Let’s Read Nancy Drew: pg. 32
page 32: It’s Just a Jump to the Left...
“Well, Nancy, did you find out what you wanted to know?” Mr. Drew asked after the lawyer had left.
“Oh, Dad, it’s just as I suspected. I’m sure Mr. Crowley did make a later will! He did it someplace! If only I could find out where!”
Inside voices, please, Nancy. Your father is right there; no need to shout.
Now, dear Readers, those of you who read will be well aware that when authors find the need to do a scene change they will do their best to make it as seamless as they can. In order to be visually clear that a bit of a jump has occurred, they will usually use a space break or even asterisk break to separate paragraphs. This way there is a visual break in the text to illustrate the jump.
At this point in the story Carolyn Keene has decided to buck this standard and we’re gonna do a scene/time jump with no breaks. And the result looks like this:
“I must figure out a way!” Nancy said with determination. “I want to help little Judy.” She awoke the next morning thinking about the mystery. But where should she start hunting for possible clues to second will? She continued pondering about it while she showered and dressed.
See what I mean? It’s a slightly awkward transition considering she was just at a restaurant for lunch and then she’s waking up at home the next morning.
But whatever, we’ve just done the time warp and it’s now a new day.
I, for one, am pleased that Nancy has moved passed the point of pondering whether or not there’s another will and has begun to actually ponder where she should look for clues.
She heads to the dining room for breakfast and is greeted “with a cheery ‘Good morning’ from her father and Hannah Gruen*.” *[Not to be confused with Hannah Zarves. Hannah Zarves is the housekeeper for the third floor of the Drews’ house. There is no third floor to the house and there is no Hannah Zarves.]
Against all odds the breakfast this morning is 100% gossip free. Instead Mr. Drew asks Nancy if she could run an errand for him that morning. As you’ll remember from page 1, “...it’s fun to help him [Mr. Drew] in his work.” And thus Nancy gladly accepts the job.
The Errand? Delivering “a number of legal documents” to Judge Hart “sometime before noon.”
(You can tell Mr. Drew is a lawyer by the way he’s always very precise with his wording.)
