Magnet & Steele (3 page)

A few seconds later and out of
breath once again, Nancy ran back through her front door to find
Stephen Steele with Daffodil’s in one hand and a box of chocolate
in the other waiting for her in the foyer. He stood up immediately
upon seeing her entrance.

“I’m sorry Stephen; I’ll only be a
minute,” she said, leaving him alone.

Inside her bedroom, Nancy changed in
a hurry. Not dressing up, she opted towards a romper with a
scarf.

A few moments later, Nancy blinked
out of another day-dream to find herself inside Stephen’s car.
Stephen was talking to her, but she wasn’t listening. She asked him
to repeat his question.

“How many times do we have to sit
through that tired ole story of how our father’s met?” Stephen
asked again, checking himself out in the rear-view mirror as he
drove along the highway in his Cadillac convertible.

Unimpressed with his wealth, Nancy
solemnly looked out her side of the car. The top was down and she
rolled her eyes, “About a million times until they’re so old they
start to forget.”

Stephen took a peek at her sitting
in his passenger’s side; her long hair flew romantically in the
wind. Clearing his throat first, he asked, “And how many times do
we have to continue to hear how our parents want us to get
married?”

Nancy let go a chuckle. “Until we
see a man on the moon,” she conveyed, tilting her head up to gaze
at the stars and next the crescent moon.

Stephen looked back into the mirror
again and checked out his own hair. “You know Nancy; I hate all
this as much as you do.”

Nancy continued to gawk up at the
sky, “What do you mean?”

“What I mean is—I’m not interested
in you as much as you’re not interested in me.”

Nancy now looked over at Stephen. He
was a fancy dresser, more so for a normal teenager of the day; with
brown slacks that matched the color of his shirt, his tie and tweed
sport coat were coordinated as well with stripes that accentuated
his dark auburn hair. His face was just ordinary to her, with
pleasant facial features and blue eyes to equal the sky at
summertime. Nancy guessed he was attractive in some sort of way;
all her friends thought Stephen Steele was the cat’s meow…but to
Nancy he was just an obstacle she had to get rid of so that she
could be free and clear to marry anybody else. “Then why don’t we
just make the best of it and have some fun?” Nancy expressed,
watching Stephen sit up straight by her uncomfortable
inspection.

Stephen let go a wicked smile, “I’m
with you. What do you want to do?”

Nancy whipped her arms out into the
air like she was worshipping the sky. “I don’t know
anything!”

Stephen perked up, “OK, where do you
want to go? Hartford? I heard they have some swingin’ places in
Hartford.

“Yes! Hartford, what kind of
swingin’ places?”

“How about Maxine’s? It’s a swingin’
joint.”

“Maxine’s? Yeah, that sounds like a
swell idea.”

Stephen made an abrupt U-turn in the
middle of the street. “Maxine’s here we come!”

Nancy leaned her body back into the
seat. Looking up at the sky again she watched the black roll over
and over her as Stephen sped up to make due time.

Half an hour later, they pulled into
the parking lot and Nancy doesn’t wait for Stephen to open up her
car door and let herself out.

They walk in together, but were a
few feet apart; Nancy holding onto her pocketbook, Stephen jingling
his keys. Nancy gazed over casually at some girlfriends she knew
from school and hoped they didn’t see her. She tried to hide her
face with her handbag as the maître d' escorted the couple over to
a table up front by the band. They ordered something to drink from
the waiter and then Nancy looked around her, patrons were beginning
to stare at them now; they were even the center of attention, just
like the other night at the Daffodil Festival.

“Gee, I guess it pays to be a Steele
after all,” Nancy joked aloud, but deep down inside she was
disgusted. “Up front and all, it’s like we’re on display.” She then
showed Stephen her dissatisfaction by slumping in her chair as she
sat down, plopping her pocketbook in the center of the
table.

Stephen noted her displeasure and
looked around him and spotted some guys he knew from New Canaan
High. “Wow, this is some place, I have to remember to come back
here with another date.”

Nancy recognized some of her friends
too who were also pointing at the two of them and came to a
decision. “Let’s dance.”

Stephen was in mid-sip of his soda
pop, “Um, what?”

Nancy grabbed his hands and pulled
him out onto the dance floor. “You do dance, don’t you?”

Stephen grabbed her waist and spun
her around perfectly, but then tried too hard to catch up with the
drum beat rhythm and fumbled fast trying to do the jitterbug off
key.

Nancy waved her hand in the air as
Stephen yanked at the other, “They wanna show, they’ve gotta
show.”

She grasped his hands as he twirled
her body around and they bebop in and out of the dance flawlessly.
Waving their hands in the air, they imitate all the other couples
dancing to the swing and it was fun, it was exhilarating, but it
was temporary.

Fifteen minutes later, the twosome
finds their seats out of breath.

“Stephen, you have to give yourself
some credit there, you weren’t half bad.”

“Yeah, ha—ha, try telling your feet
that! Sorry about your toes.”

Then silence, as Nancy drifted away
into her day-dreams and surveyed the other couples out on the dance
floor. If it weren’t for the be-bop of the saxophone and drum
beats, Nancy would have felt all alone.

Stephen looked over at Nancy at that
moment and noted her solemn face. He had an idea.

“Nancy?”

“Yes Stephen?”

He swallowed hard and then gazed out
beyond her and at some friends getting ready to approach them.
“Want to do something dangerous?”

Nancy looked over at her girlfriends
at a nearby table; they too were on the verge of occupation.
“What?”

“Come with me outside, outside to my
car.”

“Outside?” She asked,
unsure.

Stephen stood up and asked for her
hand to lead her out a nearby exit. Nancy hesitated at first, and
then took his lead.

Outside in the parking lot, he
walked them over to his convertible and unlocked the trunk with his
key. Inside the trunk was a bottle of scotch.

Nancy sprung over to it, excited for
some reason. “Where on earth did you get this?”

Stephen smiled; he was delighted to
see she was pleased. “The ole man, who else.”

Nancy looked up at him. “Do you ever
drink it?”

“All the time.”

“Are we going to drink some
now?”

“Do you want to? I mean, you make
the decision Nancy.”

Nancy looked away from him and then
up at the stars, “OK, but we have to go somewhere
remote.”

Stephen knew exactly where to drive
them to: “Sutter’s Point”.

Sutter’s Point was really an
out-of-the-way mountain top where long, tall bushes conveniently
covered teenagers—and the occasional, unholy adult—who kissed and
groped one another un-chaperoned. In the daytime, it was usually a
secluded spot and pretty, with wild flowers growing up and down the
hillside with orange poppies sprouting up between the crab grass,
but at nighttime, it was quiet, a notorious place where the
innocent and their reputations oftentimes became tarnished by just
being seen there.

Stephen pulled into an empty spot
and put on the brakes to the convertible. Nancy was still in awe
that she was even there with him and in the distance spotted a
nearby auto with the windows already steamed up.

Stephen opened up the bottle of
scotch and initiated the first drink. He wiped off the head of the
bottle with his shirt sleeve and then handed it over to Nancy, but
she was too afraid to touch it.

“Go on, it won’t bite.”

Nancy gripped the bottle and took a
quick sip. Closing her eyes in disbelief at how powerful the liquid
really was, she coughed and wiped off her brow. “Wow…this stuff is
smooth.”

Stephen laughed aloud and yanked the
bottle away from her. He guzzled down another sip. “What do you
want to do now?”

Nancy turned away from his selfish
grin. “Have you ever been in love?”

She caught him off guard and choked
before he asked, “What?”

Nancy gazed out beyond the mountain.
“Been in love Stephen, have you ever been in love?”

Stephen took another sip before
saying, “No Nancy, I’ve never been in love.”

Nancy now looked down at her feet,
“I think I’m in love Stephen and I can’t stop thinking about
him.”

Stephen now grabbed the bottle more
aggressively and chugged the damn stuff down his throat like it was
water. Nancy got out of the car abruptly and ran towards the edge
of the cliff.

Struggling to get out himself,
Stephen tried to open the door but tripped over his own two feet
and fell to the ground.

At the edge of the cliff, an
unexpected wind rushed around Nancy’s body causing her scarf to
rise up and float on its own.

Reaching her finally, Stephen came
up behind her, dirty yet concerned, “What’s the matter Nancy? Tell
me, maybe I can help.”

Nancy wiped away the tears that were
suddenly rushing down her cheeks. “Oh Stephen, you can’t help me.
You’ve never been in love.”

With the scotch now numbing his
inhibitions, Stephen wasn’t so sure he wasn’t already in love.
Nancy was striking with the wind rushing through her hair and the
moonlight highlighting her face. Her side profile was faultless;
the stuff that pin-ups were made of. Yes, damn…he was in love with
her, but how was he going to make her fall in love with him? And
who was this guy she was suddenly in love with? Some movie-star…a
jerk from high school? He would have to ask his father in the
morning, right now, he was starting to see double…

July, 1945

It was early in the morning and a
very warm day; frogs and birds harmonized in the nearby wheat
grass, while the water bugs buzzed above the water of a sheltered
creek that Nancy oftentimes frequented.

Nancy sat by the edge of the stream
and stuck her bare feet into the water, wiggling her toes and
mixing the sand with her foot. Relaxed and unabated, Nancy gazed at
the fish slowly swimming downstream. “Oh, how can I be in love with
a total stranger?” She asked a chirping bird that happened to be
perched on a branch next to her. She then stood up to walk along
the water’s path. Heading towards her secret spot, she made sure
she only stepped on the tree roots that were sticking out from the
ground that meshed into the stream. “Aaah, my favorite tree and
secret hiding spot to shut out the world.”

Two hundred feet high, the tree
stood alone and regal on the opposite side of the creek elevated
above and out of normal viewing distance; once a nest for ground
owls, a hole had been carved out nearly a century ago and through
time, the opening had widened by rain and the weather and now big
enough to stand up in. Books of poems and literature were hidden
within its large cavity and Nancy sat down on a blanket she left
within the shelter year-round.

Two sentences in and she was
startled by some unexpected voices which were across the way and
then noticed two juvenile boys splashing their fishing poles inside
the water. They don’t see her perched there and Nancy laughed aloud
with them when she heard someone laugh behind her as well. Alarmed
this time, she peeked around the corner to see who it was—then
gasped!

Angelo Magetti?

Nancy brought herself in from around
the wood and was immediately dizzy, drunk with shock. Angelo, was
here? How did he find her? What was she going to say to him now
that she was in love with him? Her heart was beating so gosh darn
fast, she had to huff and puff like she was blowing up a balloon
when Angelo’s head appeared out of nowhere and popped in front of
her face.