In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 33 -- Forgery · 10:44am Jul 24th, 2018
Bella finally decides to look into J. Jenks. She drives Jacob and Nessie over to Charlie’s, telling Edward that she wants to give Charlie a chance to visit Nessie so she can use the away time to head to Seattle. Why she can’t just say, “I need to go to Seattle. Alice left a message that she only wanted me to see. I want to tell you but I don’t think I should. Sorry.”, I don’t know. Jacob’s still not happy with the vampires, particularly the Romanians. Nessie, however, is fascinated with them, particularly the fact that they have strange skin. I must’ve missed that amidst all the other boring, meaningless crap. (looks back) It’s “powdery”. That’s the only description of their skin we get. And how did they get that skin?
“Contemplating our own divinity. It was a sign of our power that everything came to us. Prey, diplomats, those seeking our favor. We sat on our thrones and thought ourselves gods. We didn’t notice for a long time that we were changing — almost petrifying.”
What a non-explanation. They’re so self-inflated they’d die if we took a pin to them. You know, Mansa Musa, tenth ruler of the Mali Empire, once left his land on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He had armies in the field, attempting to capture some trade cities. He left his son on the throne while he was away. When he returned a year later, no coup attempt had been made and he resumed his position like nothing had changed. Do you have any idea how rare that is? That’s power, not just sitting on a throne. And before you claim anything about being rich, listen to this: during the trip, Musa allegedly caused to value of gold to crash in Cairo for a decade because he spent so much in the bazaars. Talk about souvenir hunting.
As Bella drives to Seattle, we get an out-of-nowhere mention of how she’s working with Zafrina on her shields, both in expanding them — she can, with effort, cover a ten-foot area for over a minute, although it exhausts her — and in removing them from herself. Ten bucks says the last one is going to be important in some way later.
Bella arrives in Seattle at the supposedly nonexistent address Alice gave her. It’s a bad part of town, with shifty shops and rundown buildings. A passerby with shabby clothes and good clothes underneath those — why? — advises her not to park her car in this neighborhood. When she asks him about Jenks, the man (named Max) says that if she were one of the usual clients, if she were up to any good, she’d just go straight to his office, and passing along the wrong sort of people could get him in trouble. Still, he’ll call him now, pass along what she looks like, and let him decide. Bella adds that she’s a Cullen.
When Max makes the call, Bella can hear the other end of the line thanks to vampiric hearing. Jenks is initially dismissive until Max mentions “Cullen”, at which point he goes ballistic, gives Max an address for Bella to meet him at, and hangs up. Max, although rueful that Bella hadn’t told him she was a “priority client”, badgers her a little about her job, going over things like drug cartels, the Mafia, and diamond smuggling. Rather open about these things, isn’t he? No discretion at all. He says Bella’s got to be involved in something big and bad if she needs “papers”, but she cheerfully denies them all.
I had to admit, I was enjoying myself a little. I hadn’t interacted with humans much besides Charlie and Sue. It was entertaining to watch him flounder. I was also pleased at how easy it was not to kill him.
…Do you want a cookie for that last part or something? Why mention that?
Bella heads over to the new address, supposedly an unassuming attorney’s office under the name “Jason Scott”. Jenks initially assumes that Bella’s Jasper’s wife before she corrects him. Bella says she needs papers, and Jenks asks what kind: he can do birth or death certificates, drivers’ licenses, and so on. He’s a forger.
You know, this is actually a phenomenal idea. So much fiction with vampires or other immortal beings vaguely mentions them living with faked papers so people don’t spot that they’re long-lived, but never actually shows where they get those papers. Here, we’ve got the person responsible for getting those papers. It’s hinted at that Jenks knows something’s up with the Cullens — after hearing Bella’s name from Max, he asked if she was “pale and beautiful” — but he keeps his mouth shut for his own reasons. So why didn’t this guy appear before the last fifth of the last book? He could’ve been amazing.
Bella realizes that if Alice sent her to get faked papers, then Nessie would be running away. And if Nessie was running away, then they’d lost. She wonders who should protect Nessie and realizes there’s only one option. She orders papers for Jacob and Nessie pays Jenks with money she brought along. She and Jenks set up a time when she’ll pick them up. There’s an alright bit where:
“Can I get them in a week?”
“That’s a rush order. It will cost twice as — but forgive me. I forgot with whom I was speaking.”
Clearly, he knew Jasper.
So, with the deadline set, Bella leaves, hoping Jenks really can get them done on time.
Clinginess Meter: 58 x 6
Chapters Left: 6
Urban fantasy with masquerades needs more forgers. Those characters always seem to operate on the slippery side of the law anyway, so a forger would fit right in. How come Twilight seems to seize on all the great ideas urban fantasy never looks at, and then it never uses them well at all?
You should take all of the good characters in Twilight (and some of the good ideas) and write a not-a-fan-fic (seeing as you’re clearly not a fan).
I like how the trivia has crept up into the summary. :V
I'd say the "enjoying myself" aside was a creepy indication of how Bella has last all but a thin facade of her humanity, but she was always like that.
In any case, we should be grateful that Jenks doesn't show up much. Prolonged exposure to Bella radiation would only ruin him as it has so many others.
It is weird that if someone were to gut these books, there might remain the skeleton of something good. Or at least something workable.