breakinglight11 | 31 Plays in 31 Days, #4

My all-time favorite fan fiction writer Christine Morgan, who I discovered in high school as she was writing her sprawling series of Gargoyles fan work, used to do a thing where she would write small, seemingly flavor-and-texture details into her stories. In the current story, they wouldn’t be significant in any way, and often she wouldn’t even know what they were supposed to refer to at the time of writing. But as she continued on with her series of stories, which became truly massive in its number of installments, she would sometimes come back to those details and expand on them, finding an entire story she could tell within it. I always admired that, as it gave the sense of a really broad, cohesive world, without necessarily having to have everything known or planned ahead of time.

I’ve never been particularly good at it myself, but I feel kind of like that with today’s entry. It takes a character whose only feature in the Mrs. Hawking series was a brief mention in one play, and even then only to make a point about other people. It occurred to me that there could be a story in that character, or at least a plot that our heroes could deal with. I don’t know if this is something that would be usable in the next story, though it would make sense with the timeline. But it’s an idea worth exploring, in scene noodling if nothing else, just to see if it has any legs.

I wonder if those of you who have paid attention to the details of the Mrs. Hawking stories will recognize this new character and realize what might be going on as you read.

Day #4 – “Mrs. Barrymore”
From the Mrs. Hawking series
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

NATHANIEL HAWKING, Mrs. Hawking’s nephew and assistant, mid-thirties
MIRANDA BARRYMORE, a middle-class married woman in town from Hong Kong, mid-twenties

London, England, 1889

~~~

(NATHANIEL is at work in his office. A well-dressed young woman, MIRANDA BARRYMORE, enters, hopeful and nervous.)

MIRANDA: Excuse me, sir? Are you Mr. Nathaniel Hawking?

NATHANIEL: At your service, madam.

MIRANDA: The same Nathaniel Hawking whose uncle was the late Colonel?

NATHANIEL: How may I help you?

MIRANDA: I do apologize for accosting you like this. But I’m afraid I— didn’t know what else to do.

NATHANIEL: Forgive me, but have we met? I feel as though I ought to place you.

MIRANDA: No, sir. My name is Mrs. Barrymore. I’ve been trying to reach your aunt— the Colonel’s wife?

NATHANIEL: Oh. Oh, I see. Do you— do you require her assistance or advice?

(NATHANIEL gets out his case notebook.)

MIRANDA: I suppose— in a manner of speaking. I’ve written her letters for some time now. Only I don’t know if they reached her. I never received a response.

NATHANIEL: I imagine they did not. That doesn’t sound like her.

MIRANDA: Well. I suppose I did send them from quite far away. Until quite recently, I’ve been in Hong Kong.

NATHANIEL: What brings you all the way to London? Not only to see madam, certainly?

MIRANDA: Oh, no— my husband had business. But, since I’m in town, I thought I might attempt to speak to her personally. It’s… something rather serious, you see.

NATHANIEL: I see. Well, I am familiar with the nature of my aunt’s work. I don’t mean to pry, but I take it this is in regards to something of a delicate matter?

MIRANDA: In a manner of speaking. You see, it concerns my mother. I received some distressing news of her recently, and I’ve been unable to reach her.

NATHANIEL: That does sound distressing, madam. And you would like Mrs. Hawking to discover what’s happened to her?

MIRANDA: Well… I believe Mrs. Hawking already knows. That’s why I’ve written. From what I can discern, she’s one of the only people to have known my mother well enough at the time to understand what’s happened to her.

NATHANIEL: Indeed? May I ask, who is your mother?

MIRANDA: She was known in London as Mrs. Dawson Frost.

31 Plays in 31 Days, #4 - “Mrs. Barrymore”