Act I
The Illusion of Here and Now
Perfection, if there ever was such a reality. The first thing I notice when I open my eyes every morning. It's not the light piercing through the orange drapes, nor our cat, half asleep with his claws wrapped tightly around my leg. It's always her scent. Even first thing in the morning, she smells like something similar to a bed of flowers, but better. I think of it as the smell of beauty. If a general concept could have a scent. Then I notice her eyes. A mixture of longing and innocence that fills me with warmth and, for a time, puts the cares of the world aside. Penelope, my soon to be wife. She has the face of an angel. Though we approach thirty years of age, I can't go a day without wanting to tell her how adorable she is while pinching her cheeks.
It's been five years since we moved into her parents old house together. At first, things were tough. It's not easy being a lower class aspiring architect from a community college. When you care about something, you do whatever it takes. So, that's what I do. Whatever it takes. Between every dead end job you can think of, and constantly submitting my designs to corporations that wouldn't know a quality structure if it fell on them, I almost went crazy a couple times. I was very close to throwing in the towel until just last week. A project I had long forgot about got picked up by a tycoon in Las Vegas. When I had heard how much I was going to get paid, I came close to making a scene similar to the one my fiancé made when I popped the question. Needless to say, things are looking up and it has been one hell of a week.
After whatever drug your brain produces when you've finally succeeded in something after many long years starts to wear off, you come to realize something. You're not any different. Though you have accomplished your goal, you're still that slow runner back in gym class or that guy who stares at the ground when someone makes a move on your girl. When the fog lifts, it is kind of scary how little you have evolved. The scariest thing of all is, you realize that you still crave success and accomplishment. Probably even more than before.
I fling myself out of my sanctuary of warmth and head for the back room, also known as my office. I don't get ready for the day. I don't eat or drink anything. I just draw sketch after sketch like a mad man until about noon. Penelope is used to it. She does her own thing on days off like this. When I manage to hunchback my way out of my bell tower and shower myself, she greets me in the kitchen with lunch, coffee, a smile, and a kiss. God, I love her.
"Don't be fooled by the illusion of here and now," As my grandfather would have so eloquently put it. Though things are amazing right this moment, they were not always. Like any couple in the world, we've had our greatest hits and our falling outs. Until the money started to come through, it had definitely felt like more falling out than anything. Life has a funny way of putting you through a storm of chaos before finally giving you enough to stand on your own two feet. I only hope that the storm has passed and this isn't the calm between the hardest times of my life. I can only hope.
In the beginning when I was still blinded by youthful mystification and not sure where exactly I should go in life, I found her. Maybe, she found me. From the first time I laid eyes on her I was instantly intoxicated by infatuation. When we finally conversed, we seemed to click right away. Talking to her was easy. It felt as natural as breathing. Unlike any other girl I had come across we had actually become friends and got to know each other before we started getting into the complicated stuff. Everything is fun and games until that game changing moment when you realize that you cannot lose this person. Once that happens, everything changes. Whether it is for better or for worse, it changes.
A once easy operation turns into bomb defusing
The Illusion of Here and Now
Perfection, if there ever was such a reality. The first thing I notice when I open my eyes every morning. It's not the light piercing through the orange drapes, nor our cat, half asleep with his claws wrapped tightly around my leg. It's always her scent. Even first thing in the morning, she smells like something similar to a bed of flowers, but better. I think of it as the smell of beauty. If a general concept could have a scent. Then I notice her eyes. A mixture of longing and innocence that fills me with warmth and, for a time, puts the cares of the world aside. Penelope, my soon to be wife. She has the face of an angel. Though we approach thirty years of age, I can't go a day without wanting to tell her how adorable she is while pinching her cheeks.
It's been five years since we moved into her parents old house together. At first, things were tough. It's not easy being a lower class aspiring architect from a community college. When you care about something, you do whatever it takes. So, that's what I do. Whatever it takes. Between every dead end job you can think of, and constantly submitting my designs to corporations that wouldn't know a quality structure if it fell on them, I almost went crazy a couple times. I was very close to throwing in the towel until just last week. A project I had long forgot about got picked up by a tycoon in Las Vegas. When I had heard how much I was going to get paid, I came close to making a scene similar to the one my fiancé made when I popped the question. Needless to say, things are looking up and it has been one hell of a week.
After whatever drug your brain produces when you've finally succeeded in something after many long years starts to wear off, you come to realize something. You're not any different. Though you have accomplished your goal, you're still that slow runner back in gym class or that guy who stares at the ground when someone makes a move on your girl. When the fog lifts, it is kind of scary how little you have evolved. The scariest thing of all is, you realize that you still crave success and accomplishment. Probably even more than before.
I fling myself out of my sanctuary of warmth and head for the back room, also known as my office. I don't get ready for the day. I don't eat or drink anything. I just draw sketch after sketch like a mad man until about noon. Penelope is used to it. She does her own thing on days off like this. When I manage to hunchback my way out of my bell tower and shower myself, she greets me in the kitchen with lunch, coffee, a smile, and a kiss. God, I love her.
"Don't be fooled by the illusion of here and now," As my grandfather would have so eloquently put it. Though things are amazing right this moment, they were not always. Like any couple in the world, we've had our greatest hits and our falling outs. Until the money started to come through, it had definitely felt like more falling out than anything. Life has a funny way of putting you through a storm of chaos before finally giving you enough to stand on your own two feet. I only hope that the storm has passed and this isn't the calm between the hardest times of my life. I can only hope.
In the beginning when I was still blinded by youthful mystification and not sure where exactly I should go in life, I found her. Maybe, she found me. From the first time I laid eyes on her I was instantly intoxicated by infatuation. When we finally conversed, we seemed to click right away. Talking to her was easy. It felt as natural as breathing. Unlike any other girl I had come across we had actually become friends and got to know each other before we started getting into the complicated stuff. Everything is fun and games until that game changing moment when you realize that you cannot lose this person. Once that happens, everything changes. Whether it is for better or for worse, it changes.
A once easy operation turns into bomb defusing
Similar Books
