Most fairy tales have happy endings, but is it too late for this one? After all, Mrs. Charlotte Rose Gordon is eighty-eight.
This disgruntled town recluse has grown weary of fighting the dragons of her past—including the desire to clear her husband’s name of a 1918 crime.
Dragons of a different kind pursue Carrie Kruisselbrink.
In 1980, in the summer of her private rebellion, Carrie defies parental expectations and pursues her café dream. While waiting for funding, she takes a job with Mrs. Gordon.
As Mrs. Gordon unfolds the story of her oppressive childhood and delightful friendship with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author, L. Frank Baum, Carrie never expects to encounter her own fears and soul-searching.
In this modern-day fairy tale that weaves between 1980 and the early 1900s, Mr. Baum’s influence impacts each woman’s personal quests on a hero’s journey neither anticipates. Can Carrie and Mrs. Gordon find common ground in battling their respective dragons?
Welcome, Mrs. Gordon! I appreciate you letting me stop by your front porch today for an interview. What a lovely garden you have!
Thank you. The dahlias are my favorites. My employee Carrie helps me with the watering. It’s part of her penance, you might say.
Penance? For what?
At age eleven, she kicked her ball into my flower bed and smashed my tulips, then wrote up a contract vowing to never step foot in my yard again or she’d make it up to me as I deemed fit. Now it’s ten years later, and she broke that vow a month ago when she dropped by. I’m holding her to the contract, since I could use some help around here.
Wow, you drive a hard bargain. What do you need help with?
I hired her to be my scribe. I have to settle the record on—well, never mind. She’s recording my memoirs, for one thing. In return, I’m saving her from a summer of working in fast food.
No wonder. I heard you used to own and manage the Broderick Inn and Tearoom on the lake.
For thirty-nine years. My mother established it in the late 1800s, so I grew up learning the business of food preparation and hospitality. I took over in 1916.
Did you have any specialty menu items?
In the 1950s and ’60s we served Munchkin Delights, Scraps’ Peach Bread Pudding, and Polychrome’s Dewdrop Mist Trifle.
Munchkin Delights . . . is that connected to The Wizard of Oz? And what about the other two you mentioned?
All three are inspired by Oz books. Mr. L. Frank Baum wrote fourteen of them. Most folks know about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but It’s a shame the average person has no clue about the others he wrote.
Not to mention the bakers at the Broderick Tearoom passing off their own version of blueberry muffins as Munchkin Delights. They don’t even have my original recipe.
Why do you know more than the average person about L. Frank Baum?
Because I met him when I was eight. He, his wife Maud, and their four sons visited our tearoom. Turns out they spent summers at Macatawa Resort near Holland, Michigan, not far from us. That’s eighty years ago, in the early 1900s. He even invited me to their cottage.
Really? What an amazing opportunity! What did you do there?
We had a grand time. His son Kenneth was just a year older than me. We all went boating, fishing, and swimming—all the regular lake activities. But Mr. Baum also planned wonderfully imaginative adventures for us right on his porch.
He showed me how to run a printing press. We made dioramas. And he told stories, of course. Marvelous stories. Being with him was like indulging in chocolate fudge after months of cold porridge.
But we did everything on the sly. My parents had no use for fiction, fantasy, or fairy tales. I was only allowed to read The New England Primer, The Pilgrim’s Progress, and the Bible. They’d never approve of my spending time with someone like Mr. Baum. But thank goodness, my dear Aunt Sophie believed otherwise. She took me to the Baums’ place every year behind my parents’ backs.
Sounds like Mr. Baum was a huge influence on your life.
Yes, in so many ways. He gave me inspiration and courage to try many things I might not have done otherwise. I’m sharing all these memories with Carrie.
By the way, she has restaurant plans of her own. She hopes to run a literary-themed cafe. But her parents expect her to use her college degree and teach elementary school. It’s such a quandary for her, living under their demands, criticism, and expectations when she has dreams of her own.
She and I have a lot in common that way. I once had dreams myself until they were destroyed like a house in cyclone. I don’t want the same thing happening to Carrie.
I’m sure you have plenty of expertise and empathy to offer. So . . . you were married to Walter Gordon, the pharmacist. Wasn’t there some kind of . . . secret scandal at Gordon Apothecary?
If you’ve heard about it, it’s no secret. The whole town knows. In fact, that’s part of why I hired Carrie. In 1918, my dear Walter was falsely accused of a crime, and I have to set the record straight. Once and for all. Folks wag their tongues even now, sixty years later. It’s a cloud that still hangs over my head.
So go along now. I need to go water my dahlias. And watch where you step in my garden lest you find yourself indebted to me.
Laura DeNooyer thrives on creativity and encouraging it in others. A Calvin College graduate, she is a teacher, wife, parent of four adult children, and an award-winning author of heart-warming historical and contemporary fiction. Her novels are perfect for fans of Patti Callahan Henry, Erin Bartels, or Heidi Chiavaroli. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her reading, walking, drinking tea with friends, or taking a road trip.
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