62 Touching Moments
“OK,” Nikki said, as I settled in, her robe around my near-naked body. “Would you like me to make some tea or coffee?”
“I… guess some tea would be nice,” I admitted. At least it would warm me up.
A few minutes later, she came back with two hot cups and handed me one. While waiting for it to cool enough to drink, I inhaled the aroma of the herbs.
“Now,” she said, sitting next to me. “Tell me why you’re so convinced that you’re stuck.”
I looked at her in surprise. That wasn’t the direction I had expected her to take. “Well, I just told you. I’ve looked, and the Strangers in the Mirror have looked. They’re not in the physics building, which is where we all remember them being. There’s no record of any physics professor who might have been involved with such an experiment ever having been at Piques. If time changed so he never did it, there is no way back, and if he’s still around, we have no ideas on how to find him.”
“But you still want to change back.”
“Yes!”
“OK, so instead of giving up, why not keep an eye out for more ideas, and in the meantime try to see how you can accept staying this way, since you might have to.”
“Will have to, you mean,” I contradicted her. “I just don’t see any realistic solution.”
“Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t,” she said calmly, and sipped her tea. “But until you get more information, you can’t do anything about it, right?”
“Right.”
“So in the meantime, why don’t we talk about your other option? What don’t you like about being a girl? You’ve seemed to be pretty happy the past month.”
“I told you–” I started.
“Yes, I know. You thought it was just temporary. But if you hated something that you thought was temporary, wouldn’t you just grit your teeth and bear it? I’ve seen you happy, Marsh. Not just putting up with things, but actually enjoying yourself. So it must be possible for you to be happy this way, even if you are really are stuck.”
I shook my head. “Doing something for a short while is one thing. Sure, I could find things to be happy about, but that’s because I was only thinking of this as an experiment.” I sipped my own tea as she watched me. When she didn’t say anything, I added, “It’s like playing a character. I knew lots of girls in high school who thought it was fun to play loose women or prostitute characters on stage. That doesn’t mean that they’d be willing to live that way.”
“But do you really have a choice? Isn’t that what you just told me? That you’re stuck? So it seems to me, Marsha,” and I winced as she said that name again, “that your only real choice is whether to be a happy girl or an unhappy girl.”
I didn’t answer immediately, but stood up and paced the room away from her. After a moment I turned back and answered. “Obviously, I want to be happy, but–”
“You want to be a happy girl,” she insisted. “Say it, Marsha. You need to acknowledge this. Say that you want to be a happy girl.”
“Look, I need time. Accepting this isn’t that easy. I mean… I know I’m stuck. I know I’m… that I’m…”
“A girl. Say it.”
“It’s not that easy!”
“Sure it is.” She stood up and walked right up to me. “Say it. Say, “I. Am. A. Girl.”
Exasperated, I muttered, “I’m a girl.”
“I. Want. To. Be. A. Happy. Girl.”
“I… I can’t. I can’t say that. Please, Nikki.”
She sighed and went back to her seat. “OK, let’s try something else. “Tell me why you’re not happy today and she put up a hand when I started to answer. “Aside from being stuck as a girl. Is that the only reason you were so down when you came over? Is that the only thing bothering you?”
“No,” I admitted, returning to my seat. “I told my roommates that I was going to be spending time with Vicky, and that we were really close, and Terry wanted to know why she’d never heard of Vicky before, since she’s known me since we got here. I don’t have a good answer, and I told her that I’d met Vicky before I knew her because I didn’t know that she’d known me – I mean, Marsha – for so long. So anything I say is going to be a lie, since I can’t tell her about Marshall. I don’t want to lie to her.”
Nikki gave me an appraising glance. “I think it’s interesting that the first thing that you thought of when I asked you what was bothering you about being a girl was your relationship with your roommate. You’re definitely learning to think as a girl. I don’t know that a boy would have thought about relationships so quickly.”
“Well… if I were having problems with my roommates, wouldn’t I be worried about that? I don’t see how that’s a girl thing.”
She shrugged. “At any rate, let’s see what we can come up with. When did you actually meet Vicky?”
I had to think a bit. “I think Geoff was seeing her roommate, and Vicky didn’t have a boyfriend, so she tagged along to a dance. I had just broken up with Jackie, and I went to sit with Geoff and… umm I think her name was Cherise, and Vicky was sitting with them. I asked her to dance, and we just sort of kept on seeing each other. That would have been, like, the end of March.”
“And you dated over the summer?”
I nodded. “We were going out for about six months until we sort of drifted apart. At least that’s the way I remember it. Vicky says that I lost interest in her after meeting Lee Ann and so she let me break up with her.”
“She let you break up with her?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Does she have self-esteem problems?”
“I don’t know. I guess I never thought about it. Why does it matter?”
Nikki looked surprised by my question. “I was just trying to understand her, is all. Hmm… I suppose that’s not important now, but it does sound like an odd thing to say.”
“I… don’t feel comfortable talking about Vicky right now. I just want to focus on what I’m supposed to tell Terry and Lee Ann.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You might have a bit of work to do on your girl talk, Marsh. But OK. What if you said that you met Vicky at the beginning of last year, but only got close over the summer? Maybe you talked online a lot, and then lost touch at the beginning of the new school year?”
I thought about it. It seemed to be consistent with what I had already said. “Of course, that’s not exactly true, is it?”
“What’s true is that Marsha might never have met Vicky at all, right? As far as you both know? But isn’t it also possible that the two met as I said?”
The idea surprised me, and bothered me somehow, as though I didn’t like the idea that Marsha might have known Vicky, too. But I nodded. “I suppose it is possible. So it’s more of a guess than a lie, right?”
“Right. But haven’t you sort of been doing a lot of that lately, anyway?”
The accusation hurt, at least in part because I couldn’t totally deny it. “I think I’ve been trying to do that as little as possible. I mean, acting a role isn’t technically lying, is it? Besides, telling the whole truth would be so much worse, and I’d be making people miserable, and–”
Nikki put up her hand to stop me. “I’m not accusing you. You do what you have to do. I’m not sure where you’re drawing the line.”
“Well, I’d rather let people draw the wrong conclusions than outright lie to them, if I can. My whole life is a lie right now, sort of, and I’m just trying to get by. But yeah, I can use your idea. The fact is that we’re close, and that’s what really matters, right?”
“Right. So, problem solved. Would you like some more tea?”
I looked at my cup in surprise. I had finished it while we were talking, so I handed it to Nikki and she went to get refills. I rehearsed explaining Vicky to Terry, and felt comfortable with the result; it was about as close to the truth as I could reasonably get.
Nikki came back and handed me my now-refilled cup. “OK, one problem solved. What else is bothering you?”
I laughed. “Nikki, you don’t think you’re going to make everything all right in one sitting, do you?”
“Well, you’re already in a better mood, so I think we’re making good progress. We don’t have to solve everything, Marsh. Just make you feel better. Here’s the thing. You’ve got friends. You’ve got people who care about you. Me, your roommates, your sister, your parents… Isn’t that what really matters?”
“Well… I mean it does kind of matter if you’re a boy or a girl.”
“But why does it matter? What did you like about being a boy that you can’t do now?”
“Uh… I don’t know exactly. I just liked it. It was comfortable”
“No reason you can’t like being a girl too, right? You just need to work at it. So tell me something else that is bothering you.”
She looked so confident, and so concerned, that I couldn’t help smiling and trying to play along. I was definitely feeling less angsty already. I knew I was upset. I just couldn’t quite feel all of it. It gave me a bit of confidence to bring up a subject that was really embarrassing, but to which I really wanted an answer.
“Well…” I started. “You remember that I told you I was asexual? That I didn’t find anybody sexually attractive?”
She nodded.
“Well, that’s not quite true anymore.”
“That’s great, Marsh! Who’s the lucky guy? Or girl, as it may be?”
I hesitated, trying to think of the best way to say it – which for me basically meant the most dramatic way. But I didn’t have any great ideas, so I just told her straight out, “Me, actually.”
“That’s a good attitude, but who are you finding attractive?”
“That’s what I mean. Um… I seem to be attracted to myself. Or at least, myself in skimpy clothing.”
She tilted her head. “I don’t think I’m following you.”
I looked away, embarrassed. “I mean, that I was looking at some of the girls here; you know the way they dress…”
“Like normal college girls?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, mostly not like… this. You know… short skirts and… revealing tops.”
She laughed. “Well, certainly not quite the way you do.”
I took a breath. “Anyway, I sort of imagined myself dressing… like that. And I got turned on by the idea.”
Nikki raised her eyebrows. “You got turned on by the idea of yourself dressing like a lot of the girls on campus?”
“Um… yeah.” I could feel my face getting hot. “So I tried to… um… pleasure myself. And… I failed.” At her astonished look, I added, “In my own bedroom! Not in front of anybody!”
“O… K… But this wasn’t the first time you tried, was it?”
I couldn’t look her in the eye, but I nodded. “I had sort of been telling myself that it wasn’t really my body, but when I decided I couldn’t change back, I thought it would be alright. All I managed to do was get myself even more turned on.”
“That… must have been… uncomfortable,” Nikki said. Her words were sympathetic, but she sounded amused, and I looked at her sharply. She was biting her lip, clearly trying not to laugh. When she saw me looking, though, she put her cup down, stood and came over to give me a hug.
“I’m sorry, Marsh. It’s really not all that funny. I know this is painful for you, especially since masturbating is so much more difficult for girls. Um… would you like me to teach you?”
I hadn’t thought that my face could turn any redder, but it certainly tried. Automatically, I opened my mouth to refuse, but forced myself to swallow my objection and nodded, instead.
“OK. First, you should know that girls tend to be a bit more open with things like this. I think you’re not really used to that, right?”
I nodded again.
“Now, probably the most important thing is your mood. You have to be relaxed and comfortable and sure that nobody is going to walk in on you. Do you have a lock on your door?” At my nod, she continued. “You also really need to get to know your body. If you were afraid to touch yourself, you’ve probably never really studied what you have down there. And as interested as guys are in the female anatomy, most don’t have the patience to study it that well.
“Now, I don’t want to embarrass you too much, so I’m going to send you home with an assignment. I want you to take some private time and just touch yourself. See what feels good. You can even treat it as a science experiment and take notes, if that makes you feel more comfortable, but the idea is to learn about your body and your new parts. You might even want to use a mirror to examine yourself down there. We’ll talk about it some more, OK? But don’t get too wrapped up in this. It’s a perfectly healthy way to enjoy yourself, but it’s going to take some time to learn how to do it well.”
>>“Well… I mean it does kind of matter if you’re a boy or a girl.”
I really liked the chapter up till that line. After that I disliked it intensly.
I seriously disagree with this line:
>>“You want to be a happy girl,” she insisted. “Say it, Marsha. You need to acknowledge this. Say that you want to be a happy girl.”
“Look, I need time. Accepting this isn’t that easy. I mean… I know I’m stuck. I know I’m… that I’m…”
“A girl. Say it.”
“It’s not that easy!”
“Sure it is.” She stood up and walked right up to me. “Say it. Say, “I. Am. A. Girl.”
Exasperated, I muttered, “I’m a girl.”
But it fits with Nikkis POV.
>> her robe around my near-naked body.
That line, in this chapter, seemed gratuitous.
>>Exasperated, I muttered, “I’m a girl.”
“I. Want. To. Be. A. Happy. Girl.”
“I… I can’t. I can’t say that. Please, Nikki.”
This seems upside down.
“I *am* a girl”… state of being, denial of self, impossible to say
“I want to be a happy girl” (after above sentence said) Mere emphasis on *happy*… easy to say. Who would say ” I am a girl, but I want to be an unhappy one”????
>>“But until you get more information, you can’t do anything about it, right?”
“Right.”
Wrong! Sigh.
I knew that Marsh was clueless. Nikki too???
>>I’ve seen you happy, Marsh. Not just tolerant.
Ummm… I don’t think that is what that words means. I know what you mean tho. “coping” perhaps? “Bearing up well” would be the actual term, but that is a bit archaic perhaps.
The former sentence is a grudging acknowledgement of reality. The latter includes the implication, “I want to be a girl,” which is what Marsh cannot say.
And yes, “tolerant” was an error, induced by writing the chapter at 3 am. I have attempted to correct it.
OK, I think I see what you are saying. Not the way I would read it. You are saying that Marsh basically translates:
“I am a girl”
to mean “I am stuck in a girls body”
and he translates
“I want to be a happy girl”
as meaning “I want to actually, permanently and psychologically be a girl.”
Not the way I would have reacted verbally, but I suppose it makes sense for him.
I have to say, Von, that you seem intent on getting Russ to write the story your way. Just go with the flow and enjoy it. This is a very well-written story and since I run a site with 6000+ TG stories on it, I’ve got some experience. 🙂
– Erin
And I have asked Russ if he wishes me to keep commenting and, so far, he has said yes. I would love it if someone would give such detailed comments on my books.
My comments are intended to reflect the way the story, the grammar, etc. strike me. I am neither G-d nor a G-dlike being such as an editor, publisher, or famous author, and my comments should be taken in that light.
So far dozens (or, at least a dozen) of my comments, edits, etc. have made their way into the actual text thus indicating, to me at least, that he appreciates them and finds them useful. If this were not the case, or if he wishes me to stop, I will. I, personally, like to pay an author that I appreciate back by commenting on, and reviewing, his work. I have written one of only three reviews on Webfictionguide.com for his work, and mine is the only lengthy one (and getting longer all the time).
So, his choice.
Why do people say ‘I have to say’? Obviously she didn’t ‘have to say’ it… she was completely free not to say it. She wanted to say it and she did.
And, Russ is perfectly free to delete any of my comments that he finds unhelpful or offensive, in addition to asking me to stop.
Erin, thank you for your support and compliment. I am glad that you are enjoying the story. I don’t have a lot of people commenting, and given the choice between somebody constantly challenging me and nobody saying anything at all, I’d prefer the former. Of course, I would love it if more people left comments from time to time, but at least it is nice to know that somebody is taking my work seriously enough to spend a lot of time thinking about and reacting to it. I know how the story is going to proceed, and Von is not likely to move me from the path I intend, although I am often able to find useful things in his comments.
“OK, let’s try something else. “Tell me why you’re not happy today and she put up a hand when I started to answer.
Messed up use of quotations. 🙂
Fixed. Thanks, Harri.
Comments etc sent by email.
I like this chapter a lot. It is an arduous process to get someone to admit to something they don’t want to admit to, and it will take time to chisel Marsh down to accepting she’s a girl. But I also understand she doesn’t want to be a girl and so doesn’t want to say “I want to be a happy girl” because to be fair, she wants to be a happy boy.
However, Nikki doesn’t have a degree in psychiatry I’m guessing.
I had to go over this one with a fine-tooth comb. On the initial read, it seemed like Nikki’s arguments were all over the map – as though she were trying to make multiple, mutually-exclusive points simultaneously. My eventually interpretation was that she’s manipulating Marsh, trying to make her more comfortable by whatever means necessary.
Except for the repeated use of “already thinking like a girl.” That implies an involuntary loss of self, a hard thing to hear. Just changing it to “already BETTER AT thinking like a girl” would make it an acquired skill, and vastly easier to hear.
Fun to watch Marsh slowly and painfully move past either/or logic to multiple values: Get comfortable AND keep an eye out for options. Like Einstein accepting quantum mechanics.
My eyebrows raised a bit when Marsh nodded to accept Nikki’s offer of “instructions”; a bit out of character – I would have thought to see a reflex refusal, then perhaps acceptance.
Arguing in the alternative, I think it is called.
“Your honor my client was not even in the state at the time. If he was in the state, he wasn’t in that city. If he was in the city he wasn’t at the scene of the crime. If he was there, he wasn’t the one to do the shooting. And if he did shoot him, he was insane at the time.”
🙂
Good ideas, Scott. I like the suggestion of the automatic impulse to refuse and have incorporated it. I have also removed the second mention of “starting to think like a girl.” The first one specified learning to think like one, and should work better.
Edited to add:
>>My eyebrows raised a bit when Marsh nodded to accept Nikki’s offer of “instructions”; a bit out of character – I would have thought to see a reflex refusal, then perhaps acceptance.
One of the problems I have (altho the more minor one) with the end of the chapter is that I find Marsh’s introduction of this subject fitting neither his girl nor his boy persona, nor any mixture I can think of. A boy would absolutely refuse to mention it as a problem. A girl would have it come out as part of some emotional screed. The mixture doesn’t seem to work in any way. So the whole conversation, thus introduced, doesn’t work for me… however much having the conversation might otherwise.
(Aside to the character) Nikki, worrying about what you’ll tell your roomates isn’t a relationship thing that a boy wouldn’t have thought about. It’s a BOY thing about getting caught in a lie and having the inconvenience of explaining afterwards. Marsh would be equally worried about a pet Baboon discovering he’d been holding out on bananas.
Oooh, oooh. I thought that too, or almost the same thing. Just didn’t want to say it because Russ is already mad at me for something like that.
Good catch Scott!!
Not a problem, Von. In fact, note that Marsh had already pointed out the same thing:
Ummm… I don’t see how what Marsh said, and what Scott said, are at all the same thing. (and they are both different from my version).
Scott? Do you see these as the same?
I see Marsh essentially agreeing with Nikki, but not noticing.
Edited to add:
Oh, and I didn’t think it was a problem! I thought it was a neat twist. A subtle, unnoticed blow. I would definitely keep it.
“Well… if I were having problems with my roommates, wouldn’t I be worried about that?”
“IF I were having problems…” Frankly, this sentence didn’t HAVE an obvious meaning, so it didn’t stick in my mind. Even re-reading, it’s hard to interpret – It doesn’t seem to relate to the issue of keeping Marsh’s story straight. But on reflection it must, because it has no other context.
It would never occur to me to call this a “problem” with the roommates, or the “relationship” thereof. It doesn’t really involve them, and they’re not the problem. The problem is the age-old one of a basically honest person who, for whatever reason, CANNOT tell the truth, and finds that inconvenient.
I might not (for completely legal reasons!) want to explain something in detail to an IRS agent, but you wouldn’t say I was having a problem with my relationship with him.
Hmmm. I see three possibilities to this issue:
1) The girl view: I don’t like lying to my roommates. It *feels* bad, and is a destruction of our relationship (even if they don’t find out, I end up feeling bad and distant). How can I do that to someone I am close to?
2) The boys view: I don’t like lying to my roommates. It is dangerous. If I get caught they will be ticked at me and I will get embarrassed.
3) The moral view (accessible to both sexes equally): I don’t like lying to my roommates. Lying, particularly to persons that should know the truth, is morally wrong and evil, and I don’t like doing that, it is destructive of my own character.
So I read Nicki as saying: Look at you Marsh, you took the girls view (1) of your relationship. And Marsh basically answering, No, boys care about their relationships too. IE, boys do (1) too. Which is true, but it is, as Nikki knew, their secondary or tertiary consideration…. just as girls do (2) as well… it is just not their prime motivation. So Marsh missed (and Scott pointed out) that he missed the very real excuse that boys do (2). Something like, “What? Boys are worried about getting caught lying too, everyone gets mad at them and it is embarrassing.”
Or, of course, he could have fallen back on the moral view. Not that I would expect him to do that.
(A personal example. Occasionally I go home and, after an evening where I am into a good book or a problem at work is going thru my head, I go to bed and my wife suddenly says something like ‘I feel like we are very distant from each other right now’. And my first thought is ‘oh, no’, and my second is ‘how can I fix this so she will stop saying this’. But I never end up thinking ‘she is right, I have been being very distant. I wonder how we can deepen our relationship.’ I am sure she is right, she knows these things and I don’t. But I don’t *worry* about them.
See http://john.kessel.tripod.com/id78.htm for another, much better, and very funny, example.)
(Note to Marsh: Read the list at: http://john.kessel.tripod.com/id349.htm before you talk to Nikki next time)
RE: http://john.kessel.tripod.com/id78.htm
Sorry for this not being about the story, but THANKS for that link. I’ve lived that scene a thousand times. If there was one change I could make in the way the universe works, it would be to convince all women, everywhere, that silence is not a question that men have to answer.
You are quite welcome. It is one of my favorite stories.
Since Russ is on a temporary hiatus, a question for Scott and the others (that Russ and I discussed some):
Given that the Time Travel because we signed up for an experiment hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis. And so that Marsh doesn’t actually know what is going on:
1) What guarantee does he have that this change is permanent in the other sense? That he won’t wake up tommmorrow and and find out that he is now five foot ten and obese?
2) What guarantee is there that whatever happened isn’t still happening to other people? Why should Marsh have been the last? And perhaps they might be changed even worse, waking up with MS or Downs?
Does he, do they, not have a bit of a moral obligation not only to work on ‘changing back’ but on preventing future changes? Really, the time travel hypothesis is one of the few that lead to this change being limited to ‘volunteers’. If the memories of ‘volunteering’ were also implanted….
Just a few thoughts for a Saturday morning between my own writing.
Russ is on hiatus?
OK, let’s look at what we have, and I’ll start with one of my infamous analogies. There’s a serial killer loose in NORTH AMERICA! You’re not sure where he is, what he looks like, or how he operates – and what little you know of any of those details may be wrong. But he may attack you, or anyone else, at any time. You have a moral imperative to stop him! How!? Answer is, you don’t. All you can do is be aware of the situation, keep your eyes and ears open, and await further developments. This equates to what the Strangers “know” about their (attacker? tormenter? benefactor?)
Actually, this speaks directly to The Elephant in the Room. Russ has, necessarily I think, been vague with any details at all about the experiment. He has not told us anything more than his characters know, and it’s a SCREAMINGLY OBVIOUS RED FLAG that none of them apparently paid any attention to, or remembers, the details of what was proposed to them.
Without reviewing 60+ plus chapters, all I recall them remembering is that it was “some experiment involving time travel.” The theories by the Strangers about random events having been manipulated, producing a (suspiciously large) number of genetic changes, is just extrapolation on their part.
Are there no science fiction readers on campus? My library contains the bulk of the available movies and SF on time travel, and not a few non-fiction and speculative works on the subject. NO ONE with any curiosity on the subject participated? It may be they were deliberately excluded, and therefore exempt from whatever allowed the participants to retain their memories. But I would have expected at least one of the Strangers to be clever enough to lock onto the fact that they were all stupid enough to participate blindly. Again as I recall, it was glossed over when brought up.
No. The behaviour of the characters doesn’t match human nature as I know it. The “experiment” doesn’t match time travel (any theory) as I know it. I do not believe the author to be inept. So all we really have left is some form of mental manipulation. And you know what? I don’t like that. The number of satisfying brainwashing/implanted memory stories I’ve read can be counted on the toes of my parrots left foot. The author can do ANYTHING, because anything can turn out to be a phantasm in the protagonist’s mind.
However, since I’m enjoying the story so far, I’ll continue to ignore this particular elephant, and (like the characters) await developments.
>>Russ is on hiatus?
You will notice some of my posts have ‘edited to add’ at the top. When he is on-line he usually fixes these (attaching them to the post above) fairly quickly. And of course there was no new post today or yesterday.
I quite agree with your ‘elephant’, altho I do think (and for me this is part of the Elephant, altho it is NOT when Nikki and Tina etc. fall into the same vagueness) that there is more, much more, they can do than just ‘wait and see’. If nothing else (and I see MUCH else), something more on the order of getting together with the strangers and putting together a ‘what does everybody’ remember paper.
I also am appalled (and know Russ disagrees with me violently here, and I expect you will as well Scott) that no adults have been brought into this. The evidence that something, and something quite serious (even if, as you say, time travel is quite nonsensical) has happened. Even if all that has happened is some kind of hypnosis, brainwashing, etc.
Now, as you say, that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying the story (altho it diminishes it quite a bit) and I, personally, have a theory that is neither time travel nor mental manipulation that I am still holding out for 🙂
>>OK, let’s look at what we have, and I’ll start with one of my infamous analogies. There’s a serial killer loose in NORTH AMERICA! You’re not sure where he is, what he looks like, or how he operates – and what little you know of any of those details may be wrong. But he may attack you, or anyone else, at any time. You have a moral imperative to stop him! How!? Answer is, you don’t. All you can do is be aware of the situation, keep your eyes and ears open, and await further developments. This equates to what the Strangers “know” about their (attacker? tormenter? benefactor?)
Quite incorrect, because you have left some facts out. You need to add (and how many books and movies have this theme!!) that you know he exsists and had killed, and others don’t. The authorities have laughed at you!
Quite frankly, the judgement of none of those books and movies is ‘wait and see’. It is *research* it is *try to find someone that will believe you* it is *panick and run around in circles and scream* it is even sometimes *get all depressed and tell the world that, since they won’t believe you they can go and get killed for all you care*. But it is not, ever *wait and see*.
Take V… which I confess I have only seen a bit of. Those who have found out that the aliens are really horrible reptiles (except those who are on our side) are not *waiting and seeing*. They are forming clandestine groups and meeting to (not play board games but) discuss what to do. They are arming themselves. I don’t know what else they are doing, I have only seen a few ads.
If you and I, Scott, were to have been changed, I can guarantee, just from what I have seen of your posts, that we would not be ‘waiting and seeing’. I, for one, would have roped in a dozen other men that I trust to help me figure out what is going on and what to do about it… doctors, lawyers, science fiction buffs. Forget the whole “I am too embarrassed to tell anyone” bit… I have people to save! What if the next person turns out to have a severe genetic defect and dies!! Or worse, marries my wife!!!
No. The passivity and cluelessness are the biggest drawback for me, not only of Marsh’s character but of the book. I would torture one of the administrators before I would ‘wait and see’. I would even (now this is a big leap for me) go on Oprah before I would wait and see. I would write a book!!
Umm.
Actually not. He may in fact no longer exist, at least in this timeline.
In order: “Wait and see” does not make for good fiction, so it’s not used as a plot. “Research”, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, or if it even exists, OFTEN consists of keeping your eyes and ears open. “Trying to find someone to believe you” is also likely to get you locked up. I’ve spent quite enough time trying to avoid the attention of mental health authorities, thank you. Secrecy, and protecting your own autonomy, must come first. “Panic” is not a response I understand, and is counter productive anyway. I understand it’s popular with some people; but it doesn’t make for a good story, either.
“Depression and just throwing it out there for the world to ignore” works for me, and I sometime wonder why it isn’t used more in fiction. It discharges your responsibility to do something for your fellow man.
Finally, quietly speaking to CAREFULLY selected experts is likely the most intelligent course of action. Unfortunately, none of the characters seem to have more than two brain cells to rub together.
>>>Finally, quietly speaking to CAREFULLY selected experts is likely the most intelligent course of action.
Of course, this includes ‘trying to get this authority to believe you’… which is why I would not begin with the expert, but with some trusted adults that I already know, and who know me, and who would be trustable to give me a hearing without locking me up.
This is not an action/adventure series, so the various varieties of ‘panic’ and ‘telling the wrong person who will then want to lock you up’ is something Russ doesn’t want to go to. In my first few chapters of this book (one of which I actually wrote, and the others of which exist only in my head) Marsh ends up having to avoid the attention of the NSA, as he doesn’t wish for he and his family to get locked up as lab specimens.
Much more ‘action/adventurish’… and I had great fun writing it 🙂
>>>Unfortunately, none of the characters seem to have more than two brain cells to rub together.
Oooooh. Russ gets really mad at me when I say something like that. I usually say ‘clueless’. ROTFL
>>>Actually not. He may in fact no longer exist, at least in this timeline.
He who? Oprah?
One of the administrators? Oh, I wouldn’t look for and torture any specific administrator. I would just torture one after another until I found someone that knew something or until I ran out of administrators. They are a dime a dozen, after all, easily replaced, and essentially useless.
Russ was overwhelmed by a two-day Thanksgiving, followed by Shabbos. Once I take care of my entries for a couple of on-line performance contests as well as some recordings I owe a couple of productions, I will be back, writing.
This has to be one of my favourite chapters 🙂
most don’t have the patience to study it that well. <– missing quote
Thanks for all your proof-reading, April! In this particular case, though, the missing quote is correct, since the next paragraph continues the quote. See rule 14 on this page.
No problem; just glad to help! Sorry for spamming your comment log! I guess I just find copy-editing to be a peculiarly relaxing activity. Normally, I edit for content as well, but I’m currently busy with editing Misfiled Dreams, and it’s got about three zillion pages of text to work through. Maybe when I’m all done with that. It does seem like you’re in good hands with von and scotts13, though.
Anyways, while I am grudgingly willing to accept that rule, I still think it looks goofy. I’ll bet if Mark Twain were here, he’d have some kind of witty comment to say about the whole thing. Alas!
I really enjoy the story, though, so far. Keep up the good work! 🙂