Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Writing prompt – Foxes

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White Foxes

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As usual, write her story – but try doing it without the verb “to be”…

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Author: Davide Mana

Paleontologist. By day, researcher, teacher and ecological statistics guru. By night, pulp fantasy author-publisher, translator and blogger. In the spare time, Orientalist Anonymous, guerilla cook.

2 thoughts on “Writing prompt – Foxes”

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  1. Norm Fenlason's avatar
    Norm Fenlason
    5 September 2014 at 17:56

    Davide! Thanks for the prompts! I thought I would share this one…Not sure where I will take this, but here is 45 minutes on the subject:
    ———

    She gazed passively at the bustle of activity across the studio. Elizabeth Marie Margaritte Stalworth had no pretensions on how the day would go; she was just patiently waiting for some trigger, some event, some excitement to rescue her from the ennui pervading her life. This little diversion was not it, not nearly enough, a sitting for sketches and a portrait that Roger had insisted upon and argued about until he got his way. His way, that was how it always ended.
    For example, Roger insisted she wear these wraps, these heavy bleached fox-furs. Lizzie never fully understood the need to drape the skins of dead animals across her shoulders.
    “Have to keep up appearances,” he had explained cheerfully in that patient-seeming, but entirely condescending way of his.
    The artist was supposed to paint her, not the damned foxes. But Roger won. Again. And here she was, perspiring in the stuffy air. Someone could open a window, Lizzie thought. The room could use a little air.
    Air… Roger smothered her like this stuffy room; she just wanted to breathe. Under Roger’s thumb Lizzie was forgetting who she was and what she wanted. Oh, Roger was charming when they first met. Indeed, he seemed quite a catch and the arrangements with her mother went smoothly even with the meager dowry her mother offered. Her mother loved Roger far more than Lizzie did. But every day brought some new aspect for Roger to exert control, forcing her into some image only he held clearly. At least today she got to pick out her hat.

    ———

    The product of a middle-class education system, Lizzie is trapped in an arranged suburban marriage in 1900 New England. Her mother was desperate to marry her off and the best, most interested candidate was Roger Dalton Stalworth II, an heir to a successful clothing manufacturer. Roger is controlling and egocentric and has begun the long process of reshaping Elizabeth, he refuses to call her Lizzie, into something she cannot be.
    In this photograph, Lizzie is sitting for some preliminary sketches for a portrait Roger has commissioned. As the story continues, Lizzie strikes up a friendship with the artist Émile Doré , bordering on romantic and indeed would go that route but for subsequent events.
    Stalworth, believing that his control over Lizzie is slipping, has Émile, shot down in the street. Lizzie knows that it is Roger’s doing and is very afraid. So, taking inspiration from the reformer, Emily Hobhouse, who had publicly declared she was going to South Africa, Lizzie decides to join Hobhouse in her campaign.
    After some careful planning, she steals away in the night on a steamer carrying farm machinery to South Africa. She is about to board the ship, the Oriental Empress outbound to Africa, when she is confronted by two ruffians who intend to take her back to Roger. The men are private agents for the Stalworth family and will take her by force, if necessary.
    The captain of the ship, Albert Marius (Big Al) Destiny, and a couple of his crew rescue the lass, subduing the private investigators and pressing them into the crew of a shipping buddy outbound to Rio. Be sure to write home, fellas.
    Aboard the ship, Big Al takes to Lizzie as a daughter and teaches her a thing or two about survival, like how to shoot. Big Al’s man, named Pehan, everyone calls him Peh-Peh, teaches her the beginnings of martial arts. Peh-Peh was bridled under British rule in Southern India and has no love for colonialists. Identifying with Big Al and Peh-Peh, Lizzie is fired with the flames of freedom.
    Unbeknownst to Lizzie (at first), Big Al is smuggling weapons under cover of farm machinery to Malagasy rebels fighting against French colonial rule. American rifles and ammunition purchased by a wealthy Turk are headed to Madagascar. After she discovers Big Al’s true cargo, she elects to join him and his fight for freedom.
    • At a coaling stop in Malta, Lizzie is pulled into election subterfuge resulting in the discovery of a small cache of gold in the recently discovered St. Paul’s Catacombs near Rabat.
    • In Port Said, Lizzie, Big Al, and Peh-Peh are involved in the recovery of antiquities for a native Egyptian, but are foiled by agents of the British National Museum. Here Lizzie becomes romantically involved with Denton “Blackie” Blackmon, an exiled Australian accused of murdering a wealthy land-owner down-under. The affair is cut short when Big Al has to set sail and Lizzie chooses to continue her journey to Cape Town.
    • At sea, Lizzie helps to fight off a pirate attack near the Horn of Africa. Big Al’s crew gives her the moniker, Red Maggie (at some point, Lizzie dropped her married surname).
    • Lizzie and crew dodges French agents and rebel double-crossers in delivering the guns to Malagasy rebels in the Port of Tamatave.
    • In Cape Town, she uncovers a conspiracy to kill Hobhouse and saves her life. Incredibly, Blackie shows up to assist!

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