"Inspiration" (WWI-Era), August 2020 Monthly Prompt

[gardnerhill]

Title: Inspiration
Author: gardnerhill
Form/Wordcount: 500
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, WWI-Era
Rating: G
Warnings/Content: None
Summary: A celebrated American pays a visit to the Sussex cottage.
Author’s Notes: For the Holmes Minor August 2020 prompt: Greatest Passion. Work something into your fic that either a character is passionate about, or you the author are passionate about.



This meeting had not gone at all as Holmes had envisioned. It was so much better.

The two visiting American women – one in her late 30s and the other her late 50s – had been at home in two minutes, because both were avid readers of Watson's work. They'd immediately started chattering away about their shared craft, as the younger of the two women was a prolific writer of stories, essays and books herself. They made each other laugh over the foibles of their shared circumstances ("I was bruised all over for three weeks, learning how to walk around my own house!" "I didn't know sea water had salt in it till it knocked me over!")

But what they talked about, mostly, was socialism. Better pay for everyone, an end to child labour, equal pay for women, suffrage, racial equality, better lives for poor and exploited workers. The younger of the two women was clearly enthused by the subject, having had a lifetime of perspective about human differences, and her joy in sharing that knowledge shone from her face. But what bemused Holmes was Watson's equally enthusiastic agreement with sentiments his younger Victorian-era self would have scoffed at as anarchy or disloyalty to the Crown. More had changed than the subject of his spouse's writings while they'd been parted by the war.

One topic was pacifism. "I'm learning that last one late in life too, after the horrors of the front," Watson sighed. "So much I thought I knew, so much I grew up believing, is so much poison gas." The younger woman's hand rested on his face, fingers lightly touching his lips; "Better learned late than never," she replied.

The women could not stay long as they were on a goodwill tour of English hospitals; they thanked their hosts for the tea, and departed on a tandem bicycle back to their hotel room in town, the older woman in front.

"I'd suspected they were wearing bloomers," Watson said as they picked up the tea things. "Splendid for pedaling. What a mind Miss Keller has!"

"Indeed."

Watson laughed as he carried the teapot to the sink, his other hand brushing landmarks to help navigate across the parlour carpet and then the wooden floor of the kitchen. "You'd expected an inspirational speech from her, didn't you?"

"Not on the subject of factory safety regulations, no." The dry candour in Holmes' voice set them both laughing.

"I'm so grateful you invited her here, dear. I've been neglecting my non-fiction writing for too long, but I have been inspired in truth by this visit. Surely a socialist newspaper or two around here would accept my own essays on the plight of the trench soldiers, and a war veteran's support of suffrage."

"I'm sure they would." Holmes kissed his spouse's temple as he passed him to put away the honey pot. "But, John, please use a nom de plume or the editors will only want more crime stories."

"No fear – I've learned that one already!"

Author's Further Note: If all you know about Helen Keller is the 7-year-old blind and deaf girl learning to spell W-A-T-E-R in "Miracle Worker," you're missing out on the history of one of the most passionately liberal minds of the 20th century. The adult Helen Keller was a socialist who spoke and wrote about racial equality, suffrage, economic justice, and many other similar topics. During WWI she visited wounded soldiers in hospitals to show newly-maimed or blinded men that their lives were not over. (Yes, Helen Keller is a topic about which I have a passionate enthusiasm.) By the way, she wasn't consoling Watson or coming on to him; Helen "listened" to conversation by resting her hand on the speaker's cheek and her fingertips on their lips.

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Wonderful scene, and I learned things I didn't know about Helen Keller. Thank you!

[gardnerhill]

Unfortunately the conservative Americans who write the history texts prefer the cute little blind girl and don't like what she had to say once she could actually talk! (If you read an American History textbook, you'd never know there had been a single worker's strike - but Texas slaveowners holed up in a church shooting it out with government troops that had outlawed slavery gets prettied up into Freedom Fighters Heroically Defending The Alamo.)

[scfrankles]

What a great choice of subject for this particular 'verse - no wonder you are so passionate about Helen Keller ^__^

I particularly liked: "You'd expected an inspirational speech from her, didn't you?"

"Not on the subject of factory safety regulations, no." The dry candour in Holmes' voice set them both laughing. ^__^

[gardnerhill]

Americans like the story of Helen Keller learning to talk and write - but they sure don't like what she had to say and write about once she got going!

[smallhobbit]

What great inspiration for this prompt. I knew very little about Helen Keller and am delighted to have learnt more.

[gardnerhill]

Sadly, American History prefers the inspirational little blind girl and not the outspoken woman who wrote against robber barons and Jim Crow segregation. "Aw, look, she can spell WATER - wait she's spelling WORKERS UNITE stop her stop her!"

[smallhobbit]

I've really been enjoying all the history and current events you've been bringing into your writing.

[gardnerhill]

It's fun to have our detective and his doctor interact with historical contemporaries. (I was turned into a Sherlockian by Nicholas Meyer's novel where Holmes meets Sigmund Freud.)

[debriswoman]

Wonderful, a great subject for the prompt:-)

[gardnerhill]

Thanks. It's also a great opportunity to educate about the adult Helen Keller.