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

right now,” she said. “But, thank you anyway. Would you mind showing me where the cot is? I think I’d just like to lay down. I don’t feel very well.”

Granny looked as if she were about to say something, but didn’t. Emily brought out the cot and placed it under the window with a blanket and a pillow. “Here you go, lovey. Try to get some rest then.”

Susan thanked her and laid down on the cot. She didn’t think she’d be able to rest but was soon fast asleep, dreaming of James holding her in his arms.

James felt sick to his stomach, thinking of Susan gone somewhere, who knows where, all alone, lost, and probably frightened. It was almost dark outside. He didn’t know what to do or where to look for her. He could only assume she’d walked into Little Dippington and caught a bus to Brighton. In many ways, she was a very sensible girl, certainly not dumb like some other girls he’d been out with. In fact, she was very resourceful. He was quite sure she’d gone back to Brighton.

He drove into Little Dippington, thinking to stop and ask Emily or Simon if either of them had seen her, but both Emily’s shop and Simon’s studio were closed for the night, so he drove on. It was close to 9:00.

When he got to Brighton, the first place he went to was Susan’s hotel. Ian answered the door. James had woken him up, but Lynn was sound asleep. Susan wasn’t there. Then, he checked in at the club, where he was waylaid for a while by some acquaintances. After that, he went to Derek’s.

Derek was annoyed at being woken up, as it was now past 1:00 in the morning, and it wasn’t a night they played at the club. James checked the pubs down by the docks and the tea shop where they’d gone the first night he’d met Susan. Finally, he went to his house, thinking maybe she’d gone there, but there was no one sitting on the porch steps, where he’d envisioned seeing her, and no one out back in the garden. It was getting close to dawn, and James was exhausted.

Mel had left that morning for King’s Head to visit Annabelle and his other sister, Ginny, and wasn’t home. James sat on the couch in the dark, trying to decide what he should do next.

He couldn’t think of anything. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to put his fist through the wall or break something. He went limp, fear for Susan overcoming all else. He put his face in his hands as sobs erupted from him.

“Oh please,” he pleaded, looking up at the ceiling. “Please, let her be okay!”

 

Chapter Twenty

Reunited

Susan was on the 6:00 bus to Brighton, but the bus didn’t leave until close to 6:30 because the driver was busy chatting with an old friend from a small cafe that served breakfast. By the time Susan got to Brighton, with the bus stopping numerous times, it was almost 8:00.

She opened her sketchpad during the trip, pulled a pen out of her purse, and started writing a goodbye letter to Mel.

She couldn’t think of what she could write to James.

Her eyes blurred a few times as she wrote, thinking of the wonderful man Mel was and how it was hurting her as much to leave him as it was his son. When she was done, she folded it and put it in her purse, not knowing how she would get it to him.

As the bus pulled into Brighton proper, she gave the bus driver the name of James’s street and asked if he knew where it was. She thought maybe she could give her letter to Mel in person before going to her hotel to wake up Lynn. She felt she owed it to him; he’d been so kind to her. She didn’t know what she would say to him after reading her letter, but she wanted one more hug from him.

As it turned out, James’s and Mel’s house was only five blocks from where the bus driver let her off. Quickly she walked in the direction the driver had given her.

She wondered where James was right now, hoping it wouldn’t be at his house in Brighton. She didn’t know if she could bear to see him again.

After a few hours of sleep the previous night, she’d woken up and not been able to sleep again, thinking of him and their whirlwind love affair. It was getting so close to leaving him forever, and she forgot about their arguments and disagreements. She forgot about his quick temper and controlling personality. She forgot about his arrogance and stubbornness. She only remembered the things she loved about him. Even though she realized they would never be suitable together, she wanted to leave with love in her heart for him, not regret.

As she turned the corner onto his street, she froze when she saw him halfway down, sitting on the stoop in front of the door. She thought of turning and running, but she was rooted to the spot and couldn’t move. As if he sensed her nearness, he looked down the street and saw her. He leaped up and ran in her direction. Likewise, she ran towards him, her hair streaming behind her.

They met halfway and embraced each other so tightly they could hardly breathe. James kissed her cheeks, her nose, her eyes, her hair, her neck. She was crying, and all she could say was, “I’m sorry,” over and over and over.

He tilted up her chin to look into her eyes, shaking his head at her and mouthing the words, “Why?”

She just kept saying she was sorry, with tears running down her cheeks.

He took her hand, and they walked down the street to his house and went inside. They sat on the couch, facing each other, holding both hands. Neither of them spoke for several minutes, just looking at each other, trying to read the other’s mind.

James was the first to speak. “You know I wouldn’t have kept you out at the cottage, captive or anything if you told me you wanted to go.”

“But, I wasn’t sure,” she said, her voice quivering.

He hugged her tightly to him. “You don’t know how worried and scared I was when I discovered that you were gone. I didn’t know what to think...where to look. I’ve never felt so lost or scared in my life...Susan, I love you so much...I know you have to go...but, please, promise me again you’ll come back.” He looked searchingly at her.

“I’ll be gone two months,” she lied, employing her ‘avoiding the question’ tactics. “That’s only eight weeks. It won’t seem that long. You’ll be in London yourself, making records. You won’t have time for me anyway.”

Then she thought, “Besides, once I’m gone, I’ll just be a dim memory to you; you won’t even remember me…”

“I’ll always have time for you. When you get back, I won’t let you leave my side.”

She looked into his eyes. “But, you’re going to be rich and famous, you know. I won’t be so important then.”

“Don’t say that! I know I’m going to be rich and famous; I’ve always known it, even though my dad always says I’m daft. So, when I’m rich and famous, we’ll travel the world together; how would you like that? I can show you some of Germany, and we can go visit your family in America and explore any place we want.”

There was sadness in her eyes. He didn’t notice.

“That sounds wonderful,” she said, then thought, “And that’s exactly what you’ll do, but just not with this Susan...”

It was 3:30, and James still hadn’t shown up for the afternoon practice. Derek was upset and angry. Lynn was worried and scared.

“Where in the hell is he!?” Derek asked no one in particular for the fifth or sixth time. “That damn American girl has him all bamboozled and messed up! Here he shows up at my house in the middle of the fookin’ night and gives me this new tune he wanted us to rehearse today, and he’s not even here, damn him!”

“What new tune?” asked Ian, sounding interested.

Derek reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a few sheets of folded paper. He shoved them in Ian’s hands. “This goddamn song!” he said.

Ian unfolded the papers and looked through them. “I heard him picking through this tune on Tuesday,” he said. “Looks like he finished it then. Why don’t we try it out?”

“Why should we?”

“Well, it looks like a good song, that’s why,” said Ian, picking out the opening notes on his guitar.

Lynn froze. “Does the song have a name?” she asked, knowing already what it would be.

“Sure does,” Ian said. “All My Kisses”...Looks like a good tune.”

“James’s supposed to sing the first part, and then I’m supposed to join in for the second part. You can join in, Ian. I don’t want to,” remarked Derek sourly.

“Be a sport, Derek,” said Mindy. “James’s just in love, you know. He’ll settle down after Susan leaves on her history tour.”

“Forgot about that,” said Derek. “She probably decided not to leave, which is why he isn’t here.”

“What?!” exclaimed Lynn in alarm. “Oh no! She has to leave! We have no choice!”

“That’s right,” added Mindy. She hadn’t told Derek about any of the bizarre or strange stuff Lynn had told her or shown her. It was too far-fetched. “They’ll be leaving, and James will come back to earth, you’ll see.”

“Yeah, she’s got to leave at midnight tonight,” said Ian.

Lynn had also told and shown him all the stuff about the future and how she and Susan had come to be here for a week. He thought it was too fantastic of a story to tell anyone else, but he suddenly realized that Mindy had been told much of the same. He looked at her, and she nodded.

“Right, then, let’s see how it sounds.” Derek picked up his guitar, took the sheets of paper back from Ian, and pinned them to an old music stand he’d pulled out from the corner of the room.

Lynn just shook her head, thinking, “Oh, this is going to tear them both up in the end. She should have come back with me on Tuesday...”

 

Chapter Twenty-One

The Necklace

“James,” Susan said, reaching her hands up around the back of her neck. “Take this to remember me by...please?” She lifted the silver necklace she always wore from around her neck and up over her head. The tiny pair of ballerina toe shoes dangled on the end of the silver chain. She held it out to him.

He took it and cupped it in his hand, looking down at it for a moment. “I’ll look at this and cherish it every moment you’re gone.”

“Which will be a very long time,” she thought. “I wonder if you’ll even remember how you got it after I’m gone...I wonder if it can even stay here with you in the past...”

He bent his head and slipped the necklace over it, tucking it under his shirt, then looked back up at her and gently touched her face.

“Thank you,” he said softly. “And what would you like of mine to remember me by?”

She smiled a wicked grin, got up from the couch, and reached for his hand to pull him up. She led him to the stairs then up to his bedroom.

“Some memories...” she said softly, pushing him back onto the small, single bed. “Some good memories...”

James and Susan made love