[I decided that Ben didn't cancel his Seattle trip, so the meadow was in the morning, leaving the rest of the day for Seattle. That changes the timing of this (for Edward and Bella it was dinner time.)]
“I’m sorry, I’m keeping you from lunch.”
“I’m fine, really,” I said.
"It's not that I forget that human beings need to eat, exactly," Edith said. "I'm constantly aware of it, actually. It's just that being intellectually aware of something isn't the same as having it resonate with you and sometimes I loose track of food related time as a result."
I was somewhat confused. "But you need to feed," I said.
"It's... different. A vampire can, theoretically at least, go indefinitely without feeding, it's just that the longer you go the worse things get. A week can be no problem, but as time goes on the hunger grows and grows and people start feeling more and more like food and less and less like people.
"Then, and this has never happened to me so it's second hand, parts of you just start shutting down. Your inhibitions, notably moral ones, turn off, as more time goes on all higher reasoning shuts down, if enough time passes without feeding all that's left is an instinct driven predator.
"Which is completely different from what happens to a human without food."
"Yeah." There didn't seem to be anything else to say.
"I'm sorry I've been keeping you from eating."
"I'm fine."
"True though that may be, I'd rather you be better than just fine. I'm sure we'll reach a restaurant sooner or latter. Do you have any preferences?"
"None whatsoever."
"Well we can definitely pull that off."
"Thanks," I said, and meant it.
"Just remember that we'll be stopping for you, don't feel the need to over-stuff yourself on my account. Eat as much or as little as you need to make your stomach stop growling."
"I thought it was more a rumble than a growl."
"Well if we're going split hairs it really sounded to me like ..."
[and so on.]
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[Edith and Ben Index]
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