Eleanor & Park

‘Keys on hook,’ she said.

‘Hand me my purse.’ She gave him twenty dollars from her wallet, and then ten more.

‘Thanks …’ Park said, still hesitant. ‘I guess we’ll go now?’

‘Not yet …’ His mom looked at Eleanor’s clothes and frowned.

‘Eleanor can’t go out like that.’ If they wore the same size, she’d be forcing

Eleanor

into

a

stonewashed miniskirt about now.

‘But I’ve looked like this all day,’ Eleanor said. She was wearing army surplus pants and a short-sleeved men’s shirt over some kind of long-sleeved purple T-shirt. Park thought she looked cool. (He actually thought she looked adorable, but that word would make Eleanor gag.) ‘Just let me fix your hair,’ his mom said.

She pulled Eleanor into the bathroom and started pulling bobby pins out of her hair.

‘Down, down, down,’ she said.

Park

leaned

against

the

doorway and watched.

‘It’s

weird

that

you’re

watching this,’ Eleanor said.

‘It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,’ he said.

‘Park probably help me do your hair on wedding day,’ his mom said.

He and Eleanor both looked at the floor. ‘I’ll wait for you in the living room,’ he said.

In a few minutes, she was ready. Her hair looked perfect, every curl shiny and on purpose, and her lips were a glossy pink.

He could tell from here that she’d taste like strawberries.

‘Okay,’ his mom said, ‘go.

Have fun.’

They walked out to the Impala, and Park opened the door for Eleanor. ‘I can open my own door,’ she said. And by the time he got to his side, she’d leaned over the seat and pushed his door open.

‘Where should we go?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, sinking down in her seat. ‘Can we just get out of the neighborhood? I feel like I’m sneaking across the Berlin Wall.’

‘Oh,’ he said, ‘yeah.’ He started the car and looked over at her. ‘Get down more. Your hair glows in the dark.’

‘Thanks.’

‘You know what I mean.’

He started driving west. There was nothing east of the Flats but the river.

‘Don’t drive by the Rail,’ she said.

‘The what?’

‘Turn right here.’

‘Okay …’

He looked down at her – she was crouching on the floor – and laughed.

‘It’s not funny.’

‘It’s kind of funny,’ he said.

‘You’re on the floor, and I’m only getting to drive because my dad’s out of town.’

‘Your dad wants you to drive.

All you have to do is learn how to drive a stick.’

‘I already know how to drive a stick.’

‘Then what’s the problem?’

‘The problem is me,’ he said, feeling irritated. ‘Hey, we’re out of the neighborhood, can you sit up now?’

‘I’ll sit up when we get to Twenty-fourth Street.’

She sat up at 24th Street, but they didn’t talk again until 42nd.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. He really didn’t. He knew how to get to school and how to get downtown, and that was it.

‘Where do you want to go?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said.

Eleanor She wanted to go to Inspiration Point. Which, as far as she knew, only existed on Happy Days.

And she didn’t want to say to Park, ‘Hey, where do you kids go when you want to fog up the windows?’ Because, what would he think of her? And what if he had an answer?

Eleanor was trying really hard not be overawed by Park’s driving skills, but every time he changed lanes or checked the rearview mirror,

she

caught

herself

swooning. He might as well be lighting a cigarette or ordering a Scotch on the rocks, it made him seem so much older …

Eleanor

didn’t

have

her

learner’s permit. Her mom wasn’t even allowed to drive, so getting Eleanor’s license wasn’t a priority.

‘Do

we

have

to

go

somewhere?’ she asked.

‘Well,

we

have

to

go

some where …’ Park said.

‘But do we have to do something?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Can’t we just go somewhere and be together? Where do people go to be together? I don’t even care if we get out of the car …’

He looked over at her, then looked back, nervously, at the road. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Yeah.

Yeah, just let me …’

He pulled into a parking lot and turned around.

‘We’ll go downtown.’

Park

They did get out of the car. Once they

were

downtown,

Park

wanted to show Eleanor Drastic Plastic and the Antiquarium and all the other record stores. She’d never even been to the Old Market, which was practically the only place to go in Omaha.

There were a bunch of other kids hanging out downtown, a lot of them looking much weirder than Eleanor. Park took her to his favorite pizza place. And then his favorite ice cream place. And his third favorite comic book shop.

He kept pretending that they were on a real date, and then he’d remember that they were.

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