Life and Death Chapter 21: Phone Call
The chapter titles are increasingly reflective of how dull the chapter’s content is.
Now that I’m only writing about one chapter, I can focus on important details that have changed in the books. For instance, when Bella wakes up to the sound of Alice and Jasper talking, she finds them sitting on the sofa while Alice sketches the room from her vision. However, Archie and Jessamine are at a table while Archie sketches! Ah, just like the classic saying, women sketch on sofas while men sketch at tables.
The Bs immediately realize that the As are sketching their mother’s house! It’s very exciting when so much drama unfolds from one room where nothing is actually happening. The adventure continues.
Archie was across the room, phone in hand, dialing. I stared at the faithful rendering of my family room. Uncharacteristically, Jessamine slid closer to me. She lightly touched her hand to my shoulder, and the physical contact seemed to make her calming influence stronger. The panic stayed dull, unfocused.
I am fairly certain Beau has spent like a day with Jessamine, but sure, let’s go with ‘uncharacteristically’.
It gets even dumber when Archie reveals Edythe is coming to get Beau:
“We can’t win, Archie! You can’t guard everyone I know forever. Don’t you see what she’s doing? She’s not even tracking me. She’ll find someone—she’ll hurt someone I love! Archie, I can’t—”
“We’ll catch her, Beau.”
“And what if you get hurt, Archie? Do you think that’s okay with me? Do you think it’s only my human family she can hurt me with?”
The sentiment is nice enough, and it makes sense Beau wouldn’t want Edythe’s family to get hurt. It’s just the weird phrasing of, “Do you think it’s only my human family she can hurt me with?” This implies the vampires are his family as well. Again, he watched them play a baseball game for like an hour. WHERE IS THIS COMING FROM?!?!
Beau retreats to his room to worry, and when he returns, Archie informs him that they’ll be relocating closer to his mom, and Jessamine is currently checking out of the motel. Just then, the phone rings, and it’s Beau’s mom!
She seems nervous…and it’s because she’s being held hostage! The scene is almost identical between books. The hunter makes Beau pretend he’s talking to his mother, and tells him he has to find a way to ditch his vampire pals. Otherwise his mom gets it! Classic evil vampire plan.
There is one difference between the phone calls that I can’t really explain.
Bella:
“I’m sorry to hear that. I was hoping you would be a little more creative than that. Do you think you could get away from them if your mother’s life depended on it? Answer yes or no.”Somehow, there had to be a way. I remembered that we were going to the airport. Sky Harbor International Airport: crowded, confusingly laid out…
Beau:
“I’m sorry to hear that. I was hoping you would be a little more creative. Do you think you could get away from them if your mother’s life depended on it? Answer yes or no.”
Somehow, there had to be a way.
Seriously, I don’t get this one. I know the ending is completely different, but wouldn’t this same thought occur to both of them? Maybe Bella is smarter than Beau? More cunning? Woohoo gender-swap?
After the phone call, things start to go really differently. Alice doesn’t seem to pick up on anything being wrong, and Bella pens a goodbye letter to Edward about how sorry she is for everything. However, when Beau leaves the room, Archie is having a new vision, so no letter for Edythe! Archie, you ruin everything.
I remember Meyer said that Archie’s visions were one of the things she changed in this book because she felt like there were times Alice should have been used when she wasn’t. OR MAYBE PSYCHIC MEN HAVE MORE VISIONS THAN WOMEN. The world may never know.
Nothing to do with Life and Death, but… I’ve seen in the bookshop the Italian version of McGuire’s “Beautiful Redemption” (starring FBI agent Thomas Maddox) – the title in Italian (literally translated into English) is “An unforgettable disaster” and I wonder how on earth they decide the titles in both languages… I think about you/the blog every time I bump into one of McGuire’s works 🙂
I hate myself for knowing this, but Meyer posted a “deleted scene” from this part of Twilight on her website where the action (such as it is) came to a dead, screeching halt so Alice and Bella could go ~shopping for clothes! I desperately wish she’d found a way to shove it in this manuscript, only Archie and Beau are looking at, I don’t know, computers or those remote-controlled helicopters.
Also, I seem to remember this part making no goddamn sense because vampires have super-hearing yet couldn’t hear the other end of the phone call. Is that resolved at all, or are they both still standing there, mysteriously deaf for convenience’s sake?
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