While I was in Dallas this past weekend I went to a bookstore late at night. I once again found a person sitting still who would be a good subject. I drew her in my sketchbook instead of on a napkin. This time I wasn’t able to meet her as she left quickly while I was barely started on the drawing. Instead I made up a story.
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The Realizing Woman
Chapter 1
Her laptop was dead so she borrowed her boyfriend’s computer to go to the bookstore and study.
Chapter 2
She finished studying and started rummaging around her boyfriend’s computer. She found a folder inside a folder inside a folder titled with her name. She opened the folder.
Chapter 3
She saw files titled with her name. She double clicked on one and when it opened it was a photo of herself nude from 10 years before, when she was 19, before she knew her boyfriend. She had never shown the photos to him or ever told him about the photo shoot she had done.
Chapter 4
She looked at the photo, and a number of others he had from the same shoot, for a long time. She was angry. She was angry that she had let herself go and no longer had that same great physique.
Chapter 5
She left the bookstore, went to her boyfriend’s house and dropped off the computer. She thanked him, broke up with him and left.
Chapter 6
She went home, stripped to her bra and panties, took a photo of herself in the bathroom mirror and titled it ‘Day One – Before’. She then got into her running shorts and tank top and went out the door. She ran 8 miles in her neighborhood, finishing at 1 am.
Chapter 7
She got home, stripped down again and took another photo, titling it ‘Day One – After’. She repeated this every day for the next 9 months.
Chapter 8
She posted her before and after photos, all 9 months worth, online as a video montage. It went viral. She became a world renowned personal trainer with videos, a workout clothing line, and fitness equipment for sale.
The End
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Drawing and short short story by Marty Coleman
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