The Butterfly Emerges

*
A funny thing happened on the way to the end of Chapter 21.

To set the stage, starting with Chapter One, mention was made of Cy's tutoring student and friend, Eddie Burrows, but not much. I had a story to tell and it wasn't that much about him.

But, because I knew Eddie was going to turn up towards the end of the book, I asked my readers from the start to share their opinions of him. Based on what little information was given about Eddie in the first section of Aurora Rescue, I asked, is he a believable character? Do you like the character of Eddie Burrows?

In my mind, Eddie was a fun-loving, adventurous university senior who was doing only what he had to do to get his degree. Other than that, his big focus was on marrying Andrea at the end of the school year. He was not very serious about life in the adult world. He was really no one exceptional. His big claim to fame was this: he disappeared.

But, then, enter Eddie in Chapter 21, the second to the last chapter of the book. Okay, Chapter 21 is a very L-O-N-G chapter, and I will probably split it into two chapters. However, it is still almost at the end of Aurora Rescue. What surprised me is this: the more I wrote this chapter, the more I liked Eddie.

The traits and talents for Eddie that I wrote into the first chapters of the book turned out to be a boon for him by that time. Somehow, the goofy college kid of the twenty-first century proved to be leading man and hero material by the time he was two and a half years older and living in 1859.

Marty and Cy become the best of friends, but there is no budding romance between the two in this book. As I finished this chapter, I knew that if Eddie had not already been madly in love with Andrea, Marty could have done a lot worse than fallen for Eddie Burrows.

However, several of my readers are probably not going to be happy with the choice Eddie makes as Chapter 21 closes. Well, hang onto your hat. Eddie is going to be in three of the next four books.