James in Phoenix, where Bella said she'd be? NO WAY.
Bella is very upset, and when Jasper tries to use his vampire mind trick on her, she runs into the other room and curls up, rocking back and forth and staring at the wall...for three and a half hours. The vampires are nice enough to leave her alone to her thoughts, which mostly consist of "I'm going to die" and "how many other people are going to die?"
The only thing helping her keep it together is that Edward is now flying down to Phoenix to take her away to safety. When he calls, Bella finally perks up knowing that he'll be arriving in just a few hours, while Alice and Jasper watch over her mom to make sure she's okay. Bella astutely points out that they can't protect everyone she knows, and that even one of her vampire friends getting hurt would be devastating, again forgetting that all Cullens are invulnerable godlike creatures of perfection.
On cue, Bella gets a call from Mom. Only, after a couple words from Mommy to fool Alice, and a few more to get Bella to start the conversation, a new voice takes over. It's everyone's favorite villainous vampire, James! We find out later that he used old home movies to make it sound like Renee was the one making the call. He tells Bella to come over to her mom's place as soon as she can sneak away from the Cullen clan -- in typical movie villain style, she has to come along, or mom bites it. A couple questions about this part:
- Can't vampires, with their heightened sense of hearing, tell the difference between a live voice and one coming from a really old VHS home video? At the very least, shouldn't Bella be able to tell? I know recorded voices sound pretty different when I hear them on the phone, but maybe that's just my special vampire power.
- Even if they can't, we know they can hear things from fairly far away, so shouldn't they be able to at least make out that it's not her mom on the line once James starts talking? The conversation starts in the same room, after Alice handed her the phone, meaning she's probably just a few feet away!
Bella's decision-making abilities in this chapter are about par for the course -- in other words, shockingly terrible. She has to go to her mom's house alone, or James says he'll kill her. James implies she has until noon to do so. Edward, who has the ability to read minds, will be getting off the plane at 9:45 am. The way I see it, there are two plans here...
The plan every person on the planet would come up with: Immediately after getting off the phone, explain the situation to Alice and Jasper. Wait for Edward's flight to come in, and get him just close enough to the house -- he said earlier in the book he only has to be within a couple miles if he knows who he's targeting -- to find out exactly what James is up to, and then proceed from there. This will probably end with Bella going to the house alone, but with Cullens following from a safe distance behind.
The plan Bella chooses: Tell nothing to anybody, ditch the vampires at the airport, and really go in alone.
I know, I know, she's 17 years old and under a lot of stress -- but when you have superhuman people with crazy abilities all around you, why wouldn't you utilize them? Besides, if she tries to get to her house without anyone holding her hand most of the way, she's likely to trip over and impale herself on something long before she gets there.
Bella ends the chapter without even seriously considering another plan, yet somehow managing to hide her feelings from Alice and Jasper. She writes a letter for Alice to leave at her mom's house, one ostensibly for her mom, but actually for Edward to tell him that she loves him thiiiiiis much. So much that she's going to get herself killed rather than wait a few hours for him and his family to help her out.
You're the best girlfriend ever, Bella.
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