Can't Keep Your Eyes From The Circling Sky Alt. Ending or The Tax of Quick Alarm Blurb: This is the same Persuasion modern universe as "Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, I" and "Can't Keep My Eyes From The Circling Sky". It can either be a stand-alone drabble or an alternate ending to the couplet of fics. Modernizes Austen's last sentence from Persuasion, to pay one last homage to canon. She gloried in being a sailor's wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance - Jane Austen, Persuasion April 2020 Anne When Austen wrote that it was the lot of the sailor's wife to "pay the tax of quick alarm", perhaps she held the world in too much charity. For it is the tax that all of us must pay: Frederick, his plane grounded on the tarmac, flitting restlessly around our living room with the news looping on our TV in sotto voce tones, his ears constantly pricked up for the latest word from Fauci or Whitmer. Our sons Lionel and Marshall, staring uncomprehendingly at the playground despite my best efforts to gently usher them down the path on their bikes, gaping at the climbing structure which was so innocuous yesterday, yet taped up like a crime scene today. Mary and Sophie, for though Mary now has her wish granted for the boys to be home-schooled, now every kid in America is a homeschooler, and not by choice. Tiffany and Charlie and Wally, working through the packets they were sent home from school with, their teachers scrambling to set up lessons on Zoom. Charles and the Musgroves, for when eighty percent of the population isn't driving, a body shop does not have business. Hetty and Chuck and Lulu, just getting started with their adult lives, for how can they learn work norms and make connections when they don't even know when they'll ever go back to their workplaces again? Especially Lulu, who's still looking for a life partner in times when blind dates and house parties have become verboten. Myself, raiding all our home emergency kits to scramble together some N95's for our local hospital, and learning to thread the Bernina I salvaged from Grandma's old house in a valiant but vain effort to cover every face in our state. And most of all, the healthcare and essential workers who are out there every single day, battling this unseen demon that has ravaged our country and the world. This is the tax paid by all of humankind, all through the ages. Yet though I may be trapped in this house, at least I am here with the people whom I love most in this world, and we will get through this together. Yes, we will get through this together, I promise. AU notes: Sophia is a widow in this AU, and Tiffany (original character) is her daughter, so that's why she is a kid mom. Frederick converts from being a military to a commercial pilot to move in with Sophia at the beginning of "Can't Keep My Eyes From the Circling Sky", whereas the Elliot and Musgrove families became rich on the auto business. The story is set in metro Detroit. Louisa (Lulu) is single because there is no Benwick deus ex machina in this tale.https://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130194#msg-130194Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:25:35 +0100 Phorum 5.2.22 https://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130595#msg-130595 Re: Can't Keep Your Eyes From The Circling Sky Alt. Ending or The Tax of Quick Alarmhttps://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130595#msg-130595
thanks]]> BTroisi Derbyshire Writers' GuildSat, 16 Jul 2022 09:14:50 +0100 https://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130199#msg-130199 Re: Can't Keep Your Eyes From The Circling Sky Alt. Ending or The Tax of Quick Alarmhttps://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130199#msg-130199 Lucy J. Derbyshire Writers' GuildWed, 26 Jan 2022 05:02:45 +0000 https://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130195#msg-130195 Re: Can't Keep Your Eyes From The Circling Sky Alt. Ending or The Tax of Quick Alarmhttps://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130195#msg-130195 Jen Derbyshire Writers' GuildSat, 22 Jan 2022 01:50:19 +0000 https://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130194#msg-130194 Can't Keep Your Eyes From The Circling Sky Alt. Ending or The Tax of Quick Alarmhttps://dwiggie.com/phorum/read.php?5,130194,130194#msg-130194

She gloried in being a sailor's wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance - Jane Austen, Persuasion

April 2020
Anne

When Austen wrote that it was the lot of the sailor's wife to "pay the tax of quick alarm", perhaps she held the world in too much charity. For it is the tax that all of us must pay:

Frederick, his plane grounded on the tarmac, flitting restlessly around our living room with the news looping on our TV in sotto voce tones, his ears constantly pricked up for the latest word from Fauci or Whitmer.

Our sons Lionel and Marshall, staring uncomprehendingly at the playground despite my best efforts to gently usher them down the path on their bikes, gaping at the climbing structure which was so innocuous yesterday, yet taped up like a crime scene today.

Mary and Sophie, for though Mary now has her wish granted for the boys to be home-schooled, now every kid in America is a homeschooler, and not by choice.

Tiffany and Charlie and Wally, working through the packets they were sent home from school with, their teachers scrambling to set up lessons on Zoom.

Charles and the Musgroves, for when eighty percent of the population isn't driving, a body shop does not have business.

Hetty and Chuck and Lulu, just getting started with their adult lives, for how can they learn work norms and make connections when they don't even know when they'll ever go back to their workplaces again? Especially Lulu, who's still looking for a life partner in times when blind dates and house parties have become verboten.

Myself, raiding all our home emergency kits to scramble together some N95's for our local hospital, and learning to thread the Bernina I salvaged from Grandma's old house in a valiant but vain effort to cover every face in our state.

And most of all, the healthcare and essential workers who are out there every single day, battling this unseen demon that has ravaged our country and the world.

This is the tax paid by all of humankind, all through the ages. Yet though I may be trapped in this house, at least I am here with the people whom I love most in this world, and we will get through this together.

Yes, we will get through this together, I promise.


AU notes: Sophia is a widow in this AU, and Tiffany (original character) is her daughter, so that's why she is a kid mom. Frederick converts from being a military to a commercial pilot to move in with Sophia at the beginning of "Can't Keep My Eyes From the Circling Sky", whereas the Elliot and Musgrove families became rich on the auto business. The story is set in metro Detroit. Louisa (Lulu) is single because there is no Benwick deus ex machina in this tale.]]> Kalee Derbyshire Writers' GuildThu, 20 Jan 2022 01:13:40 +0000