One thing I love about Sioux Falls is th…

One thing I love about Sioux Falls is the res­i­den­tial areas. There’s a vari­ety of soci­o­log­i­cal groups here that one doesn’t typ­i­cally find in a smaller town. One trip in five through the inner streets pro­duces a scene such that I feel the need to com­ment on it.

Last week, for instance, I was dri­ving home from work. A flash of green caught my atten­tion. I turned to my right to see, in a brief moment, a man tak­ing a pic­ture of a woman. The woman was wear­ing a green sleeve­less dress with tex­ture. I’m not sure how else to describe it, other than it’s obvi­ously a dress pro­duced for com­fort, not class. The woman appeared vis­i­bly annoyed and put off. The man, by con­trast, appeared to be zeal­ous in his pho­tog­ra­phy, despite the obvi­ous age of his camera.

My mind con­cocted a scene.

EXT. Lawn — Day

MAN is arrang­ing equip­ment on the ground. He scur­ries around the yard, seek­ing the best light and wind loca­tions. He plots, some­what audi­bly, good, bet­ter, and best posi­tions for photography.

WOMAN (O.S.): This dress doesn’t really fit me. Where did you get it?

MAN: The dress, like my inspi­ra­tion, was given to me by the Muses them­selves. Cal­liope, muse of epic poetry, Erato, muse of lyric poetry, Poly­hym­nia, muse of choral poetry, Melpomene, muse of–

WOMAN (O.S.): Did you steal this dress?

MAN: No! It was a rum­mage sale. Six dol­lars and a song. Are you ready yet?

WOMAN exits the house. She appears uncom­fort­able, and she awk­ward in the sleeve­less, green, tex­tured dress. She has obvi­ous mis­giv­ings about what is about to happen.

WOMAN: Where do you want me?

MAN is struck by her beauty. It takes sev­eral moments for him to catch his words.

MAN: You’re beau­ti­ful. I knew it! I knew that dress was the one! Ha!

A moment of jubilee more, and then he com­poses himself.

MAN: Uh, right. Here! You need to stand here, and face here, and I’ll be right over here.

MAN instructs Woman where to stand, strik­ing the pose, him­self, that she will take. Then he takes his place. He begins tak­ing pic­tures imme­di­ately, far before she’s ready.

WOMAN: What do I do? Just stand here.

MAN (to him­self): You are gor­geous. I can’t stand it! These are going to be beautiful.

A car dri­ves by. Woman has for­got­ten how close to traf­fic they are, and she instinc­tively cov­ers herself.

MAN: I’m telling you, when I get this film devel­oped, these pics are going to be museum qual­ity. You, right next to the Mona Lisa. I’m telling you babe. Beautiful…

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