chaletian: (supernatural rock paper scissors)
[personal profile] chaletian
Title: The Crackpots and These Women
Author: [livejournal.com profile] chaletian
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG
Characters: OMC, mentions of Ellen and Jo
Spoilers: Very, very vague season 2
Summary: An old family friend of the Harvelles considers life at the roadhouse. Response to the Supernatural-West Wing Title Challenge.


I’ve known Ellen Harvelle, well, now, close on to forty years. Knew her daddy. He was a fine man, and I was proud to call him a friend. Ellen, she was a sweet kid. Stubborn as a mule, of course, but sweet with it. I recall how she was when she was in high school, all brains and sass. Her daddy died when she was in her junior year, and it hit ‘em pretty hard. Ellen was an only child, and it was just her’n her mother. Now, Claire, she was a sweet woman, but she didn’t have much in the way of backbone, and it sorta fell to Ellen to keep things straight. I guess that’s why she didn’t go to college like Ted wanted.

She met Bill Harvelle a coupla years after she graduated high school. I tried to talk her out of it, honest to God. Not that I had much of anything against Bill, but he ran that old roadhouse, and you could tell straight off it weren’t no place for a girl like Ellen. She deserved better, and I reckon Bill knew that, cause he never could look me in the eye. But Ellen always did go her own sweet way, and Claire had just up and died, and there wasn’t anything for her to stick around for. And she sure was crazy about Bill.

I’m not going to say he didn’t treat her right, because I know Ellen, and I know what she would and wouldn’t put up with. So I’ll admit that she seemed pretty happy, even in that roadhouse. I drove by a couple of times a month, just to keep an eye on her, though she told me not to. Jack, she said, in that tone of hers, Jack, I’m not going to have you troubling yourself coming way out here all the time. Ellen, I said, can’t a man come to a roadhouse and get a drink without some damned woman fussin’ over him? And she’d laugh, and pour me a drink, and I’d know she was doing OK.

Then little Jo came on the scene. I’m not a sentimental man, but I sure am fond of that little girl. And she was a pistol, right from the start. Had everyone wrapped round her little finger, specially her daddy. Bill Harvelle, I reckon he’d do pretty near anything for his girl. So, there they were, the three of him, happy as crickets in that damned roadhouse.

I’d always known there was something hinky about it. Place looked like it would fall down if you blew hard, and who the heck built something like that way out there? Fifteen miles from the nearest town if it was a foot. And the crowd it collected – well, I was never happy seeing Ellen serving back of that bar, and I won’t hesitate to say it. That was a pretty scary bunch of men, and no mistake. Hard, they was. Looked as like to kill you as shake your hand. Ellen, she said I was imagining it, that they were just men, no better or worse than anyone else.

I didn’t like her back of that bar, and when Bill died, I liked it even less, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She stayed, and Jo grew up there, and that clientele didn’t get any less peculiar. I believe in the Constitution and I believe in the right to bear arms, but I damn sure don’t believe in the need to carry around a goddamn armoury, which is sure as heck what some of those crackpots were doing. I don’t know, maybe they were some of those survivalist types, those ones who reckon we don’t need the government for anything. Maybe. I just don’t know.

I was up at the roadhouse, not so long ago, looking in to see those women. Ellen’s still stubborn as hell, and Jo’s still got a mouth on her, and they’ve still got their crazy customers. New ones, this time, coupla boys I didn’t recognise. That older one, he scared me, I ain’t afraid to say it. No boy should have a look in his eyes like that. I don’t talk to Ellen about it, know it won’t make no nevermind to her. She was a sweet kid. I sure do wish I didn’t have to see her back of that bar.

Date: 2007-10-22 12:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katie__pillar.livejournal.com
Golly, took you a while to post this - I'm shocked! Still like it.

Date: 2007-10-22 12:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chaletian.livejournal.com
Oh, don't be thinking my pimping mojo has deserted me! I just had to get the OK to do the challenge, and then I realised I'd left the file at work, like yonder fool. Hence the delay. But has now been fully pimped. I slack not.

I want to do a Dean/Jo fic for Constituency of One but I can't make it go right. And 365 Days is just crying out for a Dean-has-a-year-left fic. *sigh* So many possibilities...

Date: 2007-10-22 01:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katie__pillar.livejournal.com
I see. My world is now back on its axis. And yes, write more!

Date: 2007-10-22 01:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymirth.livejournal.com
Wonderful characterization and amazing writing! I think our fandom has a definite monopoly on writing talent. Big Ellen fan here! Please keep it up!

Date: 2007-10-22 01:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] luvsabitch.livejournal.com
That older one, he scared me, I ain’t afraid to say it. No boy should have a look in his eyes like that.

This fic made me squee and this line is why! <3

Date: 2007-10-22 01:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] balooky.livejournal.com
Oh wow... I like this a lot.

Date: 2007-10-22 04:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grand-sophy.livejournal.com
I like the voice you've created for Jack, gives a real sense of who he is and what he stands for. Very nicely done.

Date: 2007-10-22 04:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] girlguidejones.livejournal.com
Well, this is weird, but I just finished writing a reply to someone about the amount of fail! there sometimes is when people are trying to write a fic set in nowhere, America. The tone and setting are so often just not right.

This story is an awesome example of getting it right. Jack sounds like a man born and raised in rural America might, and has the attitude and does the things (checking up on Ellen from time to time) that sort of man might have and do.

Great use of the title as well. Thanks!

really enjoyed

Date: 2007-10-22 06:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erinrua.livejournal.com
Very nice! I liked this old guy's tone of voice, very familiar-sounding to me, like some of the old codgers out here in my rural area. Loved his observations on Ellen, and it tickled me to think of someone old enough to remember her as a child, plus a really good back-story you've created for her.

Nice outside POV! Thanks for sharing.
Cheers ~

Erin

Date: 2007-10-23 12:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] girlguidejones.livejournal.com
Hi! This story's been recced at tonight's [livejournal.com profile] crack_impala.

Thanks for a great story!

Date: 2007-10-23 02:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistojen.livejournal.com
Ohh I really liked this! :D Such a distinct voice for an OMC that I was completely sucked into the imagery and style. You = win!

Date: 2007-10-23 05:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extraonions.livejournal.com
Awesome! Your outsider pov on the roadhouse was excellent, very well drawn.

Date: 2007-10-23 06:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rivers-bend.livejournal.com
I just LOVE Ellen and Jo, and it's nice to see an outsider's view on them. Lovely fic!

Date: 2007-10-23 01:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angharadd.livejournal.com
I liked the narrator's voice here. Great job!

Date: 2007-10-23 10:44 pm (UTC)
ext_11786: (Ellen)
From: [identity profile] dotfic.livejournal.com
This is a really vivid voice -- I love this perspective on Ellen and the Harvelles, you seemed to capture the nature of the Bill/Ellen relationship and a lot about Ellen.

Date: 2007-10-27 05:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laurificus.livejournal.com
Aw, I really like this. I love fic about Ellen, and I particularly enjoyed an outsider's view of her life, and the way that all her stubbornness and determination comes through.

Date: 2008-06-08 08:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com
Beautiful...

*hugs*

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