Welcome to my weekly "Wednesday Writing" post. These weekly exercises serve as motivation to ensure that I spend at least 30-60 minutes each week doing some creative writing. In the ideal week, I will write every day. But at the very least, I will do at least one writing segment which I will share here on my blog.

I intended the "wednesday writings" to be individual exercises or stories but since April, I have been continuing the same story thread and doing some general free writing using the same characters and continuing the plot. There are some definite continuity issues in the overall course of the story, but I have slowly come upon a cohesive plot (which will require significant editing of earlier editions to make them valid). You can find the entire story by clicking through the following chronological links:

1. Morning Machinations
2. Communication Between Friends
3. Daydreaming Decisions
4. Off to the Park
5. Driven
6. Coming Home
7. Revealing Photographs
8. Just a Dream?
9. At the Tower
10. Caught
11. Revelations
12. Lunchtime
13. The Watch
14. Visions
15. Escape
16. Evan (part 1)
17. Evan (part 2)
18. Evan (part 3)
19. Formulating a Plan
20. Testing the Boxes
21. Betrayal
22. Julie
23. Out of Time
24. A Problem of Paradoxes
25. Taking Charge
26. The Chase Begins
27. Friends Reunited
28. Freedom?
29. Unraveling the Plot
30. Motivation
31. Applying Pressure
32. Parallel Theories
33. The Enemy?

Enjoy.

---

Awkward silence hung in the room. Gabby leaned close over Dalton's for a moment then snapped into a sense of urgency.

"He's not breathing!"

She glanced quickly at the two men standing behind her, then felt his neck.

"He's got no pulse!"

In a flurry of instinct and necessity, Gabby quickly laid Dalton's body flat and began the motions of CPR. Midway through her first round of compressions, Gabby glanced up at the men. Evan noticed her glance and quickly looked away. Carlisle held her gaze a mix of anger and confusion mirrored in his eyes. She looked down again to the task at hand, her own mind wheeling with the accusations Carlisle hadn't yet voiced.

'What am I doing?', she thought. 'This man tried to kill me. He killed my best friend. He killed my mom.'

"Gabby. Gabrielle. Gabrielle. Just stop Gabrielle."

Carlisle's voice interrupted Gabby's thoughts. At first it felt distant and she didn't acknowledge his words. But slowly they sank in. She stopped pressing against Dalton's chest and looked up at Carlisle. She was suddenly aware of the warm trickle of tears on her cheeks.

"Let him go Gabrielle. After all that's happened, none of us will think any less of you for letting him die."

She looked back at Dalton. His face was placid and calm. After all the events of the past few days. After the pain. The hurt. The hate. She truly hated him like she'd never hated anyone before. And yet, the more she stared at his lifeless face, the more conflicted she felt. She'd always been taught to respect life. To give everyone a fair chance. To help people even if they were ungrateful or appeared undeserving. Her fear, hatred and anger were fighting against years of lessons taught her by her mother. Her mother. She missed her mother so much.

"I can't. I have to find a way to save him. It's what my mother would want."

As she mentioned her mother, Gabby had to fight down a new flood of tears. She turned back to Dalton and resumed CPR. Tears began to flow freely and before long she was sobbing uncontrollably. Her compressions against Dalton's chest grew more and more uneven. Finally, she brought her hand up to her face to wipe away the tears and then fell forward on Dalton's chest and cried.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. It gently rubbed her shoulders and down to the center of her back. The hand was strong and warm. Reassuring. She forced down her tears and let her emotions stabalize a bit more before sitting up and looking around.

Evan knelt on the floor beside her. His eyes were full of sadness. He opened his mouth to speak, but Gabby interrupted by whipping her arms around him and pulling him into a tight embrace. She buried her face in his shoulder and let the tears come again. He held her close and patted her back. He rocked back and forth softly, whispering some gentle words to her. Her mind was emotionally overwrought and she didn't understand what he said. But his voice was soothing. His closeness was a strength. She gritted her eyes together and tried to clear her thoughts. She forced her mind as blank as possible.

She focused on the blackness on the back of her eyelids. She felt the soft rocking of her body and the strong hands on her back. The warmth of Evan's body against hers. Her own body grew warm. The darkness in her mind started to lighten. She pictured her mother. The vision expanded and she recognized her home growing up. Her mom smiled at her from across the living room and opened her arms to welcome Gabby into a hug. A feeling of warmth spread over Gabby. She felt tingly. She realized again just how much she missed her mom. How much she loved her. How much she wanted her back.

Suddenly her mind whirled and filled with thoughts. She whipped her eyes opened and stared around her. Carlisle stood a few paces away, silently watching. She pulled back slightly and stared into Evan's soft eyes.

"We have to save him."

Carlisle scoffed but said nothing. Evan cocked his head to the side and gave a soft smile.

"I don't know if we can save him Gabby. I don't think there's anything more we can do."

Gabby stared back at his sympathetic eyes. She felt his love and concern. She met his gaze and opened her eyes wide with confidence.

"There is a way. I know what we need to do."

The Turn of the Screw is a rather famous and critically renowned novella in American literary history. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I started into the story. I specifically avoided the wealth of critical theory and interpretations out there. After finishing, I'm very curious to see the many possible discussions that have been spurred by this book.

The narrative style is simple and easily accessible. For modern readers, it may present itself a little daunting at first because of the high/antiquated language of the 19th century. But truly, it's not a difficult read. The language is very lovely. The descriptions are vibrant and intriguing. And the story is interesting.

The way the plot is laid out was somewhat interesting to me. It starts with a group of characters sitting around telling stories and one of them decides to read this account from a journal he's discovered/received. The rest of the story is then this journal.

That presentation in itself isn't terribly odd. What was intriguing to me was that the framing was simple and subtle but the overall purpose is ambiguous. We're told that the original storyteller (the man who has the journal) has a connection to the governess. The exact nature of his connection is left ambiguous to the extent that I sometimes wondered if he (the man) was a grown version of one of the children in the story (assuming a different name). Once I decided that wasn't the case, I was interested to see if he would have some sort of epilogue for what happened AFTER the final words of the journal. If he was close enough to the governess to now have her story, then it's somewhat strange that we have this exclusion of his own interpretation or of commentary after the fact.

The story of the governess and the children is interesting…eerie…somewhat chilling at times. It's not a shocking tale of horror and fear. But James does a great job of portraying the horror of emotion that the governess feels and that makes its way into the life around her. The interactions with the ghosts and the nature of the behavior of the children were strange and distanced. It was difficult for me to decide what was real and what was imagined. Many times I thought the governess was going insane. Other times I was certain she was on the right track. In many instances it felt like her leaps of logic were a little too far fetched and that she made too many wild assumptions. But it was interesting to see how things played out with her and with her interactions with her single confidant Mrs. Grose.

The ending left me stunned and with a whole set of new questions to think on. I enjoyed the story. It is definitely engaging. I really wanted more of a wrap up…more closure…more something after the current ending. Still, leaving this abrupt, shocking ending is certainly more powerful and long-lasting than if the author had stepped back and wrapped everything up in a nice neat bow.

Overall, this was a good story and I look forward to reading more by Henry James when I get the chance.


4 out of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Here's a smorgasbord of totally random videos, images, etc that I've run across over the past few weeks either sent to me by friends/family/etc or just stumbled on them elsewhere.

Enjoy.

(in no particular order)

Welcome to my weekly "Wednesday Writing" post. These weekly exercises serve as motivation to ensure that I spend at least 30-60 minutes each week doing some creative writing. In the ideal week, I will write every day. But at the very least, I will do at least one writing segment which I will share here on my blog.

I intended the "wednesday writings" to be individual exercises or stories but since April, I have been continuing the same story thread and doing some general free writing using the same characters and continuing the plot. There are some definite continuity issues in the overall course of the story, but I have slowly come upon a cohesive plot (which will require significant editing of earlier editions to make them valid). You can find the entire story by clicking through the following chronological links:

1. Morning Machinations
2. Communication Between Friends
3. Daydreaming Decisions
4. Off to the Park
5. Driven
6. Coming Home
7. Revealing Photographs
8. Just a Dream?
9. At the Tower
10. Caught
11. Revelations
12. Lunchtime
13. The Watch
14. Visions
15. Escape
16. Evan (part 1)
17. Evan (part 2)
18. Evan (part 3)
19. Formulating a Plan
20. Testing the Boxes
21. Betrayal
22. Julie
23. Out of Time
24. A Problem of Paradoxes
25. Taking Charge
26. The Chase Begins
27. Friends Reunited
28. Freedom?
29. Unraveling the Plot
30. Motivation
31. Applying Pressure
32. Parallel Theories

Well...this week has been hectic and a bit harried so this post doesn't really feel all that fulfilling to me. But, in order to keep the exercise going, here's this week's writing.

Enjoy.

---

Gabby and Evan followed Carlisle into the library. Gabby stumbled back in shock, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The large floor to ceiling windows at the far end of the room were shattered, shards of glass jutting precariously from what was left of the frames and the heavy red curtains wrapped around the wall and fluttering outside in the cold night air. All of the furniture in the room was smashed against the outer walls as though something had stood in the center of the room and given an immense push outward. The only thing left in the center of the room was Dalton, lying motionless on his back with his legs and arms bent at awkward angles and his back arched as though he were lying on something.

Carlisle raced over to the fireplace and pulled out the remains of a chair that had shattered inside the hearth and had caught fire. He pulled at a large oriental rug and threw it over the burning chair to stop the flames before it had a chance to do more damage. Meanwhile Gabby and Evan slowly walked towards the center of the room.

As she approached, Gabby noticed Dalton's chest rise and fall slightly. Whatever had happened, he was still alive. His face and arms were scratched. A trickle of blood rolled down his dirty cheek. As they reached him, Evan crouched down and felt for a pulse. Gabby noted that his entire skin had a grey tinge to it as though he were covered with a thin layer of ash or dirt. His lips were parted slightly and trembling. His lower lip looked parched, cracked and white around the edges. His hair was frazzled and looked singed near his temples.

"How is he?"

Gabby jumped slightly. She'd been so focused on Dalton that she hadn't heard Carlisle come to stand right behind her.

"He's unconscious but he's got a pulse and he's breathing. But his skin is hot. Real hot, like he's got a major fever. What happened here Carlisle?"

Evan stood and looked around the room as he stepped next to Gabby. She felt his arm brush against hers. Feeling him so close helped soothe her growing anxiety. She scanned the room as well wondering what had happened. She looked back to Carlisle expectantly.

"It seems that one or more of us came back and created a paradoxical event that caused a severe disruption around Mr. Dalton. The event seems to have been centered on Dalton and sent out a powerful pulse of energy."

Carlisle's voice trailed off as he spoke. He slowly paced around the room, pulling back the shattered furniture, tinkling the broken piano keys and uprighting fallen chairs. He turned back to face the group but stared beyond Gabby and Evan. Gabby followed his gaze and shuddered as she looked at Dalton lying behind her. Before she turned back, Carlisle suddenly raced across the room and squatted beside Dalton. Gabby gasped as he pushed Dalton onto his side, a little too forcefully. He shuffled around for a second and then slowly rose to his feet. When he turned around, he was staring at one of the time machine boxes. He raised his eyes and stared back at Gabby and Evan then stepped forward and held out the box.

"Was he lying on that?"

Gabby looked between Evan and Carlisle, waiting for his answer.

"He was. It was right in the center of his back. This box has been slightly modified. It's almost definitely been fixed by us and then used to come back and confront Dalton. There's a scorch mark on the ground. I don't see any of the other boxes, so my best guess is that perhaps we brought this box in contact with it's former self. Doing so could cause this sort of disruption. Although, I don't fully understand the purpose beyond just trying to subdue him and give us opportunity to escape. While I applaud that as a worthy goal, I'm not entirely sure what this suggests about our next course of action."

He looked over his shoulder at Dalton once more and then back to Evan and Gabby. For a moment no one spoke, then Gabby stepped over and knelt beside Dalton. She looked back at the men and then back at Dalton. With a feeling of disgust, she pulled him onto his back.

"First thing we should do, is make sure he's alright."

Dalton looked more horrible up close than he had from her standing position. Evan was right about the fever. He was burning up. She leaned over his chest to feel his breathing and watch his chest, like she'd been trained in her CPR classes.

"One of you go find some towels and get them wet with some cool water. Cool. Not cold."

Dalton's breath was rank against her cheek and she had to fight back the urge to jump away. Or the urge to grab something and just smother him. Instead, she tried to slide his body around into a more comfortable position as Evan left the room in search of towels and water.

"See if you can find me a pillow or something soft to prop his head."

As she straightened his arms and legs, Gabby noticed that Dalton's breathing started to grow more regular. She looked up at the door as Evan came back in with a couple of small towels which he handed to Gabby. She took them and lightly draped them over Dalton's forehead and forearms and then dabbed at his cheeks. Carlisle held out a small throw pillow to her.

"What are you doing Gabrielle?"

Before she could reply, Evan defended her.

"She's doing what she thinks is best. Dalton may have treated us poorly, but he still deserves the same compassion as anyone, doesn't he?"

Gabby looked up at the aggravated look on Carlisle's face. From the stern frown and the silence, Gabby could tell he disapproved. She wasn't even sure she approved, but she knew it was the right thing. No matter what he'd done or why, it wasn't her place to deal out his punishment. A small groan slipped softly from Dalton's lips. Everyone scooted close and looked expectantly at the man who'd just recently threatened each of their lives.

Dalton's eyes fluttered and his head turned softly to the side. A scratchy moan echoed out of his mouth followed by a pair of small coughs that shook his body. Gabby softly slid a wet towel across his cheek and pulled his head to face them. As she did, his eyes fluttered again. The muscles around his temples flexed and his eyelids became small slits as he strained to open them. After a few moments, his eyelids opened halfway and Gabby saw his eyes strain to focus on the group crouched beside him. A gravely croak erupted from his mouth, followed by a string of coughing that sent his body into convulsions.

Gabby placed one of her hands on his shoulder and slid the wet towel over his cheek with the other. After a moment, the coughing subsided and he lay still for a few moments, his glassy eyes pointed at the ceiling. Gabby leaned over and stared down at his face.

"Dalton? Mr. Dalton? Do you know where you are? Can you hear me?"

She stared down at him for a few seconds and then looked up at Evan and Carlisle. The two men were whispering something back and forth. Evan nodded his head slowly, concern mirrored on his face. Carlisle looked positively furious. When he noticed Gabby looking at him, he narrowed his eyes and glared back at her. The look on his face made Gabby's skin crawl. Strangely, she felt better looking back at Dalton rather than continuing to look at Carlisle.

Dalton's mouth opened and closed slowly. A croaking erupted from his mouth again but he was able to stop the coughs before they shook his body again. A moment later, he closed his eyes and began to speak. Each word took considerable effort. He gasped deeply between phrases. His muscles tensed and shook as he strained to speak.

"Please don't let me die. Take me to my wife. Let me see my girl."

And then, he was still.

Welcome to my weekly "Wednesday Writing" post. These weekly exercises serve as motivation to ensure that I spend at least 30-60 minutes each week doing some creative writing. In the ideal week, I will write every day. But at the very least, I will do at least one writing segment which I will share here on my blog.

I intended the "wednesday writings" to be individual exercises or stories but since April, I have been continuing the same story thread and doing some general free writing using the same characters and continuing the plot. There are some definite continuity issues in the overall course of the story, but I have slowly come upon a cohesive plot (which will require significant editing of earlier editions to make them valid). You can find the entire story by clicking through the following chronological links:

1. Morning Machinations
2. Communication Between Friends
3. Daydreaming Decisions
4. Off to the Park
5. Driven
6. Coming Home
7. Revealing Photographs
8. Just a Dream?
9. At the Tower
10. Caught
11. Revelations
12. Lunchtime
13. The Watch
14. Visions
15. Escape
16. Evan (part 1)
17. Evan (part 2)
18. Evan (part 3)
19. Formulating a Plan
20. Testing the Boxes
21. Betrayal
22. Julie
23. Out of Time
24. A Problem of Paradoxes
25. Taking Charge
26. The Chase Begins
27. Friends Reunited
28. Freedom?
29. Unraveling the Plot
30. Motivation
31. Applying Pressure

OK...today's bit left me a bit unsatisfied and I'm worried that the trajectory for next week will also leave me wanting something different. We'll see.

Enjoy.

---

Gabby continued sobbing while hunched over Julie. She was barely aware of Evan's hand on her back, patting lightly, trying to comfort her. After a few moments, she looked up to find both Evan and Carlisle staring at her intently. She wiped the tears off her cheeks and twisted into a sitting position, leaning against the wall with her knees drawn up to her chest. She cleared her throat and took a moment to find her voice.

"So what do we do now?"

She looked back and forth between Carlisle and Evan, waiting for an answer. Carlisle avoided her gaze. Evan looked at her sympathetically but said nothing.

"He's destroying our lives. Literally killing us with some self-justified form of manipulation. What do we do to stop him? How can we stop him? I mean. He has this all planned. He watched it play out bit by bit to determine how to shape events to fit his needs. How do we counteract that sort of planning. How do we bring back…"

She looked down at Julie and her voice broke into sobs again. She pounded her head against the wall behind her and let herself erupt into wailing sobs.

"Can't we just kill him? Stop him from doing any more harm? Then go back and stop him from doing what he's already done? I just want…I want him gone!"

She leaned her head against the wall and stared at the ceiling. Carlisle finally broke the silence.

"I don't know all the details beyond what's been shared with me recently. I trust that we would be able to do what he wants us to do. I trust that somehow we built this time machine. And based on its functionality and the adamant strength of Dalton's belief, I am certain that we would be able to modify the device in the manner he suggests. But."

He paused and waited for both Gabby and Evan to look at him.

"But the question is. Should we indeed do what he asks?"

"If we don't do what he suggests, we're as good as dead. If he's really watched all of this unfold, then he'll know when we are straying from the right path and surely he'll punish us. He'll probably kill me first since I don't have the technical knowledge. But then he'll turn on either you or Evan. Don't you see. He has Time truly on his side. If we stray from his plan, he can simply kill us off then turn back time and prod us along again, only with more motivation. Maybe he'll kill us off and then come back to us with a picture or video of our own death just to reiterate his absolute control over us."

The fear and urgency in Gabby's voice had lowered her speech to a frantic whisper. Her vision was hazy from tears and her breathing was haggard. She shook her head from side to side, trying to shake off the realities pouring over her. Her breath shuddered and she fought back the urge to scream.

"You're right. You're right. He does have absolute control."

Gabby scoffed. As she looked at Evan, she felt herself comforted by the calm tone of his voice, even if his words seemed fatalistic.

"He has us trapped with no way out. And yet. He must rely on us to accomplish his goal. Just as he holds our lives in the balance, so too do we control his future. It's true that he has Time on his side to continue to replay events over and over again until we succeed in saving his wife and daughter. Hah. Who knows. Who knows how many times he's already had to relive this same moment in time due to our attempts to stop him? For all we know he's already been hounding us for weeks…months…to complete this task. It may seem like Time is on his side, but truly Time is on our side. He is forced right now to live outside of Time while we exist wholly in this moment. His own Time continuum is warped and muddled. We are more secure in the folds of Time."

Evan paused and looked around. Gabby's mind whirled with confusion and she was sure her face was wrinkled with a confused look of doubt. She looked over to Carlisle to see if he understood what Evan was implying. Carlisle's tired features looked pensive, but still beyond understanding.

"Don't you see? We don't know the future. We only know the past in our direct memory. If we assume Dalton is being as ruthlessly persistent as he's shown himself to be, then we can also assume that he's gone back and forth through Time both as an Observer and a Participant again and again. Who knows how many times. Carlisle. You haven't yet used the device. Gabby. You've only used it a few times. At least one of those instances, you were nearly lost in the Machine. Stuck somewhere outside of Time.

"No matter how persistent. No matter how careful. Eventually, Dalton is going to make a mistake. And even if he doesn't, the mere strain of constantly pushing and pulling himself through Time will take its toll on his body. On his very soul."

"Alright. Sure. But we don't know when he's going to have problems and we don't know what those problems will be. We don't even know if any of this is true. We're just guessing. How does any of this help us?"

When no immediate answer came, Gabby stood, walked to the table and poured herself a glass of water. Just before the glass reached her lips, she turned and looked back at Julie then slowly sat down on a nearby chair and deliberately set the glass on the table. Her breaths began to grow frantic once again. Evan walked over and pulled her into a soft hug, gently stroking her hair.

"Wait. I've got it. I've got it."

Carlisle's sudden outburst made Gabby jump in spite of herself. Evan hugged her tightly in reassurance and Gabby noticed that as Carlisle continued, he dropped his voice almost to a whisper.

"OK. So. We know Dalton has walked through this bit of time at least once. Even if just as an observer. Evan. You told me that you can sometimes tell if someone is observing, right? You see some sort of disturbance in the force or something, right?"

Gabby felt Evan shift as he nodded in reply.

"Yeah, but I can't always see Observers. I can't see anything now. In this room. But that doesn't mean he's not here."

"Right. Right. That's alright. It's okay. We assume that he's watched us at least once. We don't know when he's present and how much he's seen and how much he hasn't. But we know that he's at least traced the trajectory of Time from the point of his family's deaths until some point in the future when we manipulate the Machine to allow him to save them."

"That's what he claims. Yes."

Evan relaxed his hold on Gabby and pulled a chair up beside her. He then wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her down to rest her head against his. Gabby could see the excitement in Carlisle's face. She wasn't sure why this was so exciting as he was just reiterating what Dalton was claiming.

"OK. So, what stops us from doing the same thing? What stops us from using the device to stop him?"

"Dalton. Dalton stops us. He'll always be there….always ready…he'll stop us. He's got us…"

Evan stroked Gabby's hair to calm her back down.

"She's right Carlisle. Whatever plans we make, Dalton will be aware of them and be right there to stop them. If we try to go back in Time, all he has to do is come back himself and head us off. Even if we are able to successfully Observe him, all that does is prove to us what we're already speculating. What he's already told us he's done."

"Ah, but there's the rub. In order for us to arrive at this moment in time, with all of the information we have, with Dalton's level of control and knowledge, he must have gone back and forth from past to future a number of times, modifying events to result in just this particular scenario. Each time a change was made, Dalton has created new Parallel Universes. We exist now in one of those universes. The one he believes will best lead to reuniting him with his family."

"Not this again."

"What?"

"Sorry. I know this is a new discussion to you. And to Gabby as well. But during our initial work, you rambled on about Parallel Universes so often that we had to put a ban on the conversation unless you could justify a special circumstance based on our work."

Carlisle's quizzical look became a small grin and then he shook his head.

"Well surely some of what I told you must have sunk in at some level. Can't you see how we can use this?"

"Frankly, I don't. I tuned out on your discussions when you talked about the Nazi time travelers who socially engineered Earth to their own purposes and that in some alternate universe a clone of myself is suffering under some dictatorial regime."

"But it's the very multiplicity of Time that provides a mean to save ourselves now."

Gabby had lifted her head and was watching Carlisle as he spoke. He had begun pacing the room and moving his hands and arms in quick gestures. With each word he seemed to grow more animated. She decided to take the bait.

"Alright. So Dalton's created new alternate realities. Without going into Nazi control, explain how this helps us."

"Not alternate reality. Parallel Universe, well, the phrasing doesn't really matter now. Just as Dalton folded the fabric of Time again and again to meet his needs, we too can work with that same fabric for our own needs. We will fold and unfold the fabric until we arrive at the situation most to our own advantage."

"But how do we do that without Dalton interfering?"

"Because we will widen our scope. Throw open the windows of Time and go beyond Dalton's narrow frame of reference. Think about it. If Dalton had Observed us and manipulated Time enough to arrive at a linear continuum where the Machine was modified and his wife and daughter could be saved, why would he need us? Why not simply Observe us, make note of our progress and our methods and then do away with us and make the modifications himself?

"Or, to provide him some benefit of the doubt. Why not learn how to modify the machine and then just make the changes himself and leave us alone to live our own lives? Why not leave us ignorant of his entire plan?"

"Because he's a psychopath?"

Carlisle chuckled. For a brief moment, he reminded Gabby a little of Dalton and the thought made her shudder. Had she simply traded one lunatic for another?

"Because he can't."

The surprised confidence in Evan's voice made Gabby look around at him then back at Carlisle. Carlisle smiled and nodded.

"Exactly. For whatever reason, our friend Dalton cannot go back and retrieve his wife and child himself. This means he is relying on us not only to modify the technology but also to directly aid him in his goal."

Carlisle grinned wide and nodded his head as if someone else had just proposed the idea and he was simply agreeing. Gabby tried to take in the concept. It made sense. But still, she shook her head.

"I still don't see how this helps us. It's just another way he's holding us hostage. What good does that do?"

"It means, that at some point, he has to rely on us wholly. To trust us. It is during this instant that we provide our own salvation."

"And how long will that take? How long before you and Evan modify the Machine to do what he wants it to do so he'll let you use it? Can it even be done?"

Gabby was on her feet now and pacing the opposite end of the room. She strolled to the corner and leaned back against the wall.

"We're just grasping at straws, aren't we? There's no way out."

Evan stood and looked at Gabby, sympathy painted on his face. Then Carlisle walked over and stood in front of her. He placed a hand on each shoulder and stared at her for nearly a full minute before speaking.

"There is always hope Gabby. And the more I think through this, the more I realize that we have greater hope than we realize. Dalton's reliance upon us provides our certain freedom. And even if he were to realize this danger, his overconfidence would lead him to dismiss it. Worse still, if he intends to follow through on his plans, there really isn't anything he can do about it."

Gabby brought her own hands up to cover Carlisle's hands and squeeze them gently.

"I'm sure you're well intentioned in all of this. And you've got to remember that I'm not a physicist or even a real scientist of any kind. I still don't see how this helps us."

She stared into Carlisle's calm grey eyes and saw his comforting smile grow from his eyes down through his entire face. He nodded then looked over his shoulder at Evan. Gabby followed his gaze. He looked back at her and shrugged, the same confusion mirrored in his face as was etched on hers.

Suddenly a huge booming sound erupted from somewhere else in the mansion. Gabby felt the walls shake around her and she threw her arm out to grab the table for support. Carlisle held her steady and turned back to face her, smiling.

"And now, you shall see what I mean."

He smiled and then walked over to the door. He nodded to Evan and Gabby before walking into the hall.

"I believe our freedom has just been assured."

As soon as he disappeared into the hall, Gabby hopped over to Evan who was already moving after Carlisle. She grabbed Evan's hand, nervous but more hopeful than she had been. And together they followed the lingering noises of chaos from down the hall.

I'd never read Dracula before so it made a fun Halloween treat. I tried to read it "fresh"…to shun what I "knew" from all the media and pop-culture references that are nearly impossible to avoid.

While it was difficult (impossible?) to fully forget all the things that culture has thrust on me, I did try to envision what this book would have been like if I'd read it 100+ years ago when it was originally published. While it shares many elements of the graphic novels and general horror writing of the time, it is certainly more "terrifying" than much of the other horror writing I've read from that era (which isn't saying a whole lot since I haven't read a ton). For the era, this novel seemed to me startlingly graphic in terms of describing the horrors encountered by the main characters. Compared to the gothic novels I've read, this is definitely more creepy. It reminded me a lot of the eerie, creepy horror of some of Poe's works.

The writing style was a little different than I imagined. It's set up as an epistolary novel with the narrative coming from multiple points of view as written after the fact in diaries, letters and even some newspaper clippings and commercial documents (ships logs, etc). Thus, we are somewhat distanced from the action of the story, but we also get it from a variety of perspectives and with multiple different voices. Some of the voices were very similar to one another and hard to distinguish. The most distinguishable was Van Helsing who was actually written with a very strong dialect that sometimes annoyed me.

I definitely applaud the attention to detail in this book. The descriptions of Dracula's castle and (later) the various homes/parks/streets in England were very vivid and easy to picture. Even more engaging were the details brought to life through the emotional turmoil of the characters. Reading the diary of Jonathan Harker, I could completely envision his growing terror throughout his stay at the castle. I also really liked the detail and interaction in the letters between Mina and Lucy.

There were a number of times where I wanted the story to "hurry up" but when I sat back and read the novel without the cultural baggage of a world that's grown up with the vampire/Dracula mythos, I felt myself very content to move along at a slower pace. Not only did I find myself enjoying the methodical unraveling of the mystery and the descriptions of the Undead, but I also found that the slower pacing created a greater sense of anxiety and apprehension.

I only had a couple of minor complaints that stayed with me after finishing the book.

First and foremost, I wanted much more interaction with Dracula. There was a ton of build up and a lot of "off stage" action implying what Dracula had done and what he was doing. We saw him with some regularity early on but in those instances he was still more of an enigma than a source of horror. There were only a very few scenes in which we actually came face-to-face with him as evil antagonist. Furthermore, each of these confrontations was usually over very quickly. Even the final confrontation was concluded quickly. I appreciate that the novel's form makes it impossible for us to see things from his point of view or actually observe his actions off-stage (unless perhaps he had left his own journal), but I would have appreciated more encounters or perhaps lengthier encounters. Instead, most of what we learn about his power and abilities come in short snippets followed by explanations from Van Helsing.

My second complaint had to do with Dr. Seward and Renfield. We have Deward's diary which provides information as to Renfield's strange behavior and his unusual outbursts. While I will grant that the chronology of things makes it difficult/impossible for Seward to piece together what's going on, it seems that there were a number of times where Seward should have sought more information but didn't (such as when Renfield escapes and runs to a certain home…even with his rantings and ravings and the strange workmen hauling boxes of dirt, Seward doesn't bother to investigate the owner of the home…I would think that it might be worthwhile to see if there was a particular reason why an escaped lunatic ran to a very particular home after escaping). In spit of Seward's education and experience, it seems that he let a number of threads fall away. Perhaps this is part of the nature of working in a sanitarium in the 1800s.

All in all, I really enjoyed finally reading this book. With it's huge influence on modern culture, I definitely recommend checking it out and getting to know this original and exciting work. Be prepared for a bit slower pace but if you put yourself in the mind of a reader in the early 1900s and try to distance yourself from the cultural baggage, I think you'll be in for a very creepy ride.


5 out of 5 stars

View all my reviews

My wife gave me this book knowing that it would be of particular interest to me for two reasons. The most obvious to most people would be my affinity for Shakespeare and the fact that this memoir follows the story and history of family members in Cawdor castle...the same location/family that figures in Shakespeare's Macbeth. That in itself makes this interesting enough. Even more fun to me is that (supposedly), I'm a distant descendant of an early Thane of Cawdor...or at least a member of the Cawdor family. My aunt/uncle supposedly traced us all the way. In my own records, I only have information back as far as the early 1700s in Northern Scotland 50-100 miles north of Cawdor.

Regardless of whether I'm a distant-distant-distant cousin of the author and the family, this was still a rather interesting memoir. It's well written and does a great job of combining contemporary family history with the history of generations of Thanes and others in the area.

The historical stories were very interesting. The narrative voice is humorous and makes the ancient tales seem vivid and very accessible.

The modern day story is sad and distressing at times. One of the reviewer quotes from the back cover identifies the author/writing as "corageously honest." I can agree. Life in her family was difficult. She tells about feeling a bit distant and separate from her fellow school mates and not being able to relate to them and their modern parties and ideas while she lived in a castle in an antiquated family system.

Her father Hugh became Thane in his mid 20s when her grandfather died. Through the course of the book, it's very apparent that Hugh wasn't ready to become Thane and didn't really know what to do with it. The estate suffered. But his family suffered even more. Hugh became a violent alcoholic and womanizer. He liked to put on a good show but at the same time he was almost a sociopath or, at the very least, not a big fan of dealing with people (aside from disposable women).

I don't want to sound like I'm judging Hugh too harshly and it was evident that the author didn't want to leave us with that perception either. At the end of the book, she outlines a variety of external influences that weighed heavily on the life/mind/psyche of her father...ranging from immense stress and pressure to mental and physical abuse. In the end, it's hard to justify his actions but the book does a great and thorough job of outlining the life of her father and her family.

I'm not a big reader of memoirs or biographies but I did enjoy this. The writing was fresh and clever. Even though this is a "titled" family living (literally) in a castle and on an estate, the stories and their lives were presented in such a way that I could empathize and relate to some of their struggles. I was left feeling close to the family and feeling sorrow at the way things turned out. Moreover, I was left curious for the future and to learn what's happened in the years since her brother became Thane and began working to restore the estate.


4 out of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Welcome to my weekly "Wednesday Writing" post. These weekly exercises serve as motivation to ensure that I spend at least 30-60 minutes each week doing some creative writing. In the ideal week, I will write every day. But at the very least, I will do at least one writing segment which I will share here on my blog.

I intended the "wednesday writings" to be individual exercises or stories but since April, I have been continuing the same story thread and doing some general free writing using the same characters and continuing the plot. There are some definite continuity issues in the overall course of the story, but I have slowly come upon a cohesive plot (which will require significant editing of earlier editions to make them valid). You can find the entire story by clicking through the following chronological links:

1. Morning Machinations
2. Communication Between Friends
3. Daydreaming Decisions
4. Off to the Park
5. Driven
6. Coming Home
7. Revealing Photographs
8. Just a Dream?
9. At the Tower
10. Caught
11. Revelations
12. Lunchtime
13. The Watch
14. Visions
15. Escape
16. Evan (part 1)
17. Evan (part 2)
18. Evan (part 3)
19. Formulating a Plan
20. Testing the Boxes
21. Betrayal
22. Julie
23. Out of Time
24. A Problem of Paradoxes
25. Taking Charge
26. The Chase Begins
27. Friends Reunited
28. Freedom?
29. Unraveling the Plot
30. Motivation

Dalton's turning out to be a bit crazier than even I thought he was. I'm still having a hard time feeling the reality of the reactions of the others. But still we roll on. We're definitely approaching the end...I'm just hoping it all comes together. :)

Enjoy.

---

For a few minutes the only sounds in the room were the occasional tinkling of ice as Dalton slowly drank a new glass of water and the muffled sobs as Gabby buried her head in her arms and cried on the table. Everyone mulled over Dalton's diatribe, trying to decide how to believe and what to do about it. Finally, Gabby sat back up, wiped her face with her hands and stared at Dalton.

He sat relaxed in his chair, slightly reclined, his eyes half closed. He held his glass halfway between the table and his mouth and swirled the water slowly causing the ice to clink softly against the glass. A sad smile hung on his face. His breathing was slow and deliberate. Generally he seemed unaware or unconcerned with anyone else in the room.

Gabby opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She looked to Evan standing beside her and again opened her mouth to speak, but still nothing came. She leaned head against his chest and closed her eyes. She felt him breathe deeply before he spoke.

"Alright. Assuming there is any truth to what you're saying, I'm still unclear as to what you intend us to do about any of this. If you have discovered a method to avoid paradoxes, why don't you simply go back and save your wife and daughter? Why this elaborate scheme to involve each of us and gain our support?"

Gabby raised her head and watched as Dalton took another long drink of his water then set the glass down and returned Evan's gaze.

"It's not as simple as all that. To a certain degree, I have been able to mitigate disruptive paradoxes. I have not been able to wholly alleviate their existence. In simple cases, I have created and worked through paradoxes with no visible repercussions. In more extreme situations, I have avoided temporal instabilities but have still seen ripples caused by the paradox. However, In some of my recent interactions, I have seen evidence that tampering with the timeline which led to the creation of the time machine itself is a task which has more unpredictable behavior."

He fell silent. Everyone stared expectantly, waiting for an explanation. When none came, they each thought about his suggestion. Gabby came up with an idea.

"You mean, like how the machine stopped working this past week. When you and Evan came back in time this last time, something you did interfered with the natural events that caused us to all get together and create the machine in the first place?"

"You always were quick to piece together details Gabrielle. Yes. That is precisely the kind of behavior I'm talking about. Which leads to a bigger risk."

He fell silent again as if waiting for someone to finish his explanation. Gabby thought she understood where he was going, but decided to let him continue his narration. She'd already helped him enough and she wanted to hear his own words in order to be more able to determine his motives. For a minute she was worried he wouldn't continue. But then, resignation filled his eyes and he went on.

"It was the death of my wife and daughter that led to the financial boon creating the environment in which we could freely and extensively conduct our experiments and create the time machine. Thus, my dilemma."

With a tone of finality, Dalton leaned forward in his chair, filled his water glass and took a long slow drink. Then he leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

"You see my problem?"

Gabby stared at the others in the room. Everyone had the same pensive, confused look on their face and was in turn staring at each of the others. Gabby was shocked when Julie was the one to respond.

"Yeah. I see your problem. You're a lunatic."

Everyone stared at Julie. Carlisle muttered something under his breath. Dalton chuckled and looked at her as if to respond, but she continued.

"No. I'm serious. You're absolutely crazy. All of you are."

She waved her hand in a sweeping gesture around the room.

"We're sitting here, four of us who are supposedly moderately sane. We're listening to the ravings of a madman and considering his threats and proposals as though he has any real power over us."

She put her palms flat on the table and leaned forward to glare at Dalton as she continued.

"You've supposedly killed Carlisle and Gabby. You've destroyed Evan's love and unborn child. You kept me locked up in a closet of a room for who knows how long. And now, you have the gaul to tell us we need to help you. That only by helping you can we each be safe and free."

She stood up again and looked from face to face.

"In case you haven't noticed. We are free right now. The one who should be nervous for his future is the psychopath sitting there casually sipping his water and talking about life and death like he's God. I say we call the police. Get him arrested for arson at Carlisle's house and for kidnapping me. Once he's locked up, he obviously can't do anything else."

Gabby interrupted.

"But what about the things he's already done….in our futures? What about killing Carlisle. And….and me?"

Julie paused and looked back at her friend. The fear in Gabby's eyes was thick and heavy.

"But he hasn't done them. Not in our future. Only in his own past. Don't you see? Just like the paradoxes he created and toyed around with. He's jumped forward and backwards so much he's distorted any real sense of time. Whatever he did in the future happened in a future that no longer exists. He killed Carlisle in a future based on Carlisle's house being safe and sound and Carlisle dying in his sleep. How's that supposed to happen now that his house has been blown up and burned down? And if the future of a week from now has changed, how can you worry about a future he claims to have destroyed more than a year from now?"

Gabby shook her head and shuddered, the worry still mirrored on her face. Julie stepped forward and put her hands on Gabby's shoulders.

"Don't listen to him Gabby. I'll admit I've seen some weird things. If you'd tried to convince me that there was such a thing as a time machine, I would've laughed you off and said you'd been studying too much and needed a break. But the things I've seen tonight have really happened. Or else this is all a dream and I'm about to wake up. But regardless of what's happened and what we've seen, I don't believe in a predestined fate that can't be avoided. Just because he claims to have done these things, doesn't mean they will actually happen."

She took a step back and looked at everyone in the room.

"No future is set in stone. Our future is determined by what we do right now. Or now. Or NOW. Every instant of our life is filled with choice. And no one can take that from us."

Julie paused to take in the emphasis of her own speech. With a deep breath she considered all she'd just said. The look on her face suggested her own doubts, but as she turned and looked at Dalton, a fire of surety raged in her eyes. She picked up a glass of water and downed it in a single breath then slammed the glass on the table so hard it cracked slightly and the candlestick centerpiece fell over and rolled onto the floor.

"And now, if you'll excuse me Mr. Dalton. I am going to call the police."

She nodded her head in emphasis and then turned to go. As she did, Dalton quickly stood, his chair tipping over and noisily crashing to the floor. He clapped his hands together in a slow, drawn out applause.

"Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! An excellent speech my dear. But surely you don't intend to leave before the climax?"

Julie paused in the door and looked at him, confused. He clapping grew softer as he walked slowly around the table. Gabby alternated looking from Dalton to Julie and back again. Julie staggered and thrust her hand out to grab the door for support. She shook her head as if to gain clarity then stared at Dalton. Gabby was confused at her friend's behavior. Surely Julie wasn't so overwhelmed by Dalton as to swagger at his rebuttal.

"Your logic holds sound, dear girl, if you look at Time as a linear establishment. But you see, Time is much more fluid than all that. I've been working at this for quite a little while. More than any of you can know. What I have told you will come to pass. It HAS come to pass. And only I can stop it."

As Dalton approached, Julie took a half step backwards, tripped over her own feet and slammed her back against the door. She stood, her eyes wide in fear as she looked at Dalton. He stopped moving and held up his hands, palms facing her.

"I have spent countless days and hours observing and planning. I have watched all of this. I was prepared for your heroic actions this evening in freeing our friend Evan and duly loaded blanks into the gun you provided him. I was prepared to be threatened, beaten and dragged to this room in handcuffs and as such I taped a handcuff key underneath the table where I knew I would be sitting. And now…"

He took another step forward. Julie's breathing grew heavy and more sporadic. Gabby slowly stepped to her feet then, as Julie coughed harshly and started to slide down the wall to sit on the floor, Gabby raced to her friend's side.

"I knew that you, the outsider to our little group, would attempt to use your role as outsider to throw doubt on my proposal and bring your own mundane sense of logic to it. And in preparation, I have killed you. But to ensure that everyone is aware of the veracity of my actions, I have killed you in a way that will be quite evident to all of you that I am in control."

Dalton took another step forward and placed his hand on Gabby's shoulder. Gabby hunched over Julie who was now coughing violently and doubling over in pain. Dalton looked around the room at each of them.

"Just as this outsider has attempted to poison our group. I have poisoned her. Knowing the glass from which she would drink after her heroic tirade, I coated it with a lethal and fast acting poison. I watched the alternate possibilities a number of times. The one in which she races for the phone and dials up the police. There were quite a few alternate scenarios that played out from that action. And while most of them resulted in my own personal safety and release unharmed, they all involved far too much delay. Even with Time on my side, you surely understand my desire to be as efficient as possible."

By now, Evan was kneeling at Gabby's side, supporting Julie's neck and trying to was off the frothing saliva escaping from her mouth. Gabby's body shook in fear and anger as she held Julie and felt her convulsing, saw her eyes transition from vivid and full of fear and anger, to a vacant, glassy look. Julie's coughs slowed and in a moment, her convulsions slowed to random twitching. Gabby felt fire well up through her skin. Her muscles tightened and her mind raced. She jumped to her feet and reeled on Dalton, slamming into him, pressing him back against the table and pounding on his chest with her clenched fists. He simply laughed.

"You cannot hurt me dear Gabrielle. I am beyond your pain. I have lived it again and again."

Gabby stopped punching at him and walked back over to Julie. She knelt beside her friend. Evan had closed Julie's eyes and was dabbing her face with a napkin. They both looked over as Dalton continued.

"All of these events can become nightmares of your past. I can and will remove this pain from you. All you must do, is to help me with my own pain."

He stood tall, brushed himself off and stepped back around to his chair. Taking a seat, he rested his elbows on the table and held his hands up fingertip to fingertip creating a pyramid on which he rested his chin.

"I need you to help me bring my wife and my daughter into our own time. Into their future."

Evan pushed himself to his feet and held out a hand to help Gabby up. She shook her head and leaned over to hug Julie and hide her sobs in Julie's shoulder. Evan stepped over to the table and looked at Dalton.

"You know that taking someone into the future is impossible."

"Impossible? No no no. Not impossible. Unpredictable and dangerous, yes, but not impossible. The largest risk is to go yourself into the future. Because of the way the machines are built, you are taken through time to occupy your own body. If you proceed to a future where your body is dead, or in some imminent danger, well, the results could be rather unfortunate."

"Exactly. That's what I meant. You can't bring them into the future beyond a point at which they're already dead. They would be dead on arrival. You wouldn't be resolving your pain. You would only be recreating it."

Dalton shook his head.

"Which is precisely why I need your help. Our machine does not bring the whole individual through Time. It leaves the initial body somewhere else and lets the soul, the spirit, the essence of the person enter their body at the new position in Time. I need you to figure out why this is. To determine the limitations and to work around them so we can bring my wife and daughter through."

Carlisle gave a single chuckle and shook his head.

"Even if we manage to bring them through wholly, there's no telling if they would survive. Your daughter would still be suffering from leukemia and require full therapy. I agree with Julie. There may not be any Fate or Destiny guiding our lives, but there would still be no guarantee that she would survive therapy any better now than she did then."

Evan continued.

"Carlisle's right. What would be the point to bring them through time only to risk the same pain you've already dealt with. Furthermore, simply attempting to bring them through time will disrupt the very continuum you described earlier. Specifically, the timeline that brought about the invention of the Time Machine. Without their death, there will be no money for investment and experiments. Even if you could minimize the paradox, there's no telling what the results would be. Even if they survive and your pain is removed, the Time Machine would surely cease to function and you wouldn't be able to follow through on your guarantee to go back and undo the damage you've done to each of us."

Dalton smiled and nodded.

"For that, you will just have to trust me when I say that I have seen the future and I know how to bring it about."

He picked up his glass of water, swirled it around so the ice cubes tinkled against the glass, then he raised it forward as if in a toast.

"To the future!"

No one spoke. They all just stared silently as he brought the glass to his lips and swallowed the water down. He threw the glass against the far wall so it shattered. Then, without a word, Dalton stood and walked out of the room.

 I saw the trailer for this movie and laughed at the dry sarcastic humor. It sounded like a cheesy premise but the writing (at least from the trailer) seemed humorous and so it motivated Lynette and I enough to make a trip to see it on a matinee.


I was a little worried that the plot would be paper thin, the characters would be lame and the extent of the humor would be from the clips in the preview.




Fortunately, I was wrong.

The plot was pretty thin, but as a cheesy teenage romantic comedy, I'm not expecting screenplay of the year or anything. Still, the concept was intriguing and some of the elements were quirky and unpredictable.

The characters were a lot of fun and deeper than I thought. The main character, Olive, was well portrayed and Emma Stone did a fabulous job bringing her to life.

But what I was most pleased with was the writing. There were tons and tons and tons of sarcastic one-liners that just made me chuckle. Olive's responses to everyone around here were just so perfectly priceless it was hard not to laugh. Her parents were equally zany with all sorts of crazy comments to add to the humor. I especially loved the "I'm adopted" scene.

Part of the movie suggested that this film is at least partially a homage to the classic John Hughes films of the ~80s. And they played up the tribute to the nines complete with a great soundtrack and iconic moments from classic Hughes movies.

In the end, this certainly isn't "film of the year" material. I personally feel like it has the potential to become an iconic teenage romance film. Unfortunately, even with the contemporary pop culture elements (internet, cell phones, texting, tweating, blogging, etc.), it would likely be better received by teens of the ~80s than those today. I could be wrong (and hope I am) but I fear that the target teenage audience of today will be less receptive to this wonderfully fun bubble gum film than the (maybe?) unintended audience of thirty-somethings who grew up loving Hughes's movies.

If you enjoy sugar-laced teenage romance (with a hint of a moral) or have any nostalgia for the fun loving youthful films of the 80s, then you should check this one out.


3.5 out of 5 stars