Magnet & Steele (15 page)

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.”

Nancy looked across at Francine at
that moment and actually felt her hesitation. There was something
wrong with her daughter, but she just didn’t know how to ask her
what it was. She unfolded her beautiful wedding gown and looked
down at it once again and thought about her own wedding day and how
awful it was. Hopefully, Francine’s wedding wouldn’t be as dreadful
as hers was, she was almost sure that her daughter was happy about
getting married, and they all loved Ian. “OK Francine, if you say
so.”

A few moments later and inside the
bathroom now, Francine was attempting to put mascara on in the
mirror when Suzy walked in unexpectedly and handed Francine an
envelope.

“This came for you,” she said
simply, handing Francine the letter.

Francine glanced down at the little
white envelope and recognized the handwriting. Closing her eyes and
twisting her lips realizing who it was from, she asked anyway,
“What is it?”

Suzy gazed down at the letter. “I
dunno…It’s addressed from Notre Dame. Didn’t you say Derrie goes
there now?”

Francine put down the mascara and
then looked herself over in the mirror. Not really caring what she
looked like at that point, she blurted, “Yeah, he does.”

Suzy placed the letter on the marble
countertop and walked over to Francine’s wedding dress that was
hanging up on a hanger now on a hook. “I wish I could have worn a
wedding dress,” she said under her breath.

“Oh Suzy, what could be so
important?” Francine spoke up all of a sudden. “What can’t wait?
What the hell could Derrie possibly want?”

Suzy shrugged her shoulders, “I
dunno…why don’t you just open it and find out.”

Francine grabbed the mascara tube
and closed the cap on the top and then lobbed it across the basin.
Incredibly frustrated at this point, she folded her arms across her
chest. “Why would Derrie send me a letter today? Of all days! On my
wedding day! What could be so gosh darn important?”

“Oh God, just open it!” Suzy snapped
back at her acting like a ditz. “Do you want me to open
it?”

“Will you?”

Suzy grabbed the letter off the
countertop and tore through it swiftly. Reading it aloud, it read:
“‘Dear Francine, congratulations are in order I’d say. Just wanted
to let you know that I got married…’” Suzy stopped reading and
lifted up her eyes to see Francine holding up the wall with her
hand over her mouth. “‘…Yesterday,’” she continued, “‘her name is
Donna, she’s a wonderful girl.’ Oh, I’m sorry Fran! Are you
OK?”

“Let me see that,” Francine asked,
holding out her hand for the darn thing. She wanted to read the
letter herself; did it really say Derrie got married?

“Sure Fran, you want me to
leave?”

Francine gazed down at the writing
and read a few lines. “I don’t know Suzy, I’m happy for him, ‘cause
I’m getting married too, right? I mean, I should be happy for him.
I feel happy.”

“You do?” Suzy carefully asked,
reaching out to touch her sister’s shoulder. “You don’t look
happy,” she softly stated, noticing the tears now in Francine’s
eyes. “OK, well, looks like you need some time alone.”

Francine waited until her sister was
no longer in view until she re-read the letter again; three times
and then over and over until she fumed with irritation. She crushed
the letter into a big ball and then pitched it preciously into the
trash can. Oh that, she could make?

DERRIE GOT MARRIED!

She doesn’t know how she got there
and at present doesn’t really care, but Francine suddenly found
herself staring at the lavender boutonniere on Ian’s black tuxedo
lapel. Blinking out of her strange stupor, Francine gazed around
the church and realized everyone was staring at her. It was her
wedding ceremony and she and Ian were at the altar in front of the
congregation. Was she supposed to say something at this juncture?
Everyone was so silent! Did the Reverend just ask her to recite her
vows? Did Ian just say something? Did he recite his
already?

Francine began to shake…shake and
shiver from the supposedly wonderful moment that was supposedly
happening to her. She bent forward just a little bit and then
unexpectedly did a double-take at Derrie’s father in the back row
of the church.

July, 1968

Nancy rarely did things on purpose,
but trimming her rose bushes in the middle of the night was a
little odd. In the black of darkness, Nancy was outside trimming
the leaves and the dead roses in her front yard when she took a
glimpse next door; Angelo’s house was still dark. No porch light
was seen on and everything was quiet—no one was home.

Mrs. Springer, a nosy neighbor was
walking her dog across the street when she spotted Nancy doing some
pruning. “Nice night, isn’t it Mrs. Steele?”

“Oh?” Nancy yelled back anxious,
“Yes, yes it is Mrs. Springer.”

“Your porch light not working, Mrs.
Steele?”

Nancy was caught off guard. “Uh,”
she hesitated, gazing over at her front door’s porch light. “…No,
Mrs. Springer, I can see…see?” She exclaimed, chopping off one of
her beautifully bloomed rose buds by mistake.

Headlights in the distance caused
her head to turn quickly around and Nancy waited until Mrs.
Springer proceeded down the remainder of the street before she
threw down her sheers and ran towards Angelo’s garage as it opened
up.

Just outside the corner of his
house, Nancy was shaking. She couldn’t believe she was there and
couldn’t believe she was brazen enough to make the first
move.

Angelo slowly stepped out of his car
concerned as he eyed her holding up his tool locker like she had
something to hide. She actually looked scared as hell. “What’s
going on? You OK?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head and
the looking down at his concrete floor for no reason at all. At
once she placed her hands behind her bottom and leaned on them,
thinking any moment now, she was just going to attack him in the
front seat of his car.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, noticing
her dawdling. “Did your husband hurt you?”

“No, no, it’s nothing like that,”
she relayed, swallowing hard.

“Then what then…What?”

Nancy took another swallow. Her
mouth, without warning, became very dry. “I can’t stop thinking of
us, of you and I, of what might have been.”

Angelo shoved his keys down his pant
pockets and shut his car door finally. “What do you want me to do?
I’m here for you,” he alleged, nervously jingling his keys in the
pouch, “You’re the one with all the ties. You’re the one who will
have to answer to your husband, to the gossip.”

Nancy watched him as he cautiously
kept his gentlemanly distance. “Oh Angelo, I don’t care about
anything other than you right now, nothing else matters more than
you. I just want to be with you…I just want to be near
you.”

Angelo halted his key jiggling. Both
breathing hard, both bodies aching for one another, he revealed, “I
know I feel the same, it’s driving me crazy as well. The other
night was not enough for me; it’s never enough for me.”

Nancy stepped away from the tool
locker and towards him.

“Oh Angelo, what do I
do?”

He paused and then asked, “Am I who
you want, Nancy?”

“Yes,” she breathed
finally.

Angelo went for her body and
subsequently wrapped his arms around her, hugging her near. “Where
do you want to go?”

That word ‘where’ was like heaven to
her ears, “Your room, a hotel, the back seat of your
car…anywhere.”

He leaned back away from her, but
only slightly and whispered, “Nancy, I can’t live like this. After
tonight…after we make love, I’m sure I’m going to need you more
than just one night. You and I are never meant to be just
recreational, we were meant to be together forever. I don’t want
half of you if that part has to sneak around in the middle of the
night, I want all of you—your days and your nights; I want you in
my life period…per sempre.”

“Damn you Angelo Magetti,” Nancy
cried, resting her head on his chest. “Where have you been? I’ve
never stopped thinking of you, never stopped loving you, always
hoped and prayed that you would rescue me from my
nightmare.”

“I’m here now,” he gushed, caressing
the back of her hair and head. “I’m not leaving you…I’m rescuing
you now. I’ll never leave you now, never. I love you Nancy
Coursen…you know I always have.”

Nancy looked up at him looking down
at her and impulsively grabbed the back of Angelo’s neck and pulled
his lips closer to hers. She’s always loved him as well and they
kissed passionately, with heat, fire and that damn impatient
desire. His arms unreservedly roamed her entire body; hands up her
breasts and all at once down her torso until she was brought into
him entirely, feeling the length of him and his lovely rigid
offering.

Later at the hotel room, Angelo
reintroduced her to what it felt like to be truly loved by making
love to her throughout the night.

August, 1968

It was early one morning, the sun
had just risen and Nancy slowly walked into her house from being
out all evening. Slowly closing the door behind her, she tried to
be quiet not to wake anyone up. She had been visiting this routine
nightly for the past couple of weeks until she could figure this
thing out and come up with a plan on how she was going to leave her
husband and family.

To her surprise however, on this
morning her husband had been waiting up for her in the living room.
He was unmoving, unsympathetic and already drunk.