Good afternoon. It is Gigi your resident parti poodle. Today my author will be continuing her Anatomy of a Chapter. There was an emergency this week. I was down to my last few treats. Luckily my novelist timed the treat order so it arrived yesterday. It was like receiving beluga caviar in the mail. I wanted her to order my delightful sandwich cookies as well but alas they can only be ordered sixteen and a half pounds at a time. As I weigh around five pounds you can imagine my novelist was not willing to make the purchase. Without further ado here is my novelist.
Today I’m going to continue my anatomy of chapter one of Chicane. As the ladies perform their pole dance, Bard, the biggest and brainiest of Cody’s friends leans over and whispers to Cody, “We should drive the girls back to the cabin tonight.” A defensive Cody says, “Why? The rooms these girls have at the Mountain Thunder Lodge are dope.” But Bard argues, “That’s the point. They’re their rooms. If we get them on our turf, they’re our rooms.”
Cody faces a conundrum. On the one hand his plan is to get lucky. But on the other hand, he wants to get lucky in Breckenridge. He doesn’t want strangers in his cabin and no one including Bard, Klaus and Shaun is allowed in Mitch’s room.
Then Shaun, the jerk of the group weasels his way into the conversation. He agrees with Bard and pressures Cody. “They’ll totally put out at your crib!” he says. Here I slip in another clue: Cody’s Audi RS6 Avant. This would be a desired car amongst wealthy Denver skiers. Both Bard and Shaun offer to drive Cody’s car which Cody adamantly refuses. I make a point to repeat “Audi RS6 Avant” a few more times to make sure the reader takes notice. In making his friends the first ones to pressure him I also show whatever it is about that room it is Cody’s problem exclusively and not his buddies.
Shaun describes Cody’s cabin to Bianca. “Cody has a sweet cabin in Nederland,” he tells her. “It’s got like five bedrooms, yo.” An impressed Bianca then relays the information to Miyuki, Nevada and Shayla. And then Klaus takes Bard and Shaun’s side of the argument to head back to Nederland. Cody loses the fight and is pressured to relent. The motley crew heads for Cody’s cabin.
As Cody, Bard and Klaus arrive in Cody’s Audi RS6 Avant, Cody tells Bard, “I’m locking Mitch’s room. I don’t want anyone in there.” Bard knowing why Cody is on edge says, “Let’s just enjoy the girls’ company for a few nights and call it good.” Cody becoming agitated taps his finger on the steering wheel (another clue) and warns, “Keep them out of Mitch’s room.” Before the boys go inside, I introduce one of Cody’s quirks: he never gets out of a car on the driver’s side. He always climbs over and exits out the passenger’s side instead. The reason I do this is partly because race car drivers can be superstitious. It’s also a foreshadowing.
Cody’s cabin is based on the interior of actual cabins in the Boulder, Colorado area and so once the group arrives and heads inside, I take time to describe it. I want to give the ambiance of a warm, expensive, comfortable place which feels safe. In addition, I want to point out the game room where Cody keeps his trophies: “Over to the right side was a game room which contained a pool table, a poker table, a chess and checkers table and a couple of vintage video arcade games.” I did not put “a couple of vintage video arcade games” last in the list for no reason. It is put there to catch the reader’s attention.
After they enter the cabin Cody whispers to Bard that he’s going upstairs to lock Mitch’s room. And again, his private conversation is overheard this time by Shayla, the woman Cody is interested in. She flirtatiously asks if she can come. But even her charms cannot steer Cody off his course. He must lock the room. As Cody goes up the stairs alone, everyone watches him. Shaun tells the women, “He’s got like dead bodies in that room.” Although Shaun is being snarky it reminds the reader once again this is a story about death. This is shortly followed up with Shayla’s line, “Who’s Mitch?” and her question is ignored.
Next week I’ll continue my anatomy of Chicane’s first chapter.
STREAM OF THE WEEK: HBO’S MINISERIES CHERNOBYL
Chernobyl is not an easy watch. But everyone sixteen years and older should be required to see it anyway. A remarkable if not landmark piece of filmmaking, the drama Chernobyl brilliantly chronicles through five episodes the terrifying April 1986 accident. What should have been a routine night at the infamous nuclear powerplant goes horrifically wrong due to two pivotal human errors. The psychology involved surrounding the event bears eerie relevance to the psychology surrounding Covid-19. A lot of viewers out there are watching Outbreak and Contagion, but I think this one captures the mindset of human beings at the time of a monumental crisis far better. An absolute five star must see.
Gigi Catches Air 