PRL Serials

It’s impossible to know what makes us stand out in a sea of similarities. We can say that it’s our differences that make us distinct, but even those don’t necessarily garner real attention from others; in a sea of different we quickly become boring and unnoticeable. Some people manage to be seen, some people can’t keep eyes off of themselves, and I figure it’s because some people are impactful and must be noticed by as many other people as possible, if only to inspire opposition against a particular way of life or set of values.

Vances Carlton was not one of those people, neither luminary nor villain. She described herself as a seat filler when we talked recently at the library. I decided to give my Saturdays to the public library as a volunteer and when I finally tracked her down, I asked Vances to meet me there to talk. 

“I’m surprised you found me,’ she said when we sat. She was an average-sized woman and attractive. She’d graduated from Ladoga High and knew my older cousin; they’d graduated about ten years before me.

“You must have talked to a lot of people.”

I had. In my quest to uncover the source behind Ladoga’s underground magazine known as This and Other Things (TAOT) — the enigmatic V.I.V., that no one else was clever or interested enough to find — I turned into an amature detective.

I had zigzagged the city, traveled to the mountains of NC, and poured through countless issues of the magazine to find discover the identity of VIV and honestly, toward the end of the journey, when Wes and I were masquerading as reporters of Ladoga’s local newspaper, the Daily, at a journalism conference, I didn’t think I would ever be able to solve the mystery. But luck was on my side in form a drunk reporter named Tim. He happened to notice mine and Wes’s press credentials and started conversation.

Who else did you meet from Ladoga?” Wes asked.

“A lady. She works for a paper in TN. I can’t remember her name or the name of the paper, maybe I’ve had too much to drink. These conferences…”

“She was here in the bar?” Wes asked, cutting Tim off.

“No, she’s at the booth for the paper she works for. Really nice lady, very good reporter. I think she’s getting an award tomorrow.”

Wes and I left the bar mid conversation. I was thumbing through the program for the award ceremony as we walked to see if the list of award recipients also had information about the locations where they were from. And as I skimmed the list, I saw a name that looked familiar and it stopped me in place. Wes noticed and looked back at me concerned.

“What is it?” He asked.

“I got it.” I said. “I think I know. Wes, I know who VIV is.”

He came closer to stare at the program and I pointed to the name. “Let’s go find her,” he said.

“No.” I was smiling. “Not here. Let’s go.”

Wes was disappointed, but I insisted that my first meeting with VIV wouldn’t be in a crowded hotel where we would barely be able to hear one another speak. I bought him a few rounds at the bar before we left and that seemed to make up for it.

When I left the convention, I drove to Ladoga to see Mr. Smith. “You were right from the start.” I told him as I used his computer to pull up a picture of VIV on his on computer. She was a reporter for the Memphis Daily News and though he did not recognize the picture, Mr. Smith recognized her last name. 

“That was Ms. Eunice’s last name.” He said when he saw it. I was sure that VIV was Vances Carlton, the daughter of Vicky, the most beautiful woman in Ladoga who had skinned herself alive, and daughter of Ms. Eunice, the grandmother of Mr. Smith’s first wife. 

I emailed the Vances Carlton at the email I found for her on the website. I was direct: “I know that you are from Ladoga. I am from there as well. I would like to discuss the newsletter This and Other Things with you. I am a reporter from the Ladoga Daily and I would happily send you my credentials.”

“How do you know it’s her?” Mr. Smith asked.

“I just do.” It had to be.

A week went by before I got this response from Vances by email: “I will be in Ladoga tomorrow if you can meet me.”

I arranged to meet her at the public library.

And so the next day we sat across from one another, finally face to face. 

“How did you know it was me?” She asked.

“It’s a long story that you can read as soon as I finish it.”

“Why was this so important to you?” She asked.

“Because I have to ask you, why do you do it?”

We had only been talking for half an hour by that point and I saw her demeanor change. Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head.

“I can’t do this Max. You are such a sincere, earnest man. I can’t lie to you.”

My head was reeling. Had I come all this way only to find an imposter?

“I do what I do because someone I love very much entrusted this project to me. I’ve only been the VIV of This and Other Things for about 5 years now. I love to write, I love my job, but working for a large paper isn’t the same as covering local stories the way I get to in that newsletter. And it’s not a labor at all to produce as much as I manage to. I get help every now and then from locals. It means more to me than my job to be honest. And meeting you now, talking to you is icing on a cake that I didn’t even need. Your appreciation for this work makes it all worth it.”

She had teared up and I hugged her instinctively. I felt that I had reunited with a long lost friend.

“So you are VIV, just not the VIV.” I said. “Who gave it to you?”

“It was a person who swore me to secrecy for a very good reason.” She said.

“That person wrote the first issue? About the lynching of Yusef Hassan?”

Vances noded. “You can end this chapter of the story Wes. You met the VIV who is responsible for the newsletter as it exists today. But if you want to go down this rabbit hole, I have to warn you that it gets very ugly. And I’m sorry that I can’t really be of much help to you. Though I might be able to give you clues along the way.”

I hugged Vances again and we have stayed in regular contact. I know that VIV is real, but what Vances said has been haunting me ever since she said it. That finding the first VIV could get ugly. I had to respect the promise that Vances had made to the original VIV, but Vances had given me an opening to continue my investigation without her. And I will.