In this installment of Page 69,
we put Sarah Layden's Trip Through Your Wires to the test!
Ok, Sarah, set up page 69 for us.
Carey Halpern, on her first day of school in Mexico during
her junior year abroad, skips classes with Ben and Mike. The two American men
have been to Mexico before, and they lead her to a courtyard to watch Alejandro
perform a fire-eating routine.
What is Trip Through Your Wires about?
In Trip Through Your Wires, we know from the start
that Ben was killed in Mexico, and that Carey never dealt with the grief of
losing him. The novel alternates between past and present, Mexico in the
mid-1990s and Indianapolis seven years later, when a clue in the murder case
forces Carey to revisit her memories of events. She knew more than she thought,
and must come to terms with the guilt of that realization.
Do you think
this page gives our readers an accurate sense of what Trip Through Your Wires is about? Does it align itself the book’s overall
theme?
It really does.
Nicely done, TNBBC! This page gets three main characters together on the scene,
plus one minor character. It shows the sense of unknowns and danger and
excitement that was such a part of Carey's experience in Guanajuato. This
particular Mexican city is such a vivid, amazing place, with beautiful
cathedrals and theaters, winding alleyways, and mountains all around. This
portion shows a smaller sliver of life in the city: a beautifully tended garden
courtyard, but one that is obscured from view with high walls. That seems
resonant of the rest of the book, too: what's hidden versus what's out in the
open.
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PAGE 69
Trip Through Your Wires
Ben raised his hand like a boy in school, his fist closed
as if in salute. When he opened his hand, a silk scarf, the same green of
Carey’s tank top, fluttered to her shoulders. He shook it out of the folded
triangles and let go, and she reached to keep it from the wet pavement.
“Pretty,”
Carey cooed. “Where did you get it?”
Ben
ignored the question. His hand moved through his hair as if searching for a
lost item. “It’s practical. Tie it around your hair before we go in.”
Ben
knocked on the door in a quick succession, a practiced, specific rhythm, and
Carey hurried to tie her hair back with the green scarf. When no one answered,
Ben opened the door.
Inside
was the outside: the sun beat down on a square courtyard, with cement paths and
landscaped flower beds. Stone benches flanked a small reflecting pond.
Bordering the pristine garden on all sides were run-down apartment buildings:
layers of balconies climbed five or six stories, with clotheslines strung
between them. Relief and disappointment ebbed and flowed in her, just like her
alternating desires for adventure and predictability. She had thought they were
taking her to a bar, or to the seedy side of town. The beautifully tended
garden grew sprays of orange and red lobelia, low-growing hyacinth and green
shrubs. The flowers emitted a fragrance more potent than a department store
perfume counter. Some of the blooms still shaded by the buildings displayed
buds waiting to open. Carey began to relax, and when a man stepped silently
from behind a door with three folding metal chairs, she almost shrieked. He had
a sharp face and hollow cheeks. Maybe a little older than Ben and Mike. He kept
his head down and gaze averted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sarah Layden is the winner of the Allen and Nirelle Galson Prize for fiction and an AWP Intro Award. Her short fiction can be found in Boston Review, Stone Canoe, Blackbird, Artful Dodge, The Evansville Review, Booth, PANK, the anthology Sudden Flash Youth, and elsewhere. A two-time Society of Professional Journalists award winner, her recent essays, interviews and articles have appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, The Writer's Chronicle, NUVO, and The Humanist. She teaches writing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the Indiana Writers Center.
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