Are You your Character?

Do you ever get the feeling you’re becoming too much like your characters? I did last fall during our first garage sale. We’d been warned that certain groups of people cluttered together in an attempt to hide the fact that one of more of them were shoplifting. These groups had been circulating in the garage sale scene and when I saw them approach my things, I made my presence VERY obvious.

Unfortunately, that experience put me on edge all day. I watched people like a hawk. I’m not sure everyone noticed, but anyone trying to get something for nothing would’ve. I was confident nobody had stolen anything from me, until a girl walked off with one of our toys sans payment. Adrenalin kicked my heart into full gear. I jumped from my seat, ran to the edge of the table-filled drive-way and called out to her. She ignored me, which sent another gush of blood through my veins. I backed up, took a run at a heap of toys and leaped over them like I was in high school jumping hurdles. I rushed over to the girl, who was surprised to see me. I asked if she planned on paying for the item. She said no and handed the toy to me. As I made my way back to my seat beside my husband, witness to the whole event, I felt a little embarrassed. I never meant to make such a spectacle of myself. I was following an impulse. Then, I got to thinking… Maybe I had reacted that way because I’d been working on my bodyguard series and that’s what my hero would’ve done (on a much larger scale… not a garage sale setting). Was I behaving like him?

Have you ever had an experience like this where you behaved more like your character than yourself?