Mare’s Guy #2: Crash
The second guy to show up for Mare is her long lost love, Crash Duncan, who dumped her off his motorcycle on prom night five years before, breaking her arm and then her heart when he disappeared without a word. Now he’s walking back through the door of Value Video!! and Mare is absolutely not interested in him–even if she can’t breathe and the world is tilting sideways–and she’s said she’ll meet him for lunch at the Greasy Fork, the local diner, only to get him out of the video store before she throws up on the counter from nerves. Once at the diner, Mare and Crash try to have a civil conversation but that lasts for about ten seconds until Mare picks up the menu:
“You don’t need to look, you have that menu memorized,” Crash said.
Mare sniffed and thought, Yeah, remind me again of how my life never changes. “There might be something new on here.”
He hooked a finger over the edge of the menu and pulled it down to grin at her. “There’s never anything new in this one horse town.”
Mare snapped the menu down. “Something new happened once. The horse left. Why did you leave me without a word, you bastard?”
That’s when Mare finds out that Crash had tried to call her but Dee had put him off, so he’d left for good, tired of being shut out of Mare’s life.
“Dee’s overprotective,” Mare said, starting to see the past more clearly. “But you still should have talked to me, damn it. You didn’t even talk to me.”
“I tried,” he said, and tilted his empty coffee cup again, and Mare sat back, knowing he had tried, and that he was right about her keeping him away before that, too, keeping secrets like I’m a witch, because that kind of thing was hard to explain and could get Dee and Lizzie burned at the stake or whatever they did to the witches in the twenty-first century, probably institutionalized or studied in Area 51 or something, and then Pauline stopped to fill his cup for him, peering at him over her glasses.
“So you’re back are you?” she said. “Where you been?”
Mare looked up. “Pauline, we’re having a conversation here.”
“Yeah, everybody heard you.” Pauline raised her penciled-in eyebrows. “Just like old times, you whipping him into shape again. You can take your sunglasses off. The sun went down in here after breakfast.” She nodded at Crash again. “So where you been?”
“Italy,” Crash said.
Italy. Mare looked away, at the juke box selector on the table top, biting her lip. Italy. She began to flip through the cards. She’d stayed in Salem’s Fork and kept her secrets and cried for months, and he’d gone to Italy. Where there was probably dust and sunshine.
“No shit.” Pauline balanced her arm on her hip, holding the coffee pot dangerously near Crash’s ear as she absorbed that. “Italy. Damn.”
Since Mare still can’t tell her secrets, she doesn’t see much hope for the future, but she also can’t quite let go of the guy she never stopped loving even though she’s still mad at him for leaving her and he’s still mad at her for keeping him at a distance. He’d leave again if he could and he doesn’t know why he came back. She’d walk out if she could and she doesn’t know why he came back, either. They sit in the diner, miserable and then magic happens. Well, it’s Salem’s Fork. Magic happens there all the time. I’d tell you that Crash has some real competition in Jude, but who am I kidding? It’s true love.
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I love that you named the Fortunes’ hometown after the city famed for its witchhunt.
Of course it has to be Crash for Mare. The girl needs a guy who understands her and accepts her for who she is, not some prat who says “Ciao” and wears an expensive suit for visiting a video store.
Wow. Dumped off the motorcycle on prom night. You’ve just gotta wonder what kind of guy goes with the Queen of the Universe - the King? A courtier? A jester? Crash doesn’t sound quite like any of those - it’ll be interesting.
I’m thinking I have to quit coming here and reading your posts because my appetite for this book is plenty whet (whetted?)…well obviously I’M not a writer. Anyway, the more I read here the more I look forward to this book’s release. So much happening and going on in Salem’s Fork!
Hey, aren’t both Mare’s guys from Italy? Does that mean something?
i want a Crash.
although- ouch. why dump her off a motorcycle? he could at least have brought her home.
A trashbasket blew in front of them and he swerved, and she wasn’t holding on tightly enough and fell off and broke her arm. He went with her to the hospital.
See, if you’d read the book, you’d know this stuff. Jeez.
Yes, it means something that they both came from Italy. I’m not that careless. I have a PLAN.
Oh MAN I want this book. July cannot come soon enough.
well, Jenny, i would know this if you gave me a book and therefore could read it.
sheesh. as it is, i have to wait till it comes out in stores.
because you won’t give me one.
(you see where i’m going with this?)
and ok, i want a Crash then.
Oh goodie, I like plans. (rubbing hands together gleefully)
Interesting, more and more interesting!
I guess I’ll have to wait ’til July.
Maybe, Jenny, more excerpts?
This is the helmet law in West Virginia:
“”(a) No person shall operate or be a passenger on any motorcycle or motor-driven cycle unless he is wearing securely fastened on his head by either a neck or chin strap a protective helmet designed to deflect blows, resist penetration and spread impact forces. . . .”
I was going to answer the question about both Crash and Jude being from Italy but Jenny beat me to it
Jill’s gloating again.
They had helmets on. She didn”t hit her head (or her SPINE), she just landed wrong on her arm and broke it. They weren’t going that fast. He’s a good guy.
Jeez.
So like Elric is an amalgamation of certain celebrities/characters, does Crash resemble anyone in particular (since we haven’t been a physical description yet)?
He started out very Angel-like and then just became his own guy. Not really based on Angel, but if you want a physical type, that’s Crash.
Jude was based on Jude Law. Subtle R Us.
Ooh, Angel. I’m liking Crash even more than I did from just that glimpse.
One of my first bfs was a Crash. He was riding his Harley down the street, saw me waiting for the light to change and wiped out. Ah, the days of the hourglass figure and waist length hair. And he wondered why I would never get on his bike with him. /;+))) But he was romance-worthy otherwise.
zaza: LOL
what the hell is with this little preview thing below “submit”? it’s freaky.
Somebody over on HWSW wanted at preview box so Mollie added them to all the blogs. I don’t quite get it either, but it was a request.
Well, OH, some of us like to see what we’ve written, to make sure that our spelling is OK and our HTML worked. It’s different from the original HWSW preview that had to be submitted, but with the larger type and working HTML, it’s handy.
Not that it’s likely to lead to perfect spelling or grammar, but you’ve seen some of the bolds or italics that failed to close! Mildly distressing to the composer.
April 20th, 2007 at 4:39 pm Jenny Crusie Said:
See, if you’d read the book, you’d know this stuff. Jeez.
You’ve got a mean streak, Jenny.
Jenny said, “Subtle R Us”
I’ve got to use that somewhere and it’s okay to name a character Crash (as in crash and burn) if he is sexy. If other authors can name their character’s Rake then Crash is fine.
Sidenote: The preview at the bottom only freaked me out because I was thinking when did that happen? And I’ve noticed the date stamp. Mollie rocks.
TT: yeah yeah.
nope, still freaks me out a little. but Mollie of course rocks.
and better spelling? ha!
Hey, I think the clock stopped! Doesn’t it seem as if it’s been 61 days for a while?
No, it’s supposed to be 61. June 26th, that’s 61 days, right?
Maybe I was conflating - someone’s been counting something down here at work, and THEY’VE been on 61 days for more than a week. So perhaps that was why it seemed static. Also, it’s SUCH a long time!
I have no idea how long it is ’til 26-June and no intention of counting. I’m sure that you and Mollie are correct.
Of course, now it’s sixty. And Mollie and I don’t count, the computer does, so chances are good, it’s right. I can’t even make change.
What I’m waiting for is the final site design. It’s almost done and it’s so gorgeous–Mara and Mollie again–and it’s going to have the most beautiful wallpaper you can download for your screen and I have to wait for the final version. Waiting is not my strong point.
Waiting is not my strong point.
mine either. so can i get a copy of the book now?
*sigh* can’t blame a girl for trying (well, you can, but come on).
I hope the website done by next week; it’d be a nice distraction from finals.
On a sidenote, “hoohoo” was used in reference to a penis on Grey’s Anatomy (there was a parasitic fish that had swam up it).
See? We told you it was a scientific term.