"You did amazing tonight."
I blushed and ducked my head at his praise; his compliments weren't a surprise or unexpected, but I am a girl and, I'll admit it on behalf of all women, we love knowing that someone delights in us. It gets me every time.
"Awww, you're just partial; you have to say things like that." Yup, too bad that was the depressing truth. Tony was a good friend, but like most guys he had no idea what differentiates between a professional dancer and someone who just does it for fun.
"No, I'm serious!" he said, waving his hands for dramatic emphasis, "Mandy, you're like wonderful at those little… twirly things."
I stifled a giggle. "You mean pirouettes?"
"YEA! Yea, you look great when you're doing those…" Tony's brows wrinkled as he fought to regain the word, "…parachute thingies." I elbowed his arm playfully in mock indignation and he chuckled.
Thoughtfully, I rubbed the black satin of my worn ballet slipper. "Really though, you know you don't have to come to all my shows. It's not exactly 4-star entertainment." Dancing was something I had started my Senior year of high school; it had been a way of releasing the emotional stress I built up worrying about graduating and going off to college. I guess you could call me a hometown girl; growing up and losing all my friends to the great unknown didn't really appeal to me. When I was dancing everything just seemed like it was going to be ok. I could lose myself in the beat of the music and get rid of all my pent-up energy.
I've never taken a class in my life. I tried to once; the brunette goddess who taught at Rietta's School of Dance looked down her aristocratic nose at me, and all she had to say was, "You do not have the body to be a dancer." Suddenly I felt like a clumsy lout next to her perfectly proportioned limbs and beautiful body. I was tan from working on the farm; she was fair. My 4'11" stature looked like a miniature beside her 5'7" physique. Heck, even my legs made me feel like I should reconsider and do soccer, instead. I think I may have staid a grand total of 2 minutes before high-tailing it out of there with what remained of my dignity and pride.
"Well, that might be true about the 4-stars and all, but you girls are the only real live entertainment in town." By girls, Tony meant my three best friends from college. They had taken me under their wing while at the university, all of us forming a camaraderie around the subject of dance. They had taught me numerous styles, but the one I preferred was a mixture of hip-hop and ballet. When we graduated, the quartet stuck together, everyone driving about an hour to meet every Thursday night for dance practice and girl time. Every once in a while, we would coordinate a show and put it on down at Ethel's Pub in my town. Ethel was a nice lady; she had an old, wooden floor that she would close off for us on performance nights. They weren't anything spectacular but we always had fun putting them on and we gathered quite a crowd some nights. But, it is a small town; not much ever goes on.
Tony was our biggest fan. He never missed a show; he would take off work or get one of his buddies to cover for him. It was kind of nice to know how faithful he was; I mean, my parents hadn't made it to even one of our shows, and they only lived 15 minutes away. We weren't at odds or anything; they just didn't see it as too important. They were like the aggressive soccer moms and dads people like to joke about. If there was anything competitive I was involved in when I was younger, including who could raise more money from the brownie bake sale, you could count on them being there to cheer their little princess on. But, when I tried to explain to them that dancing was something I did for me, for fun, they just decided it wasn't critical to my life since I wasn't trying to be better than someone else.
Tony, though… loyal Tony couldn't be persuaded that anything in my life was trivial. I guess that's just how your mind works when you're in love.
I met Tony when I was twenty-three, a year after finishing college. I was a full-time waitress at a small café in the center of town; the money wasn't very good, but I was living for free with Miss Patty, the oldest woman alive. Just kidding.
Miss Patty is the well-respected widow of an Army general who died about 12 years ago (he actually was a 4-star!); she lived by herself for a long time and everyone worried about her not having any help. What if she was hurt and couldn't get to a phone? Eventually, she got tired of having everyone on her back and asked me if I wouldn't mind living with her while I was home, that way she wouldn't be alone and someone could regularly check in on her. I'm not sure what everyone was so worried about; Patty had visitors every day anyway. All the womenfolk came over for tea and cookies, and she was the town Grandma to all the kids; that's how much everyone loves her. But, I can't really complain since it's such a nice setup for me.
But anyways, I was the single waitress waiting for a bit of excitement to enter my life, and, one summer morning, Tony walked into the café wearing his new, blue uniform and sparkling, golden police badge. He was the rookie on the squad just in from Chicago and his new patrol buddies were showing him the sites around town. It wasn't love at first sight, for me or him. I think it took him to the 2nd time I filled up his coffee cup to notice me, and that was only because Officer Riley introduced us. The men were regulars so we were all on a first name basis; it's true, policemen love their coffee and doughnuts!
It wasn't until Tony's 4th trip to the café, a total of seven cups of coffee, three glazed doughnuts, and a banana-walnut muffin later, that he started to fall….hard. For me, at first he seemed like a dream guy; he had lots of good points. For one thing, I've always found men who risk their lives and sacrifice their safety for the wellbeing of others to be extremely attractive. Secondly, he made me feel safe; 'cause hey, if anyone ever tried to hurt me, Tony had guns, man! And he knew how to use them. He was also three years older than me which added a bit of excitement to the prospect; it was like the nobody freshman girl winning the star quarterback on the Varsity football team.
In the end, I knew that I was only considering a relationship with Tony because I was bored and it would fun and something new to add to the tedious conundrum of my life. Still, Tony had fallen in love. And eventually, so did I… just not in the way he wanted or with whom either of us had planned. Yes, it was the little golden haired angel that was buckled securely into a "Hello Kitty" car-seat in the back of his swat car who held my heart.
Delilah. The little miracle who was created by an "oopsy-daisy" one-night-stand when Tony was twenty-four. The woman, whoever she was, never got back in touch with Tony when she found out she was pregnant. In fact, Tony didn't even know about Delilah until he got a call from the hospital one night saying that his daughter was in an incubator and the child's mother was dead. He had no idea what was going on until the nurse asked him to identify the woman's body. Her name was Tiffany; that was all he knew. No last name. No address. Just Tiffany. The first and last "random woman at a party" that he would ever hook up with.
Apparently, Tiffany was bigtime into alcohol and drugs, even during the pregnancy. When she was eight months pregnant she overdosed on drugs, and it was her roommate that rushed her to the hospital. She died that night but thankfully the doctors managed to save the preemie baby. Tony's name had been on a form from one of Tiffany's previous hospital visits for check-ups. Needless to say, if Tony had been a wild and crazy young man, parenthood sobered him up right quick. He managed to finish his police training and was sent down here when he was twenty-six.
Tony used to say how much he regretted that night with Tiffany. He said it had been stupidity. Stupidity and hormones and selfishness. One time he even asked me if I thought Tiffany had overdosed because she was overwhelmed and felt like there was no one beside her to help. But then, he would look down at Delilah and smile. He'd say that he just couldn't imagine his life without her; that he couldn't survive without her. Lily had to be the most adorable kid in the world. She knew it, too, 'cause boy could she work it. At four-years-old she could definitely break her daddy's heart…. Every. Single. Day.
Even standing outside in the chilly night air, just looking at her sleeping form made me feel all warm inside. "Can I still take her out on Thursday, Tony? It's my day off, so I won't mind watching her."
He followed my gaze down to the snoozing toddler and nodded. I knew he was slightly jealous of the fact that I liked to spend so much time with Lily, but then it did give him a reason for us to be together on occasion.
He gave a tight smile, "I don't know what you two do together, but I can never get her to calm down after a day with you…"
I laughed and patted his arm where he was leaning up against my car, "It's because we have girl time; something you definitely wouldn't understand even in your wildest dreams!"
"That's for sure," he snorted, "Well, who am I to say no to 'girl time'?!"
"Good. Then it's a date." I opened his back door and bent down to kiss Lily's cheek softly. When I leaned back up and shut the door, Tony was regarding me with a strangely intent look on his face. Any thoughts of a romantic relationship between Tony and I were long dead to me, but I knew it was different for him. Supposedly, we had both talked it out two years ago and it should have been water under the bridge, but it wasn't.
I hated how we couldn't be just friends and he simply let me help provide the woman's presence that Lily needed in her life; somehow, Tony always managed to make it known that he wasn't satisfied with our relationship. It made things awkward.
"What?" I asked for lack of a better ice-breaker.
It surprised me when he reached up to brush an imaginary strand of hair away from my face. "She loves you, you know?" His voice was gentle.
I knew what he wanted to say was "I" instead of "She", but he got the point across anyway. I nervously swallowed, "Yea… I know, Tony."
The darned man stood there until I finally cracked under the pressure. "Look, it's really late and I've got to open tomorrow morning. I'll see you around, ok?"
He frowned and stepped towards his car. "Sure."
Sliding into the driver's seat of my truck, I placed my belongings in shotgun. I flinched when I heard Tony slam his door. I pretended to fiddle with my purse until I knew he had driven away. Tossing the brown bag to the other seat, I sighed. Why was life so hard? I put the keys in the ignition and attempted to rev my car to life. After three attempts, and still no luck, I screamed and hit my head on the horn causing an unharmonious honk to reverberate across the near empty parking lot. The hunk of junk had quit on me three times this month. Why did life have to suck? Growling, I stumbled out of the car and stomped back into the pub.
Ethel and a few late owls were hanging out at the bar, eyes glued to the television set. It wouldn't have fazed me except that Ethel was chewing nervously on her bottom lip.
"What's wrong, Ethel?" The buxom redhead didn't appear to notice me right away.
"Oh Darlin', I don't really know. There's strange talk of meteors coming down and hitting all over in this area. Makes me wonder if my house is still standing…," she finally replied without turning her eyes from the tv.
I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure your house is fine. Besides, I doubt it was really meteors; probably just some of the neighbor kids playing a prank. You know, like the crop circles last year, and all the disappearing chickens the year before that? They probably used a bunch of firecrackers or something like that. Man, those kids are getting really creative."
"Now I'm serious, Mandy; it's being blasted all over the news!"
"Yea, so were the crop circles and the chickens. So what? Hey, can I use your phone?"
"Sorry, hon, but the lines are down."
The lines were down? She finally looked over her shoulder at me. "Why are you still here? I thought you left a few minutes ago? Do you need something?" I thought about asking her for a ride, but didn't really want to trouble her. Losing business wasn't something that sat well with Ethel Lynch.
"Naahh, ummm, I guess I'll just be going."
"Alright, Mandy. Now you be sure to say hi to Miss Patty for me!"
"Sure thing, Ethel. Thanks for letting us use the floor!" I said before walking back outside. It was getting darker, and I wasn't very comfortable with the prospect of walking home all alone. I almost went back inside for Ethel.
"Keep it together, Mandy; it's only a few blocks from here. Everything's fine."
I tried humming music for a little while, but my voice sounded flat and alien in the quiet of the night. So, I tried to think of what could be wrong with my car, but that only last for about half a block because I didn't know anything about machinery. I was about halfway home when I heard a low rumbling noise; the ground beneath me began to shake. I stepped off the curb and into the street, wildly looking around for where the sound originated. The creaking of the traffic lights as they swung back and forth caught me off guard and I screeched in fright.
Everything seemed to be quaking and my stomach lurched as I lost balance and fell to the pavement. And then, on the horizon, I saw it. A blazing ball of glory heading straight towards me, dropped from the heavens. The thunder was getting louder each second and as I curled up in the fetal position and covered my ears, I prayed to God that it wouldn't kill me.
The vibrations grew murderous and for a second the whole world seemed to turn orange, then white; I couldn't even hear anything except for the sound of my own breathing. And then everything was back to normal. I took a sharp glance behind me just in time to see the gigantic orb disappear behind some trees, still traveling on its way east and out of town.
Shakily, I got to my knees as people started poking their heads out of doors and calling out to their neighbors to see if everyone was alright.
"You ok, Mandy?!" Mr. Jones called out, concerned.
"Yes, sir. I think so, anyway…"
The older gentleman slapped his thigh and let out a whistle. "I'll bet you any amount 'o money that it was one of them fancy Russian, guided missiles! I never heard such a ruckus in all my years! The dog went and dove right under the sofa!"
I could hear someone a few houses down, "Don't you watch the tube, Jones? It's a meteor shower! Shoot, I thought it'd take out the entire state…"
I rolled my eyes, still a little shaken, and brushed off my pants. It had all felt so real. But seriously, meteors? Around here? This kind of stuff never happens. Still, the sounds, the shaking, the fire… wow, those kids were getting pretty creative.
I could just imagine them sneaking around at night for the past week, setting up the world's longest zip-line across town, hiding stereos all down the road with the volume turned way up, buying one of those super-ginormous beachballs from the store, pouring lighter fluid on it, putting a match to it, and then shooting it cross Cottage Grove. It was something new every year. Some people just don't grow up.
Still, it had scared me silly, and I definitely walked a bit faster the rest of the way home.
And yet… how in the world had they gotten everything to shake?
A/N: Hey peoples, so this is gonna be more movie-verse than from the tv show. I have a lot planned out for the middle part, but I still haven't figured out a good way for Mandy to meet Jazz. I'm new at this writing thing, so any suggestions on how that should happen??