At the tender age of twenty-four, Penny Atwater did what she promised her father she would never do; she followed a guy to Dallas. He sensationally sucked. His name was Richard and he was vile, but she didn’t see it. She was super in love. It wasn’t a quick decision that she made. They had gone to college together and started as good friends. After graduation, her best friend group formed a very irreverent and cheeky Chicago Storefront theater company. They all spent most of their days and nights together, obsessively clinging to each other as wolf packs often do. Richard would normally be her very last choice in men. She didn’t find him very physically attractive. He was pudgy and not very masculine. He was also a bit of a braggart, but he was the most talented actor in the lot and funny as hell. That rated him pretty high in her book. In those days, he kept her constantly laughing. The gang loved to fake hate Richard. As much as he tried to convince everyone that he was a winner, they all knew he was full of crap. They just put up with his bullshit because he was the best actor they had on the roster. Penny wore blinders to his shortcomings and was happy for the attention. It’s important to know that before Richard, Penny had relationships with two out of the five available guys that were in the company. One was just a fling buddy, using each other out of boredom on random drunk nights in between relationships. The most recent love fail was significant and it was with Richard’s best friend, Harry. Penny and Harry had been lovers for a while, but kept their escapades on the very downlow. Or so they thought. Everyone eye-rolled at their constant flirting whenever they were in the same room and they knew that Harry spent some late nights down in Penny’s apartment. She was deeply in love with him, but that didn’t matter because he didn’t love her…not in that way…and he eventually broke her to bits.
In reality, even before she romantically committed to either of them, she was kind of friend-dating them both. They were a mighty threesome and they went everywhere together. Both men doted on her and treated her like a little doll. Penny’s bookends, they all used to joke. In some ways, there was an unspoken competition between the men; the prize was Penny’s smile and laughter. When lines started getting crossed between Penny and Harry, Richard pretended like he didn’t know anything. This affair lasted over the span of six months. Eventually, Harry got bored of the sexy side of Penny. He called the romance off after he met a redheaded actress who had an apartment full of five cats. He was smitten while Penny was quietly devastated.
That is exactly the moment when Richard swooped in for the kill. He didn’t care that he was sloppy seconds; he was just happy he won her. Even after they coupled up, they still remained super close with Harry and the transition seemed strangely seamless. She just kind of morphed over from Harry to Richard like a wafting cloud. The new couple quickly became obsessed with each other. Within a matter of months, Harry moved in with redhead cat lady and Richard moved into Penny’s bottom floor apartment of their theater company two-flat Chicago Ravenswood compound. He might of been her 20th boyfriend ever, but at that time, she thought he was the most special. She was certain he was The One.
They lived very artistically, very free, very poor, but very happy. There were dinner parties, Breakfast at Tiffany’s cocktail-like vibes where everyone would come over after shows. There was always a play in rehearsal or in a performance run. If there wasn’t a current production, they were writing and workshopping a new script. There was always a revolving door of performers coming and going when it came to the Paulina House. It was in a prime location for the prime of their young adult lives. It was a half a block from the El stop and steps away from the laundromat and some great local bars. They were directly across the street from Johnny the Nazi’s bar, a favorite hang to play pool and buy cheap drinks. They were usually the only people in there. They didn’t know Johnny was a Nazi, until they learned he was a Nazi, and then they stopped going there to support the Nazi. They had real life Riverview Park carnies that originated from The Appalachians to the left of them and jokers to the right. Well…behind. The joker was actually this one really odd fellow named Jerry who was also in the troupe. He lived in the back coach house. He smelled funny and always had some questionable guests sneaking in and out of his house in the wee hours, but he was funny too, so they put up with his shenanigans. Penny’s best friend’s Cassandra and her husband Clive lived upstairs. They were like the den parents of the troupe. They spent most of their communal time in Cassie and Clive’s living room, drinking copious amounts of chianti, chain-smoking Marlboro lights and listening to people fight over which was Shakespeare’s great monologue.
Like a whisper, Penny and Richard, as a couple, slowly started to stray. He was very controlling of her, orchestrating her every move. It became harder to hide it. He thought for her, spoke for her, made all of her decisions. She even looked at him when she would order her food. No one in the group was comfortable witnessing it. It became clear to everyone that something strange was going on with them and that Penny was losing her shine. Cassie and Clive and a few others tried to talk to her about it, but she refused to see it. Angry that everyone was passing judgement on Richard and not understanding their relationship, she really pulled away from them all, even Cassandra. Years later, Penny and Cassie would refer to this time in their lives as “The Diaspora” or “The Time When Richard Kidnapped Penny’s Soul”. Even after a few months of hardly any contact, it came as a shock to everyone when one day, out of the blue, Penny and Richard made the big announcement. They were moving to Texas.
HEATHERLAND 