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Maybe I do work too much and maybe I’m not living my own life. Could it really be that I’m trying to live through my characters, as Nan claims?
The thought wouldn’t leave her.When they become real enough to me that I imagine I’m interacting with them in my office maybe it is time to ease up just a bit.
Now, JJ’s mind went full speed ahead like a car careening out of control. She knew she was treading icy water, but her thoughts naturally drifted toward the recent past. She couldn’t help but reflect on the last four years. It hadn’t been easy for her. But she was determined to continue on with her work, to carry on with her career. That’s what Geoff would have wanted.
Geoff was Geoff St. Clair, her late husband. He died four years ago. Valentine’s Day. Killed in a car accident. The same day the publisher released her first novel. After all the encouragement he provided her, tears of frustration he wiped away, and endless drafts he patiently waded through and edited, he never actually saw a book of hers in print.
If it wasn’t for Geoff, she never would have had the courage to walk away from a burgeoning academic career. She never could have made the move from history professor to novelist.
At that moment, she felt like the widow she was. Too young to be a widow, someone told her at Geoff’s funeral. But that didn’t change the facts. Indeed, at twenty-eight she was one.
She fell asleep imagining how different her life would be if only her husband were still alive and rooting for her success.
Chapter 6
JJ got out of bed the following morning feeling much better.Silly me, I couldn’t have really believed the characters from my book had visited. It’s like a bad take onA Christmas Carol. Scrooge had his three ghosts warning him. I have two of my own creations “haunting” me over a meeting with some jerk.
Bleary-eyed, she put a robe and her fluffy bunny slippers on and padded to her study. It was five a.m.; she was already running behind her usual four o’clock start. But, as soon as she opened the door, she knew something was horrifically wrong. They were back.
Alex, sitting at the computer, leaped straight up like a startled cat when she walked in. Blake, totally absorbed in reading a book from her shelves, didn’t flinch.
“You guys back? I thought we settled things yesterday. What gives?”
That comment prompted Blake to look up from the book. “What do you mean ‘back’? We never left.”
“Why not? I believe your work here is done.”
Alex shook her head as she got back into the chair. “Apparently not. We can’t return to our story. I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon.”
She pulled Alex out of the chair and settled into it. As she called up her manuscript, she was determined to act as if nothing was out of the ordinary. “You mean I’m stuck with you two for a while?”
“Hey, I resent that.” Blake’s lower lip jutted out slightly. “You created us, and you don’t even want to spend time with us? Should we be insulted?”
The writer sighed. She rubbed the back of her neck. Too early, she thought, for a tension headache. Twenty-four hours ago, life seemed so easy.
She woke up in the morning, wrote for five to eight hours, ran errands in the afternoon, and then came home, watched television, or whatever else she wanted to do. After all, she lived alone. No dog to walk. No cat to deal with. Not even a goldfish to remember to feed. She had grown accustomed to her single existence.
She reflected on her first year of living alone. It took her that long to come to grips with her husband’s death. She recalled that heartbreaking period. The times she turned to talk to him, then abruptly remembered he wasn’t there. Running out of her office to tell him she had finished a book, then realizing… The void in her heart that couldn’t be filled.
She shuddered. She really didn’t want to revisit that pain. She had been with Geoff for far too short a time. She feared if she dwelled on those days, she would relapse into the deep, dark depression she had experienced after his death. She pushed all that aside.
Instead, she focused on the moment. She accepted her time alone now (or so she kept telling herself). It hadn’t been easy. In fact, some days, it proved to be a real battle. The pain, though, gradually subsided.
She reminded herself of all the advantages to her new life. She came and went as she pleased. She could take a long weekend, or even a few days in the middle of the week without consulting anyone else’s schedule. Granted, she didn’t usually do that. But if the urge grabbed her, she certainly could.
Now, she had two unwanted, hell, unbelievable, guests in her house. Now, she was being told they were “stuck” in her world. She wasn’t even sure she believed they were real. Yet, there they were.
“Isn’t getting together with Kenn Cooper worth it, if it does nothing more than get us out of your life?” Blake asked, getting back to the point they unceremoniously dropped yesterday. “It’s obvious you two were made for each other. Even in the all-too-short meeting you had.”
“Please, aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?” She turned from the computer. It appeared getting any writing time in was going to be difficult. “And no, I cannot see how we were made for each other. I’d say we’re more like polar opposites.”
“Let’s just stop for a moment and examine that phrase ‘polar opposites’,” he said. He rose from the loveseat and placed his index finger to his lips.
“Just what exactly does that mean? It could refer to the North and South Poles, in which case you and the professor have more in common than you think.”
JJ and Alex looked at each other. “Is he always like this?”
Alex smiled. “You tell me. You created him.”
