PRL Serials

JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE cont.

Parallel Serials 

by Wesley Livingston

In 1969, John was just married to his first and only wife. He was almost thirty and his mother had badgered him everyday of his twenties about when he would find a nice girl and settle down. He wanted to tell his mother that he had found someone, that she would be a grandmother soon, but he did work a lot and finding a woman that he could be himself around was harder than he had hoped it would be. He was an academic studying to be a history professor, which meant that he spent a lot of time reading or writing papers, and he never spent substantial time in social situations, so women hardly ever experienced his quick wit and his interesting conversation. They would look at him and assume his social ineptitude, and even if they gave him a chance, he was often too nervous to capitalize on it. 

When he finally met the woman who would become his wife, the two were graduate students at Winthrop University. They both wanted to teach history, though she wanted to be a high school teacher. They both loved flowers and they would take trips to different botanical gardens in SC and NC. John loved flowers because of the birds they would attract. He was something of a birder and he would tell his future wife that he would plant the most amazing flowers in his yard so he could sit outside and enjoy the hummingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, and whatever else would be drawn to the smells that he managed to bloom. She loved the specificity of his future plans and she fell in love with him. 

Aside from their love of plants, the two shared the same religion and political affiliation. John joined a conservative consortium and he made a name for himself as a historian of Civil War era politics. John proposed to his wife as the two took the ferry from Charleston to Fort Sumter and she accepted with tears in her eyes. 

The two made good money and they decided that they would build a house to live in together. They bought land close to Winthrop University and they decided on a modest design because they had no children, and they could always find something bigger as their family grew. Their home was built in 1970. The couple planted plum and pear trees in the backyard. They also planted lavender, basil and other aromatic plants that they both loved to smell. They planted bulb flowers on the front; tulips mostly. And they had a small section of their yard where wild strawberries just sprang up by themselves. They planted a big magnolia tree in the front so that every Valentine’s Day they both got a wondrous gift of beautiful flowers. And the birds did come. John and his wife would sit outside on temperate afternoons in the spring and their backyard filled with the sounds of birds grateful for the oasis they had created. And in the summertime, their yard was full of clovers that he and his wife liked to walk barefoot through and they would spend summer nights counting the fireflies. And in the winter, they liked to sit around a small fire so they could enjoy their yard regardless of the temperature. It was their oasis. 

The couple had one child that they raised in that house and when she grew up and left home, they decided that they might as well travel. They both retired their teaching locations and they listed the house for sale. 

Almost 50 years later, the home in Rock Hill, SC is the current headquarters of the PRL Serials. If for no other reason, we exist to maintain the plants.