Fanfic 100: "A Lesson in Despair"
Title: A Lesson in Despair (Broadway Fanfic 100)
Author: lucie_fanfix
Fandom: Parade
Rating: T or 15+
Characters/ Pairings: Frankie Epps/ Mary Phagan, Frankie Epps/ Iola Stoler, original characters.
Warnings: References to the murder and assault of a child.
Summary: See Frankie run. See Frankie sit. See Frankie lie.
Author’s Notes: Used the “Years” prompt in my Broadway Fanfic 100. This piece is based on Jason Robert Brown’s musical Parade.
A boy named Frankie Epps is born in the town of Marietta, Georgia in 1899. His mother held the red-faced, squealing, bundle to her chest as she gazed out her bedroom window. She imagines of the places he will go, all that she ever dreamed for herself realized in this little boy. But Frankie will never stray far beyond Marietta. Mrs. Epps dies with the newborn infant squealing in her arms.
-
Frankie Epps is five years old when his daddy marries Katie Ann LeRoy. Mr. Epps informs their housekeeper that she may go. The big woman scoops up Frankie and sobs into his chestnut colored hair, but he squirms to be let down. He doesn’t know that this will be the last time she will hold him. Later, when Katie forgets to sing him a lullaby, or makes him put his dog out in the yard, or smacks him for snacking before dinner, he will try to remember the housekeeper’s coffee colored skin and the smell of cherries about her and the taste of her gravy. But Frankie finds that he can’t.
-
Frankie Epps is ten years old when he asks his father if he can borrow a spade so that he can bury his beloved dog, Cherry. His twin half-siblings, now three years old, squawk and dance about the mound of new earth, digging in it with their chubby hands like Cherry might have if he were there. Katie makes all three children bathe in the yard. Frankie think he will die of embarrassment when nine year old Mary Phagan shows up, just as he is pulling his britches back on. She doesn’t tease, only blushes and shoves a cross made out of twigs into his hands before running away. He puts it on Cherry’s grave.
-
Frankie Epps is fifteen and ruled, like most teenage boys, by his own hormones. He believes that he is in love with Mary Phagan, which makes the news of her rape and murder all the more difficult to endure. He was the last person to talk to her before her death; he replays the conversation over and over in his head, torturously, until the exchange is nothing but a blur of words and looks and Mary’s sweet smile. Frankie is a witness in her trial. When he is called to the stand, he points his small, freckled finger at an innocent man and constructs a story one might find in the penny-papers and picture shows he loves so well. He forces himself to believe it, so that other might too. He tells himself that this is what Mary would have wanted.
-
Frankie Epps is twenty when Mr. Epps passes away. Just like the mean old cuss to die on the day before our wedding, Frankie’s fiancé, Iola Stoler remarks, just like him. Frankie puts off the funeral a day or two and then delays his honeymoon so that he can bury his father. He wears the same suit he wore to his wedding to the graveyard. That night, he dreams of his father. Slowly, the old man in his coffin becomes Mary Phagan, crumpled and broken on the concrete floor of the factory’s basement. He wakes up next to Iola, sweating and panting. Mary is haunting him.
FIN.
Learn about Parade! It's a fascinating story with great music.
Author: lucie_fanfix
Fandom: Parade
Rating: T or 15+
Characters/ Pairings: Frankie Epps/ Mary Phagan, Frankie Epps/ Iola Stoler, original characters.
Warnings: References to the murder and assault of a child.
Summary: See Frankie run. See Frankie sit. See Frankie lie.
Author’s Notes: Used the “Years” prompt in my Broadway Fanfic 100. This piece is based on Jason Robert Brown’s musical Parade.
A boy named Frankie Epps is born in the town of Marietta, Georgia in 1899. His mother held the red-faced, squealing, bundle to her chest as she gazed out her bedroom window. She imagines of the places he will go, all that she ever dreamed for herself realized in this little boy. But Frankie will never stray far beyond Marietta. Mrs. Epps dies with the newborn infant squealing in her arms.
-
Frankie Epps is five years old when his daddy marries Katie Ann LeRoy. Mr. Epps informs their housekeeper that she may go. The big woman scoops up Frankie and sobs into his chestnut colored hair, but he squirms to be let down. He doesn’t know that this will be the last time she will hold him. Later, when Katie forgets to sing him a lullaby, or makes him put his dog out in the yard, or smacks him for snacking before dinner, he will try to remember the housekeeper’s coffee colored skin and the smell of cherries about her and the taste of her gravy. But Frankie finds that he can’t.
-
Frankie Epps is ten years old when he asks his father if he can borrow a spade so that he can bury his beloved dog, Cherry. His twin half-siblings, now three years old, squawk and dance about the mound of new earth, digging in it with their chubby hands like Cherry might have if he were there. Katie makes all three children bathe in the yard. Frankie think he will die of embarrassment when nine year old Mary Phagan shows up, just as he is pulling his britches back on. She doesn’t tease, only blushes and shoves a cross made out of twigs into his hands before running away. He puts it on Cherry’s grave.
-
Frankie Epps is fifteen and ruled, like most teenage boys, by his own hormones. He believes that he is in love with Mary Phagan, which makes the news of her rape and murder all the more difficult to endure. He was the last person to talk to her before her death; he replays the conversation over and over in his head, torturously, until the exchange is nothing but a blur of words and looks and Mary’s sweet smile. Frankie is a witness in her trial. When he is called to the stand, he points his small, freckled finger at an innocent man and constructs a story one might find in the penny-papers and picture shows he loves so well. He forces himself to believe it, so that other might too. He tells himself that this is what Mary would have wanted.
-
Frankie Epps is twenty when Mr. Epps passes away. Just like the mean old cuss to die on the day before our wedding, Frankie’s fiancé, Iola Stoler remarks, just like him. Frankie puts off the funeral a day or two and then delays his honeymoon so that he can bury his father. He wears the same suit he wore to his wedding to the graveyard. That night, he dreams of his father. Slowly, the old man in his coffin becomes Mary Phagan, crumpled and broken on the concrete floor of the factory’s basement. He wakes up next to Iola, sweating and panting. Mary is haunting him.
FIN.
Learn about Parade! It's a fascinating story with great music.