Winter Park
It is dark outside. The Princess has transformed into an Orange Gypsy whispering on the phone.
“My phone number? Do I have to give a phone number? Oh. OK. 677-8877.”
She tucks a doll with real hair on her pillow and jumps out the window wearing shorts and a tank top. She sits in the driveway waiting and getting stung by mosquitoes. She looks at her watch. 30 minutes. 1 hour. 1 hour and a half. She cocks her ear. Does she hear something? Ring. Ring. She runs back to her window and jumps in.
“Hello?” says Gypsy in a fake sleepy voice.
“Did someone call for a cab?”
The phone clicks. Someone else has picked up the phone.
“No, sorry, you got the wrong number,” says Gypsy.
She hangs up, puts her nightshirt back on and gets back into bed, breathing heavy, looking toward her door, just waiting for it to open. But then lights beam through her window and her head whips toward them.
“Oh my God. It’s the taxi,” Gypsy screams in a whispering decibel.
She jumps back out the window to the driveway where the taxi pulls in to the driveway. She shoos him away.
“No! Get out. Don’t pull into the driveway! Go away.”
“Is this 9955 Carousel Drive?” says the taxi driver looking at her dumbly.
“No. Get out. Please.”
“Did you call a cab?”
Gypsy looks around. She jumps in the front seat.”
“Go. Just go. Fast.”
The cab driver puts the car into reverse and backs up slowly. Gypsy is staring at the front window of her house waiting for a light to turn on. It seems to take forever to get to the other side of town. The cab driver doesn’t speak. Gypsy balls herself into the corner as if she can hide from the driver. There is a look of sheer terror and glee on her face.
“Turn right here,” she says with confidence. “OK. It’s this house. Wait right here. I’ll be back with your money.”
Gypsy knocks on the door. A B-O-Y answers.
“Oh my God, you made it!”
“The fare is $22. Do you have the money?”
“Yeah,” he says, looking at her sweetly. “Here. I’ll go with you.”
Gypsy makes out with the B-O-Y on a sofa. She is naked except for her underwear.
“Maybe we should stop.”
“Why? It’s so good to be with you.”
“I’m just afraid of going too far. I’m scared. Why don’t we go swimming?”
“It’s so comfy here,” says the B-O-Y nuzzling her neck. She giggles. Sighs.
“I don’t want to get pregnant.”
“I have a condom.”
“No, not yet. Let’s wait. Let’s go swimming. C’mon.”
She gets up and pulls the B-O-Y off the couch and to the pool. She takes off her underwear and jumps in.
“It’s great in here. Come in. Take off your shorts.”
“You are so bad,” says the B-O-Y as he rips off his shorts.
The gypsy swims to the shallow end and the B-O-Y follows. He corners her and kisses her hard.
“You are so hot.”
“Mmmmmmmm. I’m so glad your parents are out of town. I feel like this is our house and we just got married and this is the beginning of our new lives together.”
The B-O-Y pulls back and looks at Gypsy with narrowed eyes. “Let’s just kiss.”
They make out for a ridiculous amount of time.
“We’re naked. C’mon, let’s do it.”
“No. Not now. This is nice. This is sweet. As soon as we do it, everything will change.”
“You know,” says the B-O-Y, “I’ve never felt this way before about any other girl. I could’ve done it before. But I didn’t. I wanted it to be special.”
“Really?”
The B-O-Y puts his hand around the back of her neck and looks deep into her eyes. They emerge from the pool, both naked. He lays Gypsy on a lawnchair and they start to make love. Gypsy cries.
“I love you so much,” she says grasping his neck. “This is the most amazing moment of my life.”
Gypsy sits in back of the taxi cab and looks at the stars with her eyes aglow. She leans her head on the glass. She can hear a Jane’s Addiction song playing in her head:
Camera zooms into her eyes, which are wet and black.
“Miss, where should I drop you?”
“Oh, um, right here is fine. Thank you.”
They are still five blocks away from her house, but she doesn’t want to chance getting caught. She climbs into the window and crawls into her bed, clutching her doll.
“He hasn’t called for two weeks,” Gypsy cries into the phone. “I’ve called and called, but no answer. He screwed me and left. He screwed me and left.”
“I’m so sorry,” says a female voice on the other line. “I feel so bad for you. You wanna come over? We can do our hair. Eat M&Ms.”
“I don’t know. I just feel like staying in bed. Lemme call you back. The gypsy curls up in her bed and cries and cries. The phone rings. She sits up, her face hopeful. But then it changes with suspicion.
“Hello? It’s you.”
“How did you know?”
“I don’t know. I could just feel it was you. Where are you? Where have you been?”
“North Carolina.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t called.”
“Oh, it’s OK. I’m just glad to hear from you now.”
“It’s nice to hear your voice too.”
“But…”
“Well, I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.”
“You met someone else.”
“Uh…how did you know?
“I don’t know! I don’t know. But what about us? What about us?”
“It’s just, I’m up here with my parents all summer. And maybe we can see each other when school starts.”
“I just didn’t think…I thought…well…I love you.”
“You too.”
Gypsy hangs up the phone and throws herself on her bed in despair. Then she sits up and throws stuffed animals at her closet door. She points her toes. She throws a good ol’ toddler style tantrum.
She grabs the phone and dials.
“I’ll be over in a few minutes. I’m riding my bike.”
Gypsy and her two best girlfriends, their mother and “aunt” sit around a table eating potato chips, chocolate and pretzels.
“Everybody thinks they know so much about growing up,” says Gypsy. “They tell you that it will all end very soon and I’ll look back and realize how serious I made silly things out to be. But what about now? Am I supposed to be miserable for the time being and be content with the wonderful future I’ll be living soon? I’d like to be happy right now.”
“It’s good that you learned this so early in life,” says the mother. “You’ll be better prepared now to never trust men. They take away the best years from your life, knock you up – no offense, girls – and leave you.”
“I just thought he loved me. I mean, if you were there, you would have thought he loved me too.”
“Men are the best actors when it comes to their peckers,” says the “aunt.”
“What are you gonna do when you see him at school?” says the best girlfriend.
“I don’t know. Maybe I can change schools. Maybe I can move back to New York. Or California. Maybe you can come with me. We can live in different cities and get jobs. And just travel.”
“You should get back at him,” says the best girlfriend’s sister. “If I see him, I swear to God, I’ll kick his ass!”
“Thanks. You’re so nice.”
“What if your mom finds out?”
“Oh my God, she’s not gonna find out. We’re going to Sanibel Island for a week.”
“You’ll be OK,” says the mother. “Life goes on. You’re a woman now.”
“Yeah, I’m a woman now,” says Gypsy eating a potato chip. “Doesn’t seem like much fun.” ——>>>>>
- Posted in Winter Park on June 1st, 1990
