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

and slept the rest of the morning and through the afternoon. Both had little, if any, sleep the night before, and the only place they wanted to be was in each other’s arms.

When they got up, it was past dinner time. Susan looked in Mel’s refrigerator to see what she might use to make dinner. It then occurred to her that this would be the best place to leave her letter to Mel. She figured James wouldn’t be looking in the refrigerator for anything, but Mel certainly would.

While James was taking a shower, she retrieved the letter and the pictures she’d drawn of James from her purse and slipped them in under a plate of cheeses. Then, she spied some of the leftover chicken and tomatoes that she’d made Monday night and reheated it, making some new pasta and a salad to go with it. They ate dinner in silence, both thinking their own thoughts about the short length of time they had left before Susan had to go.

After Susan cleaned up the dishes, she went upstairs to take a shower and wash her hair. James dabbled at the piano. When she came back down and saw him on the piano bench, she noticed he wasn’t wearing his dingy shirt or leather jacket but instead had on a long-sleeved white shirt, vest and tie. His hair was clean and brushed down over his forehead. The sight of him was intoxicating. She sat down next to him on the bench.

“Play something else for me?” she asked.

“How about you play something for me?” he said.

She thought for a moment, then played a short tune, singing along.

“I give you my whole heart...

That’s what l do...

We’ll never be apart...

If just you knew...

Oh, how I love you...

She looked over at him. “How was that?”

“It was beautiful. Can you play it again?”

“No. I think that said it all, don’t you?” She leaned over and kissed him.

He looked at the clock. “I missed practice. Derek’s probably mad as hell. It’s time to leave if I want to be on time at the club.”

“Already?” She sounded panicky.

“Yeah, already.” He stood up.

“Wait!” she said impulsively, pulling him towards her, opening his trousers, and taking him into her mouth.

He tossed back his head and moaned. “Susan! What are you doing to me?”

His manhood immediately sprung to life. She stood up and pulled him over to the couch, took off her underwear, and eased herself on top of him.

“Just one more time...so you remember me...” she said as she began moving on top of him. Might as well use up the last of the seventeen-year-old raging hormones...

“Oh, yes!” said her hormones. “We’re all for that!”

James and Susan arrived at the club shortly before the boy’s scheduled start time. It was Friday night, and the club was starting to get crowded. Mindy and Lynn were at their regular table and waved at Susan when they saw her come in.

Lynn noticed that Susan’s face was glowing, most likely due to her and James being alone together for the last few days, but the glow didn’t carry to her eyes. There was a sadness there that was hard to look at. As Susan sat down next to her, Lynn put a hand on her arm.

“You okay?” she asked.

Susan turned to her and silently shook her head. Her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.

“Oh no...oh no...this is very bad,” thought Lynn. “She got herself in way too deep. They both did...”

She looked at James. He had the same bright glow and sadness in his eyes. Looking back and forth between them both, Lynn started to feel sad herself. Again she thought, “She should never have come here.”

Ian stepped up to the microphone and started singing.

“I found it all out...

What love is all about...

And every day, in every way...

I hear my sweet baby say...

She’ll be mine…

For all time…”

Lynn reached down and held one of Susan’s hands, then looked over at her, her eyes opening wide.

“Where’s your necklace?” she asked, noticing it was missing from around Susan’s neck. Susan always wore her ballerina necklace. She’d been wearing it since she was twelve years old. It had been a birthday present from her grandfather.

“I gave it to James to remember me by,” she replied.

“You can’t do that! You can’t leave something here in the past!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure you can’t.”

“Well, he’s wearing it under his shirt...”

James started singing:

“You’re gonna leave me...

But I don’t want you to go...

You said you’ll be dreamin’ about me...

But how am I to know...”

“Oh, Lynn!” Susan moaned. “I don’t want to go! I don’t want to leave him now! I can’t! I just can’t!”

Lynn wanted to shake her.

“You knew the rules before you came. You knew you’d only be here for seven days. You knew you’d have to leave. Don’t make it harder on yourself. You can’t change history. You don’t belong here!”

Derek moved into the next song.

“Way, way down in Mississippi...

Not far from New Orleans...

Way back up in the mountains...

Well, you know where I mean...”

Susan was inconsolable. “It doesn’t matter...it doesn’t. I can’t leave him now. Maybe if I could have just one more week...”

“Well, you can’t, so get over it. You have to face reality, Suz. Get a grip on yourself!”

Lynn was starting to panic as she looked at her watch and realized it was almost time to leave.

“Susan, don’t do anything stupid, like run up and hold onto him or something,” she thought.

Ian started singing then.

“Hey there...

Do you want to know what I know...

Will you promise not to say...

Oh, oh, oh, oh...nearer...

I want you to be mine…”

The club had become packed to overflowing. Every table was full, and there were girls crammed up against each other, talking excitedly, some of them even starting to scream as the evening progressed. The frenzy that would sweep the world in a very short period was well underway. The boys broke into the next song, James smiling all the while at Susan as he sang.

Lynn noticed that the boys shook their heads, saying “Ooooooooo” in the middle of some of their songs. Their hair was clean, and when they tossed their heads, it went flying around in what would be their signature look that would drive girls crazy.

It was five minutes before midnight when James started singing.

“I’m giving you a letter...

To promise my love to you...

So you’ll know that I will always…

Be so true to you...”

He was looking at Susan as if there was no one else in the room. She looked back at him. Their eyes were locked together. She took a deep breath, trying her best to compose herself, knowing that there was nothing she could do to prevent what was about to happen soon. She tried to smile, then winked, as if teasing him to remember their last intimate moments together. He smiled and winked back, thinking of how he would kiss her, hold her, and touch her right before she got on the bus to leave. Maybe she would still change her mind. He kept singing.

“Keep me in your heart forever...

You know I love you...

Yes, you, only you… love…

You know, I love you...you, only you...”

It was almost two minutes before midnight when James motioned to the boys to play the new song he’d written for Susan. After that, they were going to take a break so James could walk Susan the two blocks down to her hotel to meet the bus. He began.

“Close your eyes while I touch you…

You know how I love you…

Remember me while you’re away…

And then while you are gone…

I will try to go on…

And send all my kisses your way…”

Susan began to cry. Lynn squeezed her hand, holding on tight, just in case she tried to break away or run up onto the stage area. Lynn looked at Ian, and he winked at her. She smiled back.

“I’ll remember your sweetness…

Our moments of sheer bliss…

And know that you’ll come back to me…

And I’ll also remember your tender surrender…

So sure that we always will be…

All my kisses I will send to you…

All my kisses…

Only meant for you…”

As the song wound down into the final lines, Lynn looked down at her and Susan’s hands and saw them start to glow and become transparent. Susan didn’t notice; her focus was glued to James.

“Close your eyes while I touch you…

You know how I love you…”

Susan closed her eyes, almost feeling as if James were touching and kissing her one last time.

“Remember me while you’re away...”

She turned for a brief moment and looked at Lynn, seeing that her entire body was starting to glow faintly, almost pulsing with the music. Then she looked down at herself and saw that the same thing was happening to her. A silent scream tore up from her belly into her throat, but no sound came out of her mouth.

“And then while you are gone…

I will try to go on…

And send all my kisses your way…”

Susan stood up so quickly that the barstool she was sitting on fell backward and clattered to the floor. Mindy looked over and gasped. Susan reached out her arms to James and screamed his name, but it wasn’t loud enough to be heard over the music.

“All my kisses I will send to you...

All my kisses…

Only meant for you...”

James couldn’t quite see her through the haze of smoke, but he could see what appeared to be the outline of Susan and Lynn’s bodies glowing against the stone wall. He didn’t understand what he was seeing.

Derek heard Mindy scream, this time at the top of her lungs. Everyone in the club turned towards their table as James tried to figure out what was happening. But, he kept singing the final words to the song he wrote for Susan.

“All my kisses...

All my kisses...

All my kisses...

Only meant for you…”

Susan finally found her voice and screamed “No!!!” her arms still out-stretched towards James, then both she and Lynn exploded into a million sparkling fragments, just like confetti, and floated upward, outward and away.

The club erupted into raucous shouts and screams. No one could comprehend what had happened. James pulled his guitar strap up and over his head in one swift movement, then ran toward Mindy and the empty table, yelling “NO!!!!!” and dropping to his knees in disbelief and confusion.

But Susan was gone.

The necklace, however, was still around his neck. He grasped the silver ballerina shoes in his hand, tilted back his head, closed his eyes, and moaned Susan’s name over and over again, tears pouring down his face…

 

Chapter Twenty-Two

Back to the Present

Lynn came back quicker than Susan, materializing on one of the beds in Mika and Marta’s cabin right at the stroke of midnight. She felt a little dizzy, but Marta was sitting on the bed next to her, helping her sit up and giving her a glass of wine.

“Here, drink this,” she said. “Mika’s added some herbs to help you come all back together.”

“Where’s Susan?” Lynn asked, looking over at the other bed that was still empty.

Marta looked at Mika with a worried look on her face, then back at Lynn. “She’s fighting it,” was all she said.

“What do you mean fighting it?”

“She doesn’t want to come back yet.”

“But, she has