Marionette

Chapter 8: The Plan

There was a shallow peaked roof over the front porch of Posy's house. Sometimes Posy would open her bedroom window to climb out to sit on it and watch the cars go by on the highway. She did that today and brought a sandwich and her notebook, although she didn't write poetry. Mostly, she pretended to write while she peeked over at the Wilsons' house.

The evening before had been nice. She enjoyed the sunset with Mac, and afterward they went and joined Jamie and Gus playing video games. Nice.

Boring.

Her mission now, here on top of this roof, was to come up with...well, a mission. A quest, of sorts, like all good protagonists had. If she had a goal to work towards, maybe her story would be more interesting and that way I wouldn't stop writing her story like I did for a year between chapters 7 and 8. She hated that. It was as if an evil comic book villain had captured her and frozen her in ice in between chapters. That wasn't far from the truth, actually. Once upon a time, I was her creator and ally. Now I'm the villain.

Maybe she could go looking for something? Kind of like a quest for the holy grail, except for something different. But what? Posy wasn't the type to steal crown jewels or chase after elusive artwork. She didn't even have a driver's licence. 

What if she ran away from something? But from what? Everything she could ever want was right here. Her perfect house on the beautiful farm, her perfect parents, Jamie, and her soulmate was next door, even if she didn't know who he was yet. Her entire life was perfect. The only thing she wanted to run from was me, but how could she do that? She needed me to exist in this perfect life!

Oh.

Oh no.

That was the problem, Posy realized. Her life was too perfect. She was stuck in a perfect life with a perfect family and a soulmate next door. It was boring. Cliché.

Posy wondered what would happen if she ran away from all of this? What was beyond these prairies and mountains and the town where she went to school and shopped for vintage clothes?

What if she refused to find her soulmate?

But she wanted a soulmate! Posy wanted to find a nice boy she would date and one day marry and have kids and a dog with and grow old with. It was her happily ever after...right?

Posy stopped herself. Maybe that was exactly why she should avoid it. A happily ever after needed to be worked for, and once it was achieved the story would end. If she had her happily ever after right from the beginning, what would be the point of having the story at all? I'd never write her and she'd be frozen forever!

But frozen happy?

No. Posy didn't want that, not yet. Posy decided she would run away. She would leave her perfect life. She would avoid her possible soulmates at all cost. She would not have a happily ever after. She would be free.

As free as a character on a page could ever be, that is.

Instead of writing in her notebook ideas for missions to go on, Posy started writing a list of things she'd need to run away.