Howard, Prison or Freedom?
I have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of The September letters, which I am sure will be the last input from Lynn on the character of Howard in For Better or For Worse.
Elly’s letter lays the foundation of Liz’s proper behaviour at work. Liz reports Howard to Lawrence and Nick, who then do all the right things: Give a warning to Howard, apologize to Liz with a gift basket and card after the assault. Howard is marked as a homophobe, but without a recourse for Lawrence and Nick, since the Howard’s remarks are alleged and not proven. Within the context of the April’s Real Blog Howard story, none of these comments have any effect. They are the things that Lawrence and Nick would say and do to make Elly and Liz feel like they have done all they can in that situation. They would have done this no matter if there was a conspiracy or not.
Elizabeth’s letter is more problematic. She has filed charges, as I predicted she would. But the letter goes on to indicate that somehow 2 other women found out that she had filed charges and then did also. The part that is missing from Liz’s letter is some comment about how the 2 ladies found out about the assault charges in the first place. Was it in the newspaper? Did the people in Milborough talk up the assault so much that it became common knowledge to everyone in town? Did the police already have a record of assaults against Howard, for which they could not get the victims to press charges and then tried again once Elizabeth pressed her charges? It does not really matter because having other witnesses means it leaves Liz free to not have to participate in a trial against Howard. The prosecutors will say something like, “We don’t need you to come back from Mtigwaki for your testimony, Miss Elizabeth. The witnesses we have are enough. Why don’t you just get on with your life as if nothing ever happened, and be sure to invite us to your wedding with Anthony.” I would love for there to be a “Trial of Howard” sequence, but I am pretty much resigned to the idea that Howard will never be mentioned again.
However, because we do not know how the 2 women came to know the assault charges had been filed, this left the door open for the conspiracy story to work. The 2 ladies are hired to do it by the conspiracy mastermind. Howard is a loose cannon, so if he stays in town with the charges having been filed, he is going to jail. He would not get a light sentence in a town controlled by the evil characters that have been established in April’s Real Blog. qnjones, the fine poster for Becky and many other delightful characters had suggested letters from jail. I was trying to find jailed characters from For Better or For Worse to interact with Howard, and ran into a brick wall. So, I decided Howard is going to make a run for it. In jail, he can’t snark. On the run, he can visit Mtigwaki and other places.
But we can’t leave without finally revealing the mastermind behind the operation, Lawrence and Nick’s “friend.” I’ve dropped some clues that it is Mike, but had Lawrence and Nick so ridicule the idea that it could not be he. No one seemed to pick up on that, but that’s OK. Sob! Aside from that, it is a lot better for Mike’s character to be innocent of these matters. He is a regular cast member and his poster would probably prefer the idea of him being uninvolved in a conspiracy involving an attack on his sister. I needed someone to be the “friend” who was familiar with the FBOFW cast but would be a little of a surprise, but not so heavily involved with the daily goings-on of the story. Tracey Mayes fit the bill. Qnjones is listed as posting her, so I hope she was not too upset when I turned Tracey into the mastermind and provided a reason for the whole plot that didn’t have to do with people marrying their childhood sweethearts. Plus it has the extra side benefit of explaining exactly what motivated Gordon to become the mogul he is. To my fellow posters, I am sorry the story was so dark, but I promise light-hearted posts in the days to come.
I am going to digress into a different story here. Years ago, I was living in an apartment with 2 male roommates, and we were awoken one night by yelling in the parking lot outside our building. It was pretty clear from the yelling, that a man was beating up a woman. This is pretty horrifying to hear, and I can still remember the sound of it. My roommates and I called the police and went outside to see what we could do to help. The minute we got outside, both the man and woman hightailed it into a different apartment building. The external door of the building was self-locking and we did not have a key so we could not get in. When the police arrived, they called out to people in the building to come down and let them in. They talked to the woman, who of course was not going to press charges against her boyfriend who beat her. They gave him a warning and then came down to talk to us. The policeman then told me something that astounds me to this day. He said that we should never interfere with an assault, but always let the police do it. If we had intervened and harmed the man as a result, he could take us to court for assaulting him and we could be assured that the girlfriend who had been assaulted would back him up. This event has been running through my head for the last 2 weeks, and I just had to write it up.
Next: Howard on the Run or On the Road to Mtigwaki
Elly’s letter lays the foundation of Liz’s proper behaviour at work. Liz reports Howard to Lawrence and Nick, who then do all the right things: Give a warning to Howard, apologize to Liz with a gift basket and card after the assault. Howard is marked as a homophobe, but without a recourse for Lawrence and Nick, since the Howard’s remarks are alleged and not proven. Within the context of the April’s Real Blog Howard story, none of these comments have any effect. They are the things that Lawrence and Nick would say and do to make Elly and Liz feel like they have done all they can in that situation. They would have done this no matter if there was a conspiracy or not.
Elizabeth’s letter is more problematic. She has filed charges, as I predicted she would. But the letter goes on to indicate that somehow 2 other women found out that she had filed charges and then did also. The part that is missing from Liz’s letter is some comment about how the 2 ladies found out about the assault charges in the first place. Was it in the newspaper? Did the people in Milborough talk up the assault so much that it became common knowledge to everyone in town? Did the police already have a record of assaults against Howard, for which they could not get the victims to press charges and then tried again once Elizabeth pressed her charges? It does not really matter because having other witnesses means it leaves Liz free to not have to participate in a trial against Howard. The prosecutors will say something like, “We don’t need you to come back from Mtigwaki for your testimony, Miss Elizabeth. The witnesses we have are enough. Why don’t you just get on with your life as if nothing ever happened, and be sure to invite us to your wedding with Anthony.” I would love for there to be a “Trial of Howard” sequence, but I am pretty much resigned to the idea that Howard will never be mentioned again.
However, because we do not know how the 2 women came to know the assault charges had been filed, this left the door open for the conspiracy story to work. The 2 ladies are hired to do it by the conspiracy mastermind. Howard is a loose cannon, so if he stays in town with the charges having been filed, he is going to jail. He would not get a light sentence in a town controlled by the evil characters that have been established in April’s Real Blog. qnjones, the fine poster for Becky and many other delightful characters had suggested letters from jail. I was trying to find jailed characters from For Better or For Worse to interact with Howard, and ran into a brick wall. So, I decided Howard is going to make a run for it. In jail, he can’t snark. On the run, he can visit Mtigwaki and other places.
But we can’t leave without finally revealing the mastermind behind the operation, Lawrence and Nick’s “friend.” I’ve dropped some clues that it is Mike, but had Lawrence and Nick so ridicule the idea that it could not be he. No one seemed to pick up on that, but that’s OK. Sob! Aside from that, it is a lot better for Mike’s character to be innocent of these matters. He is a regular cast member and his poster would probably prefer the idea of him being uninvolved in a conspiracy involving an attack on his sister. I needed someone to be the “friend” who was familiar with the FBOFW cast but would be a little of a surprise, but not so heavily involved with the daily goings-on of the story. Tracey Mayes fit the bill. Qnjones is listed as posting her, so I hope she was not too upset when I turned Tracey into the mastermind and provided a reason for the whole plot that didn’t have to do with people marrying their childhood sweethearts. Plus it has the extra side benefit of explaining exactly what motivated Gordon to become the mogul he is. To my fellow posters, I am sorry the story was so dark, but I promise light-hearted posts in the days to come.
I am going to digress into a different story here. Years ago, I was living in an apartment with 2 male roommates, and we were awoken one night by yelling in the parking lot outside our building. It was pretty clear from the yelling, that a man was beating up a woman. This is pretty horrifying to hear, and I can still remember the sound of it. My roommates and I called the police and went outside to see what we could do to help. The minute we got outside, both the man and woman hightailed it into a different apartment building. The external door of the building was self-locking and we did not have a key so we could not get in. When the police arrived, they called out to people in the building to come down and let them in. They talked to the woman, who of course was not going to press charges against her boyfriend who beat her. They gave him a warning and then came down to talk to us. The policeman then told me something that astounds me to this day. He said that we should never interfere with an assault, but always let the police do it. If we had intervened and harmed the man as a result, he could take us to court for assaulting him and we could be assured that the girlfriend who had been assaulted would back him up. This event has been running through my head for the last 2 weeks, and I just had to write it up.
Next: Howard on the Run or On the Road to Mtigwaki
posted by howard at 7:33 PM
5 Comments:
I just think the whole conspiricy theory was a cop out. Just my two cents. I could say other things but I'm not because I don't want to make anyone else mad, but it works as a fan fic but not as a deal on a continuing blog. Not only that it seemed to chase away other posters because it didn't leave room for anyone else...Michael, Deanna, none of the cameo characters that were posting and changes the land scape with which everyone else has to work.
qnjones,
You're not slow. The fact that you didn't get it, shows that I did not write it well.
The idea was that if they could get the Pattersons married into their crime family, then it would add an air of legitimacy to their illegal dealings. Sort of like when John F. Kennedy was dating that gangster girl, I forget her name.
I had planned for Kortney to be on the run with Howard and developing her character a little bit.
elfie,
As long as you are not insulting me personally, you can say whatever you want and I won't get mad. I think you are probably right. Shortly after I started posting as Howard, Liz dropped out. Michael made a comment about a "once beautiful and now beastly blog" in one of his last posts, which was probably an indirect note to me. I hope you don't mind, but I copied your post to the April Meta Blog to ask for feedback. It may be time to drop Howard off the face of the earth, so the landscape can be restored.
Thank you for the affirmation. You are probably right about Mike. I have a thing for feeling guilty. My upbringing and that sort of stuff.
Well, if Mike is to be believed, writers thrive on guilt, and feeling guilty will only help you tune in with your muse. ;)
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