Magnet & Steele (11 page)

“I’m not gonna meet him.”

“Why? I’m inviting you to the
wedding.”

“I’m not going.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“But, I thought we were friends,”
Francine questioned him now.

“We are, but—”

“But, what?”

“Because this is foolish, Francine,”
he said disgusted trying to find reasons behind his own
desperation, “Because you’re only eighteen.”

“So what does age have to do with
this? Marriage is something people do when they’re in
love.”

“And are you?” He asked, sincere and
staring straight into her eyes. “In love with him
Francine?”

Then silence...Silence and heavy
breathing.

Francine was quiet now. The sudden
shock, like someone just poured cold water over her head. Was she
in love with him?

Derrie stood very still and still
was so very uncertain about her.

They both hold back their mania for
one another; a conflict of passion, hearts racing, all the cards
out on the table now. The battle had officially begun; it was a war
of pride and a conflict of feelings; full on heart to heart
combat.

And Francine still said
nothing.

“Well then, there’s my answer,” he
let go assuredly, turning around to finally make his dramatic
exit.

Francine stared at the closed door
for a good few moments. She fought back the tears that were
struggling to get out and eventually streamed down her undecided
face. She was unclear and rightfully so. She had been harboring
some deep feelings for Derrie and really tried hard to set them
aside with her engagement with Ian, but all Derrie had to do was to
show himself inside her room for just a mere five minutes and all
her thoughts were suddenly attached to him.

A few seconds later, Suzy finally
spoke up startling Francine out her incertitude. “Bravo, little
sister, bravo,” Suzy smiled, shaking her head, coughing and then
snickering. “I must admit that was quite a show.”

“What do you mean?” Francine asked,
still in doubt.

“Remember that spark I was telling
you about?” Suzy remarked sarcastically, pointing her finger at
Derrie’s theatrical exit. “Well, my dear sister…there it goes
Francine…there he goes…”

Putting quarters into a soda
machine, Francine barely had to turn her head around when she
spotted Derrie looking her way. He was laughing with a couple of
his buddies when he pretended not to notice her there.

It had just poured a few minutes
before and all the students were underneath the metal awnings
sheltering themselves from the sprinkling rain. Francine looked
over at Derrie again, he didn’t see her staring at him this time
and within guzzling down her Coke, she pretended to look somewhere
else, when finally he did. They shared a fleeting moment…he smiled
at her and she smiled back. But within that strange second she
realized that her life would never really be the same. He was in
her life now and he would never be really out of it. She could
close her eyes and try to imagine not knowing him, but she did, or
she could try not thinking of him and focus on something else, but
she would and meeting Derek Magnet was the best and worst thing
that could have happened to her and she was afraid that she would
not want to know him!

Francine found an empty table amidst
all the taken ones and sat herself down. She went on pretending not
to notice Derrie and took out her wallet from within her purse.
Inside was a picture of Ian in his Marine Corps uniform; he looked
so dignified, almost regal.

Francine intentionally looked up at
Derrie’s locale again and this time he wasn’t there, he seemed to
disappear. But his friends were still there, just not him. She
turned her head slightly and noticed the group of cheerleaders he
usually tried to annoy with his good looks, but wasn’t there as
well. She assumed he just left to go back to his locker when she
gathered up her things to go back to her as well and bumped right
smack into him. He had been standing behind her this whole time?
Totally embarrassed, she punched his shoulder playfully. “Idiot,
what are you doing? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was having fun just watching you
watching me.”

Francine rolled her eyes and her
heart sunk from being found out. She punched his shoulder again,
“You’re so silly sometimes—you really are.”

Derrie shoved his hands down the
front of his jacket pockets and rocked back and forth. “I’m glad
you still think I’m silly.”

Oh goodness gracious, he looked too
good like that and good enough to eat when he was playful with a
deadly smirk. Francine made the slip of gazing down at his lips as
he spoke and licked her own as she made the biggest mistake of her
life. She leaned in towards him—instinctively, for sure—and
intended to show further openness and wanted to kiss him. But
before she made a complete fool of herself, she blinked back to
reality and didn’t even say goodbye and just grabbed her books off
the table and ran away.

Later that Month

Outside of Luccardi’s Restaurant,
Nancy was in awe of the dwelling. It was real; she wasn’t imagining
all the billboard signs or magazine ads…the pieces and little
hints.

Standing just outside the opening,
couples passed her by and walked in through the heavy wooden doors
as Nancy hesitated, she wanted to go in as well but doesn’t and
peered through the window instead; patrons were eating, having a
good time then gazed towards the back of the restaurant and
distinguished a tall shadow of a man in the background. The image
of the man frightened her for some reason, she thought she had
gotten over her past, pushed it aside like a death in her family.
Treated it like an old memory, remembering it every now and then
but never dwelling over the past. It was always best for her to
move forward, move on living a life and living in the past never
helped her anyways. She never wanted to visit her past, never. She
never wanted to think about it, or him. Thinking about him would
bring forth painful memories…and who wanted to live with pain? No,
she’d rather just move ahead and look forward to what happened
next. But now, her world was being turned upside down and these
little hints were now strangling her to death. There’s that death
thing again. Why couldn’t the past just remain buried away? How
could a little thing like a billboard sign or a magazine ad awaken
such cherished buried feelings? And then there was
Derrie…

Derek Magnet, her daughter’s high
school friend. She was on her way out of her house when Derrie was
there about to knock on her front door. For one strange moment, she
thought he was him. Looking at a ghost and an apparition she wished
would come true. Nancy felt like a complete idiot just standing
there idle staring at him. He reminded Nancy so much of him. He was
the same height, same color skin and hair, even the same eyes. She
actually wanted to hug him! Touch him, wrap her arms around him and
ask for his help. She wished to God he could save her, and that’s
when she blinked back to reality and realized he wasn’t him! He was
just Francine’s high school friend, Derek Magnet.

What the hell was happening to her?
Why was she losing her mind? Why were the ghosts of her past coming
back more frequently now? Why were the ghosts of her past keep
haunting her!

December, 1967

Inside the front seat of her car,
Francine took a peek at her rear-view mirror and anticipated
Derrie’s arrival home from school. She had to speak to him, had to
try to convince him that she was making the right decision—but why?
She had never felt so much confusion in all her life! Inside her
head she was making the right decision, but in her heart there was
something else. Pulling her towards someone else…but trying to
persuade her heart otherwise? She was making the right choice by
marrying Ian…it just had to be.

Derrie didn’t show up in his
driveway and fed up, Francine opened up her car door to find Derrie
sitting on her front porch step waiting for her.

“What the hell took you so long?” He
asked, cocking his head to one side. “What were you doing in there
for so long?”

Francine was beyond embarrassed,
“Derrie, how long have you been sitting there?”

“For almost half an hour,” he
quipped quickly, “What the hell were you doing?”

Francine smiled; she was almost
relieved, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Which street do you take home
anyway? Oxnard? I must have passed you almost forty-five minutes
ago.”

Passing him on her way up the steps,
Francine walked up the stairs and took a seat just above him. “Then
you drive too fast.”

Derrie nodded his head in agreement,
“Your mom said there was a TV dinner in the freezer and that your
father was coming home late.”

“When did you talk to her? Where did
she go?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t tell me
that….Oh, and your sister, what’s her name again?”

“Suzy.”

“Yeah, Suzy, she left too, with her
little one and their dog.”

“She doesn’t have a dog.”

“Oh,” he let go closing his eyes.
“That must be the reason why it started yelping when I stuffed him
in her car!”

Francine began to laugh.

“So this means you’re free for
dinner?”

“I guess it does,” she said, smiling
freely.

Inside the Magnet home, everywhere
Francine turned there were flags. To put it plain and simple, the
American flag; flags on the walls, flag pictures, flag trimmings.
All the other times she had visited his house to do their homework
or to work on their economics project, Francine had been invited in
only to be led straight up the staircase and never into the living
area. But now, there they were, like a red, white and blue
nightmare. It was really, really odd, like his parents were trying
to make some kind of statement. And, at the dinner table, Francine
had to smile again, on the brink of a full-fledged hoot when she
surveyed the all American meal across his dining room table:
Meat-loaf with peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, milk, orange juice
and apple pie. Francine kept eyeing Derrie, trying to search his
face to see if he was as muddled as she was but he wasn’t—this
All-American spectacle had all been normal to him.

Francine leaned over to Derrie and
whispered, “You are Italian, right?”

Derrie just shook his head and then
Francine set eyes on Derrie’s father. He was a handsome man for his
age, she thought as she dug her fork into her meat-loaf, now she
knew where Derrie got his good looks.

Jerry Magnet was in his early
forties; fit and trim, he had purposely reinvented himself. Now a
successful restaurateur, he was a workaholic that cared deeply for
his family.“Mama…I’m gonna open up number six for us next month,
how’s that for progress?” Jerry boasted, pouring himself some red
wine.

Sophia looked over at her son for a
quick second and then shoved her own empty wine glass towards the
spout as Jerry finished the bottle of wine into her glass. “Can you
trust him son? You can’t trust anyone these days. Look at all those
stories I hear ‘bout embezzlement. You make it too easy for just
anyone to walk away your money.”

Jerry doesn’t say anything else and
shook his head like a little boy agreeing with his mother. He then
looked over at his dinner guest. “What does your father do?” He
asked Francine, pointing his fork at her face by mistake. “Is he
concerned as I am about crime?”

Francine looked over at Derrie for
support. Derrie wasn’t paying attention to the conversation and
just continued to eat his meatloaf like a good little boy. “My
father has a bookkeeper who handles his money,” Francine relayed,
gazing back at Derrie’s father.

“Oh,” Jerry let go confused. He then
looked over at his mother again, “Mama, you not proud of
me?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “You
need to spend more time with your son. Lei lavora
troppo.”

“I know I work too much Mama, but
working hard has bought us this beautiful house. You love this
beautiful house, la mamma giusta?”

“Si il figlio, amo questa casa, I
like the house.”

Jerry smiled and then acknowledged
his agreement by extending out his jaw proudly. He then looked over
at his dinner guest once again and inquired, “What does your father
do exactly?”