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

gave a winsome sigh as she looked at him. He was adorable. Maybe not the right thing to say about a guy. Most girls went for “rugged” or “handsome.” But James was cute and adorable, like a puppy dog or baby kitten that you just wanted to cuddle up with and hug. And those eyes…Oh my God! Those eyes!

As she stared, she suddenly was overcome with sadness. She only had two more nights with him before she had to leave. Should she tell him the truth? Would he even believe the truth? She had her iPod, so she could show him so many things about his future. Once she was gone, he’d forget it all. She winced. Once she was gone, she would only be a dim memory to him. But, what would he be to her, she wondered. Would all that had happened back here in the past be a dim memory to her too?

She reached up to finger the ballerina shoes hanging on her necklace. She didn’t understand why she felt the way she did. One moment she felt so good being with him, and the next, she wanted to run as fast as she could back to the future.

He stopped playing and looked over at her. “A penny for your thoughts,” he said, knowing that she’d been standing silently looking at him.

“I love that song,” she said.

“I wrote it for you, you know.”

She smiled sadly. “I was hoping you’d say that. It’ll be a good memory for me after I’m gone.”

“And for when you come back after your tour,” he added.

Her eyes looked away from his. He stood up and came over to her. “You are coming back, you know...after the tour and all...you’ll come back here to be with me...”

“But you’ll probably be in London by then making records...”

“Then we can meet in London, right? You are coming back to me...you have to...you know you have to...”

She refused to look at him. She felt tears starting in her eyes yet again. He gently took her chin in his hand and turned her face towards his. “Promise me you’ll be back. Promise me.”

Her eyes met his.

“I promise,” she lied.

Ian and Lynn motored back to Brighton and to the hotel room, where they both took showers before heading out for a night at the clubs. They went down to the pier and hopped from one club to another, drinking beer and joining the boisterous singing.

Then they went back to the hotel room, where they frolicked some more in the moonlight shining through the window, smoked a few more cigarettes, and fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.

Susan was in the kitchen shredding zucchini and chopping onions. James was back to poking out tunes on the piano. They’d managed to use up virtually all of the food they’d brought on the day of the picnic and hadn’t stopped in Little Dippington on the way back out to the cottage to get anything else. But, that didn’t stop Susan from concocting something for dinner.

With the garden bursting at the seams with vegetables and Auntie Annabelle’s well-stocked kitchen, it was only a small challenge to figure something out. She was going to make a salad and zucchini pancakes, a nice vegetarian meal. Give him a taste of the future, even though he didn’t know about it yet.

In the seventies, James would become a vegetarian at the urging of his wife, also named Susan. In the real future, over forty-five years later, he would still be a staunch vegetarian, actively promoting the lifestyle along with his son, Robert, a world-famous vegetarian chef.

She hummed to the music as she worked until it trailed off and stopped.

She looked over at James, who was staring intently at her.

“What?” she asked.

“I was just watching you, is all.”

“And what are you watching?”

“Nothing in particular. The way you’re standing there.”

He got up and came over to her. “Put those things down for a minute,” he said, taking the knife from her hand and laying it down on the counter. He took her other hand in his and led her over to the couch.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” she said, trying to pull away. “At least let me finish making dinner.”

“I’m not going to ravish you or anything. I just want to talk to you. We can do more ravishing later.”

He smiled as he pulled her down beside him and turned to face her.

She felt an alarm go off inside her. “What was this all about?” she wondered.

He looked down for a moment, then back up, meeting her eyes. He was still holding one of her hands.

“My dad asked me this morning what my intentions toward you were,” he began.

The alarm inside her went off again, this time louder.

“He likes you a lot, you know.”

“And I like him...” she said.

“So, I’ve thought that I should do the right thing by you.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.

She jerked her hand away, abruptly stood up, and turned her back to him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, jumping up to stand behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around.

“I don’t want to talk about this...about your intentions...”

“But...”

“Please, James...please no... Don’t say what I think you’re planning to say... please don’t.” She looked down at her hands that were clasped together in front of her.

A hurt and puzzled expression came over his face. “You don’t love me?” he asked in a small voice.

“It’s not that...it’s not that at all...”

“Then what is it?”

She sat back down and looked up at him, standing over her. “Everything’s happened too fast...I feel like my head is spinning...we don’t even know each other...”

“All we have to know is that we love each other!”

“You’re wrong...you’re so, so wrong,” she thought recalling what he had just done to her up under the big tree.

He was so young, only twenty years old. What did he know at twenty years old? He was on the brink of becoming world-famous. A fantastic and incredible future lay before him. One that couldn’t and wouldn’t include her.

And, as she’d come to realize this morning, they would never be suitable together. That’s what Mika wanted her to learn from all of this, most likely. All her dreams of him over the years were only dreams. She’d made him into a paragon of perfection in her mind when, in reality, he was far from perfect. If she had anything close to perfection, it was what she already had back in the future.

This interlude between them had been doomed from the start. It was nothing more than physical attraction and infatuation at its finest.

They were both head-strong and stubborn. They were both controlling and had to have their own way. He couldn’t keep his temper in check, and she’d turned into a watering pot, crying all the time. And did she truly love him? The words were easy to say since she’d thought about loving him her whole life...and they were easy to feel when he held her in his arms and made love to her, but it wasn’t enough. It was far from enough. And she knew she had to make herself realize that.

Susan was back in the kitchen, finishing dinner. James was in the living room, sitting on the couch, thinking and brooding over her abrupt refusal to talk about his intentions toward her. It upset him, and he could feel tinges of anger beginning to stir inside him. He knew, however, that getting angry would only make matters worse.

Why didn’t she want to hear him out? What girl wouldn’t want to hear the words he was about to say? Did she love him or not?

Yes, it was true they’d only known each other for a few days, but if you met the person who was right for you, what did it matter if you knew that person for days or weeks or months? She’d cast a spell on him somehow, and there was no breaking it.

Then it dawned on him that he’d probably scared her by speaking too soon. Maybe he should wait until she came back from her history tour. That would give her enough time to think...and to miss him.

He pictured her in his mind, running into his arms when she returned from the tour, her love for him clear on her face, tears on her cheeks that he would kiss away. He imagined her telling him how awful it had been to be away from him. The longer he thought about it, the more convinced he became that she would come back worshiping him and never want to leave him again.

But then another thought hit him. It was so simple that it almost stunned him. What if he didn’t let her leave? What if they didn’t go back to Brighton but stayed here? What if she missed her bus? He pushed the possibility into the back of his mind. For now, at least.

He got up and went into the kitchen when she said dinner was ready. He sat down at the table and looked at what she’d put on his plate.

“And, so, what’s this?” he asked, holding up a forkful of green stuff.

“It’s a zucchini pancake,” she replied. “Try it; you’ll like it.”

He sniffed. “Doesn’t look all that appetizing.”

“Just taste it.”

He put it in his mouth and began to chew. She looked over at him. “Well?”

“Not so bad,” he said, taking another forkful. “But this is just a vegetable. Where’s the meat?”

“There is no meat...or chicken...this is it. We’re eating vegetarian tonight.”

“Vegetarian? Isn’t that what Hindus or strange people who don’t eat meat do?”

“Yes, and it’s good for you. I’m making you healthy.”

He looked at her over the top of his glass of orange soda as he took a sip. “Nice of you to keep me healthy.”

“If you only knew...” she thought.

James and Susan sat at the kitchen table and ended up talking until midnight. Susan was curious to know his views on politics and some random world events, but soon realized he had no interest in either of those topics at this time in his life. She asked him about any books he’d read and what his favorite book was. He responded that he wasn’t interested in books or reading; he didn’t have time to sit around and read. Then she asked him about gardening, knowing that both his dad and aunt had wonderful gardens, but his only comment was that he didn’t like getting dirt on his hands.

It would all change later, she knew, but for now, his all-consuming passion was his music. Another reason, she thought, they would never be suitable together. Although she loved music, other than her dancing, she couldn’t sing or play any musical instrument in reality. Mika had only given her those talents for this journey into the past.

When they got in bed, James reached out for her with a lustful look in his eyes, but instead of encouraging him, she just laid her head on his shoulder.

“Want to sleep for a while?” he asked, kissing the top of her head.

“Umm...mmmm,” was her response, closing her eyes.

“That’s all right then. I’ll just wake you up later...”

He fell into a deep and satisfying sleep, visions of their future together floating through his mind.

She, on the other hand, was restless. As soon as she knew he was sound asleep, she slipped out of bed, tip-toed out of the room, and quietly closed the door behind