I always thought I’d never understand ugly people. How can ugly people not only accept the fact that they are ugly but also go ahead and marry someone who is ugly as well?! Well, I was just too young. 

Back then I used to be perfection personified in every worthy woman’s eyes. I was in the height of my manhood. I met a lot of women both in the outside and in the inside. But I never thought I’d meet anyone as kind or as filled with richness and intricacy as Margaret. I was vain but I was never unfair, I always had the flair for being understanding and insightful. I saw what was in her the moment I got to know her intimately. We were just friends to begin with and I never thought much of her in the beginning. But it was little things that bit by bit blew the cover off and revealed her inner beauty. She was never shy in showing love. It shocked me to know how much she loved me when I didn’t even think enough of her. Of course I was never so unkind that I showed her what I felt of her then. Little by little, her magic spread and diffused into me and I began seeing that not everything needs to be perfect to be beautiful. I stopped meeting women and married Maggie. It’s been thirty sweet years and we still live like we just discovered each other and saw what we mean to each other. 

Today the little shop that I run provides amply for our extremely ordinary lifestyle. Ever since I remember this old hut of a shop, I’ve had a photo hanging on the wall of me and Maggie having a personal moment that means what it does only to us. I never thought I would but I realized that all it would take is a little shift in my perspective to realize that this photo and its subjects could look ugly to someone. The young fellow standing in front of me waiting for me to finish ruffling with his change didn’t even willingly express it. He was polite enough but I knew what his thoughts were when I spotted the look in his eyes as he stared at the photo on the wall. In the photo I looked rather old and it didn’t help to have all that weight that I put on after the age when appearance no longer related to beauty. But the face I was making was the killer; and Maggie, well, she was never beautiful at first sight. I’m glad I lived through that initial phase with her though. 

It made me smile to remember such young naiveté in myself. I looked at the young man and told him this and only this – “not everything needs to be perfect to be beautiful.”

Martha McDowell was the wife of Bobby McDowell, a Sheriff in the Southwest. Martha and Bobby lived in a not-so-lively neighborhood in the dry desert of New Mexico. She belonged to a happy family of two. They were both eager to have kids, but they believed it wasn’t time yet since they were just married. Martha was plain and simple in almost every sense of those words. She lived in a town that was not particularly interesting. But then she wasn’t so interesting herself. But there was something in her that Bobby saw, or so she believed. After only a year of knowing her, he told her that there was no other woman on earth who could be to him what she was to him. For her the reason why their marriage was so beautiful was that she felt the same way about him. Every day Martha would rest her hand and one entire side of her body on the frame of the open door as she waited for her dear Bobby to come from work. 

21st November 2012, 5:48PM 

She stood there in her plain brown shirt and beige skirt and watched as the coroners took Bobby away. A teardrop rolled down her cheek. 

21st November 2012, 12:32PM 

Bobby was running for his life. He was being chased by a car of hitmen. They were Carlos’ men. It didn’t take long before the scorching tires ran over Bobby’s head and crushed it. 

19th November 2012, 11:09AM 

Carlos just finished pleasing Bobby and asked him if he needed some more. Bobby was completely satiated and said no. The moment was tender. Carlos had been waiting for this moment. Carlos went behind Bobby and gently massaged Bobby’s head. After a minute, Carlos slowly reached his lips towards Bobby’s ear and said in a sexy voice – I want Martha out of our lives. 

20th November 2012, 5:15AM 

I can’t believe you asked me to get rid of my dear Martha. Carlos, you know how this place is. I wouldn’t last here in this society if you and I went public. If it’s going to be a choice between you and her, I am sorry to say it has to be Martha. – - Bobby

Martha waited for Robert at their regular meeting spot – the lonely beachfront settee overlooking the serene sunset. It’d been their regular meeting spot for god knows how many years. The sun could fail to rise in the east but Robert couldn’t miss their regular meeting. Martha’s belief system was so adjusted to this truth that she could doubt her own existence but she couldn’t doubt Robert’s arrival. She checked her watch. He could be here any second. 

*** 

“Dr.Zuber zakill! Are you serious about your new proposal? To me, it seems no more than an elaborate and unfunny joke.”

“Assuming you’re talking about the one that I sent for approval yesterday, yes” 

“With all due respect, you are our chief scientist and you can’t be acting like this! What has gotten into you? What you’re proposing is disastrously insane…not to mention stupid! 

“a…” Zakill started but was abruptly interrupted by the director. 

“And please don’t justify your lunatic opinions with that freeranging philosophy of yours!”

Zakill just shrugged and smiled. 

“Let me read a particularly outstanding excerpt from it.” The director cleared his throat. “Just because it has been happening all this while, it doesn’t mean it is going to happen in the future. For instance, just because a red dragon hasn’t come out of a tiny hole in the ground in all of known history and eat the person you’re talking to, it doesn’t mean it is not going to happen the next time you’re talking to someone.”

Zakill adjusted his glasses and smiled. That’s right! 

“Does that even sound like a professionally written scientific proposal? What have you been watching lately? It worries me to know that one of our best scientists is falling victim to buffaloshit. I’ve voted against the proposal and I just wanted to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t come out of our department. Ok?” 

“If you’ll let me speak, I have to tell you that none of my proposals have been “opinions”. These proposals are what I write after genuinely finding prior evidence through the experiments at the lab and this one is no exception. This is a revolutionary find and you are too shortsighted to see it.” 

“Short sighted?…Me?” He stared at Zakill for a moment and then just walked out of the room slamming the door behind him. 

A huge red dragon appeared from the crack between the floor tiles and wholly swallowed the director. 

*** 

Martha waited and waited but Robert never came.

 I – In need of some action 

5/03/2003 

New city, new start right? At least that’s what all my local buddies keep telling me. Well, I wouldn’t be so excited if it was just a new city. It’s going to be new circles of friends, new environment, new objectives, new opportunities, the diversity and oh god, the freedom! Finally, I’m going to be all alone and left for myself for the first time in my whole fucking life and I can’t put into words how awesome it is going to be! Just three more fucking months and I’ll be out of this…well, it’s not exactly a shithole, just one hole that I’ve been in for too long. Bates, here I come… 

8/02/2003 

Packing done. Flight tickets booked. Airport pick up arranged. Three more days till I step foot into the dream of my life. Oh god, my expectations are on LSD. *chuckles*. Ok, corny joke, but I thrive on these. Maybe at Bates, I’ll find people like-minded enough to laugh with me. That’s the one that is making my bag of expectations heavier than a bagged buffalo. There are going to be scores of people like me there. People from all over the country and the world. Am I not gonna find my one there? Fuck yeah I am! Cute face, positive attitude, sparkling personality, healthy sense of humor, quick mind and a magical unit of chemical X would do to have my ‘the one’ made for me. I’d be fooling everyone if I didn’t say I’m longing for some action. God…three more days and my hunt for ‘the one’ shall begin. 

8/08/2003 

Fuck Fuckaty fuck. Third day into my hunt and this happened. Ok, so I had the first of my classes today. The highest grossing class on my list of favorites, Neuroscience 101 was the one where this happened. Eager me, I was the first to enter the class and I met a bunch of freshies who looked as eager and excited as me, if not more. Dr. Kelsey, who I talked to on the phone several times before my admissions, who I can easily consider one of my active inspirations, soon entered and started off with his introduction and made us chuckle one or two times before getting into our orientation for the semester. Not three minutes into his talk, this figure enters the class. At first, I didn’t know what to think. I was a bit shocked. But then, I started fixating on the elements that made up the whole. That cute face and its spontaneous smile, those juicy glossy lips, those hanging ear rings, flowing brown hair, pink tee and mini skirt, that tanned and hairless arms and legs…that masculine jaw line and those oh so perfect toned muscles. Why the fuck do all the cute guys that deserve my attention have to be so delightfully gay? 

II – iPod Touch Vs. Dignity 

Did I really wanna lose my baby? No way that was gonna happen. What would I do without it? All those juicy podcasts, audiobooks, apps and not to mention the personal music and the hard work I poured into finding and compiling all of it…all of it would be nulled. So I had to do it. And guess what? I did it. OK, I know, you’re a bit confused…maybe more than just a bit. Anyway, here’s my story… 

I’m walking by, minding my own business and exploring my new college campus when a bunch of older guys call me in and arrange a bet which if I win, I will get one of their gang members’ new Lamborghini and here’s the fun part – if I lose, I’ll either have to hand them my iPod Touch and walk away or do a gig to appease these gods, which was to get dressed up like a doll and wear makeup, a wig, earrings, high heels and a pretty smile on my face at all times for one week. 

III – The Gods 

They were sitting by the campus lawns looking for some fresh meat to bully and just then this jealousy-inducing stud, plugged to what appears to be his iPod Touch, walks by whistling. And what better way to ruin his chances with the girls than to pretend to have a Lamborghini to bet on?

I woke up. I woke up from what seemed to be a million years of hibernation. There was a thick foggy mist all around.

I had nothing on me; nothing except a red string around my waist. It was dry and broken. Weakness was what I felt the most.

I walked around and realized I wasn’t alone. There were thousands, probably millions of ones who woke up just like me, to find nothing but colored strings around their waist.

There was a voice over us. It suggested that the red team gather around the voice. We did. It ordered us to run towards area 12, wherever that meant. I simply followed the crowd. I glimpsed at the grandiose scene. Everybody was running; running in organized straight lines. The red, blue, orange and yellow teams were running in their respective lines and occasionally the lines touched each other.

Soon, I realized, I had to participate in this ritual. I ran along and I was given a long sword. I was running in the red line; the line at the extreme right end. I peered to my left and found the blue line. The voice above said that it was the blue line that had the majority. I kept peering and I found a pair of eyes looking right back at me. We were getting closer to each other. Then I killed the beholder with my sword.