L. A. Woman

Megan was the most dangerous kind of woman there is: attractive, young, and she did not know what she wanted.

When she got off the plane at the Los Angeles airport for the first time, the smell of the ocean excited her so much that it launched her into a year-long manic episode, although she did not know that she was bipolar.

She moved into a old Victorian home in Hollywood and went to her first L.A. party. The party's host, Annie, had converted a bedroom into a pitch-dark, three-floor, crawl-through maze.

Megan met Don in the maze. Outside the maze, when she could see him, she found out that he was tall and good-looking. His blond hair kept flopping down over his glasses, making him look like Megan's image of Dennis the Menace.

After a short job search, Megan was hired to teach at an Armenian school. When the Shah fell, many of the escaping Armenian children had moved to L.A. Her heart went out to Patrick, whose mother had been killed in Iran. The only English words he knew were, "very, very bad."

Don started treating her mean. But she met someone else, Jim, at a singles' buffet dinner. He was rather short, with brown hair and thick glasses. He was not coy; he called Megan the next day. They went to see "The Robe". Jim had her laughing all through it.

A week later, Don called. "I want to make it up to you," he said. "Let me take you out to dinner --"

"Read my lips, Don --"

"-- at the Playboy Club." Megan could not turn down an opportunity like that.

The Playboy Club was more ornate than Megan had expected. She liked the peacock dance. And Don looked good; he had been taking a male modeling class to learn how to impress women.

Jim and Megan went out for ice cream, laughing. They checked out a museum, laughing. They skipped across a street, holding hands and laughing. As they sat on Megan's sofa, Jim said, "You're the most lovable person I've ever met!"

Megan was definitely falling in love with Jim.

Megan visited Don, who took her to a restaurant Jim could never have afforded. He detailed the countries he was going to take Megan to. It was clear that Don was upwardly mobile. By the end of the evening Megan was definitely falling in love with Don.

As Megan started the drive home to L.A., she realized that there were two intelligent men in love with her. Now she knew what a brilliant, desirable woman she was. She turned the radio up loud, because it was playing "L.A. Woman". She, Megan, was the L.A. woman, "a little woman in a Hollywood bungalow."

She rolled down the window. The spring air smelled great. It felt good too, blowing through her long, sexy hair. She was fine, she was smart, and she was the best driver in L.A. The faster she went, the more the wind on her face excited her.

As the music's pitch and volume rose, her foot pressed harder on the accelerator. She was loved by two men. Yet neither could ever understand the depths of her artist's soul. "Driving down your freeway, midnight alleys roam . . . Never saw a woman, so alone, so alone." She was steering the car around the curves like an expert racer. "Ridin', ridin'." She never saw the drunk's car coming straight at her.

After Megan came to, her bipolar disorder was diagnosed. She broke up with both Jim and Don, and started over.

This was not a psychotic episode, but Megan was very manic by the time the story approached the ending.