The Characterisation of Annabelle le Roux

Chapter Twenty-Three: Something is Missing

James sat at the bar with his friends once more. He was thinking about why people loved narrative stories so much. He wondered why he enjoyed them.

"It allows you live a thousand lives" he said out aloud. Alicia was not there, and he realised that he missed not having someone who would pick up all the stumps of conversation that he had, even if she sometimes was a bit too complimentary.

"You can pretend to be somebody else and you can learn from the mistakes that they make and perhaps not make them yourself" he said again out aloud.

"You think that every story needs a moral?" said his friend Richard, who he had invited over despite not having seen for years. The other people he had invited had not responded to his messages.

"No, not all stories are Aesop tales and sometimes we despise Aesop tales because they fail us in the real world" answered James.

"I just want to be entertained. I don't want to be preach to, just tell me what happened and get on with it" replied Richard.

"Yet still you learn from them, even if that was not intention" said James "You learn the way that life is and then you think that is the way that life is supposed to be"

"Me personally?" said Richard.

"No, not you personally, people in general." Said James "But don't go thinking you are excluded from the concept of people. You are part of the masses."

"Surely not, here I am having this conversation. Surely people who have conversations like this are excluded from the masses" said Richard with a laugh.

"Yes, even you" said James.

"Why are you saying this?" said Richard.

"People are saying that I mustn't try and impose my morals on others, that it's best to keep religion and politics out of it, and I don't know how to do it, and besides I think that is a religious and politically position."

"James, I have been reading your work since you were in school. The problem with you is that you are constantly changing your position and there is no consistency. You want to please everybody and as a result you make everybody mad with you because nobody knows where you stand on anything. It's maddening" said Richard.

"I don't know what is true, I don't want to discount things just because I have never experienced them."

Ferne' stood in front of the large army.

"While Annabelle was brave to lead you into the attack like she did, she paid the ultimate price. The Mamlish will accuse her of many things. But remember that though the Mamlish can make forgery and summon false witnesses. Though the Mamlish can change the meanings of words, we know what truth is."

The army held their heads low and thought of their own private loss. Over the years many of them had lost relatives and friends to the disease caused by the polluted water. Many had found themselves in contracts that they couldn't get out of. Many had taken deals in desperation.

"Do not lose morale, do not think of losing Annabelle as losing a leader, but rather think of it as gaining a martyr to fight for."

"Yeah!" cried one boy out of the crowd "What are we going to do about it?"

James's relationship with the stats was an interesting one, theoretically he didn't care about them and he did everything he did for love of the craft. He needed to keep that attitude especially in the early days of writing; otherwise, he would grow despondent and give up.

Theoretically he was also incredibly surprised whenever anybody had heard of his work or had read anything that he had written. Theoretically he was grateful for any opportunity that he was given, no matter how small or unglamourous.