McFly July: Lorraine’s Bedroom Window
When Lorraine and George were first going steady, Lorraine would sometimes find little slips of paper wedged in her window. The slips contained awkwardly cute messages written in George’s scratches.
At first, the messages read like any note a girl could receive from a secret admirer. They were sweet nonetheless. One she remembered vividly was “You are my destiny.” She couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day. When she asked him about it, George gave her a shy smile. It still made her grin every time she thought of it.
Eventually, the messages became more specific to the two of them. Sometimes he would write things from the latest episode of The Honeymooners or I Love Lucy, and sometimes they were from, what Lorraine assumed, another television program she hadn’t heard of.
On paper, anyone could have read those notes and known what they were from, but the meaning of those notes went beyond what was written. Most people watched Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz— even her father watched Jackie Gleason when he was on. But George McFly was not most people in that regard. He liked Science Fiction Theater and reading similar books. When he wrote lines from a sitcom, it meant he had deliberately gone out of his way to watch it.
The day before their wedding had been the last time George snuck a note in Lorraine’s window. It was another Honeymooners quote: “I know that all of you brothers must have been joking about the things you said about marriage tonight. I’m very happy.” It was a very fitting quote from the “Here Comes the Bride” episode.
Lorraine would be lying if she said she didn’t miss those notes a little bit.
While living with another person had been an adjustment, Lorraine and George maintained a healthy relationship. They hardly got into any arguments, and they never turned nasty. If they were ever angry, it never lasted too long and they tried not to let any problems build up.
It had been a year since she and George said “I do” to one another. They had a wonderfully quaint anniversary celebration and were getting ready for bed. George was lying beside her, wearing his reading glasses and reading a book. Lorraine stared at the window. She could’ve sworn she heard something like leaves brushing against the glass, but that made no sense in December.
“George, do you hear that noise?” Lorraine whispered.
“What noise?” he said with his engrossed-in-reading voice.
“By the window. Don’t you hear it?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “It’s probably nothing.”
Lorraine gave him a long look. “I’m going to take a look.”
She pulled herself out of bed and padded over to the window. It was dark outside. There weren’t any animals outside and certainly no people. She turned to head back to bed when something caught her eye. It was wedged between the window and the windowsill.
She quickly unlocked the window and lifted it up. She seized the thing and shoved the window down.
The object in question had been carefully folded. Her heart fluttered as she flattened the piece of paper. A giddy grin came over her as she read the familiar scratches.
“What is it?” George asked.
Lorraine turned towards him, still smiling. He looked so dreamy when his glasses caught the light; it made his eyes twinkle.
“You mean it, George?” She rushed back to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Don’t be silly. The note!”
There came his signature shy smile.
“Oh, George!” she cried. Lorraine gave him a kiss on the cheek.
He took off his glasses and reached behind to put them on the nightstand. His blue eyes met hers again. He wrapped an arm around her. “I’m very happy. Still.”
