Mirror, The (39 page)

"What if Mr. Greer comes out here?" James asked. "He likes to smoke in the park. I've seen him."

"If he does, I'll kiss him too."

James laughed again.

"You're out of control, girl. I may have to cool you off."

Ginny raised an eyebrow.

"Do you
really
want to do that?"

James sighed and shook his head.

"No. I guess not. I may be late for my shift, but I'm not stupid."

Ginny smiled.

"I didn't think so. I'll only keep you a few minutes."

"What's gotten into you, anyway?" James asked.

"I'm just in a good mood. I've been in a good mood ever since you threw those tickets on the table. That was so sweet, James. I can't even begin to tell you how much that meant," Ginny said. She kissed him lightly on the lips. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome."

"Cindy says thanks too."

"I'm just glad she can go," James said. "I was sure Theresa was going to take that ticket. I was sure of it. Who passes up the Beatles? That's like passing up Chubby Checker. She's already having boyfriend remorse."

Ginny laughed at the comparison but conceded that James had a point. She couldn't believe that Theresa Green had given up a chance to see the world's most popular band. When she told her father that she planned instead to attend a blues show with her boyfriend, Marvin Green gave the ticket to James, who in turn gave it to Cindy. She was the only person he considered.

Ginny gazed at James for a moment and sighed.

"I'm having boyfriend remorse too."

"How's that?"

"I'm remorseful that I let three months go by without seeing more of you."

"Oh, jeez, there you go again."

"I'm serious, James. That's going to be my greatest regret when I leave."

"You're still planning to go?"

Ginny nodded.

"We have to. It's not working out financially. We're going to leave in three weeks but not before you and I have some serious fun. We're going to spend every day together until then. OK?

"I'm all right with that," James said.

"I thought you would be."

Ginny pulled her arms from his shoulders and put her hands in his.

"I'd better let you go back in before Mr. Greer really does come out here."

James smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. I guess you'd better."

This time James took the lead and gave Ginny a soft kiss.

"I'll see you later tonight," he said.

"Count on it."

Ginny watched him cross the street and walk along the side of the grocery store toward the front of the building. When James turned the corner and disappeared from sight, Ginny collected herself and started walking toward the bus stop on Forty-Fifth. She made it halfway down the block when she saw a blond water-polo player step out of a Corvette parked along the curb.

"Steve? What are you doing here?"

"I've got a better question, Ginny. What are you doing with him?"

"I don't have to answer that."

"Sure you do," Steve said. "You told me to my face you weren't seeing another guy. You lied to me, Ginny. You lied twice."

Ginny simmered as she considered the accusation. Yes, she had lied. She'd lied through her teeth because she thought it would be the best way to leave the life of Steve Carrington. She realized now that it had been a big mistake. She should have been honest from the beginning and told him to take a hike.

"I did," Ginny said. "I'm sorry. Now please get out of my way."

Steve grabbed her arm as she tried to pass him on the sidewalk.

"That's not good enough, Ginny. I want to know why."

"Why what? Why I prefer someone like James over someone like you? Figure it out, Steve."

"What does he have that I don't?"

Ginny huffed and looked away. She wanted to let him have it. She wanted to stick him with a verbal knife and twist it twice, but she couldn't think of the words. So she answered his question directly and bluntly.

"I'll tell you what he has," Ginny said. "He has class. He's kind and thoughtful and humble. He also has a great sense of humor and a family I
like
. Is that enough for you?"

"So what are you saying? Are you saying it's over?"

"Yes, counselor. It's over. You lost your case. Now move!"

Ginny stepped forward. When Steve grabbed her arm again, she shook it off and took a few more steps. When he demanded that she come back, she ignored him. She walked down the sidewalk as fast as she could toward the intersection and a bus stop that was calling her name.

She was done with this unpleasantness. She was done with all of it. All she wanted to do now was put the past behind her, grab what enjoyment she could, and walk – no, run – to the world she called home.

CHAPTER 68: GINNY

Friday, August 21, 1964

It began in a simmer and ended in a boil.

For nearly ninety minutes, four acts treated a capacity crowd to music that defined the day. Bill Black opened the show with rockabilly honed at the side of Elvis Presley. The Righteous Brothers kept it going with blue-eyed soul. Along with the Exciters and Jackie DeShannon, they succeeded in keeping the audience entertained
and
in their seats.

The band that followed did not. From the time it rushed onto the stage at half past nine, it fought a losing battle with an audience that seemed bound and determined to raise the roof, test the limits of law enforcement, and show a city what it really meant to be young, wild, and free.

Ginny had expected a scene. As a high-school junior, she had read a magazine article about this spectacle. She had read about the pre-concert build-up, the delirious crowds at the airport, and the mayhem at the Edgewater Inn. She knew that madness awaited but not madness like this. The frenzy around her was far more intense than anything she could have imagined.

The sounds hit her first. Ginny had been to football games and rock concerts where fans made more noise than a jet engine, but even they could not compare to the human drama at the Seattle Center Coliseum. The shrill, deafening screams cascading from balconies and ricocheting off walls were jarring, cutting, and relentless. They were the kind that shattered eardrums, rattled bones, and rearranged cells.

Then there were the sights – the surreal, stunning, mesmerizing sights that seemed stripped from a newsreel. No matter where Ginny looked, she saw movement – random, constant, violent movement. She saw young girls bounce in their chairs, tear at their hair, and clutch their throats and older ones throw jellybeans, flashbulbs, and themselves at an open stage. She saw wild women and girls gone gaga. She saw estrogen on fire.

"This is
insane
!" Ginny screamed.

"It is," James said. He broke into a smile. "Oh, baby, it is."

Ginny pulled him close and put her mouth to his ear.

"Thank you so much, James. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is the best time I have ever had. I will never forget this."

"You're welcome," James said.

"What?"

James laughed.

"I said, 'Enjoy the show.'"

Ginny heard the suggestion and proceeded to do just that. She kissed James on the cheek, grabbed his arm, and rejoined the fun. Like most in the crowd of fourteen thousand, she wanted to savor every second.

There was much to savor. When the Beatles had run into the arena, Ginny felt like she had been dropped in a dream – a dream where the dreamers could interact with what they saw and change events as they went along. This was not a newsreel on the History Channel but rather a tangible experience that she could relive in her mind for as long as she lived.

The band itself was impossibly young. Ringo Starr, the oldest of the four, was only twenty-four, with John Lennon just a year behind. George Harrison, the youngest, was twenty-one. Paul McCartney, twenty-two, looked eighteen. Dressed in glossy dark blue suits and ties, the Fab Four looked nothing like the counter-culture icons they would soon become.

Ginny focused more on what she could see than on what she could hear because the crowd had all but pushed the band to the background. Even from her seat ten rows from the stage, the music was little more than an accompaniment to a chorus of screams that never ended.

That didn't make the spectacle any less appealing. The audience was almost as interesting as the band. With the playing of each song, girls and women, who outnumbered boys and men more than twenty to one, went from frenzied to hysterical to delirious. One girl two rows up spun in circles and started to cry. Another fainted and fell to the floor. Dozens of others shook, rattled, and rolled when the Beatles broke into "Can't Buy Me Love." It simply didn't stop.

When she turned to her left, Ginny saw that those in her own group were also having a good time – particularly the girls. Cindy and Bernice raised their hands and stomped their feet every time the Beatles started a song and hugged each other every time they ended one.

Ginny loved watching the two get into the music, just as she had enjoyed listening to them chatter about boys, Girl Scouts, and high school on the ride to the concert. They had bonded like sisters almost from the moment they had met.

She didn't know whether Cindy Jorgenson and Bernice Green had been friends the first time 1964 had rolled around, but she had little doubt they would the second. Like Mike and James and even she and James, they would ignore their superficial differences, celebrate the things they had in common, and prove to those around them that friendship defied the bounds of race.

Ginny also took a moment to look at Mike and Katie. She liked seeing smiles on their faces, but she knew that the smiles masked serious pain. Mike Hayes was about to lose the two women who mattered most to him. Katie was about to leave the love of her life. Ginny did not at all envy her sister's situation. Then again, she didn't particularly envy her own.

When she glanced again at James, she saw someone
she
did not want to leave. Of all the boys she had ever dated, none had filled her with as much joy as the one standing at her side. She hated the thought of walking away, but she knew she would. She didn't have a choice.

Ginny thought of the people around her a moment more and then returned her attention to the stage, where the lads from Liverpool shifted seamlessly from "Roll Over Beethoven" to "Long Tall Sally." The crowd roared its approval. Ginny laughed as she pondered the durability of the average eardrum and the lifespan of human vocal chords.

As the last song neared an end, Ginny threw her arm over Katie and gave her a hug. She felt bad about fighting with her sister over nitpicky things and wanted to send her a message. No matter what challenges they faced in the next two to three weeks, they would face them together.

Ginny returned to James just as the Beatles took their bows and ran off the stage to the shock and dismay of the screaming faithful. They would not remain in the building long. Ginny knew from the magazine article that they would soon pile into an ambulance and try to slip past unsuspecting fans to their hotel. She knew they would make it, just as she knew she would make it safely to
her
temporary home.

Unlike the Beatles, though, Ginny didn't want to move quickly to her destination. She wanted a long, traffic-filled drive back to northeast Seattle. She wanted to talk and laugh with people who mattered and know that she had just had the experience of a lifetime.

CHAPTER 69: GINNY

Monday, August 24, 1964

"You're quitting?"

"We prefer to call it giving notice," Ginny said.

"You're quitting," Wade Greer said.

"We don't want to quit, Mr. Greer. We really don't. We like it here."

"Then why are you quitting?"

"We have new work and school opportunities in California."

Greer laughed.

"In other words you're homesick."

"We're homesick," Ginny said as she smiled sheepishly.

Greer glanced at Katie.

"Are you homesick too?"

Katie nodded.

"Well, I can't say I'm all that surprised. My own daughter came home from college after one semester. Some birds aren't meant to fly too far from home."

"That's a good analogy, sir," Ginny said. "When it comes to flying, we're dodos."

Greer sighed and leaned back in his desk chair.

"Would an immediate quarter-an-hour raise make a difference?"

"I'm afraid not, sir. We've already told our parents we're coming home."

"Then I guess it's official," Greer said. "We're all going to miss you here. You're both hard workers. The customers love you. Hell, the courtesy clerks love you."

Ginny and Katie turned red.

"No need to blush, ladies. It's a compliment," Greer said. "It's also my way of saying I don't miss much around here."

"You don't, sir," Ginny said. "When it comes to your workers, you're no dodo."

Greer laughed.

"I'm going to miss that too," he said. "Well, I should let you go. This is your day off and all. Be sure to let me know when you'll be available for a send-off. I know the staff will want to throw you a party."

"We'll do that, sir," Ginny said. "Thank you."

"Thanks," Katie added.

Ginny followed Katie out of the manager's office and into the main part of the store. A minute later they approached Checkout 2, where Mike and James bagged groceries for three attractive college-age women. The twins waved as they passed by.

"We'll see you tonight," Ginny said.

"I'm looking forward to it," James said.

When the girls exited the store and stepped onto the hot pavement of the parking lot, Silent Katie spoke up. She wore a worried face.

"I don't like the way those girls looked at Mike."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"I mean they looked interested."

"Get used to it, Katie. We're leaving. We'll be out of here in two weeks. You don't expect Mike to give up dating when we're gone, do you?"

Katie frowned.