Joy

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  waked and, being greatly afraid, ran unto the dead body with the lamp in my hand, and I uncovered his face and viewed him closely round about; all the parts were there: and immediately came in the wretched matron all blubbered with her witnesses, and threw herself upon the corpse, and eftsoons kissing him, examined his body in the lamplight, and found no part diminished. Then she turned and commanded one Philodespotus, her steward, to pay the good guardian his wages forthwith, which when he had done, he said: ‘ We thank you, gentle young man, for your pains, and verily for your diligence herein we will account you as one of the family.’ “Whereupon I, being joyous of my unhoped gain, and rattling my money in my hand, as I gazed upon its shining colour, did answer : * Nay, madam, I pray you, esteem me as one of your servitors ; and as often as you need my services at any time, I am at your commandment.' «J had not fully declared these words, when as behold, all the servants of the house did eurse the dreadful ominousness of my words, and were assem- bled to drive-me away with all manner of weapons; one buffeted me about the face with hís fists, another thrust his elbows into my shoulders, some struck me in the sides with their hands, some kicked. me, some pulled me by the hair, some tore my garments, and so I was handled amongst them and driven from the house even as the proud young man Adonis who was torn by a boar, or Orpheus the Muses' poet. « When I was come into the next street to recover my spirit, I mused with myself too late mine unwise and unadvised words which I had spoken, whereby I considered that I had deserved much more punish- ment, and that I was worthily beaten for my folly : 89 LUCIUS APULEIUS dignumque me pluribus etiam verberibus fuisse merito consentio, ecce iam ultimum defletus atque conclamatus .processerat mortuus, rituque patrio, utpote unus de optimatibus, pompa funeris publici ductabatur per forum. Occurrit atratus quidam maestus in lacrimis genialem canitiem revellens senex, et manibus ambabus invadens torum, voce contenta quidem sed assiduis singultibus impedita» ‘Per fidem vestram" inquit ‘ Quirites, per pietatem publicam perempto civi subsistite, et extremum facinus in nefariam scelestamque istam feminam severiter vindicate. Haec enim, nec ullus alius, miserum adulescentem, sororis meae filium, in adulteri gratiam et ob praedam hereditariam extinxit veneno. Sic ille senior lamentabiles questus singulis instrepe- bat. Saevire vulgus interdum et facti verisimilitudine ad criminis credulitatem impelli: conclamant ignem, requirunt saxa, parvulos ad exitium mulieris hortan- tur Emeditatis ad haec illa fletibus, quamque sanctissime poterat adiurans cuncta numina, tantum scelus abnuebat. 28 “Ergo igitur senex ille: * Veritatis arbitrium in divinam providentiam reponamus. Zatchlas adest Aegyptius, propheta primarius, qui mecum iamdu- dum grandi praemio pepigit reducere paulisper ab inferis spiritum. corpusque istud postliminio mortis animare’; et cum dicto iuvenem quempiam linteis 90

• From The Annotated Lolita (1991)

  There was one very special rehearsal … my heart, my heart … there was one day in May marked by a lot of gay flurry—it all rolled past, beyond my ken, immune to my memory, and when I saw Lo next, in the late afternoon, balancing on her bike, pressing the palm of her hand to the damp bark of a young birch tree on the edge of our lawn, I was so struck by the radiant tenderness of her smile that for an instant I believed all our troubles gone. “Can you remember,” she said, “what was the name of that hotel, you know [nose puckered], come on, you know—with those white columns and the marble swan in the lobby? Oh, you know [noisy exhalation of breath]—the hotel where you raped me. Okay, skip it. I mean, was it [almost in a whisper] The Enchanted Hunters? Oh, it was? [musingly] Was it?”—and with a yelp of amorous vernal laughter she slapped the glossy bole and tore uphill, to the end of the street, and then rode back, feet at rest on stopped pedals, posture relaxed, one hand dreaming in her print-flowered lap.

• From The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us (2023)

  “The effect is to confirm common anxieties, rather than allaying them,” Kirkus wrote, wondering if the story was perhaps intended as “satirical.” As the reviewer noted with more than a shadow of judgment, the novel closed with Margaret getting her first period. On the other hand, the New York Times described it as a “funny, warm and loving book, one that captures the essence of beginning adolescence.” That same day, the Times included Are You There God? in a write-up of the year’s outstanding children’s books. Judy was overjoyed when she saw the paper. “That was the first time I felt ‘I can really do this,’ ” she said in Judy Blume’s Story. “These people are taking me seriously! It’s not just pretend.” Her name was getting out there. She gained a frisson of notoriety in her town. She gifted three copies of Are You There God? to Randy and Larry’s elementary school, but as she’d later tell it, the principal refused to put it in the library. He said that menstruation wasn’t an appropriate topic for kids that age. Then, there was the time the Blumes’ phone rang and Judy picked up. The person on the other end of the line—a woman—asked her if she was the one who wrote the novel. “Yes,” Judy said. “Communist!” the voice shrieked, before quickly hanging up. How bizarre. It was a strange thing to call someone who’d simply written a book about an American middle schooler and her friend group. Wasn’t it? These days, the Right uses a specific set of inflammatory words when it’s accusing someone of exposing children to inappropriate material: “Indoctrination.” “Pedophilia.” “Grooming.” “When I was 17 I discovered one of my younger siblings had been reading Judy Blume drivel at a friend’s house,” a Twitter user posted to their 18,000+ followers on April 16, 2023. “Their behavior became unacceptable. Judy Blume is a groomer.” But in the Vietnam War era of the early 1970s, the shorthand for anything subversive was “communist.” To a certain buttoned-up demographic, Communism was an encroaching political movement that had infected the minds of the American left wing. Loud and freewheeling rock music? Communist. Roll your eyes all you want, but it’s true. Widespread sex education? Definitely communist. Sex education in schools had been around for over half a century, but it was still an ideological battleground. It first cropped up in the 1910s when soldiers started coming home from the front lines of World War I. Many returned with unwanted reunion gifts for their wives, girlfriends, and sexual partners: gonorrhea and syphilis. The spread of venereal disease (as it was termed back then) was so swift and urgent that new, government-backed organizations popped up to deal with it. Billionaire oil-man John D. Rockefeller was a big supporter of sex ed in schools and he funneled money into the cause.

• From The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us (2023)

  (Klein’s novel tells the story of fourteen-year-old twins who, while struggling to make sense of their parents’ divorce, find out that their older brother has gotten his girlfriend pregnant and wants her to get an abortion.) A spokesman for the superintendent told the Post that he’d decided these stories were better suited to high schoolers. Meanwhile, although Montgomery County’s schools were reconsidering Blubber , the local public library had just ordered 110 copies. “It’s not a great piece of literature,” librarian Ann Friedman said at the time, echoing long-standing criticisms of Blume’s work. “But I feel we have an obligation to be responsive to what kids are reading… I have great faith that kids will figure out what’s the right thing to do without having a moral lesson spelled out.” Fogel vehemently disagreed. “I think adults have an obligation to steer young children away from cruelty,” she said. “Not introduce them to more.” Asked to comment on the controversy, Blume stood up for her novel. “The fact that it is not resolved is the most important part of the book,” she said. “Blubber is a tough book, but I think kids are awfully rough on each other. I’d rather get it out there in the open than pretend it isn’t there.” In light of the situation in Montgomery County, other Maryland schools were also reassessing the book’s suitability for young readers. But given the novel’s intended audience, the Post chose to give Sarah—the only young reader whose voice appears in the article—the final word on the matter. And Sarah loved it. “Blubber , she told her mother, is ‘the best book I ever read.’ ” Hardly anything exemplifies the high-speed shift in the public’s understanding of Judy Blume like two profiles in the Christian Science Monitor , published less than two years apart. The first, headlined “Writing for Kids Without Kidding Around,” came out in May 1979 and described a pleasant visit with Blume at her new home in Santa Fe, where she had just moved from Los Alamos with Tom Kitchens, Randy, and Larry, who were seventeen and fifteen at the time. Beyond Blume’s own mention in passing of the “sensational” responses to her novels, the tone of the story is warm and admiring. “Blume’s books are sympathetic stories of ordinary children, suffering from a bossy sibling, confusing sexuality, or a disintegrating family,” the reporter wrote. “Blume brings humor, affection and order to the often bewildering complexities of being a child today.” The second article, however, reads like it was published on a different planet. “Judy Blume: Children’s Author in a Grown-Up Controversy” came out in the Christian Science Monitor in December 1981, almost a year after Reagan’s inauguration. Gone were the coolheaded and complimentary hat tips to Blume’s writing. Instead, the focus had shifted to her critics. “A growing number of iconoclasts are out to take the bloom off the Blume books,” reporter Gay Andrews Dillin wrote.

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  Nec multo post adveniunt illi vinarios utres ferentes et gregatim pecua comminantes : unde prae- lectum grandem hircum, annosum et horricomem, Marti secutori comitique victimant, et illico pran- dium fabricatur opipare. Tune hospes ille “Non modo” inquit * Expeditionum praedarumque, verum etiam voluptatum vestrarum ducem me strenuum $314 | | | | | ; | | THE GOLDEN ASS, BOOK VII ass. But they stayed hereupon a good space with long deliberation, which made my heart (God wot) and spirit greatly to quail. Howbeit in the end they consented freely to his opinion, and by and by the maiden was unloosed of her bonds; who, seeing the young man, and hearing the name of brothels and bawd merchants, began to wax joyful, and smiled with herself Then began I to deem evil of the generation of women, when I saw that the maiden (who had pretended that she had loved a young gentleman, and that she so greatly desired her chaste marriage with the same) was now delighted with the talk of a wicked and filthy brothel-house and other things dishonest. In this sort the consent and manners of all the race of women depended in the judgement of an ass. But then the young man spoke again, saying: ** Masters, why go we not about to make our prayers to Mars touching this selling of the maiden, and seeking for other companions ? But as far as I see, here is no manner of beast to make sacrifice withal nor wine sufficient for us to drink. Let me have ten more with me, and we will go to the next town, whence I will bring you back a supper fit for a priest." So he and ten more with him went their way, and in the mean season the residue made a great fire and an altar with green turfs in the honour of Mars. By and by they came again, bringing with them bottles of wine and a great number of beasts, amongst which there was a big ram goat, fat, old, and hairy, which they killed and offered unto Mars, to help and be with them. Then supper was prepared sump- tuously; and the new companion said unto the others : «You ought to account me not only your captain in robbery and fight, but also in your pleasures and : 315 LUCIUS APULEIUS

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  O how I leaped for joy, how I neighed to see my selfe in such liberty, but especially since I beheld so many Mares, which I thought should be my wives and concubines; and I espied out and chose the fairest before I came nigh them; but this my joyfull hope turned into otter destruction, for incontinently all the stone Horses which were well fedde and made strong by ease of pasture, and thereby much more puissant then a poore Asse, were jealous over me, and (having no regard to the law and order of God Jupiter) ranne fiercely and terribly against me; one lifted up his forefeete and kicked me spitefully, another turned himselfe, and with his hinder heeles spurned me cruelly, the third threatning with a malicious neighing, dressed his eares and shewing his sharpe and white teeth bit me on every side. In like sort have I read in Histories how the King of Thrace would throw his miserable ghests to be torne in peeces and devoured of his wild Horses, so niggish was that Tyrant of his provender, that he nourished them with the bodies of men.

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  8 [image "image" file=Image00005.jpg] [image file=Image00005.jpg] MiriEvery year Corinne let it be known that Miri was welcome to bring her mother to the Osners’ New Year’s Eve party. Every year Miri explained to Corinne that Rusty never went out on New Year’s Eve because New Year’s Eve was when Rusty’s father had died. “I’m sorry,” Corinne would say. “But maybe this year…” “I doubt it,” Miri would tell her. Not that she ever extended Corinne’s invitation to Rusty. Why would she? It wasn’t like the Osners and Rusty socialized, it wasn’t like they were Rusty’s friends, or Rusty’s second family, the way they were hers. Henry dropped Miri at Natalie’s house on his way to pick up Leah. They were going to the Riviera nightclub in Fort Lee, the place where Frank Sinatra sometimes sang, where Martin and Lewis did their comedy act and Pupi Campo and his band played Latin music. Henry looked dashing in his rented tux. Miri wished she could see Leah. Would she be wearing velvet, taffeta? Would she look like Doris Day in I’ll See You in My Dreams ? Sometimes Leah had that Doris Day look, other times she was more Debbie Reynolds, peeking out from under her bangs. When he pulled up in front of the Osners’ house, Henry turned to Miri and said, “Tonight’s the night,” which embarrassed her at first, until he dug a small black velvet box out of his pocket. “I’m proposing to Leah at midnight.” He opened the box to show Miri the ring. Miri felt herself choke up. She knew the ring. How many times had she gone with Irene to the vault when she was younger to watch as Irene checked the contents of her safe deposit box, making sure the ring was still there, along with her diamond pin and her important papers? The ring and the pin were the only pieces of good jewelry Irene had left from before 1929, before the stock market crash, a different kind of crash from the one in the Elizabeth River two weeks ago—back when Irene and Max Ammerman still had money, before Max lost his fancy food emporium, before Irene sold the rest of her jewelry to pay the bills, before Max had the first stroke, and then the second, the stroke that killed him on New Year’s Eve, 1937, just weeks before Miri was born. Rusty named her for him. They always lit a yahrzeit candle for Max on New Year’s Eve and another when the notice came from the synagogue listing the date of his death on the Hebrew calendar. “It’s beautiful,” she told Henry. And it was. A lacy design of small twinkly diamonds. Irene had always let her try it on. And even though Irene had said, Someday, when Uncle Henry finds the right girl, he’ll give her this ring, she remembered exactly how disappointed she was at age nine to learn it would not be hers.

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  “I must be the first person ever to be proposed to in a dental chair.” “Is that a yes?” he said. She gulped down the Champagne, held out her cup for more. “Yes!” Her family was happy. Marrying Andy would mean she’d stay in Las Vegas. Henry was always supportive. If she was happy, he was happy for her. They didn’t marry for another year. When they did, Ben Sapphire gave them a bungalow. — THE MAYOR CALLS Miri’s name. She still goes by Ammerman. If she’d taken Andy’s name, Zinn, she’d be at the end of the program. She thinks about walking out the door and not coming back. But Henry comes to her side, takes her arm, walks her up to the podium, the way he walked her down the aisle on her wedding day, sharing her with Dr. O, who was on her other side. Two of the best fathers any girl could have. She hadn’t invited Mike Monsky to her wedding. They’d found out pretty quickly there wasn’t going to be much between them. The first summer he’d picked her up in Las Vegas and driven her back to Los Altos, where she never even met Adela, who’d had such a severe migraine she’d moved into her parents’ house for the duration of Miri’s visit. And that visit was cut short when Mike’s kids came down with chicken pox. The following year it was worse. Adela greeted her, then left with the boys to spend a week with her parents in Santa Barbara. By then she’d had it. If Mike Monsky wanted to see her, he could come to Las Vegas, or take her someplace neutral. But it never worked out. She wasn’t disappointed. She had a lot of people in her life. He was just a complication. Frekki stopped by once, with Dr. J. J. Strasser, when Miri was a senior at Las Vegas High. They were on their way to a medical convention in L.A. She’d invited Miri to lunch at the Sands. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Frekki said. “I’m fine,” Miri told her. “I got into American University, my first-choice college.” “Well, good for you,” Frekki said. “I hear you’ve seen your fa...” She hesitated before saying the word, then changed it to “Mike.” “Yes. Twice. But we’re both so busy, there’s not a lot of time to visit.”

• From The Annotated Lolita (1991)

  In the course of showing us our landscape in all its natural beauty, Humber satirizes American songs, ads, movies, magazines, brand names, tourist attractions, summer camps, Dude Ranches, hotels, and motels, as well as the Good-Housekeeping Syndrome (Your Home Is You is one of Charlotte Haze’s essential volumes) and the cant of progressive educationist and child-guidance pontificators.25 Nabokov offers us a grotesque parody of a “good relationship,” for Humbert and Lo are “pals” with a vengeance; Know Your Own Daughter is one of the books which Humbert consults (the title exists). Yet Humbert’s terrible demands notwithstanding, she is as insensitive as children are to their parents; sexuality aside, she demands anxious parental placation in a too typically American way, and, since it is Lolita “to whom ads were dedicated: the ideal consumer, the subject and object of every foul poster” she affords Nabokov an ideal opportunity to comment on the Teen and Sub-teen Tyranny. “Tristram in Movielove,” remarks Humbert, and Nabokov has responded to those various travesties of behavior which too many Americans recognize as tenable examples of reality. A gloss on this aspect of Lolita is provided by “Ode to a Model,” a poem which Nabokov published the same year as the Olympia Press edition of Lolita (1955): I have followed you, model, in magazine ads through all seasons, from dead leaf on the sod to red leaf on the breeze, from your lily-white armpit to the tip of your butterfly eyelash, charming and pitiful, silly and stylish. Or in kneesocks and tartan standing there like some fabulous symbol, parted feet pointed outward —pedal form of akimbo. On a lawn, in a parody of Spring and its cherry-tree, near a vase and a parapet, virgin practising archery. Ballerina, black-masked, near a parapet of alabaster. “Can one”—somebody asked— “rhyme ‘star’ and ‘disaster’?” Can one picture a blackbird as the negative of a small firebird? Can a record, run backward, turn ‘repaid’ into ‘diaper’? Can one marry a model? Kill your past, make you real, raise a family, by removing you bodily from back numbers of Sham?

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  C A N T O X X X I I Beginning with Mary, Bernard indicates to Dante the great distinctions of heaven. Cleaving the rose downwards into two halves run the lines that part those who looked forward to Christ about to come from those who looked back upon him after he had come. Mary who had faith in Christ before he was conceived ranks as a Hebrew, and John Baptist who, when still in the womb, greeted him and afterwards proclaimed him as already come, ranks as a Christian. The two aspects of the faith embrace equal numbers of saints, the one tale being already full and the other near upon it. Midway across the cleaving lines runs the circle that divides the infants who died ere they had exercised free choice, and who were saved by the faith and the due observances of their parents, from those whose own acts of faith or merit have contributed to their salvation. The children are ranked in accordance with the abysmal but just and orderly judgments of God in the assignment of primal endowment. Dante then gazes in transport upon the face of Mary and sees the rejoicing Gabriel exult before her. He looks upon other great denizens of heaven, and is then bidden to turn again in prayer to Mary that after this so great preparation he may receive from her the final grace to enable him to lift his eyes right upon the Primal Love. WITH HIS LOVE fixed on his Delight, that contemplating saint took the free office of the teacher on him, and began these sacred words: “The wound which Mary closed and anointed, she who is so beauteous at her feet opened and thrust. In the order which the third rank maketh sitteth below her, Rachael with Beatrice, even as thou seest. Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and her from whom, third in descent, the singer came who for grief at his sin cried out have pity on me! these mayst thou see from rank to rank descending; 1 even as I, naming their proper names, go down the rose petal by petal. 2 And down from the seventh onward, even as thereto, follow Hebrew dames, disparting all the flower’s locks; because, accordant with the way faith looked to Christ, these are the partition-wall whereat the sacred steps are parted. On this side, wherein the flower is mature in all its petals; are seated who believe in Christ to come. On the other side, where they are broke by empty seats, abide in semi-circles such as had their signt turned towards Christ come.

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  “You’re the first to know,” Henry said. “Nana doesn’t know?” “Maybe tomorrow, if Leah says yes.” “Of course she’ll say yes,” Miri told him. “If she doesn’t she’s crazy and you wouldn’t want to marry a crazy person, would you?” She hugged him. “Happy New Year, Miri. I hope someday I have a daughter exactly like you.” He ruffled her hair. I am your daughter, Miri told him inside her head. “I know,” Henry whispered, as if he’d actually heard what she hadn’t said. Then he hugged her again. —MIRI WAS NOT HAPPY when Rusty showed up at the Osners’ party. And even less happy to see she was wearing her good black dress, her dress shoes and stockings with seams. Then there was the hair. Rita Hayworth hair. To her shoulders. Heads turned when Rusty came into the living room. She waved at Miri but Miri turned away. “What is my mother doing here?” she asked Natalie. “My mother wants to introduce her to Cousin Tewky from Birmingham.” “Tewky? What kind of a name is Tewky ?” “Some family nickname. He’s my mother’s first cousin, from the banking side of the family. You know, Purvis Brothers Bank.” Miri didn’t know. “My mother’s from the department store side.” Miri didn’t know that, either. “You should have warned me,” she told Natalie. “How was I supposed to know your mother didn’t tell you she was coming?” Corinne greeted Rusty and led her straight to a man, a man who must have been Tewky Purvis, balding, not especially handsome, but not ugly, either, with a mustache. Well, half the men in the room had mustaches, including Dr. O. She couldn’t hold that against him. They were talking now, her mother and Tewky Purvis, and laughing, maybe even flirting. Miri didn’t like it. She didn’t know how grown-ups judged each other, especially how women judged men. It never made sense to her. It’s about character, Rusty once told her. Strength, goodness. A sense of humor doesn’t hurt, either. She didn’t ask how men judged women because she already knew. It was obvious, and Rusty looked glamorous tonight. “That’s not all of it,” Rusty had once argued. “But you’re right—looks are certainly a starting point. Chemistry, too.” Miri understood chemistry now. Chemistry turned your legs to jelly and made your insides roll over. If Mason hadn’t had to work tonight Miri might not be at the Osners’ party. She hoped she’d never have to choose between her best friend and the boy she loved. Since seventh grade, New Year’s Eve had been for just the two of them, Natalie and Miri. She didn’t think Natalie would have invited Mason. Maybe someday when Natalie was also in love, they’d invite dates to the Osners’ party, but not now. Rusty must have thought that Miri would be out with Mason when she accepted Corinne’s invitation. Now she’d have to deal with her daughter keeping an eye on her.

• From Henry and June (1986)

  First I made her go to the ladies’ room. I opened my bag and pulled out a pair of sheer stockings. “Put them on,” I pleaded. She obeyed. Meanwhile I opened a bottle of perfume. “Put some on.” The attendant was there, staring, waiting for her tip. I did not care about her. June had a hole in her sleeve. I was terribly happy. June was exultant. We talked simultaneously. “I wanted to call you last night. I wanted to send you a telegram,” June said. She had wanted to tell me she was very unhappy on the train, regretting her awkwardness, her nervousness, her pointless talk. There had been so much, so much she wanted to say. Our fears of displeasing each other, of disappointing each other were the same. She had gone to the cafe in the evening as if drugged, full of thoughts of me. People’s voices reached her from afar. She was elated. She could not sleep. What had I done to her? She had always been poised, she could always talk well, people never overwhelmed her. When I realized what she was revealing to me, I almost went mad with joy. She loved me, then? June! She sat beside me in the restaurant, small, timid, unworldly, panic-stricken. She would say something and then beg forgiveness for its stupidity. I could not bear it. I told her, “We have both lost ourselves, but sometimes we reveal the most when we are least like ourselves. I am not trying to think any more. I can’t think when I am with you. You are like me, wishing for a perfect moment, but nothing too long imagined can be perfect in a worldly way. Neither one of us can say just the right thing. We are overwhelmed. Let us be overwhelmed. It is so lovely, so lovely. I love you, June.” And not knowing what else to say I spread on the bench between us the wine-colored handkerchief she wanted, my coral earrings, my turquoise ring, which Hugo had given me and which it hurt me to give, but it was blood I wanted to lay before June’s beauty and before June’s incredible humility. We went to the sandal shop. In the shop the ugly woman who waited on us hated us and our visible happiness. I held June’s hand firmly. I commandeered the shop. I was the man. I was firm, hard, willful with the shopkeepers. When they mentioned the broadness of June’s feet, I scolded them. June could not understand their French, but she could see they were nasty. I said to her, “When people are nasty to you I feel like getting down on my knees before you.” We chose the sandals. She refused anything else, anything that was not symbolical or representative of me. Everything I wore she would wear, although she had never wanted to imitate anyone else before.

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  The priest being admonished the night before, as I might well perceive stood still and holding out his hand, thrust out the garland of roses into my mouth, I (trembling) devoured with a great affection: And as soone as I had eaten them, I was not deceived of the promise made unto me. For my deforme and Assie face abated, and first the rugged haire of my body fell off, my thick skin waxed soft and tender, the hooves of my feet changed into toes, my hands returned againe, my neck grew short, my head and mouth began round, my long eares were made little, my great and stonie teeth waxed lesse like the teeth of men, and my tayle which combred me most, appeared no where: then the people began to marvaile, and the religious honoured the goddesse, for so evident a miracle, they wondered at the visions which they saw in the night, and the facilitie of my reformation, whereby they rendered testimonie of so great a benefit which I received of the goddesse. When I saw my selfe in such estate, I stood still a good space and said nothing, for I could not tell what to say, nor what word I shoulde first speake, nor what thanks I should render to the goddesse, but the great Priest understanding all my fortune and miserie, by divine advertisement, commanded that one should give me garments to cover me: Howbeit as soone as I was transformed from an asse to my humane shape, I hid the privitie of my body with my hands as shame and necessity compelled mee. Then one of the company put off his upper robe and put it on my backe: which done, the Priest looked upon me, with a sweete and benigne voice, gan say in this sort: O my friend Lucius, after the endurance of so many labours, and the escape of so many tempests of fortune, thou art at length come to the port and haven of rest and mercy: neither did thy noble linage, thy dignity, thy doctrine, or any thing prevaile, but that thou hast endured so many servil pleasures, by a little folly of thy youthfullnes, whereby thou hast had a sinister reward for thy unprosperous curiositie, but howsoever the blindnes of fortune tormented thee in divers dangers: so it is, that now unwares to her, thou art come to this present felicitie: let fortune go, and fume with fury in another place, let her finde some other matter to execute her cruelty, for fortune hath no puissance against them which serve and honour our goddesse. For what availed the theeves: the beasts savage: thy great servitude: the ill and dangerous waits: the long passages: the feare of death every day?

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  O gets up with help from his and Rusty’s sons, and he and Rusty slow-dance. Their grandchildren circle around them. They end with a kiss and immediately the trio plays “A Kiss to Build a Dream On.” The other guests get up to dance, led by Miri and Andy. She’s felt closer to him since the trip to Elizabeth, more appreciative. If he’s noticed, he hasn’t said anything. He looks down at her and smiles. “Nice party.” Tears spring to her eyes. “Thank you.” “Love you,” he says. “Love you, too.” —NATALIE ASKS for time alone with Dr. O the next day. Can she be trusted not to upset him? Miri wonders. Not to accuse him? Is it any of her business? She checks with Rusty, who asks Dr. O, who says yes, whatever Natalie has up her sleeve he can take it. Twenty minutes later Natalie comes out of his room. Miri is waiting. “Thanks for encouraging me to come now,” she says. “I needed to apologize to him. Instead, he apologized to me.” Natalie hugs Rusty for the first time since she was a young girl. “Thank you for making my father happy.” Rusty breaks down. —CHRISTINA ARRANGES for the plane to fly Natalie and Ruby back to Santa Fe. At the airport Natalie looks hard at Miri, then hugs her. “So long, cowgirl,” she says softly. “I’ll see you in my dreams.” “Not if I see you first,” Miri whispers into Natalie’s hair. Natalie strides out to the plane with Ruby. She turns back once and waves. Miri returns her wave. “You okay?” Christina asks, as the plane takes off. “I’m good,” Miri says, then adds, as if the thought has just popped into her head, “I think I’ll take a leave from the paper.” Christina looks at her. “This is sudden.” “I’ll be able to spend more time with Andy, meet you for lunch.” “And…” Christina says. “Maybe I’ll write a book. I might have a story to tell.” “It’s about time,” Christina says. As they lock arms, starting back to the car, Miri begins to sing. “Somewhere there’s music, how faint the tune…” Christina joins in. “Somewhere there’s heaven, how high the moon…” “Or maybe we can put together a sister act,” Christina says. “I know a guy who knows a guy who owns a hotel with a lounge in Vegas.” Author’s NotesAlthough this book is a work of fiction, and the characters and events are products of my imagination, the three airplane crashes are real. I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was in eighth grade during the winter of 1951−1952 , a student at Hamilton Junior High, so I have firsthand memories of that time and place. I have tried to depict the crashes as accurately as possible and for that I have depended on reports in two now-defunct local newspapers, the Elizabeth Daily Journal and the Newark Evening News, to supplement the official investigative reports of the Civil Aeronautics Board.

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  “What the heck,” Rusty said to Little Mary, who worked behind the counter, “it’s my birthday.” “Happy birthday, hon,” Little Mary said. “I’d give you a soda on the house but then I’d be fired.” The 12:30 show was a double feature. First, You Never Can Tell, with Dick Powell and Peggy Dow. A dog dies and is reincarnated into a private eye. Rusty loved screwball comedies. Miri preferred her movies torrid and dark. The feature attraction was Across the Wide Missouri, with Clark Gable. Halfway through Rusty leaned over and said, “Time to go. We have to change for dinner.” Now Miri would never find out what happened to Clark Gable or his Indian wife. RubyAt Newark Airport the Miami Airlines plane was delayed again with no explanation. No wonder Dana had tried to dissuade her from taking the non-scheduled flight to Tampa, then Miami. “Non-skeds are unreliable,” Dana said. Ruby argued how much cheaper this flight was than the others. Really, what was the difference? An airplane is an airplane. It gets you where you want to go. So non-skeds don’t have a regular schedule like a train or a bus. Who cares? Besides, she was impatient. The sooner she got to Florida, the better. She’d been dreaming of balmy beaches and soft moonlit nights. She couldn’t wait to get away from this awful weather. So what if she had to wait another hour or two? She took a seat in the departure lounge, adjusted her skirt and pulled the book she was reading from her oversize purse, glad she had a gripping mystery to distract her. She was aware of the glances coming her way, at the sight of a pretty girl reading I, the Jury, by Mickey Spillane, known for his racy language, but Ruby didn’t give a hoot. Let them look. Let them stare. It was nothing to her. Across from her an older couple were talking in voices loud enough for her to hear. The wife said, “You have a long drive. You should get going, and don’t forget to pick up my Voluptés from Irene Ammerman. You remember where she lives?” He said, “I’m not leaving until I see you on the plane.” “That’s sweet, Ben, but it doesn’t make sense.” “It makes sense to me.” She laughed. “You’re such a romantic.” “Me, you’re calling me a romantic?” “Maybe not every day but when it counts.” He laughed and kissed her. She said, “Ben, people can see…” “So? I’m not allowed to kiss my wife in public after thirty-five years?” Ruby smiled to herself. She couldn’t remember a time when her parents kidded around that way. “Excuse me,” a young man said, “but is anyone sitting here?” Ruby sighed and moved her bag, meant to discourage other passengers from sitting next to her. He sat down, hoping to start up a conversation, she could tell. “My mother thinks I’m driving to Florida,” he said, “either that or taking the train.

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  I’m going to suggest a few teachers in New York.” “You told my mother?” “Yes, just after Thanksgiving.” Erma Rankin read the look on Natalie’s face. “Oops! I’ll bet she was saving that as a holiday surprise.” “Did you hear that?” Natalie asked Miri in the changing room. “Did you hear what she said?” Miri nodded. “Yes.” “Do you know what this means?” Natalie asked. “It means you have talent.” “Yes,” Natalie said. “But it’s Ruby’s talent. Don’t you see? She’s dancing through me now. She’s living inside me.” “But Miss Rankin said she told your mother at Thanksgiving.” “But she didn’t tell me until today. Because today I was so much better than I was at Thanksgiving.” Even though she swore she wouldn’t, Miri wondered again if she should tell someone about Natalie. But who would she tell and what would she say? She was still thinking about it at the pageant that night, and after, when Rusty took her to Schutt’s, the ice cream parlor on Morris Avenue, for a hot fudge sundae. [image "Elizabeth Daily Post" file=Image00009.jpg] [image "Elizabeth Daily Post" file=Image00009.jpg] THAT GIRLBy Henry AmmermanDEC. 19 — She was 22, with the longest legs he’d ever seen. “She could dance,” Jimmy Bower said. “She could really dance! That girl was going places.” That girl was Ruby Granik, on her way to dance at the Vag abond Club in Miami when she boarded the ill-fated Miami Airlines C-46 on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon. The flight had already been delayed two hours and Ruby and the other passengers waited another three before they boarded. “I begged her to wait,” her best friend, Dana Lynley, said, “but she insisted on taking the non-sked. It was less money and money was tight. She hadn’t been paid yet for her last job and she needed to get to Miami. You didn’t win an argument with Ruby. Once she made up her mind there was no going back. That’s how she lived her life.” “I knew her since she was born,” Billy Morrison, owner of Billy’s Tavern and family friend, said. “I served her her first legal drink, a pink lady. I made it weak but it still made her tipsy. Her father was my best friend. There are no words,” he said, visibly shaken. “None.” Her uncle, Fire Captain Victor Szabo, of Elizabeth Engine Company #3, said, “I knew Ruby was on that plane. I knew it and yet when the call came in and my unit sped to the scene of the crash, I had to force myself not to think of her inside that broken pile in the Elizabeth River. I had to do my job. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. My wife and Ruby’s mother are sisters. My wife had gone out to Queens to keep Ruby’s parents company for a few days. We have no children so we thought of Ruby as our daughter, too.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  For the time references in the Paradiso, see Par. xxvii and Argument. C A N T O IPrologue. The Poets issue on the low-lying shore east of the Mount of Purgatory, and Dante’s eyes, which in Hell have shared the misery of his heart, becomes once more the instruments of delight, as he looks into the clear blue sky and sees Venus near the eastern horizon. The South Pole of the Heavens is well above the southern horizon, and all is bathed in the light of the glorious constellation never seen since man, at the Fall, was banished to the Northern Hemisphere. Turning north, the Poet perceives the venerable figure of Cato, his face illuminated by the four stars, typifying the four moral virtues. He challenges the Poets as though fugitives from Hell; but Virgil pleads the command of a Lady of Heaven, and explains that Dante still lives, and is seeking that liberty for love of which Cato himself had renounced his life. He further appeals to him, by his love of Marcia, to further their journey through his realm. Cato is untouched by the thought of Marcia, from whom he is now inwardly severed; but in reverence for the heavenly mandate he bids Virgil gird Dante with the rush of humility and cleanse his face with dew from the stains of Hell, that he may be ready to meet the ministers of Heaven. The sun, now rising, will teach them the ascent. The Poets seek the shore, as the sea ripples under the morning breeze; and Virgil follows Cato’s behest, cleansing Dante’s face with dew, and plucking the rush, which instantly springs up again miraculously renewed. [image file=image_rsrcA5N.jpg] TO COURSE o’er better waters now hoists sail the little bark of my wit, leaving behind her a sea so cruel. And I will sing of that second realm, where the human spirit is purged and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven. But here let dead poesy rise up again, O holy Muses, since yours am I, and here let Calliope1 rise somewhat, accompanying my song with that strain whose stroke the wretched Pies felt so that they despaired of pardon. Sweet hue of orient sapphire which was gathering on the clear forehead of the sky, pure even to the first circle, to mine eyes restored delight, soon as I issued forth from the dead air which had afflicted eyes and heart. The fair planet which hearteneth to love2 was making the whole East to laugh, veiling the Fishes that were in her train. I turned me to the right hand, and set my mind on the other pole, and saw four stars3 never yet seen save by the first people. The heavens seemed to rejoice in their flames. O Northern widowed clime, since thou art bereft of beholding them! When I was parted from gazing at them, turning me a little to the other pole, there whence the Wain had already disappeared,4

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  With wonder methinks I coloured me, whereat the shade smiled and drew back, and I, following it, flung me forward. Gently it bade me pause: then knew I who it was, and did pray him that he would stay a while to speak to me. He answered me: “Even as I loved thee in the mortal body so do I love thee freed; therefore I stay: but wherefore goest thou?” “Casella4 mine, to return here once again where I am, make I this journey,” said I, “but how hath so much time been taken from thee?” And he to me: “No wrong is done me, if he who bears away when and whom he pleases hath many times denied me this passage; for of a just will his will is made. Truly for three months5 past he hath taken, in all peace, whoso hath wished to enter. Wherefore I, who now was turned to the seashore where Tiber’s wave grows salt,6 kindly by him was garnered in. To that mouth now he hath set his wings, because evermore are gathered there, they who to Acheron sink not down.” And I: “If a new law take not from thee memory or skill in that song of love which was wont to calm my every desire, may it please thee therewith to solace awhile my soul, that, with its mortal form journeying here, is sore distressed.” “Love that in my mind discourseth to me,” began he then so sweetly, that the sweetness yet within me sounds. My Master and I and that people who were with him, seemed so glad as if to aught else the mind of no one of them gave heed. We were all fixed and intent upon his notes; and lo the old man venerable, crying: “What is this, ye laggard spirits? what negligence, what tarrying is this? Haste to the mount and strip you of the slough, that lets not God be manifest to you.” As doves when gathering wheat or tares, all assembled at their repast, quiet and showing not their wonted pride, if aught be seen whereof they have fear, straightway let stay their food, because they are assailed by greater care; so saw I that new company leave the singing, and go towards the hillside, like one who goes, but knoweth not where he may come forth; nor was our parting less quick.

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  When I heard these divine commandements, I greatly rejoyced: and arose before day to speake with the great Priest, whom I fortuned to espie comming out of his chamber: Then I saluted him, and thought with my selfe to aske and demand his counsell with a bold courage, but as soone as he perceived me, he began first to say: O Lucius now know I well that thou art most happy and blessed, whom the divine goddesse doth so greatly accept with mercy, why dost thou delay? Behold the day which thou desiredst when as thou shalt receive at my hands the order of religion, and know the most pure secrets of the gods, whereupon the old man tooke me by the hand, and lead me to the gate of the great temple, where at the first entrie he made a solempne celebration, and after morning sacrifice ended, brought out of the secret place of the temple books, partly written with unknown characters, and partly painted with figures of beasts declaring briefly every sentence, with tops and tailes, turning in fashion of a wheele, which were strange and impossible to be read of the prophane people: There he interpreted to me such things as were necessary to the use and preparation of mine order. This done, I gave charge to certaine of my companions to buy liberally, whatsoever was needfull and convenient, then he brought me to the next bains accompanied with all the religious sort, and demanding pardon of the goddesse, washed me and purified my body, according to custome. After this, when noone approached, he brought me backe againe to the temple, presented me before the face of the goddesse, giving a charge of certaine secret things unlawfull to be uttered, and commanding me, and generally all the rest, to fast by the space of ten continuall daies, without eating of any beast, or drinking any wine, which thing I observed with a marvellous continencie. Then behold the day approached, when as the sacrifice should be done, and when night came there arrived on every coast, a great multitude of Priests, who according to their order offered me many presents and gifts: then was all the Laity and prophane people commanded to depart, and when they had put on my back a linnen robe, they brought me to the most secret and sacred place of all the temple. You would peradventure demand (you studious reader) what was said and done there, verely I would tell you if it were lawfull for me to tell, you should know if it were convenient for you to heare, but both thy eares, and my tongue shall incur the like paine of rash curiositie: Howbeit, I will content thy mind for this present time, which peradventure is somewhat religious and given to some devotion, listen therefore and beleeve it to be true: Thou shalt understand that I approached neere unto Hell, even to the gates of Proserpina, and after that, I was ravished throughout all the Element, I returned to my proper place: About midnight I saw the Sun shine, I saw likewise the gods celestiall and gods infernall, before whom I presented my selfe, and worshipped them: Behold now have I told thee, which although thou hast heard, yet it is necessarie thou conceale it; this have I declared without offence, for the understanding of the prophane.

• From In the Unlikely Event (2015)

  They lived in a little white house near her grandmother’s place. “You’ll be able to wave to me,” she told her young nieces, “the way I used to wave to the planes.” “Will you wave back?” one of the girls asked. “Of course I will.” Gaby chose National Airlines, in part because she’d read that American received 20,000 applications the year before, for just 347 stewardess positions. Not that she doubted her qualifications, not for a minute, but Gaby went for National anyway, and was accepted, the only applicant out of 29 being interviewed on the same day. She was jubilant. Hard work and a positive attitude paid off. She’d been careful about dating after high school, not wanting to get serious with some local boy who’d expect her to give up her dreams for his, produce two babies, preferably one of each sex, wear an apron over her shirtwaist dress and have dinner on the table every night at 6 p.m. No thank you. There was a young doctor at the hospital but he was almost as dangerous as the others. If she confided her dream to him he’d drop her like a hot potato. Still, she went out with him, not that he had much time off, but she never told her mother. And sometimes, when their breaks coincided, they’d get into his car and kiss until the windows steamed up. She’d stop him when he tried to get his hand under her skirt. “Please,” he begged. “Just this once. I’m a doctor. Doesn’t that count for something?” Ha! Gaby had a goal, and no doctor or anyone else was going to dissuade her. She knew there would be plenty of nurses for him to flirt with once she was out of the picture. Nurses who would let him get under their skirts. She couldn’t worry about that. If some other nurse got him to put a ring on her finger while Gaby was flying, well, so be it. “Oh, Gabrielle,” her mother cried as she’d packed her bag to head for training in Newark. “I’d hoped you’d meet a handsome doctor at the hospital and give up this crazy idea of flying.” Now, eighteen months later, she had no regrets about leaving Dayton or young Dr. Larsen. She loved her job. As far as she was concerned it was the best job in the world. In the stewardesses’ dressing room at Newark Airport Gaby applied her makeup as she’d been taught in her program. A good base over the face and throat. Heavy enough to hide imperfections in the skin but light enough to look almost natural, a hint of color to the cheeks, brows penciled in, mascara to upper lashes only, no more high school lipstick. This month she was using Revlon’s Love That Red.