The Ghostwriter

by Julie Clark

I’m an invisible hand on the page instead of the name on the cover.

Later that night, I’m hate-scrolling through Instagram, noting which of my colleagues are releasing new books, wondering which of their subjects would have wanted to work with me, had their editors allowed it, when I hear frantic yelling coming from the house.

One: I feel the first half of this. 😆😆 Two: Why is this sentence so long?

I’m just about to cross the crowded area and press through the snaking lines when Lydia emerges from where she’d disappeared, Mr. Stewart alongside her, his hand on her lower back. I freeze, sinking back into the crowd so they won’t see me spying.

He is Olivia’s father?!?? Also, another long sentence.

“The smell in that outhouse…it got to me. I got sick behind.”

***Maury voice*** You are NOT the father!

I snort and look back at the computer screen. “She left you to raise her daughter alone.” “My daughter too,” he reminds me, his voice quiet.

But are you his daughter?

Sometimes your mother lied to me. Mostly because she didn’t want to upset me or make me jealous about things that didn’t matter, like her workouts with Mr. Stewart, which seemed to take up all her free time and energy.

Dude. Not the girl for you!

Alma runs this show.

There is something wrong here. Is Alma related to the teacher, doing everything she can to not get the book published?

May 6, 1975 I heard a rumor today. That Lydia was pregnant and now…she’s not.

Why she was dressed in jeans and “tight top” when the pervy teacher dropped her off late the other night.

I’m beginning to realize that once you lie about your past, you wall yourself off from the present.

“Was the baby yours?”

Was the baby Danny’s?!?!

“You’re a trigger,” she tells me. “Go back to Los Angeles for a little while. Let him recalibrate. Then we can talk about whether you can finish this book or not.”

Not saying she isn’t, but Alma needs to stay out of family business.

“I shouldn’t have gone with him. It was my fault.”

Are you kidding me?!?!

“Now that’s done, I need to tell you what really happened.”

Finally!!!!

You might also remember her from that very public standoff she had with John Calder, who’s now in a lot of hot water of his own.

More bad things need to happen to him than just “hot water.”

Shortly after I finished the draft, I emailed it to Tom with a note.

Is he worth this trouble, though?