The Three Stooges – Part One

Mike was not prone to spontaneity. He was more of your steady and sure kind of person. Coming from the Western Suburbs of Sydney, he grew up in a tough but likeable environment. He was lucky his parents were always stable and his father had
been a good, if not mercurial, provider. His school life was one of average over average. He never really stood out anywhere as the environment really only provided for grade A students, or grade A Rugby League or Soccer players. He liked school
for the companionship although if pressed he’d say he felt he didn’t learn much. He left home and school and studied hard to become an electrician. It was a good job and he felt good about what he earned and how he did it. With women
he was never so lucky. His internal average-ometer always seemed to make the average girls gravitate towards him. He would never rate himself as a chance for the good looking ones in the corner. In reality, that’s all he wanted.

Stu was a grade A student wrapped in a grade F wrapper. With all of the intelligence and potential of a real winner, he never really gave himself a chance, even when it really mattered. From a broken home, with a step father he hated, he
had yearned to get out and into the world even though the thought terrified him. His life to date was one of missed opportunities, menial labour and a rash of relationships that always ended in tears. His trip from New Zealand to Brisbane was
one of self fulfilling indulgence in everything the gold coast could offer. This place of surfers, mung beans, losers, marijuana and plenty of jobs for dumb laborers was a paradise for him. He was home.

Joe was nuts. He came into this world as the only child from Italian immigrants some 30 years before. His parents were the super steady immigrant workers. A bus driver and office secretary, they oversaw Joe into his early 20’s. It
was obvious early that Joe was going to be a handful. He was 5’5” tall and had an attitude to match. He was going to make his mark on this world and he was going to make sure everyone knew it. As fate would have it, he was a born
loser in business. Venture after venture going wrong, bad loans to banks and never really being able to snag that women he liked. His parents were in constant angst over his activities but indulged him endlessly as he went from crisis to crisis.

An epiphany, a sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life-changing realization that a character experiences in an otherwise ordinary moment was about to explode on Stu, Joe and Mike at around the same time.

“A” walked into the room and looked at her customer sitting on the bed. Internally she sighed. This was the 8th customer today. She was bored and lonely. She had been convinced by a family friend to come and work in Australia.
Her parents had been keen as they were to get a substantial amount of money that would help them get out of their economic blues. She had thought, no she had been certain that the job was in a restaurant and that she was going to earn 30,000 baht
a month. In reality as soon as she got through customs at Sydney Airport, her passport was taken off her and she was taken away for her indoctrination.

“Tem” was a well educated girl from a middle class Thai family. She had her degree in Accounting and two parents and four siblings that loved her. Something had eaten at her for as long as she could remember. She wanted more
than a life of “ka” ,“Ka”, “Ka” and she couldn’t put her finger on it. She was an independent spirit trapped in a society and roll of the pliant and easy going. Her relationships with Thai men without
exception were awful affairs of deceit and angst. She had even tried the tomboy route only to find herself filled with self loathing and disgust after her feeble attempts. Her job as an Accountant in a car dealership further exasperated her. She
wanted more from her life.

Koi was a hopeless case. She could never get out of bed on time, was cursed for this as long as she could remember. She had been raised in the house of some friends of her grandparents. She had never known her parents or her siblings. She
was sure she had some, but that part of her life was a closed book and it was heresy to bring it up. She had been lazy at school, flunked out of University and had had difficulty holding down any sort of meaningful employment. There was one thing
in her favour, however, and that was her beauty. She knew that this was why she was able to easily get a job and used her womanly wiles as hard as she could so that she could do as little as possible to get as much as she needed.

And so the story begins . . . . . . .

Stickman's thoughts:

Nice start.