By the time I met Faith, her straight hair had grown out curlier and turned a deeper shade of red thanks to Mara’s angelic presence, while her brown eyes had turned to hazel. I had thought she had seemed familiar. I knew now that my magic summer had been spent with Mara, and felt a giddy thrill when I realized that she was my first kiss, my only true love.
I watched how she spent all summer entirely enamoured of me as well, lying in her bed daydreaming of our time together, walking around with a smile on her face and a distant look in her eyes. Whenever we were together, that smile brightened to give her a joyous glow, and she brought her passion for me to every encounter. No wonder I was so happy that summer, she poured out her love on me at every opportunity.
And I saw what pain it caused her when she realized that my heart was trapped in doubt and darkness; that I had to learn to love myself before I could ever love her back. Our time together grew short, and she understood why she had been given a six month deadline: she had to separate from me most painfully to give me the wake-up call that I needed to find myself instead of staying lost. God’s plan and her actions effectively put me on a path that would save my soul.
Mara wept greatly over the decision but knew that it was the right one, the only course of action. And then the summer ended, and she and Faith parted ways. Mara would fly in to check on the girl every once in awhile, and was happy to discover that her former vessel had felt called to return to church with her family, though Faith had entirely forgotten their mystical conversation from the winter before.
Life continued as before, with Mara watching over me through my early university career. And then came the airplane ride that changed our lives forever.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 30, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Katie
Awww, short chapter. 😦
So Mara was doing God’s will. That’s reassuring. I wonder if Faith’s friends noticed a change in her? Also, what does Faith think happened during those six months? Does she remember Ethan, and remember a feeling of loving him?
Also, you’re doing an excellent job of making Ethan’s voice entirely different than Rapheal’s. He has a different style of speaking and a different way of thinking. Awesome.
January 30, 2008 at 9:36 pm
nomananisland
The different voices for different narrators is one of the great challenges of the book and in writing. If I screwed it up, it would make multiple narrators the stupidest decision ever. I’m glad that it sounds like it works. I actually think differently when writing in character, and it seems to come across on the page.
Quick question: is Gwen’s voice as distinct?
January 30, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Katie
I think so. It was immediately obvious to me that she was not Raphael, though ( I think) she didn’t tell us who she was for a chapter or two.
January 30, 2008 at 9:53 pm
nomananisland
LOL – I think I have to go back and check that chapter — I label her narration as “Gwen” whenever it shows up as a chapter title, but I don’t honestly remember when she introduces herself in the story.
January 30, 2008 at 9:56 pm
nomananisland
Just an FYI – She does tell Hope her name in the first “Gwen” chapter, but it’s down the page quite a bit. I was worried there for a second.
In one of the early drafts, each narrator had a different font in Microsoft Word, to suit their personalities. Here, they all look the same. For that reason, when one narrator shows Ethan’s writing, I usually change the colour to make it distinct.