…is short for Catherine Halsey, a character from the book The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

But it seemed quite normal to her; she did not appear to know that they had been parted.
He was first to ask finally:
“Did you get my wire?”
“Oh, yes. Thanks.”
“Don’t you want to know how I’m getting along in the city?”
“Sure. How are you getting along in the city?”
“Look here, you’re not terribly interested.”
“Oh, but I am! I want to know everything about you.”
“Why don’t you ask?”
“You’ll tell me when you want to.”
“It doesn’t matter much to you, does it?”
“What?”
“What I’ve been doing.”
“Oh … Yes, it does, Peter. No, not too much.”
“That’s sweet of you!”
“But, you see, it’s not what you do that matters really. It’s only you.”
“Me what?”
“Just you here. Or you in the city. Or you somewhere in the world. I don’t know. Just that.”
“You know, you’re a fool, Katie. Your technique is something awful.”
“My what?”
“Your technique. You can’t tell a man so shamelessly, like that, that you’re practically crazy about him.”
“But I am.”
“But you can’t say so. Men won’t care for you.”
“But I don’t want men to care for me.”
“You want me to, don’t you?”
“But you do, don’t you?”
“I do,” he said, his arms tightening about her. “Damnably. I’m a bigger fool than you are.”
“Well, then it’s perfectly all right,” she said, her fingers in his hair, “isn’t it?”

One of my favorite parts of the book (I have a lot!) and, so far, Katie is still my 2nd favorite character. Too bad she’s in love with such a poor excuse for a human being (nilait na). The favorite, of course, is Roark and talking about him deserves a separate post. This conversation stuck to me because it gave me a realization about a personal situation. I wish to stop explaining why I feel how I feel and why I do what I do. There only exist the fact that I feel this way, and it doesn’t necessarily require action from him or myself. I’m contented to be in this place right now.

I will be sure to get my own copy of The Fountainhead. Mostly, I read for entertainment but with this one reading is also self-discovery. Ang galing talaga. I’ll write more about Fountainhead and its wonderful characters as I go along, I’ve only read about 1/4 of the book.

Since we’re on the subject…They finally published the Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling. It’s available in two editions: collector’s and standard. The collector’s edition has a nice book case, cover, velvet bag, the works. Don’t be too surprised that it will set you back at $100. Since I’m only after the stories, I’m getting the standard edition, which costs $7.59. Oooh I have a $25 Amazon gift certificate waiting to be spent hehehe. This is still pre-order, the book is available on Dec 4. I will forget about it and I will have a nice surprise come December.