Flight of the Snowy Owl

  Who was she? A beautiful, quiet and humble young woman is what her friends and neighbors thought.  Had she deceived them? She had what most would call the perfect life, a successful career, a beautiful home, flawless beauty, expensive cars, and lots of money.  Lauren Woodbury would go out of her way to do what she could to convince people of her kind hearted nature.  Just last winter, she helped Mr. McVey, her elderly neighbor; dig his car out from under a twelve-inch snowfall that had buried the city of Chicago.  Lauren was sharply dressed for work, when she noticed the feeble old man scuffling with a shovel, trying desperately to dig his way out of the heavy laden snow. Even though she knew that stopping to help him would make her late, she did not care. Lauren made it a priority on this blustery, cold morning to come to the aid of this poor old soul; she seemed to always look out for those who were less fortunate than herself.

     A week before Christmas of that same winter, she ambled faithfully through the alleys of skid row, passing out envelopes filled with a single twenty-dollar bill in each one to all the homeless people that she could find. After all, she was financially blessed enough to do so. Lauren owned a shiny, silver blue 2003 Mercedes Benz “SLR”, and a 1957 black Rolls Royce, Silver Shadow, a classic willed to her by her late father. Lauren’s father was the President and CEO of Regis Oil Company in Sacramento, CA who died an untimely death at the age of thirty-seven. However, being the organizer that he was, he had his attorney draw up a will on the very day that Lauren’s mother gave birth to their only child. 

     Alan Robert Woodbury III succumbed to a lethal dose of Valium and Johnny Walker Black, when Lauren was only fourteen. The authorities were never able to prove whether his death was accidental or suicide; til this day, the locals believe it was the latter. Shortly after her father’s death, Lauren’s mother Colleen was committed to an institution for the insane; young Lauren was sent to a foster home until a next of kin could be located.

     It wasn’t until Lauren was seventeen years old, that an aunt contacted child and youth services to get custody of her. By this time she was practically her own woman, seemingly unscathed by the tragedies that had consumed her young life. When she turned eighteen she used the trust fund that was left to her in her father’s will to attend the University of Southern California. There, Lauren lived with her Aunt Elaine up until she graduated from the university, and after receiving her Masters Degree in business management, she accepted a position at Alexander Record Publishing and Production Company in Chicago, Illinois. Here is where Lauren spent the last seven years successfully climbing the corporate ladder to become the assistant chief executive publisher at A.R.P.P.Co; the only position above Lauren’s was the chief executive publisher, which was held by Ivan Bradford.

      Over the years Ivan and Lauren had become very close friends as they climbed the ladder of success together. Ivan was from a totally different world. Unlike Lauren, Ivan was an underprivileged child raised in a small southern town in West Virginia. Before moving to Chicago, he never strayed far from his hometown of Chester. He attended the University of Pittsburgh on a basketball scholarship and had a very close-knit family. In fact, his parents were still together after forty years of marriage and living in the same little shack where a midwife that lived next door helped bring Ivan into the world.

     Ivan once purchased a lovely home for his parents, but instead of moving into it, they gave it to his sister and her new husband and continued to live in their broken down abode. Ivan’s six-foot five-inch frame, along with outstanding basketball skills, is what eventually got him out of the backwoods of West Virginia.  After playing semi-pro for three years, he decided to invest in his college major and sought employment in the music industry. He was a handsome man with shoulder length dreadlocks and a neatly trimmed moustache and goatee. His frame was a wiry, but muscular product of an intense daily workout routine.

     Ivan, who was born in 1968; was six years older than Lauren, but when she arrived at A.R.P.P.Co in 1997 at the age of twenty three, the two of them hit it off immediately. They worked so well together and dreamed of how one day they would be two of the top record publishers in the country. Lauren had often tried to seduce him into more than a platonic friendship; although flattered by her attraction, Ivan being a devoted husband and father of two boys, politely declined her advances. It was not always easy for him to refuse a woman of such beauty.  Lauren’s piercing green eyes and full, luscious Angelina-like lips, seemed to whisper,  “Fuck me, fuck me.” Her long flowing brown tresses always smelled like a fresh ocean breeze, and her legs started at the ankles and seemed to never end. At an incredibly statuesque five-feet eleven inches tall, Lauren could have easily been a super model.  She was stunningly gorgeous.  Despite her loveliness, Lauren had quite a problematic love life. She was very good at sabotaging relationships with men. In reality, she had not been in a serious relationship since leaving her Aunt Elaine’s home back in Los Angeles. While attending U.S.C., Lauren was involved for three years with a young man by the name of Drew Shultz before becoming so insecure that she caused him to quit school and leave the state just to be free from her accusations of infidelity.     

      Lauren’s misfortune with men continued in Chicago.  When she first arrived and moved into her apartment complex, she met a man while swimming at the indoor pool facility. She noticed Michael Norris sitting alongside the pool in a very brief pair of bikini