Description

Emily Alexander was sixty-five years old when she fell and broke her hip. After hip-replacement surgery, she was forced to recuperate for a few weeks in Willowbrook Care Center.  Under an assumed name of Maggie Winters, she had been living alone with her little dog Minnie, had no real friends that could visit and help out, and had barely enough money to live on. As Maggie, she quickly made friends with roommates Florence and Hazel, a pair of eighty-somethings that likely would live out their days at Willowbrook. Emily had spent much of her life playing piano professionally. She often played to take her mind somewhere else, and the residents were the thankful beneficiaries of her impromptu concerts.

As Emily spent time in bed or mindlessly played the piano, her mind drifted back over her life. Growing up in Northern California, at age fifteen she had married a soldier from Idaho that was soon called up for an overseas assignment. After the war ended, she moved to Idaho. Her husband, Sidney, was at times loving, but just as often distant.  It soon became obvious that he had married as a reaction to a spat with his former sweetheart, and that their relationship had never really ended. Emily struggled first through this pain, then through the pain of a miscarriage and loss of ability to ever become a mother.

As events turned out, Emily finally had enough and left to go … somewhere, anywhere. She wound up in Chicago, where her ability to play jazz and blues piano was recognized, and she began a series of regular gigs in nightclubs.  She found that she could travel freely and always find a job playing piano.

Emily had always found love and comfort with her dogs. Late in life, Emily finally found love with a man. In fact, Gavin owned the nightclub where she played. She noticed over time that the young girls that danced, and sometimes stripped, were quite young. She held strong suspicions that none of the girls were over the age of about sixteen. In addition, girls disappeared after only a few weeks at the club, never to be seen again. She struggled to understand whether Gavin, her lover, was involved in hiring these girls. He was so gentle and loving with her that she couldn’t imagine he would do anything cruel to the young girls. When she discovered more of the truth, she felt threatened and was forced to go into hiding.  Hence, the name change … she became Maggie. As Maggie Winters, she was now alone and helpless in the Willowbrook Care Center, and feared that she would be found. She looked forward to regaining her independence, and picking up her little dog Minnie from the animal hospital where she was boarded.