Do you ever wonder what happens to the characters after the story ends? I often do, especially if I really love the characters. Of course, my own characters become like real people to me by the end of a story - so I wanted to check in with Kerri and Mitch, just back from their honeymoon in Paris...
Kelly: So tell us all about your honeymoon in Paris!
Kerri: It was soooo romantic. (Glances at Mitch). Until Mitch had an anxiety attack about getting married.
Mitch: I did not have an anxiety attack!
Kerri: What was it then? I swear you were having cold feet because we got married so fast.
Mitch: I think I ate some bad paté. That stuff is disgusting.
Kerri: Can’t say I was fond of it either, but otherwise the food was amazing.
Mitch: Kerri even ate bread.
Kerri: (laughing) Yes I did and you could not believe how much better bread tastes in France. Every day we’d stop in the middle of the afternoon at one of the little brasseries and sit outside and have a glass of wine and watch people. It was so beautiful.
Kelly: I went to Paris a few years ago and I loved it.
Kerri: I loved it too. It really was romantic. I love the history and the old buildings. I loved looking down these narrow old streets, lined with buildings and imagining who lives there. And how many people have lived there over the years. Decades. Centuries.
Kelly: Did you do all the tourist things? Notre Dame? The Louvre? Versailles? The Eiffel Tower?
Kerri: Yes! We even went to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Mitch: But you got scared and we had to go down.
Kerri: (frowning) Who knew I was afraid of heights? And all the security made me nervous.
Mitch: Then we looked at a lot of old paintings at the Louvre and Versailles.
Kerri: There’s so much history. It’s mind-boggling to think that people actually lived in a place like that. The Louvre was actually a palace, too, until um…
Mitch: 1672
Kerri: Yes, thank you. In 1672 Louis XIV moved from the Louvre to Versailles, and the Louvr then became a place to display the royal collection.
Kelly: What was the best part of your trip?
Mitch: The sex.
Kerri: Mitch!
Mitch: You deny it?
Kerri: Okay, no. But it was also very romantic sitting at a sidewalk brasserie having dinner one evening at dusk and watching the lights on the Eiffel Tower come on. It’s quite a show. Walking down the Champs-Élysées under the chestnut trees. And then on the way back to the hotel on the subway, some guy just started playing jazz music on a saxophone. He was so good!
Mitch: (grinning) Yeah, that was cool. But actually the best part was no lawyer jokes.
Kerri: Oh, that reminds me! How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?
Mitch: Oh my God.
Kelly: Um…how many?
Kerri: Fifty four.
Mitch: Oh my God.
Kerri: Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their time cards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and twenty-eight to bill for professional services.
Kelly: (muffles laughter)
Mitch: Okay. How about this: What did the Yogi say to the hot dog vendor?
Kerri: (frowns)
Mitch: Make me one with everything. (laughs)
Kerri: (Groaning) Very funny.
Mitch: Hey, I think I owe you a few. In fact, I think I owe you a spanking for that last one.
Kerri: Oooh. Are we done here?
