1306 Appreciation.


I think it’s safe to say that where Reggie is concerned Jo is primed for anger. Frustration is a good catalyst for that.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to think that Reggie was much less like himself before the incident with the flaming display. That’s a failure on my part to properly illustrate that he was still really irritating. I told that story from Jo’s perspective and she is the type of person people want to protect. Reggie is officious, and can be callous, but he’s not immune to the plight of the weak. He has a good heart, if a somewhat misguided one. She had a different experience with him than the others. In fact, they all experience Reggie in different ways. How they treat him tells you as much about them as it does about him. Nina is irritated by his infatuation, and self obsession. Thomas is actually kind to him, even friendly, but also patronizing. Carol dislikes him because they have very similar personalities, although she would argue with you about that. That’s actually kind of telling too, because of all the people in the store the one who gets along best with Reggie is the one who fell in love with Carol. Edward instantly clashes with Reggie because Reggie instigated it. Which is something Carol also did. John doesn’t have much of an opinion about Reggie apart from being mildly annoyed because he is an emotionally distant person.

When we first meet anyone we paint a mental picture of them in broad strokes. As we get to know them we paint in more and more detail until we go from having an impressionist view of them to a realistic one. I hope that meeting Reggie helps people look more deeply at the irritating people in their lives, because they tend to be the ones that need the most help. Of course some of them are just assholes and sociopaths, but it’s important to make sure. Someone like Reggie can become your most loyal friend if you put the time in to understand them.

Just so you know, the Teen was very amused by all the comments, even the passive aggressive ones.