5-20-07- The Younging Woman

She was a famous, influential, powerful woman. She had a popular TV show which millions watched. Her fans adored her. She felt good knowing that she helped people.

She received literally, not figuratively, tons of fan mail.

One day she was watching a re-telecast of her show and was shocked to see how old and overweight she looked. This isn't how she pictured herself. "This must disappoint my fans, " she thought. She wanted to be younger and thinner.
 

She also had lots of money. So she spent lots of money trying to look younger and thinner.

One expert she went to made her go through a regimen that indeed made her much thinner. And she was so pleased that she started a monthly magazine, Be Very Happy Like Me! She proudly displayed her new looks on the cover of her magazine. But still, she thought she looked too old.

Another expert gave her treatments that made her look much younger. She posed again on the cover of her magazine. But she had fallen off her diet program and once again thought she looked too fat.

No matter how much money she spent and how much younger or thinner she looked, she wouldn't look enough of both at the same time. She wasn't at all satisfied.

In desperation she disguised herself, went out into public, and put up notices offering huge rewards to anyone who could make her look both younger and thinner.

Many people eager for the reward responded, but her assistants quickly ruled out their useless suggestions. Then, in the middle of the night, a strange man knocked on her door and, for a huge sum of money, sold her the secret to both reversing the aging process and staying thin. All she had to do was to stare into his magic orb for ten minutes a day and, he insisted, for no longer.

The man was no charlatan. The magic orb worked wonders. People who saw her on TV and bought her magazine could see the results and how happy she was and they were happy for her and tried to be young and thin like her.

Each program and issue she would look younger and thinner.

And more exotic and exciting.

And happier

And stronger

And healthier

And more popular and active

And younger and thinner and happier every day.

People all assumed that her ever improving appearance was the result of airbrushing and Photo Shop and other digital marvels. But she knew it was because she looked into the magic orb and because she stared into it for more than the ten minutes a day that had been prescribed. Sometimes she'd look for an hour she was so delighted with the results.

And she looked increasingly and amazingly younger and younger.

She'd stopped getting thinner and quit her TV show but that didn't matter. Each issue of her magazine delighted her and her fans with the joy of new possibilities.

She was so pleased and obsessed with continuing in the direction of youth, that she spent more and more time staring at the orb. And she looked even younger.

Issue # 21

And younger.

Issue # 28

It had all happened so gradually that no one had thought about there being anything unusual happening.

Issue #31

Her fans were in awe when she went to live in a dark, underwater environment.

Everyone was delighted that her smile there was so beautiful.

Issue #36

Some said they could still see her smile in the cover of issue # 42

  This is issue # 45, the last one.

No one knows where she went.