Author's Note: "Mr. and Mrs. B" is the sixth (and final!) story in my "Lofty Dreams" series. The first five stories, which are complete at this site, include:
"Lofty Dreams," a modern P&P canon story in which Darcy and Elizabeth are high school seniors, told from Elizabeth's point of view;
"Saturday, Sunday," and "The Picnic," two vignettes based on "Lofty Dreams," told from Darcy's POV;
"Touch Me Again," a sequel to "Lofty Dreams," set ten years later; and
"Images and Illusions," the story of Darcy's mother.
"Mr. and Mrs. B" tells the teenage love story of Elizabeth's parents, Joe and Ellie. It is set in the 1980s, which is the same era I grew up in, so I've incorporated some of the music I enjoyed as a teen. Since some readers may not be familiar with the songs, I've included Youtube URL's for anyone who wants to listen to them.
Joe and Ellie go through some very difficult challenges, so this story definitely has angst. However, it also has a lot of joy, and (in my opinion), very likeable protagonists. I hope you enjoy it!
************************
Mr. and Mrs. B
Chapter 1
During the summer of 1986, everything changed for Ellie Jameson.
Life was pretty carefree up until then. Not entirely so, since her father was never far from her mind and heart. Corporal Alvin Jameson did his best to stay involved in the lives of Ellie and her brother Mitchell, four years younger. He called every week, and tried to return to the city of Meryton, Ohio or have his kids fly out to wherever he was stationed at least once a year. But still, he had a second wife, Florence, who had retired from the army to raise a family, and two more children, Damien and Nicole, ages eight and four. Ellie loved her half-siblings but found it hard not to be jealous that they got to be with Daddy all the time.
Despite the sorrow of her parents' divorce when Ellie was seven and her father's subsequent enlistment and remarriage, the seventeen-year-old was usually happy. She was surrounded by a boisterous, loving family—many aunts, uncles and cousins on both her mother and father's sides who still lived in the Meryton neighborhood known as Longbourn City. Blessed with a bubbly personality, she had lots of friends and was a popular high school cheerleader. Cpl. Jameson always paid his child support on time and Ellie's mother Arlene made decent money as a hairdresser, so she and Mitch didn't lack for much.
OK, she did lack a boyfriend. A pretty and voluptuous girl, Ellie received more than her share of male attention but nothing ever came of it, mostly because her older male cousins scared away a lot of the boys that were interested in her. She used to be annoyed at their interference, but now she was considering that maybe their over-protectiveness was a good thing. A cancer was spreading throughout Longbourn City, just as it was in many inner city neighborhoods across America, and its victims were mostly young black men. That cancer was crack cocaine.
Gangs and drugs were nothing new in Longbourn City, but prior to crack, youth gangs were mostly involved in petty theft, fistfights and smoking weed, leaving the hard drugs and violence to the adults. The recent explosion of the inexpensive and lucrative crack trade drew young people into its web, with horrific results. That summer, Ellie would experience those consequences first-hand.
For the past few months she had had a crush on her cousin Perry's friend Antoine, and she thought he liked her, too. But same old story—he probably didn't make a move because her cousin had warned him not to. At the end of the school year, Ellie had decided she'd had enough. She wasn't a child anymore. The heroines of the teen love stories she liked to read always had summer romances. She was going to have a boyfriend this summer, and it looked like she'd have to make the first move herself. She decided to approach Antoine at the end-of-school year cookout Perry's mother had every June.
Neither event happened—not the Saturday cookout nor her talk with Antoine. On Friday evening, a pair of rival gangs had a shootout, at the end of which three teenage boys were dead. One of them was Antoine. Ellie would later find out that he hadn't been an innocent bystander, something that shocked her about the easy-going young man.
Antoine's death shook her to the core, making her question the rosy view she had always had of the world. She wanted a boyfriend, but didn't want to give her heart to someone who would end up getting killed. As more shootings occurred in retaliation the following week, Ellie's normally buoyant demeanor became more subdued, even though she didn't know any of the victims this time. Looking for a way to cheer herself up, she jumped at her girlfriend Yvonne's suggestion of a shopping trip to Kmart on a Friday afternoon in mid-July after they got their first summer job paychecks.
This was the second year Ellie had worked in the city-funded youth summer jobs program, and like the previous year, she was assigned to one of the clean-up crews. The kids on these crews spent twenty hours each week picking up trash in parks, sweeping sidewalks, and repainting playgrounds and schools. The painting part was fun, but the rest of it was hot, boring and exhausting. Still, even at minimum wage she cleared $200 for two weeks of work, enough to buy some cute summer clothes.
After cashing their paychecks at the local check casher store (they always accepted city checks as long as you had your student ID), she and Yvonne set off for the discount store that was one of many chains and small businesses along Hertfordshire Boulevard, the main drag in Longbourn City.
"Ooh, look at these!" Ellie squealed as she pulled several tops off a rack.
"Girl, I'm looking at something even more cute, right over there!" Yvonne pointed to a young man hanging up packages of socks on a nearby shelf. Ellie looked over to see a nice-looking boy in the blue polo shirt, khaki pants and nametag worn by Kmart clerks. He looked vaguely familiar to her.
Yvonne grabbed the shirts out of her hand and re-shelved them. "Come on, let's go talk to him."
Ellie normally would have been up for any conversation with a cute boy, but her recent heartbreak over Antoine made her reluctant. Yvonne pulled her along, so she had no choice. When they were close enough for the boy to notice them, she was surprised when he said, "What's up, Ellie."
It took her a minute to realize who the boy was. "Joe? Joe Bennet? When did you get so tall?" Then she kicked herself for saying something so lame.
He smiled. He had dimples and warm brown eyes. "This past year."
Joe and Ellie had been in the same class in elementary school from second grade through fifth grade. He was a quiet boy and both one of the shortest and one of the smartest kids in the room. No one messed with him, though, because he was generally good-natured and had an older brother known as a badass. Joe was placed in honors classes after they started junior high, and since then, he'd hardly crossed Ellie's path or mind. Did he attend Longbourn High, like she did? If he did, she hadn't noticed him in the school of 1,800 students. She'd had no idea the short little kid had become a handsome young man of about five-ten.
Yvonne was nudging Ellie with her elbow, and Ellie guessed she wanted an introduction, so she made it. The first words out of Yvonne's mouth were, "Hey, do you get discounts 'cause you work here? We're here to buy some clothes."
Joe seemed to hesitate a little before answering, "Only when I'm on the register."
"So when are you on the register?"
Cringing, Ellie pulled Yvonne aside and whispered, "You can't ask him stuff like that! You don't even know him!"
"Yeah, but you know him, so why not?" Yvonne whispered back.
"I don't know him that well! I wouldn't even ask him that!"
"Since when have you been all goody-goody?"
Good question. A month ago, Ellie probably would have asked him the same thing. Now she just felt embarrassed. "We're not gonna do it, all right?"
Joe interrupted the girls' arguing. "Look, I have to get back to work or I could lose my job." Ellie used that as an opportunity to move away from him as fast as she could.
She and Yvonne each ended up buying about $100 worth of clothes, with Yvonne complaining the whole time that they could have gotten better deals if they'd waited until Joe was on the register. "I'ma come back some time and see if I see him again. I'd like to get with him anyway," she said suggestively.
Ellie scowled. "Please don't do that, Yvonne."
"How come? Does he have a girlfriend or something? He doesn't belong to you."
Ellie felt like it was useless to answer. What was supposed to be a fun afternoon had turned into a miserable several hours. Joe wasn't hers, but she didn't want to see Yvonne with him. Why was she feeling so possessive when she couldn't even say she knew him anymore?
Joe made her curious. It wasn't just the physical changes in him. He seemed so mature and responsible, so different from most of the boys her age she knew. How had he even gotten the job at Kmart? Several weeks earlier, she had stopped at all the stores along Hertfordshire to fill out job applications, and every one of them told her the same thing: they only wanted to hire people eighteen and up. Maybe Joe had started school late and was already eighteen. Or maybe they saw something special in him, just as she had during their brief encounter.
It may have been that something special, or perhaps a fear that Yvonne really would go back to see Joe. In either case, Ellie found herself traveling back to the Kmart in the morning to discover whether or not he was working. Usually a late sleeper on Saturdays, she woke up early enough to enter the store when it opened at nine. It only took a few minutes to spot Joe again stocking shelves, this time in the food aisle. They both said hello and then were quiet for several minutes while he continued to work, looking up now and then as if to check that she was still there.
Oh, come on! Ellie told herself. She was never shy around boys. If anything, she was a bit of a flirt. "Um, Joe, I just wanted to say sorry for my friend. She shouldn't have asked you about the discounts."
He smiled a little. "It's okay. Almost everybody I know does."
"How do you deal with it?"
"I can usually find some excuse to say no, like I did yesterday. If someone I know really needs something, I'll do it, but I don't want to do it all the time. I've seen people get fired for taking advantage of the employee discount."
"Do you work here every day?"
"I get two days off, but it can be a different two days each week."
Ellie's boldness was returning. "What time do you get off today?"
"At four."
"Will you take me to a movie tonight?"
Throughout their conversation, Joe hadn't stopped working, until now. He straightened his back and stared at her. "You want me to take you to a movie?"
"Yeah, I do." She gave him her most winsome smile, and it had its desired effect. Joe stumbled back against the shelf, knocking a few boxes of cereal to the floor. Ellie knelt to help him pick them up, their hands touching when they reached for the same box. She lifted her eyes to look into his, and was rewarded with a beautiful smile from him.
Joe stood up, appearing nervous but happy. "Uh… if you come at four-fifteen… I'll be by the… by the hotdogs."
"I'll see you then." Ellie walked away slowly, pretty sure he was still watching, since she knew she looked as good from the back as from the front.
*********************
Joe was watching, and it took several minutes before he was able to bring his head back to earth. Ellie Jameson wanted to go out with him!!
He had liked Ellie from the moment… well, the moment he had stopped thinking of girls as yucky, in fourth or fifth grade. He couldn't even remember what started it—maybe she had smiled at him, like she did today. She had been one of the cutest girls in elementary school, in junior high, and now at Longbourn High. She was really popular, but wasn't someone who used her popularity to bully others. Some boys talked nasty about her, like they did about many girls, but no one ever accused her of being a slut.
She was way out of his league, though. He was so used to being the smallest kid in his grade and having girls for the most part overlook him. In the past year, he'd had a rapid growth spurt, his voice deepened and his chest and arms began to fill out, and suddenly he noticed girls looking. By now, however, he was too shy to make a move on anybody he was attracted to. The last thing he expected was for Ellie to approach him. Part of him wondered if it was a joke and maybe she had no plans to show up.
When his shift ended at four, he retrieved his backpack from his employee locker and changed from his work clothes into jeans and a t-shirt. He withdrew forty dollars from the store's ATM and purchased a pack of mint gum and a newspaper. He looked up the movies playing at the theater at City Center, the shopping mall that surrounded the big downtown bus and train depot.
Within a few minutes, Ellie appeared, wearing blue jean shorts and a white blouse, along with lipstick and a beautiful smile. Her clothes were a little tight, accentuating her figure, and he tried not to make it obvious that he noticed. "You ready?" she asked.
He nodded and showed her the paper. "What do you want to see?" He was happy with her selection: the movie Aliens, which had opened that weekend. "Since the next show is at six-thirty, maybe we can get something to eat at the food court down there?" he suggested.
Ellie smiled again. "That sounds good."
After he and Ellie walked out to the bus stop in front of the store, she asked him if he liked his job. He nodded.
She asked another question. "What else are you doing with your summer?" This time, Joe shrugged.
The bus arrived, and Ellie walked toward a seat in the back. Joe slipped in next to her and she looked at him quizzically. "Are you nervous or something?"
He didn't know how to answer that question without seeming like a total dork, so he just nodded. Ellie slipped her fingers in between his, and he caught his breath.
"You don't have to be nervous around me, Joe," she said. "We've known each other since the second grade."
"Yeah, but we never went out before."
She laughed. "We're just going to the movies. It's not like we're going someplace where we need to be all dressed up and have really proper manners."
He didn't know how to tell her it wasn't the venue, it was her that made him anxious. He kept thinking he would say or do something stupid and she'd ridicule him.
After purchasing their tickets at the movie theater, they walked over to the food court, where Joe bought dinner for both of them.
"How'd you get the job at Kmart?" Ellie asked when they sat down. "When I applied, they told me I had to be eighteen."
"That's just for people they hire during the summer. I've been working there all year."
Ellie grinned. "So you must be making boo-coo money now."
Joe reacted with alarm. Was she expecting him to spend a lot of money on her? Following Mr. Hunter's advice, he put part of his paycheck into savings for college, and part into a checking account to help his mother with groceries and bills. He usually didn't have much left over to spend.
Fortunately, Ellie kept talking. "I'm working one of the city street crew jobs."
She made a face that made him laugh. "I guess you don't like it."
"Nope. It's hot and boring. But at least I have a job."
"Better than doing nothing all summer," Joe said.
"That's true." Ellie bit one of her nails, a bad habit she had. "You still didn't tell me what else you're doing this summer. Do you like to go to parties?"
Sort of. If he knew people. "Yeah, they're okay."
"My cousin's having a party next week. Wanna go with me?"
He was astonished; she was asking him out again? He recovered enough to say, "Yeah, sure."
She smiled, one of those big, beautiful smiles that made her eyes shine. "I should give you my phone number. Do you have a pen?"
He did, along with a notebook, in his backpack. He handed these to Ellie, who wrote her information down for him. Then she asked for his. When they were finished exchanging numbers, she said, "I know Pookie. Do you have any other brothers or sisters besides him?"
He grinned. Everyone knew his brother. "Yeah, I have an older sister, too."
Ellie laughed, a warm sweet sound that made him want to join her. "That means you're the baby! You don't act like it though. My little brother Mitch is such a brat, and you're not like that at all."
"Is it just you and him?"
"No, I have another little brother and sister from my father."
"Where's your father?"
"At Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He's in the army."
"Do you miss him?"
She nodded. "He calls a lot, and I'm going to go see him at the end of the summer. But I still miss him." She observed Joe quietly for a few seconds. "What about you? Is your father around?"
Now Joe made a face of his own. "If you could call it that. He still lives in Meryton, but I hardly ever see him. He shows up now and then and gives me a little money, like that makes up for it."
Ellie looked at him sympathetically. "Yeah, I guess that would be hard. At least my daddy has a reason to not be around, and I know he cares."
Joe didn't answer, since he was experiencing the usual resentment he felt whenever he thought of his father.
Ellie changed the subject. "What's Pookie's real name, anyway? I always wondered."
"Randolph." Joe grinned. "Now you know why he goes by a nickname."
Ellie's eyes got big. "What's wrong with Randolph? I like it. I like names that sound fancy and important. I always hated my name. 'Ellie.' How ordinary and boring can you get? I wish my parents had named me Elizabeth or Deirdre or something like that."
"I like Ellie." Especially because he associated the name with his dream girl.
Ellie leaned closer to him, looking at him with a sweet expression. "You do? Thank you."
Her closeness made him a little breathless, but also tense again. Why was Ellie with him?
"Is Joe short for Joseph?"
He nodded.
"I like Joseph, too. Can I call you that sometimes?"
He nodded again, thinking that she could call him anything she wanted.
"What's your sister's name?"
"Haley. Actually, it's short for Mahalia."
Ellie smacked her hands lightly on the table. "Now, see, your parents gave you all really good names! Why couldn't mine do that?"
In Joe's mind, his father's decision to "honor black heroes" as he put it, wasn't so impressive. Pop was all about the struggle, except when it came to taking care of his family. Better to have a father who was there for you, no matter what he called you.
Ellie tapped his shoulder and pointed to the clock tower in the middle of the food court. "It's 5:45. Do you want to go to the bookstore before the movie starts?"
He nodded, thrilled. He loved the bookstore, and was a little surprised that Ellie suggested it. As they stood to throw their trash away, he remembered the gum he'd bought. He took a piece and offered one to Ellie.
While they walked toward the large Barnes & Nobles in the mall, Ellie told him she was glad he had accepted her suggestion. "I thought you might, since you're so smart. None of my friends ever want to go to the bookstore with me."
"What kinds of things do you like to read?" he asked.
She hesitated. "Romance novels and fashion magazines," she replied a little sheepishly. "Pretty silly, huh?"
He shook his head. "No, it's not. You like what you like. I like sci-fi and comic books. Somebody might think that's silly, too."
As soon as they arrived at the bookstore, they parted to find their respective favorite sections. When Joe noticed that it was 6:20 by the store's clock, he picked up the two books he planned to buy and went to find Ellie.
She was holding a couple of books, too, as they walked toward the front of the store. Joe thought to himself that it would be really nice to offer to buy her books for her. But that would mean he wouldn't have enough money left to buy his own.
He made a decision. "Let me pay for those," he said when they reached the register. Ellie nodded and gave him the books. He handed the cashier Ellie's books first, and then the two paperbacks he had chosen. "I'm not getting the last two, just the other ones," he told the man.
Ellie touched his arm. "Joe, don't buy my books if you can't buy your own!"
"No, it's okay."
"No, it's not!" She stepped forward and held her hand out to the cashier. "I'll pay for those books." The confused clerk stared at her, and then began to ring up the two sci-fi stories. When he announced the total, Ellie pulled money from her pocket to pay for them. She turned to Joe and smiled. "Now it's your turn."
Joe stood there in a little bit of amazement while the cashier scanned and then placed the two romance novels in a bag. Once the purchase was made and they walked away from the counter, Ellie handed him the bag she was carrying. "Here, Joe, I have a present for you."
He took the bag, feeling a little goofy. "And I have one for you, Ellie." He handed her the bag with the books she had chosen. They both started laughing, and laughed for several minutes until Ellie was wiping tears from her eyes.
When they finally calmed down, Ellie took his hand again. "It's nice that you're as corny as I am," she said.
He smiled and for the first time that evening, really relaxed. He was starting to accept something he could scarcely believe: Ellie liked him, too!
The movie had a lot of scary parts, and Ellie was soon leaning against him, clinging to his arm. He didn't mind at all. At one point, she whispered, "Put your arm around me, Joe," and he was more than happy to do it.
Their conversation on the bus ride home flowed much more easily. When they were discussing what they liked best about the movie, Ellie said, "I loved when Ripley called the alien a bitch and told her to get away from the little girl! I can see my mama doing something like that."
He nodded. "That's cool."
"Is your mother like that, too? All protective?"
Joe got really quiet. "What's wrong?" Ellie finally asked.
"My mother has really bad rheumatoid arthritis. She can't do much."
"Do you have to take care of her a lot?"
He nodded.
She looked at him with understanding. "That's why you're so mature."
When they arrived at Ellie's apartment, she stopped by the door and looked at him. "I had a really good time, Joe."
He smiled. "Yeah. I had a good time, too."
Ellie stepped closer and placed her hands on his arms, looking up at him. It took a few seconds for him to clue in that she wanted him to kiss her. He lowered his head and placed his mouth on hers. She probed his lips with her tongue, and he opened them to let her enter. He felt her arms wrapping around his back and her breasts pressing against his chest.
The kiss seemed to last forever, and yet, was over much too soon. She stepped away and pulled her keys from her pocket. As she unlocked the door, she said, "I'm going to call you tomorrow, okay?"
Joe nodded, unable to speak anymore. After Ellie said goodnight and shut the door behind her, he remained in the same spot, reliving everything: her touch, her smile, her laughter, her kiss, the feeling of her body against him. This wasn't a dream. Ellie Jameson liked him!
Once he was finally able to move again, he started running. When he came to the stairs, he let out a whoop and leaped into the air, grabbing the part of the wall that hung over the stairwell and using it to propel himself to the floor below. He forced himself to express all his excitement while still inside Ellie's building, so that when he reached the street, he'd be able to resist the temptation to skip home.
*********************
* boo-coo: From the French word beaucoup, it has the same meaning in urban slang: much, a lot, or many.
** Joe and his siblings are named for Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972), an African-American gospel singer; A. Phillip Randolph (1889-1979), an early Civil Rights activist and union organizer; and Joseph Lowery (born 1921), a Civil Rights activist and close friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. Joseph Lowery gave the benediction at President Obama's inauguration.
PAGE