Posts
From: Stacey Marchenkova
To: dom borax < mailto:printthisplease@printthis.com >
Sent: Thursday, May 27th, 1999 21:31 PM
Subject: Hey I guess you chose option 10
Hey Dom…it feels odd not getting an email from you…didn’t think it would…but it does…it’s like the last few days have been biding their time…
anyway…thought I’d drop a short email letting you know…not quite sure actually…letting you know that I’m dialling up and waiting, I guess…
I’ve only got myself to blame of course…unless you opted for number one on my list and you’re currently bleeding to death with two pencils up your snoz…
Anyway, though we are silent, I thought you might find a small anecdote about Jenny Wrangler (the girl I suggested you kill for not including me in her Charlie’s Angel’s club) interesting to help us – well me, really…through the week…
See, I met Jenny Wrangler in my fourth year of primary school…she came from America…she had a brother called Kenny and parents who wore matching tracksuits and didn’t understand the cruel notion of the rhyme names among children…
Initially Jenny and Kenny stuck to themselves…of course they would…the taunting song of ‘Jenny and Kenny’ followed them around the playground like a sick dog…
But after they came back from the Christmas break, Jenny had changed…she had dyed her hair…blonde…and…managed to convince her family that Kenny belonged in another school…because he was getting a little fat…
…now alone, Jenny set about her transformation…
she started wearing clothes imported from America…her blonde hair gradually started showing pink swirls throughout…her voice got that little louder…more earrings emerged…black leather started growing from her body…well her jacket…teased fringes of pink blonde trusses got bigger creating a massive peaked cap over her ivory forehead…sunglasses appeared on her face…even in class…and she traded in pop culture…
see Jenny had access to American television way before it aired here via mailed VHS tapes from her family back home…this power of information was a great tool in trade as she bartered in spoilers for friendship…21 Jump Street…was most desired…
Soon…Jenny had a gang…a powerful gang of pink swirled blondes who actually called themselves the Heathers until they saw the film…
Then the Charlie’s Angels club happened…I so wanted to be part of that gang…and for a brief moment was included…as Bosely…but this didn’t work for me…so in between practised shadowed poses of babes with guns gestures in the afternoon sun by the science block…I lobbied for a position in this far from benevolent tyranny of crime fighting and bitching…
It didn’t work…indeed after my rejection of the Bosely role…I was regularly cast as a villain and assaulted with spit ball pellets fired from air guns…actually not sure if they were air guns…but it was some gun-like device…
Now this daily attack finally took its toll…and I tried to form a Murder She Wrote group in response…a quieter group that was more brain that blonde…but no one really wanted to be part of it…and truthfully one Angela Landsbury is enough for this world…
So I retreated further and started hiding in the library at lunchtime…this worked for me as I was a kid who liked reading…and once you find CS Lewis…it’s hard to renter the world…
After a month or so...Jenny and her confectionary clones backed off and picked on a Russian exchange student (actually I think she was Greek…but the accent was enough for Jenny and her cohorts to believe there was something ’foreign’ and therefore ‘communist’ about her)
The year continued on…and with distance…I became invisible…completely…but in the final week of school, I reencountered Jenny Wrangler…it was a small nearly non-encounter…
but something about it has always stuck with me…not sure why…
see Jenny and I shared the same English class…and this one day in December, I found myself sitting next to her…now we’d always been in the same row…but there was a few students separating us…but this one day, a couple of students were ‘away’ (read; parents wanted an early holiday) and Jenny and I was as close to each other as we’d been for months…
Three empty chairs separated us as the teacher droned on at the front about The Hobbit….I wasn’t into the Hobbit…indeed as a kid I had a sharp sense of feet-fear…so I confess to not listening purely as a tool for psychological survival…
instead I was doodling…notes…musician notes on my exercise book…after about twenty minutes I started to hear a strange soft noise coming three chairs up…it was a kind of sniffle with a staccato violent intake of breath…I looked up from my composition and glanced across the row…
…there I saw Jenny Wrangler…her head was in her heads as the teacher indulgently and blindly read out passages from her self proclaimed favourite book…
I looked more closely at Jenny…small drops of eyeliner stained tears were trickling through her fingers and hitting her blank exercise book in small pools of Rorschach-like black puddles…
…now usually I would’ve dismissed this action as a cheap attempt at attention getting…but this time is was different…it was private…I could see that Jenny was trying not to cry…really trying…and as she fought this misery…I started to feel really sorry for her…
so I gently moved from one seat to the next, taking my books with me…I was quiet and no one noticed…
Over the next ten minutes I managed to get closer to Jenny…her crying had started and stopped a number of times…
finally I was sitting directly next to her…she didn’t notice…I put my hand out and touched her shoulder….she jumped…she stared at me…I offered a kindly smile…but Jenny didn’t smile back…she wiped her tears from her face and snarled at me…
’Don’t you ever tell anyone about this, alright!?” She hissed…
I nodded as Jenny turned her attention back to her self loathing and I crept back to my seat…
After summer…Jenny didn’t come back to the school…no one knew what really happened to her…her family disappeared…and she didn’t keep in contact with anyone…
But one thing always stuck in my head about this odd encounter in English Class in grade four…
as I moved away from Jenny…I saw something written on her exercise book…it was blurred a little with her dark stained tears but there was one thing I could make out on her notebook…one little phrase…it said…
“I don’t understand…”
And from that point on…I understood…I understood that even Jenny got confused…and if she got confused…there was hope for all of us…
Anyway…hope you have a good week and hear from you on Tuesday, I guess…
Stacey
For some reason, this post makes me feel a lot better about Stacey. I can't put my finger on why, but it just does. :)
ReplyDeleteTL;DR.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the 57th email?!
ReplyDeleteAh-ha! I so called it in my last comment! I'm actually glad Dom took the no e-mail route. It proved my point that Stacy is probably looking for more than just physical attraction. She wants/needs someone who challenges her, pushes her to climb out of her shell. This shows: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Dom did this on purpose or unintentionally. Regardless, I'm rooting for him again. And just maybe I'll admit that I'm warming up to Stacy. She's a person too. She'll make mistakes...and maybe she is realising that she doesn't want to toss Dom out of her life just yet.
There is hope yet. <3
Wow.. that's pretty deep. - kinda hits home on a lot of different levels..
ReplyDeleteI think this is Stacey's ACTUAL plea for forgiveness from Dom.. When things like this happen i know it is just.. not enough to be forgiven simply. ..and neither can one expect it. But Dom offered it so easily. And then in her last email she sort of sunk her teeth back into him with quite a subtle amount of venom.. light heartedly it seems.. but of course there is some truth to be extracted from it, me thinks. -Her last one confused me. Angered me. And numbed me down. I would have taken option 10 after reading it too.. But this one. This really feels like her inside talking after a bit more contemplation.. I think this is her realisation that.. yeah.. it is not enough for forgiveness. I think this one, she really wants him to know she is sorry.
It is amazing how some things need not be said. But they can be felt. If you open your heart to it. It can be heard. And i guess this is what im feeling after reading this one.
She is reaching out into the ether.. and to find there is nothing of Dom there for her to grasp onto. for her to feel. comes as a shock. The void is empty and dark, and Dom's former existence is suddenly realised. I think this self realisation is part of her confusion.
I was at a seminar by a Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang (gunpowder artist - really cool stuff) once, and he said something very interesting that has stuck in my memory ever since. He said (something along the lines of)
"Some of my work is contradictory. .. But i think self contradiction is important. It let's you know what is real. ..This is important." ..and i think this is exactly that. Stacey did not expect herself to react this way.. perhaps she is realising what is real.
Anyway.. ... this is nice of her. I hope Dom's reply is solemn, and does not trivialise what she has said too much. His humour certainly does loosen the mood - which is a good thing. ..But sometimes it also turns important things into silly play and banter.. which of course lessens the depth of it i guess.. and Stacey appears to be reaching quite deep here. It's a nice change.
I guess everyone is wondering whether Dom will reply before the 10 days are up, or right on.. or even a few days later?..
..
I would personally reply to this on the 9th day, a little before midnight - just to be a smart arse, you know. :)
hmmmmmmmmm. i am very content having read this from Stacey.
sorry- it was 7 days right? yea - i'd go the 6th day. 10mins before midnight :)
ReplyDeleteLiz, I know what you mean. I feel a lot better about Stacey too. I think it's because she's putting it out there. She's revealing a story about herself. And she's emailing him without prompt. Action, I guess.
ReplyDeleteAnon (9:43) I'm sorry that you found the post not worth reading because it was too long. Does anyone else feel the same? Should I cut these longer posts up into seperate postings?
ReplyDeleteAnon (10:36) Oops my error. I've fixed it up now. Sorry. I've had a few nudges to point this out and feel a little silly. Sorry agian and thanks for the nudge too.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, you did call it. Well bloody done. You so know these people. I agree there is hope yet and I'm so happy to read that your warming again.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, "...she's (they) only a person too, she'll make mistakes..."
Yep, they are only human our Dom and Stacey.
Hiranga, man - you're pretty deep. It's wonderful to have your thoughts each postings. Always challenging.
ReplyDeleteI love your anecdote about Cai Guo Qiang (never heard of him btw - have to check him out)
self contradiction is important. It does allow you to know what is real.
I feel the same way about doubt. Never trust anyone who has no doubt, I say.
Stephen,
ReplyDeletehow many of these emails are there by chance? I am loving this story, but I kinda want to know what I've gotten myself into...am I going to be doing this for the next 5 years?
Stephen, I just discovered this site over this past weekend, caught up on all the archives and got my first notification email of a new post last night. I can tell by how excited I was that this is one of my new favorite things. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIntriguing. Stacy doesn't hear from Dom for 48 hours and suddenly she takes initiative?
ReplyDeleteSounds like this lady likes to be pursued; and by whom *cough*Marcus*cough* doesn't matter.
To me it seems as if all she wants is attention. Telling this 4th grade story of "Woe is me I had to be a recluse because of Jenny" only backs it up.
Hmmm....
I'm gonna put my chips on PennyPup's theory.
ReplyDeleteMoving to say the least, it just goes to show how similar Dom and Stacey actually are. It's impressive how Dom knew all of this the day he met her, and has been trying to tell her all along. Perhaps this email is her finally realizing that... maybe.
ReplyDeletewell....hello stacey... nice to meet you...at last.. i am happy and i am sure dom will be.
ReplyDeletea fourth grade woe is me to be sure.. but i think these are the strange little stories that make up the bigger narrative that is us..we share our stories, as small and unimpressive as the events might seem, to let someone into the processes by which we were formed..the water and wind and heat that have swirled and blown and radiated upon us ...and built and eroded...and i love to hear those stories .. i think they are a precious gift...WW
@WW - who are you?? William Wordsworth??? WoW!!
ReplyDelete"the water and wind and heat that have swirled and blown and radiated upon us ...and built and eroded..."
what lovely lovely language... aaah it breaks my heart that i cannot write or even think like that
ahem... coming back to D&S, so D backed off and madame suddenly realised how she likes playing hard to get and hard it is to play that when no one wants to get you...
this acc to me was a her all-too desperate attempt to remind D how pathetic, simple, sweet & funny she is and I bet the minute he responds... she'll b back to asking him about why Marcus hasn't called her back
ipshi... i love the way you write and think too... was seriously tempted to write the aslan thesis!!.. made me smile... really really warm and furry was going to be my cental point!!...WW
ReplyDeleteDacj401, thank ypu for enjoying the story. It's a hard question to answer; as I've not broken down the length of time. But rest assured it isn't five years. Also I don't want to give anything away. But at the moment the corrospondence is intense. There are times it wanes.
ReplyDeleteBut they are from ten years ago and I only found them recently.
Hope my cryptic responses help you. Please email me personally if you have any other specific questions.
A Man De Clerk, welcome to Bored Olives. Thank you so much for your kind words. I am so glad you like it. Please feel free to pass it on to others too if you think apt.
ReplyDeletePenny Pup, I love your idea that Stacey likes to be persued. I think this is really interesting. She likes to be chased on one hand but on the other, backs off if you get too close. I think this could also link to her wanting attention and backing off too.
ReplyDeleteRandall, such a gambler :)
ReplyDeleteDux, I think your idea that they're similar is really interesting. In gramnd romantic stories the intention is that both characters start from a place of opposing values but as their love story emerges they find a common place of value at the end (if it's happy)
ReplyDeleteYour comment made me think about this idea - and that maybe in grand romantic stories the lovers actually start with shared values - but they are deep down - and they need each other to illuminate them.
WW, I agree with Ipshi - you are William Wordsworth - lovely to receive a poetic breakdown of the post from you.
ReplyDeleteI adore how commenters have their own style and are offering mini narrative in these pages.
Miss M's tally.
Ipshi's warmth
Randall's prognostication
Hiranga's philosophy
Dux's honesty
Chris D's pain
Lance's challenge
Stephanie's rawness
Steph T's frustration
Penny Pup's humour
Duncan's kindess.
WW poetics
And there are loads of others too - sorry if I've forgotten you.
And let's see how many mini narratives we can start too. Welcome all.
Ipshi, love how you call her madame. Very funny.
ReplyDeleteAnd like WW, I adored your aslan thoughts and would love to read WW's warm and furry thesis.
omigod u guys.... ur making me tear up now!!
ReplyDeleteww.. thanks for the compliments and i truly wud love to know ur thoughts on warm, furry aslan (wouldn't that b a god worth loving? someone u cud cuddle when ur down...)
and papa bear, thanks ever so much, for this blog, for the friends uv introduced me to and for all the lovely words u share with me and others here
ok enough mush now... back to work ppl!
I can't help it, my continuity gene is offended. Stacey played NTSC tapes from America. What on? Her PAL video machine. Don't do it to me. Took me out of the story. If they were U-matic I could almost forgive you. :)
ReplyDeleteKestypes, surely her folks brought an NTSC machine from America only to find that there are three formats in the world and only their old tapes would play. So, as a compromise, and because the little rascals were being total dicks about it, crying and wailing and pleading they wanted to go back "home" to the "States", and "why do you have to hate me so much, Mom", they arranged for rellies in Callie to send tapes over.
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy but does it strike anyone else odd; as it has me the last few posts... that the charachters names share the same initials as our gracious host? Could this be that the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Could it be that Stephen is an aspiring writer hoping to make his big break through via internet (like so many of our youtubers have) Could it be all a big coincidence? Either way I'm hooked till the end. Thanks for sharing, and as Dom would say Cheers...
ReplyDelete