As expected, I got a lot of mail saying I ruined the story, and I completely changed Linda.
The truth is, I did not. She was always like that, we just could not see it because Pete did not see it. He saw her as wonderful, so that was how the reader saw her. But I have dropped hints all along to how she really was.
First of all, could anybody see her staying with Pete if he did not have his own car, and was just a poor kid from say Pacoima?
She was a girl who before Pete would give handjobs in exchange for McDonald's and a movie. She tried to change, because she thought he was a great catch, and wanted to keep hold of him. If she had not met him, by the time she was in High School she would have been the school skank, probably trading blowjobs and more for dinner and movies because handjobs were no longer enough.
She was always vein, selfish, manipulative, and a sex addict. She thought nothing of having a fling with Kimmie, but would get jealous if he did little more than talk to another girl. She had to be in control of everything, and even if she included Pete in some of her "sex games", she was the one in the center of it all.
Then there was the lifestyle. He had his own car, took her on really nice trips to nice hotels, had money to do things on the weekend, even bought a motorhome so they could spend time together. TO be blunt, she was also more than a bit of a gold-digger. And when Pete was finally gone, she was back to being a little girl in the Valley. No weekends in a hotel, no trips. Yes she had his car, but no job so little money for gas.
But rather than a little income at fast food, she chased the larger money and less work of dancing, then stripping.
No, all of those flaws in her if you read back through will see had always been there. Linda was never intended to be the "love of his life", it is another. Always has been.
But she was seen through his eyes, and he saw her as wonderful. And because I write through Pete's eyes and you all read through them, that was how you all saw her. But if you read again, the little hints I dropped here and there will now make a lot more sense.
Friends, this is known as the "Unreliable Narrator". The Joker is one, movies and books are full of them. In this case, few realized because Peter did not realize. Until much later.
He did settle her down, even her sister, mother and friends talked about how Linda "changed" after meeting Peter. But did she change, or just push it all into the background because she knew she had to if she wanted to keep him?
And when I finish, I am going to complete with a shorter story of her downfall from her eyes. How nothing she did is ever her fault, even when she turns to doing porn or prostitution.
The only real question I have in the "Saga of Linda" is how to end her. Does she finally realize what all she has done, and change and become a better person? Or does she continue her downward spiral of self-destruction. That I have not decided yet, and in many ways it is no longer important in the Saga of Pete. She is now a periphery character in the rest of his life.
For anybody that thinks I 'did her wrong", I apologize. But I promise, if you read the earlier book and chapters knowing this, it will be obvious this was always the path she was on. She could only keep another out of her panties so long as Pete was around (and sometimes not even then).
After all, she was the instigator of every one of the "sex games" they had. They were not about Pete, they were about her and finding a way to "fool around" safely.