Chapter 12 (Balancing)

We open here with typical male bonding of Charlie and Billy and teen bonding of Jacob and Bella. As sports are being watched Bella is lurking to see if Billy is going to tell Charlie that she was with Edward and his knowledge of Edwards secret. As Billy and Jacob are leaving, Billy looks at her seriously and says p239 "You take care, Bella." Charlie stalls Bella to ask about her day and informs her he will be going fishing on Saturday. He says he knows he leaves her alone too much to which she replies that he is doing a fine job and p241 "I've never minded being alone - I'm too much like you." He smiles and she heads off to bed.

She awakens the next morning and gets ready so the minute her father leaves she can be ready when Edward picks her up. She gets in the car and he starts asking a ton of questions again. He tells Bella that he should have let her drive herself today because he will be leaving immediately after lunch to hunt so he is not tempted when he is alone with her the next day. She says she will walk home and he protests that he and Alice will go get her truck and leave it in the parking lot at school. She does not have her key and he says that's not a problem.

In the lunchroom that day, his family is obvious in their disapproval of Edward sitting with Bella as evidenced when Rosalie glares at Bella and Edward hisses at her quietly to knock it off. He apologizes for her rudeness and skirts the explanation that it is dangerous for his family p246"If this ends badly'" He leaves with two sentiments, the first that she try to be safe and the second of being at her house in the morning to spend the day.

School ends for the day, but not until after another slight altercation with Mike about Edward and also her not going to the dance. She goes to the parking lot and there is her truck, incredibly, in his usual spot. She gets in and finds a note "Be Safe."

Saturday. He is on her doorstep when she opens the door and they climb into the truck and he directs her where to drive. He informs here they are going somewhere he usually goes when the weather is nice. As they talk Bella rambles that she did not tell Charlie where she was going and that she told Jessica that Edward canceled on her. He is angered that nobody knows she is with him and is silent the rest of the drive. They get out of the car and start trekking through the woods and he is reasonably calmer and promises to take her home. They arrive in a beautiful meadow with wildflowers, a stream nearby and the beautiful sunshine directly above.

Bella smiles and Edward takes a deep breath and hesitantly moves into the sunlight.

Time marches on and it is 9:00 PM and I have not yet released my hold on this book full of revelations and myths. It is very rare that I find a read like this that I cannot stop page turning because I absolutely HAVE to know what happens next. When something like this grabs hold and tugs at your senses you know that it is going to keep you on the edge of a knife until the end.

As we get further into the book you can completely see that Bella has a strange obsession with Edward even knowing the 'creature' he is. On the other side, Edward asks a lot of questions when they are together.

My take on this is that Edward is frustrated at not being able to get inside Bellas' head and hear her thoughts so he needs to have her verbalize everything so he can commit it to memory. The note he leaves her in the truck is a clear indication that he wants to care for her and protect her. I think that this is rather chivalrous and not something that enough males in our era take seriously. If more men today acted this way, as well as if more women were demure and undemanding then maybe the world we live in might be better for lasting relationships instead of the increasingly high breakup and divorce rate we live with. You can even see this towards the chapter end as he is supremely concerned that Bella told no one that she would be with him. He is still afraid he will hurt her due to his vampiric nature and she is taking it too lightly.

Swimming that great river to Chapter 13.