Friday 28 October 2016

Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Chapter 22

I finished work early today and had big plans to walk Tara home from the front gate, spend a bit of time working on my Halloween costume, then get down to some seriously blogging.

Instead we ended up with a trip to the hospital, related to some after effects of the water issues we were experiencing last week. Mr Click had phoned to make an appointment at the health centre, was told he'd need to got to A&E for an appointment at 2:30pm where we ended up waiting until nearly 4pm for a five minute appointment.

It's bronchial irritation from whatever chemical was in the water and we just have to wait it out. Fun.

But let's move on to Chapter 22 of New Moon. This one's called Flight.


What Happens?

Bella, Edward and Alice travel home from Volterra. Along the way they meet Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper. And Charlie is very angry with Edward and Bella.

Thoughts as I read:

My guess from the title is that this is going to be about the return journey. It's a long chapter though, so I think it'll be an eventful journey. Or perhaps it won't be very eventful, it'll just be described in painfully dull detail.

Let's find out.

Now that they're all out of danger, Edward and the gang are instructed not to leave until after dark. Bella's not feeling so hot, presumably from the knowledge that they've just this second left the scene of a mass murder,

Bella's hearing a strange noise and Alice is making suggestions like 'Maybe you should slap her' this is because she believes Bella is having hysterics, but also perhaps because she's spent so much time around Bella she's just feeling the way the rest of us do. Turns out the weird noise is coming from Bella; she's wailing and sobbing and can't stop.

Edward ends up pulling her onto his lap to comfort her, while the receptionist, Gianna, asks if she can get them anything. Edward then reveals that Gianna is perfectly aware of what's going on down the corridor, but she's hoping that eventually she'll get to join the vampire crew. Bella seems surprisingly shocked by this considering that she's been begging to be turned into a vampire since virtually day one. Surely she must know that these are the urges she'll be having to fight if Edward does what she wants.

Then she decides that despite all the misery and awful stuff they've just been through, she's actually feeling pretty happy. Because she's with Edward again and everything else pales when you consider that. Or something.

Bella recognises that Edward is hungry but he decides against going off to feed. He's happy too and totally in control. That's what people always say right before they snap and totally lose control.

There's a bit of Bella musing about things, which is as I expected, and then Alice raises the question of what the vampire crew were on about when they mentioned 'La tua cantante'. This is their name for one like Bella, it's because her blood sings for Edward.

A bit of time passes, with the few gentle kisses and touches between Bella and Edward, then Alec shows up to tell them they're free to go but that they really shouldn't linger in the city. Then they head out, through a different exit to the way they came in. This one doesn't involve any sewers so it sounds much nicer.

As they head through the town Bella realises that they've lost Alice, but it's okay, she's gone off to grab Bella's bags. Bella is very grateful for the news that she'll be not only reunited with Edward today but also with her toothbrush. This would make me happy too. Probably a lot happier than having to spend time with Edward.

Alice shows up again, having stolen another car. She laments the loss of the 911 Turbo which leads to this:

She sighed. "I may have to acquire one of those legally. It was fabulous."
"I'll get you one for Christmas," Edward promised.

I do kind of enjoy those little exchanges, especially as Alice follows it up by specifying that, like the stolen one, it must be yellow.

Bella manages to resist the urge to sleep and fights to keep her eyes open the whole journey back from Volterra to the airport. There's a (mercifully short) flight from there to Rome and then a second one to Atlanta. Bella puts any thought of sleeping from Edward's mind when she tells him that if she closes her eyes she'll just see what they left behind in Volterra, so he doesn't argue with her.

She also has a host of questions and things to say to him but makes a plan to hold off asking them in the hopes of using the conversation to draw out some more time with Edward. We get nearly half a page of musing about how wonderful Edward is, how good he looks, the usual until they finally land in Atlanta.

Considering the chapter is called 'Flight', there's only been a page of actual flying. I'm guessing this is a more metaphorical flight, away from danger and risk and all that jazz.

When they touch down after the final flight of the journey they are met by Carlisle and Esme. Esme is thrilled that Bella saved Edward. Bella didn't really do very much. I'm pretty sure that someone could've found some way to stop Edward from going over there, just by proving that it wasn't actually Bella's funeral Charlie was going to. Probably would've been a lot simpler for all involved.

It's a full scale reunion when Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper are waiting for them in the car park. Bella and Edward have to ride with Rosalie and Emmett which is obviously going to be fun because there's still some bad blood between Rosalie and Edward. In order to fix this, it's decided that Rosalie, Emmett, Edward and Bella should all travel together in the one car. Nothing like a bunch of vampires in a small enclosed space to make them get along better.

But it works.

Rosalie utters a little apology to Bella and thanks her for saving Edward. Then Bella falls asleep.

And then things get interesting because the next thing we know Charlie is yelling for Bella. Charlie's very angry with Edward after what he did to Bella. He's also very angry at Bella as well. But we don't get to enjoy the fallout in this chapter because Bella's falling asleep as she gets into the house.

We'll have to wait until next chapter to find out just how grounded Bella will be.

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