Then he gave me a look that said, “Did you go get
Prior Yates instead of a cup?” The look I returned said, “I ran into him by the
elevators. He wants to sleep next to us.” His look said, “He can’t.” My look
said, “I know. Why is your face weird?” His look said, “I’ll tell you in a
second. It’s serious.”
Are Fair and Gomery telepathic? My feeling is no. Many outlandish things go down in the Wilfair world, but the people who inhabit it do not possess any special skills. No one can cast a magic spell. No one can tell the future. They're normal, mistake-making, curious people grappling with occasionally extraordinary circumstances.
This is probably my favorite contrast: normal/extranormal. I love it in the reverse, too, where the people are magical or strange but the world around them is normal. Normal/normal and magical/magical have their pleasures for me, for sure, but I'm more of a normal/extranormal or extranormal/normal gal.
The books' look-based conversations start after Fair works the motel's front desk and our trio prepares to go eat at The Wilfair. Gomery gives Fair a look that she interprets as "I'm ready."
I never intended this to be telepathic, in the term's truest meaning. Rather I wanted to ease these two people onto that special and rare track that very simpatico twosomes sometimes achieve. The track where subtle suggestions or ideas can be conveyed by a glance or a facial expression.
True, it is taken to its extreme in the Wilfairverse, with three or four fairly complex exchanges sometimes happening. But I find I can't go past four or at most five exchanges, and I don't want to, because then it veers into something more supernatural and outside of the books' rules.
Another reason these little Fair-Gomery look-conversations are kept tight? Because I like it when important information is shared between two people when a third person is present. One of the odd trends of the book, odd to me, at least, is the tendency for conversations that would typically occur in private between two people to take place in a group setting.
This is odd because I do value privacy and intimacy and candor. But I also value a robust and lively group of friends, all bearing and sharing opinions about each other and what should happen next. And that element flows far more easily when information isn't locked down between two people but is discussed in a more public setting.
Ultimately I favor a private/public mix. Private so things can get deeply sweet and public so things can get sassy, what with more people weighing in on the matters multiple characters don't usually get a chance to opine about.
So telepathic-type conversations are kept to a minimum in the Wilfair world. Oh, I enjoy them, believe it, but they're just the cherry on top of the cherry that sits atop the multichannel, looks-texts-conversation-touch-based communication system employed by our late-blooming hotelier and growing-less-shy motelier.
(I went looking for an image to convey "telepathy" and found this album cover. It's a beaut. I can see Thurs Mathers rocking that neck scarf, too.)
