the murry's

If you could meet and have the opportunity to befriend one fictional person (or persons), who would it be, and why?

This is what Chip asked me about two months ago. I didn't come up with an answer until last week. It took me this long because the more I considered it, even my most favorite characters in fiction are just too important, too weird, too messed up, too bizarre, or way too smart for me to actually hang out with them. Every time I stopped to consider someone, I immediately felt this rush of stupidity over what I'd say or how I'd react. (In case you didn't know, we take our hypothetical questions very seriously at The Last Homely House.)

Last week I finally answered the question when I reread Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. (Have you read this book? If you haven't, you must stop what you are doing right now and go check it out at the library. You will find it in the children's section, possibly young adult. It's a Newberry Award Winner. And it was one of my absolute favorite books when I was a little girl.) Where do I start about A Wrinkle in Time? It's about the Murry family, a family of geniuses - and more particularly, it's about Meg Murry, a girl who doesn't feel like she fits anywhere. Oh how this book spoke to my 10-year-old self! How many times did I reread it as a balm to my savaged and misunderstood soul. I journeyed countless times with Meg and Calvin and Charles Wallace as they crossed the universe to rescue Mr. Murry from IT. I have imagined the Murry's house in the country, their big country kitchen, Mrs. Murry's stone lab, the pot of stew bubbling on a bunsen burner. And I longed to journey up to the attic to Meg's bedroom, to sit with her on her bed and talk.

My original copy of the book has long disappeared. Its pages were yellowed and dogeared, its cover creased with age. I bought a new one last week and devoured it in two days. I had planned to read it aloud to Alice, but couldn't stop after the first few pages. I love this book and I love the characters that inhabit its pages. If I could meet and possibly befriend (oh please, oh please I just know we'd be great friends) a fictional person or persons, I'd choose the Murry's.

How about you?