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This segue totally works

I finally finished rewriting my first novel. Again. For the 763 time.

As I finished each chapter, I’d print it out for Ava and she’d read and critique and help me make sure everything was heading off in the right direction. Often she’ll write things in the margin that piss me off and I’ll yell at her. Things like “dumb” or “ridiculous” when I’ve written something dumb or ridiculous I guess, but I thought was perfectly fine. Inevitably, she’ll be right and I’ll take out the sentence or whatever it is that offended her so. Still, my artistic sensibilities will be bruised.

This isn’t going to feel like a segue but it is. Hang in there with me for a minute.

Every year, Ava gets a flu shot. I don’t get them. I’m young(ish) and healthy (relatively) so I don’t get one. Ava has taken it as her personal mission to harangue me into getting the damn thing, but I refuse. Every sniffle, sneeze, or itch is proof to her that I now have the flu and will spend the next four to six weeks in physical agony all because I didn’t listen to her and get the flu shot. She is anticipating with an inordinate amount of glee her opportunity to say, “I told you so.”

Ava is sorta evil like that.

So, one day at Bank of No Forks, she’s reading my latest chapter and she Instant Messages me. “I miss George.”

“Who the hell is George?” I IM back. George Washington? George Clooney. I do miss George Clooney, but I suspect that’s not to whom she is referring.

“You’ve forgotten George already?”

Curious George? Giant George? George of the Jungle? “I guess. Who is George?”

“He died of influenza in ’07” she tells me.

It takes me a minute to realize that she’s quoting from my own manuscript. My main characters refer to a non-character in conversation  and mention his passing.

“I’ll bet he didn’t get his flu shot,” she IMs

“I suspect not.”

At this point George has become very influential in my life. Ava refers to him at least once a day as a cautionary tale.

I may go back and rewrite him dying from Bubonic plague or something. Do they still have vaccinations for Cholera? Smallpox is extinct right?

 

One Response to This segue totally works

  • Amylynn's Mom says:

    However, I did get my flu shot last Monday. As a health care worker it is expected that we get one. It set off a major fibromalgia episode, pain all through every part of my body. Amylynn, stick to your guns. There is a lot of fear and hype about getting the damn thing. Mother knows best!

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