What Maggie Thinks of Martin
When I first saw Larry, the real new neighbor Larry, he inspired a flurry of thoughts that led to a whole new kind of novel, at least for me.
I whispered a few of these notions to Maggie herself, and she just shook her head.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s weird,” she said. “But I will keep my opinions to myself.” Then she turned her back on me.
“Hold on,” I said. “That’s not fair. I told you.”
“Figure it out for yourself,” she said. “You gave me a dog to worry about. Frank — he was my husband, you know — always said dogs were nothing but trouble.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that’s what he thought. But what does that have to do with the new guy next door?”
“Unless he can help me with this dog, he’s worthless.”
“Hmm,” I said, mostly to myself.
The fact is that the new Larry character next door, now reincarnated to a very similar sort of fellow named Martin, was looking for a way to meet Maggie, but she never gave him the time of day.
“Martin, have you tried talking to her?”
“Not really. I did wave once. I want to make a good first impression.”
“You impress me,” I said.
“Yes, but you created me. Out of some stranger who bears me only a superficial resemblance.”
“True. But…well, maybe this is a bit self-serving, but I do hope you’ll meet Maggie.”
Then I remembered about Maggie’s dog. Ernest.
“I think you ought to know this about Maggie, Martin,” I said as I turned to return to my own place. “Maggie needs help with that dog.”
“He IS rather large.”
“She insisted on a bloodhound. He was there, he was waiting, and she fell for him. And he is big, and somewhat opinionated, I gather.”
“Bloodhounds are.”
“So she needs help. She’s expecting trouble. She’s afraid. Think of something, and you’ll be all set and we can get on with this story.”
“On it, Boss.”
You can read the full story of when Maggie met Martin in Maggie Awake: A Saga of Old Love in the Pacific Northwest. Or try this free bonus-chapter sample, called Sandbagging (a Maggie and Martin story of the Pacific Northwest).
Peg Lewis is a great-grandmother, a linguist, and a life-long writer and scientist. She was born in New England. She also lived in San Diego, Spain, Switzerland, Beijing, New Zealand, and the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides in Tucson in a 3-generation household where she is next-to-oldest.
Peg believes in Old Love, a rich genre not to be confused with young romance. Old Love is about relationships, deep, enduring, and complicated. She knows: she has been married to space scientist and author John S Lewis for 57 years, and if she is old, he is yet older.
