Two For One

In the new novel, not a thriller, or a who-dun-it, but a why-dun-it, one would appear to be reading about two characters. In a way one is. There’s X who witnessed an act of brutal violence, tried to tell his parents about it, but wasn’t believed. He fragmented into two characters, X who has presence but feels no emotion, no presence, and his original character, Brian who feels all of Brian’s emotion. Here Brian has begun the conversation wanting to re-enlist in the Army but is being prevented from doing so because of the facts of his life. Now, after being prevented, he is convinced that he really didn’t want to do it anyway, classic case of sour grapes. But he goes further and revises his memory to fit the current situation. Read on:

“X was sure Brian was pleased as punch. Murphy had talked with Brian man to man, being open and honest, without messing around with stupid military bullshit. The best thing for Brian to do was go back to graduate school, pick up where he’d left off. Take the Army for the fraud it was: a big-time, bullshit, pain-in-the-ass time-waster. Murphy had saved Brian from falling for the re-enlistment trap the Captain had laid for him, where they promised him the world and after they’d locked him in, they have changed to terms of enlistment and Brian would be stuck in some shit-ass grease pit. X knew they always had a clause in their employment contract where they were entitled to do anything under the guise of national security. Brian’s prospects in academia were so much better than they’d ever be in the army. He slept the soundest that night he’d ever slept, even if the dream did wake him up twice.”

X also finds the past continually intruding into the future and masquerading as the present. I’m finding it extremely tricky to write this kind of stuff, but lots of fun trying.