Chapter 7

I can see it's going to be difficult to find the time to work on this novel now that classes have started. But I'd like to get back to the scene between Michel and Jessie in the last chapter. Now before you get offended (and, no doubt accuse me of being the pervert, coming up with such a story line), I have to ask you, how many of you got turned on by the scene? Is that why you're offended? And if you did get turned on, what does that say about you? What about your own pedophilic impulses? Maybe you're the pervert here, and I'm just exposing you for what you are. And for those who think I'm strangely preoccupied with the topic, perhaps I'm only tapping into the Zeitgeist, as one can see here, where the government is talking about children being "sexual beings" (I knew they were all a bunch of perverts there), and here (really, we need to remove the stigma from pedophiles? really?). So the culture is perverse. We sexualize children, and the natural result is pedophilia and its acceptance. Don't get offended because I am in touch with the spirit of the times. Don't get mad at me exposing you. You're the ones watching that made-for-pedophiles T.V. show "Toddlers and Tiaras," not me.

We have a nation of men like Michel, only he took the last logical step and made his pedophilia complete. How many of you only have the law standing between you and sex with an underage girl? If so, you're no better than Michel (isn't there someplace -- Biblical, perhaps? -- that says that if you sin in your heart, it's the same as performing the actual sin?). But Michel's, and your, pedophilia is only a symptom of the problem. The problem is that we are a nation of children. We are a nation of people who always expect to have our own way, who refuse to take responsibility for our actions, and who expect someone else to take care of us and those we should be responsible for.

But let's get back to the adult-child in this novel, Michel, and where we left him with Sarah. Michel and Sarah continue dancing around the issue of how they feel about each other throughout the meal - Michel, because he's afraid of Sarah, Sarah because she's both attracted to and repulsed by Michel. But this is something I'll have to come back to, after I finish eating - we're having Tuna Helper. Not that I've been able to work on this without interruption anyway, since Donna has called me in to see something about on VH1 between the first two sentences of this paragraph. That, and the fact that my keyboard is trying to die on me (it keeps refusing to read the "O" "L" and "." keys), are starting to get on my nerves.

I'm finished eating, and the show is over, so maybe I'll be able to write. Let's return to Michel and Sarah, particularly to Michel, who has dropped Sarah off at her apartment. Michel, who is driving a little blue Geo, tries to think of something else to do before he decides there is nothing else to do, and so goes home to his apartment. He walks in and catches his ex-girlfriend, now roommate, Jackie, walking around the apartment naked.

"Hurry up and shut the door," Jackie says.

Michel shuts the door. "You know, walking around the apartment naked only makes me want to fuck you."

"Just so long as you don't want some kind of relationship out of it..." Jackie turns and walks into the kitchen. Michel can smell something cooking.

"What are you making?"

"I thought you went out to eat with whats-her-name?"

"Sarah. I did. I didn't say I was hungry."

"I'm making Spanish shells."

"Naked?"

"What difference is it to you?"

"It's not very sanitary."

"Who's the biologist here?"

"What difference does that make?"

"And why do you care?"

"I used to care."

"And I didn't used to think you were a jack-ass, but I changed my mind."

"I'm not arguing with you. I'm going to try to get some work done."

"Okay. Whatever."

Michel looks at the marks Sarah made in his story. He hated to admit it, but he agreed with most of her corrections. Mostly grammatical and spelling, typos, but there were also problems with the story itself. Or at least, she said there were, though Michel could not see it. He thought it was a good story, so he decided to fix the surface problems and leave the story itself alone. As far as he was concerned, it was finished. This is usually the sign of an amateur writer, one who cannot see the flaws in a story, even when they are pointed out by other writers.