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Old 07-22-2015, 11:27 PM   #1
Rick_Jazz
Danielle Fan
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 11
Post Long Post... But (hopefully) worth it

An Inspirational Tale - By Richard Hamilton

So there I was, many months ago, diligently yet needlessly perusing Google for more typically useless information. This time, the name of a certain actress of a 90's sitcom that a friend and I could not remember - oh, what was her name again?? After some fumbling and refining, I found it - "Boy Meet's World's" Danielle Fischel. "Well, that was fun" I shrugged, then let out a sigh. "There's another 5 minutes of my life I won't get back."

But as I sat there, Google images splayed across my screen, eyes swimming in a pool of Danielles, something caught my attention. I stumble upon a photo, one that was certainly not like the others - no, this one was different, so very different (well it wasn't Fischel, that's for sure). It was a picture of a girl, no, a woman. A woman I had never seen before, or more accurately, the likes of which I had never seen before. A face, a beauty, an uncommonly natural beauty silently looked back at me. I fixated on the photo, intrigued, to say the least. "Who is this?" I wondered as my eyes kept centered on the woman dappled amongst the other Danielles on my LCD. I sat back in my chair, head cocked to one side as a puppy might do when spoken to, so I could match the angle of the face on my screen. "Wow," I thought aloud, "there she is... the woman in this photo... a face of the quintessential 'girl-next-door'. A face you would most certainly take home to Mom. A face a guy could fall for. A face.... that could launch 1000 ships". I sat transfixed - my eyes unmovable. I was hooked. I decided that I really wanted to get to know this graceful face, this mystery woman, the nameless person in this photo, well, a little more. I reached for my mouse.

Right-click. Save Picture As.... MysteryGirl.jpg



I then studied the now downloaded picture/face for many moments (as I did, strangely, Def Leppard's "Photograph" begins to play in my head). As I look closer, what I see is mesmerizing: flawless, alabaster skin upon a perfect feminine facial structure - cheekbones, jawline and nose all exquisitely proportioned. Neatly-styled, natural (dishwater?) blonde hair that fell delicately beneath the curve of her left cheek as she suspended her head with her left hand, apparently reclining on her left side on what could have been a bed, wearing what looked to be a light lilac-colored, soft terry robe. Her expression seemed far away, hard to read, but had a certain haunting innocence about it. Was she deep in thought? Or perhaps she was looking at someone close by with an expression of warmth and fondness, maybe for someone she had awoke beside on a Sunday morning, I mused. But there was something else....

Then it hit me, why this picture so magnetic to me - the eyes. Fascinating. I looked deeply into those eyes, the color of which I found indescribable for the longest while and could only then lamely settle on what could be called "steel-blue" or perhaps "gray-blue"? Certainly a color not often found in nature, but a color worthy of a name in of itself. A color worthy of such mercurial orbs. I continued looking at those eyes for what seemed like an eternity. "Hypnotic", I thought. They began to make me wonder, "What was going on behind those eyes at that very moment?"... as she thoughtfully looked into the lense of the camera that was obviously in front of her. Yet, also as if she were gazing at me from the picture itself, gazing...

I looked away from the picture, the eyes - I was in danger of getting lost in them. Amazed, I thought, "How can one person be so blessed among women with such eyes - the likes of which could cut through souls and illicit so many responses in a man, none the least of which would include melting at their very sight", I supposed. Then something happened, something "clicked" in my head, inspiration suddenly struck - Ding! (No, not an inspirational ding, it was my microwave. So I went and got my tea). Suddenly, a feeling washed over me, one that I had not felt in a very long time. A collection of ideas began forming - the sleepy right side of my brain, the half which secretes those colorful creative juices, began to awaken like a long-slumbering dragon (and for this musician/songwriter, this kind of magical moment was a welcomed occurance, indeed). So I quickly grabbed pen and paper and once again stared into those eyes and began to write, remembering what I saw (or thought I saw). What was in those eyes, or more aptly, what was behind them. 15 minutes later I emerged from my office - a beautiful writing in hand, bound for my journal of other insprations from years past. Something I could enjoy reading later when I'm old and gray (which is probably a lot closer than I think).

Present day: Recently, my journal is lost due to my own carelessness. Upon attempting to rewrite some of the memories now MIA, I discovered that the eye-inspired writing was easily recoverable, not only since it was my most recent writing, but I found that by simply looking into the eyes of that same saved photo once again, 'MysteryGirl.jpg', the words just reappeared under my pen. Sadly, many older writings were now lost to time. It was then I decided: since these inspirations seldom occurred and since they could be lost at any time, that if anyone in my life inspired me to write something meaningful, I would share that gift of inspiration with them as soon as it was completed so they could enjoy it too. In the past, I would shy away from sharing my writings, but that had to change. And from henceforth, it would. But this time, how would I find this person - this person I didn't know from, er, Eve? Since I had no way of knowing who "MysteryGirl" was, how was I to know to whose eyes I owed this gift?

Then at last, fate intervened. By chance, while talking to a friend at work about something unrelated, he explained how he recently discovered that Google had the ability to do reverse image searches. "What? Reverse image searches? Really??" I stammered. And all this time I thought Google was only a text search engine. As my face falls in my palm, I think "Well duh! You'd think I'd know this crap working in I.T..." <eyeroll> So, upon arriving home, I quickly opened my browser, point it at Google, copied my MysteryGirl.jpg to the awaiting blank field on the website of the world's-largest-data-repository-on-planet-Earth, crossed my fingers and with shaky hand, pressed Enter....

Upload complete.... <deep breath>

and Google then responded with a name - Danielle Delaunay.

OMG! Thrilled that I finally had a real clue to work with, I excitedly looked at a crop of new images on my screen that this new name had provided and starting searching fervently for some familiarity - especially in the eyes. I see another photo: a beautiful, statuesque woman in a black dress and heels, leaning against an exotic sports car. Is that her? It sure looks like her. A little far away to see the eyes clearly, though. Ok, here's another photo: same face as the car photo, but closer this time. She's wearing a black, low-cut top and stylish, retangular-framed glasses against a brick background. She has the same hair color and similar facial features of my mystery photo, but now looking closer I can tell - the eyes are a match to my photo. Their color and shape are unmistakable. This had to be her. The mystery of my "MysteryGirl" photo was closing on closure, I hoped.

So my photo now had a name: Danielle Delaunay. Desperately looking for a wiki or something similar to find more info (and instead finding more info on a singer with the same name, grrr) I finally find another photo of "Danielle", but this time with hair a much lighter shade of blonde. The photo has a link which I click and I am steered toward a site called DanielleFTV. Ok, I'll bite. So I click the link..... aaaaand I freeze. After a long moment with eyes glued to the screen, I sit back, collect my jaw from the floor, try to breathe and take a few minutes to process what I was seeing. Okaaaay... not exactly what I was expecting. But then I realized that there was more - more to the face in my photo. So much more perfection that my picture failed to show. And there was no mistaking that this was most certainly her. Her in that photo. Her, with that face I so admired. Her, with those mercurial eyes. Her, in all of her feminine glory before me. Her... the inspiration. Finally, it was all coming together. After a few more apprehensive seconds, I sheepishly perused the site and was fortunate enough to find the forum - which I, of course, signed up for immediately.

Anyway, to cut this ridiculously long story short (and if you haven't already deleted this thread), since I now honestly believe that you, Danielle, are the "MysteryGirl" (the person in my revered photo above) and since that photo inspired me to write something beautiful, well then it's only fitting that you should receive the gift you inspired, for it is rightfully yours.

In closing, may your days be filled with love, laughter, friends and family, and may you find success in all you do (and if you really did read all of this, what's wrong with you?).

Most sincerely yours,

Richard (from sunny Sarasota, FL)

P.S. So without further adieu, here is what a simple photo of you inspired, Miss Danielle.... Enjoy.

Last edited by Rick_Jazz; 09-22-2017 at 12:23 AM.
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