LovelyMay
Stories
93
Chapters
1,516
Words
6.7 M
Comments
0
Reading
23 d, 5 h
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Part I opens not with polished grandeur or dramatic skyline scenes but with a sly detour from literary convention, settling instead into a worn corner of Chicago life. The setting is rooted in the Nottingham curtain district, where hand-washed linens hang limp, and "Rooms With or Without Board" signs dominate the stoops. In this smoky stretch of working-class tenements lives Gertie, a department store clerk whose days are spent on sore feet and whose nights are occupied by a beauty regimen that owes more…-
48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part II begins with a man stepping off the train, not in shame, but with a heavy past tucked under his coat and a name that carries weight in a town that hasn’t forgotten. Ted Terrill, once a young man with prospects, returns home bearing the scars of failure, though none visible to the eye. His time in prison had been softened by progressive ideals—no bars, no chains, just a uniformed routine of baseball and discipline. He does not carry the look of the broken, but inside, shame still coils tightly.…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part III introduces readers to a cramped corner of downtown where worn floorboards creak under the steps of overworked shopgirls and silent managers. In this crowded loft shoe department, Sophy Epstein, dressed in a clinging black gown with more audacity than refinement, catches the eye—and judgment—of her colleagues. Her outfit isn’t chosen from vanity but from necessity mixed with bold defiance. The dress, too shiny and too snug, challenges both her poverty and the dull grayness of her routine. For…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part IV begins in a small Midwestern town just as Ivy Keller returns from finishing school, filled with polished manners and romantic daydreams shaped by poetry and novels. Her days stretch long and uneventful until she notices Rudie Schlachweiler, the town's celebrated pitcher. With his square jaw and local fame, Rudie quickly becomes more than a passing interest. Ivy, once indifferent to baseball, finds herself at every game, learning the rhythms of the sport just to watch him pitch. Her admiration…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part V begins on the last night of the year, with music echoing through marble halls and glittering dresses sweeping past mirrored walls. But behind a swinging kitchen door, Gussie Fink is standing in flat shoes on cold tile, counting silverware and checking trays with unwavering focus. Around her, plates are passed, orders barked, and the air is thick with steam and tension, far removed from the elegance spilling across the ballroom floor. There’s no orchestra in this part of the hotel, only the clatter…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part VI opens with Effie Bauer standing confidently behind the perfume counter, her poise shaped by years of self-discipline and hard-earned expertise in department store prestige. She knows how to match a fragrance to a customer’s personality, just as she has learned to tailor her own composure to a life lived solo. Though admired for her polished manners and tasteful fashion, she often walks home to a quiet apartment, where silence greets her more faithfully than any companion. Years of watching others…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part VII begins with Jennie pressing her cold face to the glossy pane of a grocery window, where fruits from warm shores sit in tempting disarray. The label “maymeys from Cuba” catches her attention—not for what it promises in flavor, but for what it represents: opulence unreachable. Around her, Chicago’s winter grips the streets with icy fingers, while Jennie’s own stomach tightens in quiet revolt. The glass is not just a physical barrier; it’s a symbol of what she cannot cross. Inside,…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part VIII begins in a dim hotel room where silence feels heavier than the curtains and loneliness creeps in without apology. The leading lady of a small theater troupe, once radiant under stage lights, now sits hunched in a chair that scratches the wallpaper each time she shifts. Her makeup, once applied with precision, now smudges quietly as tears fall—not those theatrical sobs that win ovations, but the quiet kind that mark exhaustion. The scent of powder and faded perfume mixes with the stale air of…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part IX begins on the familiar corner of South Clark Street, where the noise of the city hums and Tony's newsstand remains unchanged. His hands, thick with calluses, flip through papers from around the world. The sun catches the headlines of foreign tongues, and still, locals come—drawn less by the news and more by the memories these papers carry. One woman, sharp-heeled and steady-eyed, steps forward. Her voice is smooth but colored by a distant ache when she asks for the Kewaskum Courier. It’s a name…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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Part X opens not with beauty but with boldness—an embrace that’s not marked by desire, but by gratitude. Pearlie Schultz, our heroine, stands in defiance of the traditional tale where plainness is only a prologue to physical transformation. Her story is not about what changes on the outside but what deepens within. When Millie Whitcomb suggests that beauty is overrated in fiction, it becomes the spark for a narrative centered on authenticity. Pearlie's features are not softened by fantasy; her curves…
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48.6 K • Ongoing
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