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Chapter 20 A Hellish Day – March 1991 A Month Later “You’ve only practiced two hours this week. Two hours,” Betty shouted. “Basketball season is over. Your vacation is over. It’s time for us to get back to where we were.” “Us? You mean that you want me to get back to work so that you can get back to where you were.” “What are you talking about?” “Nothing.” Micah shrugged his shoulders. “I want you to be a gre
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Chapter 19 Injury – February 1991 Four Months Later It was in the eleventh game of the season that Micah broke a finger on his left hand. He got sympathy from the coach and team. He got scorn from his mother. “I knew something like this would happen,” she said as they left the emergency room in the Pullman hospital, with Micah’s finger wrapped in splints intending to keep it immobile for the next two months. “This is the first time in 10 years that there h
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Chapter 18 Micah’s Rebellion – October 1990 Six Months Later It was a school day in October. Micah was feeling the pressure of an upcoming test in algebra and a weekend concert in Portland. His mother had allowed him two hours to prepare for the test and three hours to practice his violin after dinner. Micah looked at her schedule for him. The pattern on the calendar for the next month – and probably the next year – was the same: school, time for homework, time to practic
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Fixed. Thanks
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Chapter 17 Southern Nights – Late Spring 1990 Micah, a Year Later “Mom, I’ll be okay,” Micah said. He was sitting across from his mother at the kitchen table, drumming his fingers on his thigh where she couldn’t see his frustration. “I realize it’s an honor to be asked to solo at the National Youth Festival Orchestra, but this will be your first time out on your own.” “That’s not true, Mom! I’ve gone to Seattle many times on my own!”
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Chapter 16 Coming Out – May 1989 David at Age 14 “Mom and Dad, could I talk to you for a few moments?” David asked. “In the living room.” “Sure, son,” his dad said, and he nodded for his wife to follow him. They sat together on the couch, with David in the armchair on the other side of the coffee table. “I…I,” David said, wishing for the moment that he could hide forever. “Can I come sit between you?” “Of course, honey,” Elizabeth sa
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Chapter 15 A Change of Place – April 1989 A Month Later The Spokane Youth Symphony’s performance in Seattle had been arranged several months before, with Marcia Vilas’s help. As it turned out, this performance would be Micah’s last time with the Spokane orchestra. He had outgrown the Spokane Youth Symphony; his schedule didn’t permit him to continue. After his medal in Detroit, orchestras all over the country were clamoring for the “Guarneri Brave” to perform. Officially, t
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Chapter 14 Detroit – Late March 1989 A Few Weeks Later Stan stood for a moment outside Gate 7 at Spokane Airport after seeing Micah and Betty onto the Northwest flight to Detroit for the National Young Violinists Contest. It had been months since Micah and she had been to a competition, so Betty was as excited as Micah for this cross-country venture. Though Micah had traveled numerous times alone on planes between Spokane and Seattle, going across country
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Chapter 13 Mendelssohn – Early March 1989 Six Months Later Micah was in Spokane to play Poppa M’s beloved Mendelssohn violin concerto with the Spokane Youth Symphony Orchestra. It was his and the orchestra’s last regular performance for the season. He had arrived on Friday at the Stirlings, having been ferried from Colfax by Rudy Schmidt, who couldn’t stay but a few minutes. As usual, the Stirlings would feed Micah dinner that night and lunch the next day after practice and
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Chapter 12 Youth Symphony – Fall 1988 Six Months After the Guarneri With Marcia Vilas entering the picture, Rudy Schmidt realized that there was not much left that he could add to what she did. It was time for Micah to move on – sadly for Rudy – and he had made some phone calls to see if what he had planned could work. “Micah,” Rudy said as Betty looked on after one of Micah’s lessons, “I have a proposition for you.” “Okay.” “I can’
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Chapter 11 Spokane – Fall 1988 David Stirling stood outside the mini-mart, clutching a $5 bill, looking very nervous in his school clothes, holding his book bag beside him. He had gone into the store earlier and scouted out the magazines. He saw what he wanted: a Playgirl. But it was behind the counter along with the Playboys and Hustlers, and he knew, at 13, that he didn’t look old enough to buy anything but candy bars. He had to find out more about himself, who he was and what he
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Chapter 10 Guarneri – March 1988 Ten Months Later “I have a violin I want you to try, Micah,” Jake said as they sat in the living room in Jake and Robbie’s Queen Anne house on one of his trips. It was just the three of them in the living room, relaxing after dinner and a weekend of lessons for Micah with Marcia Vilas. Marcia had dropped Micah off earlier in the day, begging off from a dinner invitation due to a prior commitment. Jake rose from the sofa, untangling himself fro
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Chapter 9 Provenance – May 1987 A Few Days Later Betty decided to return from staying at her sister’s for Robert’s last full day before he set off for Pennsylvania – with that odious man, Sam. She was reluctant to return home, but Robert was her first son, so she wanted to prepare one last home-cooked meal for him despite his repugnant lifestyle choice. She convinced herself that she would simply have to bear it for only a few hours. Maybe he and Sam would break up; she’d h
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Chapter 8 Eastbound – May 1987 Two Days Later “Why don’t Jake and Robbie have two beds in their bedroom? It’s big enough for two beds,” Micah asked as the car was climbing back up eastbound on I-90 toward Snoqualmie Pass the next day. Robert looked at Sam, trying to find an answer to the question that he was facing. Sam nodded his okay. “Micah, they have only one bed because they are a couple – as if they are married. Just like us.” “But isn’t Jake
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Chapter 7 Homecoming – May 1987 The Next Spring Robert Kingman was coming home – in two weeks. He was bringing someone with him. The letter announcing this, mailed from Djakarta, Indonesia, arrived in the morning mail one day in early May. It was the only personal message among a maze of catalogs and bills that arrived that day. It had been almost 15 years since Robert had left home. The communications from this oldest Kingman child were infrequent – occasional letters and phone calls on birt
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Chapter 6 Kingman Farm – March 1987 Four Months Later An 11- but almost 12-year old Micah was home alone. Betty and Stan had left early to go to Pullman, taking Greg and Kat along. His younger brother and sister were visiting friends. Micah had always wanted to see what was in the attic room above the second floor, and he knew this was his time to explore it. He pulled up a chair and opened the attic hatch and climbed up into to a dark room; there were no windows. He flipped th
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Chapter 5 Competition – November 1986 Two Years After Micah’s First Lesson “I’d like to enter Micah into a violin competition in Seattle,” Rudy announced one day at the start of Micah’s third year of lessons. “He needs performance experience, which is a bit hard to get in Colfax, as you might imagine.” Betty agreed and was overjoyed to give her permission. “Just tell me where and when, and I’ll get him there.” The drive two months later was the first of many for the 11-year-old Micah and hi
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Chapter 4 Another Boy, Another Place – Fall 1986 A now 11-year-old David Stirling sat outside the Spokane music studio in his father’s Jeep Cherokee while his parents talked to his cello teacher. On the seat next to him was a musical instrument that was half as big as he was. It had been two years since he had started on the cello, and his parents had asked to confer with his instructor, Ivan Raminski. The Navajo decal that he had stuck on the outside of the instrume
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Chapter 3 Change of Direction – Fall 1984 Six Months Later Betty’s hopes and dreams were forced to change several months later, however. A large package, insured and marked fragile, arrived for Micah from Arizona. Betty puzzled over it, wanting to open the large envelope that was taped to the box and wanting to open the box itself. But Micah was at school and wouldn’t be climbing out of the yellow school bus until after 4 p.m.; it wouldn’t be fair to open Micah’s mail. Ha
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Chapter 2 North to the Palouse on a Jet Plane – April 1984 A Short Few Weeks Later The line at the ticket counter was long. Phoenix to Spokane wasn’t the most traveled route and there was only one airline that served it, so the airline company assigned only one check-in agent to handle the passengers. Micah stood next to Betty; he was a little bewildered at what was happening. He pushed his luggage ahead when the line moved. It was a way to be helpful. “Hey,” a voice behind him said.
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Palouse Chapter 1 An Arrival and a Departure – March 1984 In the spring, the Palouse becomes a giant quilt of green, beige and earth-brown. The land is not flat but seems to billow up from below, as if pushed upward by air currents. From the air the fields form square patterns, but from the ground the fields slowly climb and descend, leaving the undulations of the property lines as the seams stitching the landscape together. And the plows’ furrows try to fit workable undulations onto squar
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Palouse Disclaimer: The towns in the Palouse area of Washington State are real, as are the cities of Walla Walla, Colfax and College Place, but there is absolutely no relationship between anyone living or who has ever lived in those towns and the characters in this story. The town of Endicott was a dot on the map that I chose for this story, as was the location of the Kingman farm. I have no knowledge of anyone who lives or has lived there. This story is a work of fiction.
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Palouse is a coming-to-maturity story of a half-Navajo boy who is a virtuoso at violin. The story traces his rise, fall, and reemergence in the context of a domineering mother. It is a story also of a developing love between the boy and a gay friend.
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As noted earlier, the start button can be resurrected at low or no cost. I've tried and like the low cost Start8 program.
