Magnet & Steele (14 page)

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 Francine 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.