Once Upon Your Time

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Someone told me a story they’d heard from someone else, so who knows if it is true. But the idea of it keeps rolling around in my mind like a marble in a clothes dryer:

A woman was in a new great relationship with an extremely handsome man. Handsome like movie star handsome, like take-your-breath-away handsome. It had been going on for a while when she asked to see pictures of him when he was a boy.

Amused, her guy said sure and a few days later brought a bunch of old snapshots of himself. Delighted, the woman started looking through them. After seeing a few though, she kept her head down so boyfriend would not notice the growing dismay in her eyes.

Usually when looking at pictures of friends or loved ones when they were kids, we frequently see a younger version of the adult they eventually grew into. But the boy in these photos was the strangest, most unnerving combination of absolutely plain to the point of invisible and something not right about him.

a blankness in his young eyes or a feral malicious twist to his smile in a few of the photos that gave her the instant creeps.

In the version of the story I heard, it took the woman the longest time to compose her face before looking at her beautiful funny generous… new love and handing his pictures back without his seeing or sensing how disturbed and absolutely gravity-less she felt at that moment.

I'm out folks.

Thanks for stopping by.