Sequence of Events (part twelve)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sequence of Events

Chapter Two

Mud in Your Eye

 

 

 

 

Badgley’s Detective’s Notebook

Cyrus Badgley and M. Milton Hoagley

Revised edition, 1916

 

CHAPTER ONE

Demeanor and Gist

 

A fellow visits his Aunt Francie, and the two repair to her front veranda, to enjoy a pitcher of iced tea. As she speaks to her nephew of her rheumatism, other voices intrude, a low and a high one. The words are too distant to make out, but have the air of a heated argument; and following a loud noise, sharp and somewhat echoing, which startles both the fellow and his Aunt Francie, a male figure is seen to run past her house, along the street. The figure darts between two neighboring houses and is lost from view.

 

Freda leafed, to discover the length of chapter one. She heard the toilet flush. Stanley, who turned knobs without a squeak, whose footfalls left no impression, could not avoid this most indelicate of noises.

He had told her he’d spent his day reading, had found tinned soup and was satisfied with this meal, and that he would retire for the evening at six. Early bedtime, also quite satisfactory.

It was now nine-thirty, and no whiff of Phillip. Safe to learn onwards…

Safe, maybe, to slip into the kitchen and devour an egg on toast.

 

Demeanor, Freda learned, gathering the chenille cover over her legs, was the detective’s shortest avenue to delineating character. Is he confident or kowtowing, meeting of eyes, or shying; does he sit straight, sprawl, or slump?

 

You will not remember, nor have time, to write down all the words a subject may speak. Further, human conversation, as opposed to the novel’s or the stage drama’s, must be replete with those prompting syllables, such as, “Uh”, which occur naturally. Were you even very adept at shorthand notation, you would merely sacrifice your ability to observe those details the subject is furnishing to you moment-to-moment, in your over-conscious effort to capture his every word.

The telling portrayal of the subject’s demeanor, when combined with the gist of his remarks, will, on the other hand, fix his picture in your mind, allowing your mind to recreate the scene in far more accurate detail.

 

Two or three pages forward—

 

Mr. Collins seems reluctant to discuss the reputation of Mr. Jefferson.

Do not decide this true and note it down as such; ask, and ask in the most straightforward way, “Mr. Collins, are you reluctant to discuss the reputation of Mr. Jefferson?”

 

At chapter’s end, a gallery of simple drawings. Hair color less important than manner in which worn, texture. How to indicate these with single lines. Charming photographs of two tabby cats, and the question: why are they not the same cat?

 

 

12

 

 

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Mud in Your Eye

Sequence of Events (part one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Stephanie Foster, 2017, 2021, 2026)