each day more

Outline

7/18/15

Act I

 Simon graduated fourth in his high school class. His on-again off-again girlfriend told him he could have been valedictorian - if he tried harder.  He was a passable lacrosse player. When 18 at his college medical eye exam, he was told he was slightly nearsighted, got horn rimmed glasses. He ate three square meals, no snacks. He went to the gym for his three times a week cardio. She told him if he tried a little harder, he could lose those five pounds. He had a drink on Friday and Saturday nights; at parties he stayed just long enough.

Melinda who went by Muffy back at Alton High referred to his father's Environmental Technologies company as slime removal. The name stuck so that's what all his friends called it. He was called Son of Slime.

He got mostly A's in college, was now a director at Hase Bank; Muffy wanted to get married, wanted a prenup and an open marriage so she could continue sleeping with her girlfriends - and their husbands - preferably together.

Simon was not into ménage.

Act II

He got Gaugin Syndrome. A solo trip to Tahiti did little for him.  Why did he keep confusing Gaugin with Van Gogh? It was eerie. Ugh

 He did not like the paleness of his skin, his freckles, his glasses.

Simon liked the biographical movie about Gandhi. He read How Can I Help by Ram Das. He meditated at an ashram in India. He watched Hector in Search of Happiness.

Muffy got tired of waiting.

****

So did Simon.

****

Act III

Michelle was dark, beautiful, intelligent, fluent in Hindi learned from her Indian father.

She had the long silky hair of her Native American mother. Michelle grew up in Argentina. Her Spanish was better than her French, Italian or German but she could get by in those countries.

A software engineer by day, kickboxer and jazz singer by night.

How could Simon not fall in love with Michelle - at first sight - and each day more.