The Necklace - The Dusky Club, June 1962, Linda S Rice [manga ebook reader .TXT] 📗

The

Necklace

THE DUSKY CLUB

JUNE 1962

Linda S. Rice

The Necklace

The Dusky Club—June 1962

What if you could travel back into the past to meet the man of your dreams at a time when it would be possible for him to fall in love with you?

Susan does just that when she meets two ladies from Haiti while on a cruise with her childhood friend, Lynn. Mika, the elderly of the two ladies, claims she can see into Susan’s soul and that if she sends her back in time to meet James, the man who Susan has dreamed of for fifty years, Susan will learn something important about him and about herself.

Susan travels back to the year 1962 in her 17-year-old body where she meets James, age 20, a member of a band that will one day become the most famous band of all time. Susan is stunned and delighted when James is instantly drawn to her, inviting her out for tea and offering to walk her back to her hotel after the band quits playing for the night.

But much to her consternation, Susan’s 17-year-old hormones begin to play havoc with her 62-year-old brain, tempting her towards a relationship with James that she’s not really certain she wants.

Will James end up to be the paragon Susan’s always thought him to be? Or, will she learn that sometimes when a dream comes true, that it’s not quite what you expected?

 

Contents

About The Necklace * Dedication * Acknowledgments

Prologue * Chapter One * Chapter Two * Chapter Three * Chapter Four * Chapter Five * Chapter Six * Chapter Seven * Chapter Eight * Chapter Nine * Chapter Ten * Chapter Eleven * Chapter Twelve * Chapter Thirteen * Chapter Fourteen * Chapter Fifteen * Chapter Sixteen * Chapter Seventeen * Chapter Eighteen * Chapter Nineteen * Chapter Twenty * Chapter Twenty-One * Chapter Twenty-Two * Epilogue

Excerpt from The Necklace II * Other Books by Linda S. Rice * About the Author

Copyright

 

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and relatives who helped edit and critique this writing and who encouraged me to move forward with publishing it. Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Nancy Flood, for her encouragement and the time she spent editing and re-editing, and my many Facebook friends, all of whom provided suggestions and inspiration for the story. Lastly, I’d like to thank my husband, Michael, for his patience while I wrote, re-wrote, revised, and edited over the many months it took me to complete this book and the five sequels in “The Necklace” series.

I dedicate this (and all books in “The Necklace” series) to all those women out there whose teenage heart was captured by a rock star/musician and who have remained loyal through the years. May this fantasy story lighten your spirit, make you both laugh and cry, and let you know that your dreams never need to die.

 

Dedication

For Marsha Lynn Thompson-Nolan-Law,

my best friend since childhood

 

Yeah, she was only seventeen;

you can guess what that means…

 

Prologue

The Sleeping Beauty Castle

The year was 1968, and Susan was sixteen years old. She’d come to Disneyland with her family, but as soon as they’d entered the gates, she waved goodbye to her mother, brother, and grandparents, saying she’d meet up with them later at the ice cream parlor on Main Street. She hurried down the street and across the bridge to the Sleeping Beauty Castle before her mother had a chance to protest. She knew she’d later be in trouble for running off but didn’t care; she wanted to be alone and away from her family for at least part of the day.

The entrance to the Sleeping Beauty attraction was an obscure doorway that wasn’t well-marked, and the attraction itself was infrequently visited. Inside the door, narrow stone steps led upward past the story scenes hidden behind glass windows. Various tunes from the Sleeping Beauty movie played as the stairway ascended, but it was at the very top of the stairs where Susan wanted to be, where she felt was the very best place in all of Disneyland. The small, shadowy room contained a window to the largest and best scene of all, the forest scene where Briar Rose (Princess Aurora) meets her dream prince, Prince Phillip.

For four years now, Susan had been infatuated with a certain someone in a band, in fact, the most famous band of all time, who she’d seen in concert three times. James, one of the band members, had become her dream prince, saving her from her unstable mother’s verbal and physical abuse and an uncle’s inappropriate and repulsive fondling.

James had become her safe haven, wrapping his arms around her in her fantasy and telling her he loved her, that everything was going to be okay, that someday he would come and take her away to be with him forever.

Yes, it was just a dream, but it had become very real to her. When things got bad, she’d run to James, and he was always there for her, the one person she could always count on.

Arriving at the top of the stairs in the castle, she sighed as she looked upon the idyllic scene laid out behind the glass, imagining that she was the princess and James was the prince. As had been the case every other time she’d been here, she was utterly alone.

She began singing along with the music to her favorite Sleeping Beauty song, “Once Upon A Dream.”

“I love you…

You danced with me once upon a dream…

When I saw you…

The sparks in your eyes were so familiar to me…”

She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of James and savoring the pleasurable and happy feelings coursing through her body, and turned in small circles around the room as she sang. She didn’t notice that someone else had come into the castle and was standing in the shadows at the top of the stairs, watching her as she continued to sing and spin, her long, blonde hair flying around behind her.

“So I’m sure it’s true…

That first love is rarely what it seems

But now I’m with you…

I know what is true…

You’ll hold me again…

Just as you did then…

Upon a dream…”

“Lovely,” said a voice out of the shadows. It sounded so familiar; it made Susan come to a sudden halt and freeze in place.

“Will you sing it again for me?”

When she spun her head around and saw who was standing there, her eyes grew as big as the teacup saucers in the Alice In Wonderland attraction. She was speechless, and her knees felt as if they might buckle under her.

It was James. The real, live, and in-person, James.

How or why he was here, she didn’t know. Had she conjured him up from her imagination?

All she did know was that the sight of him took her breath away and made her heart feel as if it would pound out of her chest. She licked her lips, thinking she would choke if she tried to say something. She blinked and closed her eyes for a moment, thinking he was just a vision, but when she opened them again, he was still there.

James moved forward out of the shadows, into the small room, and smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement, and she could see the amber highlights in them glinting in the half-light.

“Cat got your tongue?” he asked teasingly.

All she could do was shake her head, but she finally managed to say, “No…you…you just startled me is all…” Her words were merely a whisper.

“So, will you sing me the song again?” he prodded.

“Oh, no! I can’t sing very well…I…I thought I was alone…and…” she stuttered.

“I thought you sang quite nicely. Please, will you sing it again?”

Susan was glad the room was so dark, as she was blushing crimson from the roots of her golden blonde hair down to her toenails. She could feel the heat in her face.

“Really…no…”

He stepped closer until he was only a couple of feet away. “Please?” he said, raising his eyebrows.

She’d been holding her breath and let out a great exhale. For almost a full minute, she couldn’t think or speak as he continued to look at her imploringly.

“Well…I guess…” she finally managed.

She walked up to the glass and looked in at the scene, turning her back to him. She felt him come up behind her and was shaking at the thought that he might touch her. She knew that if he did, it was a possibility she would pass out on the floor right then and there. She took a deep breath and began to sing again.

As her trembling and unsteady voice faded on the last notes, he said, “That was very nice, thank you.”

She turned around to face him. “I’m sure you could sing it better…”

“Do you think so?”

“Well, of course, I do!”

“So you know who I am?”

She gulped. “Uh…yeah…how could I not know?”

He laughed. “Well, if I’d left my disguise on, maybe you wouldn’t. That’s why I came here. That mustache and beard thing were getting hot and itchy. I was told that no one comes here very much.”

She laughed back. “You’re right; not many people know this is even here. That’s one reason I like it.”

“So, are you here alone in Disneyland then?”

“No. I came with my family, but this is my favorite place in the park. I always come here first when we come to Disneyland. I told my mom I’d meet up with everyone later.”

“Do you come to the park often?”

“Once or twice a year…We don’t live very far away.”

“And why is this your favorite place?”

She bit her lip and turned to look at the scene behind the window again. “I’ve just always loved the Sleeping Beauty story, I guess.”

“What do you like most about it?”

“Um…well…the falling in love part when he doesn’t know who she is and she doesn’t know who he is…and…and the end where he wakes her up with love’s first kiss…and when they’re dancing at the very end, and two of the fairies keep changing her dress color from pink to blue…”

“Ah…and what color does it end up being? Pink or blue?”

“Why, pink, of course!’

“I see…your favorite color, perhaps?”

“Maybe.” She leaned back into the glass window to brace herself because her legs were shaking so bad. Being with a member of the most famous band of all time was unnerving, let alone the one she thought herself in love with.

When he reached forward and took a lock of her hair between his