Angels Dance on the Head of a Pin

GlenScott Thomas Copper

Description

In the American sixties, two teens from dysfunctional families grow close during a summer in Chicago but must eventually escape to the woods, where they find difficulty but also love.
In 1962, a thirteen-year-old altar boy and a teenybopper meet on a train to Chicago. Both are shuttling between relatives of their respective dysfunctional families. Willie lives in Hyde Park with her mother and stepfather. Scott lives in a Loop hotel with his Great Uncle Ode while waiting for the annulment of his parents’ marriage.
Willie and Scott spend the summer commiserating and enjoying Chicago, with Willie educating Scott on pop culture and highlights of her city and Scott sharing with her opera, the library, and hikes in the park. Soon, though, it’s time for them both to return to reality. Alone on his last night at Ode’s hotel, Scott discovers a distraught Willie, who threatens to jump from the roof, having accidentally killed her stepfather while fending off another sexual advance. Scott talks her down and convinces her to run away to Ode’s Wisconsin cabin to seek his advice.
When Ode fails to show, the two teens are forced to fend for themselves there in the woods. Winter sets in, and it becomes apparent that Willie is seriously ill. This is only the beginning of their struggles in a new world of their making, away from abuse and unhappiness. Scott and Willie have already been through so much, but together, they might find peace and a loving family among the Ho Chunk.

Sujets

• Archaeology
• Architecture of Chicago
• Native American mythology
• Mississippi River
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: LifeRich Publishing
• Date de parution: 02 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781489744722
• Langue: English

Extrait

ANGELS DANCE on the HEAD of a PIN
GLENSCOTT THOMAS COPPER


Copyright © 2022 GlenScott Thomas Copper.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
 
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
LifeRich Publishing
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.liferichpublishing.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4473-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4474-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4472-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022918967
 
 
 
LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 11/30/2022
CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgements
 
1: A Fart In Church
2: The Power of Words
3: The Pawn Shop Gang
4: Private Rankin’s Comeuppance
5: Confessions & Contrition
6: Sex-Ed., By the Book
7: Are You My Guardian Angel?
8: Comrade Conrad’s Catechism Lesson
9: The Holy Goose
10: What’s In A Name?
11: Siege of Mouse Island
12: There’s Always Someone Bigger
13: Life’s No Picnic
14: Penance and a Rescue
15: Deception (You Can See It From Here)
16: Getting to Table Rock
17: A Vision Quest
18: Horses
19: Missing
20: Requiem
21: Long, Long Division
22: I’m Off to See The Wizard.
23: Silver Bullet
24: Speech Therapy.
25: The Shadow Knows
26: Berghoff’s Restaurant
27: Uncle Ode
28: See Ya, Sweetie
29: Spies in the Courthouse
30: Hiding Private Rankin
31: Trouble’s Troubles.
32: Looping The Loop,
33: In To The Rabbit Hole
34: A New Job Times Two
35: The Right Fit.
36: Van Gogh & the Art Institute
37: Seminar
38: Tunnel Of Love: Riverview
39: A Silver Dollar’s Worth
40: Leukemia, & A Lunch Date
41: Seminar With Susie
42: Dressing Left or Right?
43: Binyon’s Turtle Soup
44: A Double Date With Dad
45: A Night at the Opera
46: “The Talk”
47: A New Set of Wheels
48: Anullment
49: Serving Mass
50: The Champ’s Camp
51: Squirrel Therapy
52: Willie’s Dreams Come True
53: The Monsignor’s Decision
54: A Second First Day of School
55: New School Friends & Jealousy
56: Cheap Therapy
57: Friendly Deceptions at Berghoff’s
58: “The Ouchman”
59: At The Crossroads
60: Liston/Patterson Fight
61: “Moby Dick”
62: Ode’s Departure
63: A Dress With a View
64: School Rules
65: Limbo & The Y Dance
66: Low Blood Pressure
67: Cafe Medici
68: The Doorbell
69: Last Night At The Majestic
70: Confession
71: Hello Mae West
72: A Cabin in the Woods
73: The 400
74: Darrow’s Gift
75: So Long Shadow
76: Alfie Jr.’s Rescue Mission
77: Mysterious Stranger at the Majestic
78: The Trench coat
79: Her Story
80: Promises To Keep
81: Choices: Fork in the Road
82: The Long Walk
83: Scary Thoughts?
84: The Forest’s Magic
85: Blissful Sleep
86: Alone Again?
87: A Cricket Hears Confession
88: Our Father, Forgive Us
89: A Geology Lesson
90: Geronimo!
91: Temptation.
92: “Resist Not Evil.”
93: Skeleton In The Closet.
94: The Lesson of Job
95: Revelation
96: Archeology 101
97: Digging It
98: Another Skeleton
99: Inventing Myth’
100: The Burial
101: Shots Fired
102: Surrender
103: A Rude Awakening
104: Hunting Season
105: A Biology Lesson
106: It’s A Choice
107: In a Dark Wood, Lost.
108: The Goose Hunt
109: Buck Fever
110: Northern Pike
111: The Breadwinner Returns
112: Life’s a Kick
113: Our Christmas Tree
114: An Angel Is Seen On High.
115: Something of a Shock
116: Keeping Calm
117: We’ve Got To Move Again
118: Going For Help
119: One Way Switches.
120: Getting Off Track
121: A Baptism Of Snow
122: An Old Friend Appears
123: Our New Very Old Home
124: Grandmother’s Revelation
125: Mother Mouse’s Medicine
126: A Trip To Black River.
127: Ho Chunk Ways.
128: News From Home
129: Fresh Meat
130: He’s Alive!
131: Grandmother’s Story
132: Ode’s Story
133: Mysterious Conception
134: The Matchmaker
135: A Visit To The V.A.
136: I Present Our Case
137: A New Value For Peace, Light
138: A New Arrival For The New Year.
139: Rabbits
140: Another Mysterious Arrival
141: Through the Crevice
142: Explanations
143: Ho Chunk, They Persist.
144: Digging Out
145: Happy Birthday, Little Bear
146: Being Ho Chunk 101
147: Resolutions
148: Epilogue: Family Reunion
DEDICATION
This is dedicated to my teachers: first of all, my wife and editor in chief, Karen Schaefer Copper; Professor Elbin Cleveland, my mentor and best friend; Mercedes Dzindzeleta, friend and first editor; sister Bernard, my first grade teacher who inspired me and taught me “god is love and love is god; Howard Zeiderman and the faculty of St John’s College-Annapolis where I learned to think; Mary Alice Kerrigan, who encouraged me to go to St. John’s; my grandmothers and their lessons on how to be good; and the Ho chunk people upon whose land and rivers I was conceived and raised, in particular, Mountain Wolf Woman, Conrad Funmaker, and Willie Taylor.
PREFACE
This is a work of fiction loosely based on events and experiences I have observed or witnessed while growing up in the Midwest. I had two close friends in early childhood who were Winnebago (now Ho Chunk). They inspired my interest in their culture. I grew up directly under the faces of the Bluffs overlooking Prairie La Crosse where the Black and the La Crosse Rivers meet the Mississippi. I often scaled their heights as a child and would sit upon their ledges, looking down and imagining myself, two centuries earlier playing caabna (lacrosse) with my friends Willie and Conrad surrounded by their hoci . (homes). I have honored them in this narrative by using their English names, though the events and characters here are totally fictional. I lost track of them both before I was twelve. I have borrowed the names of my Uncle Ode Rankin and my Godfather, Shadow (Wilmer Conter), major heroes in my family’s history: stand up guys who were often there to stand in when others failed or were unable to show up.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I was inspired by and am very much indebted to “ Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian ” Edited by Nancy Oestreich-Lurie; as well as stories told to me by my Grandmothers Norma Elizabeth Snyder-Copper and Adelia Guelph-Dohlin, and Philomena Snyder, a close friend of my Uncle Ode.
Finally and most importantly Professor Elbin Cleveland who read the manuscript front to back three times over ten years reminding me repeatedly that plot is secondary to character. Aristotle got it wrong.
1: A FART IN CHURCH
Friday Before Memorial Day, 1962
Father Weber was taking his time at the memorial prayer. There were lots of newly dead to be remembered. The advanced age of his mostly German-Catholic parishioners who founded St. John’s seventy-five years ago, the Asian flu and polio outbreaks of the recent past were taking their toll. Father sang the Mass in a kind of Gregorian chant, often dwelling several seconds on each syllable. Gasps and winces punctuated each phrase as he hobbled from one side of the altar to the other. Suffering from gout, he consequently wore knitted leather-soled black slippers. He probably should have retired years ago. I’d only known him for less than a month, but I hoped that someday, in seventy years or so, “Father Rankin” would inspire the kind of devotion in me that his congregation had for him. He was the only thing that kept St. John the Baptist Catholic Church open. A new and grander St. James’ Lebanese Catholic Church with its Byzantine bell towers just three blocks north, at the top of the hill, overshadowed St. John’s.
When I become a priest, I thought I’d rather go by Father Scott than Father Rankin, though neither one sounded Catholic. At my Baptism my maternal Italian grandmother and her two sisters had decided, without consulting me, that I was to be the next priest in the family. We had had an abundance of nuns, but our last priest passed away around the turn of the last century. My few male cousins, all half a generation or more, older than me, were large, rugged baseball players and or soldiers. I was their last hope among a preponderance of girls, including my sisters. The three matriarchs noted, at my baptism, that my mother had neglected to provide me with a patron saint’s name.
“Scott,” my grandmother pointed out, “is not the name