Intertwined
Myrna G. Raines
Copyright © 2013 Myrna Day
This is a work of fiction, any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
The Publisher makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any commercial damages.
2013-02-28
One
“It’s late, we gotta get on home. It’s late, we’ve been gone too long.” Ricky Nelson blared from the radio in the white ’60 model Chevy as Darian Wilks drove down the main drag, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the music. In the other hand he held a Pall Mall, blowing the smoke out the open window so his daddy wouldn’t know he’d been smoking, especially in the car. The Bel Air was his dad’s pride and joy and with the car being new, Darian figured he’d be in more trouble for the foul smell from the cigarette than he would be for smoking. Daniel Wilks had been at the dealership when the hauler had unloaded this particular model and bought it on the spot.
Creeping along, as it was a Saturday night and the cars cruising in front of him were bumper to bumper, his smoky grey eyes darted from left to right, looking for someone he knew, or maybe someone he wanted to know. It is gettin’ late, Ricky, he thought. Gonna have to be headin’ home myself pretty soon. But not yet. Home was the last place any seventeen year old boy wanted to go.
Most of the cruisers were like him, looking for a girl, or in the case of the girls, looking for a guy. Strange, that very few hooked up, although they spent the entire evening attempting to find someone of the opposite sex to have a good time with. Flirting was about the most they did, either whistling at the girls or yelling crude remarks, as teenage boys are prone to do. Some girls yelled back, some acted coy, and then they were past, and most of the time you didn’t see them again for the rest of the night. Except for the pushy girls. The ones who hung out the windows of the car, their tight sweaters showing their ample assets and not caring who saw them. It seemed you saw the pushy ones over and over again and that was not the type of girl Darian was searching for. Not that he wasn’t like any other red blooded American boy and sure wouldn’t turn down the chance for a one night stand. But Dari wanted something more. He was all about seeking a sweet, wholesome girl. Someone he could go out with, not just take down by the river for a makeout session. For that, any of those girls would do, and that type of girl wouldn’t care who knew it.
His eyes were drawn to a car he’d never seen before that passed him on the opposite side of the street, with four girls in the big Mercury. The girls grinned at him, openly flirting. Some of them he’d seen, went to school with anyway. Two had pony tails, one had her hair teased up, and then there was the driver whose long blonde hair lay straight. He could hardly see her face, as she looked neither left nor right and he wondered that she wasn’t as flirty as the others. Her eyes stared straight ahead. Maybe she’d just got her license or something, and didn’t trust her control over the car just yet.
He came to the corner, trying to find a place to turn and head back the other way, curious as to the girl in the driver’s seat of the blue and white Merc, and why she was out cruising if she wasn’t like all the other girls, and boy watching. You’d have thought when the girls had started yelling at him, she would at least have turned her head to see who they were yelling at. It seemed to take forever to find a place to get turned around, but he finally found an alley that wasn’t blocked. When he got back into the line of traffic heading in the opposite direction, he was several car lengths behind the light blue Mercury he’d seen with the cute girls.
“Hey, Dari!” a familiar voice called to him from the sidewalk. “Wait up!”
Oh, hell! Butch. He’d never catch the Mercury now! But he stopped in the middle of the street with horns blaring behind him and a lot of complaining. A few deep voices yelled, “Damn it!Get the lead out!” But he wasn’t about to pull over. He’d never get a chance to get back into traffic if he did, but he couldn’t leave Butch standing on the sidewalk looking like an idiot. Butch was his buddy, his best pal. He’d tried to find him earlier to come downtown with him, but hadn’t had any success.
Hurriedly slipping his stocky frame into the front seat beside Darian, with a “Damn, Dari, I thought you weren’t gonna stop” they slowly took off. With sandy blond hair cut short in a buzz, Butch wore his maroon school jacket just like Dari’s with South High written across the back, and ‘Butch’ embroidered on the left front, although his name was really Michael. Half the people he knew didn’t even know his name. He’d gone by Butch most of his life.
“Where ya goin’? I saw ya pass by a few minutes ago, but Jeff was tellin’ me about him and Daisy, givin’ me a play by play, and I sure didn’t want ta miss it. Ya gotta hear what she did! Ready?” And he hesitated, giving Dari time to answer, which he didn‘t. Dari knew that Butch was brimming with the gossip, and would tell him whether he wanted to hear it or not. “Old Daisy stripped down to the waist, right in front of him and Grabber. Jeff said he just about shit and Grabber was ready to grab her, all right.”
Glancing sideways at Butch, Dari stated in a nonchalant voice, “And I bet she never took her bra off. Butch, Daisy ain’t nothin’ but a tease. When is Jeff gonna wake up and see that? He just keeps goin’ back for more. Hopin’, I guess.”
“Old Jeff’ll get in her pants sooner or later, you can bet your bottom dollar on it. Accordin’ to him, she just keeps gettin’ braver and braver every time he’s over at her house. Man, I wish I could find me a girl that’d put out. Just for me, I mean. Not like some of these girls that would put out for any guy.”
“Pays to be choosy, Butch,” Darian told him, “or you just might end up with the clap or maybe even bein’ a daddy. I don’t want no skag, either, but I’d like to have a steady girl. Since me and Julie broke up, I ain’t had a real girlfriend.”
“Hell, she did ya wrong, man. Who woulda thunk it? Goin’ for that senior over you? Dari, you know how girls are. If a senior looks at ’em, they’re gonna go for ’em.”Butch stuck his head out the window. “Hey Bill, ya old faggot!”he yelled out to one of their buddies standing on the sidewalk. Bill broke away from the guys he was talking to and tried to get to Butch to smack him one, but couldn’t quite make it. Butch did pull his head in the window pretty fast, though, laughing like a goofball.
“Can ya see that blue Merc up there with the white top?” Darian pointed through the windshield as if Butch would know which car it was with three or four others between them. “I’ve been followin’ it. The girl drivin’ looks pretty darned good. I ain’t never seen her before, I don’t think. She’s got long blonde hair, but I couldn’t see her face. She ain’t lookin’, that’s for sure, but her friends are. They were sure lookin’ when they went by me goin’ the other way. We catch up with ’em and we just might get lucky, man! But with my luck, the driver’s probably engaged to somebody that goes to college. Nice lookin’ Merc she’s drivin’. I ain’t seen it around before tonight.”
Speesburg was a small town, located in Southeastern Pennsylvania approximately fifty miles due west of Philadelphia, and Dari and Butch had made up their minds they would be attending Penn State if Dari received the football scholarship he was after. The entire town encompassed about fifteen square miles and held twenty thousand people, more or less. If it weren’t for the Trenton Steel Mill, the town would probably go down the tubes, although it was founded in the early 1800’s by a German emigrant named Dieter Spees. Darian Wilks and Butch Simmons were born there, grew up there, and attended the same schools together. Lifelong buddies, it seemed, knowing the town like the backs of their hands.
Dari looked to his right, and his eyes lit up. Hot damn! His luck was on that night for sure. The