InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Mada mada dane"

Ella Claire Gainsborough {Beauty} (bookshelved) wrote in bellumletale,
@ 2010-06-12 17:19:00

Entry tags:

beauty, moriarty

[The book is The Life of Pi and it’s left on one of the red-vinyl seat at Les Bijoux, after a back-to-back showing of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. It is listed on BookCrossing.com within minutes of the shows ending, posted by notafairytale. There is a hand-written letter inside, intentionally tucked between the pages.]

Universe,

It is easier to feel sorry for oneself anonymously, safely tucked between the pages of a book the world has already forgotten, than it is face-to-face with people.

Face-to-face, I’m so concerned about what the people around me want to hear, that I’m seldom honest. It’s only about things that don’t matter - like books and words - that I’m comfortable letting my true opinion come through, and then I overcompensate. It is completely annoying. I have told myself this repeatedly, but myself doesn’t listen. She never does.

If she did listen, she would have stopped pursuing a clearly disinterested man months ago. Why do we do that to ourselves? Lose our self worth in the hope of finding elusive, romantic love? I would blame my favorite novelists for my unrealistic view of men and women, but they had to have their own unrealistic views to write what they did. Maybe we’re all victims of this funny trick of the universe - something intended for survival that we insist on making about other, non-transitory things.

It would explain why I can’t say the truth, what I really think: That I’ve tried so hard.

I’ve written, and I’ve sent things, and I’ve talked, and he was never interested in knowing anything. He didn’t reply, and he didn’t react, and he never asked. So why can’t I just walk away? Why doesn’t the heart listen to the mind? Why does my heart still want this, still hope?

Is it better to listen to the mind or to the heart, which one knows better? Which story is true?

That’s what this book is about.

notafairytale,
BookCrossing.com

P.S. Which story do you think is the real one?

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dierache
2010-06-13 12:08 am UTC (link)

Jonathan had discovered bookcrossing.com while researching a case, of all things. He'd been visiting a database and seen a banner ad off to the side, following it on a whim.

He'd gone looking for books 'released' in the area, but he hadn't really intended to pick one up until he saw that one was going to be left at the theater. He'd been meaning to investigate it anyway, and when he got there twenty minutes later, he smiled at the names on the marquee. In this neighborhood, nothing could ever be coincidence.

Getting into the theater was easy enough - he told the usher that his girlfriend had left her purse behind and darted in before the next show started. It took a little searching to find the book, but then there it was, sitting on the seat as if it intended to stay for the show.

He took it home, paging through it while he walked. What a novel (ha) idea, leaving books for anyone to find. There was something all too dramatic about it, but the sentiment was sweet. Free books could only ever be a good thing.

He'd never gotten around to reading The Life of Pi. He had a tendency to stay away from heavily hyped books until after the frenzy had died down. No excuse not to read it now.

Halfway through the book, he stopped. There was a folded piece of paper there. He opened it, expecting something average - a receipt, or someone's shopping list.

A handwritten letter was unanticipated, and he stopped halfway home, leaning against the side of a building as streetlights began turning on all down the street.

The subject matter was poignant and heart wrenching, and when he was done reading it he'd already decided he liked it better than whatever was on the pages of the book it had been tucked inside. The letter was real, was true. Why lie so earnestly? It could be a fabrication, of course, that was a possibility, but it wasn't a possibility he was willing to believe. There was something a touch raw about it, very present, fixed on the current problem.

He tucked the letter back into the book and mounted the steps that led into Bellum. Anyone could have written the letter, of course, but 'notafairytale' seemed, again, too coincidental to be pure coincidence.

The question was, who? And why? Worth pursuing. Worth trying to contact the mystery woman back.

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