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

was simply intoxicated at the mere thought of being here and having James talk to her. It seemed so crazy and unreal. And, he told her that he was going to come back and talk to her some more after the next set! No wonder she felt half drunk.

Derek started to sing.

“We’ve known each other for a real long time...

I shared a lot of things with you...

But when you try and take away the girl that’s mine...

Well, that’s when we’re through...

Stay away from my baby now...

I ain’t gonna tell you again...

Yeah, I mean just what I say now…

Stay away from my baby doll now...”

“Holy crap!” she thought. “...Stay away from my baby now? Did that Hilary chick request that song as a warning to me?!”

She glanced across the room again. All the girls’ attention was riveted on the stage, most of them with their eyes on Derek and Ian, but one very obviously staring at James.

“Must be her,” Susan thought, feeling a tiny twang of jealousy herself. “In his bed, huh...well, if she’s his choice, he must not be very damn picky. Looks like she just climbed out of some gutter.”

“God, I’m catty!” she scolded herself. And what was all this about being in someone’s bed? It was the early sixties. Wasn’t everybody all prim and proper in the sixties? She stole another look at the people in the club. Wow! The couple in the front corner looked like they were making out. What kind of club was this anyway?!

“I guess I must have led a sheltered life…Either that or the music scene had different standards even back in the early sixties…”

Her musings ceased when James looked in her direction and smiled. She smiled back and took a sip of wine, not glancing at Hilary to see if she noticed.

Derek continued singing, and Susan tapped her feet on the rungs of her barstool, enjoying the music.

They finished the song and immediately went into another.

“Ropes...My honey’s got me tied up in ropes...

And they’re not the type so easy to see...

Yeah, oh yeah, these ropes of love got a grip on me...

Yeah, they do...Ropes, tight ropes…

I just can’t seem to escape from these ropes...

Can’t find another girl... to cut me free...

Yeah, and oh, these tight ropes of love got such a grip on me, yeah, oh yeah...”

Susan poured herself another glass of wine and started to sing along, not noticing that James was looking at her again.

“My honey’s got me tied up in ropes...

And they’re not the type so easy to see…

Yeah, oh yeah, these ropes of love got a hard grip on me, yeah, oh yeah they do...”

She looked up at him. The song went on. He kept looking at her with an odd little grin on his face. Then he stared directly at her and winked again.

“Please know that when I say to you...

Your lips look so sweet...just like candy…

I wanna hold you and kiss them...

But I just can’t escape from all of these...ropes...”

She choked hearing the song's words related to lips and kissing, thinking about his smoke breath comment again, but didn’t take her gaze away from him. He continued to smile at her.

Her heart was pounding insanely in her chest. She hoped she wouldn’t have a heart attack, but then she remembered she was in her seventeen-year-old body and not the old lady one. She started playing with her necklace again; it was a nervous habit.

“This is not happening...it’s not!” she pinched herself as the song ended. She glanced toward the other side of the room. All the girls were staring at her, some with shy smiles on their faces but others with apparent dislike.

“Oh my,” she thought. “I’d hate to meet any of those mean-looking ones in a dark alley.”

James started into another song.

“Well, I got a honey crazy for me...

Yeah, I got a honey won’t let me be...

Whoa, honey, honey, Arabella...Honey, honey, Arabella...

Honey, honey, whoa, whoa, yeah, oh yeah...”

“Quit staring at me!” she wanted to yell at him. Chill bumps were all over her arms, and she rubbed them as if she were cold...but she was certainly not cold.

One song followed another. She didn’t know most of them as they weren’t songs that the band had ever recorded, but she was enjoying every moment. Sandra came by now and then to chat. She told her that most of the girls on the other side of the room thought it was amusing how James was singling her out. A couple of them were thinking about coming over and saying hello. But, there were two, Hilary and her best friend, Sara, who were angry and jealous at the attention James was paying her.

“Ha! Too bad for them...” Sandra said. She also said she told all of them that Susan would only be here for the week, which somewhat mollified the two jealous girls, but when James had so obviously looked at her during the “Ropes” song with the “sweet lips” line, Hilary was livid.

Derek was singing.

“Yeah...I’m gonna fall right down and sigh cause of you...

I’m gonna fall right down and sigh cause of you...”

The set ended, and Sandra went off to fetch more drinks for the crowd. James took off his guitar and headed towards Susan’s table again, when Hilary approached him, grabbed his arm with both hands, then leaned up and whispered something in his ear.

Susan saw his eyebrows shoot up. He looked down at Hilary, shook his head, and said something to her.

Hilary took a step away from him, hands on her hips. She tossed her head back with a smirk on her face, raised an arm, and pointed at Susan.

Susan couldn’t hear what she said to him, but it was very obviously something derogatory about her.

“Whoa, boy,” she thought.

James said something to Hilary, then turned his back on her and came over to Susan’s table.

“Your girlfriend?” Susan asked.

“Was at one time...wishes she was again,” he responded. “Not going to happen...”

“That sounds rather cold! Especially if she meant something to you before.”

“At one time, I thought she was okay, but she’s been hanging around being too pushy. Now, she’s downright annoying!”

“So, what did she say about me?”

“About you?”

“Yeah, it was obvious! She pointed at me and said something to you.”

“It wasn’t very nice,” was all he would say.

“Well, I was thinking to myself that I’d hate to meet her and her friends in a dark alley, that’s for sure!”

“Don’t worry about her. Let’s forget her. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“How did you know the words to “Ropes?” Have you heard it before?”

“Um, gee, I must have...not sure where. Why do you ask?”

Ian came up to the table then.

“Going to introduce me?” he asked.

“I’m Susan,” she said, extending her hand, grateful for the change of subject.

“From America,” added James. “California.”

“Hallo,” said Ian, looking her up and down and trying to get her measure. He was pretty sure James was going to propose a wager on this little, innocent-looking American. She appeared fairly easy prey, but you could never tell with these foreign girls. And the way she was dressed! She looked like a nursery schoolmarm. It might not be so easy, after all...

Derek yelled from the stage area, “You bums get back up here; we’ve one more set!”

Ian took Susan’s hand and shook it before turning and going back to the stage.

James looked at Derek and nodded his head, “In a minute!”

He turned back to Susan. “Just so you don’t have to walk down any dark alleys, would you like to go out for a cup of tea when we’re done here? Then I could walk you back to your hotel.”

How convenient, he mused, her staying in a hotel alone and all.

She hesitated, feeling speechless. James, her dream prince, was asking her out?!

“Holy crap! What should I do, what should I do?”

“James, come on!” yelled Derek, strumming his guitar.

“Oh...okay...sure...that is, if you really want to...I mean...just for a cup of tea...”

“When we announce the last song, have Sandra take you back behind the stage upstairs to the practice room. I’ll meet you there.”

And he was gone, back on the stage, slipping his guitar strap back over his shoulder. He leaned over and said something to Ian and Derek. Derek looked around at Susan, then he and Ian nodded their heads and laughed.

Derek started singing.

“Running to and fro, hard work...

Working at the mail...never fail...

Get the mail...Yeah, some rotten deal...

For just a meal…Ow! Too much funny business...

Too much funny business...

Too much funny business for me to work there again.”

The club had been getting more and more crowded as the night wore on. People were drinking, laughing, and singing along with the band. The girls on the other side of the room were getting boisterous and shouting requests.

It was almost 1:00 a.m. when Ian finally stepped up to the microphone and said, ‘This is our last number,” and started singing.

“The sun is moving away...the end of another great day...

While the sunlight turns to night light...I’ll be gone to stay...

Kiss me now then I’ll go...You’ll miss me that I do know...

While the sunlight turns to night light...I will go away...”

Sandra was busy picking up glasses when James caught her eye and motioned with his head for her to go over to Susan.

“Hey, so what’s that about?” she asked.

“He said you’d take me upstairs to the practice room. He’s going to walk me back to my hotel so I don’t get jumped in the alley by Hilary and Sara.”

“Oh, ho!” she exclaimed. “So that’s where the wind lies.”

“No, no, no...Don’t misunderstand. He might have ideas, but I’m not that kind of girl. Does he think I’m a groupie? Do I look like a groupie?”

“Groupie?! You mean like some of the girls on the other side of the room?” Sandra tilted her head back and laughed. “Oh, no! You certainly don’t look like any groupie!”

She cleared her throat. “Don’t matter what kind of girl you are; if James wants you, he’ll have you, you know.”

“What in the hell are you talking about? I just met the guy!”

“Well, I’ve never been tempted his way, but I have to say those eyes are the dreamiest I’ve ever seen. They pull you in like a magnet...at least they do most girls. They say he’s a real heart-breaker, you know, but once he decides he wants a girl, he always has her. Just crooks his finger, and down she goes.”

“Down?”

“Yeah, on her back, ya know.”

Susan gulped. “Well, he won’t be breaking my heart or ‘having’ me! He’s just taking me to tea and walking me back to my hotel.”

“Oh, so it’s tea too, is it? Well, just be on your guard, that’s all I’m sayin’, Luv. What time should we meet tomorrow and where?”

“How about my hotel...you know the one down the street, the Claridon.”

“Ooooo, the fanciest one in town, I’d say! Sure, and what time?”

“Well, since it’s so late, how about 10:00, or is that still too early?”

“No, that’ll be just fine. In the lobby then?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

The song was coming to an end.

“I’ll feel the wind blow...

Then watch the river flow...’fore I go away...

Oh, yeah, I will go away…

Perhaps there I will stay…

But, I’m going anyway…”

The girls on the