This story will be available in my upcoming print collection in 2025 and chronicle Carrie’s final confrontation with her stepfather, Marcus Chen.
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Cover Photo by Shifaaz shamoon on Unsplash
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21
High Road
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4 responses to “High Road”
I’ve been up since 4AM due to the family stuff, and my day looks … pfff. But I got this story finished! Expect a little bit of polishing in the coming days, but not too much.
So “finished”, eh?
Never thought you’d ask. Due to my non-writing life’s demands, I didn’t finish in time for my second collection, which I would have put up here and on the dedicated page. As I did last time, I want this story to be exclusive to the collection, so that’s why it says ‘continued’ – d’uh!
Anyway, I didn’t lie. The dramatic ending is all written down and I just need to put together the stories for the collection, format them and all that jazz. But I will do that in the coming week and then leave a link here when I am finished, and a wee heads up.
So, I think the story speaks for itself. I hope it does. Carrie finally comes head-to-head with her mother and stepfather about the skewed idea of giving her a grant to ‘fix her life’, as long as it comes with a big fat promotion sticker from Marcus Chen’s “Church Universal”. But it appears Emma is the one who really gets hurt in the ensuing showdown. Maybe, like, physically hurt …
I’ve been to L.A. once in my life, and traffic’s intimidating to say the least. So that was what I had in my head when I did this one. That and, I suppose, a lot of anger about all kinds of things – not unlike a certain Carrie Reese. But I will leave that to you to make of it what you will.
Best,
Chris
P.S. The soundtrack for this one is Black’s melancholic 1987-hit “Wonderful Life”. I think that reflects Marcus’ mood pretty well. He may be somewhat misguided but he is also a deeply troubled man, who has got a lot of reasons to feel that way about life. Or what do you think?
And I found an article which goes so well with HIGH ROAD:
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/i-love-that-kind-of-brutal-honesty-jennifer-connelly-embraces-her-bad-side-20231107-p5ei63.html
I think Lucy – the protagonist of Alice Englert’s BAD BEHAVIOUR film – played by Jennifer Connolly – and Carrie would get along so well if they knew one another and played in one another’s universes.
This impression was crystallised when I read about Lucy’s reaction to this quasi-wellness centre.
Some impressions are still fluid as they get from my mind to the keyboard. And then into the comments box and beyond.
As I thought about it more I thought of the characters I had “met” through Universal Church especially the one who was Joan-of-Arc like and some of the others who had made that type of impression.
[and the others who were in Deborah’s group].
I had not yet found a “Marcus” character – or indeed a “Deborah” one.
Or maybe Lucy’s daughter is closer to the Carrie core?
Thank you for the comment and the article! I will definitely check out that movie when I get the chance! Then I can see for myself what similarities there are 🙂
I’m also really glad you tipped me on this movie because Jenniffer Connelly is one of my favorite actresses. As a matter of fact, part of the sequence about Carrie’s recovery from drugs in the early 2000s was inspired by the setting of “House of Sand and Fog” which starred Jen. (The book is good, too!)
Have you watched “Requiem for a Dream” with JC? It is a very hard movie, but one of her finest roles, and, again, somewhat of an inspiration for Carrie.
Marcus Chen is a different beast. I guess his first name is a Freudian slip on my part, but I did have many of his opinions about what this sort of scientific spirituality could do when I was in my early 20s. But the fictional Marcus is an elderly, world-weary man now and is beginning to doubt his own ‘greatness’.
I think he probably still has difficulty seeing that his ‘Church’ is a failure drawing in all sorts of abusers, airheads and con-men, though. That admission would be unbearable – at least for the moment. So he wavers and takes some of his own shit out on Carrie, whom he also desperately wants to have a genuine relation with, because he doesn’t have any other family left.
Deborah for her part is attracted to what she believes is Marcus’ true spirit, so to speak, the one untainted by anger, ambition and everything in between. (His money are not bad, either.)
Thanks for commenting. Feel free to contact me (chris AT shadeofthemorningsun DOT com) for a free review copy of the collection.