{"id":115,"date":"2007-06-24T21:30:38","date_gmt":"2007-06-25T01:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/?p=115"},"modified":"2007-07-23T13:02:17","modified_gmt":"2007-07-23T17:02:17","slug":"a-visit-to-the-city-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"a visit to the city (1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here's another deleted scene, about a day Pete and Jenny spent together. There are other deleted scenes here<\/A>, here<\/A> and here<\/A>. There's another one coming next time, about another visit to the city. Oh, and there's another cut-up over at utownwriting.com<\/A>.<\/em><\/p>\n

We spent a day together once. <\/p>\n

One evening we were having a band meeting at The Quarter. It was after Tom had left the band, so it was just Henshaw, Carl and me. Jenny was there, and at one point when Henshaw was in the bathroom and Carl was chasing Donna, Jenny quickly leaned over and said, \"Call in sick to work tomorrow.\" <\/p>\n

Early the next morning, there was a knock at my door. As I went to answer it, I didn't know what to expect. Perhaps she would jump on me wearing only a broad grin and we'd spend the day having acrobatic sex right there in the doorway with our feet sticking out into the hall. <\/p>\n

After imagining that, I was relieved to see that she was fully dressed. In fact, she was fully dressed like somebody other than Jennifer Owens. No jeans, no T-shirt, no leather jacket. Her long blond hair was brushed out so that it glowed, held back off her face by a black barrette. She wore a white peasant blouse with a pale blue jacket over it, a black skirt and dark nylons. I was tempted to joke that she must have stopped by on her way to a job interview, but then she was kissing me, and by the time that was over I knew this was not the time for that kind of wisecrack. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I found myself looking down at more bare chest than her shirts usually revealed, and then I quickly looked back up. She bumped her chest against mine, smiling. <\/p>\n

\"So,\" she said, \"you're free today? No plans? Nowhere you have to be?\" <\/p>\n

I shook my head. \"Nope. No plans at all.\" I glanced down at myself. \"Whatever it is, though, I suddenly feel somewhat under-dressed.\"<\/p>\n

She smiled. \"Formal attire isn't required. Of course, I wouldn't complain if you wanted to spruce yourself up just a little bit.\" <\/p>\n

\"I'll just be a minute,\" I said. I quickly put on a collared shirt and a less ragged pair of jeans. I noticed that she turned her back while I was changing my pants. Then I brushed my hair and washed my hands. I was tempted to ask if she was taking me home to meet her parents, but I kept that thought to myself as well. <\/p>\n

Of course, there was no way we could spend the day together in u-town. Eyes would see and tongues would wag, and the gossip grapevine would carry the news right to Philip Henshaw. And then he would draw his terrible swift sword and turn both of us into luncheon meat. <\/p>\n

We walked toward the river, walking in a manner appropriate for a minor local celebrity and his best friend's girl. Close, but no touching, no hand-holding. <\/p>\n

Her plan was very simple, of course. There was no way for us to spend a relaxed day together in u-town, so we left. There was, after all, a big city just across the river, a big city where nobody knew us and nobody cared. <\/p>\n

The neighborhood around the base of the bridge was nearly deserted, full of abandoned and burned-out warehouses, stripped cars and dry, scrubby grass growing up through cracks in the pavement. There was nobody around. The bridge itself was blocked by a makeshift barricade made of auto body parts, a battered and spray-painted dumpster, and several huge wooden pilings that looked like they came from a dock. It had been blocked since the Founding, and I made a mental note to ask Barry where such huge pilings had come from, and how they'd been moved into place to block the bridge. <\/p>\n

There was a phone booth at the base of the bridge, and there were two scruffy-looking teenagers slouching against it. They jumped up quickly when they saw us approaching. They were, I knew, the proprietors of a really great scam. There was one bridge, there was one phone (the only working one for many blocks) and there was only one car service still willing to send cars over the bridge. So, the two teenagers staked out the pay phone, negotiated a special rate from the car company, and then sat back to make a slow but steady profit. If you wanted a car, you came to the bridge, dickered over a price, and then they called the car for you. <\/p>\n

Of course, there were times when somebody came along who was big enough or mean enough to intimidate them, but still that person had to know the number of the car company. <\/p>\n

I expected we'd have to wait for them to call a car, but then I looked up and saw the black limo appear at the top of the bridge and start the slow drive down to the barricade. <\/p>\n

\"Mrs. Smith,\" one of the boys called to Jenny as we approached, \"perfect timing.\" <\/p>\n

The car crept almost to the end of the bridge, then stopped and began a laborious u-turn. It waited there, engine running, facing back the way it had come. The driver was obviously not about to get out. <\/p>\n

Jenny smiled a dazzling smile, paid one of the boys, and then I gave her my hand to help her step over the pilings. I was glad I'd thought to grab some money while I was changing my clothes. I knew Jenny had almost nothing, and the car service wasn't cheap. Henshaw gave her a few dollars every day, I knew, and I wondered how long she'd been saving from that in order to make this possible. I resolved to pay for everything I could during the day. <\/p>\n

As for our day together, nothing much happened and it was wonderful. We had lunch (sushi, which was not available in u-town), we saw a movie (which I don't remember at all), we went for a walk in the park (the weather was a bit chilly and we huddled together for warmth on a park bench) and we held hands everywhere we went. Jenny had obviously decided that nothing was going to mar this day, and we didn't mention Henshaw, Tom or the band once. A few guys made comments about Jenny's looks as we walked around, and she didn't even react to that. <\/p>\n

Then it was over. We'd both spent all the money we had on us, but I'd taken the limo driver aside when we'd arrived and arranged for the return trip, paying him in advance. He picked us up at the corner we'd agreed upon. To end that day with a subway ride would have been too depressing. <\/p>\n

Henshaw had been busy all day. Jenny didn't know where he was or what he was doing, which she hinted was not unusual, but he'd made it clear that she was to meet him at their hotel room at seven. <\/p>\n

I could tell that she expected me to initiate some fairly heavy making-out in the limo back to u-town. We were barely going to make it back in time for her to meet Henshaw at seven, so there was no chance of going to my apartment together. I didn't start anything, though. I just held her and kissed her and told her all the things I'd enjoyed most about the day. Making a list, I suppose. We never spent another day like that one, and neither of us ever suggested it. <\/p>\n

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Here’s another deleted scene, about a day Pete and Jenny spent together. There are other deleted scenes here, here and here. There’s another one coming next time, about another visit to the city. Oh, and there’s another cut-up over at utownwriting.com. We spent a day together once. One evening we were having a band meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-deleted-scenes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}