim one little bit at this point
in the story!
J
Chapter
4
Okay,
now I feel sorry for him!
·
"I’ve Just Seen a Face" - lyrics &
music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by The Beatles
·
"Big Yellow Taxi" - lyrics & music by
Joni Mitchell
·
"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" -
lyrics & music by Sting, performed by The Police
"No
iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right
place." is from Isaac Babel’s short story Guy de Maupassant.
All
quoted, as per tradition, without permission!
I
was recently going through all my boxes of junk, when I found several letters of
the type Trixie and Nick were passing back and forth. My friend Cathy and I had
the dullest English teacher in the whole world in the 11th grade,
named Mr. Bol. He was like the teacher in the movie "Ferris Bueller’s Day
Off" who spoke in the relentless monotone. And we spent many a 4th
period passing a note back and forth that we kept adding to. Hey, it was the
original Instant Messenger! :) But luckily, we were never caught.
She
sat right behind me and when she was done, she’d lightly tap my shoulder.
I’d nonchalantly let my right arm hang down and cup my hand so she could put
the note in it. When I was done, I’d let my hand hang down again until I felt
her take the note. Just think what I could have accomplished in that class had I
spent half the energy on actually doing the work!
Chapter
5
·
"The Longest Time" - lyrics & music by
Billy Joel; quoted without permission.
And
thanks to my big brother, who showed me the proper way to throw a punch when I
was in elementary school. It sure came in handy in the fifth grade when Chuck
Peevyhouse (naturally, everybody called him Chuck Pee Pee House, which may or
may not justify his violent behavior) started wailing on me for no reason I
could ascertain. I’m pleased to report that he fell over backwards onto a desk
and never picked on me again. Sure wish I were that brave now!
J
Chapter
6
·
"Save the Best for Last" – lyrics &
music by W. Waldman, J. Lind, and P. Galdston; performed by Vanessa Williams.
Thank
you times a thousand for all the support I received while I was unemployed. It
meant the world to me, and there were days when your emails were the only thing
that kept me going. There’s only so many times you can hear the words,
"We’ve decided to go with another candidate" without wanting to
borrow Eric’s glock and go postal!!
Special
thanks to Kate for all her help with the flashback scene. You’ve got
Wessonality, my dear! And to Anne, with whom I always manage to have
loooooooooong conversations (Only two books to go!!), Jennifer for the red
binder, Steph for the groovy career advice (still haven’t mastered the art of
salary negotiation!) and Anna for all the Princess Bride quotes ("truly you
have a dizzying intellect!" "It is the sound of ultimate
suffering!")
Extra
special thanks to my EXTREMELY generous benefactor; who I’m guessing wants to
remain anonymous in a Bob-White kind of way. Now if I can only finagle the
vacation time…
Chapter
7
·
"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" –
Lyrics & Music by Sting; performed by The Police.
·
"I’m Waiting for the Day" - Lyrics &
Music by Brian Wilson and Mike Love; performed by The
Chapter 8
·
"Everybody Plays the Fool" - lyrics &
music by Rudy Clark, Kenny Williams & Jim Bailey; performed by Main
Ingredient.
·
"Trouble Me" – lyrics & music by
Natalie Merchant and Dennis Drew
Chapter 9
And thanks to Kyrie, not only for all her
help with the comma crisis, but for helping me get rid of that second head!!
AND for the web-building 101 Class (“Well, at some point somebody has
to make them!”).
J
TMAS
Lives!
And a
final "thank you" to all the people who emailed and/or posted,
completely indignant about Trixie’s "sentence". You also helped
shape this chapter!
Chapter
11
There are
some scenes stolen directly from The Scare, just in case you were wondering why
part of this chapter sounded awfully familiar. I’m afraid the next chapter
will be the same way! J But it’s cool—I’m on pretty good terms with the
author, and she gave me permission. Oh wait—she’s me! *g*
Thank you
Kate for telling me, "It’s postable!" Gleeps, that’s a relief! Oh,
and I don’t think we’re delusional at all. No siree!
·
"God Only Knows" –
Lyrics & Music by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher; performed by The Beach Boys
Chapter
12
A
million thanks to Kate for all her encouragement and naughty suggestions (I
don’t think so, honey!!) and to Kyrie, for fixing all my annoying mistakes. Oh
where would I be without you ladies? How would I survive without our hilarious
buddy chats? And speaking of chatting, thanks for all the IM’s—you all know
who you are!
·
"Fragile"
– Lyrics & Music by Sting
·
"The
Lazarus Heart" – Lyrics & Music by Sting
And just how perfect is that
quote from the James Agee book? I cried like a baby when I read that!
Lupus is not necessarily a
fatal disease; however, Systemic Lupus is the most severe variety of it, often
affecting the internal organs as well as attacking the joints and skin. Huge
strides have been made in the past 10 years, however, in my universe, Jim
is 13 years old in 1984.
My friend Ed’s little
sister had to miss most of her junior year in high school due to Lupus—her
heart and kidneys were so deeply affected she was practically bedridden. She’s
in her late 20’s now, and has frequent health problems—the birth of her son
just about sank her. She has also "never been strong", so when I was
thinking about what Jim’s mother could have had, Lupus was the first thing
that sprang to my mind. It should be noted, however, that it never says what
Jim’s mother dies of in the series, and this is all just a product of my
overactive imagination.
Chapter 13
Must once again thank my
awesome editors, Kate and Kryie. You guys RULE! I owe Kyrie a check—she had to
re-write a couple of my sentences!! And she wonders why I refer to her as
"the goddess". All bow down to the goddess Kyrie and the plotting
queen Kate!