Having re-read this chapter, what I find most enjoyable about it is its speed. The story rushes along, but not with superhero characters but – normal kids. Evylin continues in her role as the more experienced player, this might have to do with the fact that I was taught girls matured earlier than boys – meaning they became more sensible long before boys did. And also, because Evylin is older, and her dad is one of the programmers.
Disjointed thought: A girl who can dive – is erotic for me – a guy who can dive is pretty sexy, too. LOL interpret that however you wish. (I footnoted the divers in Acapulco)
I have always admired anyone who can dive off anything higher than five feet into water. I think it is because I’ve never been able to, or at least never trusted myself to do this. My son does it… Perhaps he needs a DNA test. LOL
Back to the chapter.
When it is time for them to both jump into the flooding water – Evylin’s dive, is simply described as a beautiful. In my mind I can see far more but refrained from describing it: (blush) Muscles tensing, body bending, twisting with perfect control and alignment. The problem with Evylin is, I can see her physically very clearly in my mind. Oddly enough, I cannot do this with George. GoD’s avatar is not as fixed in my mind as Evylin’s. Perhaps this has helped in the creation of their characters – I don’t know. When it came time for George to dive in, naturally I had him flapping like a flightless bird and hitting the water with a painful slap. (The most usual form of dive LOL)
This sense of being, or not being, in control is repeated throughout the chapter.
Evylin appears to be in complete control of the dangerous situation, and skillfully adds a splinter to George’s avatar, and he likewise to her – It is at this point that I choose to show Evylin is not as strong as she pretends, telling the reader how she bites her lip so hard to stop herself from yelping when George cuts into her hand that it bleeds.
As for the splinter in the hand, (preventing their bodies from regenerating completely and causing their hands to work like a torch in the dark) this whole idea was inspired. I have no idea where it came from. I realized earlier on in writing this section that it had a few weaknesses concerning light – I solved this by claiming the walls glowed, as if they had captured the light before freezing – (This I think is mentioned in an earlier chapter) – but I felt I was pushing it when I tried to find some other natural form of light beneath the flooding water. Also, I reckoned most people would die in such a situation. This train of thought must have led me to the idea of the splinter. Sometimes my mind works by itself, I find myself racing to keep up – generally typing without thinking. If you play an instrument, you might understand what I am trying to say. For example, there is no way I can remember all the notes I play in an evening, so I don’t try. I simply let my fingers do the work. Sometimes they do it so beautifully I get carried away by the music they make. And oh, the surprise when they are finished and someone claps. I didn’t even know they were there. (A physically crowded room, but my fingers and my ears had taken me somewhere else.)
Drift thought nr. two: Don’t you just hate it when just before you fall asleep this supposedly wonderful idea comes along? Nowadays, I know that if I don’t write it down immediately, it will be lost in the fog of my memory when I awake.
Back to the chapter! My childhood is with me in this chapter, too. Once again there is a cowboy and Indian scene – where Evylin joins both their cut hands and lets their blood mingle. This is something I did with my brother – we became Indian blood brothers. I wonder if children today have such fantasy-filled days or is it really just iPads and mobile phones, like everyone claims. This one insane moment is cross-referenced twice – once with Shakespeare and once with the Norse myths. I left the Indians out.
And finally, what else do I like about this chapter?
The way George is always questioning the information he has been given. He never seems to have enough of it for any scene to be able to feel truly comfortable. His uncertainty in everything could easily be misinterpreted as being cowardly, but it’s not. It shows simply how GoD’s mind works, and that he doesn’t accept given facts without questioning them. Evylin said the water would slow down… Okay… sounds nice but like he asks – how fast is it going?
Oh, and one last thing, at some point in the chapter Evylin tells him that the middle of the flood is the weakest and slowest – generally speaking, this might be wrong, as the river near my home sometimes floods and from the look of things, it certainly does not look the slowest or weakest part of the rush. But rising water in a labyrinth of tunnels and caves might just make the middle slower – as it struggles to find its true direction. The middle of all of this, is in my mind, therefore the safest place to be – please feel free to correct me.
