dontravis.com
blog post #343
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| Courtesy of Pixabay |
I
hope you enjoyed Mark Wildyr’s River Otter post last week. If so, let
him know at markwildyr@aol.com.
This
week, I’d like to a do piece of flash fiction about some kids growing up and
going through the difficult process of discovering who they are. I suspect more
of us are ambivalent about these things than we suspect. After all, just
because the other fellow acts so confident of himself doesn’t mean he always
is. So let’s get about it.
*****
ME’N
MAZIE AND NIGEL
I’d known Nigel
Blaine ever since we were both in diapers. I’d grown up watching him learn to
crawl—before I did—and toddle around on two legs and get out of diapers—again before
I did. I was there when he hit his first homerun and made his first basket and
dated his first girl. Need I say… all before I did.
Looking back at it
now, I think it was safe to say that I was in love with Nigel. It was good
having the best-looking guy in town grow up two doors down from me on High
Street. How did he feel about it? He was always saying, Blake, you’re my best
friend. That’s a high honor, but somewhere down inside me, I was hoping for
more. More what? I didn’t have a clue.
Mazie Angelicus
and her family moved in next door three years ago. For the first twelve month,
I just looked past her house to see if Nigel was home. Whenever we’d be
outdoors tossing the ball or simply sitting on the porch swing ragging one
another, she’d show up to contribute her two cents. An interloper of sorts.
Then last year,
she did this Jekyll and Hyde thing and started looking like a girl instead of a
tomboy. Spiky hair turned honey brown and fell across her shoulders. Freckles
faded as her skin began to glow. She abandoned boxy trousers for slacks that
took on a shape. And as always, Nigel took notice before I did.
When he asked her
out, my stomach fell down into my guts. My hackles rose, and I didn’t know why.
I guess it was because things were changing in our tight little group. The
dynamics were different all of a sudden. That might have been it, or perhaps I was just jealous she claimed some of his time without me around
to participate.
Whatever the
reason, I sort of withdrew. I found other things to occupy my time when they
wanted to go do this or that. I hated myself afterward because I was making it
easier to cut me out. But for some reason, I did it anyway. My pop would have
said it was all a part of growing up and growing away. And maybe it was, but I couldn’t
see him in his room crying because his best friend, Mr. Potter, got married and
had a family. And I was convinced that was what was coming down the road. Well,
if Nigel asked me to be his best man, I’d come down sick… maybe terminally.
I couldn’t avoid
them at school, so I put on as brave a face as I could, but other kids noticed.
I answered the question “What’s up with you’n Nigel?” with a “Nothing” more
times than I could count. Still, he was friendly and asked me to go to games
and the like with him. I did, but it was different in some way I couldn’t
explain. Nigel didn’t seem to notice.
Then came the
winter prom our senior year. He caught me in the garage tinkering with the 49
Ford my father had given me when he got a new Expedition. He was no sooner
through the door than he asked me who I was taking to the dance. “I almost said
“You” before I caught myself and shrugged.
“Why don’t you ask
Mazie?” he suggested.
I about dropped my
wrench as I pulled my head out of the motor well. “Mazie. Aren’t you taking
her?”
“Nah. I asked
Helen.”
“H-how come? I
though you and Mazie were together.”
“I asked her out a
couple of times, but it’s like going out with a buddy instead of a girl.”
“She know you’re
taking Helen to the prom?”
He nodded as he tested
the drive chain. “Seems a little loose. Yeah, we talked it over, and she’s cool
with it. Whoever you ask, we can all go together. Make a foursome of it.”
The next day when
I spotted Mazie coming home from school, I saw her through different eyes. I
grabbed a jacket and flew out the front door before she disappeared into her
house.
“Hi.”
“Hi, yourself.”
“Teacher keep you
after school? I’ve been home for half an hour.”
“Well, you had
wheels. I walked.”
“You know you can
ride with me whenever you want. You’ve done it a hundred times.”
“I know. But a couple
of us went for malted milkshakes.”
“Uh…”
“Uh, what?”
“Do… do you have a
date for the prom?”
“Billy asked me,
but I told him I already had another date.”
“Do you?”
“No, but I didn’t
want to hurt his feelings by saying no.”
“Would you hurt my
feelings?”
“What? By saying
no if you asked?”
“I guess.”
She tossed that
gorgeous honey brown hair of hers. “Are you asking?”
“Uh, I guess so?”
“Geez, I’ve never
been asked for a date is such a romantic way.”
“Does that mean
no?”
“It means ask me,
you dopehead.” Her smile took the sting out of the “dopehead” part.
“Okay, will you go
to the prom with me?”
“I’d love to go
with you.”
My stomach did a
flip-flop. I could feel a smile stretching my lips as far as they would go.
Then I frowned.
“What’s the
matter?”
“Nigel wants to
double date.”
“That would be
fun.”
“Uh… I mean….”
She laughed, and I
felt my face go red.
“Blake, I have no
problem double dating with Nigel and Helen. After all, he’s my best friend…
except maybe for you.”
Things got serious
between Mazie and me after that wonderful prom, just as they have for Nigel and
Helen. Helen’s a regular member of our group now. Awkward at first, but
perfectly comfortable now. I know I can’t do anything until after college, but
I’m seriously thinking of asking Mazie to marry me sometime in the future.
But you know what?
Nigel Blaine will always be my first and lasting love, even though it will forever
be unfulfilled. During unguarded moments, I believe he feels the same way.
*****
Childhood
bonding is strong and slow to let go sometimes. How many of us have felt as
Blake does at sometime in our lives? But we soldier on and fulfill nature’s
call to propagate. Well, some of us do. The braver souls follow their nature
wherever it takes them.
Now
my mantra: Keep on reading and keep on
writing. You have something to say, so say it!
My
personal links: (Note the change in the Email address)
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/donald.travis.982
Twitter:
@dontravis3
Buy
links to Abaddon’s Locusts:
See
you next week.
Don
New Posts are
published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.
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