Chap 29, "Vamping"

Paco's pack holds their first overnight at the De Colores lodge, and after Taco and Chad fall asleep, Elias confesses he might be part vampire.  The title of the chapter, "Vamping," suggests word associations from the letter V:  vamping (guitar strumming; Elias plays blues guitar), revamp (change), vampire (he's pale and can feel weakened by his predatory thirst, a dark inheritance of his past), vanity (suggesting Elias has a shallow side), vain (futility), vane (weather, sensing danger), and vein (Elias's blue blood or passages into his mind).

The chapter's anecdote on the Red Camel refers to a true legend of the Southwest in which a dead body was strapped to a camel back when Southwesterners used camels before horses became the dominant beast of burden.  The Red Camel, like Animoosh, is a symbol for the boys' desperate inner natures.  They carry ghosts of their pasts.

Authorial dissociation as a theme in the writing process is seen in Elias's suggestion that he becomes somebody else, a guardian type figure with silver fangs; he had chrome claws removed as a kid so he'd fit in better.  Elias feels a loss of control at times, but he is co-conscious when other entities control his actions.

Book talk shares that Elias is the author's dancer side, the out-going, talkative entertainer.  This is really a chapter about personality development, self-doubt vs. courage, industry vs. inferiority.  It is also about how the author came up with writing out of the plot's chronological order.  The author describes writing by hand, at a computer, and the struggle to keep up with typing what you've written by hand.  He wrote about wrestling during wrestling season even though he hadn't finished writing the summer chapters from part I of the novel.

Key words:  dissociation, co-consciousness, Red Camel, alter ego, MPD, multiple personalities, integration, abuse, vampires, adolescent, personality development, confession.

The sketch in the ID3 Artwork shows Elias's "Killer" side, the fanged, top-hatted guardian persona within him, who watches over his little sisters and friends.

For Elias's novel, see the book Called to the Mat at http://stores.lulu.com/adamapellasios.