Character list PART TWO

So read PART ONE first for the rules. Besides that, this isn't a top ten or anything like that - there's no particular order and I don't know how many there are going to be. OK. Moving on.

Ebeneezer Scrooge (creator: Charles Dickens. first appearance: "A Christmas Carol")
Even without his redemption, Scrooge would still make this list. He's so great as a heavily flawed "villain"-type but I guess his eventual 180 does add to his overall appeal. But for now, let's talk about "classic" Scrooge. Dickens gives amazing descriptions of this guy - I wish I had the book here so I could directly quote some of them. Paraphrasing will have to do with this wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner.
It's said no one can stand looking him in the eye and that even dogs leading blind men know to lead their masters away when Scrooge is in their path. The guy is so cold on his own that no summer sun can warm him nor any winter wind chill him. He keeps his clerk Bob Cratchitt living in abject terror and working with only one piece of coal to fuel his pitiful fire. And don't get me started on the crappy salary this guy earns.
And let's not forget the man's own quotes: "Keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mine." , "Bah! Humbug!", and the amazing "If they'd rather die then they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population." (!!!)
He likes darkness since "darkness is cheap", he tries to crack jokes when dealing with ghosts, he scares the hell out of carolers and freezes his jolly nephew out of his life. But you've gotta love him! There's always appeal to be found in a great villain and there's tons in old Scrooge as we find ourselves liking him for all his negative qualities. What makes Scrooge unique is that by the end of the book, he's reformed and become a new man. But that's great too and we're glad to see it happen. Because the story of Scrooge re-enforces the idea that there is good deep down in everyone and that it is possible to bring it out even if it's been deeply buried for a long, long time.
He also gets to do some pretty cool things like re-visit his past (although he can only watch), spy on his nephew and employee and hang out with spirits the whole while. OK, the final spirit was scary as hell but it all worked out in the end.
While Scrooge has been portrayed by tons of different actors and some of them very well, I can honestly say his inclusion on this list has not been influenced by any of that. I read the book every year (guess when!) and I never find myself picturing any specific actor. It's just "Scrooge" as Dickens writes him and that's just perfect.

Eponine (creator: Victor Hugo. first appearance: "Les Miserables")
If her last name is given somewhere in the 1500 page monstrosity that is Les Mis, forgive me if I forget it.
OK, so I am kind of cheating on this one. Sort of breaking one of my own rules. Let me explain: in my love for this character, I could very well be being influenced by her portrayal in another medium. But it's not a TV show or movie (hell, they left the poor girl out of the movie), it's...um, well, it's the musical. Eponine is far and away my favourite character in the stage musical and more than a little of it has to do with Frances Ruffelle playing her in the original version. But I'm still including her here. So, yeah, I love Ruffelle's voice and her parts in songs that obviously have NOTHING to do with Eponine in the novel but oh well.
Cause I still do love the Eponine of the novel and that's why she's here. She's not a main character. She has the unfortunate fate of being in love with Marius while he barely even notices her. He's too busy being in love with Cossette.
Not only does she have the unrequited love angle to work as a tragic character, she is also unfortunately the offspring of the wretched Thenardiers, who sure as hell don't give a damn about her. No big loss there though - they're pretty terrible people.
Although to date I have read too many books to even fathom, I do know that Les Mis is easily the longest of them. And I REALLY need to re-read it. So sorry if my Eponine details are lacking here. But I just know that I love her and empathize with her as she's in love with a man who only has eyes for another and yet she (Eponine) continues to do whatever she can to help the guy, eventually sacrificing her life to save his.
The line itself might not be in the book, but as she sings in the musical, "[the] world is full of happiness that I have never known" that's what you certainly glean from her if you read it.

2008

So ive been gone a long time. Wonder if anyone noticed. Sorry, but ive been distracted by the hell my personal life has become among other things. Things such as the cursed Facebook (which i have forsaken in every way) that siphoned off some of my creative offerings. Fuck Facebook. My creative offerings belong here. My personal life? Don't ask.

So I though i'd kick off 2008 (here in late May) with one of my favourite things - not to mention something easy - a list.

This list is called "Favourite Literary Characters Whose Original Incarnation (assuming any more followed) Was in Books". Don't i rock at titles? Ridiculously long even without the added bonus of a section in brackets. What can I say? It's a gift.

So Indiana Jones cannot be on this list. Yes, there are many novels with him but he started as a movie character. So Spider-Man is not on this list - he started in...duh, comics.

one little aside before i get to the list is that while I did briefly consider characters such as Decker in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lector, I realized as cool as those characters are in their original forms, it is their portrayal in (good) movies based on the books that made me really, really love them. I don't think I could enjoy Lector quite as much if I didn't have Anthony Hopkins to picture while I read him.

At this point (way too long in coming, as usual) you understand the rules and parameters of my list (unless you're a retard - political correctness be damned! also, there might be spoilers ahead)
So here you go:

Bruno Walton (creator: Gordon Korman. first appearance: "This Can't be Happening at Macdonald Hall!")
The famous Bruno of the acclaimed "Bruno and Boots Books". The...um, yin or yang to Boots's yang or yin depending on which one is the fiery, enthusiastic one. Cause that's what Bruno is - enthusiastic. Often dangerously so. Possessing a school spirit that goes beyond sanity (except when it comes to actually studying and working hard scholastically), Bruno is constantly dragging his reluctant pal Boots (and eventually many other students) into zany, possibly expulsion-worthy schemes, all in the name of his beloved MacDonald Hall. He'll take anyone on: a discipline-obssessed, computer-worshiping teacher out to "revolutionize" education, a beloved Hollywood heartthrob and his entire movie crew, even total bankruptcy!
All the while, doing his best to sidestep the attentions of the school's strict (but still loveable) headmaster, "The Fish". However, Bruno's trademark claim "I never get caught" is a little less than accurate. But he doesn't care. He'll wash dishes, pick up garbage or endure any other punishment with a smile so long as he can still labour to "save the Hall" in one way or another.
And he does it all with charm. How else would he get his somewhat less passionate friends to follow him into one debacle after another? Bruno's the kind of guy you'd follow into hell without ever really understanding why.

Drizzt Do'Urden (creator: R.A. Salvatore. first appearance: "The Crystal Shard")
With apologies to Legolas, there is no more badass elf in all the realms. Probably helps that he's a Dark Elf - a Drow. But this one isn't evil and he felt so strongly about not living in an evil world that he did everything he could to valiantly bust out of the EVIL city of his EVIL kin. It wound up costing him dearly but he endured it all: his family repeatedly trying to kill him after realizing they couldn't corrupt him, years of isolation and solitude and constant scrutiny and racism from the peoples of the surface. But he never gets bitter, never gives up. He just forges ahead, and, in doing so, proves his heroism and uncompromising morals over and over again. And he does a lot of it with two wicked swords.
Cause as noble and loyal and brave etc. as Drizzt is, one can't overlook the fact that he is badass. He's fought hordes of orcs, trolls, orges and goblins, fellow Dark Elves and even a few demons and he's beaten them all. He is grace and athleticism personified with phenomenal fighting skills thrown in. Once again with apologies to Legolas, he could kick Legolas's lily "light elf" ass. Fire all the arrows you want - you'll hit nothing but air. And no sword or dagger will keep those twin scimitars at bay for long - for most opponents, it's barely a few seconds.
Drizzt fights for what's right again and again in a world that mostly judges and condemns him for the colour of his skin. His intelligence, integrity and amazing fighting prowess make him one hell of a character. Hero, anti-hero, whatever - he is Drizzt Do'Urden.

Nick Andros (creator: Stephen King. first appearance: "The Stand")
Easily my favourite King character. The deaf-mute loner with the heart of gold, Nick is one of the survivors of the crazy "Captain Trips" superflu that wipes out something like 99% of the world's population. These survivors are basically "good" people who dream of Mother Abigail or "bad" people that dream of The Dark Man, Randal Flagg. Luckily for the "good" side, that's where he stands (ha, stands!)
From his letter to the police chief, we learn Nick had a pretty tough life even before everyone started croaking and you can only respect him for all the adversity he's overcome. An orphan and outcast, rarely bothered with and even more rarely understood. He goes on to show a fellow survivor, a man of somewhat limited...ahem, intelligence and maturity, unfathomable kindness and support in a world where many others would have simply abandoned him, labeling him as a hindrance. After that, despite his youth (twenty-two) and disability (although the term certainly doesn't apply in this sense), he emerges as one of the leaders of the "good" people and is instrumental in their survival as well as in their hope.
Nick is often frustrated by challenges such as people pre-judging him or his difficulties in communicating with others but he never wallows - he just tries harder until he succeeds.
He doesn't blow away bad guys or save kids from a burning house but his accomplishments are no less important and noble. Stephen King admits that the decision to have Nick killed three quarters of the way through the book was staggeringly difficult and emotional, but he saw it as necessary. It sure made an impression on me.
Here was a character that didn't really have dialogue - instead he is mostly voiced through interior and written monologues and everything he had to "say" just made me love him even more. Like Drizzt, he's another individual who is guided by his principles and won't make any compromises or accept any defeats. He'll do the right thing, or die trying. Ultimately, that's what ended up happening.
If the world ever does come down to a showdown between good and evil, I'd want Nick Andros there with us.

"Charlie" (creator: Stephen Chbosky. first appearance: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower")
We never get to know the kid's real name, so his suggestion of Charlie will have to do. The Holden Caulfield of the nineties, he drips empathy. I love him because I am him. Almost anyone who reads Wallflower can be him in some way or another.
His home life isn't completely tragic - but it's far from completely perfect. Just like any of us. He wants to gain love and acceptance, just like any of us. But how he goes about things may separate him from a lot of us. But still, so many of us can relate.
I think one reason I like Charlie so much is I truly do believe I can identify with him more than most. It comes down to feelings, sensitivity, perception. I don't think he ever actually says it, but one of the great tragedies, as well as virtues of Charlie is that maybe he cares too much. Feels too much. He thinks about other people probably more than most do. Whatever impact someone makes on him, however small, it affects him. He thinks about it. Feels it. Apparently he doesn't even know the person he's sending these letters to. Not personally anyway. He just heard some things about him (we know it's a him) and thought maybe he would understand better than most. I think I'm like that too. I often find myself thinking about various people in my life, many of them who are no longer in my life. I wonder about them. How they're doing. What they're feeling. I don't want to rush to them or try to get them back in my life or even talk to them - I just...care. Charlie strikes me as the same way.
To Charlie, the ultimate expression of feelings is in the form of a mix tape - don't so many of us feel exactly the same way? And he doesn't judge and doesn't pretend to be someone else. He just...is. But is he truly a wallflower? I don't think so. I think he just cares too much about people sometimes so he puts his own wants and needs aside. Honestly, most people really can't relate to that and the guy who deemed him a wallflower definitely couldn't. It's a label that didn't really fit. But Charlie doesn't argue it.
It's hard to pin down exactly what Charlie's personality is and I think that's because he's too raw - just a jumble of strong emotions. I think we can all feel that way sometimes. We don't know who we are but we know how we feel. Throughout the book, Charlie gets it down to an art. I sometimes wonder if that's what happened to me somewhere along the way.
Anyway, Charlie is one of my favourite literary characters because he really does touch my heart. Maybe I'm a jaded prick, but few characters or even real people do that for me these days. Because of peace, love, empathy and M*A*S*H (hell, even The Rocky Horror Picture Show) I love Charlie.

We'll call that PART ONE. Writing about characters I feel so strongly about is pretty draining. Let's hope we don't get to a PART THREE.

Anne

So i havent been here for months. I'm supposed to be writing but it hasn't been working. Fuck, I miss Anne.
I love Anne Publicover. Being without her feels like there's a hole inside me. Or that I'm just hollow. I'm trying here. I really am. I just wish she would somehow find her way back to me. She is my true love. I should have treated her like it. I'm sorry.

Who wants a hug?

For many years, I've wanted to give Mats Sundin a hug. I'm not embarassed to admit this although I do know it is kind of silly. Despite the fact that the guy has been making millions of dollars his entire adult life for playing the game he loves, has legions of fans and hundreds if not thousands of women vying for his attention (apparently, some women mail him pictures of themselves in their underwear along with their phone numbers - he throws them out), I sometimes get the crazy notion that he deserves a hug. A hug from me - one of his diehard fans. I realize it's silly. Sure, he hasn't won a Cup yet and there are tons of people who criticize him as a player and captain for no good reason but I doubt he's all that broken up over it. If he really needs a hug, he's got friends and family for that. His teammates hug him on an almost nightly basis.

But still I want to hug him. For all that he's done for me personally. For all the times he's brought me to my feet, yelling and cheering. All because of how he plays a game. I've wanted to hug David Usher too, for the way his music has made me feel all these years (I'm pretty sure Ive hugged Jeff Pierce on at least one occassion).
Then it occurred to me I've never really thought about hugging a writer. I tried to puzzle this out. Surely, there must be a writer whose work was as much a comfort to me as Sundin's on-ice heroics or David's (I can't refer to him as "Usher" now can I?) voice, lyrics and music? And I suppose maybe there is. But it's not the same, for some reason. I grew up reading a lot of different books by a lot of different authors. Gordon Korman's books entertained me again and again with their wacky characters and funny plots. But do I feel the need to hug him? Shake his hand, yeah, sure. But not hug him. Nor do I think about hugging any other author whom I grew up reading.

I read Jurassic Park when I was ridiculously young. So young that some of the language was beyond me and the content a little too mature for me at the time. But it was a book about dinosaurs and so it had to be read - that's how I saw it back then. I probably had to read it a few more times as I got a little older to really absorb it properly and fully appreciate it. I've read Crichton's work with regularity ever since and can always have a soft spot for him in honour of his taking a subject that meant so much to me when I was young and weaving it into a smart, exciting, well-written story that almost single-handedly brought dinosaurs back into pop culture (what with the eventual release of the movie) But I've never thought of meeting Michael Crichton and giving him a big ol' hug.

Is it because I fancy myself a writer? I can't be delusional enough to think of someone like Michael Crichton, or any published author for that matter, as a colleague. In my wildest dreams, I couldn't do what Mats Sundin or David Usher do - but will I ever be half the writer that any on my list are? I doubt it. And even if I somehow equal one or more of them, would that make me feel the need to hug any of them? I don't think so. But I don't know why.
I've spent so many hours reading, completely wrapped up in the world these people created for me and I respect and admire them endlessly. But if I met any of them, I think I'd be more shy than meeting a sports or music hero. Maybe that's it. After blathering about how I'm such a fan of their work, I'd eventually look down at the floor and mumble "I'm somewhat of a writer myself; that is, I'm trying to be," and who knows what any of them would say. What are they supposed to say? Are they supposed to get excited by this, as if they've never heard it a thousand times before and take a fanatical interest? Ask me to send them some of my material so they can maybe help me get it published?

If I ever meet Mats Sundin and have enough time to have a proper conversation with him, I imagine I would hug him almost right away if he was ok with it, then bombard him with praise and memories of some of my favourite feats of his. I did meet David Usher, briefly. I stammered that his music had meant a lot to me over the years and that I hoped he would continue for a long time to come. He was very gracious. I wanted to hug him but people literally mob the guy and it didn't seem the right thing to request at that moment.
There are lots of writers I wish I could meet. Lots I'd like to personally thank for inspiring me and filling me with awe and wonder etc. But the only one I think I'd ever care to hug is Stan Lee and that's more because of his persona than his actual work, I think. The guy invented freaking Spider-Man but others since have done a better job on him.

I never aspired to be a hockey player or a musician. Not seriously, anyway. They were more "wouldn't it be cool if" scenarios I'd sometimes play out it my head when I was likely supposed ot be paying attention in class or listening to my mother. Mats Sundin represents a team that I've loved passionately and irrationally for most of my life. David Usher represents music that was always there for me at various points in my life when I felt alone. Stephen King represents everything I aspire to be and maybe that's why I could never hug him. Writers aren't a touchy-feely group of people, anyway, it seems. So maybe it's all for the best.

Sebastion Cole - a different kind of master

I'd originally intended to write something else in here before posting the next excerpt but I've been kind of lagging in that area lately. I promise to pick it up in the near future. May has unfortunately become a month full of as much uncertainty as April was and I suppose I've been using that as an excuse to stem the creative flow as it were. But I'll soon set things right.
In the meantime, here's Cole in New York.

All this is what had attracted the Red Band Society to Sebastian. They came to know almost everything about him because that was the kind of thing they’d been doing since the formation of the club. The thirteen members had always made everything that went on in New York their business. Every vampire drone in the city was there because the Red Band Society wanted him or her to be there. They all served a purpose. The club’s vast wealth didn’t come directly from drones. Like the Masters, drones didn’t usually have jobs so the money mostly came from humans in their service. It was decided that Sebastian however, would not work out as human slave because of his arrogant and aggressive nature. The Red Bands deduced that if they tried to threaten him as they did many other wealthy people, he would try to resist them which would force them to kill him. And they did not want him dead. He controlled some very tempting assets in the city. But drones immediately inherited the programming that it was best to serve the Masters. So it was agreed (after being put to a vote, as they always did for important matters) that one of the members would bite him and turn him into a drone. Then, he would be brought before the rest of the club and told how things would work from then on. Bernard was chosen to perform the task of turning Cole.

But Bernard never came back. Instead, the evening following Bernard’s task, the Red Band Society found Sebastian Cole waiting for them in their board room, sitting in Bernard’s chair. He was a vampire, as they’d wanted, but he was no drone. He calmly explained to the shocked members that after being bitten by Bernard, but before being fully turned, he had killed the Master Vampire. He’d still been human when he managed to snuff Bernard out. Later, when the change was complete, Sebastian found that he now possessed all of Bernard’s knowledge. Naturally, included in this knowledge was the knowledge of the differences between Master vampires and drones. And Sebastian knew he was definitely a Master.

The Red Bands immediately put him to the test to prove his claims and he passed every one. Sebastian calmly and patiently (and with visible amusement) waited in the boardroom while several of the members rushed to the second floor to the archives, where all their vampire literature, material written by both vampires and humans over several centuries, was stored. Hours were spent trying to find any mention of the phenomenon that had occurred. None was found.

And so a new entry was made. It appeared that if a human bitten by a Master somehow managed to kill the Master before turning into a drone, said human would turn instead into a full Master vampire, apparently inheriting the abilities of the slain Master. None of the Red Bands were particularly pleased by this discovery but in the end they reasoned they simply had to accept Sebastian as a member. They’d respected him when he was a human and knew he would be an extremely dangerous foe as a Master vampire. Fortunately, Sebastian was completely satisfied with becoming a vampire as it gave him even more power than he’d enjoyed as a human and since he was a Master, none of the Red Bands would have any power over him as they’d originally planned.

But this did not mean the other members didn’t resent him. They all did. They often enjoyed reminding him that, while he possessed all of the abilities of a Master and all of Bernard’s prior knowledge, he was still not a true Master. They were all born vampires who had been around for centuries and he had been a man born in 1964.

Sebastian never let on that this bothered him. He accepted their glares and snide remarks with good humour and often ignored them altogether. He’d been ambitious as a man and he was doubly ambitious as a vampire and he didn’t want to waste time squabbling with the other members over things that couldn’t be changed. Plus he knew that they knew he was a valuable asset to the club. As a drone they would have simply controlled him but as their equal, he could offer his own ideas and insights and these were more often than not quite useful. As the only former human, he had an understanding of the human psyche that none of them had, despite all their centuries of life. Three of them had been around since the late fifteen hundreds but Sebastian was always teaching them things. Truth be told, the entire situation amused him to no end.

problem fixed

The excerpt posting problem has been corrected. Hossanahs, hossanahs!

Meet Adam Fairbanks

It was pretty difficult to align this properly so that it would fit. But anyway, here is the beginning of Chapter Two. That's right, no Chapter One or Prologue for you. I don't know the rules of posting excerpts from a novel - it's a tricky thing. Hopefully, I'll get better at it or learn the rules in time. Enjoy.

Trenton, New Jersey

Adam Fairbanks was doing his best to think fast. Why do there have to be three of them? was his first thought. He couldn’t have handled even one assailant on his own, but three? He recalled that his mother once said that bad things always came in threes. That appeared to be true of bullies, for sure. They were after all, very bad things. This trio consisted of the tall bully, the fat bully and their leader, the ugly bully.

It was the ugly bully who stood with the other two flanking his either side. He delivered another quick jab of a shove into Adam’s chest, knocking the smaller boy backwards a few steps.

“So you think you’re better than us, you little puke?” demanded Ugly. “Think you’re better than regular people?”

Adam took a quick glance over his shoulder. He was dangerously close to the fence. His only escape could be around his antagonists. He doubted very much he would even make it out of the playground if he tried that. He was undersized even for a thirteen year old and his legs were considerably shorter than those of the bullies. Not to mention his backpack was heavy. He silently cursed himself for taking this route home. But cutting through the playground, which was simply a fenced in asphalt area with basketball courts at each end, cut seven minutes off his walk from the bus stop. On most days, he was in no hurry to get home and he would be content to doddle, taking whichever route he pleased. But today he’d decided to chance taking the shortcut so that he could get home to grab extra batteries for his camera. He wanted to shoot for as long as he could before it got dark out.

As he faced his tormenters, Adam realized his gamble hadn’t paid off. His school uniform attracted too much attention in places like playgrounds. He couldn’t run so all he could do was try to talk his way out.

“I don’t even know you,” he stammered. “Why would you think I think I’m better than you?”

The ugly bully sneered. “Of course you don’t know me. You wouldn’t even bother to know me. Since you think you’re somehow above other people.”

“I…it seems to me that you’re the one judging me without knowing anything about me,” said Adam, regretting the words as soon as they escaped his mouth. But he went on anyway. “I mean, we’ve never met as far as I know and then you come up to me and tell me what you think I am.”

If the ugly bully was at a loss following Adam’s rebuttal, he was bailed out by the fat bully. “We know all we need to know about you. The way you walk around in that uniform. I guess you’re too good for a public school. Your parents are probably rich and send you to a private school so you won’t have to mix with non rich kids.”

Adam slowly edged to his left, trying to make his movements appear casual. He had to buy himself some more time.

“I don’t know why my parents send me to private school but it’s not like it was my idea. And wearing the uniform definitely wasn’t my idea but it’s what I have to wear. I’ve gone to public school before and I liked it fine. But when my family moved here and I was enrolled at my school, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

The ugly bully found his voice again. “So your parents are rich, huh? Maybe it isn’t your fault what you wear or what school you go to – it’s just the way they raised you.”

Here he paused and looked down at his shoes. Adam stopped his furtive movements. This couldn’t be it. Bullies couldn’t actually be reasoned with. And if they could, he couldn’t have been the one to pull it off. Something was coming.

“You’re not to blame for your situation, kid,” said the ugly bully. “I see now you don’t think you’re better than people who aren’t rich like you. So I figure you’d like to do something to even things out a little. Make things more square. I mean, you said you don’t think you’re just better than us. You don’t think you deserve things better than we do, right?”

Adam recognized the trap, but he could do nothing.

“Right.”

“So I think you’ve probably got a few things with you that you could part with. Stuff you could share with others less fortunate than yourself.”

“I really don’t have-”

“Let’s just take a look in your backpack.”

Adam darted to his left and tried to break past them. But the tall bully, while silent during the whole exchange, had evidently been paying attention and he stepped in front of Adam and caught him. Adam was roughly shoved against the fence. The fat bully stepped right in front of him to block Adam’s way, spacing out his feet to make himself even wider.

“You’re rich enough to replace whatever we take,” laughed the fat bully. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

He made a grab for Adam but Adam ducked under his arm and dove through the opening between his legs. Getting to his feet quickly was difficult because of the weight of his book bag but he still managed to break into a run before any of the three had turned around. His sneakers pounding on the pavement (thank God the dress code permitted sneakers), Adam ran flat out across the playground, headed for the gap in the fence at the far end. He ran right through a basketball game being played by some high school kids, just barely managing not to collide with any of the players. He didn’t even bother to look behind him to see how close his pursuers were. He could hear well enough that they were giving chase and already catching up. But then, just before reaching the playground’s edge, he did turn as he heard a commotion behind him. The bullies hadn’t fared as well in running through the game. The ugly bully had run into the ball carrier and the other two had stopped dead as the players shouted their objections. Even though his legs hurt and his lungs were already burning, Adam didn’t stick around to see what would happen next. There was a wooded area just ahead of him. It was a place full of walking paths and the trees were too far apart from each other to provide much cover but it was only option he had.

He kept running until he was confident he was in far enough to be hidden from the view of the playground. He collapsed with his back against one of the larger trees. It took him another minute to fully catch his breath. Then he removed the damning dark blue jacket of his school uniform, suddenly realizing that he was hot and sweaty. For a moment he pondered how such a short run could have made him perspire so much until he remembered that he’d been perspiring before he’d even started his escape.