Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy) (4 page)

She laughed, “
Mostly I tried to not hear you at all.”

He laughed back, “
So well I remember. Do you remember what I said today?”

Nora pushed the hair from the side of her face as she tried to remember, “
Yes, I think I do. You said, ‘you are the apple of my eye’.”

“
That, Nora, is how I feel about you.”

“
You’re kidding me!”

“
Not at all,” he said to her seriously looking straight into her face. “I have admired your intelligence, your determination, and everything else that I have seen from you. If you would let me I would like to date you.”

“
This is something I need to think about. Will you just say Nora from now on? Actually, Elenore is my real name but the only time it has been used was on my birth certificate as far as I know.”

Jeremy laughed, “
I promise I will not use Elenora again or even sing to you at school if you will date me Saturday night.”

He held out his hand, “
Deal?”

She smiled and put her hand in his, “
Deal.”

He walked with her the rest of the way home. “
I will come by for you at seven Saturday night.”

When she went in the living room she found out that her dad had gone to the hardware store. Instead of buying Dann
y a pogo stick, her dad had bought both of them a bicycle.

Chapter Four

Nora said goodbye to Jeremy after he had walked her to the sidewalk leading to her front door.

When Nora walked into the living room
her dad was sitting in his favorite chair looking out the window. “Who was that boy who walked you home?” he asked.

She was a little shaken, not that she felt that she had done anything wrong but because she thought she would have a little more time to thi
nk about how she was going to ask him for permission to go out with Jeremy Saturday night.

“
Dad that boy out there was Jeremy. He is a guy that I go to school with. I went outside to see if I knew anyone on the block like Danny did. Guess what?” She smiled, “I do.”

“
How long have you known him? How well do you know him?”

Oh, No,
she thought,
the third degree
. “Ohm,” she said looking up at the ceiling, “We went to school together all this last year. How well do I know him? I don’t know him really very well because mostly he irritates me. But today he was actually nice.”

“
Is he a friend of yours?”

“
Well,” she shrugged, “that’s difficult to say.”

She went on, “
There’s something else you might want to know. He asked me out on a date Saturday night and I agreed to go.”

Her dad sat up straight in his chair and yelled, “
What!”

“
Ohm, I had planned on getting your approval but you didn’t give me time to think this through,” she confessed.

“
What were you thinking?!”

She wasn
’t used to her dad getting this upset with her. She needed to think of his heart and calm him down.

“
You just told me you didn’t even know if you consider him a friend, but you agreed to go on a date with him?” he asked with a little fire in his eyes.

“
Ohm, Yes, Sir.” She looked to the ceiling to see if any answers were there. “He was nice today. He bought me a soda and even held the door open for me.”

This is my daughter who always works hard, makes near perfect marks in school, never disobeys and is always respectful,
he thought.
What just happened here?

“
Nora, look at me.”

“
Yes, Sir.”

“
I am not against you having dates and boyfriends, however, you must bring them here to meet me first, especially this one.”

“
Yes, Sir.”

Then he added, “
I don’t mean five minutes before you walk out the door with him. I mean one afternoon this week before Saturday night.” He paused a moment while she stood there looking at him. “Are we clear?”

“
Yes, Sir.”

She whirled and went to her bedroom and flung herself on the bed.
Whew!
She thought.
I don’t remember when my dad has talked to me like that. Ugh! Now I
have to bring Jeremy here to the house to get Dad’s approval. Yuck! I made a deal with Jeremy that I would go on a date with him if he would quit singing Elenora to me. Beside that I want to go to the movies!

The next
morning her mom asked her to walk to the grocery store to buy some baking soda. Her most important item to find, she felt, was Jeremy. Not that she wanted to find him. He didn’t tell her where he lived. What was she going to do, walk up and down the streets everyday waiting for someone to yell, ‘Elenora?’ Somehow maybe he would just appear before her and she could politely invite him over for lemonade and a nice friendly inquisition from her dad. Any potential date would love to do that!

How embarrassing it
will be if he finds out from somebody, “Hey, did you know that Nora has been walking the streets looking for you?” How would she ever live that down? Jeremy of all people! What a prize for his pride that will be? Yuck! Yuck! Double yuck!!

She bought the b
aking soda and went home.

No Jeremy on the street. Now I
’ll have to try again tomorrow
. She buried her face in the pillow.
Maybe I’ll see him tomorrow.

She went for a walk the next afternoon, and the next. No Jeremy. Time was running s
hort, she worried. This is already Thursday, everyday her dad gave her this look of, ‘Where is he?’

She always turned her head and thought of something she just had to do at that moment when
she thought he was going to ask.

Nora sat down on the steps of t
he front porch; she placed her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands.
Drats! Double Drats, that Jeremy. I don’t care if I ever see him again! I don’t care if I go on a silly date. I’ll get Danny to go to the movies with me if necessary.

With that d
ecision made, she raised her head and saw the flowerbed where she wanted to plant flowers.

“
Mom,” she yelled into the house.

Laura
came to the door.

“
What do you think about planting foxglove here against the porch with some snap dragons in front of them?”

Her mom came out to envision what Nora was talking about with a big smile on her face. “
I love it. I also want some petunias among them because I love to smell them. At the side of the porch let’s plant morning glories on that trellis.”

By the time they w
ere finished planning their flowerbed, they were excited and happy.

They drove to the greenhouse at the edge of town to get their plants. They arrived home animated and ready to shovel dirt.

About the time they had the soil turned and the grass removed, her dad came to the door, “What’s for supper?”

They were fully engrossed in their project with streaks of dirt across their faces and dirt smeared to their elbows, her mom answered without ever looking up, “
There are leftovers in the refrigerator if you want to eat now or you can wait until we are finished.”

Nora and her dad looked at each other with their mouths open.

John raised his eyebrows and gave a funny sideways grin and headed to the kitchen.

Well
, Nora thought,
Mom must be really enjoying this!

The
y planted foxgloves all along the edge of the porch which was probably a foot above ground. They alternated snap dragons and petunias in front of the foxgloves to give a layered look.

Nora grabbed the last box of petunias and was placing them on the ground
where they were planting with her feet spread apart to brace herself and her seat high in the air which was also covered in dirt, when she heard Jeremy sing, “Elenora.”

She crumpled to her knees, “
Oh, No!” she muttered painfully. She rubbed her face automatically as if to wipe some invisible pain away, unknowingly caking dirt all over it.

“
Go away, Jeremy!” she yelled without thinking.

Then she caught herself, “
No, Jeremy, would you come here?”

“
Well, yes, ma’am. I would be obliged to.”

Laura
was taking in the scene with a look of fascination and amusement. She had never seen her calm, sensible daughter so flustered and embarrassed at the same time.
Quite interesting
, she thought.

John
heard voices outside and came to the door. He walked out and introduced himself taking in the scene with amusement. He held out his hand. “Hi, I understand that you are Jeremy.”

“
Yes,sir,” Jeremy answered still valiantly trying to keep a rip roaring laugh from bursting forth.

“
I would like to invite you in for a visit. I think Nora made some lemonade earlier.”

“
Oh, No!” Nora uttered after they went into the house. She felt so mortified. Every horrible thing she dreamed of came true and worse.

Laura
reached over and patted her on the hand. “Why don’t you go in and take a bath and wash your hair, she comforted, “I’ll have this little job done in a jiffy.”

“
Thanks, Mom.”

Nora snuck around the house half bent over to keep Jeremy or her dad from seeing her from the windows. She entered the back door to go into her bedroom to
grab her clothes. She hoped she got into the bathroom without being seen. She turned the water on in the tub before she saw her face in the mirror covered with dirt. “Oh, No!” she muttered again in total humiliation.

After her bath she couldn
’t face Jeremy again, so she lay down on her bed and waited for him to leave.

Not five minutes later, her dad called her to come to the kitchen
. How much more humiliation can I stand in one day?
She asked herself.

She presented herself in the kitchen with a red scrubbed
face. Her hair was still wet, but she had loosely braided it in one long braid down her back. She wore clean freshly ironed yellow sun dress as she shyly stood there with her face down.

Her dad looked at Jeremy who had risen when Nora walked in and saw th
e admiration on Jeremy’s face. That settled it for him. “Nora, you have my permission to go on a date with Jeremy Saturday night.”

Nora quickly looked up at Jeremy in surprise.
How could anyone want to date her after seeing her as she was today?

What she s
aw when she looked at Jeremy was that silly grin on his face. She resigned herself, and nodded. After Saturday night, she hoped she never would ever, ever hear him sing, ‘Elenora,’ again.
Two more days
, she thought,
just two more days.

Nora was on pins and
needles Saturday afternoon. She changed her mind every few minutes about what to wear. When it was time to get dressed, she changed clothes four times before she called her mom to help her decide.

Laura
helped her with her hair and finally decided to let it hang down. Nora knew it would be in her way, but her mom thought it looked pretty that way.

She went dutifully into the living room to sit on the sofa to wait for Jeremy. Danny came in and sang, “
Two little lovebirds sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First came love, then came marriage. Then came Nora pushing a baby carriage.” A big belly laugh followed.

“
Go away, Danny!” Nora yelled before Laura sent Danny to his room.

Finally Jeremy knocked on the door. She got up to let him in. He looked at her and w
histled. She turned her head and looked at her mom embarrassed. She had no idea how pretty she looked.

She wore a
blue gingham dress with butterflies hand embroidered around the skirt by her mom. The flaring cancans under the full skirt and a wide soft leather belt with matching leather on the buckle accentuated her tiny waist. The white belt also matched her white leather flats. Her long blond hair flowed down her back almost to her waist with soft wavy curls. A soft glow of lipstick accentuated her lips and her periwinkle blue eyes matched the blue of her dress.

Other than being able to whistle, Jeremy was almost speechless. He felt that he must be seeing a vision of an angel.

Laura and John shared a knowing look at each other as they gauged Jeremy’s reaction to their daughter.

Jeremy
took a deep breath bolstering up his courage and held his hand to her.