Fireflies (Double Love Series Part 2)

Epilogue: What You Had And What You Lost (Part 2 Finale)

Penn Castle
Dorset, United Kingdom
Saturday, December 31, 2022
(New Years Eve)
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"Across the crowded disco room through a maze of dancing people...she sat so quiet and all alone, wanting to catch the disco fever..."

Stevie and Christine were thoroughly unconcerned that that the guys were not enjoying the disco music. They were having a ball just dancing with each other to "Contact" by Edwin Starr, Lindsey sitting on the sidelines and reminding them of the absurdity of the fact that the man who recorded this song in 1979 was the sane man who, at the height of the United States' involvement in Vietnam in 1970, had sung a protest song begging the question, "War! What is it good for?" as well as the response, "Absolutely nothing!"

"Spoil sports, one and all!" Stevie decried as she spun around courtesy of Christine's hand in midair to twirl her. To Christine she said, "Chris! Remember when we told J.C. to go fuck himself without saying a word by sneaking out to that random disco in, like, the Midwest or somewhere...and spent the night totally dancing like normal girls at a normal club on a normal night out?"

"Hey, did J.C. ever find out?" Christine asked, leaning in as she took Stevie's hand again...her turn to twirl.

Stevie's voice had that extra squeaky tone in it which Christine knew meant it was a hilarious secret she was going to reveal. She said, "He almost did...you'll absolutely die when you hear how come!"

Mick chimed in then from his seat beside the fire. "Wait! Was that the time he got upset about that the velvet bag was missing and it reappeared by magic the next morning?"

"Yes!" Stevie stopped dancing for a moment and explained, "We were not going to go dancing without coke, for heaven sakes! We took it with us!"

This caught the attention of Lindsey, who said, "Oh my God, Stevie, is that why J.C. and Curry knocked on my door like the cops that night and demanded I tell them what stuff I had on me?" He was insistent, but he was laughing. Stevie shrugged.

"Eh...you probably deserved it," she teased. The fact that the drama and intensity of the conflicts they'd been through over forty years ago had been reduced to friendly teasing seemed almost unreal to them now. She held out her arms to him and tried to pull him up to dance with her, singing along in a silly voice to match the chorus of the song, "You were lookin' at me! I was lookin' at you!" And successful in her quest to get him to dance, she twirled happily into his arms, whispering twenty-year-old lyrics in his ear as he held her close.

"It always helps to heal the wounds if I can get you to dance."

Lindsey kissed her before spinning her around again, and when she landed against him again, a bit dizzy, it was his turn to whisper in her ear.

"You're the life of the party tonight but you've been the life of my party for fifty-six years, sweet girl."

Mick rose from his seat and left the room without a word. Lindsey was swaying his fiancé to the disco beat, Christine had taken a break from dancing to mix another pitcher of margaritas, and John, sensing something was wrong with his best friend of over fifty years, followed him all the way out to the kitchen and through the tiny kitchen door to the side of the house. He found Mick standing out in the cold, damp air of an English winter night, lighting a cigarette.

"Shades of 1969, isn't it?" John motioned towards the cigarette in Mick's hand.

"I'm being European," Mick announced with a devilish grin. He inhaled deeply from the cigarette and tapped his ash to the cement floor below him.