Jazz Girl wrote:I definitely think you are giving Edward way too much credit there.
Yes, that's true. There's so many ways in which I really get Edward - his thoughts, emotions, and actions - that I fall into the arrogance of thinking that I know him better sometimes than he is written (the ultimate truth, as set by SM.) The Edward that I know in my head wouldn't have left immediately, but would have made sure Bella was okay. SM's Edward did, probably because he was too torn up to do otherwise - the most obtuse, foolish, arrogant, condescending, unnecessary.... (Envision me enraged into silence here - my equivalent of saying that I'd like to throw him off a cliff.) She's right, of course.
Jazz Girl wrote:I agree with you that he ran. I think he ran like Forest Gump. For weeks.
Oh, now that's funny. I hadn't even considered the connection between the two. Two individuals so completely different in so many ways, and yet both united in the lifelong love of a woman they endeavor to be worthy of.
I have a startling image in my head of Edward (as played by Robert Pattinson, of course) standing on the rocks of a beach in eastern Canada, staring out at a deserted, stormy, angry Atlantic that is in perfect keeping with his mood. It's freezing, but the weak autumn sunlight shines - he's sparkling, and his usual Abercrombie and Fitch outfit is definitely frayed and missing it's shoes. He's deciding whether to turn south and west and go to Ithaca, or turn around and run north and west across Canada again. He calls in to the family so they don't worry, and of course they try to talk him into heading home to Ithaca, Esme especially. It only makes him feel worse, and he cuts the call short. He spends an hour more on the beach, completely still and thinking, until he can't stand it anymore, and he turns around to run north and west.
Jazz Girl wrote:When he stopped and he still couldn't outrun his heartache, he started tracking, figuring that that, in it's own way, was still protecting Bella. And, then when he lost Victoria, that's when he would let the utter despair set in. Once again, he had (in his mind) failed to protect Bella. But, as long as he could stay away from her, he could still protect her from what he saw as the most dangerous thing to her; himself.
See? It's shaping into a decent story as we think about it. We've got three chapters now (running, tracking, and despair), and I'm sure there'd be a lot more once you really got into the tracking story. (At least one chapter on Texas and one on South America. Victoria probably had some accomplices she picked up in Texas who helped lead Edward astray down to South America. And how did he find her in Texas in the first place? Texas might even be two chapters.) We could throw in a chapter on a disasterous visit back home (where Carlisle encourages Edward to keep up his resolve, Alice gives him a piece of her mind, and Emmett gives him the idea of tracking Victoria). We're up to six chapters now. It practically writes itself. =)
Oops - sorry for the long post. Thanks for listening. -Ariadnee
