Sigh...Jim

I am so excited to be hosting Fiction Friday! Thanks to Peej who had this great idea to showcase some of our favorite pieces of work:) So glad you stopped by. If you would like to add your story to the list, click on MckLinky at the bottom of this post. Be sure to read the other terrific stories, too. Happy Friday!

My story was my FW entry from last week. I changed it a bit to include some comments from some FW readers, which I really appreciated. It helped lots not having to worry about the word count anymore, by the way. Much of it is true. My husband and I were neighbors after I moved to Tabor my Freshman year of high school. I did watch him from afar while my brother and sisters played basketball with him. He did think I was too young to date. After all, I was 14 and he was 19. That's a big gap in teenage years (according to parents anyway:)

And I did have a best friend named Jessie who sang that awful song (no, I didn't make it up) and she screeched it loudly. The kiss, don't think that happened at the time but a girl can embellish, can't she? Hope you enjoy my story, ...Sigh...Jim. By the way, May 14 of this year we have been married 26 zesty years and have three kids to show for it.

Sigh...Jim

I sat beside my bedroom window, diary open, but wasn’t interested in writing the goofy things about my day. My eyes were riveted to my driveway. My brother was playing basketball with…sigh… Jim.

We only lived here six months. I wasn’t happy about leaving our nice home in town to come to this old, country house in the dead of winter, but my heart melted just like the snow did as it began to warm up. I grew to really like it – but only because of the new love of my life…sigh… Jim.

Jessie, my best friend since we were freshman in high school, told me to talk to him but there was NO way. I was sure to stutter and turn lots of shades of red. It was best if I just watched my true love from afar. I’m not sure if he even knew I was alive anyway.

I made a mistake one day. I invited Jessie for a sleepover. We did that lots but this time she wouldn’t shut up about…sigh… Jim. She was and still is, very pushy.

“Come on.” Jessie said.

I was worried, “What?”

“Just get up, Laury. We’re gonna go see Jim.” I don't know how she could say his name without the dreamy sigh.

“I can’t. Just look at him.” We peeked out the window, our cheeks squished together so we could see around the tree. “He’s working on his car.”

Jess was stubborn. She dragged me down the stairs and out the door. I fumed inside but was a little bit excited, too.

I stood behind my ‘used to be’ best friend Jessie. I wanted to pull her hair but I didn’t dare, she would pull back and that would have been even worse. Jim probably already thought we were kids. Just because he was five years older didn’t make him so much more mature than us.

“Hi, Jim.” Jessie blurted out, not the least bit shy.

He rolled out from under his car and stood. “Hi, girls.”

I couldn’t talk. All I wanted to do was melt into the ground – he was so cute.

There was no stopping Jessie. When she started a mission, she finished it. “Wanna hear a song I learned at camp?” she asked him.

Ugh. I wanted to die.

“Laury, you have to sing, too.” She looked at me with a devilish grin.

Jim leaned against his car, hands on his hips.

Jessie screeched out the first few notes of a horrid song, “Ohhhhh, I wish, I was, a buzzard.”

That was my cue but I didn’t open my mouth. She punched me in the arm.

“Ohhhhh, I wish, I was, a buzzard,” I screeched because it was a screeching kind of song. Did I mention I was a very compliant person?

She continued, “Straight to the hills I would fly.”

“Would fly,” I whispered.

Jessie punched me again and I screeched it a little louder, “Would fly.”

“There to remain a buzzard.”

“There to remain a buzzard.” Ugh.

“Until the day that I die.”

“Until the day that I die,” I finished quickly. “Oh let it be today,” I muttered under my breath. I saw Jim smile at that and I became a bit more confident.

Jessie bellowed out the rest of the song, “Ooolala…” You get the drift.

Jim stood there in total disbelief. I was sure Jessie sealed my fate that day. If he had any inkling of wanting to date me, it was gone. Poof – up in smoke. Ugh. I was destined to be an old maid. I would forever blame Jessie for my fate.

She walked away and left me there with …sigh… Jim. I had nothing to lose I figured, not after that, that ‘song.’ “Hey, Jim?”

He looked at me with his big, blue, dreamy eyes, “Yes, Laury?”

“Wanna go to the basketball game Friday night?” I was so nervous I choked on my spit.

He said, “Okay.”

“You will? For real?”

Jim came up close and kissed me on the cheek. It caught me by surprise and I didn’t know what to do so I just stood there. Amazed.

Jessie snuck up behind me and pulled me away but I couldn’t keep my eyes off .…sigh… Jim.

I had already determined never to wash my cheek again. I know that's so cliche, a new word I learned in my English class, but none-the-less, I liked the sound and I liked the romantic thought. I determined not to wash it until we were married. Of course, not wearing make-up helped lots. It really wouldn't be as gross as you might think.

And you know what, about five years later, after Jessie did much more match-making schemes and invented new ways to embarrass me, I finally washed my cheek ceremonially as Jessie hummed, “Here Comes the Bride,” in her loud, off-tune, sing-songy voice.