The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

ONE EVENING, while I was practicing, Margot called me at home and asked me for a favor—perhaps I should say “another favor.” . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     “We’re not ready to have the whole school know that you’re honing your little skills, honey,” said Margot. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

BACK IN MY ROOM AGAIN, I hit on the idea of practicing with marbles instead of peas. I was a little beyond the age of playing with marbles. Among the other kids my age at school, marbles were no longer in favor. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“THAT WAS DELICIOUS, Mom,” I said. “Thanks.” I stood and began removing the dinner plates.     “What on earth are you doing?” asked my father. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

SO I DID begin practicing at home, but it wasn’t easy. I knew that my parents weren’t going to consider rolling peas a suitable occupation for my spare time, so . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     “Rolling peas?” I had the feeling that a joke was coming.     “Try it,” said Martha. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

ONE DAY I was in the cafeteria at the new junior high school, making my way along the steam table in a line with the other scholars, collecting the various components of my lunch . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

ALTHOUGH THE THREAT of atomic warfare hung over us constantly when I was a boy in Babbington, New York, clam capital of America, we didn’t think about annihilation all the time. Sometimes we worried about war and rumors of war, it’s true, but at other times we had other thoughts: . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.subs...

     If I were still working in the novella form, this short book would have had three parts: “Abed with Twins,” “Driven to Abstraction,” and “In Your Own Words.” . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     There I went, into an alley I had meant to ignore. As my work on this book progressed, as I kept poking my way a bit deeper into that alley, I found that I wasn’t alone . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     Permit me a brief aside on the subject of composition, recollection, introspection, and the effect of each on the others. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     Let me try to paint for you a picture of that enchanting Glynn­scape. Imagine their bed, an improvised four-poster that the romantic and resourceful sisters had created by pushing their child-size twin beds together and . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

I WASN’T IN THE CROWD that gathered to watch the Nevsky Mansion burn, because I hadn’t been born yet, but . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

I HAD TO WAIT several months more for her next letter, but when it arrived and I read it, I knew that she had come to a spot where she would be staying put at last, and that I would be able to reach her . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

A FEW MONTHS LATER, a letter arrived from Sydney, one that she had apparently written in haste . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

THAT SUMMER I received a letter from Rangoon . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

WHEN SPRING came around the next year, it brought with it another of Ariane’s letters, one that brought a smile to my face as soon as I began reading it, [. . .] Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

I DIDN’T HEAR FROM HER again until the following summer, when a letter arrived from Bombay . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

TOWARD THE END of that year, another of her letters reached me, one she had mailed before leaving Istanbul . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

66 IN APRIL, the following spring, another of Ariane’s letters arrived, this time from Florence: Dear Peter, Once, when I was in the kitchen with my mother, making chowder, I chopped up more carrots than she usually used. When my mother saw what I’d done, she said something like, “You’re not going to put all those carrots in, are you?” I said something like, “Why not? It’ll look great.” (I went th...

Dear Peter, The persistence of these people! Amazing! They hang on, following me everywhere like a trailing cloud, and sometimes if I stop suddenly, their inertia keeps them drifting on until they’ve caught up with me and they surround me more like fog than a cloud. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

ARIANE KEPT MOVING for the next few years, following an unpredictable course through the world, taking her inspiration from the river Meander, trying to shake the fans who followed her, the most devoted members of her audience, people with nothing better to do than pursue her, their fanatical ardor sustaining their dogged persistence. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experience...

FROM The Films of Gregory Tschudin , by Andrew Cargill: On Display Daniel Turner (Hal Sorento), a builder who has been invited to bid on the construction of a house, is in the office of Terry Carp, a young architect (Jerry Burke), puzzling over a set of house plans. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

SHE RAN TO THE BEDROOM and got the two bags that had been waiting there, and when she returned she drew a deep breath and said, “Am I ready? What do you think?” Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe