Every time I see a collection of one-shots, I seem to find people commenting on how unrealistic love at first sight is, and how it's a cop-out that just shortens the story. Well, for one, it's a one shot. The author has only 20-40 pages to tell a complete story. Background and plot do get omitted in favour of sex, yes, but there's another consideration:
Love at first sight is not a Hollywood creation.
It's not *common*, no, but it's not unheard of, either. Or, at least, it never has been for me. So I'd like to know if anyone else knows of any stories of love at first sight that have actually happened. I'll start it off with two of my own:
When my grandmother was a teenager, she lived in the married worker's houses at a mill site. Her dad was a mill worker, and she knew most of the people in the barracks and houses there. One day she was getting her family's mail from the post office, so she was in the back room, crouched down to reach their floor-level post box. She heard someone come in and looked up to see one of the young men from camp leading a new hire around to show him how thing worked. That new hire was my Grandpa. Grandma didn't even speak to him at that point, but she always claimed she just *knew*, that it shot through her like a spark and she immediately thought, "Okay, that's the one. That's who I'm supposed to be with. This is my future."
They were married about 18 months later, and lasted through four kids, a half dozen moves, and 52 years before the cancer got him. Even now, Grandma wouldn't even consider looking for someone else.
My Oma and Opa have a similar story. They were both commuting from work at the time. Both of them lived and worked in different cites, but one day they ended up on the train together. They fell for each other, struck up a conversation, and were already convinced this would be forever by the time Opa reached his stop. They lasted through two kids, a ten year separation during Immigration, and Oma still claimed he was the only man she'd ever loved when she finally passed away 20 years after him.
Every time I see a collection of one-shots, I seem to find people commenting on how unrealistic love at first sight is, and how it's a cop-out that just shortens the story. Well, for one, it's a one shot. The author has only 20-40 pages to tell a complete story. Background and plot do get omitted in favour of sex, yes, but there's another consideration:
Love at first sight is not a Hollywood creation.
It's not *common*, no, but it's not unheard of, either. Or, at least, it never has been for me. So I'd like to know if anyone else knows of any stories of love at first sight that have actually happened. I'll start it off with two of my own:
When my grandmother was a teenager, she lived in the married worker's houses at a mill site. Her dad was a mill worker, and she knew most of the people in the barracks and houses there. One day she was getting her family's mail from the post office, so she was in the back room, crouched down to reach their floor-level post box. She heard someone come in and looked up to see one of the young men from camp leading a new hire around to show him how thing worked. That new hire was my Grandpa. Grandma didn't even speak to him at that point, but she always claimed she just *knew*, that it shot through her like a spark and she immediately thought, "Okay, that's the one. That's who I'm supposed to be with. This is my future."
They were married about 18 months later, and lasted through four kids, a half dozen moves, and 52 years before the cancer got him. Even now, Grandma wouldn't even consider looking for someone else.
My Oma and Opa have a similar story. They were both commuting from work at the time. Both of them lived and worked in different cites, but one day they ended up on the train together. They fell for each other, struck up a conversation, and were already convinced this would be forever by the time Opa reached his stop. They lasted through two kids, a ten year separation during Immigration, and Oma still claimed he was the only man she'd ever loved when she finally passed away 20 years after him.
How about the rest of you?