Magnet & Steele

by Trisha Fuentes

  “And?”

  “And…I miss them,” she said, convincingly enough. “My mother and my sister, I’m flying back home next week, as soon as I can get a ticket.”

  “Bull-loney,” Ian finished, throwing down his napkin after wiping off his mouth. “I know exactly who you miss.”

  Francine’s heart suddenly sunk a little lower. “What are you talking about?”

  Ian shook his head at her playing the fool. “Damn it Francine! Why can’t I ever have you completely? You’re my wife, aren’t you? Why do I have to keep sharing you with this guy?”

  Francine looked across at him like he had three eyes in the center of his head. “What? I thought we were talking about a wedding.”

  Ian scooted back his chair and stretched out the length of his legs underneath the table. “Do you think I’m that stupid? Your mother wrote to me a couple of months ago, asking for us to come to her wedding. I just chose not to tell you because I’ve been waiting to see how long it would take for you to hear from him. Until he told you that his father was marrying your mother. I just wanted to see how fast you’d react.” He stopped and then crossed his arms across his chest looking every bit the Marine and not any bit a Man of God. “And just as I thought,” he said, sarcastically, “He snaps his little fingers and you react.”

  Francine now had an argument. He kept this wedding from her? “You mean my mother already wrote to you? And you’ve been sitting on this news for months now? When were you ever going to tell me?”

  Ian uncrossed his arms. “When Hell freezes over. I was making a point Fran!”

  “Ian, that’s not fair, this is my mother we’re talking about. Don’t you think I would of wanted to celebrate this wedding with her?”

  “No,” he simply put it.

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Why, not?”

  “Because I didn’t think you wanted to go to a wedding where adultery was involved.”

  Francine swallowed hard and thought about it for a second. He was right. Cheating on one’s husband was considered a sin and adultery, wasn’t it? And Ian was a Preacher albeit a Naval Chaplain and was supposed to uphold God’s word, wasn’t he? So, of course he would think that this marriage was ill-fated, of course he would think that her mother sinned and broke one of the Ten Commandments, of course he would.

  “Then I just want to go see her then,” Francine strangely put it. “Wish her congratulations.”

  “You could send her a card,” he said unsympathetic.

  “Yes, I could also do that, but I’d like to see her in person,” she just said, thinking of Derrie as she said it.

  “Fine!” He gave in, scooting away from the dinette. “Fine then, go! And don’t let the door hit you on your way out!”

  Francine just sat there unsmiling. Distrust didn’t look good on a Preacher, she thought. Jealousy never looked good on anyone.

  California, 1971

  Francine stood in awe of her new mother in the doorway. Pink in her cheeks, hair flowing wild and full of strawberry blonde; Capri pants with a tight-fitting white cotton shirt that accentuated her bosoms and tied at the waist, her bare feet.

  “Mom…,” Francine said astonished, surveying her from head to toe. “You look fantastic!”

  “Thanks honey,” she said, giving Francine a hug; a big unexpected long hug.

  “I guess congratulations are in order?” Francine asked, being welcomed through her front door. “You really got married?”

  “Yes honey, Angelo and I got married several months ago, I wrote to you and asked if you two could attend but you never responded. Since you don’t have a telephone, it’s so hard to get a hold of you.”

  Francine was in disbelief now. “Mom, Ian never told me. I just found out recently, found out from Derrie.”

  Nancy held back her feelings. Looking into her daughter’s eyes she knew exactly why she came back to the states. It wasn’t for her and it wasn’t to wish her congratulations either, it was Derrie. Her daughter wanted to come see Angelo’s son. He must have written to her, she realized right away, that was why Francine flew all the way back to the states. Her daughter was in torment. Yes, the torment, the anguish, the pain. She recognized it instantly on her daughter’s frightful face and noticed it through her red eyes and then straight away in her body posture. “Francie honey, so you know?”

  “Mom…” Francine burst into tears all of a sudden, “I can’t do this anymore, I can’t play pretend any longer…he’s having a baby mom…a baby.”

  “I know honey,” Nancy agreed, pulling her daughter into her bosom, “I know how this must hurt. Come sit down, sit down here.” She asked of her, guiding them over to a nearby couch.

  Once there, Nancy held Francine’s hand and began to tell her daughter her remarkable love story.

  “I want to tell you something,” Nancy said, continuing to caress her daughter’s hand within hers. “I’ve known Angelo for a very long time. Angelo and Jerry, Derrie’s father, are one in the same and I’ve always loved him. Let me see…it was springtime. The sun was about to set on the hills covered in Daffodils. Its rays leave a brilliant view of an orange-glow over a golden blanket hovering over the horizon…

  Indiana, 1971

  Francine drove towards the University of Notre Dame, travelling fast down Lake Road towards the famous college. She couldn’t believe Ian let her go so easily, but he did and his ineffectiveness hurt, she had to admit. She thought he would have fought just a little bit harder, just a little bit longer, but after his little tantrum, he didn’t utter another word and folded his napkin and handed her a hundred dollars to purchase her ticket back to the states.

  Francine watched along with the other fans, a football game in progress. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus the UCLA Bruins; and it was the fourth quarter and a minute left to play. Francine watched fondly as the fans cheered and waved their pom-poms in the air. She thumbed through her football program and noticed a 5x7 photo of Derrie in a quarterback football pose. She then looked up and down at the game and watched as Derrie threw a 30-yard pass down to the receiver taking the ball to the end zone. The fans all around her go wild, and the Irish win, 27-26.

  Later, after the football game was over and the frenzy calmed down, Francine sat still watching the janitors sweep up the trash and scattered paper cups throughout the stadium. She looked up behind her and was surprised to see two men still arguing.

  “Aaah, quit your cryin’, the Bruins lost fair and square!”

  “Next year man, your teams gonna drop.”

  “Are you ready now, mister cry baby? Wanna head down now to get our boys?”

  “Yeah, in a minute, let me enjoy my last sip of beer.”

  Francine had an idea.

  Moments later, Francine inconspicuously followed the two men to the players’ locker room. What the heck was she doing anyhow? What the heck was she going to say to him? She came all this way, swallowed all her pride and hesitated when she spotted a water boy strolling along outside. She had another idea.

  “Hey kid!” Francine yelled at him.

  The boy winced, “Yeah?”

  “Do you know who Derek Magnet is?”

  “Huh! That’s a stupid question.”

  “That was a stupid question,” Francine agreed with the boy. “Could you tell Derek Magnet that his…” She hesitated, not knowing if she should use her real name, “…That his wife is outside waiting for him?”

  Francine then watched the boy as he turned away and disappeared through the flapping doors of the player’s clubhouse.

  Inside, the water boy put down his jug of Gatorade. He walked around aimlessly searching for Derrie through a pack of disrobing football players. The water boy then spotted Derrie through the crowd of sweaty and dirty flesh. “Hey Derrie!”

  “Yeah?” He looked up, pulling his gear up over his head.

  “Your wife’s outside.”

  “What?” Derrie asked, dumbfounded.

 
“Your wife’s outside. She’s waiting for you.”

  Derrie slowly grabbed his belongings off the bench and placed them back into his locker. He then grabbed his shirt and shoes off the bench and put them on while walking and exiting through the doors.

  Outside the locker room, the sun was about to set and Derrie spotted someone waiting for him in the shadows. He relaxed just a bit realizing it was his wife then bent down to tie his shoelaces. “Donna? What are you doing here?” He asked, tying one shoe and then the other. “You said you were gonna visit your mother in California.”

  “Hi Derrie.”

  Derrie leaned back up and then squinted his eyes from the sunlight being in them; he still couldn’t see her clearly. “Donna…what’s wrong?”

  “Is this how you treat an old friend?”

  Derrie stepped in closer to where she had been standing and was amazed to not see his wife, but someone he thought he’d never see again. “Fran!” And he instinctively threw his arms around her shoulders for a hug because of it.

  “I watched the game,” she said, releasing his body quick. “I forgot how great you were!”

  “Thank you, thank you, but enough about me, what are you doing here? Where’s Ian?” He asked, looking around them. “Did he watch the game too?”

  Close-mouthed, Francine looked away from him. “He’s still overseas. I wanted to see my mom, wish her congratulations.”

  “Isn’t that something? How our parents knew each other before? Did she tell you? I couldn’t believe it when dad told me!”

  Francine then looked at him and her then nodded, “Derrie…”

  “Fran, before you say anything else,” he waived, halting her. “There’s something I need to tell you, something about Donna.”

  “Oh Derrie, I…”

  “…Donna almost lost the baby.”

  Francine clutched her handbag closely to her stomach. She wasn’t prepared for so much resentment to creep in and now the resentment was well mixed with empathy and she didn’t quite know how to handle the two blended together.

  He continued, by saying, “He’s OK, he was born a little premature, but Chris is OK. That’s his name, Christopher Magnet to be exact. Donna took him to see her mother, he’s had a high fever these past few days and I begged her not to go, to leave him here with me, but she was too stubborn and took him anyways. That’s why when I heard Stevie, the water boy, telling me that Donna was outside my heart sunk.”

  “Oh God, I’m sorry Derrie, I didn’t know.”

  “She’s been through a lot of stress lately,” he continued, explaining to her the reasons as to why. “Raising a kid is stressful, especially when his father is off chasing a pipe dream.”

  “I’m sorry Derrie, I really didn’t know,” she said, grabbing his hand. She felt him give it a squeeze.

  “I’m up for the draft this year, I’ve been offered to play professional by New York and Chicago, but I want to weigh out my options. I’m waiting to see if I hear from Oakland or San Diego, move back to California.”

  She let go of his hand hastily. “Wow…I mean, wow, that’s really great.” Liar; and she held back her bitter tears.

  “Yeah, I can’t wait. We moved into a larger apartment, off campus and when the baby’s about six months, I’m gonna buy a house with dad’s help.”

  “Wow!” Oh, the inner anguish…the pain, the pain!

  “How about you…How are you and Ian doing?”

  “Oh, I can’t complain, I guess,” Francine decided to say instead of spelling out her whole life back in the Philippines.

  “Dad told me that Ian asked to extend his tour? That Ian has a church? So you’re gonna stay in Subic Bay?”

  “Yes, yes in Subic Bay…”

  Derrie noticed Francine shaking and looking around for a chicken exit. “What’s wrong, Fran?”

  “You love her now,” she spat out without thinking.

  Derrie closed his mouth and felt his heart drop. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt in quite some time. Frowning at her, he let go, “What?”

  Francine looked deep into his eyes and wiped the wetness away from hers before saying, “Oh God, I promised myself I wouldn’t do this.”

  “What are you doing?” Derrie asked now, beginning to get angry.

  “What…this?” Francine said impishly, continuing to wipe away her tears. “Oh, it’s nothing. It’s nothing really Derrie, wow, you’re really married and you’re having this…whole family.”

  “Fran, enough of this!” Derrie demanded, truly getting upset now.

  On command her tears stop. “Enough? Enough of what?”

  “This…this thing that you do!”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “Teasing me to death! That’s what!”

  Now Francine’s mouth completely shut tight. Whenever had she teased him? “Teasing you? I’m not trying to tease you, I’m sorry Derrie, I made a mistake, I’m gonna go.”

  “No Fran!” Derrie snapped, cutting her down and then grabbing her arm to detour her into a small private area where the trees sheltered them from all view.

  “What are you doing?” Francine wondered, gazing down at his arm holding tight across her forearm.

  “What are you doing?”

  She jerked away from him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Fran, you’re married. I’m married,” he explained, angrily. “We’ve both made a commitment, a commitment? Do you know what that means?”

  “Yes Derrie, I do know what that means.”

  “I’ve got to concentrate on my football career, on my marriage, on my child. You’re just a distraction, always have been. You tease me a little bit then I’m distracted.”

  “I didn’t realize,” Francine just said with a small smile forming on her lips.

  “No you’re not, then why are you here?”

  “My mom, no, you—to talk to you, to see how you’ve been.”

  “So you thought you’d just hop on a plane, fly across the ocean and drive hundreds of miles just to see how I was?”

  “You don’t have to be so condescending.”

  “I think it’s better that we’re apart, don’t you?” Derrie asked, no longer angry, but irritated. “I think you should go now.”

  Francine’s eyes bugged out. “You’re kidding right?”

  “No.”

  Then silence. Stillness with the both of them looking into each other’s eyes searching from something…something.

  Francine couldn’t believe it, and at that moment, she thought about all the days in a row where she’d cried herself to sleep for being so far away from him. Derrie evolved from being someone she sometimes missed when she didn’t see him at school to someone she longed for because she couldn’t see him because he was an ocean away. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Absence, to her, made her heart ache. Swelling to a point where she wished she could carve it out to make it stop smarting. At present, she wanted to enfold him, she was just too happy to see him, and boy, did he ever look endearing! He had cut his hair though, a little shorter around the ears, or was his hair just wet from coming out of the shower? Oh no, his hair was wet and her envisioning him naked and under a cascading waterfall made her all hot and bothered and she tried to disguise her enthusiasm by fanning herself. He looked just too gorgeous for words. Why was she there again? Oh crap, she thought, oh yeah… “No, I can’t. I won’t…I won’t leave it like this.”