Crazy Carousel Life: Mind Games

An unconventional relationship story tackling contemporary's issues: Alzheimer's, loneliness, ineffectual parents, religion, sex, adoption, women's roles, body image and everyday insecurities, Crazy Carousel Life, is a thought-provoking 35,300-word novella. Set in any city, Crazy Carousel Life tells a story of love overcoming psychological insecurities created through parental control. Robert and Angelica, both tarnished by their upbringing, manage parental encroachments in contrasting ways. Despite being a competent IT technician with IT Etc., Robert strives to overcome his critical father and his mother's death through escaping reality. Robert conjures himself heroic characters or fantasy animals; a World War II flying ace, the Red Baron, a unicorn, or other creatures, and also dreams a guardian angel will transform him from his perceived bland self into debonair Mr. Suave, perhaps unconsciously, into a 'lady-killer' like his philandering father. His perceived 'angel' appears, but Robert blows it - too busy daydreaming himself as Pegasus, the wild stallion with magical hooves, and his 'angel' vanishes. Robert's 'angel' is a respected Researcher/ Marketing Consultant with 'Two Hands Clapping', a company working in remote parts of the world training locals in former war zones, to detect and destroy unexploded ordinances and develop new methods to find and dispose of unexploded land mines. She is smart and successful; however, she lacks confidence and must overcome her own issues - principally a picky, critically religious, lonely mother who Angelica often visualizes in the form of artworks - and to confront her doubts has developed a mantra that she will be positive and assured. Angelica and Robert become friends, and after a work trip to Mozambique, Angelica arranges a dinner with her mother, her stalwart Uncle Ray and 'Walter', Robert's nickname, taken from an old classic The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Keen for her daughter to marry, Angelica's Mother is eager to meet 'Walter', however, Angelica and Robert are jolted by intimate revelations when Angelica's religious Mother realizes Robert is her secret, illegitimate son. With her mother's lifetime deception stripped bare and parental influences destroyed, Angelica indeed sees herself as 'Angelica, hear me strong' and achieves the confidence to accept her sexuality. Robert gains a real guardian angel, and they both free to jump on the carousel of life. Crazy Carousel Life is not a typical love story but is a story of love.