Beauty and Jim

Jim, a sixty year old retiree, lives in wooded, Midwest hills. A sound, a shaking of his cabin, wakes him. After trying to open his front door he realizes that something is leaning on it. Jim finds a beautiful, unconscious young woman, dressed only in a torn and stained 1970’s summer dress. He brings her inside, realizes how cold she is, bathes her, puzzled that she isn't scratched or bruised.

She’s the embodiment of a fantasy woman who has been in his subconscious for at least thirty years. Jim places Beauty in his bed. She sleeps through the night. He sleeps in his “big room.”

Beauty awakes in the morning. She thinks in limited English words. Jim is drinking a second cup of coffee when she appears in the kitchen, holding the dress in front of her naked body. Jim is cautious at first, grateful that she’s at least twenty. She has amnesia. That doesn't diminish the fact that she has a beautiful, spontaneous personality. Beauty is attracted to him. He’s amazed but delighted, cautious and protective of her. Beauty is genuinely childlike and, equally, foxy as a vixen in heat, wise as a peaceful, old woman.

An initial, tentative series of touches lets Jim know that Beauty welcomes his sensitive advances. Jim takes it slow but Beauty is an intoxicating blend of fresh sexiness, inexperience intermixed with instinctual, enthusiastic readiness.

That first morning they begin a three day, sexually supercharged, love affair. He can’t deny Beauty’s passion for him, responds fully. Sex is really hot and mutually fulfilling. Jim is amazed at Beauty’s blend of purity and libido. Jim’s active, agile mind questions everything about Beauty while soaking-up her physical perfection. Her language skills improve quickly.

Jim knows he’s running a risk. A woman as young and fantastic as Beauty has to have people looking for her. She might have multiple personalities. Despite these concerns, Beauty and Jim’s fast, loving, learning curve is full of humor and tenderness. Why she wants a sixty year old guy, despite the fact that he’s in good shape, makes no sense to Jim.

Jim begins to grow weary. She revives him every time but, sixty is sixty. He knows she really loves him. He knows that is crazy. He knows it’s true.

Jim’s old enough to know that it can’t last. He let’s go to the power and profundity of her company. They experience out-of-body moments during lovemaking. For Beauty they are part of being in love. That perspective adds to her mystery and allure.

On their third day, when shooting pains between Jim’s shoulders are warning him to stop, he can’t. Beauty is, literally, irresistible.
Is she Aphrodite or a siren loving him to ruin?

On a promised walk they have a fun and funny encounter with a buck. Jim is weary, tells Beauty he has another surprise for her, a hot tub.

After an unexpected, comical return visit by the buck, Beauty and Jim make love one more ecstatic time.

In the afterglow of lovemaking, Jim faints.

At this point, the beginning of Chapter 24, Beauty and Jim the novel is eighty-five percent complete. Everything shifts. The source of Beauty’s roots are revealed in a stunning way.

Jim discovers that he hasn't simply fainted, he’s really out of his body, alone,

The last five chapters reveal where Beauty came from, who was looking for her and what will happen to Beauty and Jim, the couple.

For the purpose of the synopsis, in keeping with my vision for Beauty and Jim, I won't describe its grand finale.

I will include a very few words from the Epilogue:

“We're going to take plenty of time before we tell anyone about all this."