I’ve long believed the right career can help our love lives. Years ago I read a wonderful science fiction story that cleverly (if inadvertently) demonstrated this idea. I don’t remember the name of the story or the author; if anyone happens to recognize it and can enlighten me I would be most grateful (and I’ll immediately include it here).
This is all from memory, may be somewhat inaccurate but here’s the gist of it as I recall. The story begins with a somewhat befuddled space traveler landing his compact flying saucer on the fire escape of a young bachelor’s – I’ll call him Roger — 3d story walkup somewhere in New York City.
New Yorkers have a reputation for taking things in stride, and Roger is no exception. He greets the flustered but otherwise undamaged “alien” – let’s call him Marvin – and the two quickly strike up an intergalactic friendship.
Marvin, it turns out, is on a mission: his girlfriend (she can be Minnie for now), having reached her limit with Marvin’s various personality flaws, took off for parts unknown. Unfortunately for Marvin, their planet’s technology was pretty advanced, so “parts unknown” meant somewhere in a pretty big chunk of the universe.
Marvin wanted to apologize to Minnie but how to find her? Somehow he had managed to track her to the somewhat obscure planet we call home; he found her ship / saucer, well hidden and undamaged, but no trace of Minnie. Somewhere on the planet, she’s still as lost to Marvin as she was in the depths of the Cosmos.
Roger naturally offers to help. As a fellow bachelor he understands Marvin’s plight all too well; he’s had his share of girlfriends who have stormed off, tempers flaring, though none quite so far away. Still, he wants to see his newfound friend reunited with his lost love. The two begin to plan.
Their first thought is advertising. This is long before the Internet so they don’t have the option of a bunch of Craigslist postings; Roger, as an unemployed musician, doesn’t have much cash so a halftime commercial at the Super Bowl isn’t going to happen.
What to do?
Hoping to jumpstart the brainstorming, Roger idly picks up his old Strat knockoff and lays down a few old Led Zeppelin riffs.
Marvin is, pardon the expression, electrified. He asks Roger if he can try it.
Holy crap! Marvin can play like nothing Roger has ever heard or seen before – and he has just picked up the guitar! A few hours later, after a few pointers from Roger, Marvin is absolutely smoking with Roger’s axe. Roger gets an idea …
——
From here, the story gets pretty zany: Roger becomes Marvin’s agent and leverages Marvin’s otherworldly talent into a gig as an extraterrestrial rock star. Marvin’s resulting popularity “rockets” him onto network tv and into the public eye.
Sure enough, Minnie spots him at an enormous concert in Yankee Stadium, surrounded by screaming, mostly female, earthlings. Her territorial drives kick in, she contacts Marvin and all is forgiven. I don’t recall if they live the life of luxury on Earth or if she insists on going back to their hometown (planet) to be near the family but they pretty much live happily ever after regardless.
Roger realized that if Marvin could somehow make himself highly visible, there was a good chance Minnie would spot him. It worked, and it might work for you.