INTEMPERANCE VI - Chapter 27, The Clock is Ticking
Added 2022-11-01 05:18:56 +0000 UTCCelia joins the tour as they travel along and she has some thoughts of her own. Please make the assumption that when Celia is talking to her parents at the beginning of the chapter, they are talking in Spanish even though the dialogue is written in English. This is a literary technique that keeps the non-Spanish speakers from not knowing what the hell anyone is saying. As always, let me know how I'm doing as we start to move into the final chapters of this book.
Comments
Think of the hoopla if the media discovered that Celia was pregnant! At some point, their sighs would zero in on Jake. And remember, Melissa Etheridge's partner announced her pregnancy by artificial insemination by David Crosby in Sept of 2000. That was a big story at the time. If Celia did get pregnant by Jake, Celia could use the artificial insemination excuse—of course, that wouldn't stop the speculation and dirt-digging...
wulf losee
2022-11-22 05:21:06 +0000 UTCRemember that Laura is a music snob who never listened to rock music until she met Jake? And even after, she is very selective about what she listens to. Turn the Page likely never crossed her radar, although Jake likely would have introduced her to the Night Moves album during their challenge and she likely would have enjoyed it (how can you not enjoy that album) but likely not enough to explore the Bob Seger Live album on her own.
Al Steiner
2022-11-05 07:01:57 +0000 UTCJust downloaded and enjoyed the chapter - but am a little surprised that Laura missed the Seger reference - as a sax player she certainly should have known about Alto Reed's solo???
ts569jj
2022-11-05 01:45:39 +0000 UTCYeah, the timing is awkward, but there is (sadly) no shortage of similar events ahead of the trio. For example, there is a deadly tornado in Minnesota a few days after Jake's concert in Minneapolis, but it seems like a bit of a reach to manufacture a connection between Celia and the area or a concert-goer. At the risk of sounding ghoulish, any number of later events could be capitalised on. Of course, there's no reason the resolution has to come so soon (or at all) or that natural disasters or personal tragedies must be involved. She could, like thousands of other people, simply decide to adopt a child. Anyway, I'm just spitballing. This is your story and your characters; you clearly don't need to rely on armchair authors like me to create amazing fiction.
Robert James
2022-11-02 16:23:44 +0000 UTCVery legitimate concerns. In truth, even I do not know how this is all going to work out. I try to let the characters dictate their own actions based on the characterizations I have built for them and I realize that Celia would definitely be feeling her biological clock ticking at this point, especially after visiting her parents. You did give me some interesting ideas here, although the floods and mudslides of 1999 are six months in the past at this point so it would be difficult for me to introduce that scenario because it was not mentioned at the time of occurrence. We'll all just have to see how this will work out in the end (or not work out).
Al Steiner
2022-11-02 10:57:52 +0000 UTCI love how you are slowly ramping up the tension in the Jake-Celia-Laura triad. A lot of readers likely expect her to ask Jake to impregnate her, but I honestly don't see that happening, at least not easily. Celia wants to be a mother, but I expect she'd want her offspring to be accepted as 'Celia Valdez's child' rather than be stigmatised for life as 'Jake Kingsley's bastard.' Celia's (intensely Catholic) family is obviously important to her, and I can't see them being terribly supportive of her having Jake's child out of wedlock. Given how worried Celia was about disappointing her father over a guitar, can you imagine how devasted she would be if she thought her mother were disappointed by an illegitimate grandchild? Moreover, I can't see how Jake, given his undeniably strong paternal instincts and sense of parental responsibility, would accept being any less involved in his and Celia's child's life than he is in Caydee's. Even if they somehow managed to keep his and Celia's relationship a secret (and with Tyler or someone like him eventually bound to let the cat out of the bag, THAT won't happen!), I can't imagine how Celia's de facto change in status within the triad might affect how Laura views her (and Jake). No, if Celia is to be a mother, external forces will force the threesome to end, or at least undergo major changes. Adoption might be Celia's best way forward. The Vargas Tragedy comes to mind as a potential plot device. In December 1999, flash floods and mudslides killed tens of thousands in and around Vargas, Venezuela, which is only about 300 km from Barquisimeto. As a national celebrity, Celia could be invited to perform a benefit, become moved by the plight of one of the tragedy's many orphans (perhaps one brought on-stage to encourage donations?), and end up adopting them. Just a thought.
Robert James
2022-11-01 23:06:03 +0000 UTC
