Crystal Visions Part 1: The Reunion

I Have Never Known The Words

Brentwood, California
Sunday, May 20, 2007
(8:30 am)
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"Someone told me long ago...there's a calm before the storm...I know...it's been coming for some time..."

Lindsey pushed the button on the dashboard of his Mercedes to open the sunroof to get a cross-breeze with the windows already open. Creedence Clearwater Revival was on the radio singing "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", and he was trying his best to ignore the memory of a twenty-three-year-old girl with long blonde waves, twirling around a sparsely-decorated living room in a little pink nightgown, singing along to the same song, picking up a little white poodle to dance with and smiling back at him when she caught him in the doorway, smiling at her as if she were the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.

He'd done some laps in the pool and showered and changed, and the lines at Starbucks and the bagel store had been mercifully short, and breakfast sat on the backseat of the car. He began to sing along softly to the song, oddly out of place on such a sunny day, and tried to keep his eyes on the road and stop the image playing in his mind of Stevie dancing with the dog, just minutes before he approached her, set the dog gently down in her little bed, took both of Stevie's hands in his and led her to the bedroom where he kissed her tenderly and lowered her onto their bed, whispering all the while that she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen and he couldn't believe she belonged to him.

He thought instead of the conversation he'd had with her last week on the phone. He'd been in his studio, hiding away from some P.T.A. thing Kristen was hosting in their living room, setting up his new Blackberry and listening to the Beatles Rubber Soul album, and something had prompted him to give Stevie a call when he stored her number in his contacts. They had not spoken for awhile, and he wondered what she was doing, how she was spending her Thursday night.

"Watching a colorized version of It's A Wonderful Life even though it's not Christmas and thinking Ted Turner is insane," she'd said when he asked her that question. "What about you?"

"Escaping the group of suburban mothers and two overzealous dads in my living room talking about a toy drive," he said, and he heard her try to quell her laughter. He said, "Go ahead and laugh, Stevie. I did...of course, I was stoned at the time."

"And are you still?" This time he heard the giggle.

"Guilty," he admitted. "I can't deal with that scene tonight. I was recording all day, and I just can't."

"How's the new album coming out?" She was not about to engage in any Kristen-bashing or family-life-bashing, and he knew that's why she asked that question.

"Pretty well," he said. That was when the uncomfortable silence began, and he let it linger for a few seconds before he said, "Stevie...when did we stop talking like normal people to each other?"

"Which time are you referring to, Linds?" He chuckled a bit; he had to hand it to her on that one.

"Depends on how much time you'd like to spend on the phone tonight," he said. "But seriously, Stevie...I hate that we get five minutes into conversation and just...trail off. We didn't used to be this way, even a couple of years ago...like when we were on tour and we were hanging out and everything was so...I don't know...easy."

"You always start overthinking this stuff when you're stoned, Linds," she said. "Please let's not delve into the whens and whys of our relationship tonight...think of something else to talk about to distract me from this TERRIBLE colorized movie!" She giggled again; he felt his heart stop for a moment.