Free Next Life Might Be Kinder by Howard Norman Page A

had said to Dr. Nissensen.

Kiss Me Upward from My Knees
    â€œS AM, YOU NEED some employment,” Elizabeth said. This was a few days after her first lesson in the intermediate lindy. We were down to $320 in our bank account.
    â€œI’m working on my novel every day.”
    â€œI know,” she said. “If I know anything, I know that. Can’t we take turns being the practical one? I’ll go first. I saw this advertisement and think it would be great for you. The CBC has an interesting thing going and they’re looking for writers. You could write for radio. Listen, I’ve got the clipping right here: ‘CBC radio is undertaking an ambitious re-creation of the cultural atmosphere of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, featuring the most popular radio entertainments of those decades.’”
    â€œOkay, I admit it does sound interesting.”
    â€œ
You Can’t Do Business with Hitler,
that’s one program they’re hiring writers for.
The Shadow of Fu Manchu,
that’s another. But there’s one I thought you’d be perfect for, Sam, and I even remember hearing it on the radio when I was a little girl. It’s called
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons.
Melodramas about a detective named—”
    â€œLet me guess. Mr. Keen.”
    â€œI typed up and sent your résumé last week. Including a copy of your first novel.”
    â€œYou already went and did that?”
    â€œYes I did.”
    â€œAnd did I get a response yet?”
    â€œIn fact, they called this morning when you were out. You have an interview. Darling, my fellowship money is dwindling fast. I can waitress—I don’t mind. I’d apply for the radio work myself, but my brain doesn’t work that way. I couldn’t make up dialogue and all that. Besides, Marghanita Laski would be too jealous a mistress. I have to stick with her.”
    â€œThe interview—”
    â€œFour P.M. tomorrow, the CBC office on Cogswell Street.”
    Â 
    The interview went well, and the CBC gave me four cassettes of episodes of
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons,
parts 1 through 4 of “The Case of the Author Who Lost His Soul,” which originally ran on the NBC Blue network. For my audition, I was asked to write a fifth episode, “to extend the story line,” even though in the original broadcasts the story had been fully concluded. I went right back to the hotel and listened to the cassettes. Part 1 (December 27, 1938, 7:15–7:30 P.M. ) synopsis: “Jane Merrill asks Keen to locate her ex, Stephen Giddings, a struggling author. An unpublished novel he wrote years ago is now in demand. Giddings left Jane to wed affluent Rita Sandford.”
Part 2 (December 28, 1938, 7:15–7:30 P.M. ) synopsis: “Rita could support Giddings’s writing lifestyle. Jane still loves him and wants to see the book succeed. Keen finds the Giddingses living in Bermuda, and flies down to urge Stephen to return to writing.”
Part 3 (December 29, 1938, 7:15–7:30 P.M. ) synopsis: “Giddings has changed. He and Rita live wasted, lazy existences. He hasn’t written in years. Disillusioned, he’s fed up with his marriage. Keen reports this to Jane.” Part 4 (January 3, 1939, 7:15–7:30 P.M. ) synopsis: “Mr. Keen takes Giddings, a beaten failure, back to his first wife, Jane. Giddings realizes that all his achievements sprang from the devotion and encouragement of this woman.”
    I played the episodes for Elizabeth that night. “Oh, this’ll be a piece of cake for you,” she said.
    â€œI’m not sure I like that response, seeing that the title is ‘The Author Who Lost His Soul.’”
    â€œIt’s fiction. Just pretend to be someone else.”
    I wrote the episode and got the job. To celebrate my becoming employed, Elizabeth made salade Niçoise, with crème brûlée for dessert. At the kitchen table I was typing away at my first