- Every town has its storyteller. The man or woman who
can tell you everything about everyone before even one question is asked.
Your eyes meet the storytellers' and - pow! - you're transported into a
world of info and intrigue that you never knew existed before.
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- In Paradise, a round, jolly old boy by the name of Donny
Zee stands at the top of the storytelling peak. Donny's an elementary school
teacher because, he told me one day in the Town Square, "Can you think
of a better job for a man who just about lives to speak everything that
comes into his head? And my students love it when I share all the little
nuggets I know."
-
- "What kind of nuggets?" I said. "Aren't
you supposed to be teaching spelling and history and math and all that?"
-
- "Sure I am," Donny said, "and I do. But
when I talk about, say, the taming of the West, I tell them more than what's
in the books. I tell them about Kit Carson's wife."
-
- "What about Kit Carson's wife?"
-
- "She was a circus performer. On the flying trapeze.
Kate Carson was her name. Incredible Katie K., they called her."
-
- "Doesn't Carson begin with a C?"
-
- "This was before she married Kit. Her maiden name
was Kronhauer, of the Vienna Kronhauers, the family that invented bootjacks."
-
- "The Kronhauer family of Vienna invented bootjacks?"
-
- "Before they went on the run. They had to flee when
one of their bootjacks snapped and broke the neck of the Czar of Russia.
That's how the Russian Revolution got started.
-
- "Not that Kate Carson cared," Donny went on
without taking a breath. "She was too busy doing double triples under
the big top. She double tripled her way into Kit's heart and bore him 17
kids, only one of which was slightly human. Which is why Kit had such a
wicked disposition and went around the Southwest chasing Injuns night and
day."
-
- "You tell that to your students? Like it's true?"
Suddenly I felt worried, about both Donny's future and that of his young
charges.
-
- "Well, I tell 'em the important part," he said.
-
- "Ah. About Kit Carson chasing Indians."
-
- "No, about how the Czar of Russia had these huge
feet that even the best bootjacks wouldn't work on. He had to sleep in
his riding boots, which made Mrs. Czar of Russia so angry that she brought
the Mad Monk Rasputin into the family, and that tipped the scales and caused
the revolution."
-
- I stared, and Donny looked at me proudly. "Gotcha,
didn't I?" he said. "You thought I was telling the truth!"
-
- "About Kit Carson and Russia and bootjacks? I don't
think so, " I said
-
- "How about when I said that's what I taught my kids?
You believed that, right?"
-
- "Well "
-
- "'Course you believed it!" said Donny. "Cuz
it was true! And I'll tell you something else that's true. And sad, too."
-
- Donny's face turned mournful. "Last week, I got
handed the chance of a lifetime. The golden ticket, you could say. The
governor called me from Little Rock. Asked me to come down there and address
the Legislature about the state of education today.
-
- "Now I've got this dream about what we should be
teaching. About how to inspire even the littlest kids. So I got myself
all duded up and started down Highway 14. Suddenly, right near the convenience
store in Harriett, my old truck started clanking and wheezing. There was
smoke billowin' out everywhere. I coasted to a stop and got out to look
under the hood. Before I opened it, though, I saw something on the roadside,
next to the front bumper. An old beat-up satchel. A carpet bag kind of
thing. I couldn't resist. Had to see what was inside. But as I bent down
"
-
- I admit it. Donny had me.
-
- "Yes? As you bent down ?"
-
- He opened his mouth to continue, but all that came out
was, "Oh, for cryin' out loud! I don't have an ending for this story.
It's not ready yet. You and Gwen c'mon over for supper in a couple weeks.
I'll have it all worked out then. And it'll be the truth. Every word."
-
- Gwen the Beautiful and I will go over to Donny's for
supper. Absolutely. Nothing beats watching a master in action, and Donny's
the best.
-
- Because no matter what he says, every time he says it,
to him it's the truth.
-
-
- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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