If Dewey is a normal boy, raised in the suburbs outside of Seattle, and not of the river brethren in Pennsylvania, what do I need to know about him and his family that I didn't know before?
1) What are his earliest memories, and do those relate to his being gay?
2) What religion is his family? Why do they react so strongly when he comes out?
3) What relationships did he have with other kids growing up, since his hometown is far less monotype than the river brethren community would have been?
4) Does he have favorite foods?
5) Does he move to Seattle to go to school, but is cut off financially, and so must fend for himself (causing him to move into the house)?
6) Does he pick up an odd-job at the Farmer's Market?
7) Could the farmer's market be a more central crux? A new, downtown market, something Muriel is helping to start? Something that connects them all from Day 1?
8) For that matter, is Chigger a closet-case?
I wonder if the story
does become more about creating family than about the individual senses of loss the earlier drafts focused on? I've always like the knotty elegance of
three.
Something to consider when I open the story again - tonight? tomorrow - and see what I can find. And thanks again to
Leslie Pietrzyck for jump-starting me back into Dewey's world.
