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| Yes, dear people. Let's get our solemn faces on, for this could very well prove disastrous. |
Okay, I guess I really shouldn't say "part of one of my stories", as this is in reality the "whole" of it. You see, I don't actually write stories, I write scenes. Scenes which I later read over and over again hoping that by some miracle they will turn themselves into a story before my eyes (a method of writing which has not proved altogether successful, I must say).
Anyhow, the other day I got this idea for a scene, and after enjoying it very much in the writing, I began to wonder, "Would anyone else find this sort of thing interesting? Am I in any way capable of creating characters that people want to know more about?" Having a good many doubts on that score, I thought perhaps I would share it with all of you and see what you make of it. And this is where I go out on a limb...because, frankly, it's a very difficult thing for me to share my stories with other people. Why? Well, because. "Sink me, m'dear, I'm far too embarrassed."
But today I have decided to be brave. So here it is, and if you think it's perfectly awful that's okay. It's not as if it's some major work which I've been pouring myself into for the past decade. If it's a dud...well, it's dud. Please excuse any mistakes, inaccuracies, misspellings, misuse of words, and the like. I've read over this so many times now, I'm almost certain there's a mistake in it somewhere. But I haven't time to belabor the point, so -gulp- here we go.
(Oh! And for a little background. The two girls in this passage have been friends since childhood, and are now college roommates. It takes place back in the early 60's or somewhere there about.)
*****
"I could set you up a blind date for
Saturday," Rosa said nonchalantly, peering at herself in the mirror, and
picking microscopic lint balls off her starched collar.
"Why?" Nancy asked innocently, looking up
from her desk by the window, where she sat working on a paper for her English
class.
"Why not?
It would be fun!" Rosa smiled cheerily at Nancy's reflection in the mirror.
"Awkward more like," came the stolid reply. "I already have a boyfriend."
"Oh, that's right. Billy. What a bore,"
Rosa cast a disgruntled look at her own reflection as if it were Billy
standing there and not her. "I
forgot about him."
"No you didn't!" Laughed Nancy. "You can't forget a guy like Billy that easily."
"Mores the pity. It's not as if I haven't tried," Rosa said, drearily.
"And he's not a bore, either," Nancy
continued, turning back to her paper with a funny little grin on her face.
"Isn't he?
Honestly, Nan, you've been dating him since high school. What does he ever do but get up every morning
at 7:00, go to work--at a drugstore, no less--come home and play basketball with
your brother--which consists of them barking at each other the whole time because
they can never agree who's playing fair and who isn't--and then going home and
eating his dinner--with a relish--and hopping over to your house in the evening
to watch Father Knows Best or The Andy Griffith Show...and eat more food. Or, if his favorite shows aren't on
television that evening, talking endlessly about his car and all that junk
till you're blue in the face. If that's not a bore, what is?"
Nancy must have found this description of her
"beloved" quite amusing, for she smiled broadly throughout the whole
of Rosa's tirade, and then chuckled something about Billy certainly
liking his food...but didn't all boys?
"Nan,
I'm serious. Don't you ever wonder what
it would be like to date someone else?"
"No.
Why should I?" And she truly
looked as if it were a completely foreign idea to her.
"Why, because.
Billy's the only one you've ever gone out with (if you can call watching
television at your house going out,
that is). How do you know what kind of
guy you'd really like unless you spend time with different ones? I don't mean you have to go from boy to boy,
but honestly it's a shame you've never actually been asked out on a date by anyone. Billy's been your friend and neighbor since
you were ten, and your boyfriend since you were fifteen. I
don't think he's ever actually asked you
out on a date at all. You just sort of
fell into the relationship. Totally unromantic,
in my opinion."
Nancy shrugged, as if to say, "Who cares about
romance?" and still smiling sweetly replied, "What does that
matter? I don't care what I do with Billy. I just like being with him. Because he's the dearest, sweetest, most
adorable person ever."
"Well, he certainly fooled me," Rosa
huffed, turning back to the mirror, and beginning a survey of her hair, trying
to decide how best to fix it for the evening.
She was a curious sort of girl, Rosa. Such a confused mixture of teasing and utter
seriousness, that it was often hard to know where the one left off and the
other began. But it was obvious enough
from her words that she really did have a very low opinion of Billy Myer and
in fact considered him altogether unworthy to be the steady boyfriend for her
"darling Nan."
"Nancy, really. How do you know there isn't someone better
for you out there? Someone more exciting? More gentlemanly? More romantic?"
"Well, if you're going to take that view of
things, you'll never be satisfied with anyone.
I can't date every single man in the whole wide world, you know. Why would I waste my time looking for some
unknown man, who might be better,
when I like Billy well enough and he's right here?" Oh the simplicity of the question. Why indeed?
And yet, Rosa--that unfailing romantic idealist--couldn't see the sense
in it at all.
"Exactly,"
she cried, spinning around and pointing her hair brush in Nancy's direction, as
if she were a teacher directing orders to her class. "That's the whole problem. It's the convenience of it. You won't even take the risk of finding
someone better. Yours and Billy's
relationship is just too comfortable."
"Can you be too comfortable with the man you intend to spend the rest of your
life with?" Nancy asked, with a
mischievous twinkle in her eye, knowing full well what Rosa's reaction to this
remark would be. And oh! she was by no
means disappointed.
"What? No!" Rosa, gasped, clutching her
hairbrush to her heart as if it were her only protection against the shock of
this mind-boggling news. "It hasn't
come to that, has it? Oh! Spare me!!
You aren't seriously talking about getting married, are you?"
Nancy fell back in her chair, laughing. She did so like to shock Rosa every now and
then. It was a most amusing pastime.
"Please tell me it isn't so," wailed Rosa, dramatically.
"Oh, I think we've always known we would get
married eventually," Nancy replied, in a most provokingly calm voice. "Billy wants to save up a good amount of
money first, though..."
"On his
paycheck? That could take
centuries."
"...and of course I need to finish
school," she concluded, ignoring the interruption.
"Ohhh!"
Rosa groaned, putting her hand to her forehead as if she were about to
faint. "The utter insipidity of it
all. How can this be happening? I mean, of course you want to be comfortable
with the man you marry, but you and Billy? You're just too...I don't know. You and
Billy. You've known each other forever,
and you're so used to each other. How do
you know you're not just dating him because it's the expected thing?" Rosa
paused, and the drama seeped out of her voice, as her brow contracted into a
highly concerned and serious frown.
"How can you be sure he's
the best man for you unless you date some other guys first?"
"What?" Nancy choked down another laugh
at the absurdity of such a question. "You
mean I have to spend time with another guy in order to know whether I like Billy?
Think about it, Rosa. That
doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
"Oh, but it does," Rosa persisted. "Until
you see what other guys are like, you don't know what you're missing. Maybe there's a man out there who will
actually make your heart flip, and your stomach fill with butterflies,
and...Billy doesn't do that to you, does he?"
"Well..."
"I knew it!!"
"Well, actually, it's never been my opinion
that love consists of flipping hearts and fluttering stomachs, so I can't say
that sort of thing really matters to me that much. I've always considered that love comes from having
a deep and personal knowledge of the other person's character and
personality. Until you really understand
and know a person, you can't truly love them, now can you?"
"Right.
So tell me why you like Billy again?
Because honestly, I'd think a closer knowledge of Billy's character
would turn you off to him completely."
"Maybe a closer knowledge than what you've
got, but go a step further than that and he's alright again," Nancy said
with a wink. "With some people you
have to go about three or four levels of deepness before you really know what
they're like."
"I don't think Billy has any deepness."
Nancy giggled.
"I'll tell him you said that.
He'll find that quite humorous."
"I bet he will. Is there anything Billy doesn't find humorous?"
"Missing a meal, for one. Or having his food get cold because some
neighbor lady had a question for his mom (they're not allowed to eat in their
house until everyone is seated around the table, you know). Oh! That
and having Lily's cat jump on his lap.
He abhors cats."
"Oh, I give up," Rosa sighed, defeated,
throwing herself onto the bed, and forgetting all about her recent primping in front of the mirror, as she rumpled her dress and hair most dreadfully; making the hard labor of the past hour all but wasted. "You don't know what you're missing, but
go ahead and have your old humdrum life, if you want it. As for me, I'm not settling for some
namby-pamby old bore. If I can't love my
man passionately--flipping hearts and fluttering stomachs and everything--it's
a no go. I'd far rather remain single than
go into marriage with a man who thinks of nothing but cars and food and whatnot. That's not my idea of a soul mate."
"Of course it isn't," Nancy said,
sympathetically. "And I'd never
want you to settle for someone you didn't love.
But, maybe we just have different ideas of what being passionately in
love looks like. I love Billy, and I
always will. And for your information,
though I hate to admit this to you, he does give me butterflies in my stomach
sometimes."
Rosa rolled her eyes. "Oh, groan. I don't believe it. Billy couldn't give any girl butterflies,
even if he tried to be
charming."
*****
Okay, so reading over this again, it's striking me as rather lame, but perhaps that's only because I've been reading it too much. Anyway, I still very much want to know what you think of it, so tell me...
Did this random scene spark your interest or imagination in any way?
Do you think this is leading to Nancy finding a more romantic hero, or remaining with Billy? (Just curious.)
Do you have any curiosity to know what happens next?
Or did you find this completely boring and not worth worrying about at all? (If so, I don't blame you. ;))
Well, that's all. I realize now this was really quite long. Sorry about that. But thanks for taking the time to read it.
(And now I shall go and pretend I do not exist, because I know the embarrassment is just about to set in. ;))
