MidReal Story
Gatsby's Obsession: A Roaring 1920s Love Story
Scenario: "I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past."
"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!"
He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.
"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. "She'll see."
Create my version of this story
I was standing on the marble steps of my mansion in West Egg, looking at the stars, the summer nights were long and warm.
I could see across the bay, to the green light that marked the end of Daisy’s dock.
The music of my parties drifted on the breeze, the laughter and chatter of my guests.
I had thrown some of the most extravagant parties in New York for a few years now, and everyone from the mayor to movie stars attended them.
The revelers wandered through the dozens of rooms, or spilled out onto one of the terraces overlooking the bay.
They were all having fun, but I just didn’t feel it anymore.
The party had been in full swing for hours.
The band was playing one of their last songs, the music the only evidence that this was still a party.
The lights from my mansion sparkled like a fairyland in the night as they danced across the water, but I wondered if this was just a mirage.
It had been three years since I’d last seen her, and every weekend I hoped she would just wander into my house.
Several times, someone had said she would be coming to one of my parties, but she never did.
So I threw these parties, and people came to them by the hundreds.
They came for the music, and the dancing and the fact that they would always rub shoulders with someone famous.
I had heard rumors about me.
That I was a bootlegger or the nephew of von Hindenburg, but I knew this wasn’t true.
I was the son of some wealthy people from San Francisco who’d died, but that didn’t matter anymore.
Suddenly, I saw Nick Carroway on his way from his place next door to mine.
He asked if he could use my phone to make a call.
The phone was in one of my upstairs bedrooms.
When he came back down he said, “Aren’t you having a good time?”
“Of course I am,” I said.
“I’m of the only people who are actually invited.”
“You know, old man,” he said as he looked out at the crowd on his way to his house next door.
“I’ve lived next door to you for three months and this is the first time you’ve even spoken to me.”
I said nothing.
I hadn’t been friendly with him because he was Daisy’s cousin and I’d been trying not to think of her.
Then he asked me if he could go over to his house and call a cab.
He’d heard that I’d given a driver the night off so he could come to this party and was worried about going home.
“I’ll give you a ride,” I said.
I hoped that Daisy would come so this would be the first time she would see me and it would be like old times.
She would remember those long summer days we spent together.
And she would realize she loved me again.
I stood next to Nick while he waited for his cab.
The water was dark and full of shadows.
There was an old rowboat tied to the side of the dock.
It was hidden in the shadows and looked like it was waiting for someone.
I wondered if Nick knew what was happening between Daisy and Tom.
It was hard enough for me to share this with him since he was Daisy’s cousin, but it wasn’t my fault.
If he wanted to stay friends with her, he would have to get used to it.
The night was alive with the sounds of my party continuing.
I’d invited Nick in hopes that Daisy might come.
Every weekend for years, hundreds of people would come, and most of them weren’t even friends of mine.
Nick asked me once who all these people were.
“The majority of them are just acquaintances,” I said.
“You know, people who make their living off Wall Street or in the movies.They’re not friends; they’re business associates.”
Nick looked at me and raised his eyebrows.
“It’s not that bad,” I said to him.
“I’m not trying to impress you or anything.”
“I’m sorry,” he said and then added, “It’s just that I’ve heard stories about you and your parties on the other side of town.”
I laughed and put my arm around his shoulder as we walked back to my house and said, “You’ve heard of me?”
“Yes,” he said and smiled.
“Daisy was one of the guests at one of your parties last summer.”
“Really?”
“She was there in June or July.I think it was a party for her.”
“No,” I said as my heart beat faster and a glint came into my eyes.
“That wasn’t one of my parties and it certainly wasn’t for Daisy.”
“Not for Daisy?”
“Well,” he said as he tried to sound casual, “You have hundreds of people here every weekend.”
I stopped and looked at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, what do you tell all those people?That you invite Daisy over for tea every Saturday?”
The truth was, Daisy had never been to one of my parties and she never would since she didn’t even know they existed until this summer.
This conversation with Nick made me think of the summer of 1917 when Daisy and I first met.
We were both stationed in Louisville, Kentucky, where my unit was training at the time, and Daisy was a beautiful young girl who came from an old and very wealthy family of Louisville.
She was seventeen, tall and slender, with blue eyes that were very bright and so beautiful they made you wonder how someone could ever have such eyes.
Her face was very lovely too, but in an unusual way that few people could find exactly the right words to describe it—especially when she was happy or excited, which she often was just because she was young and full of dreams about the future that seemed as if they could come true at any moment.
I have to say that Daisy was the most beautiful girl I ever saw in my life.
Since the moment I first saw her on the steps of the house next to the officers’ club, I lost my head.
I suppose it’s a little strange to think that just one moment can change your life forever, but that’s exactly what happened to me when I saw Daisy for the first time that day.
There was something so special about her that I couldn’t help myself.
We fell in love almost immediately, but then the war came along and I had to leave to fight in it, so I didn’t see Daisy again for a long time.
While I was gone, she fell in love with someone else—Tom Buchanan.
He wasn’t as tall or as handsome as I was, but he was a big strong football player from one of the most prestigious colleges in America and he came from a good family too—one that was just as rich as Daisy’s family was.
I guess you could say he was the perfect match for her, which might be why she decided to marry him while I was away.
But I know now that she didn’t marry him because she loved him—she married him because she needed someone to take care of her.
Tom came from a world where men took care of their women.
Women didn’t have to take care of themselves the way that Daisy had to when she was alone.
So when Tom asked her to marry him, she said yes because she needed someone to look after her the way that her father had before he died.
I think Daisy did love Tom a little bit too, but not the way that she loved me.
I know she still felt something for me because I could see the love in her eyes every time we were together—even when Tom was there too.
Daisy couldn’t hide how she felt about me no matter how hard she tried to do so, which is why I was so sure that this summer would be different—I was sure that this summer would be the one when I finally won Daisy back.
As we walked through my house with Daisy by my side and Nick behind us, I looked around nervously to make sure everything was perfect even though I already knew it was.
