Vision Quest

AUTHORS' NOTES Part 1 (For my WP buddies. Contest judges may skip to part 2)

POV: Joe (I am the real-life author. Charles Farley is my pen name as well as a fictional character in many of my books.)

    This story was inspired when my daughter's friend Kaila referred to me as her spirit animal. I assumed it was a compliment, but I googled it to make sure. With Kaila and my daughter, you shouldn't assume anything. Like when they said they were going to Disneyland and went to Las Vegas. Yeah, some often call Vegas the adult Disneyland, but at the time, they weren't what I would call adults. They are forty years old now and I'm still not sure I would call them adults even though Kaila is married and has a son. By age maybe adults, by behavior let us just say they are definitely young at heart. 

My daughter did finally tell me about her sky diving experience —almost twenty years after the fact. Just as well, I worried enough when she visited a friend who was in school in Paris and then the two twenty somethings and a friend drove around France and Spain on their own. She assured me they only got lost once and then they were made the guests of honor at a local religious festival in a small Spanish town that had never had American tourists before. As a father I really understand why they say ignorance is bliss. Europe survived their adventures. I barely survived hearing about them. Now I know how my parents felt. 

Anyway, from my google search, I found out that calling someone your "spirit animal" had become a very common way to refer to people you admire. It has become such a popular term that satirist Mallory Ortberg penned a humorous essay on her website The Toast. She wrote: "One of these days—and that day is closer than you might think—everyone and everything that you've ever called 'my spirit animal' is going to show up at your doorstep and make you go on a vision quest, and it's going to be awful."  

How can anyone read that and not think what a great idea for a story?

I am also inspired by the idea of all my Wattpad buddies being my spirit animals and every time I read one of their books it is a vision quest from which I come away both entertained and enlightened. I am dedicating this story to all of them.

I also need to tell you that the Roger Ryan in this story is indeed the same fictional Roger as appears in my other works. This story begins with him a bit younger, let's say twenty-one. Roger is based on my real-life friend Eddie who died in his late twenties in a car wreck. He was a very creative, lighthearted fellow, a fun seeker that many equated to being a troublemaker. But I knew there was not a malicious bone in his body. He was just misunderstood. Roger has the longer life I wish my friend Eddie had lived. His character made writing this story easy because all I had to do was ask myself, "what would Eddie do?" I hope you enjoy his antics as much as I did.

I would be remiss if I did not also dedicate this work to Eddie, Kaila, my daughter and all the spirit animals that have served me throughout my life including the real-life coyote I had the stare down with and that I am now convinced is in fact my real-life spirit animal.