"The Home for Wayward Girls"

Marcia Bradley is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. An adjunct professor, she also teaches economically challenged teens and is proud that one of her Yonkers students is now a student at Sarah Lawrence. A former editor of Antioch's Two Hawks magazine, Bradley has been awarded residencies at Ragdale, Community of Writers, and Writers in Paradise. She lives in New York City.

Bradley applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, The Home for Wayward Girls, and reported the following:

From the middle of page 69, a scene with the protagonist Loretta:

“Please, please . . . “ Her whimper became a plea to keep Bull’s pointed teeth away from her body, to prevent-delay-stop, please please please stop the branch that dug deeper into the rips in her skin, digging and dragging in attack. William slammed the branch into her spine, her waist, then whacked behind her knees. She heard Bull’s growl, close and mean.

Loretta buckled in desperation. Sad and tired and not near strong as William, she crumpled to the ground. Her knees spilled to the hard dirt so infertile it could well be concrete.

Time choked, it too stumbled, like her laggard steps on the path from the bunkhouse. Loretta’s head zigged, auburn hair flying. Her head last to fall, it fell so slow. Later, she’d swear she’d seen her own self, her head zagging down down down until she hit the rusty nail sticking out of the wood frame of the vegetable bed that bore no leafy greens.

The nail! The nail! she tried to scream.

“Please,” she cried. “Please.” The words struggled from her mouth. Her father dragged her to her feet. That bent old nail, rusted, it ripped right through her long, mountain strong, not so pale-skinned neck.

Opening page 69 of The Home for Wayward Girls is like focusing a flashlight on one of the most consequential moments of Loretta’s life. The page displays the untenable conflicts she faces in the late 1990’s at seventeen years of age and foreshadows the choices she will ultimately have to make. When, in desperation, Loretta crumples to the ground, she stays aware of her surroundings. In this day and age of high-tech weaponry in action stories, it is simple hard ground she falls upon, pain inflicted from a tree branch, and a rusted nail that will scar Loretta for the rest of her days. It is this moment that guides much of her life’s journey.

The Page 69 Test works here because it reveals Loretta’s sad dilemma in the same manner a quick excerpt or even a piece of flash fiction can quickly amplify the tension and obstacles in a story. From the top of the page to bottom, we see Loretta facing horrific odds as she is attacked by her father alongside his frightening guard dog. It’s clear that the deck is stacked against her. Yet, this page matters even more because Loretta tells us that, “Later, she’d swear she’d seen her own self … hit the rusty nail,” and in this we know there is hope. Later tells readers that the protagonist will survive, that a future time is guaranteed. As the author, it was important for me to give hope continually throughout this book, and to show the reader that a better future awaits this young woman.

Visit Marcia Bradley's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Home for Wayward Girls.

Q&A with Marcia Bradley.

--Marshal Zeringue