Man of the Sea (standard:drama, 1893 words)
Author: Joe Edwardson	Added: Feb 24 2002	Views/Reads: 3396/2471	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A young naive sailor goes through the sudden rise and deadly fall of superstardom.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

though I’m not an expert and won’t be able to fix it for you.  You can 
just follow me to shore though.” 

“That’d be great.  Thank you very much.  My name is Ron, by the way, and
my friend’s name is Susan.  What’s yours?” 

“Shawn.” 

“Oh,” Ron thinks for a moment, “that’s a great name.” 

Ron and Susan followed Shawn to harbor at the California Coast.  They
all get out of their boats to talk for a short while, but that short 
while turns into something not so short at all.  Ron and Susan invite 
Shawn to eat breakfast with them. 

“Shawn, we’ll get right to the point. We have kind of an offer for you,”
says Ron. 

“We’re two of the heads of scouting for the Vamouse International
Modeling Agency, and we think you have an incredible look.  We’re not 
guaranteeing anything, but we’d like you to come in for some test shots 
to see what kind of potential you might have in our company,” Susan 
elaborates. 

Shawn looks from Susan to Ron and back and forth again a couple times,
with his mouth hanging wide open.  “Are you serious?” 

Ron replies, “Yes, we’re serious, but we don’t want to get your hopes up
if it’s something you’re interested in.  We meet countless people and 
ask them to come in for test shots.” 

Susan chimes in, “But Shawn, seriously, I think you might be something
special.  I have an eye for these types of things, and when I first saw 
you, I just knew it.  You could be the next Marcus Shankenberg.” 

“Who?” Shawn meekly asks. 

“Never mind. Are you in or out?” asks Ron. 

“Um, well, yeah.  I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot,” replies
Shawn, sealing his fate. 

“Great.  Let’s do this right away!” Susan proudly declares. 

And thus began the life of male model Shawn.  Shawn was on all the
magazine covers: GQ, Vogue, Seventeen, Glamour, Amateur Sailor, and 
many more all within the first six months.  He was a hit.  He was the 
face of the new millennium.  All the girls swooned over Shawn and all 
the boys wanted to be like Shawn.  And he was known simply as Shawn. 

“This is so amazing.  I never knew I looked so good in short hair!  I
wish they would have found me earlier.  This is the life, Charles.  
This is the life,” hit supermodel sensation Shawn says to his 
hairdresser as he’s being made over for his most recent photo shoot 
while staring in the vanity mirror and running his hands through his 
new short cropped frosted tip hairdo. 

“No, this is the life, Shawny boy. I just love working with your hair.
All you need is a teensy bit more gel in a couple areas and we’ll be 
done,” replies Charles. 

Susan, sporting a brand new designer velvet overcoat, covering various
other brand new designer articles of clothing, enters Shawn’s dressing 
room, gives him a big smile and hug, and checks out her new diamond 
earrings in the mirror.  “How’s the superstar doing today?” she asks. 

“I’m quite good.  I don’t know if I’m quite a superstar yet. . .but you
know I’m getting there!” replies Shawn, followed by a hearty laugh. 

“There actually might be a small little problem though,” Susan says
slightly apprehensively. “The latest street polls are coming in from 
our various locations and it looks like Shawn’s favor with males is 
slipping slightly.  This doesn’t bode well for the chances of our 
Shawn: the Sitcom pilot being picked up by ABC unless we quickly turn 
it around.” 

“Oh no. That’s not good at all.  What are we going to do?” replies Shawn
to the bad info. 

“I’m going to discuss it with Ron over dinner tonight.  I’ll tell you
about our ideas tomorrow,” says Susan. 

“Oh.  Okay,” Shawn meekly says. 

“Um, you’re welcome to join us if you’d like.  I didn’t think you’d be
interested,” Susan quickly recovers. 

“No, no, I was going to go to the docks tonight to reminisce.  Catch up
on all the old smells,” says Shawn. 

Shawn and Susan end their conversation and the hard working hairdressers
and make-up artists finish their job on Shawn.  After the photo shoot 
at around 2:00 a.m., Shawn, clothed in the snappy duds of his new 
favorite designer, takes a walk down the docks he used to frequent 
during his days as a sailor.  He turns his nose at the rancid smell of 
fish guts and mumbles, “How could I have ever stood that stuff?”  Shawn 
continues down the docks until he gets to the end where a dozen or so 
sailors and fishermen have gathered to socialize. 

“The bars must have just closed, I see,” says Shawn inaudibly as he
passes the men without looking any of them in the eye. 

“Shawn!” 

“Hey Shawn!” 

Two deep men’s angry voices twist Shawn’s eardrums around, forcing him
to turn to greet them.  After a couple seconds, he recognizes them as 
the Philips brothers, two fishermen he was once acquainted with.  They 
approach Shawn, stumbling slightly as it was indeed only a half hour 
after the bars closed, and look him up and down. 

“Those are some really nice clothes, Shawn,” one says. 

“It’s nice to see that you’ve made yourself a better person,” says the
other, pseudo-jokingly. 

The brothers invite Shawn back to their boat to catch up on old times. 
Shawn feels uneasy about it and would like to go home to check his 
messages, but he decides to go with as to not be rude.  One brother 
cranks up the motor and they head off into the ocean, which throws 
Shawn off balance. 

“Where are we going?” Shawn asks. 

“Just for a little ride,” one replies. 

Shawn anxiously awaited the motor to be switched off and for anchor to
be dropped, but he kept waiting and waiting and waiting.  Finally his 
nails were bitten down to the skin and he got up to ask where exactly 
they were going, when the motor stopped.  The three men hadn’t said a 
word in the last fifteen minutes and no words were needed.  The Philips 
brothers nodded to each other and simultaneously threw rabid vicious 
rights, lefts, forearms, and elbows into the eyes of Shawn.  He 
immediately fell to the ground and tried to protect his million-dollar 
face, but they attacked his ribs and torso.  They had 2x4’s as well 
that they used against Shawn, sending them crashing down on his head, 
back, legs, and side. 

After a final couple more minutes of beatings, they picked the
semi-conscious Shawn into the air and dropped him over the side of the 
sailboat, feeding him to the sea.


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