Magnet & Steele (9 page)

Across Town

Walking down the aisles of a Ralph’s
Supermarket looking for groceries, Nancy felt impatient as she eyed
all the various choices of canned corn she now had to choose from:
creamed corn, unsalted corn, white corn, mixed white and yellow
corn and corn with salt.

At the checkout stand, Nancy with
her cart full of food and three different choices of corn began to
unload her items onto the rolling counter when she caught a glimpse
of a magazine ad that read: “Luccardi’s Fine Italian Cuisine –
Delizioso – Five Locations To Serve You!”

Nancy reached for the magazine and
ran her fingertips across the ad. Under her breath, she said,
“Luccardi’s…that’s the second time I’ve seen that name.”

The check-out girl heard her and
responded, “Oh, I love that restaurant, they have really great food
there, have you been there before?”

Nancy was still in some kind of daze
when she looked up at the strange girl. “What?” And then she shook
her head as she continued to gaze down at the colorful magazine.
“Oh, no, I haven’t. Is it really all that good?”

“Oh yeah…my husband took me there
for our anniversary last year, they have the best cannoli!” The
check-out girl gushed, punching in the prices on the cash register
above her chest.

Nancy watched the girl as she
expertly grabbed an item and then without looking at the numbers on
her register, punched in the numbers on the label and into the
console. “Well, then I will just have to check it out myself,” she
said, now watching the box boy packing her groceries up for
her.

This was her life now, grocery
shopping for a lonely household, with both her eldest children gone
from her house; she only cooked for three and no longer five. When
the children were little, she was at least grateful that she had
them to occupy her monotonous time. She rejoiced when Stephen was
at work and she could be left alone during the day to go and visit
her friend Kelly, but now she had no friends in California with any
small children to look after, only Francine, who, in her own
strange way was a comfort to her when she got home from school.
Nancy looked forward when her daughter would step through their
front door now. She looked forward to seeing her face and talking
to someone other than her reflection or her husband’s unresponsive
attitude.

As of late, she felt restless; her
life was in the doldrums. She’s been a housewife for so long with
nothing to do and never felt useful. She felt so unappreciated
lately and wanted to scream if anyone would listen. Her life, thus
far, had not been what she imagined it would be.

She did make that call to Mr.
Madestry in 1945, and he did have a secretary—her name was
Meredith—and Nancy did set up that appointment to come in that week
to see him, she even went on a photo shoot and took a few pictures
for a magazine ad for Catalina swimwear, and later that week, she
did meet with Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM Studios and Mr. Mayer
was interested in her, in fact, he seemed excited about her and she
even read a few scripts and he promised her a bit part as a dancer
in an upcoming movie called the “Ziegfeld Follies” starring Fred
Astaire, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Esther Williams
and Lena Horne, oh, the list went on and on! Mr. Mayer even sent
her to a few dance classes to help her learn how to tap and
properly kick her leg, even to a few ballet lessons to be trained
on improving her posture and arm strength, but her big break was
quickly obliterated by the understanding that she wasn’t even
allowed to day-dream anymore and all her hard work was then
anchored to an auburn-haired nightmare named Stephen
Steele.

Since the day her father forced her
to marry Stephen, Nancy has felt like she’s been running besides
herself trying to catch up to any sort of dream. When her children
were little they would occupy her time with their immediate needs.
Now that they were older she didn’t know what to do. Does she find
a new hobby? Learn to needle-point; knit a new sweater? Learn how
to play golf? Ride a horse? Join a book club or pottery class?
Should she start up dance lessons again? Contact MGM? Were they
casting a middle-aged woman for any sort of movie? She had endless
possibilities but she didn’t want to do any of it. Everything that
interested her didn’t hold much weight and she fell right smack in
the middle of the doldrums.

Her constant depression was
over-whelming. Gardening around her house, planting a new plant or
rose bush was the only highlight of her day. She was melancholy and
very pessimistic about her future, some days she felt hallow and
other days she felt short changed, like she missed out on something
or was meant to be another person and not this meek, unfinished
woman she now had become.

She wanted to paint again; she even
crossed over the street one day and browsed the acrylic section of
a nearby art studio. But how does she paint and feel creative when
she had no inspiration? How do you feel inspired when all you felt
was misery?

Paul was an adult now, he would soon
start his own family when he came home from the army, Suzy’s been
banished from the home, no longer accessible when she felt like
having some female company. And there was Francine. Her second
daughter, she had never been close to her last child, her supposed
baby, and she felt a little guilty not feeling close to her own
flesh and blood. Francine was becoming a woman now and a woman she
hardly knew, but she would have to change that.

November, 1967

Inside her bedroom, Francine and
Derrie were studying hard on the floor. Books and paper were spread
all over the carpet. The economic final was in two days and they
were in mid-study with pencils and erasers spread all over
them.

“My economics grade better be
bitchin with all this studying I did on this damn thing,” Derrie
joked.

“It will,” Francine
confirmed.

“I came up with three hundred
dollars, how about you?”

“Six hundred.”

“How can that be?”

Francine stood up and placed a hat
on her head. “I got a job.”

Derrie got up as well and jerked the
hat off. “No way, no wife of mine is gonna work.”

“This wife was gonna
work.”

“Not if she’s tied to the
bed.”

Francine blushed and then turned
away. “You’ve got to realize something Derrie, this is the sixties.
Women are joining the work force now more than ever.”

“Not my wife, she’s gonna be home
raising my six kids.”

Francine wavered and bit down on her
lower lip. That was very sweet, but his appealing comment wasn’t
going to help matters much because there was something that she’s
wanted him to know since the day she had met him. Every time she
was next to him however, his eyes would steal her courage away. The
more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to spend and he
made her feel at ease each day she was by his side. “Derrie, sit
down, there’s something you should know.”

“You don’t like kids?”

Francine smiled, “No, I love kids.”
This was harder than she thought and fingered the hat still within
her hands.

Derrie does sit down, but on her
bed. “Just say it Francine, by the look on your face, it can’t be
good.”

Francine looked away from his
brazenness. “Derrie, I’m glad we’re friends, I like
you.”

“I like you too,” Derrie said,
meeting her eyes as she gazed down at him lying now on her bed with
his feet crossed at his heels.

“Thanks,” she smiled again, “I
appreciate you spending so much time with me, but I think, you
think I’m interested in you.”

Derrie laughed and quickly got off
her bed. “What makes you think that?”

They stare at one another. Definite
attraction was obvious but was pushed aside by their apparent
stubbornness.

“You’re charmed by me,” Francine let
go, grasping at straws.

“Oh please,” Derrie gave out, waving
his hand to end her insanity. “Stop flattering yourself, you’re not
my type. You’re not a fox and besides your chest is
flat.”

Francine opened up her mouth to
insult him back and tried desperately not to look down at her
chest. “My chest was not flat!” She yelled back trying not to look
at her bosoms accidently. “And anyway, I catch you looking at me at
school.”

“You probably had ketchup on your
face.”

“Always with the quick come-back,
why don’t you just confess that you like me?”

“I do, but as a friend.”

“Good,” Francine let up upset now,
especially about the comment about her chest.

“Great,” Derrie released, glad that
the sticky subject was over and done with.

“Terrific,” Francine said next, but
still disappointed by the realization that he still wasn’t
interested in her. Had she misread all the signs? Oh! It didn’t
matter anyway… “I think you should know that I have a boyfriend,”
she confessed at last, watching Derrie’s face alter from being
annoyed to disenchanted.

An overwhelming sadness crept up on
Derrie almost immediately; he had been denying what he felt since
day one and now having her confess that she’s been going steady
made him feel weird…and jealous. Green with envy that some jerk had
free reign to kiss those pink lips he’d been dying to kiss since
meeting her.

And as soon as she noted his
reaction, Francine was suddenly despondent as well. Well, he had to
know, the feelings she was starting to have for him were getting a
little creepy. She was starting to wake up from having sex dreams
about him; those weren’t all together disturbing, but curious. She
never had sex dreams about Ian Davis (her boyfriend) before…not
even once! Well, that wasn’t entirely truthful either, she did wake
up from a dream that they had been kissing on the couch. It was one
of those close-mouthed kisses, the kind you see in the movies or on
the Andy Griffith Show between Andy and Opie’s school teacher,
Ellen Crump. No, these kisses were different, some kind of crazy
open-mouthed hunger with her hands all over Derrie, up his chest,
around his back, imagining him on top of her, deep and wild, she
would wake up a little hot and bothered. And now, since the day she
came face to face with this weird and wonderful Derek Magnet, all
her thoughts were being consumed by his questioning effect he had
over her.

Francine and Derek received an A+
for their economics project and the following day, Derrie decided
not to hang around her so much at school. One week, two, three
weeks, four, until it became an entire month, kind of odd too if
you thought about it, trying to avoid someone who lived right next
door to you! Their quick friendship was not normal, he had never
felt so at ease with a girl before, and then there was that
physical attraction thing he felt towards her since their
introduction. He’s had girlfriends before, heck, he’s not even a
virgin, but he didn’t know how to control that constant urge to
physically attack her whenever she was around! He had to try and
find a distraction, something that would aid him out of an out of
control fascination.

Francine sat alone one day at lunch
and watched Derrie and a few of his teammates throw the football
around and jokingly have fun. Derrie started flirting with some
long-haired blonde, purposely ignoring Francine as he did it. It
was beginning to get unbearable, Francine hated him now, hurt her
deeply enough by simply ignoring her and she needed a full-fledged
diversion to stop thinking about him so much.

*****

Soldier’s get off an airplane at the
Los Angeles International Airport and Francine was there to greet
one particular one.

Ian Davis, twenty-one was average
looking with a medium built. A big, bright smile was embraced to
his face however, the moment his eyes set on Francine which gave
him more appeal.

“Fran!”

“Ian!”

Francine started to run his way as
Ian trotted towards her and they come together in a whimsical
embrace. Ian closed his eyes the moment he clasped her tightly
while Francine unconsciously looked up at the sky, smiling at
heaven that God had kept him safe.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she
whispered into his ear.

“You’re all I’ve thought about
through this God damn war,” Ian breathed towards her as he
continued to hold her securely within his arms.

Francine was about to pull away when
Ian grabbed her body back again and wrapped both arms around her
back keeping her abnormally safe.