The Lacuna

The following chapter is a mix of Shepherd’s letters, journal entries, and both fictional and actual newspaper clippings.

On October 8, 1943, Shepherd writes Frida a letter thanking her for saving his papers. He tells her about buying a house in Asheville and adopting a cat he names Chispa, meaning “spark.” He is also grateful she included the small stone figurine he found during their picnic at Teotihuacán.

On May 21, 1944, Shepherd again writes Frida about how the war efforts and rationing are affecting people in Asheville. They are taking the deprivations in stride for the greater good. He is hopeful because the Allies have united to fight fascism. He asks if she knows anyone in New York who can publish his nearly completed book. In the next letter, he thanks her for putting him in touch with a publisher. He urges her to “have faith in our Mr. [President] Roosevelt” and expresses doubt about rumors of concentration camps in the United States for Japanese people (377). In response, she sends him news reports about Japanese internment camps.

On December 11, 1944, Shepherd writes a letter to Mr. Barnes, the editor, expressing gratitude for the “overwhelmingly generous” amount of money offered for his first book. On April 5, 1945, Shepherd writes Frida with the news that his book will be published by Stratford and Sons Publishers.

On May 8, 1945, Germany surrenders to the Allies. In a journal entry, Shepherd describes becoming friendly with a neighbor-boy, Romulus, who helps him with odd jobs around the house. On August 20, 1945, Shepherd laments the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On September 2, Japan surrenders.

At the end of the year, Vassals of Majesty is published. It is an account of the battles between the Conquistadors and Emperor Montezuma’s forces in Mexico and becomes a best-seller.

On March 10, 1946, Shepherd writes Frida to tell her of the book’s success and reports that he has adopted another cat he calls Chisme, meaning “gossip.” A few days later, he receives a letter from Tom Cuddy, with whom he had a romantic relationship when they worked together transporting art during the war. Tom asks if Shepherd would join him in Washington, DC, to help him transport art for an Advancing American Art exhibition in Europe sponsored by the State Department. Shepherd tells Frida he is nervous about going to New York as she asked him to; she wants support following a difficult bone graft surgery. He doesn’t hear from Frida for a while afterward.

On April 30, 1946, Shepherd writes Mrs. Violet Brown to ask if she would come to work for him as a secretary following her moderation of a discussion of Vassals of Majesty at the library. She accepts his offer. Her job is to respond to the many fan letters he receives and type his manuscripts.

On July 8, 1946, Shepherd submits the manuscript of his second book to the publisher. On September 3, Mrs. Brown’s family arrives from the hills. Shepherd talks to his sister, Parthenia, and learns they are evangelical Christians. In October, Shepherd and Mrs. Brown go to Washington, DC. While they are there, Tom’s Advancing American Art exhibition is canceled because of the cost to the American taxpayer. Tom is upset by the outcome. On the drive home, Mrs. Brown tells Shepherd it was the first time she had ever left Buncombe County, but she had always dreamed of travel. She encourages Shepherd to stand up for his words and beliefs.

In 1947, Shepherd’s second novel, Pilgrims of Chapultepec, about the Aztecs who are driven from their ancestral home, their wanderings, and their ultimate settlement in Mexico City, is published. It focuses on the hero, Poatlicue, and his growing belief that he should assassinate their despotic leader. The book is a bestseller, and the local papers begin to speculate about Shepherd’s life because he lives mostly as a recluse. On June 6, Shepherd writes Frida to tell her that he is planning on writing a new novel about the collapse of the Mayan empire. He expresses concern that Diego Rivera has decided to support Stalin after so many years of supporting Trotsky. A few days later, Shepherd writes a journal entry complaining about Mrs. Brown’s efforts to get him to write a memoir. He tells her he cannot because the second notebook (private journal Mexico North America) is missing. On June 23, Mrs. Brown tells Shepherd he has received a letter from HUAC requesting he sign a loyalty statement to the United States and avow he is not a Communist.

In July, someone from Hollywood reaches out to Shepherd about turning one of his books into a movie. Mrs. Brown puts Shepherd in contact with a Jewish lawyer, Arthur “Artie” Gold, to help negotiate the contract. Later that month, Mrs. Brown gets in trouble for arranging for a Russian girl to speak to the town’s schoolgirls. She is accused of promoting Communism and forced to leave the Women’s Club. In August, Shepherd receives a letter from J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI demanding he once again sign a loyalty oath and renounce Communism. His lawyer, Artie Gold, urges him to sign it but warns Shepherd’s ties to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Leon Trotsky will likely mean he will be convicted regardless, even though Shepherd insists he is not a Communist.

On September 3, Shepherd writes in a journal entry that he burned the notebook recounting his time at Potomac Academy. Later that month, Shepherd receives a letter from Aware, Inc., a company that produces lists of known or suspected Communists. They say he must pay them if he doesn’t want evidence he is a Communist shared. Shepherd refuses to pay because he knows there is no evidence.

On October 3, Shepherd and Mrs. Brown begin planning a trip to the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico so Shepherd can do research for his book on the Maya. On October 31, an FBI agent goes to the house and questions Mrs. Brown about Shepherd’s Communist sympathies. He notes that the neighbors report Shepherd has a cat named “Jizz.” Mrs. Brown corrects him that the cat’s name is Chisme, meaning “gossip.”

In November 1947, Shepherd and Mrs. Brown go to Mérida, the largest city on the Yucatán Peninsula. They hire a driver and guide named Jesús; he takes them to visit his mother, Maria, who collects orchids in the front yard of her humble hut. Shepherd and Mrs. Brown go to Chichén Itzá, the ancient Mayan pyramid. His visit there reminds him of the time he visited Teotihuacán with Frida. They also visit the lacunas, or cenotes, as they are known there, which the Mayans relied on for water. The ancient Maya would throw offerings into the water, which were dug up by archeologists from Harvard and the Peabody Museum. Back at their rented apartment, Mrs. Brown warns Shepherd that writing about the fall of an empire might be taken badly in the current American political climate. Before they leave, they climb Chichén Itzá one last time. At the top, they reflect on how one knows when a civilization is on the brink of collapse. They note that the only remainder of the Maya are the pyramids and not the thousands of regular people who lived in the jungle “without leaving one mark on it” (537). Then, they go to visit Frida Kahlo in Mexico City.