Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy)

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 think 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 baking 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 short, 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 the 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 decision 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 were 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!

They 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 the 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 saw 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 whistled. 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.

Nora saw him take the deep breath and mistook it that he had changed his mind about going on the date with her.

She thought, I think we are both going on this date with the same opinion, but we’ll see it through.

Somehow she felt comfortable about it now. She smiled at him, took his hand, and said, “A deal’s a deal, right?”

He grinned, “It sure is.”

They turned and waved bye to her parents and Danny peeking around the kitchen door grinning from ear to ear.

Jeremy had driven a light blue 1955 ‘to die for’ convertible into their driveway.

When she saw that car she almost swallowed her tongue.

“Do you like it?” Jeremy asked. “My dad let me drive his car tonight.”

By this time she had gotten her composure back. It had beige leather seats and beige and blue accents on the rest of the interior. She felt like she could inhale the beauty of it. When she could get three words together she said, “I love it.”

He opened the door and she got in taking care to arrange her cancans and flaring skirt.

They watched a movie with lots of dancing and singing. They ate popcorn and drank a soda. She loved every minute of it. Her tummy was full and her eyes were shining from the romance and music of the movie.

She and Jeremy got back in the car for him to take her home because her dad had given him a very stiff curfew when to bring her home.

“We have a few minutes, would you like to drive around?” Jeremy asked as he started the car.

“Well, okay, I guess.” Nora hadn’t thought this far into the date. She hadn’t thought about really ‘date’ dating him. She hadn’t paid any attention to him putting his arm around her during the movie; she was so engrossed in the dancing and music. What if he wanted to kiss her? She felt a small knot of panic began to develop in the pit of her stomach. What had she gotten herself into this time?

She had never dated while they lived on the dairy. She didn’t feel like she had the time considering the chores she had to do seven days a week. Since they had moved into town, it seemed she was always getting herself into situations totally out of her element. Taking a deep breath she reminded herself of her resolve that she had on the thinking rock. ‘She was used to trouble and she would face trouble head on’. She braced herself. She could handle this, she told herself.

Jeremy pulled into the park and stopped. He turned toward her with his right arm thrown across the back of the seat.

“So,” she said frantically trying to think of something to say, “Your dad has a really nice car.”

He smiled and nodded.

“What’s his occupation?”

“My dad is Donald Littlefield, of Littlefield and Swartz Attorneys at Law. You may have heard of him. Yes, he makes lots of money and that’s why he has a really nice car.”

“Oh.” She could think of nothing to say immediately so she picked up her small handbag and turned it around on her lap while she tried to think of something.

Jeremy leaned his head around to try to look in her face. “Nora, I feel like I’ve never had a chance to talk to you, to get to know you. That’s all I’m doing here.

She relaxed and turned toward him. “I feel like I have never known you. You seem so different than I ever knew before.”

He laughed, “Because of my singing.”

She returned his laughter. “Yes, majorly. You embarrassed me at school all the time.”

“Remember our deal,” she reminded him jokingly. “You promised.”

Holding up his fingers, he agreed, “Scout’s honor.”

“Whew!” she let out a breath. “I’m glad we got that settled.”

He laughed at her. “I think I should get you home because if you enjoyed yourself tonight I would like to date you again.”

Jeremy seemed like a totally different person than what he was at school. “Do you think you will study to be a lawyer some day?” she asked.

“I’m still debating that issue.” He continued thoughtfully, “I am working at the law office during the day this summer trying to get a feel of it. To see if it is something I could do as a profession. Graduation is only a year away and I need to make some decisions soon.”

Nora now understood why he was never around when she was walking the sidewalks waiting for him to pounce on her, so to speak.

When they got to the front door, Jeremy stopped, “Thank you for going on a date with me, even if I did bribe you.”

She laughed, “Well, we got through it,” she laughed. “I really had a good time. I enjoyed being with you and the movie.”

Bolstered by her comment he quickly brushed a kiss across her lips.

He surprised her by saying, “I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long.”

My, she thought, this night is full of surprises. What she said was, “I had no idea.”

“Get used to that idea, my beautiful Nora.”

Her mom and dad had already gone to their bedroom. She was so thankful that she didn’t have to face them. She had so many whirling emotions going on, she needed to be alone. To think all this through was going to take a while.