Say You Will Part 1: Destiny Rules

You Cannot See Her Soul

Monday, January 28, 2002
Hollywood, California
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Stevie turned up the radio in the car as Karen drove them out to Hollywood to the house Lindsey had rented to record in. "Get The Party Started" by P!nk was playing, and Stevie began singing and dancing in the passengers seat against the seatbelt.

"Get this party started on a Saturday night...Everybody's waitin' for me to arrive...Sending out the message to all of my friends...We'll be lookin' flashy in my Mercedes Benz...got lotsa style, check my gold diamond rings...I can go for miles if you know what I mean...I'm comin' out so you better get this party started..."

"Are we hanging around all day or should I wait with you guys?" Karen asked as she drove along the freeway in Monday morning traffic.

"Oh jeez..." Stevie rolled her eyes. "Depends on Mr. Buckingham." She had been referring to Lindsey as Mr. Buckingham for about a week now whenever they spoke of him in the context of the recording they were about to do. She said, "I think it's going to be moderately quick, though. I'll play them the songs, and they'll comment, and we'll be out of there. Lindsey might be in a talkative mood, he might not."

Just then, Sulamith, who'd been lying all cozy in the backseat of the car beside the enormous spirit catcher she was bringing along to watch out over the recording house, barked. Stevie turned around and said, in the voice she used only for her dogs, "We're almost there, little dog. Don't worry." She went back to bopping along to the song on the radio, and when "Get The Party Started" came to an end, she tensed up at the beginning of another song that had been making her think of Lindsey ever since she'd first heard it on the radio a few months ago. It was by Usher...

"When you feel it in your body you found somebody who makes you change your ways, like hanging with your crew...Said you act like you're ready but you don't really know...and everything in your past, you wanna let it go...I've been there, done it, humped around...After all that this is what I found...Nobody wants to be alone...If you're touched by the words to this song, then maybe, you got it, you got it bad..."

Stevie closed her eyes and reclined in her seat. She was on her way to a house Lindsey had rented with Mick and John to record his first new album as a member of Fleetwood Mac since Tango In The Night in 1987. No one had tried to call Christine in England and try to cajole her into coming back for the album; they were respecting her decision to retire. Stevie had no idea how she was going to work with all the guys without Christine around, their Mother Hen, the only one the guys listened to when they needed to be told they were getting out of hand. Stevie was a little worried about being overshadowed as the only woman...but mostly she was worried about keeping it together in front of Lindsey.

They had been talking on the phone at night since September 11. He had been so successful in getting her to sleep that night that she'd called him again the next night, and soon they'd developed a routine. He only sang to her the once; mostly they just talked. They talked about music, what TV shows they were watching, general life news, but they had one rule: no current events. That was what scared her and made her incapable of sleeping through the night. Sometimes she asked him to talk her through the whole routine - pretending to be held, pretending her hair was being stroked, until one night when he'd accidentally said I love you and she told him he was not allowed to say that...it was too much. He had been respectful of that boundary ever since.

One night, she'd asked him how he was free to talk her on the phone every night...

"Kristen goes to bed by eleven, the kids have been asleep for hours by then, and I hang out in my studio until I'm tired," Lindsey explained.