NaNoWriMo 2011

The flustered authoress rushed through the florescent lit corridors lined with office doors, searching frantically for one marked 'Daley'. She glanced at her watch. She was running fifteen minutes late.
"Fifteen days late." She thought grimly to herself. Swallowing the panic, she told herself that there was nothing to worry about. A couple of brief interviews and a boost of spontaneous imagination would be enough to keep her scribbling at an insane rate for thirty days. Right?

She came to an abrupt stop when she realized she had nearly past the office labeled 'Daley'. Inside, cameras were propt up in front of a tarp with a print of down town Chicago, a makeshift back drop. She spotted the news reporter Daley immediately, with his black thick-rimmed glasses and his well-gelled dark curly hair.

"I'm not too late, am I?" Breathless, she sat down in her designated seat in front of the cameras and drew out her notebook and pen. Ready to write, she was surprised when no one answered her. The room had fallen quite silent. Daley was looking at her with a single eyebrow raised.

"Aren't you missing something, Miss Riel?"

Miss Riel, the authoress, glanced around the room, from the surly camera men to the empty chairs next to her. Suddenly it struck her!

"Miss Maccallom and Mister Heidrich! Where are they?" She cried.

"That seems to be the question of the afternoon." Daley was grinding his teeth as he always did when he was iritated.

A rucus suddenly struck up out in the hall. Shuffling and shouting could be heard. A woman screamed. All the heads in the room turned to the open doorway as a smug faced man with disheveled hair and dirty hands jumped into the room as if he had been pushed.

"I told you not to bring the snake! Normal people do not carry snakes around their necks." The door slammed and the source of the high pitched voice appeared from behind the man--a short young teenage girl, who could easily be mistaken for a child, she was so small, with large blue eyes and hair the  color of sand. She peered from behind the trench-coated snake-bearing man and turned bright red on seeing all the strangers in the room staring openly at the two of them.

"Athol! Clem!" Miss Riel cried in happy relief. She jumped from her chair and shook their hands heartily. "Come in. Take a seat. Watch your snake, Clem."

She turned to Daley. "You can start rolling, now."

Then, taking a seat, she immediately assumed her interviewer's persona.

"I'm Eru Riel here today with Miss Athol Maccallum and Mister Clem Jamar at the National Novel Writer's Headquarters. We're all excited to be a part of this year's NaNoWriMo." On the last sentence, Clem snorted. Miss Riel ignored him and keeping her smile on, turned toward the two odd characters.

"Athol and Clem, tell us a little about yourselves."

Awkward silence. Athol and Clem glanced at each other and then back to Miss Riel.

"There isn't much to tell." Clem said with a slight drawl. Athol rolled her eyes.

"We're characters from the story In The Land of Queer Adventures." She said, like 3rd grader who had just given the correct answer. She smiled smugly at Clem.

"And your rolls are?" Miss Riel pushed them.

"I'm the heroine." Athol beamed.

"And I'm the hero." Clem snorked.

"You are not the hero." Athol wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Please, Clem, we want people to read this story!"

"Where are the two of you when this story takes place?" Miss Riel asked, ignoring the glares between the two.

"I am living with my family in the suburbs, finishing up high school." Athol stated.

"And I am in what's called the Queer Woods all by myself."

"How do the two of you meet? I mean, it seems rather unlikely, don't you think?" Miss Riel was scribbling hard by now, not even glancing up from her paper. Athol and Clem did not notice.

"Oh believe me, we would never have met if it had it not been for my two brothers!" Athol declared. "But leave it to them to go off wandering into the woods at night. Of course, my parents would never have thought them capable of going into the Woods. No one but the insane went there"--she glanced at Clem--"but I knew that was exactly where they had gone. My brothers and I were always similar in that we both had and unquenchable curiosity about the Woods. I was just never brave enough or stupid enough to step a toe in the place."

"But you did, eventually, did you not?"

"To save my brothers, I did." She said. "The moment I did, I knew I would regret it, I knew there was no going back. There's something enchanting about forest where new adventures lurk around every corner...but you'll hear more about that later, no doubt."

"Yes, thank you." Miss Riel now turned to Clem. "What about you, Mister Jamar?"

"Please, call me Clem." He said, grimacing at the sound of Mister Jamar. "What about me?"

"What's your part in all of this?"

"Well, I said I was the hero, didn't I?"

"And how does that play out in the story?"

"If I said, it would spoil everything, wouldn't it?"

"Just write him off as difficult." Athol butted in. "Because that's really all he is. Don't bother with him, because you'll be pushing and prying your way into nothing with him."

Clem looked hurt.

"What makes you say that?" His words dripped with sarcasm.

"Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the story, now would I?" Athol sneered at him.