“Am I?”
“These are just the first chapters.”
“But what is it that you love about it?”
“That Deidra is curious about our culture and that she’s asking to see a tournament.” Wilma gasped out loud and clasped her hands to her face.
“What?”
“I just had the best idea! We should have Devina come to my tournament. That way she can see it in real life and describe it in her book.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, it’s perfect. She already knows how to get here.” Wilma’s voice rose to a small shriek. “I would looove for Devina to be at my wedding.”
“That’s impossible! Everyone would demand to know where she came from and the moment they find out she’s a Motlander all hell will break loose.”
“They won’t find out because we’re going to disguise her as a boy, of course.”
I crossed my arms. “It must be nice to live in a fantasy world, but out here in the real world, shit like that doesn’t work. She’s too pretty to be a boy and her voice is that of a woman.”
“Then she’ll pretend to be mute.”
“Ha! I’ve never known a female who could go a whole day without speaking. And how would you even explain the sudden appearance of a boy in our inner circle? Don’t you think our family and friends would wonder about that?”
“Agrh, I’ll think of something. It’ll be fun!”
“No, Wilma. It won’t be fun because it’s not happening. You need to forget about the idea, right now!”
My sister gave me one of those cheeky smiles and I knew she had made up her mind, so I cursed loud, “Lucifer’s ass.”
“No, Tyton, don’t leave yet. You need to return the script to Devina for me.”
I groaned and reached my hand out for the papers.
“Let me just add something.”
I waited and wasn’t surprised when my sister shared her horrible idea of Devina coming over to see the tournament for herself. At least I had zero doubt that Devina would hate the idea as much as I did. I could count on her to say no.
CHAPTER 13
Criticism
Devina
A number of times now, I’d sat down and stood back up again. The way Tyton had smeared his comments all over my script was shocking. To criticize another’s work should be done with gentle consideration for the person’s feelings, but Tyton didn’t seem to think I had any feelings to hurt at all.
The only positive thing he had mentioned was a line that he found funny. Problem was that it wasn’t meant to be funny. And then there was the name of the Nman. I read Tyton’s comment in the margin next to where Mark’s name was mentioned the first time.
You should change his name to Tyton since we both know you’re writing about you and me. Deidra is so close to Devina that you gave that away. Also, may I suggest you shorten Deidra to Dea; it means goddess.
I turned a few pages and found his remarks next to a passage describing Deidra looking at a picture of Mark. In big red letters, Tyton had written:
So, you think I have nice eyes. Thank you, I’ll take the compliment.
If I had known Tyton would misunderstand and think that I was Deidra and he was Mark, I would have never shared my story with him. This was both infuriating and humiliating at the same time.
But he has a point. Mark does look like him.
