MY NIGHTMARE ROMANCE

by Unknown Author

Originally appearing in CO-ED ROMANCES comics in 1951.

Dear Reader:

I have read your illustrated stories in CO-ED ROMANCES and have decided that I have a story of my own to tell. I have learned much by going through this experience and hope that you will learn from it. Perhaps it will spare you from going through something similar. If I can do this for one of you, my labor in putting it down is not in vain.

At the age of eighteen, I am older than my years. Perhaps at the age of sixteen, I was too young for my years when this occurred. I don't know.

The cause of my experience was Johnny. Or perhaps it wasn't Johnny, but myself, or my mother. It's hard to tell. But first, I will tell you about Johnny.

Johnny is thirty-five, a shy fellow who is not good-looking and had never gone around too much with girls. I had never gone around too much with boys, so perhaps he was attracted to me because of my inexperience.

I met Johnny in my mother's waiting room. She is a dentist, and I sometimes help her out by acting as receptionist. One afternoon, he came to my desk and asked if the dentist could see him immediately, for he had a terrible toothache. His shyness appealed to me, and I told my mother about him. She saw him right away. When he left the office, he was considerably better.

When I left the office an hour later, Johnny was waiting for me. I saw no reason to chase him away since I was flattered that an older man showed such an interest. I learned that he had a small business that was doing rather nicely. "I guess I never married because I was too busy trying to make a go of my haberdashery," he confessed in a low tone.

We walked and talked for over an hour, while I knew I should have been home preparing dinner for my mother. When I finally did get home, Mother was furious. But when I told her I had been out walking with a boy, she exploded as I had never seen her do before or since. "You will never see him again," she shrieked. "If you do, never come back into this house."

When she had finished, I was more determined than ever that I would see Johnny. Perhaps it would have gone no further if she had not acted then as she did.

I waited outside Johnny's haberdashery store the next day until I saw him come out alone. I fell into step as though I had just been passing by. Then, practically putting the words in his mouth, I got him to ask me out for Saturday night.

Soon, we saw each other quite often, always on the sly, always hiding from my mother and anyone who might know her.

That was no easy job in a town as small as Crestwood, but we managed to do it by going to roadhouses and to movies where we sat in the corners of the balcony.

Now, a word about my mother.

I had never mentioned my father before this because I never knew him. He had left my mother when I was still an infant.

Picture for yourself what my early life must have been. My mother worked her way through dental school and paid for a housekeeper to take care of me through her efforts. She paid a terrible price for it since she lost whatever womanly traits she may have had before.

Ever since I can remember, she has been a bitter person, with no word of kindness for the world and no display of feeling for me. I can understand why. I must have been a terrible burden to her while she was working her way through school and later while she was fighting to build up a practice against heavy competition.

So when I, at last, found someone who seemed to care for me, I decided I couldn't let him go.

I went on seeing Johnny on the sly for several months. But I could see he was getting restless. He had a girl at last, and he wanted to show me off, introduce me to his friends, take me to dances and parties. Instead, we had to meet only in darkness, go only where nobody would know me.

Finally, we thought of a way. If we were married, nobody could tell us when or where we must see each other. I don't know which of us thought of this, but we both thought it was a grand idea. We laid our plans carefully.

Mother had late office hours on Thursday nights and later went to play bridge with friends. She would not miss me until late. The following Thursday evening, Johnny and I borrowed a car and headed for the next state where no waiting period was required to get married.

But our plans ran into several snags in the form of Justices of the Peace who refused to perform the ceremony. We tried five, I believe, until we gave up and decided to try the next day again. I just looked too young for anyone to mistake me for twenty-one. We were about to check into a tourist camp for the night when the police caught up with us.

I don't know what might have happened then. Johnny could have been sent to prison, and I could have gone to a detention home for delinquent girls. Luckily, however, we were interviewed by an understanding social worker when returning to Crestwood.

Miss Royal called my mother down to the police station in the morning. I heard the phone conversation. Mother said she couldn't come to because she had two patients waiting. "Which is more important," Miss Royal demanded. "A pair of toothaches or your own daughter?” My mother appeared in a few minutes.

Miss Royal was none too gentle on Johnny, but she reserved full steam for Mother. "You have been too busy being a dentist to pay any attention to being a mother," she said. "I know you love your daughter, and you know you love your daughter, but you haven't let her know it at all."

Mother turned to me. "What do you think, Doris?"

I began to cry, for I knew it was just as much my fault as Mother's. "I haven't ever really come to you with my problems," I sobbed. "I just made it easy for you by telling you what I wanted to do. Most of the time, all you could do was to say 'no'."

I guess that stern room has never been seen a crying jag like that in all its history. Even Miss Royal joined in as Mother, and I began to weep full force,

It had been just a big misunderstanding, but it had almost ruined three lives. For Mother loved me, I knew that at last. She had been busy, and I hadn't been willing to take the trouble to find out about it.

Then Miss Royal turned back to me. "Look, Doris. Don't let any fellow talk you into getting married for a good few years. It's a matter of simple arithmetic. A boy dates about twelve girls a year pretty steady. So if he dates for ten years before he gets married, he has a choice of a hundred twenty girls to pick from when he is ready to choose one for life. Girls only get to date about four boys a year enough times to find out what they are really like. From what you tell me, you haven't even dated that many."

"That was my fault." Mother said at that point.

Miss Royal waved her aside. "I don't care whose fault it is. It's simply a matter of common sense. Any girl who gets married before she has any idea of what she is getting into is just being plain silly."

Even Johnny had to agree with that one.

So, ever since that day, I have been following Miss Royal's advice. I'm still not the most popular girl in the school, but the boys sure think a lot more of me since I can say "yes" when they ask me for a date. And my mother is a lot happier since I've been happy. She's cut down her office hours, and we spend a lot more time together these days.

This week, Johnny got married to a girl almost his age, a girl Mother introduced him to.

And the best thing of all is that nowadays, Mother rarely has to say "no."

Sincerely,

Doris M. Crestwood