Fun or Forever

Fun or Forever

What is it that makes a relationship work? Is there a certain something that both involved need to have? Can one person have enough love and devotion to keep both people moving forward as a single unit? In the story, “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent, the author describes the relationship of an older man and his much younger mistress. The reader takes a ride in the front seat of a dirty old farm truck as a couple drinks tequila and hides their affair from his predictable wife. Through the author’s use of setting, dialogue, and characterization, the author seems to have written this story to show how expectations for a relationship can be different for each person involved. While one may be seeing forever in the future, another may simply see the fun to be had in the present.

The setting that is given helps the reader to understand Jack is in no way looking to impress or entertain the narrator. The entire story unfolds in the cab of Jack’s truck. The reader is given a description of the interior when the young unnamed narrator is forced into the floorboard to avoid a possible encounter with Jack’s wife. From her thoughts, we learn that the interior of the truck is dirty and has pop tops laying everywhere. As they sit in the truck, Rosanne Cash’s “Nobody’s Into Me” plays on the radio. Also given to the reader is enough detail to assume the story is set in a rural area, perhaps agricultural in nature. As the specifics are given to the reader an impression of Jack’s attitude towards the narrator becomes clear through his statements such as, “In a year you’ll write, ‘I wonder what I ever saw in Jack. I wonder why I ever spent so many days just riding around in his pickup. It’s true he taught me something about sex. It’s true there wasn’t much ever much else to do in Cheyenne” (Tallent 2). These lines reveal that Jack does not intend on anything long-term or particularly more serious than sex. In fact, the bulk of their relationship does not warrant anymore promising of a location that his dirty truck, while the predictable lines of the song blare what seems to be his true feelings in an area that is revealed to be so rural in nature that sex is the only entertainment to be had. The setting of the affair reveals that Jack’s feelings about their relationship are not serious, but rather something to be taken lightly.

The dialogue between the two characters goes further to explain how their expectations for the future of their relationship differ greatly. Jack reveals his take on her maturity with the line, “No little kids getting into this truck except you,” when she remarks on how a child could be hurt by all the pop tops on the floor of the truck. With this line Jack reveals his feelings that the narrator is a child, not even to be taken seriously. When they begin to discuss the future that will be written in the new diary, given to her by Jack for her birthday, the two characters describe greatly different worlds. Jack continues to see their relationships demise while the narrator describes their eventual marriage. Lastly, Jack’s conversation regarding his wife points out his boredom with the everyday. He notes that her behavior seemingly never changes from day to day. For example, Jack