La Vie Boheme

Now I understand why my

Now I understand why my friend Eric spent so much time writing in coffeeshops. In just about three hours, sitting in a Starbucks with my Palm and keyboard, I managed to write about 2,800 words. Something about the corporate-trendy atmosphere was highly stimulating, or maybe it was the caffeine, I don't know. In any case, I enjoyed it. I might have to do this more often. Current word count is at 6,880. To reach the 1,667 words a day goal, I'll need to have 8,335 by the end of the day. To reach my own 2,000 words a day goal, I'll need 10,000. Neither seems completely out of the realm of possibility right now. Here's the excerpt o' the day, introducing yet another major character:

Later, determined to get the truth from the girl, Wright questioned her alone. With his slightly hangdog face and boyish features, he had a knack for winning the trust of people, and the Osborne girl was no different. In a hitching, quavering voice, she told him about taking a walk the night she disappeared in the very same woods she was found in. Then there was what seemed like thousands of lights overhead "just like in that Close Encounters movie". Wright managed to keep from wincing, and kept a carefully concerned look on his face. While he listened, the girl began her tale of lights in the sky and little gray men, complete with strange scientific experiments and unpleasant probing. Wright had heard more than his share of UFO stories, and found they were usually related by the same sort of person who could be seen on the evening news in the summer, telling the newsman all about what the tornado sounded like before it struck the trailer park.

This was different. The Osbornes lived in a wealthy suburb of D.C., and the girl was one of the brightest students at one of the area's best private schools. It was unlikely she would ever see the inside of a trailer park at all, much less during a tornado. Furthermore, between her fear and her eloquence, she was just damned convincing. Further psychological testing revealed minimal neuroses, except for the persistent belief that she had been kidnapped by a UFO. Then Wright made his fatal mistake. During a staff meeting on the case, he suggested that they at least try to look into the UFO angle. See if anyone else had reported lights in the sky that night. See if there was any evidence to back the girl's story up. After the laughter died down, one of his buddies snickered, "Okay Mulder. You work the little green men angle, we'll track down the ex-boyfriend." Three days later he came in to find his office covered in posters that read, "The Truth is Out There". Three months later, he was transferred to the butt-end of Chicago, in a small satellite office that spent most of its time waiting for something to happen or for something to get passed down from the main field office.