Novel Scenes
09-Jan-11
	1	Prologue --- Lily making her regular daily visit to Jamie.
	Wednesday, November 24, 2010
	2	Chapter 1 -- Lily returns home and finds a phone message from Ruth Washington 
	who says she's a social worker at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Ruth was 
	Wednesday, November 24, 2010	calling about someone who had listed Lily as next of kin. Lily decides to ignore 
	the message, sure that it's a mistake or misunderstanding. She didn't know of 
	anyone who would list her as next of kin. Lily makes tea for herself and then 
	begins to prepare dinner. She followed an old family tradition of preparing Caesar 
	salad and cheese garlic bread sticks. The phone rings and it's Ruth  Washington 
	calling again. She explains that a patient at the hospital has listed Lily as her next 
	of kin. It’s McKenna Mattingly, Lily's 30-year-old granddaughter, whom Lily 
	hasn't seen for2 0 years, since she imploded her life and the lives of all those 
	around her. McKenna has been in a serious, life-threatening auto accident. She's 
	physically able to be discharged from the hospital but mentally she's still foggy 
	and disoriented and not herself. The hospital can't release her on her own. They 
	need to release her into someone's custody and they want that someone to be 
	Lily. They arrange for Lily to come to Barnes the next day around 7 p.m. after she's
	 fulfilled her previous commitment.
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	3	Chapter 2 -- Lily is at the shelter serving Thanksgiving dinner, with her close 
	friend and lawyer, Paul Long. Paul is the son of Celia Long, the woman who saved
	Thursday, November 25, 2010	 Lily's life. Celia is now 91 and lives in a nursing home close to Lily's house and 
	not too far from Paul's loft apartment. Paul wants to take Lily out to dinner but she
	 can't bear to think of food after being buried in it all day. Lily says she can't but 
	doesn't tell Paul where she's going or what she's doing, something he finds 
	curious, puzzling and downright mysterious. Lily starts driving to downtown St. 
	Louis, thinking about the last time she was there 10 years ago when she met with 
	a migraine specialist who prescribed medication for her headaches. Paul calls her 
	on her cell phone to tell her he's worried about her because she wouldn’t tell him 
	where she was going. She tells him she can't tell him yet and that she would 
	appreciate it if he didn't say anything to his grandmother Celia because she would
	 just worry about Lily. As she drives to Barnes, Lilly thinks back to the time she 
	first became acquainted with Celia. She cleaned houses to humble herself and 
	Celia was one of her clients.Celia was the one who encouraged Lily to write. Liliy 
	had kept a journal since childhood and had played around writing fiction but 
	hadn't taken he writing seriously.  As she drives to Barnes, Lily remembers the 
	first time she met Celia and how she told her the story of her tragedy. Lily arrives 
	at Barnes and easily finds a parking spot in the garage close to the front entrance. 
	It's the night before a holiday and evidently there aren't many visitors at the 
	hospital. Inside, the guard calls Ruth  Washington's office and then helps Lily 
	over to a seat. Ruth  Washington comes down to the lobby and Lily is surprised 
	to see that she's blind, in addition to being a strikingly beautiful woman. Ruth 
	takes Lily up to her office on the third floor of the administrative wing of Barnes. 
	Ruth gives Lily background on McKenna, then asks if Lily understands. Lily is 
	offended and answers that of course she understands, that all of her faculties are 
	intact and she has a fine mind. Ruth tells Lily that the doctors think McKenna is 
	an alcoholic or has a serious drinking problem. She tells Lily that McKenna was 
	driving drunk when she had the accident -- she hit a bridge abutment on Highway 
	40. Fortunately, she was alone in her car and it was a one-car accident. However, 
	the accident occurred in a construction zone and McKenna was driving an 
	estimated 30 miles over the posted construction zone speed limit. Lily tells Ruth 
	something of her back story, her history, about not being in touch with her family 
	for 20 years, but I don't reveal anything in the narrative at this time. Lily and Ruth  
	ride the elevator to the 13th floor and enter McKenna's hospital room. At first 
	McKenna won't speak to either of them but finally says she doesn't want to go to 
	a mental facility. Ruth tells Lily that McKenna will be released from the hospital in 
	a couple of days and that Lily will have to speak with the prosecutor's office and 
	arrange for a lawyer for McKenna. Lily decides to call Paul and have him come 
	over and talk with her about McKenna. They sit at Lily's dining room table and 
	Lily tells Paul about McKenna. McKenna is an old famiy name. I think this 
	weekend I will fix the book so that Lily is a web developer and programmer, not a 
	fiction writer. Lily asks Paul if he'll be McKenna's lawyer and if he'll accompany 
	her to St. Louis the next day. He agrees. Lily starts thinking back about her past 
	when she Googles McKenna and discovers that McKenna is also a Web 
	designer. Paul advises Lily that he thinks McKenna should plead guilty. Paul is 
	coming to her up. Lily realizes she really wants McKenna to come stay with her, 
	she really wants to help her granddaughter. Paul and Lily drive to St Louis so Paul
	 can meet McKenna and offer her his services. Lily says she wants the challenge 
	of McKenna, that her life is too easy and too bland. Paul confronts her about the 
	selfishness of that and Lily finally agrees and says that's not what she wants.   
	Lily had called Ruth Washington before Paul arrived at her house and asked the 
	woman to accompany them when they went to see McKenna and she agreed. Lily 
	thinks about Paul's disastrous marriage and subsequent divorce, with the evil 
	Patricia, who took all of Paul's money. Celia set up a foundation to help the 
	homeless and the unemployed. Lily and Paul are also involved in the foundation. 
	Lily sold an online e-zine, daily and customizable for a considerable amount of 
	money and invested it well. Lily now writes and still does Internet projects. She 
	tithes 90 percent of her money and keeps to percent for herself. Lily's convinced 
	McKenna won't want her help.
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	4	A Look Back: Lily's shattering episode, when, driving drunk, she has an accident 
	in which her 10-year-old grandson Jaimie is killed and his twin sister McKenna is 
	July 8, 1990	seriously injured.  Lily is oblivious to the damage alcohol is causing in her life and
	 the lives of her family. She refuses to recoginize the imminent tragedy.
	5	Chapter 3 -- McKenna is fuming and worried and upset about her grandmother's 
	second visit, bringing a lawyer with her. She's filled with hostility and anger and 
	frustration. She has a fleeting thought about jumping out of the hospital window. 
	She doesn't want her grandmother and the attorney to come. Her life is in a 
	shambles and she doesn't want to live it anymore..
	6	Chapter 4 -- As they near Barnes-Jewish hospital, Lily has a flashback to 
	Thanksgiving 20 years ago. Traci and Dan and the twins are having Thanksgiving
	 dinner with her parents, Lily and Josh. Everyone has too much to drink. Traci and
	 Dan get into a fight and Dan leaves. Josh gets angry and storms upstairs and 
	doesn't have dinner with them. Lily wants them to spend the night but Traci wants
	 to get home and is going to call a taxi. Lily insists on driving them, even though 
	Traci thinks her mother has had too much to drink.
	7	Chapter 5 -- Lily and Paul meet with McKenna -- Ruth Washington doesn't stay. 
	Paul tells McKenna that she should plead guilty and throw herself on the mercy 
	of the court. He says that's her only chance of not doing serious jail time. 
	McKenna blurts out No but Paul is firm. He's sorry that his blunt words are 
	probably hurting Lily but it's necessary. Paul sends Lily away telling her needs to 
	get rough with McKenna. He tells McKenna they need to have a 'come-to-Jesus' 
	meeting. He tells her he knows her grandmother's story but that she's a good, 
	giving, generous person who he respects more than anyone but his own 
	grandmother.
	8	Chapter 6 -- Driving back to Rivermont, Paul thinks about what transpired with 
	McKenna Mattingly.
	9	Chapter 7 -- Lily -- Lily and Paul drive back to Rivermont in silence. Lily thinks 
	about when she discovered a new approach where she determined that it was 
	productive to enjoy everything that happened in life, to not resist or resent 
	anything, to not avoid things or put things off. She told Celia about it and it 
	turned that Celia knew the same thing, that it was a movement with multiple books
	 written about it -- the power of intention.
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