And Now for Something Completely Different: Fiction
This is an excerpt from a piece of fiction I’m working on. The Replacements are playing Midway Stadium in St. Paul this Saturday, and everyone around here is blah, blah, blah, Replacements, so I’m risking posting something I’m not sure is good or not because the timing feels right.
Name That Tune
I think I’ve had sex to this song, Nicole thought, then turned up the volume in the car. It was an old memory, she thought, at least fifteen years ago. Who had it been?
Mary Lucia’s voice followed. She never talked over a song, beginning or end, one of the reasons Nicole liked listening to her. “That was ‘I Will Dare,’ local music from the Replacements, off the album Let It Be from 1987.”
The details emerged from the haze of memory. Not fifteen years–more like twenty. It was Julian, saying the Replacements were a great band to have sex to.
He used to say those kind of things when they’d go out drinking after work. Then, she thought it was because they were buddies, and she hoped he was flirting. He asked what music she liked, then mocked her answers as songs about sex, like Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Relax’ and INXS’ ‘The One Thing,’ rather than songs that were good to have sex to.
Nicole wilted as his criticism. She’d never heard of the Replacements. They must be on WHFS, the station Julian and his friends listened to, not the classic rock she favored at the time.
Then she rallied, and stood her ground. It wasn’t because the songs were about sex, she said, but that they had strong base lines. She liked music with a back beat.
Julian admitted, somewhat grudgingly, that the Replacements had a good bass line, too. He continued to bring up sex, like how he always slept with girls at their places, so he could be the one to leave. He asked her if she knew what ‘coyote ugly’ meant.
Of course she knew. She’d been friends with guys for years, and knew some of their secrets.
It took a long time to realize Julian was neither being her friend nor flirting with her. He was taunting her. He knew she liked him, knew she wanted to sleep with him. So he went out drinking with her and talked about sex until she felt ready to rip off her clothes. She probably knew Julian wasn’t to be trusted, though, because she never did. Rip off her clothes, that is.
Until that one night. When she finally heard the Replacements.
September 11th, 2014 at 2:00 pm
It’s lovely. The first reaction is that I want to know more about Julian.
September 11th, 2014 at 2:16 pm
Elle, thank you. I posted this last year:
http://www.girldetective.net/?p=5221
September 12th, 2014 at 4:53 am
oooo I love it!
September 13th, 2014 at 1:47 am
Ooohhhh, but he’s George Wickham! I love it! And by the way, I always meant to ask: do you know the Lizzie Bennett Diaries webseries?
September 14th, 2014 at 9:13 am
Elle, Julian isn’t as handsome as Wickham, but there are certainly other similarities! I’ve watched some of the LIzzie Bennet Diaries and liked a lot, but got distracted and forgot about them. Thanks for reminder–I’ll go look into them again.
September 16th, 2014 at 7:29 am
Thanks for sharing your writing! I want more.