Love at First Sight: Part One

Sorry It has been so long. I've been out of town making more memories has part of my crazy summer. I promise I will get around to posting more about it soon. But for now I have to get to bed, babysitting tomorrow morning.

I also want to add a side note about the four videos I posted. I know a lot of you think they are very odd. It really is hard to appreciate them unless you know the "movie makers" personally. For most of them I couldn't stop laughing. It is one of those "you just had to be there" or in this case "you just have to know them". For all of you guys they may seem, strange, crazy, weird, or bored, along with a number of other things. I hope you don't think that about them. They really are just great guys who enjoy making humorous videos.

Here is the first part of my Princess and the Pea rewrite.

Love at First Sight: Part One

“Son, I think it is time you found a wife.”
Torrents of thoughts raced through Charlie Porter's head. A wife! Mother simply can not be serious. How can she even suggest such a horrifying thing? Instead of expressing his concerns immediately to his assertive parent, Charles gagged on his soup. Coughing fits soon echoed through the great hall. Not a finger twitched, no movement was made to help, his mother only watched until her child recovered from his choking.
“Now Charles don't go into spasms, marriage is really not all that bad. See how well it turned out for me? Look around you, in the bargain I gained much. Fortune, that's the key son. When you wed it will be to an heiress, a girl with riches to her name.”
But what of love mother! This is the 21st century, it is not the time for some kind of medieval matchmaking scheme in which we conform to the highest bidder. Besides we don't need any more money! Father left us with enough estate to provide for an entire legion if we wished. Charles felt his tormented feelings rising within him, his face turning a most unflattering shade of pink. Words begged to be unleashed into his mothers face, but he didn't comply. Will I ever learn to stand up to her?
Listening to the women who had his life chained to her desires made the bile climb in his throat, quickly he turned his head away and tried to close his ears to her tedious lecture. Sitting stiffly in the plush velvet chair he had reclined in his whole life, residing in a Beverly Hills mansion that seemed more like a prison, being lorded over by a female who's only care was to get what she wanted; the depression was almost to much for sensitive Charles. His rat of a mother continued her persuasions but she was no longer being heard by her audience of one, the boy of eighteen was slipping away, the world was lost to him, his mothers voice seemed to fade- a droning in the distance- the dining room faded, and then nothing.

Pain draped over him in a foggy shroud. Placing a hand to his throbbing temple Charlie opened his eyes and glanced at his surroundings. Lying across his already made king sized bed he had a fine view of the intricate landscape painted on his bedroom ceiling.
“Mr. Charles?” A familiar voice murmured a hesitant question. Rocketing himself onto his feet in a movement much to fast for someone with a headache as painful as his, the young man made his way quickly toward the one and only person he new he could trust, Henry. With a groan Charles interrogated the elderly servant.
“I fainted didn't I.”
“Aye Mr. Charles you did that very thing. Tis a shame tis.”
“What's that Henry.”
“Why your mother that be what. She got the whole house in an uproar she does.”
With an anxious sigh Charlie asked the one question he most dreaded hearing the answer to, though in his heart he knew the reply before it came. “So she's serious than, about my marriage?”
“She is Mr. Charles. Of that you can be very certain.”

Sirens wailed in the distance, babyish cries and frustrated screams could be heard from the mother-child duos hurrying along down the sidewalk, blaring horns told the world to get out of the way because number one was on a mission; the atmosphere seemed to proclaim the same message as the sign they had passed only moments before, “Welcome to the City of Los Angeles”.
“Look around you Charles dear, doesn't this seem like the perfect place to find a wife?”
Glancing out the window of the newly purchased limousine his mother had bought for the sole purpose of bride searching Charles committed the view to memory. Gloomy skyscrapers lined the streets like menacing giants casting odd shadows over passersby. Fog seemed to cover the city, the effect of toxic fumes on society. Looking far from amiable the pedestrians that crowded the street gazed at the black limo with resentment. Automobile motion was restricted and Charles calculated that they had not advanced five miles in the past half hour.
“Mother are you sure a suitable wife can be found, here?”
“Of course Charles. Don't worry yourself. The ad I published had strict requirements, the young women you will be interviewing are the most beautiful, compliant, pleasant, and gracious rich-girls you have ever laid eyes on. Just you wait and see.”

“I'm not so sure about this.” Seated in a throne-like chair gaping down at the hundreds of marriage candidates waiting to see him, Charles's feelings were overwhelming. The view was worse. riving in a variety of appearances the females below him were the most disheveled, onerous, obnoxious, and ill-bred group of poor-girls he had ever laid eyes on. The sharp clicking of heels on tile interrupted his thoughts and he turned to find his mother, the very picture of rage, waltzing up behind him.
“This is inconceivable! Why it is all simply a mistake. It can't be true. I asked for rich young ladies of fairness, easy going natures, enjoyable company, and full of consideration. And what do I get?”
“Just the opposite mother, you have received the very inverse of your request.”
“Well I guess I was right all along, the city is no place to look for a bride. If only you had listened to me from the first Charles we wouldn't be in this situation.”
“But mother I-”
“Never mind Charles you are forgiven. Now come we have better things to do than sit around here.”
At last I am free! Never mind mothers false statements about my opinion. Thank you, you crude city girls. If it wasn't for you I would have soon found myself wed to.... well somebody.
“Charles dear don't sit there daydreaming all day. We have much to do, calls to make, people to see, if we plan on having a suitable assembly by next week.”
Hesitating for only a moment Charles asked. “An assembly of what?”
“Why marriage candidates of course, in Avila Beach. You remember that lovely town don't you Charlie? The populace leaves something to be desired but maybe the young ladies of that sweet community can show us better conduct than the others we have seen today. Plans here in LA just didn't work out, as I knew they wouldn't, luckily for you I have a backup plan. To Avila Beach we go, let's see how many fortunes that little spot on the map can muster.” As she flaunted away, head held high, hopes obviously soaring, she suddenly remembered one last comment she had forgotten to bestow upon her despairing son. With a slight reprimanding tone she called over her shoulder. “Wipe that look of your face Charles, it is most unbecoming.”

Sunny rays of glory blinded Charles as he stepped out of the open door of the limo. Wind whistled through the nearby palms, but the rest of his surroundings were masked in an eerie silence. It was unnerving.
“Charlie!” A snappy voiced sailed over the wind, halting abruptly in front of him. His mothers shrill cry did nothing to brake the uncanny stillness, if anything she only added to it. “Come along Charles! We don't have all day you know. I really don't understand your apathetic attitude lately.”
Aching from the inside out Charles's reply was one of sorrow. “Coming Mother.” Trudging along, barely able to place one foot in front of the other, his heavyheartedness seemed to weigh him down, dragging him lower with every passing second. Salty ocean breezes rustled the brown curls on Charles's head, but he didn't smell their freshness nor taste their flavor though he inhaled one shaky breath after another. Even the hushed allure of the sea offered him no distraction as his attention continued to focus on the loathsome task before him. Surely the end of the search is before us. We have examined the inhabitants of a great city and now we will see what this modest town has to offer. Plainly we will find someone who suits my mother and that will be the end of it. I've no doubt I'll be married before winter is upon us and my future wife's fortune will be secure, in my mother's hands. And I, I will be a husband with a wretched wife!

“THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO PRESENT US WITH?” Fury seeped through every aspect of his easily irritated mother. Charles had just stepped through the door of Avila Beach City Hall to find his only living parent releasing the fullness of her temper. Woe to the one who had provoked her wrath. Than Charles spotted that very one.
“Mrs. Porter please try to calm yourself. After you have restored tranquility to your spirit we can both take our seats and mutually discuss the problems you seem to be experiencing.”
“Oh no there will be no discussing between us. I told you what I expected, paid through the nose to get it too, and this is what I receive! A bunch of brainless ragamuffins! I'm taking my son and we are leaving. We'll find a proper wife somewhere besides Avila Beach, Los Angeles, or the whole of California for that matter. Come along Charles!” With those words flung into the face of a very stunned
mayor Mrs. Porter pompously strutted out of Avila Beach and Charles had no choice but to follow.

“Well son I have come to a conclusion.” Slowly lifting his head so that he could look his mother in the eye when she made her announcement Charles braced himself, his mother's conclusions were seldom a benefit to anyone other than herself. “I have decided to put aside bride hunting for a time.” Charles couldn't help it, he gasped aloud. “Don't look so shocked,” his mother continued, “it is only for a brief interval. Soon we both will begin the quest once more.”
At that moment, for the first time in a very long while, Charles felt the urge to leap to his feet and hug is mother. But he did not conform to the impulse and it faded in an instant. His joy though did not fade and after a few more minutes of silence in the room Charles could contain it no longer. “Excuse me for such a quick exit mother but I don't have much of an appetite for breakfast today.”
Flying, that was the only word that came to mind when Charlie later tried to describe the elation he experienced that morning. Dashing across the whole outdoor expanse of the Porter estate Charles wasn't sprinting, he was soaring.