It was 1990 something. A widow living alone in a doublewide-trailer on Lake Martinez had
just died. My uncle had purchased the trailer and because he knew that I liked vintage
furniture, I was given the opportunity to take a few things before they remodeled the place.

My favorite item was an old (1960’s I believe) Hewlett-Packard record player console. On
the console shelf there was a collection of crooner LP’s: Eydie Gormé, Julie London, Sinatra
and the like. Although not the normal genre for a heavy metal and punk skewed teen,
crooners held a special place in my heart. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my
grandparents and crooners were definitely their jam. So, while I didn’t ever scrawl Louie
Prima’s name onto my Pee-Chee folder, I was happy to add the Lake Martinez widow’s
record console and collection to mine.

It’s funny, I hadn’t thought of her, or her home in a long time. It wasn’t until I decided to
write this very post for Cherry-Rose … when I was reflecting back on how I acquired the
Eydie Gormé and Julie London records that influenced Cherry-Rose. Perhaps she was some
sort of unconscious seed for this story. Reverse engineering the birth of the story makes me
want to say yes; although, the true inspiration for Marybelle was born much closer to home.

Either way, I hope the widow wasn’t lonely. As I write this, I can see her like Marybelle,
listening to her records on the long lonely nights before she learned to shape her daughters.
The trailer was on an isolated plot of land far from the village, so deep in the desert it was
part of the desert … I wonder what she would have wished for, had someone taught her how
to call the Blue Fairy.