Fireflies (Double Love Series Part 2)

The Ones That Live On

Penn Castle
Dorset, United Kingdom
Christmas Day
Sunday, December 25, 2022
(6:00 am)
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"Why not think about times to come...and not about the things that you've done? If your life was bad to you...just think what tomorrow will do..."

Christine sat alone at the kitchen island on a barstool chair, sipping coffee from rose-patterned china and clutching at a navy blue cardigan over her pajamas, looking out at the gray, drizzly morning and thinking three things - she missed Starbucks coffee, it was Christmas morning, and this cold, rainy morning with her rose china cup was the most English moment she'd had in ages. She almost laughed at her own self.

The lyrics to "Don't Stop" had been in her head all night; she'd even dreamed of them, the way they'd performed it for The Dance for television twenty-five years ago, the U.S.C. marching band staying with them after "Tusk". She remembered all of them retreating beneath the stage one by one, Mick the last, running his sticks over the chimes attached to his drum kit and giving that Mick Fleetwood look, before she returned to the stage to sit at the piano to perform "Songbird", as always. Stevie had confided in her years ago that Lindsey had been waiting for her in her dressing room with a dozen red roses and a box of her beloved Animal Crackers that Friday night in May 1997 as she'd sat above them singing, "'Cause I feel that when I'm with you, it's alright; I know it's right." It had become a tradition of theirs, Stevie told her, and Christine remembered saying something like "glad I could put you in the mood" or some other sex joke between good female friends. Secretly, the whole thing had moved her to tears.

But "Don't Stop" was the song in her mind this morning, thinking back on last night, after Lindsey had placed the gigantic, sparkling engagement ring on Stevie's finger that Christine herself had helped him pick out over three phone calls early in the morning as Stevie and John slept beside them, respectively...then during a secret afternoon trip to L.A. to Harry Winston's and DeBeers to compare items, prices and guarantees. She'd hugged him in the front seats of his car outside Harry Winston and said, "Good job, L.B. I'll help you hide it if you need, or else just text me if you panic." Lindsey had told her he was less nervous about proposing to Stevie than he'd ever been to do anything in seventy-three years, and they'd driven off in the direction of lunch in Hollywood, the radio already playing "Have A Holly, Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives a week before Thanksgiving and both of them rolling their eyes and groaning in agreement that this whole Christmas-earlier-every-year thing was out of control these days. They'd switched to a station playing "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin and found a great place for fish and chips before he drove her home and profusely thanked her.

They had all danced around to Christmas music last night, breaking out champagne from the bottles they'd been keeping for New Years Eve, and it was someone's suggestion to put on "Don't Stop" and dance around and have a group singalong to the upbeat lyrics and tune. Christine remembered the day she'd first played it for everyone at the studio in Sausalito, everyone uniting despite their conflicts on a gray afternoon, singing along on the second round at the piano. Stevie had informed her that she had taken Lindsey home that evening after a long, painful week of particularly bitter arguments between them, and how for just a moment, on that one sweet, romantic Friday evening, "Don't Stop" had made them set aside their differences and unite in the spirit of how they used to be in the beginning.

So lost in thought was Christine at six o'clock on Christmas morning that she did not hear the scuffling sound of slippers on the tiled kitchen floor, approaching her. She did not realize it was Stevie, dressed in gray Ugg slippers and a long black silk robe, wearing her tinted glasses, her hair askew, wandering into the kitchen. She had not expected to find anyone else awake so early, so she jumped a bit and said, "Chris!"