Read Online The Ballroom on Magnolia Street by Sharon Owens - Free Book Online Page A

lovely costume jewellery. They were far too busy trying to keep their cigarette butts dry. Shirley could just be herself, on rainy days.
    Right. Back to the fantasy. Declan and Shirley, in a garden full of huge purple rhododendrons. It’s raining heavily. Hollywood rain. They would have no umbrella. They would laugh about getting caught out in the downpour, and his face would be soaked, and it would suit him. He would look reckless. She would watch the raindrops trickle down the neck of his open shirt, and be sad that she could not see them running down his chest. Hand in hand, they would race across the lawn towards a niche cut into a box hedge. In some secluded part of the garden, where it was dark and quiet. And maybe there could be a statue or two, for dramatic effect?
    He would press her against him, and kiss her softly. They would have their eyes open at first, and then, as they began to trust each other, they would close their eyes and give themselves up to the moment. As they fell into a hypnotic rhythm, their mouths opening and closing, he would unbutton her coat and put his hands on her back to warm them up. Where her face was numb with cold, he would kiss it with his warm lips. Slowly, ever so slowly, his hands would move around to her sides, and then rest there for a while, before resuming their gentle caresses upwards. She would touch his blond hair gently, and maybe even have a little feel of those narrow hips that moved so beautifully in charcoal-coloured combats. A little rattle of thunder would be good at this point.
    They were two young people. In love. So in love that wars around the globe would suddenly stop, as a mark of respect. He would find the top of the zipper of her black sweater, and kiss her again, and then… and then…
    She wasn’t sure what would happen then, but she was usually too exhausted with desire to even speculate. Would they kiss and talk for hours? Declan Greenwood, the one and only? And little old Shirley Winters herself? Against all the odds? A real, bona-fide romantic couple. Would it ever happen? Would she be able to cope if it did?
    She had asked Kate’s advice on what to do if she ever found herself in a heavily sexual situation. Kate wasn’t too forthcoming on her own love life, except to say that if the two people involved were kind and considerate with each other, then the physical side of things just happened naturally. No need to worry at all. Booklets and instructions were okay on technical and health matters, but not very useful where attraction and true love were concerned. There were no reliable guidelines on those subjects. Kate always said that it was easy getting a man’s interest and seducing him. The trouble was getting rid of him when you decided that the relationship did not have a future. Then, he followed you around the place with flowers and cards and pestered you with endless desperate phone calls. That was why she liked Alex Stone so much. Because he wasn’t as easy to snare as the others had been. He dallied with all the girls, spoke to everyone, but spent most of his spare time working out with Jim at the Northside Gymnasium.
    Shirley had her own theory about Kate choosing to remain single: she was simply too comfortable in her all-white palace of a bedroom, with clean laundry and hot meals provided by their hard-working mother. It was hard to picture Kate living in a home of her own.
    And, even for Shirley, it was nice to just dream about kissing Declan Greenwood – much safer than going out into the real world and risking rejection, embarrassment and failure.
    So! Declan’s thumb and forefinger closed around the zip, and pulled. Shirley took a deep breath, held in her stomach and her breath, and then…
    Beep-beep-beep-beep – the alarm clock went off: 8 a.m. End of fantasy. Shirley sat bolt upright in the single bed in her parents’ house.
    ‘Come on, Shirley, daughter,’ called her mother, from the bottom of the stairs. ‘Do you want a