Prelude to a Kiss

In Chicago, Peter Hoskins and Rita Boyle meet at a party. Beyond their immediate attraction, they quickly fall in love despite the differences in their outlooks. Peter emerged more than intact from a difficult childhood to have a sense of wonder about life. Conversely, Rita, who grew up in an upper middle class home in suburban Lake Forest, can't help but be scared of life in seeing the world's problems all around her, her socialist viewpoints which she has never been able to convey to her conservative parents, Dr. Marshall and Marian Boyle. After a short but intense courtship, they decide to get married in a tasteful backyard ceremony at her parents' house. It is during their honeymoon in Jamaica that Peter comes to a realization that who is with him on this honeymoon may be Rita in body, but not in soul or spirit. Upon meeting him again back in Chicago, Peter believes that the soul inhabiting Rita's body belongs to the old man who crashed their wedding, he who requested a kiss from Rita, which she obliged. The old man, into whose body Rita's soul has moved, confirms as much. Peter has to decide who he will confide in in this rather fantastical story in his effort to switch the souls back into their rightful bodies, which may not be as easy as just getting Rita and the old man proverbially in the same room. Peter also learns that time is of the essence when he learns of the old man's own story. Written by Huggo