The Necklace - The Dusky Club, June 1962 - Linda S Rice (books to read fiction txt) 📗

fingers, she was sure she would faint. She inhaled sharply, her eyes flying to his. She quit breathing as their eyes locked. He was so damned handsome! And those eyes of his…

“Perhaps you’d be interested in taking a ride on the Monorail with me?” he asked.

“The Monorail?”

“Yes, it goes all around the park, as you probably know, and it even makes a stop at the Disneyland Hotel. We could have a cup of tea.”

She sucked in her breath. “You mean…leave the park?!”

“Just for a bit. Perhaps I could even sing to you…”

A weak “Oh” was all she could manage.

He let go of her hair, sensing he was making her nervous.

And, he knew full well he was making her nervous. He knew the effect he had on girls, especially those that were fans of the band. They constantly chased him and just about threw themselves at his feet. Being in a band that was now world-famous had its drawbacks, but having beautiful girls pining to be with him, was one of the bonuses.

He assessed the girl standing in front of him, knowing that his closeness was affecting her. Although it was rather dim in the room, he could still see she was one of the loveliest girls he’d ever encountered. She was just a few inches shorter than him, with a very trim yet shapely body. She wore a pink, sleeveless sundress with a modest neckline, yet there was still a hint of cleavage peeking out at him from the top. Her tanned skin was flawless, and her face and hair looked almost like the Sleeping Beauty character behind the glass window. He wanted to touch her skin as he had her soft and silky hair.

It was her eyes, however, that he found captivating. They were deep emerald green, unlike any eyes he’d ever seen before. His thoughts shocked him for a moment. He was typically not so quickly captivated by a pretty face. Most of the time, they all seemed the same to him. He wondered how old she was. It was difficult to determine in the room's dim light, but he assumed that she was likely of age since she was alone.

He wanted to find out more about this girl for some reason…her name…what she looked like outside the dimness of the room. It was as if the Sleeping Beauty castle had cast some kind of spell over him.

As if she could read his mind, Susan flinched and moved towards the other set of stairs leading down through the rest of the attraction where a second door led out of the castle. She was more than nervous; she suddenly and unexpectedly felt panicked. Here was her dream prince right in front of her, asking her to leave Disneyland with him, and she was so unnerved and flustered that she could barely breathe.

The thought of spending more time with him, having him touch more than just her hair, sent terrified shivers down her spine.

She had to leave. She had to get out of the castle and away from him. She didn’t know why she was so frightened, but she began to shake uncontrollably before turning on her heel and racing from the room and down the stairs, hair flying behind her, as fast as her unsteady legs could carry her.

Right before she reached the bottom, she glanced over through one of the windows and saw the scene with Prince Phillip waking up Princess Aurora with love’s first kiss. She choked on a sob, and tears began to blur her eyes.

As she passed the final window with the dancing scene and the flashing blue and pink lights changing Sleeping Beauty’s dress color, she heard footsteps behind her and knew it was James.

“Wait!” she heard him yell. “Where are you going?! What’s your name?”

But, by the time he reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped out into the bright sunlight, Susan was gone.

 

Chapter One

46 Years Later

“Thanks for taking me to the airport, John,” Susan said, hefting one of several suitcases into the back of her Honda Civic. “I really appreciate it! Donald had an important court case this morning and had to be there, otherwise, he would have dropped me off.”

“No problem,” said John, putting the last suitcase in the car and closing the trunk. “You said you’re only going on a seven-day cruise? It looks like you must have packed enough for a month or more!”

“Yeah, well,” said Susan, “I like to have choices, you know. Girls like options.”

“Uh huh,” he responded, opening the door on the passenger side for her.

Susan slid into the seat and fastened her seatbelt while John went around to the driver’s side, got in, and started up the car.

“So,” said John, “What made you and Lynn decide to go on a cruise together without Ernest and Donald? Couldn’t they get time off?”

“No. Donald is involved in one of his big court cases, and Ernest is working on some kind of superconductor or secret government project. They don’t have time for us, and we’re feeling ignored. So, we decided it would be fun to take a girl’s cruise. Plus, I’m still unsettled after going to that concert last year in Texas. I just felt like I needed a distraction.”

“Oh, the concert where you went to see James, you mean?”

“Yeah. Seeing him was like a dormant volcano came alive again. I shouldn’t have gone.”

“Susan, it’s been fifty years, you know…”

“Oh, I know, I know, but you remember how it was with me in junior high and high school…Everybody knew about me and my ‘James thing,’ especially poor Brian. I still pity the guy having to put up with me and my infatuation or whatever you’d call it.”

“Oh yeah, I remember your ‘James thing.’ Everybody in school knew about it. Brian and I are still close friends, you know; we play Frisbee together a couple of times a week.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. I knew you were still friends, but I didn’t realize you see him that often. Sometimes I think about him and wonder if he remembers the horrible thing he did to me.”

“What horrible thing? I always wondered what broke the two of you up. Even though he was my best friend at the time, he never really said what happened. You guys went steady for how long? Four years? A lot of people were sure you’d end up getting married after we graduated, and then all of a sudden, you were with Donald and ended up marrying him.”

“Well, the ‘horrible thing,’ as I call it, had to do with James. Brian was picking me up from an after school class I was taking at the university, and when I got in the car, he had this big, giant grin on his face. When I asked him what that was all about, he just turned up the radio and started to laugh. The news was on, and they were saying how James had just gotten married. I was beside myself…I started screaming and crying. And he just kept laughing and laughing.”

“Wow…I didn’t know that…”

“And then, he rubbed it in that James had married someone named Susan, and that it wasn’t me. I remember him saying it was the happiest day of his life. It was the most miserable day of mine. I had a crazy plan to fly off to England after I graduated and throw my virginal body in front of James, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist me. I envisioned him retiring from the band and us living happily ever after somewhere in the countryside. Pretty silly, I know, but he was my world back then.

When Brian started laughing, I remember leaping out of the car and running away from him to the bus stop, but he caught up with me; I made him take me home. I never forgave him for laughing at me. I never will. My bubble was burst, and I was devastated. But for Brian to laugh at me and rub it in… Sorry, I know he’s still your friend, but…”

“Hey, Susan, he was probably happy just because he was tired of having to compete with James, and he likely thought that would be the end of your infatuation with him. Face it; it wasn’t as if you would ever have had a chance to be with James anyway; he was so out of reach for you.”

“Maybe, but I still harbored the unrealistic idea that I really would be with James someday, and I knew there would never be an end to my feelings for him. Obviously, I was right, huh? He’s so deeply embedded in my heart that I don’t think I’ll ever get him pried out of it.”

“So, what does Donald think about your ‘James thing?’ He can’t be very excited about it. Especially being married to you for forty-four years now.”

“He’s man enough not to be threatened by it. He knows he’s number one with me, despite my teenage musings over James from time to time. It’s not like James has seriously affected my life or the raising of our children or anything. Besides, and this is something I’ve never told anyone but Lynn…”

John looked over at Susan and raised his eyebrows.

“A couple of months after James got married, I was standing in front of my easel in art class, looking outside at the rain and feeling pretty dismal. As I looked out, I sent a prayer to the Universe. I asked if I couldn’t have James, which I knew deep down inside was an unobtainable dream anyway, then please, could I have someone just like him. As I looked out at the clouds, they parted for just a moment, and a ray of sun came down and lit up the window next to me. And, you’ll think this is weird, but Donald passed me a note in the next class asking me for my phone number. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but later…”

“That’s pretty incredible, Susan. A prayer answered! So, do you think Donald is a lot like James?”

“I have no way of knowing. I’ve just always had James up on this pedestal, making him near perfect in my mind. He helped me get through my miserable and abusive childhood. When things get bad in my life, or I’m feeling lonely, he’s always been someone to run to in my mind…in my dreams…”

“Well, I think Donald is one fantastic guy. Maybe going on this cruise with Lynn will take your mind off James. And, maybe you’re right that you shouldn’t have gone to that concert last year to see him. I still can’t even believe how popular he still is, going all over the place at his age and putting on those mega-concerts. Sounds like seeing him stirred the pot of memories for you.”

“You could certainly say that! Hey, here we are at the airport already. I do appreciate this. You’re a great friend, John!”

“Happy to help you out, and I hope you and Lynn have a great time.”

“Oh, I know we will! We both love cruises!”

John pulled the car up to the curb at the American Airlines terminal, and both he and Susan got out. John helped Susan get her luggage to the curbside check-in, then hugged her goodbye.

Susan smiled in anticipation of being with her best friend, Lynn, and cheerfully walked into the airport to the security line. An hour later, her plane lifted off the ground, and she was winging her way to Texas, where Lynn would pick her up before driving them both to Galveston and the ship.

The flight to Dallas/Fort Worth was three hours. Susan had