Secrets of Men & Women
A Loose Man
NOTE: This second post I’m presenting at Substack, entitled, “A Loose Man,” was the first of 27 ‘ one-page stories I wrote in 1990––one per day, 27 days in a row. I had been frustrated, not about to break into a new project, film or written. So to half-punish myself, half-motivate myself, I decided to pretend that I was a journalist/columnist, delivering a short bit of writing each day for a newspaper. I modeled myself after Jon Carroll, the SF Chronicle columnist who I had gotten to know in my Showboat 1988 film production days (July, 1975), when I shot the movie in San Francisco.
“This is what it’s like for Jon and others,” I imagined, reflecting on the idea of what that process must be like. He had to think up and deliver the next day’s 250 words (or some word count that fit his allotted space in the Chronicle), hopefully with a subject that his readership found fetching. If the well ran dry that evening he’d go to bed hoping, praying that when the sun came up again he’d be inspired. If his dream angels had done their work, composed his column while he slept (like Paul McCartney’s had done with the song,“Yesterday”) he could immediately spill out something brilliant, do a quick copy-edit and either drop it off at the newspaper, or waste $ by sending it via courier (those days before email ) or, if no car was available, maybe dictate it over the phone. In any case, his job was to DELIVER A PIECE OF WRITING EACH AND EVERY DAY, BY THE MID-MORNING DEADLINE. So that’s what I decided to do.
For 27 days straight I wrote a one-page story, exactly what only fit on an 8 1/2” X 11” page. And I did go through the “dry well” moment here and there, for several of the 27 nights, waking up with that sickening “Columnist” pressure, not yet having my next piece in hand. But for 27 days straight I succeeded.
What I’m serving up here, for Substack, will be those short stories, which have been available on amazon since 2021 (Kindle, hard & paperback). I’m posting them in the order in which the were produced. I’ll do my best to deliver one-per-day, and in 27 days I hope to have a few new ones to add to the pile.
Here’s #1! Enjoy!
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A LOOSE MAN
A married man was having an affair with one of his students at a college where he taught sculpture. While the love making was fun for the woman, her relationship with the teacher was no big emotional deal. She just liked sex and attention from men. In his case, he risked his marriage, his kids, half his community assets, the works. But she had him deeply infatuated. Somehow he had to stop himself, stop her and the relationship from continuing. While half of him refused to let go of the relationship, the other half -- a secret half -- began to plot how to disentangle him from the dangerous liaison. It was as if there were two distinct people under his skin. His personality had broken in two, with the amorous lover totally unaware of the spy and saboteur in its midst. The struggle became a deadly one. Strange things started to happen to the young sculptress. Her car wouldn't start. Her clothes disappeared. Pizza's were delivered that she didn't order. Little things were constantly going wrong. Finally the unusual turmoil began to affect her sex life with the teacher. She couldn't seem to achieve her usually delicious orgasms. He got the blame. She was edgy. It stopped being fun to be on the sly. As the complications piled up, the relationship became a comedy routine of errors. There were spilled drinks, missed reservations, bed bugs, power failures (she didn't pay her electricity bill because his secret half tore it up).
Finally she called it quits, to the pleading and tears of the art teacher. She said she had another boyfriend. While this should have been cause for celebration by the hidden half of the teacher's brain, it wasn't taken that way. If anyone ended the relationship, it was to be him. She started getting heavy-breathing phone calls. And his wife received letters in the mail that described the affair and lovemaking in great detail. A divorce ensued. The two sides of his personality continued to vie for total control. His art began to attract attention for its originality and disturbing images. More and more women threw themselves at him. He had inadvertently unleashed the tiger and it wouldn't go back in the cage.