Mr. Waters & The Great Backfire

Two things you should know about me…

1. My idea of catching up on the news is to watch HBO’s “The Newsroom.” True Story.

2. I LOVE a good “What If” question. I blame my Dad, the Conspiracy Theorist.

Add to this the fact that Mr. Waters is a Republican who actually keeps up with world events…

…and gives me the condescending eyebrow when I get all What are you talking about???

(China could invade the US and I wouldn’t know it.)

Let’s just say it gets interesting around here.

Mr. Waters tries to scare me. Theoretically, his methods to push me toward watching the news on a daily basis should work. Except, he’s married to a writer. And I don’t hear scary facts. I hear probable plots for a futuristic sci-fi.

It typically takes a series of events to form a story. For instance, with Archetype, the world-building began when I was still in high school. My dad, the Conspiracy Theorist, sits in the corner of the sectional with a glass of Moet bubbling in Waterford crystal wearing a pair of cotton shorts and a Star Wars T-shirt from 1976. (No, I’m not making that up. Juxtaposition is my dad.)

Anyway.

He tells me about China and how they’re limiting births to one child, and how the family lines are important, which leads to them needing/wanting their one and only child to be male. Hell if I know if any of this is true, but I was an impressionable teen who sat with wide eyes and soaked in the horror stories that came from this. Then my dad asks the What If question I’ve never forgotten: If we had the technology to control the sex of a child, and this was a world-wide issue. What do you think would happen if almost every family chose to have a son?

And so begins the world that today we find in Archetype. There are a whole other bunch of factors involved in that world, but that’s how it began.

Now.

Mr. Waters has been talking off and on for a few weeks about certain details in the news, and today, he thinks he’s got me. I mean, this topic is huge. HUGE. World-altering. The ultimate in conspiracy. He even researched it online to hit me with the juiciest of details. The man truly believes I’m going to flee to the TV and flip on CNN (I’m a Democrat, so YES, CNN. Mr. Waters can have his Fox News in another room.) and soak up alllll the news I can with rapt fascination.

Except.

The longer he talks, the warmer my gut gets… The harder my heart beats. The muse swivels her head and begins listening with me. She’s perking up and going oh… ohOH. OOOOH.

So Mr. Waters finally comes to his closing argument, and you can tell by the sparkle in his eye that he thinks he’s got me. And he does. Just not in the way he thinks. Because the second he’s done, I ask:

“So you’re going to help me plot this story, right?”

HIM:

 

ME:

 

God I love my husband.