Temper the Winds

In a small town southern setting in 1943, "Temper the Winds" is a story about a widow swept up by the whirlwind of fate. When Maggie Clay's husband dies in a TB sanitarium, she is left with Jenny and Josey and two dollars and thirty-four cents to her name. Financially and emotionally broken, she is taken back by her father, Claude, to a farm life she despised, a site where she felt unloved by her mother, Leona. Claude is burdened by guilt from a not ever to be mentioned mistake in the past, turning Leona into a cold-hearted "ornery cuss". Joseph Jameson has no intention after finishing medical school to do his father's bidding by working at his side, practicing medicine in the one-horse town of Enfield. Nor does he plan to stay squashed under his father's thumb. His tune changes when he meets Maggie and is forced to plead with Dr. Jay (his father) to hire Maggie as a midwife. Dr. Jay agrees. It's his only shot at keeping his son in Enfield. Sara Windley, the daughter of millionaire Enmitt Windley, at sixteen years of age, lures Claude into a barn where she seduces him. When she gets pregnant, Emmitt forces Claude and Leona to keep Sara hidden in a shack in the woods until the baby is born, and then take (Maggie) as their own. In such harsh living conditions, Sara emerges phobic and border-line psychotic. Joseph encourages Maggie to continue her education by reading; and he instructs her on the duties of a midwife. In such close proximity, they fall in love. During a storm in the middle of the night, Maggie overhears a conversation between Claude and Leona. She learns that Sara Windley is her mother, turning her world upside down. Fearing that Joseph will no longer love her after knowing the secret of her birth, she ends their relationship. Dr. Jay, witnessing his son's devastation without Maggie devises a plan, hoping to bring them back together. In a small town southern setting in 1943, "Temper the Winds" is a story about a widow swept up by the whirlwind of fate. When Maggie Clay's husband dies in a TB sanitarium, she is left with Jenny and Josey and two dollars and thirty-four cents to her name. Financially and emotionally broken, she is taken back by her father, Claude, to a farm life she despised, a site where she felt unloved by her mother, Leona. Claude is burdened by guilt from a not ever to be mentioned mistake in the past, turning Leona into a cold-hearted "ornery cuss". Joseph Jameson has no intention after finishing medical school to do his father's bidding by working at his side, practicing medicine in the one-horse town of Enfield. Nor does he plan to stay squashed under his father's thumb. His tune changes when he meets Maggie and is forced to plead with Dr. Jay (his father) to hire Maggie as a midwife. Dr. Jay agrees. It's his only shot at keeping his son in Enfield. Sara Windley, the daughter of millionaire Enmitt Windley, at sixteen years of age, lures Claude into a barn where she seduces him. When she gets pregnant, Emmitt forces Claude and Leona to keep Sara hidden in a shack in the woods until the baby is born, and then take (Maggie) as their own. In such harsh living conditions, Sara emerges phobic and border-line psychotic. Joseph encourages Maggie to continue her education by reading; and he instructs her on the duties of a midwife. In such close proximity, they fall in love. During a storm in the middle of the night, Maggie overhears a conversation between Claude and Leona. She learns that Sara Windley is her mother, turning her world upside down. Fearing that Joseph will no longer love her after knowing the secret of her birth, she ends their relationship. Dr. Jay, witnessing his son's devastation without Maggie devises a plan, hoping to bring them back together.