This is a short story written for an assignment in psychology class. The social exchange theory, in psychology, is a theory of mate attraction in which it is presumed that people are attracted to opposites, since they provide resources that the people lack themselves. This story was written to illustrate how the theory would play out in real life, edited a little for the blog. Enjoy!
Nessa had been friends with Carson, the boy next door, ever since they were four years old. Carson had taught her how to skip rocks, climb over gates, and hit an unsuspecting passerby with a rubber ball. Perhaps she was once swayed by his wild and fun-filled mannerisms—he was possessor of the best grin she knew—but now, at the age of ten, her opinion of Carson was firm.
Carson was brash, impulsive, and immature. He was courageous, to be sure, but equally likely to make rash decisions: being with him was like having a younger brother who needed constant restraint and guidance. Only, he was her exact age, so it was far more difficult to keep him under control.
“Nessa, come on!” Carson screamed at her one day, from top of the highest tree in the forest. Nessa remembered that moment clearly: the tree’s pine boughs were swaying dangerously, and Carson was bellowing at her from above it all. His voice seemed thin and high-pitched as it reached her from so far above. “Come on up! Stop being such a girl!”
“I’d rather not,” Nessa yelled back, looking up as disdainfully as she could, although her voice was strained at her neck bent fully back, “I prefer to keep my head on my body. Good luck coming down!”
She turned and, a moment later, she didn’t have to turn to see what happened: a strangled yell, the series of increasingly loud crashing pine branches, and a muffled thump.
It was a common occurrence for Carson’s parents to see little, well-behaved Nessa Madison knocking politely on their door to inform them that their son needed their help, for he had injured himself doing something forbidden or the other.
Carson’s parents envied Nessa’s: their daughter had an uncannily serious expression, impeccable manners, and an already motherly and gentle air. Their son? He fell off trees with increasing heights, jumped into rushing rivers, and clung to the back of streetcars to blow horrified ladies a kiss as he sped by.
By the time Nessa and Carson were eighteen, everyone who knew them would have claimed that each child stayed true to their temperament: Nessa had remained mild and studious while Carson’s fiery nature had spurred him into serving in the military. To this his parents had given their consent: they were now completely, although perhaps reluctantly, accustomed to their oldest son’s strong will. They had learned to love him for it.
However, the moment Nessa announced she would go abroad to attend Barnard College, a women’s college where she would study medicine, her parents, accustomed to women remaining in their traditional role within the household, were horrified. For weeks Nessa’s own will, strong and passionate underneath her calm expression, was the only thing that bore her up when faced by her parents, pleading and angry by turns. Even so, it was a difficult time for Nessa.
Carson was the only one who stood by Nessa’s choice to become a doctor.
“You’ll do well in any study you decide to pursue, Nessa,” Carson told her admiringly, during one evening in particular as she felt discouraged. “I wish you a future where you don’t regret the path you decided to take. I think, for that, the best thing to do is to choose what you want to study.”
For the first time in her life, Nessa, under her steady demeanor, felt that Carson had something to give her also.
“Carson!” Nessa gasped a few years later when he came up to meet her at the train station. It had been a difficult four years at Barnard, yet she regretted none of it: she’d had her share of joy and learning alongside her troubles. She felt strong, independent, and triumphant coming home.
It was evident that Carson had also flourished during the past few years. He’d kept his air of energetic humor and determination, but as he smiled and politely escorted her home, it was evident he’d developed the manners of a gentleman as well. Nessa felt curiously proud to walk home beside him.
When Carson met her the next morning to ask her if he could see her home afterward from church, she assented.
For the next few months, she realized that his passionate and reckless personality was, perhaps, exactly what she’d needed to warm her life. Often, she found Carson blurting things that made her smile: things she, a reserved young woman, would never have thought of saying. Carson was never at all reserved about telling her how much he owed her for saving his life multiple times during childhood, and ultimately for being someone he thought of when military life had been difficult.
“You were an angel that my parents hoped I would become,” he told her once, smiling sheepishly. “But the next best thing for them, I suppose, would be having her for a daughter.”
When he asked for her hand a year later, she agreed. They were wed under the pine tree Carson had once climbed. Nessa and Carson smiled at each other as the ghosts of their childhood selves laughed gaily under the tree. Their wedding portrait was taken, and Nessa would look at it for years afterward, remembering how she’d smiled brighter than she ever had. The photo showed it: she and Carson completed each other.
