CAN A BROKEN CHARACTER STILL OFFER HUMOR? WHY NOT?
by DJ Adamson
From: Let
Her Go, Lillian Dove Series
(Christmas Tree is missing from the living
room.)
The fresh snow covered anything that remained an
hour ago. I shut the door and walked the room looking for evidence.
I
found threads of silver tinsel. Dried needles. Dust bunnies scattering. And an
overlooked hairball.
I ran over and re-opened the front door.
“Bacardi?” Out in this weather? He’d
freeze his tail off.
Bacardi’s
my cat. He used to sleep at the foot of my bed when I lived in my mother’s
condo. Since I pried him out of there, one claw at a time, he’d taken to
sleeping on the couch. He was giving me the cold
shoulder.
Something
Bacardi and I share, attitude.
The couch was empty. I checked under it. More
dust bunnies. They breed like rabbits.
I raced back down the hallway to my bedroom to
get dressed.
How had someone broken in, stolen my first
Christmas tree, and got out and away without me hearing them?
I
didn’t wait until the next day to decorate. I got the tree up and twinkling as
soon as I came home from with it. Then I popped a bowl of popcorn and flipped
on a movie, A Wonderful Life.
Now, I pulled on jeans, a sweater, and shoved
my feet into boots. I yanked my coat out
of the closet, jostled my arms in while returning to the kitchen.
I picked up the phone and dialed
911.
“Frytown
Police. What’s your emergency?”
I’d expected Donna Stockman to
answer, but then I remembered she was taking the day off to make Christmas
cookies. The Baptist Church was having a Christmas Bazaar after this morning’s
service. Donna wasn’t a Baptist member, but she liked baking cookies.
“Delores, this is Lillian. I’ve been robbed?”
In a world of new technologies, the
reason to keep a landline is so that the police dispatch computer can log-on
for information about the caller. Can’t do that yet with cell phones. I knew my
name and my address appeared on her
computer as soon as she took the call.
“Was Discount hit again?” She asked.
Her comment referenced the trashing
of Discount last October.
“No. Someone stole my Christmas
tree.”
“Stole what?”
“My Christmas tree.”
“Your Christmas tree?”
“Delores,
please quit repeating me. I woke up and
found my front door open and my Christmas tree gone.”
She giggled. “Was it a live tree?
Are you talking about a kidnapping?” She gulped back the giggles. “Is there
anyone in the house?”
It did sound ridiculous. “No. Whoever took it did it while I was asleep.”
“Sounds like a joke. Anything else
missing?”
“I don’t think so.” I sighed.
“You’re right. It’s kids playing a prank.”
I guess I had left the door unlocked. “I hope you don’t get other calls like
this today.”
“You’re the first.” She said,
“Miner’s on duty. I’ll have him come by.”
“No. Don’t. If I find anything else
missing, I’ll let you know. But, as you
say, this sounds like a joke. Only, I’m not laughing.”
I hung up. It was then I noticed the
clean kitchen counter. Not that I’m messy. I live on sandwiches and takeout.
But, I was sure I’d left the popcorn bowl on the counter, not in the sink.
Suddenly, it dawned on me. I knew
who’d been in my house.
Picked my lock.
Pilfered my
tree.
Leveque!
Let’s start with
the premise that we are all broken, in some way. Being damaged is the major theme for all the
Lillian Dove series. Yet, while she may
be a little more broken than others, there is also the awareness that we all
have our problems, addictions, habits, compulsions. Addictions: certain foods,
soda, shopping. Compulsions: like buying
another book when we have a shelf-load.
Lillian biggest problem is that she leaps before thinking,
thus getting herself into more trouble than she can usually handle.
While this books
first scene begins with some giggles, it quickly turns to tragedy, murder, and
inner contemplation. Putting my character into struggling situations both emotionally and physically shows
her adaptability no matter where she may have leapt and what circumstances she
needs to tackle.
D. J.
Adamson is the author of the Lillian Dove
Mystery series and the Deviation
science fiction-suspense trilogy. Let Her Go, the third in the Lillian
series has just been released. She also
teaches writing and literature at Los Angeles colleges. And to keep busy when
she is not writing or teaching, she is the Membership Director of the Los
Angeles Sisters in Crime, Vice President of Central Coast Sisters in Crime and
an active member of the Southern California Mystery Writers. Her books can be
found and purchased in bookstores and on Amazon. To find her, her blog L’Artiste,
or her newsletter that interviews and reviews authors go to http://www.djadamson.com. Make friends with
her on Facebook
or Goodreads.
Comments
Lillian appreciate's the support!