Every day is a short story. You just need to get it down on paper.
Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was born in Indian Creek, Texas. Her mother died when she was two. Her father felt he had better things to do than raising kids. So he dumped Katherine and her siblings on his own mom and left. Then grandma died and Katherine was bounced around from one temporary situation to another.
A motherless childhood and a life dominated by poverty can create cravings that are difficult to obliterate. Hungry for a home, at age 16, Katherine married a rich drunk who was physically abusive. After she was diagnosed with TB and had to go stay in a sanatorium, Katherine knew that it was time to dump Rambo and move on. In 1919 Katherine moved to New York City and there earned a living as a ghost writer.
The following year a magazine publisher sent her to Mexico to cover the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Here Katherine met many revolutionaries and protagonists of the new left. This included Diego Rivera before he was Frida Kahlo’s husband. Initially, Katherine was intrigued by the revolutionaries and their lifestyle. But when she started smelling their patriarchal macho stench, Katherine, once again, decided to move on. However, the stench had inspired a number of short stories that were eventually published collectively as Flowering Judas and Other Stories.
Included in the collection is “Rope” (1928), the story of a quarrel between a wife and her husband. Hubby goes to buy groceries but, instead of coming back with the coffee that his wife wants, he comes back with a coil of rope. The wife gets angry and says a few abrasive things. The husband then has his say, too. As if playing ping pong, the couple bounces unpleasant comments back and forth. What started out as an insignificant conflict is blown out of proportion, typical of marital squabbles. The couple nitpicks at one another until they are bored and decide to do something else. The only problem is: what to do with the rope?
Not wanting the rope to go to waste, I’ve asked my imaginary friend, Jane, for some suggestions:
A Jump Rope
Jane said that the easiest way to transform the rope was to use it as a jump rope. Rope jumping is a recreational activity that also works well as exercise. Obviously, when rope jumping became popular in Europe, only the boys were allowed to do it. You know, girls’ ankles were meant to be fantasized, not seen. Girls had to wait until the next century before they were permitted to jump, too. But once they started jumping, no one could stop them. They even made-up skipping chants to give their jumps more pizazz. One favorite went like this: Not last night but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking on my door. As I ran out, they ran in….”
Jane liked jumping but found the chants too folkloristic. For her creative writing course, she wrote some new chants with a feminist vibe. One chant made it to the radio and became a top tune for jumpers.
A Tight Rope
On July 8, 1876, the Italian funambulist, Maria Spelterini, crossed the Niagara Falls gorge on a tightrope. It was the first time a woman had tried to do so. People from all over had come for the event and had even paid to see it. With their necks stretch out like giraffes, the audience oohed and aahed. Maria had enjoyed herself so much that she crossed the gorge again. But after her last performance, the beautiful 23-year-old Maria disappeared. No one has since heard from her causing much unpleasant speculation.
Jane has no desire to be a daredevil, but she would like a funambulist thrill. She tried walking on a rope tied to the trees in her backyard. It was going quite well until the birds felt the need to protect their territorial domain and made her fall off the rope. Jane intends on trying again but this time some place where birds are prohibited.
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(“Jane’s Rope” to be continued ⓒ 2024)
Related:
Katherine Anne Porter + Martha and Katherine + Eudora Welty (1909-2001)
Analysis of Katherine Anne Porter’s The Jilting of Granny Weatherall + THE JILTING OF GRANNY WEATHERALL, A Short Story by Katherine Anne Porter audio book + The secret self : a century of short stories by women anthology by Hermione Lee on archive HERE (includes Katherine Anne Porter’s story “Rope”) +
Hop to It: 6 Benefits of Jumping Rope +
The Narrative Within 