by Berinn Rae
Rob gave his friend a faint smile. “That is something to consider, I suppose.”
The conversation turned to other matters. Finally, Kenn said, “I better stop at the office before heading home. Thanks for listening.”
As they left the café, Rob said, “Remember, Nan has lots of friends. You’ve got a standing invitation for dinner.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind,” Kenn said.
Chapter 5
“I don’t even know why I continue to argue with two fictional characters,” JJ said, her hand resting on the doorknob. After her second cup of coffee, the pounding in her head quit and she found she was able to stand and walk. She was ready to retire to her bedroom for the night.
“Wow, ‘fictional characters’ make us sound so … well … unreal.” Blake pinched himself in the forearm to show his creator he was as real as anything else in the room. “Ouch. See, that hurt me. I’m real.”
“But you’re not real. You’re just personalities I created. You are nothing more than two-dimensional characters in a love story … the love story I created. You are not real.”
JJ could hear Alex sniffle. She glanced over at her heroine whose eyes were tearing up. The writer fought back her first instinct of apologizing. She fought back that reflex of comforting her. She’s not real. She’s not real.
“So that could only mean one thing. I’m talking to myself right now.” She threw her hands into the air.
JJ turned the knob, but paused for a brief moment before opening it. “In the morning, I’ll realize that this was all just a dream.” Or a really bad hallucination. “I’ll walk back in here tomorrow and it’ll be empty once again. My study will be quiet and serene … Good–bye.” JJ closed the door behind her and headed straight for bed.
A quick glance at the alarm clock on her nightstand told her it was midnight. Of course, the witching hour. All sorts of strange things are said to happen at midnight — fictional characters coming to life, for instance.
She pulled the blanket close around her neck, cocooning herself under the covers, feeling its comfort and warmth. She thought this is what a caterpillar must feel as he sleeps snugly inside his chrysalis.
She smiled, but knew full well the fundamental difference between her and the caterpillar. When the caterpillar awakes, he’ll be a beautiful butterfly. When I wake up tomorrow morning, I’ll be the same old me — minus the two fictional characters in the den, she thought.
She sighed and attempted to drift off. That whole episode was nothing more than a bad dream … a hallucination brought on by too much work Maybe my sister is right. Maybe I do work too much, and could it really be that I’m trying to live through my characters, as Nan claims? When they become real enough to me that I imagine I’m interacting with them in my study, maybe it is time to ease up just a bit.
Now, JJ’s mind went full speed ahead like a car careening carelessly out of control. Her thoughts naturally drifted toward the recent past. She couldn’t help but reflect on the last two years. It hadn’t been easy for her. But she was determined to continue with her work … to carry on with her career. That’s what Geoff would have wanted.
Her husband had died two years before. Valentine’s Day. Killed when the car in which he was a passenger hit another vehicle. The same day the publisher released her first novel. After all the encouragement Geoff 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 weren’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.
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
Bleary-eyed, JJ put a robe and her fluffy Peter Rabbit slippers on and padded to her study. It was 5 A.M.; she was already running behind her usual 4 A.M. 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 JJ walked in. Blake, totally absorbed in reading a book from her shelves, didn’t flinch.
“I thought we settled things yesterday. What gives? Why are you back?”
“What do you mean ‘back’? We never left,” Alex said while Blake nodded in agreement.
“Why not? I believe your work here is done.”
Alex shook her head as she settled back into the chair. “Apparently not. I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon.”
JJ pulled Alex out of her desk chair, sat down, and opened her manuscript on the computer. “You mean I’m stuck with you guys 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?”
JJ sighed. Her neck muscles tightened. Too early for a tension headache, she thought. 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. It hadn’t been easy, but she had grown accustomed to her single existence.
She recalled that heartbreaking first year of trying to come to grips with Geoff’s death. 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 he wasn’t around anymore. The void in her heart couldn’t be filled.
JJ shuddered, not wanting to revisit that pain or the deep, dark depression that had consumed her in those early days. 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.
Now, she had two unwanted — hell, unbelievable — guests in her house who claimed 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. “It’s obvious you two were made for each other. Even in that all-too-short meeting you had.”
“That again? Please, aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves? 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. “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?” JJ questioned.
Alex smiled. “You tell me. You created him!”
“I’m having a problem dealing with this. Up until yesterday the two of you were only alive in my imagination. You weren’t physically living in my study. No offense.”
“None taken.” The couple looked at each other to ensure they were in agreement on this one. Apparently they were.
“But now, suddenly you literally pop up out of nowhere claiming to be characters from my book. You can see how this would rock a person’s view of the world. Fictional characters are just that … fictional … in a person’s mind. They just don’t spring to life one day on a whim.”
“You said we ‘claim’ to be characters from your book! You don’t believe us?” Blake waved his arms, his hair dancing around his head. He certainly fit the bill of the hero, JJ thought, staring in amazement at the similarity. “Who do you think we are if we aren’t from your — and our — love story? Where do you think we came from?”
JJ didn’t need this. It was too early in the morning and, hell, she hadn’t
even had her first cup of coffee yet. How many more times did she have to try to process this? Perhaps she should visit a psychiatrist? She rubbed her temples.
“Coffee!” Blake suddenly and loudly announced as if it were the start of a NASCAR race. “Coffee. That’s what’s missing from your morning. Let me go down and make us — uhm … you … your morning coffee. You’ll feel 100 percent better once you get that ole java flowing through your system. I know I’ll feel better when I get some coffee!”
She waved her hand, motioning him to go. He bounced out.
“I’m confused,” she confessed looking at Alex, who was now sitting on the loveseat. “If you two didn’t leave, what did you do last night when I left?”
“Stayed in here, read some books, surfed the net, took turns sleeping on the couch.”
The author pursed her lips tightly. “I guess I just assumed that once I left, you would … well, go away. I assumed you were the result of my thoughts. Like a dream or a hallucination triggered by a lack of sleep and overwork.”
“If it’s any consolation,” her heroine said, “I thought once you left the room, Blake and I would do just that — leave the room, we would just float into our own world again. I wasn’t sure how these things work. While it was a great thought to come and help you, I really had no idea that getting back to our world was going to be so tough.
“And I know you have troubles of your own, without us just showing up uninvited, but I’m a little worried I may never get back to my world. I know we really haven’t investigated all avenues yet. But quite frankly, we made this journey on a whim. We really didn’t think it through. At some level I even doubted popping into your world would work. But it did. And here we are.”
Pausing for a beat, she bit her lip and added, “I’m not sure about anything at the moment.”
JJ gazed at the forlorn Alex. Yes, that was how she had envisioned her in the scene when Blake told her they could never be together … they weren’t right for each other. JJ actually felt guilty for creating that emotion in her heroine.
“I hope you don’t think I’m saying this because you literally gave me my world, but I really love it there. It’s not that I don’t love you, but …”
JJ fully believed Alex was about to cry. The scene really touched her.
“We’ll get you back,” she promised her. “There must be a set of rules that could provide us with guidelines of what to do. In the meantime, we’ll try to make you as comfortable and as at home here as we can. Okay?”
Alex nodded her head meekly, like a little kid who had just been consoled over the loss of a toy.
“Coffee for all!” Blake burst into the room, carrying a tray of three cups, milk, and sugar. His hair flipped outrageously from side to side as he jauntily stepped into the office. “I found some biscuits — oops you guys call them cookies — for breakfast. But the food situation is looking a little pitiful down there, Ms. Sprightly. I know you don’t want to hear this, but we do need to eat. We may be fictional characters, but it appears we’re equipped with some very real needs. And one of them is food!”
JJ looked over at Alex who nodded her agreement. “I’m starved.”
“Okay. Let me get dressed and then I’ll run to the cafe to get a quick breakfast. With everything going on, I didn’t realize how hungry I was too.”
She grabbed her coffee as she left the room. “I won’t be long. Later I’ll go grocery shopping. Make yourselves at home.” She most assuredly didn’t understand it, but for the moment, the couple seemed very real.
• • •
Blake made sure JJ was out of earshot. “That’s awfully nice of her. I’m really not sure, love, how we’re getting back. I’m a bit worried,” he said.
“I am too, sweetheart. But I think that our returning has something to do with connecting JJ with the love of her life. I’ve thought about this. I think we were sent on a mission. Once we fulfill that mission, we’ll return to our own world.”
Alex paused trying to read her partner’s face. But she could read no hint of agreement in it. “Okay, so maybe it’s not the most brilliant theory ever created.”
“It’s not a bad theory. You still have to fill a few of those gaping holes: Like who exactly is the love of JJ’s life and how are we going to recognize him? And this Kenn Cooper person — how do we know he’s The One?”
“Again, I didn’t say it was a perfect theory. Any better ideas, Einstein?”
“Not yet. But if we can’t convince her that Kennedy Cooper is her true love — and the effort is not getting us very far yet, we may very well be here forever.” He took a gulp of coffee and tossed a cookie in his mouth. “Oreos,” he said, chewing enthusiastically, “my favorite.”
Alex gazed at him a moment, lost in his eyes.
Rrrring! Rrrring! The phone startled her out of her romantic interlude. Alex looked at her partner who shook his head no. “What could happen?” Not waiting for an answer, she grabbed the receiver. Blake appeared nervous and grabbed the book he had been reading earlier.
Alex summoned her best professional voice. “Good morning, JJ Sprightly’s office. May I help you? … No, I’m afraid she’s not here at the moment; she’s out running a few errands. May I take a message? … And with whom am I speaking? … Oh, I’m sorry, Nan. JJ speaks of you often …” Nan was JJ’s older sister who felt obligated to call several times a week, especially when she thought she had found her sister the perfect man. Nan called so often she needed her own hot line.
“Who am I?” Alex flashed a panicked look at Blake, but it was useless. He had buried himself in the book — JJ’s first published history book to be exact, The Historical Roots of Conspiracy Theories: America’s Counter-History. “I’m … I’m … JJ’s new personal administrative assistant. Yes, that’s exactly who I am.”
Apparently this last revelation proved awesome enough to bring Blake back from his historical journey. He peered quizzically out from behind the book. If Alex didn’t know better she would think he was laughing at her.
“Uh … when did she hire me? Hmmm … gosh … just last week. I’m surprised your sister never mentioned it to you … ”
Blake looked up from the book, knit his eyebrows in the what-are-you-talking-about look she could read so well. Her partner realized the absurdity of her predicament. Suppressing laughter, he sprinted out of the study, slamming the door behind him. Alex could still clearly hear his laughter.
“Sure, Nan, I’d be happy to take a message. Dinner Saturday night at your place?” Alex’s face lit up. “Really? Oh, no I don’t know him. He’s a history professor, you say? Well, well, what a coincidence.” If Alex’s mission in this world were to find the novelist a man — and not just any man, but a specific gentleman — she just hit the jackpot.
“You know, Nan,” Alex said, trying to keep her voice as professional sounding as possible, “I’m looking over JJ’s schedule now.” Alex stared at the blank computer screen. “She has nothing planned. Let me just pencil it in here. If anything changes and she can’t make it, she can call you.”
Hanging up the phone, Alex began pondering how to get JJ to that dinner party. A dinner party she instinctively knew the writer would resist — especially if she had an inkling who was on the guest list.
Chapter 7
“And that’s the plan,” she told Blake after finding him in the living room channel surfing. Blake just shook his head. “Think it’ll work?”
“Think we have any other options at this point?” On cue, JJ returned with breakfast and walked in hearing Blake’s question. Steven Spielberg couldn’t have timed that entrance any better.
“Any other option for what?”
“Well, it’s nothing … n-n-nothing at all,” Blake stammered, running his fingers through his hair and darting his eyes toward his partner.
“Sounds suspiciously like something to me. I know you better than you think … so you better come clean. Am I in trouble? You have that look like you two were plotting
something for me.”
Alex quickly jumped in. “It’s nothing we really wanted to bother you with, but do you think we could have a better place — well, actually some place to sleep tonight? It’s not that I’m not grateful … it’s … ”
“Sure. I’ll get the second bedroom ready for you.” The three of them set up the TV trays and opened the Styrofoam food boxes as they talked. “The Frank’s Hot Sauce is in the fridge,” JJ said, not appearing to speak to anyone in particular. Blake immediately jumped up and headed for the refrigerator. “I ordered your favorite breakfast,” she continued, turning to Alex. “French toast and two fluffy scrambled eggs with extra sharp cheddar cheese.”
As an excited Blake entered the living room shaking the hot sauce, JJ said to him, “And you have nothing but your favorite, grape jelly.”
“How’d you — ?” Alex began and then asked, “Is there anything you don’t know about us?”
Her creator seriously thought about it. “Probably not.”
“What if our personalities begin to change ever so slightly why we’re here?” Blake suggested. Would you know? And would you have control over that?”
Taking a bite of the breakfast sandwich, raising her eyebrows and tilting her head in thought, JJ finally said, “I don’t know. That’s a good question. You have to understand that I’ve never really been in this situation before. You guys are the first to make the jump.” And with any luck, the last!
She paused. “Now I have a question for you. How did you know that I ran into that professor guy … what’s his name?”
“Prof. Kennedy King Cooper,” Blake answered. “There’s an easy answer to that, too. You see, we are creations of your mind and that gives us certain privileges. Basically, as long as you’re thinking about us, we have access to just about all of your thoughts … and … well …” His discomfort was obvious. “Well, Alex …you take it from here.”
