Sunday, October 22, 2017

This passage is the beginning of CHAPTER 18 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. This chapter is set right in the middle (page 186 of 383 pages) of a novel which spans 25 years (1890-1915) of Aven's (a.k.a. "Dothan's") formative years. CHAPTER 18 (circa 1908) could be considered THE END OF THE FRONTIER chapter in Aven history. Buck and his Mama have come back from New York City and Buck is ready to build a structure architecturally identical to one he'd seen in NYC which had been designed to fit a triangular lot. That building was the Flatiron Building and it would be the basis for the HARRISON HOUSE (a.k.a. Dothan's Hotel Martin ~The opening of this Dothan hotel transformed the town's commercial landscape.) At the end of Chapter 18, the author reintroduces his two Interlude characters, railway brakemen, Jake and Bass, who periodically inform the reader about Buck's progress in Aven. Jake is drunk and can't get Miss Edie down at the Aven Telephone Company. When she finally gets on the line, Jake insults her and she immediately hangs up. Jake then has a fit and tears the telephone off the wall, walks down the street from his location at Dean's Livery Stable (a.k.a. Holman Mule Co.) , goes into Aven Telephone, hollers, "Miss Edie, here's number twenty-five." & tosses the remains of the telephone into Miss Edie's office. So inquiring minds want to know,  who had "number twenty-five" in 1908?

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