Tuesday, 5/4/10 - Voices

What have I done?

All I did was start writing and now I have voices that just won't leave me alone. Day and night they talk to me and tell me their stories.

Right now there is a Boy In Summer wanting me to tell you about him. He keeps tugging at me. "Is it time yet?"

Someone wants to tell about his mother. I have politely asked him to wait for Mother's Day but I don't think that they celebrate Mother's Day where he is.

Some even come back and complain that I haven't relayed all of the details of their story to you.

Tina complains that in Slipping I left out how Jon and Peter play roles that are the opposite of what you might expect. Jon joins her on the trapeze high up in the air in what might appear to be a wild and breathtaking environment. To Tina, Jon represents stability - their routines are rehearsed, over and over - nothing is left to chance - and no matter what mistakes she might make, Jon will always be there to catch her.

Peter is the exact opposite. Tina only meets him on the ground. This might seem safe and stable but Peter takes her breath away unlike any aerial acrobatics.

She wanted me to tell you this. She thought you might understand.

Evelyn, who you met in Alone, has similar complaints that I left things out. One that bothers her is that I mentioned fountainferns but never told you how they grow or what they look like.

Fountainfern look a lot like bamboo: very tall and slender with multiple stalks growing close together. Leaves are long and slender and grow on whip-like branches resembling weeping willows. Branches grow in small clusters only at the tops of the stalks.

What is remarkable about the fountainfern is the way grows by sending out runners underground. A pod forms at the end of each runner and, over time, it grows quite large. Runners typically travel fifty to one hundred feet from the host plant before producing a pod.

The pod grows on top of the ground in odd shapes and can easily be twenty feet long and ten feet wide. Starting out a soft, fleshy green, pods ripen, darken and harden and become almost rock-like in texture and appearance.

What comes next is where fountainferns get their name.

Once ripened, the fountainfern pod begins to creak and crack. With a final gunshot splitting, the pod breaks open and the stalks fountain up twenty to thirty feet in an instant. When they reach their full height, the leaves cascade down in what appears to be a fountain of green.

Most of the characters just want to talk but Evelyn is faced with a tough decision and really wants me to get your thoughts on her situation. She wants to know what you would do. On her behalf, I ask you, What would you do if you were her?

There are many more voices but hopefully this will satisfy some of them. There are over 100 posts on this blog and I intend to continue to tell their tales until everyone falls silent, which, judging from the cacophony in my head, will not be for a very long time.