Don't You Tell Me He's Not Real...

Posted by Christine

So am I weird?

Don’t answer yet.

I fell in love for the first time when I was eleven. I mean totally. Passionately. Completely.

Over the moon and around the bend.

With a character in a novel. Oh, yeah!

The novel was Little Men by Louisa May Alcott and the character was Dan, a boy of “about fourteen.” (He wasn’t sure of his age; his parents were dead and he’d lived on the streets all his life—oh, be still, my beating heart!)

Dan is introduced in Chapter Six, which is titled, “A Firebrand.” Oh, yeah. Oh, my…

Alcott first describes him as, “a most unprepossessing boy, who slouched in and stood looking about him, with a half bold, half sullen look, which made Mrs. Bhaer say to herself, after one glance,–‘A bad specimen, I am afraid.’”

From that moment, when Dan slouched in, I was gone. I just couldn’t help myself. Sometimes love’s just that way, ya know?

I filled pages and pages of my diary with Dan. Dan, Dan, Dan. I made up a life with him. I loved him unconditionally. And it was through my undying love (Well, I mean, it lasted till I was twelve and read Gone with the Wind and met Rhett. That’s pretty “undying” for a preteen, I’d say) that Dan came to find his place in the world and his power as a man.

After Dan and Rhett, there were others. Each was forever. But you know, eventually, I’d read another book with a fabulous hero.

And that would be that. I’d be on to a new fantasy life with my new guy.

Interestingly enough, it was always the bad, slouchy boys I went for—in fiction and in whatever this thing is they call “real” life. As I remarked to my cousin, Gail, when I was thirteen, “Isn’t it strange how delinquent boys are so much more interesting than nice ones?”

When I got around to dating guys I hadn’t “met” in books, it was always the bad boys I went after. Sadly enough, I learned the hard way that “real” bad boys aren’t always quite so willing to be transformed by love.

Their loss. And eventually I met Hunky Mensa Man. It all worked out. He’s totally untamable—except in his love for me!

So am I weird? If so, feel free to tell me. OTOH, you could tell me which “fictional” heroes have stolen *your* heart. I’d just love to meet them…