The windows are down and the air is so thick you can see it hovering over the road ahead of you. Twilight dances on the horizon and the road is blissfully free of traffic so you stick your foot deeper into the accelerator. The wind breezes by you, smelling sweet with honeysuckle and fresh cut hay and you just want to stretch your arms out in the sunroof and fly. You think about all those times you spent hauling ass home three hours late on curfew when the weather was just like this. Memories, memories… memories all around you. Now you only need a cigarette and a bottle of Boone’s and a reason to be at Finger Lakes at three am. Just lay out under the stars on the hood of that old Ford and be thankful for the wide open skies of Missouri countryside while drinking my Boone’s from a paper bag and listening to REO Speedwagon.

The other night on my way out into the country at one am, it was just like a night I had when I was eighteen. When I was 18, I was driving home, speeding of course, with the T-tops down, the windows down and the music blaring. The air was stale and sticking to your lungs with each inward breath. There was a low fog settled in the valley and the moonlight glared off it like blue fire. Years later, in the same place, I had this moment of overwhelming sadness come over me as I sped towards the creek valley, so I slowed down and turned the music down. I was tempted to pull over but I didn’t want my girlfriend to freak out as she sped past me on the way home. Instead, I tried to breathe it all in. I tried not to let the sadness creep into me. Tried not to let the panic make me turn the opposite way.  I thought about how I’d grown and what I’d accomplish since those days. But it’s always to get carried away in those moments and do things in the extreme.

I picked my speed back up and cruised down the winding back roads north of Columbia and drove down a gravel road that is as familiar to me as the palm of my hand. I thought about the drive home and my girlfriend mentioned she had the same déjà vu moment I’d experience and had the overwhelming urge to call her ex. Instead we went to bed with things on our mind. Which led me to think about vices later that night while trying to sleep. We all have them. It wouldn’t be right to have a main character without some. I’m riddled with them. Only fair to share the love.

What are some of the vices you’ve given your main character and are they anything like your own? Readers, if you read a character with the same vice as you does it help you identify with that hero/heroine more? Any vices you can’t stand in a character?