Annie of Houseboat Chinquapin

SynopsisANNIE OF HOUSEBOAT CHINQUAPINLocated on the St Johns River 18 miles inland of Florida's east coast is Jacksonville, a major city, shipping and fishing center in 1935. A main thoroughfare, Riverside Avenue, runs south from the city along the west side of the river. A half mile south of the city, Dora Street, a street of dirt and rubble, connects to Riverside Avenue and runs down a short distance to the river's edge onto a landing. From here, a wooden dock extends out about 150 feet over the water. Six houseboats, three on each side, connect to the dock by walkways. In one, named Houseboat Chinquapin, there lives a young woman named Annie. She lives here with her son, Curtis, daughter, Denise, and husband, Robert. Annie now is 26 years old. Robert, much older, is 43, and Curtis and Denise, respectively are 9 and 7. Curtis, as boys are, is a problem, but Denise, as girls are, is sweet and nice. Robert's job is with the railroad, in the shop, where he works hard, long hours and comes home tired and spent at the end of each day. Annie is a dutiful wife and mother. Her family is her life. But Annie, young, comely, shapely and buxom, yearns yet for some spark in life. The Depression is on. Times are tough. Money is tight and the family budget, a constant squabble. The houseboat has no electricity. Kerosene lamps provide light. Cooking is by a wood-burning stove. Perishables are kept in an icebox. Clothes are washed by scrub-board and tub. The big box radio plays by battery. Annie, instilled with passion, wants to venture out, go to church, see movies, eat dinner out, be wooed, be wined, and be bedded. But Robert, aging and tired, at the end of the day wants only to eat dinner, read the paper, then at night pour himself a jigger of whiskey, listens to the radio, doze, then go to bed, while Annie in her nightie subtly nudges, snuggles, entices, tries to engage, arouse him, but in all is left emotionally and physically unsatisfied. So, for Annie, being young, to be wooed, to be satisfied emotionally, intimately is not to be. Houseboat life and living on the dock is basic. Annie's houseboat, although it once floated on a barge, now sets on pilings over the water and by its walkway to the dock one goes from the river onto the landing to Dora Street. Annie's houseboat is small and simple. It is exactly the same as the other five, replicated three on each side of the dock, as noted. All are tenant houseboats and have names. Annie's neighbor, Mary Lou, lives across the dock in Houseboat Ivy. Life on the St Johns River has its advantages. Swimming is good, as is fishing, crabbing, shrimping, and scavenging driftwood along the shore. Occasionally one snares floating in the river a stalk of bananas, it being lost overboard from a banana boat. There also are the dreaded hurricanes. Annie had a longtime iceman. He was good, dependable, and delivered her ice daily, but he got old and slow, so the ice company replaced him by a younger iceman, who was good looking, muscular, and drawn to Annie. He made advances on her, but she rebuffed his advances repeatedly. Then one time, in a moment of weakness, at his persistence, she succumbs, has sex with him, and becomes pregnant. Now Annie is a family woman, vested in her family, so she tries to abort the pregnancy, initially by jarring her stomach, jumping off a chair and landing stiff-legged to the floor. This didn't work, so she swallows a whole bottle of laxative pills to rumble her insides. This didn't work, so she petitions her family doctor to give her an abortion. He wouldn't because abortions are illegal. She is desperate and then tries in wily seductive manners to entice her husband to have sex with her. He does not. The iceman who made her pregnant leaves town to nowhere known. Annie's husband then discovers she is pregnant, and knowing it is not his, within his right, presents his case to the divorce court, and divorces Annie.