Midnight Sun Part 2

Mind over matter

On the drive back to Forks, I kept glancing at Bella, marveling that she was sitting there beside me. We could have been any human couple spending a Saturday together. I reached for her hand and held it on the seat between us. Now that I knew I could do so safely and that she didn’t object, I wanted never to stop touching her. It was another dream coming true.

Her old Chevrolet truck was not part of my fantasy, though. I didn’t have much appreciation for classic vehicles unless they were of the high–octane, high–speed variety. The evolution of transportation in general, and automobiles in particular, was one of the most worthwhile advances of the twentieth century. I was in no way nostalgic for old–time cars or trucks. One of these days, I would buy Bella a new car, especially if I would be driving her around in it. Fortunately, her ancient radio worked and I twirled the dial until I found a station to my liking.

“You like fifties music?” Bella asked.

“Music in the fifties was good. Much better than the sixties, or the seventies, ugh! The eighties were bearable.” I hadn’t seen where this conversation was heading until we were already there. It was one of the many pitfalls of not being able to read Bella’s mind.

“Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?”

“Does it matter much?”

“No, but I still wonder…There’s nothing like an unsolved mystery to keep you up at night.” Always curious, she was.

“I wonder if it will upset you.” So far, Bella had maintained a remarkable equanimity through all of my startling disclosures. I kept wondering what bit of information would finally push her over the edge and away from me.

“Try me,” she prompted when I hesitated.

I sighed in resignation. She’d heard more frightening things about me than my age. I supposed one more disquieting fact would make little difference. Still, I gazed into her eyes to try to predict her response. She looked calm.

“I was born in 1901.” Her reaction seemed carefully controlled. She didn’t flinch, at least. So I continued.

“Carlisle found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, and dying of the Spanish influenza.” Bella inhaled sharply and I could see that this news hurt her. I hastened to reassure.

“I don’t remember it wellit was a very long time ago, and human memories fade.” I wondered how much of this Bella should hear. “I do remember how it felt when Carlisle saved me. It’s not an easy thing, not something you could forget.” The words carried me painfully back.

“Your parents?” she interjected.

“They had already died from the disease. I was alone. That was why he chose me. In all the chaos of the epidemic, no one would ever realize I was gone.”

“How did he…save you?”

The details of how to create a vampire were not something I wanted to reveal to Bella. I hadn’t thought it through, exactly, but the idea of discussing it with her made me uneasy. Becoming a vampire was not something I would ever wish on anyone, especially someone I loved. Every member of my family, if given a choice, would choose to be

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P.A. Lassiter Twilight: The Missing Pieces

human. But I owed Bella at least part of the truth.

“It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us…. I don’t think you could find his equal throughout all of history. For me, it was merely very, very painful.”