A Visitor

Characters are supposed to stay in those nice little boxes we create for them. At the very least, they ought to stay in their books. They aren’t supposed to be able to escape Fantasia, but somehow one did. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. If there was ever a character of mine who could do such a thing, it would be Sara.

Last week, I sat down with a couple of other protagonists and we had a discussion, but Sara wasn’t very happy when I left, but I pushed that aside. That is, until Sara showed up in my office to talk to me.

”We’ve got to talk,” she said.

I pushed back my chair and looked at her. It isn’t often that a figment of my imagination shows up like that.

”Talk away,” I said.

”I want to know about you trying to kill me off.”

I didn’t try to kill you off,” I said. “Not exactly.”

”But you said…”

”Let me explain,” I said. “I didn’t know you very well when I was considering that. I was still looking at the story as a love story between Ellen and Mark. I figured that if they both lost you that it would draw them closer together.”

”But I would’ve been dead.”

”True, but like I said, I didn’t know you. There was another girl who ended up dead. I don’t know much about her at all other than she was in the accident. How do you think she likes getting killed off.”

”That’s different.”

”Perhaps,” I said, “But I want you to understand that it doesn’t come easy for me to make those decisions. I don’t like killing off minor characters and it’s even harder with major characters.”

When Sara left, I think she was a little more at peace. We’re friends again. That’s good, since she and I have a long way to go together.