A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 27
This is the 10th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
This is the 10th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
Dr Traynor, of Palo Alto, California, was shocked as she watched Mr Montgomery collapse on Capitola Beach, Santa Cruz, and couldn’t find her new flame’s pulse when she turned him over.
The mom-of-two immediately began to perform CPR on Mr Montgomery, of Santa Cruz, California, with the help of passersbys.
Within seven minutes, an ambulance had arrived and stretchered Mr Montgomery off the beach before reviving him using a defibrillator on route to Dominican Hospital.
Doctors determined that Mr Montgomery had suffered a heart attack and he had a number of blockages of his coronary artery.
Since their dramatic first date, Dr Traynor and Mr Montgomery have been going strong and even found a moment to have their real first kiss.
Dr Traynor said: ‘A few weeks after his surgery he was recuperating and we were on the beach just talking.
‘I said, ‘You can kiss me for real now.’
Mr Montgomery said: ‘My heart has been healed inside and out. I feel very blessed.’
Of course, we are in meet cute terrain here. So in the movie, the doctor doesn’t know the victim. They are a stranger. And maybe she isn’t a doctor, just a surfer, but when she sees the guy collapse, she’ll do her best version of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save the dude’s life.
But hold on. What if the dude planned his collapse? What if he’d spotted the surfer some days ago and was smitten? Perhaps he’s tracked her schedule and discovered she always goes surfing at 7:30AM. And because he’s not the sharpest tool in the toolbox combined with a definite lack of social graces, he figures, “If I fake a heart attack right next to my dream girl, she’ll have to come to my aid.”
And holy shit, it works! Even better, she got her lips locked to his, something he did not anticipate.
But as she’s blowing her minty fresh breath into his lungs, then pumping away on his chest with the palms of her hands, the dude goes from thinking, “This is totally awesome” to “But what happens after I ‘regain’ consciousness?”
So he comes up with the idea of the heart attack. He comes to his senses just long enough to melodramatically clutch his chest and gasp, “My heart! Hospital!”
That leads to him in an ambulance with the Dream Girl planted beside him, clutching his hand and patting his head. With teary, frantic eyes, he pleads with her, “Please… don’t leave,” to which she responds, “I won’t, I promise.” A quick kiss to his forehead and Dude lapses into ‘unconsciousness’ yet again.
Here’s where I see this going: The Dude needs to keep up the ruse that he’s had a heart attack and sell Dream Girl the idea that it was FATE which brought her into his life at just that moment to save him. His goal is to spend enough time with her that they become a couple, then he can be miraculously healed.
Only one problem: After she accompanies him to his apartment, she inquires about his next medical appointment. He waves it off, “I’ll be fine, I just needs someone to, you know, look after me in my recuperation which the doctor told me could last a month or more…”
She cuts him off. “Just like a guy, trying to live through the pain. You need to see the doctor even if I have to take you.”
Now the Dude needs to enlist some of his buddies to take on the roles of doctor, nurse, etc.
Hijinks and mayhem ensue with a ticking bomb… at some point, the truth will come out and then what happens?
There you go: My twenty seventh story idea for the month. What would YOU do with this story setup?
Here are links for all the previous posts in this year’s series:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.