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Ten pages yesterday, but got up from the computer feeling like I hadn’t done enough. I think mainly because it was finally time to call Edward, something I’ve been looking forward to for ages, and I was too tired to continue from that point. My friend, and fellow writer, Rett MacPhearson, asked if I was at a good stopping point. I couldn’t seem to remember. I wondered through the house, and Darla remarked, “You look lost.” I felt lost. I want to play with Edward but latter on it occurred to me that when Anita calls him Peter will answer the phone. Home for a parent teacher conference day. Heaven knows we seem to have gobs of them here in St. Louis. So Peter answers the phone and he’s full of how well he did in his karate tournament, and that he’s the youngest ever to be accepted to the local shooting team. (What has Edward been teaching him. You really don’t want to know.) But somewhere in the conversation Anita will realize that it’s not just Edward she’s asking to come hunt monsters, but in a way the whole family. She’s asking Edward to come back her up against the vampire’s equivalent of spies/assassins, the best warriors they have. What if she gets him killed? What would Peter, and Becca, or Donna do? Instead of it being just fun and let’s all go chase monsters, it’s what would his family do without him? It was a sobering thought. Anita is actually going to hang up without talking to Edward. He’ll call her back, and she’ll tell him truthfully that she’s worried about what his family would do without him. He’ll tell her, “I can’t stop being who I am just because I love them, Anita. What do you need? It must be bad for you to call me, and be this worried.”
See, even monster hunting with Edward isn’t as fun as it used to be, because we all have responsibilites and people we care about. People who would be lost without us. It takes some of the fun out of the risk taking stuff. People ask why my series is so popular. Why mine and not someone else’s? I don’t know exactly, but I do know that I worry about my imaginary friends. We’ve been together for over a decade. I cry when they hurt. I worry over their personal lives. I grieve when they loose someone. I cannot imagine actually loosing one of them at this point. I think it would break my heart. My imaginary friends are very real to me, real enough that their moods and emotions can effect mine. Real enough that I’m worried about what my imaginary friend’s imaginary family would do if I got him killed. Weird, but true.