Reading Eclipse: Chapter 3 (Motives)

The song for this chapter is All Fall Down by OneRepublic

[audio:https://twilightguy.com/music/allfalldown.mp3]

At the moment, as the chill of the all-too-rapidly approaching scourge of winter descends upon Dallas, I am a bit jealous of Bella and Edward hanging out in sunny Florida. I visited the state once when I was 10 years old, and the three things I learned are:

1. Clearwater Beach actually has clearer water than Cocoa Beach,

2. Sharks do swim close to shore, and

3. Despite photographic evidence, Floridians do not build all their houses upside down.

However, none of these seem to plague Bella and Edward as much as it did the 10-year-old me, since they seem to have bigger troubles at hand (example: keeping the sparkly Edward out of the relentless Florida sunlight).

The short trip to see Bella’s mom seems to have been quite satisfying nonetheless — of course, excluding when Renee starts to pester Bella about the strangeness of Bella and Edward’s connection. She knows that something is up, but just can’t seem to put her finger on it…

“I feel like I don’t really understand your relationship. Like there’s some secret I’m missing…” Renee said.

I nodded. “Yes mother, I confess. My boyfriend is a vampire. Surprise!”

But Renee only nodded. It wasn’t the reaction I had been expecting, so in shock, I went on.

“A-and…my best friend is a werewolf.”

But she only nodded again. It was utterly maddening, how casual she seemed to take the supernatural things.  What was wrong with her? So, in desperation, I hissed,

“MOM CHARLIE ISN’T A POLICE OFFICER HE IS REALLY A GNOME.”

To my utter rage, she only nodded. Then she sighed.

“I guess then it’s time to tell you the truth,” she broke the silence. “See, Phil is actually a leprechaun…”

Of course, when Bella leaves with Edward, certain people get concerned. Jacob suddenly sees that this could be Edward’s opportunity to change Bella into a vampire — a rather final event that would seem to seal Bella’s disconnection with Jacob completely. Charlie, who has loathed Edward for some time, has obviously been watching and waiting for the very second they pull up the driveway.

Come now Charlie. It’s not like Edward’s going to drink her blood or anything.

When I read this chapter, all of a sudden I was confronted with a Jacob who was different than I remember. It seemed as if this Jacob was so much more confrontational than before: actually calling Bella’s house, and showing up at the school, instead of sulking and avoiding her. It was so confusing to me how his demeanor had changed so quickly.

But then, I took a step back from the loathings between Edward and Jacob, and tried to see what triggered Jacob to change suddenly. What I realized was that Jacob ceased to avoid Bella the moment she left town, and he thought she was in danger.

It is one of those things where you have to tap into the thinking of the other side. To Jacob, Bella being turned into a vampire is one of the most horrible things that can happen (even though we are pretty sure it is not as bad as he is thinking). But he is truly very concerned for her; so much that he starts to call her house repeatedly until she returns.

This tells me that he isn’t as angry at her as he might put out. When Jacob is on the border of being an antagonistic jerk in front of the school, almost appearing to provoke a fight, I don’t think he is doing it to cause trouble, but rather because he is still hurt that Bella left him, and still vastly afraid that Edward will take her away, turn her into a vampire, and all chances of Bella changing her mind will vanish. It makes me sympathetic to Jacob’s side.

I also found it so amusing that the one class Edward did not attend with Bella was math. I suppose even vampires are terrified of Calculus 😀

Question for the comments: Do you think the reason Jacob was trying to provoke Edward into a fight was really because of Emmett crossing the border, or because he is hurt over Bella?

——NOTES——

– For those of you who missed the epic BlogTV Saturday night in which Bailey and I broadcast from the same room, Kellan Lutz (Emmett) and Ashley Greene (Alice) have been added to the still-growing list of special guests appearing at Twicon!