Crystal Visions Part 1: The Reunion

In The Stillness Of Remembering

The Greek Theater
Los Angeles, California
Sunday, May 20, 2007
(5:30 pm)
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"I'm concerned about the wardrobe and hair change for the encore."

Karen looked over at Stevie as she sat across the room from her in the makeup chair, two large curlers looking like soup cans on top of her head, the rest of her hair pulled back into a ponytail as she sucked the largest size of iced tea sold by Starbucks through a green straw. Sound check was next, a quick run-through of "Edge Of Seventeen" with the "Nightbird" extended sequence, "Dreams", "I Need To Know" and "Beauty And The Beast".

"It's cool...just twist the hair up and clip it, I'll slide into the furry top...it'll be two minutes." Stevie smiled, Sulamith in her lap, and she waved the dog's paw at Karen and used her high, squeaky Sulamith voice to say, "Don't worry, Auntie Karen. Mommy is sooooooo good at the quick change!" Both women laughed, as did her makeup artist - no one in the room, even the dog, believed Stevie was good with time.

Karen thought of something and asked, "Hey...if he does show up...won't 'Beauty And The Beast' be awkward?"

Stevie laughed. "Oh jeez...I think we're over that by now!" The song was about Mick and Lindsey knew that, and she'd always remembered how big it had been of him when he'd heard The Wild Heart years ago for the first time and called to compliment her on it, telling her "Beauty And The Beast" was "masterful." They'd talked about it over the phone for a few minutes...and again in person in the middle of the night, gripping pillows under their heads in her bedroom after making love for hours, sharing whispered secrets in the darkness as naturally as ever, Stevie's eyes alive and dancing as he listened to her talk about recording it surrounded by candles as Mike Fleetwood, Mick's father, was dying. He'd pulled her back into his arms and kissed her long and deep and tenderly and told her she was "the beauty" and he would be the one to "die of grieving" when she left...rather, when he had to leave in the morning so Joe wouldn't see him there. He'd held onto her as tightly as could for the rest of the night and she'd slept peacefully in his arms, torn between feelings of guilt because she really loved Joe...a lot...and feelings of inner peace and contentment because no matter how she felt about Joe, in Lindsey's arms, she was home.

Karen walked off to handle some backstage details and Stevie took advantage of the quiet moment, letting Eilynn paint on the cut crease of her eye makeup and thinking of what she had set in motion.

No one but Karen knew what she had done, just as no one but Karen knew why she'd done it. She thought back to the evening in Chicago almost three years earlier, the moment she'd noticed the Snapple bottle in her dressing room and realized Karen had seen at least a few seconds of the scene - her sprawled against the tiny couch at the back of the room, desperately clinging to Lindsey as he lay above her and they'd kissed like it was their last moment on earth. She thought of the wild look in his eyes as he'd come to her door, the intensity of his kisses, the unbelievable sensation of him pressed against her just exactly where she'd been aching to feel him for so long, the warmth of his hands on her skin, his ragged breaths of desire matching her desperate moans, and the exquisite, all-consuming feeling of his weight on top of her. She'd have done anything in that moment - given away her fortune, given up government secrets, robbed a bank, sold her entire song catalog - if it meant just she could have just a few more minutes with him on top of her that way, enveloping her completely and taking her in as if she were a starving child. In that moment, no matter her protests out loud to him, something had shifted that evening, listening to him tell her how only she could understand his amazing achievement that day, that she should have been the one by his side because that's how they'd begun their careers, feeling the warmth and unabashed love and longing of his kisses, his touches, the closeness that made her feel like they were one person again, one heart...Buckingham Nicks, the way it should have been.