This Be The Verse

Dan Powell

Calvin wanted to lose his virginity. Staring at the departure board updates from the cafe he could think of nothing else. His right foot, resting on his left, jigged and flicked with nervous energy, stopping for a few moments every now and only to begin once more. Every part of the trip, from flights, to the city he would be staying in, to the location of the hotel, was a cog in the machine designed to propel him into the realm of the sexually active. Every part except one.

“Calvinsweetheart, I asked if it was time to check in?”

Calvin pulled his eyes away from the screen to look at his mother. She arched her eyebrow.

“Calvinsweetheart?” She always said it like this, as if it were one word. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Well, is it time?”

Calvin checked his watch.

“There’s still a few minutes,” he said. “Finish your tea, then we’ll take the bags over.”

“Didn’t I tell you it was worth leaving a few hours early dear? This way we get to relax before the rush of check ins and boarding calls. When I flew with your father, Godresthim, we were always running late for flights. Did I ever tell you about the time we…”

Calvin stopped listening and watched her mouth moving. Over the years he had grown adept at shutting out her droning. He nodded now and again but let his thoughts drift back to the trip. If he could just get Mother settled in the hotel, she might well have an early night. He could still get away, explore a bit before putting his plan in motion. Forty-two years was quite old enough to still be a virgin. For goodness sake, there were Hollywood movies lampooning the sad state of his personal life. Something had to be done.

Calvin originally booked the trip for one, but was forced to plump for another ticket when Mother, during a search of his room while he was at work, found his holiday stash.

“There must be no secrets between us,” she had said. “Don’t you want your old mum to have a holiday too?”

He shook his head just as he did when a child.

“That’s settled then. I mean, who wants to go on holiday on their own?”

Uncomfortable on the hard plastic of the airport cafe chair, Calvin cringed at the memory of his spinelessness.

“Are you okay, Calvinsweetheart? You don’t look well.”

Calvin shrugged. “I’m fine.” He shook his head to clear it a little. “We should go.”

He stood and took his mother”s tweed travel jacket from the back of her chair, waited as she checked her purse, stood and smoothed down her skirt.

“Thank you,” she said as he helped her into her jacket. “Such a good boy.”

She stretched up to kiss his cheek. Calvin felt his teeth grit.

“You’re welcome, Mother.”

 …

In the check in queue Calvin waited while Mother rummaged through her purse.    He put a hand to his pocket and retrieved the napkin inside. He unfolded it carefully, mesmerised by the signature scrawled across the soft paper surface. Ava Scott. Film star. Ingenue. Glamour model. And wasn’t she recording an album of show tunes soon? Calvin’s thoughts filled with the image of her signing the napkin. Again he was struck with how his Cilla managed to capture some of Ava Scott’s look, at least in her photos.

“Put that away, Calvinsweetheart,” Mother said

As he gently slid the napkin back in his pocket, Calvin noticed the two men stood behind him. One kept glancing around nervously, but the other looked right at him, eyes cold, mouth grinning as if enjoying a private joke.

“Here we are, Calvinsweetheart.”

Calvin, glad of the excuse, turned back to Mother. The man behind him laughed, as Mother handed Calvin the tickets and passports.

“Now don’t go losing them. I want them straight back when the lady has finished looking at them.”

…###…

The characters in ‘This Be The Verse’ arrived in a flash, fully formed and, I thought at the time, with a complete back story. Calvin and his mother scurried onto the page and simply did their thing. It helped that I had the setting and plot handed to me, the airport setting delivered in the Yin and Yang book’s concept, while the central plot idea was from a news story a few years back about a guy stopped at a security check-in.

Everything else, Calvin’s desperate attempt to fly to another country to finally lose his virginity at the age of 42, Mother’s drive to chaperone her son on his first trip abroad, came from the characters of Calvin and his mother, and their strained relationship.

While the first draft arrived quickly, the real work began with the collaborative aspect of Chinese Whisperings. I still feel bad about how I made Tony Noland re-write a chunk of his story to accommodate my characters only for both of us to realise our character’s couldn’t meet as they were on opposite sides of the security check-in at that time in the collections continuity. How did I miss that?

While I feel guilty about Tony, I feel nothing but pride and joy at watching Calvin and his mother spread their wings and hang out in Claudia Osmond’s and Annie Evett’s stories. While I thought taking part in the collaborative side of CW would be fun, I didn’t expect to be shown something new and totally intrinsic about my characters during the process, yet that is exactly what these talented authors did. Both of them gifted me wonderful details that helped expose the hidden desires of Calvin and his mother.

Then, when I thought there was nothing left to learn, Jason Coggins, in his Yang Book story, waved a fabulous character in my face that I just knew had something to do with my two. In fact, this character provided the final piece in Calvin and his mother’s relationship puzzle. I am so grateful to Jason for allowing me to play with one of his main characters. Because that is what my experience with CW has been. Play.

‘This Be The Verse’ takes its title from the well known Phillip Larkin poem.

Dan Powell’s “This Be The Verse” is the fourth story for The Yang Book.

Actually writing my story was the easy part, just as the tip of the ice berg is the pretty floaty bit. I made no secret that right up to the start date for my writing slot I had no idea at all what I was going to write about. The Monday morning I sat down at my typewriter, kids safely delivered to school, I found my inspiration in a news story and set about building my characters around a simple premise. In a day or two I had my first draft. That was when the real work began.

I knew from my outsider’s view of The Red Book’s creation, that writing for CW would be a collaborative experience, both with the editors and the other writers, one that would, of necessity, be fluid and organic as possible connections between stories became actual. I wasn’t prepared for just how that collaboration would help me grow as a writer. Nor had I anticpated just how exciting it is to see other writers take your characters and show them back to you.

Over the course of drafting my story I have travelled down dead ends with Tony Noland as we crafted a great crossover point in our stories only to realise too late such a meeting was physically impossible due to the inconvenience of airport security check-ins, learnt something about one of my duo of main characters that had a real impact on my subsequent drafts from watching her do her thing in Claudia Osmond’s story for The Yin Book, and, at time of writing this post, I am about to work through another draft to incorporate a character from Jason Coggin’s story, whose relationship with my duo sheds real light on some of the darker parts of their tale.

Collaborative projects like this are a lot of work, not least for our two tireless editors, but then so is everything worth doing. I have learnt so much from sharing a playground and letting other writers play with my toys and, having travelled through the belly of the CW beast, I can see why all ten writers from last year signed up for a second go round in 2010. This kind of project is a blast.

Dan Powell’s “This Be The Verse” is the fourth in The Yang Book. You can read more about the creation of “This Be The Verse” on 19th August and the first 750 words will be available 16th September.

Born in the early seventies, Dan Powell grew up reading Marvel Comics. As a result he spent a large part of his childhood wanting to be Spider-man (something having two young sons has probably allowed him to achieve!)

Dan spent nearly ten years teaching English in secondary schools and now (almost exclusively) writes fiction of all shapes and sizes, between caring for his sons and working his way through an Open University Creative Writing course. Originally from the West Midlands (UK) Dan calls Gütersloh, Germany home these days.

When we asked why Dan said yes to his invitation, he had this to say:

Writing for a Chinese whisperings collection is a great opportunity to work with writers and editors in a new kind of collaboration.  Since first tripping over mentions of Chinese Whisperings on twitter in the middle of last year, I watched the website and Red Book project develop as Jodi, Paul and the writers of the first collection turned the intriguing concept into a unique collection of stories that not only lived up to the original idea but in many ways surpassed it. With each extract from the collection posted on the website the project ensnared more and more of my attention.

What happened when Dan bought The Red Book?

I read the first collection in two roughly equal sessions over a weekend. I was engrossed, not only in the stories of the individual characters, but also in how they fitted into the overall arc of the collection. When I finished the writer in me couldn’t help but get to thinking about what I might have written within the limitations and liberations of the Chinese Whispering ethos. I was already imagining myself as part of the collaborative writing process.

It seems inevitable now, from both sides, that an invitation would find its way to Dan.

When I got the email asking if I would like to take part in the second Chinese Whisperings project, the question wasn’t why would I say yes, but how could I say no. The opportunity to work with so many gifted emerging writers in a challenging and unique fictional environment, with editorial support and the promise of reading something of mine within the larger web of a Chinese Whisperings collection is simply too good to pass up.

I am on the edge of my seat just as I was while reading The Red Book, eager to find out what happens next. I hope you’ll follow the progress of Chinese Whisperings as the mystery of the Yin and Yang Books unfold.

Read Dan’s full bio and enjoy more of his writing at Dan Powell Fiction.

Dan has also recently had his story ‘Impact’  included in the 100 Stories for Haiti anthology, with all proceeds going to the British Red Cross effort in Haiti.

Despite this, Dan’s history of literary deconstruction left us as editors both excited and trepidatious when he let us know he’d be writing a review. There is nothing like having your work picked apart by someone who pulls no punches and seemingly manages to shine the light in the dark spots you missed. Paul suggested some ‘panic pills’ to ease the pain.

Dan has this to say:

What is perhaps most striking about The Red Book is the fact that, on finishing the final tale, it leaves the reader with a desire to return to the beginning and experience the various threads of plot and character again, certain that a second read will unlock deeper complexities of connection.

Dan’s review is thorough, looking at the anthology as a whole and as individual stories. You can read the review in its entirety here.