Gene took a three-year sabbatical but picked up where he’d left off after his Honorable Discharge from the Army.
They met on the job in 1982 and worked together-for the most part-thereafter. Gene is a writer and Dana a psychotically efficient manager. They have a knack for finding timely and creative ways of overcoming most difficulties, and this resourcefulness rarely fails them. THE RAYBURNS , a pleasant, decorous, amiable couple, recently entered the fourth decade of a marriage they’d come to consider an enduring example of triumph over relentless tribulation. He frowned at Casper and muttered “buzzkill” as he followed him off to the kitchen. Once confident that his vertabrae were reasonably well aligned, Gene dropped his hands to his side, arched his back slightly, opened wide his jaw and rolled his head about all axes until all cracking sounds ceased.
Casper observed this comedy carefully from the bedroom doorway. He crawled out of the sack…slowly, much like a tentative child nervously attempting to stand on his own for the first time, grasping at nearby objects-his nightstand.his oxygen concentrator-using his upper limbs to help his lower limbs defeat the merciless, ever-increasing force of gravity.
Rayburn the Virtuous, as he privately styled Dana, would soon be roused by Casper the Spoiled if he failed to quit his inviolate bed and get about the business of preparing breakfast for the little ones. At that, he remembered with a silent groan that the peace would soon be disturbed. Uncalled for, Gene thought, as the device was a beloved Christmas present from his beloved Dana, who lay sleeping sweetly, snoring gently to his left. The face-with whom he’d never before had reason to quarrel-now oozed arrogance. The relentless rotation of the second hand seems overly aggressive today, Gene thinks. The spectral image, projected by a gadget on his nightstand, is of a working antique clock face, with Roman numerals and moving hour, minute, and second hands. It is a familiar, once-friendly presence in his bedroom. As Gene drew up on his elbows, his gaze fell on the disembodied face of an aged grandfather clock glowing ghostly before him. The passage of time is much on his mind of late and suddenly too much in plain sight. Today he loathes tomorrow and silently curses all in life that is inevitable. His expression a mixture of surprise and disgust, as if he'd just soiled his own bed. Gene didn't want to think about tomorrow. He was immediately and miserably awake, alert, and aware. Ah but there’s always tomorrow, Gene thought, flat on his back, eyes slowly closing, drifting off, half dreaming.and tomorrow. Thanks to Casper, Gene’s side of the marital bed would not be defiled by a wanton succubus today. But there would be no hackneyed happy ending or trite postcoital small talk this morning. Rayburn the Rake, as Gene privately styled himself, fully intended to savor his illusory adulterous romp, from plateau to apex…culmination…then… Who knows? A shared cigarette, perhaps? “Was it as good for you as it was for me, mon cherie amour?” Ever the gentleman, he. Gene Rayburn-producer, director, star-can break or bend the laws of physics, woman, and God to his heart’s content without fear of consequence-in his lucid dreams. Gene, on occasion, is able to control the characters, narrative, and environment of his dreams, even as he’s aware that he’s dreaming and-in this semiconscious state-also vaguely aware of the real world about him. The lurid scene was, after all, merely a private illusion.a harmless manipulation of a rare, unusually exotic dream state. Gene was understandably annoyed by Casper’s ill-mannered intrusion, but wasn't troubled in the least by guilt, remorse, or concern over potentially unpleasant consequences that might upset the delicate balance of domestic tranquility he so treasures. Dana Rayburn, a woman of considerable restraint, would not, to say the least, have approved. He neither noticed nor cared that on this otherwise unremarkable morning he’d caught Gene in flagrante delicto with a frisky, 40-something-year-old adulteress of indescribable beauty, insatiable appetite, astonishing stamina, possessed of a poverty of clothing and an utter lack of restraint. So, as is his custom, he dashed unabashed and unannounced into Gene and Dana Rayburn' s master bedroom at 5:30 to demand his breakfast. He’s also bold, has a voracious appetite, is relentless in his pursuit of nourishment, and unfettered by conventions such as manners and propriety. CASPER IS AN INCORRIGIBLE CREATURE of indissoluble habit and inflexible routine.
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