“Has anyone ever told you how intoxicating you are?” Suzy voiced trying to look away from his hypnotic stare.
Jerry nodded his head. The only thing that could have saved him from utter deluge was the sight of dry land, the real thing and the original—his first love. He leaned in closer to her while Suzy inclined to meet him. He felt the urge to kiss her when he got his wish …
Nancy appeared out of nowhere from around the corner and stood immobilized.
Angelo?!
Jerry did a double-take when he comprehended a blast from his past.
Nancy?!
Tight in her fancy green taffeta evening gown, Nancy turned around and bumped into guests as she tried to make a mad dash towards the backyard and into the pouring rain.
Jerry tripped as well as he struggled to excuse himself around the crowds of guests chasing after Nancy still running away. He ended up following her out to the backyard and into the downpour.
Simultaneously, they reached the small shelter within moments. Gasping for breath and in awe of one another’s existence, Nancy continued to look at him in disbelief. She was stunned while Jerry was just plain speechless. Jerry studied her eyes up close and determined now that they weren’t the same anymore; shaded over by some kind of loneliness, colored over by age.
“What the hell were you doing with my daughter?” Nancy screamed at him over the noisy plunge of rain that poured down the sides of the gazebo.
“Your daughter,” he asked astonished, wiping his hair away from his face.
“Yes, my daughter!”
“I didn’t know who she was; all I knew was that she looked so much like…you.”
They stood tranquilized, in awe and in utter incredulity. He continued to stare at her and she at him.
“Oh my God,” Nancy finally conveyed with tear-jerking emotion.
“Nancy…I can’t believe it’s you.”
“Angelo…I can’t believe you’re here, at my party, in my backyard no less! How did you get here? Who did you come with? Did Suzy bring you?”
“Suzy? No! Oh dear God,” Angelo cried grabbing his head with both hands and rotating around towards his yard. “I can’t believe this is happening!” He hesitated before telling her, “I live next door.”
“What?”
“I live next door…here, next door,” he declared, pointing to the tip of his roof. “Ringraziarlo Dio….Thank you Lord! My son, I’m Derrie’s father…I’m Jerry Magnet.”
Nancy shook her head in doubt and tried to grasp his regard. “No! Oh my God, you changed your name, that’s why I could never find you. You’re Jerry Magnet, Derrie’s father…” And then it hit her, the realization and then the alarm…“Then they know?”
Jerry hesitated, “No, Derrie doesn’t know. I’ve never told him. Does Francine know?”
“No, I’ve never told her…any of them.”
“I always wondered why I found myself looking at Francine so strangely when she was over our house. I couldn’t put my finger on it; there was always something so intriguing about her.”
“Me too,” Nancy agreed, shaking her head, “Same with me with Derrie. I found myself looking at him as well. Something about him always reminded me of…you.”
Then silence. Thunder and lightning now roar over them. Confirmation sunk in and Jerry went in to embrace her. Nancy opened up her arms and welcomed his contact and they held each other tight.
“I can’t believe you went ahead and married him,” he whispered at the back of her ear.
“When did you meet her?” She asked at the crux of his neck.
“Derrie’s mother?” He asked in return, grabbing the back of her head and holding her near.
“Yes,” she answered, closing her eyes to feel the warmth of his body and the tranquility of his intimacy.
“Two days after your wedding,” he confessed, “She died giving birth to Derrie, he’s never known her.”
“Poor Derrie,” Nancy voiced sadly and then let go of him, but just barely, “…Oh Angelo. What have we done?”
“Angelo…I haven’t heard that name in such a long time,” he smiled and then brought her body into his once more. It felt so natural to be with her; he couldn’t help but feel like they were a long married couple already and no time has passed between them. “No one calls me Angelo anymore, no one except mama.”
“I can’t believe you changed your name,” Nancy softly said into his chest, “Your look, everything about you. Even your accent has vanished.”
“Nancy,” he acknowledged, “I changed because of you. I completely changed after having met you; I went to college, made some money, but all this time I kept you in my heart.”
Nancy pulled away from him. “I’ve never forgotten you either.”
“Does your husband know about us?”
“…He’s always known.”
He let go of her instantly, bothered by her admission. “And you still had three children with him?”
Nancy tried to control her defeat and tried to control the misery she was seeing from his eyes. “Don’t think of them as his children. They’ve always been mine, and mine alone.”
Jerry stared at her with his mouth wide open. “Oh Nancy, so much has happened, there’s so much to tell.”
“Oh Angelo—Jerry—whoever you are now! Hug me forever, never let me go, I need to be next to you. I don’t wanna talk, just hold me…kiss me, need me, I need you,” Nancy cried, grabbing his neck and pulling his lips down to hers.
30 Minutes till Midnight
Francine walked into her bedroom unaware that Derrie was behind her when he noticed that she wasn’t paying any attention to him and he surprised her by pinching the side of her waist.
“Gotcha!”
Francine turned around and then slapped him playfully on the shoulder. “Don’t do that, you ditz head!”
“Nice party, where’s your shadow?” He asked, still laughing at is dirty deed.
Francine gave him a smirk, “If you’re talking about Ian, he had to go back…he’s on his last few months of his tour.”
“Aaaah, too bad,” Derrie mocked initially, but then felt anxiety at the back of his neck.
“Are you having fun down there?” Francine asked, curious to find out if he really was.
“Definitely!”
“Have you noticed my tramp sister?”
“Yeah, she looks good.”
“Figures.”
“I wouldn’t mind being the label on her underwear.”
Francine gave him another smirk, but then met eye to eye with Derrie and the high temperature quickly returned. “Derrie, I think we need to talk.”
“We are talking,” he said turning away trying to calm himself down as well. He headed towards her bed and sat down on it making his body comfortable.
“No, silly, what I meant was about the other day.”
“What about—oh, about us kissing?”
“Yes.”
He stared at her before saying, “It was in the moment.”
“In the moment?”
“It was Christmas,” he simply conveyed convinced of his answer hoping that she was convinced as well.
Francine went over to the other side of the room and threw herself into a bean bag chair.
Derrie then gazed at the picture of Ian on her desk. “Guess what?”
“What?”
“I asked Beth to go steady.”
Their eyes met now.
“Good,” Francine got out just barely, “Good for you.”
“She’s been after me for months now,” he guffawed, “I gave her my letterman pin last night.”
Francine felt like she was about to cry for some reason, her heart hurt and blew up like a balloon. Not looking at him now and only down at her lap, she spat out, “She’s gonna break your heart.”
Derrie let go a small laugh, “No—never—I don’t usually give out my heart for anyone to break.”
They both look at each other once again, but Franc
ine chose to look away. She was visibly bothered by his admission and Derrie took note of it.
“You’re a much better person than she is,” she softly voiced, feeling her heart breaking with each breath she drew. “She doesn’t deserve you.”
Derrie now laughed out loud. “Relax, it’s not that deep, we use each other for sex,” he lewdly remarked, bouncing himself on top of Francine’s bed. Bounce…bounce…bounce.
Francine stared at him for a moment, incredulous that he would even mention such a thing. But like magic, all her heartache vanished. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, don’t you use Ian?”
“I’m not gonna answer that.”
Derrie smiled wickedly as he stretched out his legs completely and then crossed them at the heels. “You mean you’re still a virgin Fran?”
“That’s personal,” she shot back at him.
“Maybe for you,” he expressed a little shocked.
“And I don’t think it’s funny either!”
“Who’s laughing?”
“You—that’s who—I can hear it in your voice.”
“So why does it bother you?”
“It doesn’t.”
Derrie let go a small snicker under his breath, “But it does…”
Francine was beyond mad now. “Apologize!”
“For what?” He yelled back at her now, “For you being a virgin?”
“Apologize for bringing it up!”
“Hell no!”
Francine was so upset at this point she grabbed the nearest thing she could find to throw at him and tossed it. Her aim was completely off however and curved several feet away from his body.
“You missed.”
Francine watched angrily as Derrie sprung up laughing and headed towards the window. Crossing her arms across her chest she was beyond insulted now. “You’re a ditz head and I hate you.”
“Hey look,” Derrie said, surveying the weather outside and trying to swallow that ‘hate you’ remark. “The rain’s really coming down now.”
“So!” She yelled back still angry, slumping deeper inside the bean bag.
Derrie circled his gaze up and around the window and then looked down and targeted the gazebo. Through the rain dripping down the windowpane, inside the gazebo he spotted a man and a woman embracing. He then slowly fathomed who the couple was and uttered, “Oh my God…”
Francine doesn’t bother to look his way; she was still quite irritated at him. “What now?”
Calm, and in doubt, Derrie pointed out the window. “Look.”
“What?” Francine asked, throwing her hands into the air.
“Come over here.”
“Why?”
Exasperated with her now, he demanded, “Will you just come over here before I have to pull you over!”
Francine wanted no chance of that and pushed herself out of the bean bag and headed to his locale to stand next to him. Looking out the window with her, she noticed her mother first and then secondly, his father? They were hugging inside the gazebo; and it wasn’t a sign of a first meeting either, oh no…It was a display of affection!
Francine and Derrie’s eyes both connect at that moment.
“I didn’t know our parents knew each other,” Derrie relayed disbelieving this strange outcome.
“Neither did I.”
They both look out the window once again and stare down at the gazebo when Jerry suddenly kissed Nancy hard on the lips, embracing her passionately.
Francine and Derrie are both taken-back and continue to gawk at the couple as they made-out like teenagers; watching them like they were viewing some seedy movie. Amazed by what was happening, passions intensify between the two as noises of blow-horns, rattles and whistles echo up the stairwell and into Francine’s bedroom. The over-bearing uproar of people singing “Old Lang Syne” vibrated through the reservation inside their heads and Francine and Derrie had no other choice but to walk away with a deep sense of uncertainty.
Francine headed down the stairs and opted towards another part of the house where she could think without a whistle or blow-horn being wheezed and entered her father’s study when she was startled by Ian sitting on the sofa talking to Suzy. Ian was dressed in civilian clothes, and Francine wasn’t prepared. “Ian?”
“Francine, happy new year!” He shouted, getting up to greet her.
“What are you doing here?” She asked, amazed. “I thought you were shipping off.”
“I have something to tell you,” he gushed, hugging her near.
“Ian’s got some good news for you Francine,” Suzy quipped with a condescending tone.
Ian escorted Francine over to a chair and sat her down. She looked into his eyes still uncertain. All she could concentrate on was Derrie. Derrie and his new girlfriend…Derrie with his new girlfriend, kissing…Derrie and his new girlfriend, kissing and doing it.
“I heard the Lord,” he swallowed hard, grabbing her hands within his. “I heard the Lord’s voice; he wants me to devote myself to Him.”
Francine looked over at her sister. Suzy was all smiles and shrugged her shoulders in a playful “isn’t that wonderful?” wit. “I don’t understand, you heard the Lord? The Lord spoke to you?”
“Yes! Isn’t it wonderful?” He delivered, raising his arms into the air. “Simply amazing!”
Francine looked at her sister once again. Huh? She always knew that Ian and his family were Christians, but this?
“You’ll be a preacher’s wife, Francine! Isn’t that simply amazing?”
Francine stood up, “Ian…if that’s what you truly want to do.”
“It’s not what I want to do Fran; it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“Think about it Francine, a preacher’s wife! Bake sales, women’s retreats, with no possibility of ever going for rides on a motorcycle!”
Francine frowned at her sister and then looked blankly at her fiancé. He was about to introduce her to something she hadn’t quite counted on.
June, 1968
Francine and her mother were putting clothes together for her trousseau when Francine started to panic.
Nancy came out of the closet with her daughter’s wedding gown in her hands when she saw Francine’s fright. Her eyes were closed and she was jittering. “Honey, you all right?”
“Yes mom…no, what I mean is…yes mom.”
Nancy folded the gown in half against her midriff. “Are you sure? You wanna tell me something?”
Her first reaction was to say ‘yes’ she wanted to scream, she wanted to run away, but she ended up saying, “Um, no mom, no.”
Magnet & Steele Page 11
