Fictional Character Connections

So we’re all stuck inside during this virus pandemic and people are losing their flipping minds. “I’m bored!” “I want to go out!” “I can’t stand being cooped up like this!” Meanwhile, I’m sitting here enjoying the hell out of the solitude. I’m not like these people. I'm different.

I’m a bookworm and an introvert by nature. I don’t go out every Friday night to bars and clubs with groups of chatting, laughing homo sapiens because I’ve never fit in to those circles. My Friday nights are spent in an armchair with a cup of steaming hot tea, a cat on my lap, and a book in my hands.

Books are my best friends. As a bullied kid in primary school, I would grab a snack and a book and immerse myself in Wonderland, Narnia, Middle Earth, etc. – and I’d be thrilled to meet up with all of the characters in those stories, where Samwise Gamgee, Lucy Pevensie, Melanie Wilkes, and the Cheshire Cat were equally happy to see me. In high school, while my classmates met each other for social lunches and assembled at the cafeteria tables with their tight little cliques, I’d sit on the floor by myself outside my next classroom with a sandwich and a book – usually one I’d read over and over again. I’d always be a bit startled when the bell rang because I’d be so deeply engaged.

Now that I’m an adult – old enough to be a grandmother, in fact – I don’t see why this should change. And it hasn’t. 

Well, to quote Newt Scamander, maybe just a smidge.

As an author myself, I now can whip up my own characters and worlds. I clap on my headphones, turn up the music soundtracks, and let my mind wander. I create new friends. I bring in some of the old ones to say hi. Sometimes I place my cronies from Narnia, Wonderland, Middle Earth, Camelot, and the Wizarding World into whole new situations, and happily post my creations on fanfiction sites to share with others like me. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with a scene in my head and quickly jot it down on my iPad. My imagination has no limits, and unlike real people, it welcomes me with open arms. I’ll never have to worry about saying something wrong, I’ll never have to endure awkward moments. I’m free.

That’s wrong, standard people say. That’s weird. See that girl over there? She never talks to anybody. She’s a snob. She’s always got her nose buried in a book, dreaming of unicorns and dragons and fantasy crap. She’ll never amount to anything. That kinda sounds like the song “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast, and we all know how that turned out! 

Screw that judgy guy in the background!

Never curb someone’s creativity. Never tell them to keep their feet on the ground. Their feet are exactly where they need to be. To my fellow book-reading introverts, hands up to Kindles and Nooks and leather-bound tomes with sweet-smelling pages. Be a Belle.

Happy reading,

'Becca