Martin Fries

Fancy Nancy - or why yesterday does matter


“Hey John Nellie, wait on me, John Nellie!”, that’s what I heard when I was walking down the hallway to get to my last class that week on time. It was a Friday afternoon and the sweat was running down my back. ‘August ain’t easy in Kansas’, I though.
 
So I agreed and met her after school on the lot. ‘Actually, she’s a pretty good looking girl,’ I figured. Her name is Elisa. We sat in my Oldsmobile and drove off towards dusk.
 
 
 
There was Ruby Tuesday on the radio. “Oh, I like that song!,” Elisa said.
 
I looked at the water lily that was laying on the dashboard. Nancy got it for me the other day. ‘Where do you get water lilies?,’ I wondered. It was a dark, intense red-colored lily. “Like a little ruby,” I said to myself, not caring about Elisa who was sitting right next to me. It was beautiful.
 
 
 
“Have ya ever been parkin’?” She was a fifteen years old girl and I thought it was worth asking.
 
“Well, you know, I kinda have,” she said mincingly. I wondered what that was supposed to mean. Because I have been parking. And I know the difference between parking and not parking but I just couldn’t figure out how ‘kinda have’ was meant to work. I decided not to bore her with another question because I did not want to upset her.
 
 
 
“Do you know who’s gonna be there else?” she asked in a patient voice.
 
“I think Nancy and Ashley want to come too.”
 
“Fancy Nancy?”
 
“What did you call her Fancy Nancy for?” I did not like the fact that she called her Fancy Nancy. Nancy was a great girl. She was seventeen years old and had long black hair. The only thought of her was dazzling me. I think Elisa saw that my face got red.
 
“I guess you like her,” she dodged my answer. “I just think that she’s always kind of snobby and – I mean I don’t like her.”
 
I asked myself, who of the two of them was the snobby lady. But before I got done thinking she said “Well, I mean, it don’t matter. Do you like her a lot?”
 
“Nancy has always been a good friend of mine,” I answered, hoping this was enough information for her to call this topic good.
 
“I understand. Sorry,” she apologized, apparently for her overhasty evaluation of my best friend Nancy.
 
I looked at the lily and made sure that its color was still that ruby as it had been before.
 
“That’s all right,” I said in a way as if Nancy did not mean anything to me, although she did. ‘Now it’s time to seriously start thinking about a nice relationship with a beautiful girl,’ I thought. But for some weird reason I did not think of Nancy at that point of time but merely it was Elisa who came to my mind. ‘Fancy Nancy,’ I thought…
 
 
 
It was late after nine when we arrived at the little hut out in the country in western Kansas. I turned off the engine and listened to the sound of the crickets. It was wonderful. “Don’t you wanna get out?” Elisa asked me and kissed me lovely.
 
“Yeah, I’ll get out, too,” realizing that I was not alone and where I was. I first had to reorganize my thoughts. ‘Wow. Yesterday don’t matter when it’s gone. It really don’t,’ I figured after I had cast a look at the light ruby-colored lily that I had gotten from Nancy.
 
For some weird reason I had a really awkward feeling about the flower.
 
 
 
I opened the trunk and got out a bottle of Scotch that once used to be chilled by ice. But there was no ice any more, there was merely a nice little puddle in my trunk.
 
We went to the hut and I had trouble to hold my pants up, not to lose them. I did not want to tighten my belt in front of Elisa.
 
“Hey how’s it going John?” Nancy came up to me hugging me.
 
“Hey what’s up Nancy hon’?” I carefully released her arms that embraced my neck in a way that I actually impressed myself. I did not know that I was skilled in rejecting people without offending them.
 
“Who’d you bring with you?“ Nancy demanded, obviously regarding Elisa. I looked at Elisa who was standing right next to me. She had already taken off her sweater and dazzled me with her pretty curves. I had trouble not to grin, trying to keep the affection to myself. ‘Heaven,’ I thought.
 
Suddenly there was a piercing pain in my right arm that called me back to reality. It was Ashley who had pinched me.
 
“Hey I’m sorry, that’s Elisa. She’s a junior from high school. She asked me if she could spend the weekend with me and I just thought that it should not be a problem. I mean she’s a cool girl.”
 
“Hey Nancy, hey Ashley! John’s told me about you. That’s really cool of you that I may be here.” That was surprising. Hadn’t she just patronized them earlier that day? ‘Let’s see,’ I thought.
 
“Ah, all right, that’s fine. We love meeting new people from around. Hi Elisa,” Nancy said in a very subdued way. There was some kind of tension in her voice that I did not like.
 
Ashley was a girl that generally kept quiet. However, if she started to talk about music and fashion you had a hard time to be patient enough and wait for her to stop.
 
 
 
Nancy put her arm around my back. So did I to her and we went outside of the little cabin. ‘Let’s just obey to what she wants, not to create any nuisance,’ I plotted how to react that night. And I even did not feel bad about being so near to Nancy.
 
We laid down on the meadow adjacently to the little hut. Nancy put her head on my belly and we were watching the stars. I think I kinda upset Elisa but I could not figure out why she was upset. She was only sitting there, gazing into the distance.
 
Ashley had tuned in the radio. It was Ruby Tuesday that we heard. ‘Yesterday don’t matter if it’s gone,’ I repeated the lyrics in my mind and kissed Nancy.
 
 
 
The dawn sun tickled my face. I got up and rubbed my eyes. Nancy was lying there, sleeping, on the couch. I decided to go to my car to see Elisa. She slept on the rear seats. I calmly touched her pretty face. It was nice to watch her sleep so peacefully. When I looked up to the dashboard I was scared. ‘Something must have gone terribly wrong,’ I combined. The thing is that I could not remember what had happened the night before.
 
 
 
From that point of time I new that yesterday does matter when it’s gone, it really does. The lily from Nancy had faded.

Toutes les droites appartiennent à son auteur Il a été publié sur e-Stories.org par la demande de Martin Fries.
Publié sur e-Stories.org sur 07.12.2006.

 
 

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