Lesson Four Character assignment

By 1970, Harold Stephens has been the light keeper at South Shore for thirty-three years. He has gray hair and a weathered look to his skin. His beard and mustache are unkempt. His only wish is that people better understood him. So, today, in this interview, we will find out more about the light keeper Harold Stephens.

Beckie: Thanks for meeting with me today, Harold. I understand there is much you’d like others to know about you.

Harold: I don’t care much what them others think ‘o me. It’s my boy, you know. I don’t want him goin’ around life havin’ ta answer no questions.
(Harold shifts in his chair, rubbing his knee, and then his shoulder)
Damn arthritis. Hits me ever’ time a storm comes up, ya know. That right there’s how I knew. I knew that storm was a blowin’ in on us that very night.

B: The townspeople have a lot to say about you, Harold. But why don’t you tell me a few things.

H: What things? There’s nothin’ ta tell about me. I’m just the light keeper.
(Harold grunts and looks away)

B: Why don’t you tell me about your family?

H: What family? That damn woman ran off with that sailor boy. That’s what family I have. I don’t need no no-account trollup like that hangin’ around. Broke my heart, she did, but it’s better I find out sooner than later. Dames like that will never change. You know they type, right? Don’t care none about her noways. Now, my boy, he’s different. He would come and see me some, when he could. That woman wouldn’t let him come out much, but when he could get away he did.

B: Do you have any other family? Like siblings or parents?

H: None to speak of. Or should I say worth speaking to? Mom and Dad’s been gone fur years. They was good folks, don’t get me wrong. But they been gone now for some time.

B: I’m sorry we started on a sour note. Why don’t we talk about the things you enjoy?

H: Enjoy? (he grunts again) What’s to enjoy when the world’s turned again’ ya? Lost all I loved. The only thing left was that lake. She and I always understood each other. We always knew what the other was going to do. She gave me signs, you know? She let me know when she was mad. I could feel it in my bones, just like now. (he rubs his knee again)

B:Well, it sounds like you have a great respect for Lake Superior. What….(Harold interrupts)

H: If you don’t have respect for that lady, you won’t live long, that I kin promise you, little girl. If you don’t have respect, she don’t much care. She don’t care if you live or die.

B: Your job as a light keeper, Harold. What is that like?

H: Folks come out and think it’s some kind of fantasy. They think it’s the dream world or some damn thing. It ain’t that way. Now don’t get me wrong, I can’t do no other job, but this one ain’t all peaches and cream. I tend to that light all night every night and in the day when the fog and the weather roll in. That lake, she a makes her own weather, now. You know that, don’t you?

B: I’ve heard that before. It must be a lonely existence then.

H: (Harold takes out a shiny metal flask and has a sip of its contents) Like a snort, little girl?

B: Ah, no thanks. Thanks, though.

H: (Harold laughs, wiping his mouth) Eh, I didn’t think so. (He laughs some more) This ain’t what got me inta this mess, ya know. It weren’t the hooch at all. It was more than that.

B: I heard you had some enemies or something, Harold.

H: Enemies? (he scoffed, choking and coughing. He took out a pipe and began to pack tobacco into it) If they was enemies they woulda been formidable opponents. They woulda had somethin’ ta say to my face. Ain’t one of those pieces of shit in that town ever had anything to say to my face. Then again, they all knew. They knew that trollup was messin’ around. They just wasn’t gonna tell me.

B: Well, to be fair, I’ve heard rumblings that you were stepping out a bit, too. I don’t mean to be rude, but I just wanted to clear that up.

H: Steppin’ out? He he he. Is that what you young-uns call it these days? (Harold sits quietly for a moment, reaches into the pocket of his dusty, faded pea coat again, but then thinks better of it) I tell ya I had mine. I had mine with that Meikkonen woman. A fine woman she was, if you know what I mean. Bein’ in mixed company and all, I don’t be goin’ into no details, of course.

B: Of course. But, knowing how it felt to have someone cheat on you, didn’t it bother you that you were sleeping with another man’s wife?

H: Oh, to hell, you say! (A fire lit behind Harold’s piercing light blue eyes) That Reino was never around for Lavi. He weren’t never nowhere where she needed him. Who ran little Lavi to the hospital when little Gloria was born? Who brought Lavi to see her mum when she took sick? Who tended to little Gloria when Lavi had to be off a workin’ and the little tyke had nowhere to be? That was Harold Stephens that done all that there (He pounded his chest, which brought about another round of coughing)

B: Would you like to take a break, Harold?

H:I ain’t never had no break nor accepted no break from no one. I done what I needed to do. You’ll find that when you do all that fancy researchin’ that you writers do. You’ll get to the bottom of all this. If I was ta tell ya, then you’ll never learn not a thing on your own. Ya can’t get ever’thing handed to ya now, my girl. Ya need ta find some things out on ya own, hear?

B: Well, let’s get back to the light house, then. I heard something about there might have been a malfunction with it that night that the Angela Lee went down.

H: Ain’t nothing EVER happened ta that light house. She was the best maintained light on the shores of that great water. I did it all myself. I din’t have no fancy crew workin’ with me like yous do these days. Yous have all this fancy technology and whatnot. It was just me, the light, and the lake. That’s all I needed. That kept ever’one safe for thirty-three years. It was a big responsibility (Harold took another hit off his flask), but I did ‘er. I did ‘er all by myself. When the world abandoned me, I still held my post. Semper Fi.

B:You were a Marine, then?

H: Long ago. Long before anyone knew my name. I served my time. Come home to be at peace with my love, that lake. Never thought I’d come to rest in it. She was all I’ve had all my life. The only thing that never left me. Never thought anyone else would rest in her, either – not on my watch.

(Tears welled in Harold’s eyes and he turned away from me. I knew the interview was over.)

B: Anything else you want people to know, Harold?

H: You just write that novel, little girl. You just do that research that we been a-talkin’ about and you let them all know. You’ll know I didn’t never abandon my post. You’ll find the truth. Don’t like most people, you know? But you seem decent and tryin’ ta do that right thing. You clear my name and let me rest. That’s all that’s left for me.