THE PENTAMERON; or, THE FIVE DAYS OF FIFTY STORIES, AS TOLD BY A GROUP OF FRIENDS ESCAPING THE COVID PANDEMIC
by Mariah Ashe
THE PENTAMERON; or, THE FIVE DAYS OF FIFTY STORIES, AS TOLD BY A GROUP OF FRIENDS ESCAPING THE COVID PANDEMIC is a reworking of the 15th Century work “Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles.” First translated into English in 1899 by Robert Douglas, this collection is now, for the first time, elevated to the level of Boccaccio’s Decameron and the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre with a frame story fitting for it.
Introduction to the Second Day
Their first morning on the shores of Lake Chelan, the five friends spent in bed, sleeping off the revelry of their first night along the lake. This first evening began with a feast of a dinner, and it ended, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, with the backyard firepit having burned bright all night long.
Breakfast, therefore, the friends skipped, and it was not until the time of brunch when they emerged from their rooms and made their way to the house’s kitchen, each indulging in whatever light meal he or she thought best. The five were, of course, sluggish due to their late night, but there was no talk of leaving off their second day of storytelling, and they soon packed a cooler with five sandwiches, along with as many snacks as they cared to carry. A second cooler, too, was packed, and in this was put their beer for the trip, though there was, today, the notable inclusion of bottled water.
In the end, the friends were not comfortably settled atop Lake Chelan until nearly noon, and the sun had, indeed, reached that highest point before their day’s first story was proposed.
“So,” Phil said, “as President, it is, I suppose, my job to get the Storytelling Boat going, now that we are out on the water.”
“It can be,” Daisy said.
“We are all ready, I think,” Chase said.
“Yeah,” Pierce said, “let us start.”
“Who shall it be?” Neil asked.
“My thought,” Phil said, “was that our President Emeritus may as well be who leads us off, since we have no other tradition.”
“I have a story that I want to tell early,” Chase said, “but I can settle for second.”
“What do you say, Daisy?” Neil asked.
“I did not intend for my story to be first,” she said, “but I do not mind it.”
“Let it be, then,” Phil said.
Thus, after taking a drink from her beer, Daisy began her tale.
