Blind Date Blues

by Unknown Author

Originally appearing in Lucy the Real Gone Girl issue 3 in 1953.

Lucy simply couldn't believe her ears! Wanda Farr was usually too snobbish to even notice her, and here she was fixing her up with a really cool date with a college freshman, no less! 

"You'll be simply MAD about Greg Worthington,” Wanda gushed. “Jim Burton used to live next door to us in Woodland Acres and Greg is his roommate. They're both here for a visit and when Jim asked to take me to the country club dance tonight, I thought you'd LOVE coming along as Greg's date!” 

"It sounds utterly zorch,” Lucy commented as she finished her sundae. The two girls slipped from their counter stools at Wilson's Sweet Shop and walked toward the door. "What's Greg like, Wanda?” 

"Strictly fifth dimension," Wanda said blissfully. "He's too handsome to breathe. And too, too sophisticated! You'll think he came from Southern Pharumph!" 

Now, any teenager knows that Southern Pharumph is a place with diamond windows and suede streets, so that meant Greg would be a real gone character. "I don't know what got into Wanda,” Lucy mused as she walked home. "But who am I to turn down a date with a college man?” She walked briskly, thinking she'd just have time to take down her pin-curls and press her ice-blue taffeta before Wanda, Jim and Greg Worthington came to call for her. 

But Lucy's face dropped a mile as she stepped into her living room. Her mother was replacing the phone in its cradle and she turned to Lucy with a happy, surprised expression. "Guess who THAT was, dear? My old girlfriend from back home, Millie Sutter. You remember her boy, Elroy?” 

Lucy remembered Elroy all too well. He had been twelve years old when she had seen him last, and a real cube if she ever saw one. She groaned as she remembered the little pest in the horn-rimmed glasses who had dropped grass-hoppers down her back and loosened the spokes on her bicycle. 

"How could anybody forget dear Elroy?" Lucy sighed. "What about him?" 

"He's coming to spend the weekend,” her mother beamed. “Millie thought it would be SO nice for you two young folks to get re-acquainted. He should be here any moment!" 

Lucy slapped her forehead. "Ohhh, no! Mother, I absolutely REFUSE to spend any time with that oolie-droolie! In fact, I have a heavy date tonight with a perfectly swoony college man!" 

"College man?” Lucy's mother raised her eyebrows disapprovingly. “This is the first I've heard about any date with an ... er ... college-man!"

"It just happened,” Lucy exclaimed. “Isn't it atomic? His name is Greg Worthington and he's terribly handsome and ..." 

"I'm sorry, Lucy,” her mother interrupted. "But you'll have to break your date. We haven't seen Elroy Sutter in seven years and his mother is one of my dearest friends. You'll have to entertain him!” 

"But, MOTHER ... !" Lucy protested. 

"You heard me,” was the firm response. "You might invite a few friends over and have a taffy pull or a fudge party tonight. That would be fun, wouldn't it?" 

"Oh, just Exotically Edgar!" Lucy moaned, sinking into a chair. "Just George! Simply dimph!” A taffy pull! Making fudge with Elroy Sutter instead of going to a country club formal with a college fellow. The thought was too ghastly for words! 

It was horrible having to call up Wanda and explain that her mother wouldn't let her go out to the dance with Greg Worthington, but Lucy forced herself to do it. She even phoned Wally, Rodney and some of her best girlfriends to invite them to spend the evening at the house. “Please come,” she begged each one of them. “It'll be your good deed for the week. If I'm stuck all evening with that rectangular character, I'll blow my stack!” 

Loyally, her friends agreed to come to the "square party" and Lucy trudged toward Main Street to buy soft drinks and the things she'd need for the fudge. Al the way to the store she kept visualizing the wonderful time she would have had at the dance. "I could cheerfully strangle that Elroy and any jury would, acquit me," she thought grimly. 

She was three-quarters of the way home, carrying the bag of groceries when she spotted the yellow convertible. It was the car that caught Lucy's eye first,—a dreamy cut-down job with the blacktop folded back to reveal racy leopard-spotted seat-covers! But it was the driver of the car that made Lucy do a double take! She had never seen a more devastating gale! The dark, unruly hair, laughing blue eyes, sun-tanned rugged face, and flashing smile were enough to make ANY girl look twice! But what made Lucy feel faint was seeing Wanda Farr sitting next to the driver, looking at him with her usual come-hither expression. 

Lucy caught just a few of Wanda's words as the car eased by. "You know, somehow you remind me of Jim...!” Then the good-looking fellow in the convertible wasn't Wanda's old boyfriend, Jim Burton! It must be Greg Worthington! 

"And to think I had a date with him and I broke it,” Lucy groaned to herself. A real nervous college fellow who drove a chopped convertible didn't come into a girl's life every day. "This might never happen again in my lifetime,” Lucy thought miserably. "Wanda was positively furious when I told her I couldn't go out on that blind date. But she's not half as furious as I am right now!" 

Sure enough, Lucy was so angry that she practically slammed the bag of fudge ingredients and soft drinks on the kitchen table when she got home. 

"Is everything all set for your little get—together tonight?” her mother asked her, trying to pretend she hadn't noticed Lucy's fit of temper. 

"Sure, everything's ready but the undertaker and the pall-bearer,” Lucy flipped with annoyance. "It's going to be the deadest evening a girl ever suffered through!"

"I'm ashamed of you, Lucy!” her mother admonished. “Is that the way to feel about our guest?" 

"Elroy!” Lucy seethed. “Even his NAME makes him sound like an odd-ball! And, Mother, you should have seen the fellow I had a date with tonight! He's positively a fugitive from a movie studio!" 

Three rings of the doorbell interrupted Lucy's lament. “Please answer the door dear,” her mother said excitedly. "That must be Elroy. And for goodness' sake try to be civil to him!” 

Still grumbling, Lucy strolled to the front door. It was all she could do to keep from passing out as she opened the door and found herself face to face with the handsome driver of the convertible. A quick glance revealed the yellow car was parked in front of the house. 

"Hi," said a deep, resonant voice. "I'm Roy Sutter! Don't tell me you're that gawky little girl with pigtails that used to call herself Lulie?” 

"I...I guess I mah—must be!" Lucy stuttered, unable to believe that this smiling young man was really the detestable Elroy who had delighted in dropping grasshoppers down her back. "You . . . you've changed !” she added, incredulous. 

"I guess you've changed yourself,” Roy grinned as he followed her into the living room. 

It wasn't until Lucy's mother had greeted Roy and bustled off to the kitchen, leaving Lucy alone with her guest, that she started to unravel the puzzle. 

"I...I thought you were Greg Worthington," she said. “That is, when I saw you with Wanda Farr, I just naturally assumed you MUST be my blind date!" 

Roy Sutter's forehead wrinkled in confusion for a moment. "Wanda Farr? Oh, yea mean that rattle-brain who showed me how to get to your house. I stopped at the drugstore to ask how I'd find your street and this girl said she was a good friend of yours. She assured me it would be no trouble at all to show me the way!" 

"That sounds like Wanda, all right,” Lucy nodded. "And from the length of time it took you to get here, she must have shown you the scenic route!" 

"She certainly acted chummy," Roy laughed. "Invited me to some country club dance tonight, 

"Oh?” Lucy said pointedly. "And did you accept the invitation?” 

"I said I'd see if you wanted to go," Roy smiled. "If you think you'd like to go, I'd like to stand in for your blind date!" 

"Like to go?” Lucy exclaimed. "Oh, Roy . . what a question!" 

That evening, dancing with Roy and knowing that every girl in the room was watching her enviously, Lucy unraveled another puzzle. Just one glance at the roly-poly, loud-mouthed braggart who had come with Wanda Farr and Jim Burton told Lucy why Wanda had been so anxious to fix her up with a blind date! Greg Worthington was the type who would have made any girl prefer staying home and knitting to going out on a date! 

"Hello—oh—oh, there!” Wanda gushed at Roy as she danced by a few moments later. "You're going to save one dance for little me, aren't you?" 

"Oh, you won't have time to dance with Roy," Lucy said icily. “Not when you brought along that strictly fifth-dimensional extra fellow!" 

Wanda's face turned red as Lucy gestured at Greg Worthington. "Very funny," she snickered, and Lucy laughed as her chief competitor stepped out of the picture. 

"Maybe I ought to dance with old scatterbrain ONCE," Roy commented. "She did me a favor today, leading me to you!” His arm tightened affectionately around Lucy's shoulder. 

"She tried to do me a favor, too," Lucy beamed. "And she can't say that I'm not paying her back." 

THE END