8. Adrenaline

Chapter Synopsis

It is time to learn how to ride the motorcycle! Jacob is trying to explain how to ride this bike to Bella. He seems to have experience, and we’re a bit stumped as to how a 16-year-old knows this much about riding motorcycles. He goes through each part, explaining the clutch, the break, etc. Bella is getting a bit nervous and afraid, and makes Jacob kick start it for her because she can’t do it without the bike toppling over on her. Jacob instructs her to let go of the clutch a bit, and the bike starts growling. Grr.

Bella is still scared, but she gets going and, all of a sudden, the voice is back! She’s so startled that she lets go of the clutch completely, and the bike falls over on her, and the voice is all “I told you so.” But Bella doesn’t care. She’s SO excited that the voice in her head is back! She realizes the recipe for the voice is adrenaline, danger and some stupidity thrown in there. Jacob, on the other hand, is worried she is injured, but Bella doesn’t really care — she just wants to know how to generate more of these hallucinations.

She decides to try again, and even kickstarts the bike herself this time. Edward’s voice is back, asking if she wants to kill herself because it’s exactly what she’s going to do. Bella is relishing the beautiful voice of the angel in her head and starts riding again. Apparently, she is going very fast and doesn’t realize there is a curve in the road ahead. Jacob didn’t teach her how to turn! So she slams on the break, like she would in her truck, but it doesn’t work the same way. She crashes into a tree and is disoriented with the voice in her head yelling at her.

Jacob runs over, and Bella says she’s fine. But she doesn’t feel the giant, bleeding cut on her head. Bella apologizes for bleeding (obviously used to the vampires) and says it’s not that bad. Jacob gives her his shirt to put on her head and allows Bella to convince him to go back to her house and change before they go to the ER so that nobody knows about the motorcycles and what they’ve been up to.

They drive back to the house, and Bella is still really excited about Edward’s voice, while Jacob is worried about her. She changes clothes and decides to tell people that she tripped in Jacob’s garage and hit her head on a hammer. On the way, she tells Jacob that he’s sort of beautiful. He holds her hand while she gets stitches.

Charlie buys the story about her tripping and falling in the garage and that night, the nightmares are not as bad as the last time she heard the voice. The hole in her chest is still there, but it’s not as bad because she has things to look forward to now, like riding the bike with Jacob.

The next week, we find out, Bella crashes again and possibly has a concussion. Charlie says maybe she should stay out of the garage, and Bella is worried because she had the GREATEST hallucination and needs to keep having them. She realizes she needs to keep the bike-riding going, so she tells Charlie that she was injured hiking this time, instead of in the garage. Again, there is mention of the giant bear. 

Next time Bella sees Jacob, she explains that Charlie is getting nosy and they might need to lay off the bikes for a bit. Jacob says okay, and Bella tries to think of something they can do that will bring the voice back. She racks her brains for a place to go and remembers the meadow where she discovered that Edward sparkles. However, she doesn’t know where it is. She tells Jacob about the meadow, minus Edward, and Jacob promises they’ll find it.

That weekend, Bella buys boots while Jacob draws out a grid pattern on a map to try to find the meadow. Both are excited by the possibility of seeing the giant “grizzly” while they’re hiking. While hiking, Bella asks Jacob if everything with Embry is back to normal, and Jacob explains it’s not. The two hike for six miles and head back, unable to find the meadow. Jacob assures her they will find it, but that hiking will have to be saved for Sundays because Bella is slow. 

Best Worst Lines

“‘Jacob, it won’t stay up,’ I complained.

‘It will when you’re moving,’ he promised.” (182)   (Hahaha. That’s what she said.)

“Though the movement was tiny, the bike snarled beneath me. It sounded angry and hungry now.” (183)

“More than fine. The voice in my head was back. It still rang in my ears — soft, velvety echoes.”

“‘Go home to Charlie,’ the voice ordered. The sheer beauty of it amazed me. I couldn’t allow my memory to lose it, no matter the price.”

“This had to be it, the recipe for a hallucination — adrenaline plus danger plus stupidity.” (187)

“‘I’m an easy bleeder.'” (190)

“His skin was such a pretty color, it made me jealous.

… ‘Did you know, you’re sort of beautiful?'” (192)

“I’d had the most amazing hallucination today.”

“One place that would always belong to him and no one else. A magic place, full of light. The beautiful meadow I’d seen only once in my life, lit by sunshine and the sparkle of his skin.”

“The shadows didn’t seem as dark as usual. Not with my personal sun along.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky tomorrow and something will eat us!’

‘Bears don’t want to eat people. We don’t taste that good.’ He grinned at me in the dark cab. ‘Of course, you might be an exception. I bet you’d taste good.’

Thanks so much,’ I said, looking away. He wasn’t the first person to tell me that.” (200)

Things That Really Irk Us

Bella’s making repeated trips to the ER to get stitches still somehow falls short of painting her as the clumsy protagonist that Meyer is trying to turn her into. It’s just not believeable, and it irks us a lot. If anyone really made that many trips to the hospital, law enforcement would probably be brought into it — they’d either think Bella was being beaten, or that she was addicted to pain meds. Though, now we come to think of it, THAT would be a good character flaw.

Bella apologizing for bleeding. Yes, that actually happened.

Everybody wants to eat Bella. Apparently, depressed, angsty, pasty, klutzes are kind to the pallette. Who knew?

Bella keeps talking about how great Jacob is to her, but she is only using him to find danger in order to find Edward’s voice. What a BITCH. Seriously?  Poor Jacob.

Final Thoughts

We wonder what will happen when they finally find the meadow and its buttery sunshine? Will Jacob sparkle? Will he admit that she is his own personal brand of heroin? Or perhaps meth?

Go to Chapter 9.