Mistral Maloof, an unknown beauty of Lebanese-Hispanic heritage, was back at her home outside Cedar Rapids after having completed her freshman year at Northwestern University and was happily detasseling corn. The young men in her life knew full well they were in the presence of some kind of local phenomenon, but she was unconvinced and had until then gotten little more notice than an incidental photograph in a local newspaper.
So she was pleasantly surprised indeed when a man in a black Lincoln drove smoothly down her road one day and stepped out to greet her, briefcase in hand.
"Are you Misti Maloof?"
"Mistral Maloof," she said carefully. "Who are you?"
"Victor Skordahl, of Cadre Modeling. I happened to notice your recent picture in the local paper."
"You noticed it?"
"My dear, I am a kind of scout. Football teams have talent scouts, the TV and movie industry has talent scouts ... Cadre Modeling has talent scouts."
"Is that a real career? I mean, I know there are successful models, but ... I don't know ... "
"I've got two million dollars that says you can make a real career of it."
Mistral froze.
"Two million?"
"Dollars?"
And so it was that Mistral Maloof drove off with the mysterious Mr. Skordahl ...
Sat May 29 19:33:40 2010