Magnet & Steele (2 page)

May, 1945

Teenagers everywhere invaded
Stanley’s Soda Shop, a neighborhood hamburger and malt shop in
downtown New Canaan.

Most of its occupants were Caucasian
and clean-cut and as soon as Nancy finds Kelly, her best friend
since kindergarten, Nancy wiped away her tears as she arrived
alongside next to her.

“Hi, I thought I’d never get outta
my house,” Nancy relayed, sniffing back further
moisture.

Kelly, all-American with her hair
pulled back into a pony-tail took note of her best-friends strange
behavior. “Why? What happened now?”

“My father—we’ve been arguing for
the past week,” Nancy stated.

“Why? Whatever for?”

“Oh that same ole stuff about me and
Stephen getting married.”

Kelly brightened up with Nancy’s
sudden news, “So are you?”

“No! Never,” Nancy exclaimed
disgusted with the notion.

“But Stephen Steele…he’s so
dreamy.”

“Oh yeah? He does nothing for
me.”

“You’re still hanging onto that love
at first sight thing, aren’t you?” Kelly said, exasperated. “You’ve
got Mr. Perfect right at your heels and all you do is step on him
like a doormat.”

“I don’t want to talk about Stephen
anymore, let’s talk about something else,” Nancy finalized, looking
beyond the booth. Her eyes stop short of the front door. At the
entrance, three young men hush the establishment with their
presence.

Kelly noticed Nancy’s eyes fixated
on the doorway and turned around to see who she was staring at.
Three young gentlemen of Italian descent enter the dwelling. All
dressed in suits and ties, they were fashionably out of place. Two
of them go directly to the counter to order, while one of them
stood immobile scanning the establishment for a welcoming
face.

“Boy, do they have some nerve
showing their faces in our joint. Don’t they have a place of their
own to go?” Kelly bolted out shaking her head.

“They’re awfully brave,” Nancy
ominously let go. Nancy watched the three young men as they found
stools and placed their order. Stanley was hesitant at first about
taking their order, but then one of the young men handed him a
five-dollar bill. Nancy was uninvolved when without warning, one of
the young men happened to catch her eye.

It was the Italian waiter from the
other night!

Angelo Magetti was devilishly
handsome but off limits to most of the girls at Stanley’s. With the
darkest of dark brown hair, caramel toned skin and sexy brown eyes;
he was immediately noticed by most of the female inhabitants but
then straight away ignored by their same taught
prejudice.

Nancy could barely contain her
smile, she thought she would never see him again and decided to
walk over to the jukebox just a few short feet away from he stood
and all her hopes and dreams began to feel like they were actually
going to come true. Was it a chance encounter? Was it written in
the stars?

At the 45-record filled jukebox,
Nancy calmly gazed into the glass and pretended to read the music
selections through the window. In her peripheral view she could see
the fella coming up alongside her and her heart beat
escalated.

“Hello again,” she heard him say in
a syrupy smooth accent.

Nancy continued to look straight
ahead of her, “Um…hi.”

“You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever
seen,” Angelo whispered softly to her so that no one else could
hear their exchange. Angelo wanted to grab her hand, wanted to grab
her period.

Nancy closed her eyes for a moment.
Not only did she have an external smile now, but an internal one as
well. Her heart craved the attention and she wanted more. Nancy
turned to look at him and he was even more astonishing close up!
His charming eyes, strong nose, chiseled jaw line and luscious lips
overtook her in seconds and she was totally surprised at how well
she could disguise her interest in him by being so nonchalant. She
wanted to touch him all over and what was equally amazing was how
physical chemistry worked because Nancy was so overwhelmed by every
fantastic feature on his face and engulfed by the pure symmetry of
his physique, that every person around her seem to fade away and
into complete blackness. All she wanted to do now was to jump on
him and after a few more minutes of total deliberation she realized
she had been caught in a mesmerizing lock and held, “Do I know
you?”

Angelo ingested her sweet voice.
“Now you do,” he expressed softly, “I’m Angelo Magetti; I’ve been
carrying your picture in my wallet since last week. I wanted to see
if I could find you and I did.”

Taking a second, Nancy took it all
in, the Italian accent, his sensuous body movement, his kissable
lips as he spoke. She turned to take a look back at the booth where
Kelly was once sitting and noticed her friend ignoring their steamy
interlude. Kelly had been engrossed in her own conversation with
another boy and Nancy was free from judgment.

“I’m Nancy,” she uttered
freely.

Angelo smiled, “Nice to meet you
Nancy.”

Nancy nearly melted; he had such
white straight teeth too! “What picture do you have?”

Angelo continued to stare into her
green eyes, “Picture?”

When he finally remembered why he
was there in the first place, he took out a folded black and white
photo that had been cut from a newspaper. “This one,” he said,
handing her the photograph.

Nancy took a quick look at it, “Oh,”
she said, taking the photo away from him. “This was when I won
Daffodil Queen…You…you were there, weren’t you?” She asked, trying
to disguise any real interest in him.

Angelo grinned again, “Yes,” he
agreed, gazing around him and then nodding at his friends who were
now questioning. “Nancy, is there somewhere we can speak
alone?”

“Speak?”

“Yes, speak, talk…alone, my friends,
your friends, they’re all looking at us now.”

Nancy was hesitant as an unknown
fear spread through to her skin; the damnation of others was so
unfamiliar and foreign to her, she wanted to keep talking to him,
but where? Definitely not there and Nancy shrugged her shoulders,
“I don’t know.” She then scanned the establishment and practically
everyone was staring at them now, even Stanley, the owner of the
malt shop.

Angelo turned around; his friends
too were interested as well. He crammed his hands down his front
pant pockets in indecision, any moment now he would have to seize
her. “I have an idea,” Angelo whispered towards her ear. “I work at
Luccardi’s Diner down on Harbor Avenue. Will you meet me there?
Sei? Six? OK, six?”

Nancy nearly expired at that moment,
the warmth from his closeness and the gentle breeze from his breath
on her neck sent chills up and down her spine. What was it exactly?
She wondered. Nancy couldn’t understand the attraction and the pull
towards this absolute stranger. She took a step backwards; she too
had this overwhelming desire to lay hands on him. “Yes,” she agreed
before she had time to really think about the
consequences.

Angelo smiled again, “See you at six
then.”

*****

Later that evening, Nancy sat silent
at her wardrobe desk brushing her hair; she was getting ready for a
date with none other than that big-headed boor. “I can’t believe my
father is making me go through another date with what’s-his-face,”
Nancy said back to her reflection. She took a quick look over at
her clock. “Oh my God! It’s almost six!”

Along the extensive winding
staircase, Nancy ran down the steps and out her front door. She ran
down the street and past every house and every lane and turned the
corner to run down another road. She ignored a neighbor’s friendly
wave and worked her way towards the shopping square on Harbor
Avenue until she finally stopped cold.

She was suddenly caught off guard by
a passerby who had been smoking a cigarette just outside the
neighborhood butcher shop. Nancy felt a little strange from the way
he just kept staring at her. With her head turned to her side she
began to walk askew and passed him on the way to Luccardi’s when
all of a sudden, he snapped a picture of her with the camera he had
around his neck!

With the cigarette still dangling at
the edge of his mouth, he expressed, “You’re a real
dish.”

Nancy turned around completely and
stood there in surprise, nothing had ever happened like that to her
before! She was truly warmed by his compliment. “Thank
you.”

He took out the cigarette from his
mouth and then flicked it onto the street with his fingertips with
a snap. “Have you ever thought about modeling? I could get you some
still work by tomorrow. We need product girls all the
time.”

Nancy was taken-back, “Me…A
model?”

“Toots, with your looks and your
figure, you could even become a movie-star. Did you know that Jean
Harlow was discovered by Fox execs just sitting in her
car?”

“Yes,” Nancy said, shaking her head,
“I read that in Look Magazine.”

“That’s right, that’s right—I wrote
that article.”

“You did?” Nancy asked, totally
astonished now and in awe, she felt like she was actually talking
to a movie-star!

“Listen,” he said, looking across
the street. “I don’t have much time. I’m due to meet someone across
the street, but here’s my card. My name is Harold Manestry and I’m
a journalist for Look. Give my secretary a call, make an
appointment on Monday. I’m meeting with the head of MGM next week
and I’m sure he’d like to meet you.”

Nancy just stood there with her
mouth wide open. MGM? Her, a movie-star? “OK,” she just nodded,
taking the card from him.

“I’m going to show another casting
agent friend of mine the photo I just took of you, if you don’t
mind. I’m almost positive he’s gonna wanna meet you too. You’re
some looker!” He let go, praising her again.

Nancy just smiled and then
remembered why she was there on the sidewalk in the first place.
She was on her way to see Angelo and it was probably already past
six o’clock! “Nice to meet you mister—”

“Manestry. Mr. Harold Manestry, give
me a call, OK? I mean it, I’m not trying to pull the wool over your
eyes, this is serious, do it, give me a call on Monday.”

“Yes, Mr. Manestry, yes I will—thank
you.” And with that, Nancy watched the gentlemen cross the street
to meet another man who had been patiently waiting for him on the
other side. She then turned in the opposite direction and headed
towards Luccardi’s.

Walking on cloud nine, her future
didn’t seem so bleak and was now filled with so many possibilities.
She had just met the man of her dreams and now she might even
become the next Jean Harlow? Having just been ‘discovered’ by a
professional writer, no less…hadn’t Lana Turner been discovered
just sitting on a booth at Schwab’s? Could she be the next
undiscovered talent? On the cover of not only Look Magazine, but
Harper’s Bazaar, Picturegoer, Photoplay, Picture Show maybe even
LIFE?

With her chest moving up down trying
to catch her breath, she stood on the sidewalk just outside
Luccardi’s Diner and smiled as she caught hold of Angelo working
through the window. She watched him from afar as he cleaned off one
of the tables, he was so handsome, she just couldn’t believe that
she actually met him and then, and on cue, Angelo looked up at
Nancy and smiled; waved hello. Yes, life looked too good at the
moment and her heart expanded with so much glee.

They gathered at the entrance but
said nothing further; no words could express what they were
actually thinking. His look was empowered and he appeared more
attractive to her than ever before! Wearing a stained apron full of
spaghetti sauce, oils and grime from the manual labor he endured
throughout the day, his hair was all mussed up and hanging in his
face but yet Angelo Magetti was unrivaled in looks and she’d never
seen a man more sensuous in simplicity.

“Nancy,” Angelo finally spoke up,
“I’m sorry. I have to work a double shift tonight; I won’t be able
to take you out.”

Nancy let go a weak smile, “Oh,
that’s all right Angelo; I have to be somewhere else tonight as
well. That’s why I came here really, to let you know.”

He grabbed her hand, “Till next
time?” He said, placing a kiss on the front of her knuckles. Their
eyes lock and hold and Nancy nearly expired at that moment by his
simple touch on her hand.