Susan L Metzger Mfa

Mountain Woman Mountain Beast Susan L Metzger Mfa

Sheila, the holder of two masters degrees, single, attractive, and the mother of an 18-year-old son who is away at college, has chosen to work as a bus driver for a major ski resort in Colorado rather than a professional job because she loves the outdoors and doesn't want to wear pantyhose. The story takes place in 1993 in the Vehicle Maintenance Department of Molybdenum Mountain Ski Resort, not far from Vail, Colorado. One day, as she holds a hose to wash one of the buses, a pulsing orange and blue light that may be viewed only with her peripheral vision frightens her but also offers her one wish. Its presence creates both panic and reassurance as Sheila tries to formulate a wish. However, before she conceptualizes one, she, in one poof, is transformed into a male mountain gorilla. Through her boyfriend, Kurt, a handsome mechanic, she learns that the resort has brought in a dozen trained gorillas to help install a new ski lift because their labor is much less expensive than machines. This story is her journey, along with Kurt, her boss Blaise, her son, and her Jungian Analyst, to try to understand her metamorphosis, to communicate with the other gorillas, and through them try to determine whether they were also once human. Once she accepts the horror of her new self, she must figure out how to live the rest of her life.