I was expecting her. Or, one might say, shocked her into a command performance.
Lola was right in front of my desk in an instant, or so it seemed to me. To them, the characters, they had to travel quite a long time before they became self-aware enough to break the shell of their own insecure world and journey to mine.
She looked pissed, her hands on her hips and dark eyes flashing fire. “Johnny’s SHOT”, she said dramatically, “He’s SHOT BAD.”
I looked up over my writing glasses at her. “I already know this”, I said. “So ?”
“YOU did it”, she accused me. “YOU made this happen !”
“Ehh....Matter of degree”, I told her. “Johnny had it in mind to go after that Townie. He sorta wrote that part himself. I just put down the words.”
She looked at me uncomprehendingly. “Serious ? Are you Serious ? Why would he want that, want to get shot ? That doesn’t make any sense !”
“Sure it does”, I replied, then backtracked some. “Maybe getting shot wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but when it comes to you, Johnny doesn’t quite think things through.”
“Comes to ME ?”, she asked, with a trace of presumed innocence, “What do I have to do with it ?”
“You have Everything to do with it”, I told her. As I expected, she didn’t quite understand what I was getting at. Most self-absorbed people usually don’t. “Lola, how long have you known Johnny ?”
Well, I had her there. Many characters have a real murky past, at best. If nobody had ever written a backstory for them, they really had nothing to recall....Like their family or childhoods. Most of their memory only started at the time they were first written about. “Umm...I don’t know....”, she said worriedly. “I....I should know....”
“Well, I can tell you”, I said hastily, not wanting her to freeze up from trying to access and process memories she didn’t have. That would have been ugly. “It been Years. And, in all that time, how often have you drove that boy nuts by breaking up with him and cheating on him ?”
Her face gained a reddish color that hadn’t been there before. “Not...Not that often. Can I help it if boys are attracted to me ? Pinky thinks she’s hot shit, but I look better than she does....”
“Lola, you not only attract boys, you go after them”, I told her. Using my fingers to tick off the times, I said, “There was Gord, even before I started writing about you. Then there’s Kurt, and then Tony....”
“Ok, Ok !”, she said, sounding agitated. “So I....Have a little fun...It’s exciting, that’s all. It doesn’t mean anything !”
“Excitement, huh ?”, I said ironically. “Was it exciting when you lured all those boys into getting attacked by Piff the Skull ? That worked out real well, didn’t it ? Was real exciting, wasn’t it....Until you got attacked yourself.”
“Do you gotta to bring that up ?”, she said crossly. “My tummy still hurts from that.”
“Point is, Lola, that you do things far worse to Johnny than I could ever dream up”, I told her. “Do you know that for all the time Johnny has existed, he has never cheated on YOU ? Not Once. And yet you go and play your breakup and makeup games, mess with his mind. You’re the one whom he idolizes, and yet you treat him like a Bum. Johnny’s probably the most decent character in the whole story...He never lies, is a straight-up guy, and knows what he wants outta life...Assured in everything, except when it comes to you....For you make him crazy.”
“Well...So what ?”, Lola said, “I make lots of boys crazy. I can’t help that. It’s just...How I’m written, I suppose.”
She still didn’t get it. “Say, weren’t you in another story, just recently ? By another writer, one who put you on Video ?”
“Um...Yeah...Guess I was”, Lola said, remembering.
“You cheated on Johnny there, too”, I said. “Dumped him for Luis.”
“I did ?”, she asked, then remembered. “Oh....Yeah, I did.”
“Bet that story was really exciting”, I commented. “Up until the time you and Luis were eaten by Zombies.”
Lola shuddered. “Ghastly things. I’m glad I had another story to come back to.”
“Johnny died there”, I went on. “You left him, and left him no choice.” I didn’t add that most everybody died or got eaten in that story anyway, even though it was a great one. “And, Johnny is gonna die here, too....Unless you save him.”
Lola was shocked. “You’d kill off Johnny ? Why would you do that ??”
“Not me”, I told her. “Don’t you get it ? Johnny takes chances for YOU, takes risks for YOU, to keep YOU impressed, to keep YOU excited, so you won’t leave him. Tell me, while you both were in Detroit, did you cheat around on him ?”
“Oh...No”, Lola shuddered. “It was far too nasty there, worse that here....Really bad, BAD people there....”
“And, did Johnny take unnecessary risks while he was in Detroit with you ?”, I persisted. “Ever ?”
“Um...No.”, Lola said. “Johnny said we had to be real careful there....He did good, we made a lot of money....But...”
“But it was too much, wasn’t it ?”, I asked the obvious, “And you convinced him to come back here, because YOU weren’t in control there. You couldn’t play your games on him, mess with his feelings....”
“NO !”, Lola said. “That’s not it at all....I was....Afraid....”
“Afraid you’d never control him again ?”, I said slyly. “Look, you get written like a Slut because that’s the kind of behavior you’ve made a pattern out of. But YOU can change that. Johnny’s been shot....But you can save him.”
“Me ? How can I save him ?”, Lola said. “I can’t save anybody....”
“Sure you can”, I told her. “By being there, everyday, for him. By giving him a reason to fight back and a reason to heal. To know he has you, and will always have you. Otherwise, he will give up, and....” I left the last part unsaid.
Lola was pensive. Maybe, I thought, she was beginning to understand.
“I...Uh, should be getting back”, Lola said finally. “Johnny needs me.”
“So you should”, I said. She turned and was gone in an instant, presumably back to the Third Level. I looked at the blank screen, of the story yet to be written. There was still hope yet for Lola, I thought. At least, the World she returned to had no Zombies.
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