Wild Fiction

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‘That’s right,’ Genevieve was smiling. ‘So you’ve resurrected a bunch of your old characters?’ she said turning to the author. ‘Lost your ability to be creative and to come up with new ones to help your novels fail?’ She curled the edges of her lips up in a smug smile. She had discovered what he was up to and who the strange people were. She felt very pleased with herself. ‘So what’s the name of this story?’
‘I haven’t given it a title yet,’ the author lied.
She knew he had called it Wild Fiction. She also knew that he would lie to her. She was collecting a list of his lies in her head.
‘Am I in it?’ Genevieve asked.
‘No, it’s magical realism, a type of fantasy fiction. If I was going to write about you it would be a biography. I’ve explained the difference to you before.’
‘No need to be condescending,’ Genevieve said. ‘Well what’s the story about?’ she asked the question directly to Conrad.
‘There’s no plot yet,’ the author jumped in before Conrad could answer.
‘Is that right?’ Genevieve asked Conrad ignoring the author.
‘Yes,’ he said, and after a short pause added: ‘He’s just been re-characterising us in preparation for a story.’
‘Re-characterising?’ Genevieve raised her eyebrows. ‘Is that a real word?’
‘It’s just easier than creating a character from scratch,’ the author said shifting from one leg to the other.
Genevieve narrowed her eyes as she looked at each one of them in turn. ‘Try not to make this one a complete disaster like all the others,’ she said directing her sharp tongue at the author. ‘Husband dearest,’ she added as an afterthought. Genevieve turned and padded out of the basement. The three men stared after the perfect smooth legs that joined the ski socks to the bottom of her T-shirt.
15
When Rebecca woke the following morning, she felt a lot more comfortable than she had that first morning in the basement. She had found an unused futon, some old sheets, and a duvet and had dragged them next to the box with her nametag on it. Conrad was using her box to sleep in, as they had not been able to find one with his nametag on it.

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