A Diary’s House – The Third Heartbeat.
Many people don’t realize just how dark it can get in the wilderness; uncanny, eerie, provocative superstitions; things that go ‘bump in the night’ within one’s mind when the only faculty they truly have is what they hear. Your thoughts can sometimes play tricks on you then because you don’t have the sight to tell you otherwise. I wanted to capture the impending story of the Randola River in such a way, as to create an evening when the wilderness can talk to the characters and arouse superstitions they never knew they had.
That’s the backdrop on the opening chapter for ‘A Diary’s House’. So the symbolism of utilizing the church is a) to express a sense of apparent security and b) to introduce the main conflict character in the book. I’ll take the former element first. I researched appropriate spots in the mountains of NC & Tenn. for the right location regarding Chapter 1 of A Diary’s House. There were several spots of interest, but I always came back to the feeling and aurora of a unique place called ‘Cades Cove’. It is a place where time has stopped; preserved in its original feel and sensibilities to the time period – A local community, self–efficient, residing between the NC and Tenn. border. It is made up of old farmhouses, rustic homes, and old, single-story churches where the residents both lived and worshipped. The place certainly has a special appeal and it seemed to be the perfect backdrop for the opening chapter of A Diary’s House.
You can see a similar ‘visual’ sense of the location in Thomas Kinkade’s painting ‘Streams of Living Waters’ (though this painting was not used to inspire my visual description of the setting – chapter 1 had already been written before this painting was created and released to the public).
Chapter 1 also introduces the character ‘Sinister Minister’, and no it is not a bash on Christianity or religion in general. In fact my father was a Presbyterian minister for all his adult life – quite the contrary. Rather, he becomes the paradox for one who, publicly aspires for the good of the community, but privately becomes a self-serving individual with ulterior motives. Ministers were a strong mainstay in communities from this era (as strongly noted in the series ‘Little House on the Prairie’), and they are to represent a righteous countenance for all of us to follow. When such an individual becomes mis-guided, then this exposes the true paradox of public affiliation from private endeavors. To the three boys in the opening chapter 1 scene, a minister is implied to be someone who has the ‘voice of God’ in their ear.
So the opening of A Diary’s House features the three boys (Landon’s two school mates and closest friends) who are devising a scheme to take a trip down the dangerous and deadly Randola River. The story on the creation of such a river was implanted in the prologue, and certainly the history and incredible folklore had not been lost on the three boys. So what was the purpose in doing so? To travel down a river which had taken so many lives before seems like a far-fetched thing to do. Simple – they wanted to be men, and the further legend of pirates, with buried gold/treasure on an undiscovered island at the river’s end only enhanced the boy’s desires for this particular adventure. Boys at that age long for adventure, seek it out, and carry a real desire to dream of such a place and world. Much like boys today want to be sports heroes – the fancy for such an adventure during this era was very prevalent.
I wanted to bring a pictorial element of mystery; to visually cascade the story with a strong sense of adventure, lore, and superstition. Three boys sitting around a campfire in the middle of the night, near what first appears to be a vacant church, and being spooked by everything imaginable (including their own tales) seemed like a perfect beginning. There was a sense of bravado, masking of their true sensibilities, and seeing which one would back out first – during their initial conversations at the campfire.
None of the boys wanted to budge; rather, play the cat and mouse game so not to appear weak against any of the other boy’s masked bravery. It was a proverbial game with no winners allowed. They would do, in the end, what we all wish we had the courage and stupidity to do – travel down a raging river and land on an uninhabited island; one filled with mysteries and legends; a magical place steeped as much in lore as in truth. Or is it? The cloudy haze between reality and mystery can often be a confusing mixture – and somewhere in that mist lies the real heart to the adventure.
The reader will discover this all too distinctly in those chapters to come. This is better left for future ‘heartbeat’ posts. Remember, above all, the boys want to be men, but to the definition of how they self-describe what a man should be. There is more to learn in this tale – both for the boys and the readers.
And so I introduced the minister, awakened in the middle of the night by a campfire and three boys who were not so derelict in having mischief all hours of the night, but being most derelict in not attending church that very Sunday morning. There would be a lesson learned this day; one they were not soon to forget. The minister intercedes, but in a somewhat comical manner to ‘re-introduce’ the boys to, not only the vital Christian message they missed out on earlier, but also to the entire elements of the bible itself.
This sermon would take the whole night to venture through. A pulse and remedy to an otherwise trio of boys who seemed to not know better; or did they? Perhaps the story deepens in the next installment. ‘A Diary’s House’ is filled with many of these antidotes. But further mysteries are ahead – if you feel this story only leads to an uninhabited island and nothing further; think again. Perhaps you have taken a wrong turn in your conclusions if you are premature in feeling this way. Look deeper – the novel will tell its own tales…
The heart of ‘A Diary’s house’ lies somewhere within – dig deeper; you will find the truth in a place where reality and mystery often collide…. And so goes the third heartbeat to the ‘Language from the Heart’ series…
Until the next heartbeat…
C. David Murphy
A Diary’s House Other Installments
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