For the eve of the end of the first Writer’s Digest Character-Building Challenge the prompt is “pick a character and share either their best or worst moment ever.”

Since I looked at Davenna yesterday, let’s take a look at the best moment of Merle’s life so far in his own words:

I think the very best moment was that day I was sick at home in middle school. Mom and Dad were both at work and I went into Dad’s study and opened the center fold down desk in the center of his bookshelf. There was a secret compartment at the back, and in the secret compartment I found a stack of old paperbacks. I found Jaws, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Hawaii by Michener, among other surprises. Just one glimpse of the shark’s open mouth coming out of the depths under the bikini-clad swimmer, and my father crashed from his pedestal.  I suddenly realized he wasn’t the god of wisdom he pretended to be, locked away here in his own room of higher contemplation. He was an ordinary man who liked to hide away from us. I never told him I found his secret. I took one of the paperbacks at a time and as I read I found a special pleasure in knowing his disappointment in me had no power. He wasn’t anything special. The pain of his disapproval disappeared in an instant. I didn’t care anymore.