Thawing A.C. Nielsen--Sharing Ch. 2

Good Day!

Today I am sharing chapter two of my new novel, which will release on Oct. 18th on Kindle/Amazon. Hey friends, I need to have reviews posted that day or shortly after (Amazon does not allow reviews posted before the actual release-for-sale date). If you'd like the whole book NOW in pdf or kindle form FOR FREE in exchange for you posting an honest review, let me know! You can email me at paulcarey440@yahoo.com

In chapter two I introduce the main character Kate Pearson, a highly talented young microbiologist. I also introduce her roommate Aria. Aria provides a lot of comic relief throughout the book, and she provides me with a way to not always be so focused on Kate. When I first started writing the book the two of them were too much the same. I was gradually able to make them different, although as long-time roommates they do often think alike. Kate is more conservative and doesn't swear, whereas Aria is wackier and a bit more colorful with her words!

There is a really early character foreshadowing here when I mention that Kate's mom is a who-dun-it enthusiast. Way toward the end she will be the expert sleuther, to the surprise of a gaggle of millenials who visit her house to watch an important old VHS tape (she's the only person they know who has a cassette player!).

They say 'write what you know' and setting the novel in the Chicago area really works for me. Also, Aria is a classicially trained violinist, and of course music has been my world! In fact, there is a later sad/sweet chapter I'm really proud of that centers on Aria's violin paying and the way it inspires Kate.

I also have an old codger named Mr. Drummond in this chapter. I thought of the grizzled TV reporter John Drummond when I wrote this. You folks from Chicago will remember his no-nonsense reporting!

So, here you go--chapter two:

CHAPTER TWO

April 2013

“Look, Aria, an e-mail from that headhunter company. They have an interview for me to go to next Wednesday. Downtown at a hotel. About time something came along. Maybe I can get this and have a way to start paying off my student loans. And start splitting the rent again with you, too, of course!”

“That’s awesome, Kate,” Aria said. “Does it say what kind of job, like specifically?” Aria and Kate had been dorm roomies all the way through undergrad and then had shared apartments through grad school at Northwestern University. Kate hadn’t found a job in the three months since she had finished her degree. She was desperate to get a career going.

“They didn’t describe the job. Just said to show up. A good match, they think. You know they did tell me earlier that my biology degrees would fit in somewhere, even though the microbiology grad degree was kind of overqualifying me for some positions. I knew that might happen, but hell, I wanted that masters.” Kate took a brush to her auburn hair, trying to get rid of some tangles. She always felt she was just an average-looking girl, but she actually was attractive and very fit. She just wasn’t spectacularly gorgeous like Aria with her perfect complexion, flowing blonde hair, and lanky body.

“Well, I hope you get it. Just hope it isn’t sitting in a sweatshop all day poking dead cows’ eyes out, or slicing out frog gizzards and packing them into high school dissection kits. I was thinking about that the other day. Somebody has to put those kits together. Probably struggling biology majors like you who don’t want to settle for working at 7-Eleven.”

“You were thinking about the world of dissection supplies, Aria? Really?”

“Yeah, you know I’m weird. So, you get to go pop-pop-pop, poke the cow eyes out with your thumb and drop ’em into a rusty old pail, then hand them off to somebody else on the assembly line.”

“‘Pop-pop-pop’? And so now cows have three eyes?”

“Sure—yeah. Alien cows. Oh wait, no—enlightened cows. You know, third-eye cows.”

“Oh, shut up. Wish me luck it’s a good job, okay? So are we ready for some wine, now that you’re home?”

“Dumb question. Pour something. You choose.”

“Okay,” Kate said, pushing herself up from the sofa and heading toward the kitchen. They had a stash of halfway decent wine from the Trader Joe’s in Northbrook. No Charles Shaw, though; they had evolved past that. “So wait, I want to know more about the frog gizzards I’m going to be packaging. Tell me more about them, ’cause I think frogs don’t have gizzards. I think I knew that from actually paying attention to Mr. Zwillig in biology class sophomore year at New Trier High. I can still remember him with his squeaky voice trying to get you to focus. ‘Miss Grumman, please pay attention. I assure you that this class will be important in your future endeavors.’”

“Endeavors? Who says that word? And he was totally wrong, the ass. I’m doing fine these days in the violin section of the Milwaukee Symphony—and I needed to know biology for that, somehow? Anyway, I said frog gizzards? Nah—oh, thanks for the wine.”

“Actually yes, you did say frog gizzards, Aria. Please teach me about them. I really want to hear this.”

“All right, I will illuminate things for you like I always do. I’m sorry the dark overlords of the biology world have kept these secrets from you, oh innocent one. Frog gizzards were invented by Eddie Izzard. He invented many varieties of gizzards and also lizards. Some of those sell car insurance on TV. Others, like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, play weird psychedelic music.”

“Oh, shut up!” Kate laughed, throwing a pillow at Aria’s head.

“Hey, watch it. I’ve got red wine here!”

“Stop making me laugh so much. You know it makes my cheeks hurt.”

“Okay, so let’s think about what kind of job it could be. They don’t headhunt for dumbass jobs, right? Hey, can you grab some chips or something? I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry. Where do you put all that food?”

“Into my violin playing. Do you realize how much of a workout it is to play for four hours or more a day? Have you noticed how much my body moves when I play, and my bow arm? Here, take a look at my muscles, they’re totally buff, huh?” Aria rolled up her cotton shirt to show off her well-defined biceps and triceps.

“Okay, I will bring you some empty calories as you wish,” said Kate. “Well, the Milwaukee Symphony is lucky to have you. A nice gig ’til you can get in at CSO, right?”

“That will be a while. Chicago Symphony doesn’t hire twenty-seven-year-old violinists too often. But I’m happy in Milwaukee. It’s such an easy commute from here.”

“Gotta love the North Shore, huh? And we’re not far from my mom’s house in Winnetka.”

“Yeah, the Home Alone house. She’s so cute when she mentions that stuff.”

“Eh—to me it’s more like annoying when she tells people and I have to listen to her go on and on. I was three or four then; I don’t remember any of it. Besides, we weren’t the actual Home Alone house, we were just on the same block. We were the house in the last scene when the cops arrest the doofus bad guys.”

“Yeah, I know. Ha-ha, the Wet Bandits! But she’s so cute when she tells people about meeting Joe Pesci and the other stuff. She told me a secret once. Guess what it was.”

“Oh boy, what?” Kate said, pouring more malbec in their glasses.

“She said, ‘Guess what, Aria. Mr. Pesci doesn’t really have a gold tooth. The makeup people put that on him. And he’s such a nice man—I love how he talks. He talks funny, I think you could say.’”

“She said that? Accidentally referencing her pal Joe in Goodfellas with that, right?”

“Yeah, I doubt your sweet mum has seen anything as edgy as Goodfellas. I’ll bet she’s a rom-com girl.”

“No, actually she likes mystery and crime stuff. Like Murder, She Wrote and whatever that Dick van Dyke detective show was.”

“Diagnosis Murder I think it was, not that I ever watched it. Anyway, don’t pick on your mom. She’s still sad and lonesome without your dad there.”

“I know. I go over and help her out around the house. We have fun together pretty often. Thank God my dad had good life insurance. I’m still getting over it, too. I was only twenty-one when they diagnosed his cancer. There’s always a hurt in my heart, Aria, even after six years. I thought he’d be around forever to watch me become an adult, have kids of my own, you know. He would have been the best grampa ever. Well okay, enough serious talk. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” Aria said. She leaned over and gave Kate a long hug. “I’m always here for you, understand?”

“Yes, thank you. And likewise. You helped me through that and I will always remember.”

“So, you wanna turn the TV on?”

“I don’t know. What’s on?”

“I saw a promo for a Sex and the City episode running tonight in a few minutes, I believe,” Aria said. “The one where Samantha thinks she can handle dating that rich old guy. I mean the really old guy where they show her retching when she sees his sad, droopy naked butt.”

“HBO is showing Sex and the City episodes again? Or do you mean the reruns on WFN?”

“WFN. Can you believe it? They show his wrinkly naked tushie. They don’t cut that part out!”

“Seriously? Wow, that’s wild. They used to be so ridiculously conservative at that station. Remember the Farm Report around noon? Hog belly prices from Springfield and stuff? So, Aria, new subject—how are we going to get me downtown for this interview with only one car between the two of us? You have a long day of rehearsals next Wednesday, right?”

“Eh, we have a few days to figure that out. Why do you give me wine on an empty stomach? I’m getting too drunk to look at a calendar and think straight. Let’s do it tomorrow night before we’ve started drinking. Okay, sweet little girl, my little gizzard girl?”

“Stop it with the gizzards, Aria. You’re crazy!”

“I know you are, but what am I?”

Kate threw a pillow at Aria, jumped up and grabbed more to throw, and chased Aria around the apartment, crashing hard into the living-room wall at one point. They yelled and laughed like eight-year-olds.

“Can’t catch me!” Aria hollered with glee.

Suddenly they heard a loud tap-tap-tap coming from the apartment below.They stopped running for a moment, then realized it was Old Man Drummond banging on his ceiling. 

“Miss Pearson, Miss Grumman, this is not a gymnasium!” he yelled from below with his grumpy-old-man voice.

“Jesus, Mr. Drummond, this is an apartment building, not a damn library! Gizzards to you—gizzards—gizzards—gizzaaaaards!” Aria yelled at the top of her lungs while stomping her foot as loud as she could. She fell to the floor, grabbed her glass from the coffee table, and polished off her wine.

“Guess that’ll show him not to mess with a mentally impaired violin player,” Kate said.

“Ha. Next time I’ll go downstairs, knock on his door, and throw a big chunk of violin rosin at his head when he answers!”

Kate laughed. “Mature, Aria, very mature!”