Untitled walkathon novella

Two childhood friends set off a 24-hour walkathon, puzzling over a letter that claims Amelia Earhart (d. 1937), who was last seen in their city before her final flight, is still alive.

I anchor this mystery in the Boston metro: To explore the past and present life of its walkable ‘streetcar suburbs,’ to speculate the worlds we lose as its neighborhoods and minds upscale.

This walk is a ‘gentrification story’. The characters traverse their hometown and rediscover its quirks and charms that make it altogether unique, while mourning what was. But the ground is shifting beneath them. They dream up lost worlds, car-less worlds, with canoe-share in place of bikeshare, spirited worlds tied up in the hands of elites. Death and life are muddled between. They can revisit time, as space, to solve Amelia’s disappearance. Chaos abound.

May they walk worlds into existence, ones they can believe in and belong to.

Today, the streetcar suburbs–Cambridge, Somerville, Medford– are known as dense, transit-linked, walkable communities. They developed because of horse-drawn railroads and electric trolley lines built a few hundred years ago, those that would later form the oldest subway in America. Today, many early lines are gone; and though few were rebuilt; cars often rule the road; as the tree canopy disappears; the last remaining landlots are up for grabs. Land is speculated and sold and we are convinced that growth is inevitable. As the pseudoburbs reach peak density, will they still be walkable, or even livable? What of authenticity? What future must follow a black hole? These are questions the characters want answered.