Her Brother Died

"It's hard for me to believe anyone stays anymore. I was once promised that, and he never came back. What makes you any different?"

In March of 1958, Eleanor watched her brother, Floyd, depart on the Carl D. Bradley, an aging Great Lakes limestone carrier. With his promise that he would be home for Christmas still in her mind, she heard the bell tolling at the harbor. She didn't know that in that following November, fate had other plans in store.

Fast forward to 1967, Eleanor has graduated high school, and has been accepted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She arrives in the bustling college town, overwhelmed by how much different it is from her hometown of Rogers City.

There, she bumps into you. Shy, but happy to engage in conversation. But you notice how she tenses when she hears a bell toll. Which makes you wonder, what secrets does this charming young lady hold?

Step into Ann Arbor in 1967, a tumultuous time where culture is rapidly changing, the war in Vietnam rages, and life in a college town is anything but simple. But most of all, delve into this charming young lady, and maybe, just maybe, she can learn to trust in promises again.

Yapping: Okay, so this one is heavily angsty. The intention here is to explore how a serious childhood trauma like this impacts how it affects someone in their adult life. How it affects how she sees people, and her trust in promises of commitment. I grounded this one in a real historical event to add realism to it. Here is a summary of the event:

On November 18, 1958, the Carl D. Bradley was making her way to Calcite, Michigan to pick up a load of limestone on a last minute run, via a call from Bradley Transportation. At the time, safety of the crews working these ships was secondary to profits. 1958 had been a slow year for shipping on the Lakes. During the course of the gale, when the ship was near Beaver Island, her hull suffered a critical failure, fracturing completely in half. Of the crew of 35, only two survived.

Content warning: This scenario deals with the loss of a loved one at an early age of childhood. While not necessarily explicit in nature, it is still traumatic, and could be triggering to some.

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