A Book For Each

We had some time to kill before the movie started yesterday, so we took a walk over to the local bookseller. The Firebird was looking for the fourth in the Alchemist series, but apparently it isn't out yet. So he gladly accepted Eragon, the book the movie of the same name is based on. Willow picked out "Into the Land of the Unicorns".

I glanced at some books on the way to the checkout, but mostly tried to keep my eyes behind the lids and my hands in my pockets. I have to physically restrain myself at bookstores-too often I have walked out with a sack of books and spent every dime in my pocket.

We were standing in line at the checkout, and Willow said, "look Mom, "THE ROAD!" Willow loves Viggo Mortensen and is quite aware of my angst at not being able to view the movie, which had a very limited release. Perhaps the reason for my phobia towards the voice prompt at Fandango; going through every major city in the state of Maine saying, "The Road" to hear, "I'm sorry, I can't find that."

I hesitated at the bookstore. I told the kids to stay in line and walked over to the display. I picked up the book. I really wanted to see the movie before I read the book. It should be on DVD soon. I looked at the cover photo of Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee and the price on the back cover. A bit pricey for a paperback. Dang, I returned to line with it in my hand. That would be my book.

I started it last night, reading in between commercials of our favorite show. The kids went to bed. I kept reading. I had some coffee. I kept reading. I liked that McCarthy doesn't use quotes in typing lines. A writer after my own heart.

Very often when reading a book, a mental image develops in your mind of the characters. But one had already been provided for me. I adore Viggo Mortensen. I could see him in every line of the book as "The Man". I have heard that he blows this role right out of the water and should have been nominated for an Oscar for this performance.

As a parent, oftentimes a financially challenged one, I could identify with the burning need to protect one's child, to keep them warm, fed,clothed, healthy, and safe from the bad guys.

I read and read. Images of running from starving cannibals, ransacking ash-covered ruins for morsels of grain, the pitch dark when you can't see anything, struggling through cold and rain and snow and dead woods. Yep, I was there.

I knew the end was heart-wrenching, and decided to go to bed and save the end for the light of day. I saw feral black kitty on the stoop and gave him a dish of food on my way to bed. I snuggled down and closed my eyes. I thought I heard shrieking outside. My imagination. Then the inside cats started growling at the window. More shrieking. The dog went ballistic. Not my imagination after all.

I was the defender, my job. I stepped barefoot and half dressed onto the back step and growled. I banged the ladder. I banged the ashcan. I said, "GO ON!" I clapped my hands sharply and went back in. WTH? Bobcat? Screech Owl? Dying Rabbit? Murdering Cannibals?

I stoked the woodstove and had a smoke to calm my racing heart and went back to bed- the dog following me as if I would protect him, too. Black Kitty was back on the step, scarfing food, looking quickly into the woods as he ate.

Pleasant dreams! LOL.