Magnet & Steele (6 page)

Francine’s heart sunk, “You mean for
good?”

Suzy closed her eyes, “Oh my God,”
she said under her breath and hiding her face behind her
hand.

“Yes Francine, for good,” Stephen
stated, stressed out beyond belief and maybe be more so now from
the disapproval on all their faces.

“In a few months?” Francine suddenly
cried, on the verge of a panic, “In my last year of high school?
Are you crazy?”

Suzy started to cry now, small sobs
quickly turned into a wail.

Paul stepped into his sister.
“What’s wrong with you?” He asked smiling and patting her gingerly
on her shoulder. “So you have to move, what’s the big
deal?”

Suzy swatted his hand away, “It
is…it is a big deal. You wouldn’t understand.”

Francine went to console her sister
as well, Suzy was crying uncontrollably now. “Don’t cry Suzy, I
don’t want to move either.”

Suzy abruptly walked over to a
mirror and carefully removed one of her fake eyelashes. Mascara
began running into her eyes and making them red. “Oh Fran, you
wouldn’t understand either,” she said to her sister and then to the
whole family. “You all wouldn’t understand.”

Paul rolled his eyes, “Here we go
again.”

Suzy suddenly stiffened up. “Now I
have something to say…something that I’ve wanted to tell all of you
for a month now.”

“What makes me think that I need to
sit down for this?” Stephen callously stated.

“Oh here we go again,” Paul let go
unsympathetic. “Miss Connecticut…Miss Melodramatic.”

“Shut up Paul! You don’t know
everything!” Suzy cried, walking away from everyone. “You always
think you’re so above it all!”

Paul just laughed and adjusted his
green military belt. “Well, usually I am.”

“Just go back to your soldier
buddies, no one’s gonna miss you—that’s for sure. I hope you step
on a land mine and get blown up into a million pieces!”

Nancy now stepped in, “Children! Now
stop it.”

Suzy wrapped her arms around her
waist and stepped further away from her father. Nervous and afraid
of him, she turned to look only at her mother. “Ray and I were
going to elope this weekend,” she said, feeling her father’s dagger
stare at the back of her neck. “I’m…three months
pregnant.”

Nancy put her hand over her mouth in
disbelief. Paul started to snigger while Francine just stood there
in shock, wide eyes also in doubt and then focused on Suzy’s slim
midriff.

Stephen was just plain mad. “God
dammit! This is just what I needed to hear!”

“Stephen—”

“Shut up Nancy!”

Nancy gave him a cold hard look, but
kept her tongue at a smooth sugary level, “But Stephen, let’s think
about this.”

“I said shut up!” Stephen snapped
back at her and then walked over to Suzy; careful not to touch her,
he never touched his children. “I knew this was bound to happen,”
Stephen sneered, surrounding her with his stern presence and icy
veneer. He got in her face however and with a long pointed finger,
he lectured, “I knew if I allowed you to date that boy without a
chaperone, this would eventually happen. Those people always take
advantage.”

Unlike Nancy, Suzette had the guts
enough to speak what she felt. She may look like her mother, but
she was still her father’s daughter. “Those people?”

Stephen took a step away from his
daughter, “You know what I mean.”

“You’ve always hated Ray because
he’s Negro, haven’t you dad?” Suzy leered at him.

Stephen’s drink was back in his
hand. “Don’t push me Suzy,” he forewarned her, taking a sip of his
alcohol.

Nancy believed she needed to come to
the rescue of someone and placed her body in between the two of
them and stood directly in front of Suzy. After all, she did love
her daughter more. “What was the family going to say Stephen?” She
asked in a soft, coy voice.

Stephen was calm now after a few
more sips of his J&B. “Oh God, I don’t know. Let’s just hope no
one will ever find out,” he said, sounding a little insecure. “This
will be a major embarrassment to the Steele’s. Maybe we can send
her away?”

“Away?” Nancy and Suzy said in
unison.

“Away…to where?” Suzy balked, “I’m
trying to make this right, dad. I’m getting married to
Ray.”

“Oh no, you’re not!” Stephen shouted
down at her.

“Oh yes, I am!” Suzy shouted back up
at him.

Nancy was suddenly pushed aside by
her husband and thought it best to step away from the both of them
and walked over to the window while Francine went with
her.

“The hell you’re not! We’ll find you
a doctor first before you disgrace this family!”

“A doctor?” Suzy said,
flabbergasted. “You mean abortion?”

“As long as you live under this roof
little lady, you’ll do what I say!”

“Then I’m leaving…” Suzy proclaimed,
darting for the door.

Nancy’s head whipped around. Déjà
vu.

“You leave now,” Stephen proclaimed,
following her backside towards the hallway. “The family will cut
you off without a penny to your name. That means no trust fund
little lady and if you two were planning on using the family money
for support then you’re in for a world of hurt.”

Suzy finally reached the front door
and opened it up with no one to stop her. “Fine then; we don’t need
it! Ray is obviously gonna go pro, so I don’t need your stinkin’
family trust fund!” She then marched out the opening slamming the
door behind her.

Paul surveyed the unharmonious
atmosphere and decided that a one-night stand would help out at
this point and silently vacated the premises without ever being
noticed or given the proper farewell. Francine too feels the
pressure of her sister’s abrupt departure and ran up the staircase
to cry in her room.

Nancy stood still and wiped the
remaining tears that were rolling down her cheeks. Stephen gripped
his drink one last time and then hurled it against the wall
shattering it into a gazillion pieces.

Stephen then caught his wife’s
sickened glassiness and the two unhappy parents turned away from
each other bracing themselves for the repercussions of their
past.

September, 1967

Instead of running towards her room,
Francine opted to run into Suzy’s instead and inside her bedroom,
Francine sat quietly down at the edge of her sisters’ canopy
mattress.

Gazing around her sister’s room,
Francine scanned over all of Suzy’s memoirs: stuffed animals filled
the crevices of her queen bed, two sets of pompoms and cheerleading
memorabilia crammed the corners of the space, beauty contest
trophies of every kind, some so tall nearly reached the ceiling.
Dozens upon dozens of beauty contest ribbons, even a diamond
studded tiara hung from a bookshelf up above her. Flower printed
wallpaper covered one wall whereas musical group posters the likes
of the Doors, Rolling Stones, Beatles and The Who covered the
rest.

Francine was always envious of her
sister and always wanted to be Suzy, period. Popular, well loved
throughout the town and at school, last year she won homecoming
queen, the year before, Miss Young Connecticut.

Francine then sat up and walked over
to a photo Suzy had on her writing desk. It was a picture of Suzy
and her boyfriend, Ray Ashford. It had been rumored around town
that Ray’s father was a Negro, but his mother was Catholic-Irish
and blonde as could be. His father left the family when Ray was a
small boy and he’s never known him; Ray was being raised by his
paternal grandmother in New Canaan after his mother past away
unexpectedly. His grandmother came from old money and was never
looked on with shame, but gossip still ran deep and although Ray’s
skin was considered ‘mulatto’ he wasn’t altogether as dark as some
of the other Negro boys at New Canaan High School and Ray was still
grouped in with them by default.

Suzy was in her cheerleading uniform
and he was in his football jersey in the photograph, and like
everyone else, Ray had had a crush on the infamous Suzette Steele.
He was as good-looking as she was and oh so talented. Simply the
best running back Fairfield County had ever seen. Ray had already
been scouted by some major universities in his sophomore and junior
years and was on his way to becoming a superstar. Accepting a
football scholarship to Michigan State in the fall, Ray was the
only guy left in town that could ever be matched up with her
sister; he was as popular as she was, it seemed natural for them to
be together. It was just forbidden by the community for them to be
romantically involved.

Later that night, Francine pulled
out her pajamas and then drew down her pants to put them on. Laying
down on her bed face down she changed positions several times
before she spun over to her left allowing one of her arms to drape
over the side and mumbled, “I can’t believe my sister’s pregnant…”
and then rolled over to look up at the ceiling to mumble some more,
“…I can’t believe I have to move.”

While growing up, the children all
had labels attached to them given by the Steele ancestry. Paul
Steele was considered “the brains of the family”, while Francine
was “the loud mouth”. Suzy was always considered “the beauty”, but
now, after she’s disgraced the family, Suzy Steele will forevermore
be considered “the screw-up”.

Los Angeles, California

Endless sunshine, crowded beaches,
palm trees, smog and the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. What can you say
about Los Angeles?

Nothing yet, according to Francine,
she was hot and sweaty, quite different from the atmosphere back in
New Canaan and in the back seat of their station wagon travelling
at 55 MPH on the 4-oh-5 Interstate, she was as miserable as could
be…but who wasn’t in this family? In the front seat, Stephen had
the radio turned down to almost nothing while a crossed-armed Nancy
suddenly became fixated on a billboard off the freeway that
screamed “Luccardi’s Fine Italian Cuisine.”

Nancy quickly turned her head to
look at Stephen; he wasn’t paying any attention to her, only
concentrating on the drive when Nancy adjusted her position in her
seat to turn her head completely around to watch the billboard pass
her by. It did read, “Luccardi’s” and she was so incredulous over
it; she hadn’t seen that name in such a long time and a twinge of
nostalgia filled her heart after being dormant for so very
long.

They reached their new house finally
and calling it a new house was putting it lightly. It was a tract
home situated in a gated community with a security guard at its
elaborate front entrance. It was a new neighborhood with newly
built two-story cookie-cutter modern style homes with dark brown
trim and three car garages. Theirs was a former model home with
patches of grass already in its front and backyard with a gazebo
built in the far corner of the back. Other homes surrounding theirs
were plush with landscaping; but having been neglected by the
former owners, theirs was barren from being in foreclosure and
Stephen purchased it for cash for next to nothing.

At the rear of their station wagon,
the Steele family began taking their bags out of the trunk. They
were not a happy bunch with a bunch of frowns on their
faces.

Later that evening, after endless
unpacking, washing dirty dishes, placing little knick-knacks here
and there, hanging up clothes, putting away toiletries, cleaning
laundry and linen and vacuuming the carpet, Stephen ended the day
on top of Nancy, reaching an unrequited orgasm. Looking more like a
dead fish than a passionate wife, Nancy was motionless with her
eyes wide open. Her arms were not even touching him, how could he
not tell that she was unresponsive? After finishing, Stephen rolled
off her body and showed no emotion towards her as he pushed his
body back to his side of the bed.

With twenty some odd years of this
routine, Nancy learned to live with the disappointment, developed a
thick skin to Stephen’s selfishness and was trained not to cry at
the low points such as these.

She waited until she heard Stephen’s
self-centered snoring when she quietly got out of bed and headed
down the stairs.

Outside in the backyard, Nancy found
herself inside the gazebo and sat down on one of its benches in the
moonlight. Too wound up, too upset and too emotional, she allowed
the tears to finally cave in. She was holding an unopened photo
album within her hands for the longest time, and finally opened it
up to its first page—a photograph of herself in a wedding dress.
Oh, what an unhappy day! And she cried even harder remembering how
hysterical she was with her mother and father not even caring how
truly unhappy she really was. And thank goodness for her heavy veil
covering her tear drenched face! No one seemed to care about her
state, and at the altar Nancy recalled watching Stephen sneak a
drink from a flask he had stashed away inside his tuxedo jacket
pocket…what wonderful memories!