Auld Lang Syne: A Millennium Love Story

In The Stillness Of Remembering

House Of Blues
Mandalay Bay
Las Vegas, Nevada
New Years Eve
Friday, December 31, 1999
(11:55 pm)
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"...and this man standing to my right...my musical director since 1981...who's in charge of my whole...music...thing up here, Mr. Waddy Wachtel!"

Stevie was introducing the members of her band as midnight approached. She had put on her top hat after "Rooms On Fire", and after she introduced her band, it would be the new millennium. The crowd was cheering each person as Stevie said their names, and she whispered into Waddy's ear over the applause, "Have you seen him out there? I asked Carlos and Sharon but no dice."

Waddy shook his head. "Nope. If he's out there, he's probably trying to hide so you don't mess up the show." He watched her look at the floor of the stage and said, "Stevie...that's all the proof you need."

Stevie looked up. "Of what, exactly?"

"Of love." Waddy smiled, adjusting the position of the guitar on his knee. "He wants your show to be good and he wants to see it. It's like 'Gold And Braid' in reverse."

Stevie smiled and kissed her old friend on the cheek. "Waddy...I love you. You are a hidden romantic." She walked off towards her microphone, completely unaware that off to the side of the stage, Waddy stood there feeling just as he had since 1971 - profoundly jealous of Lindsey Buckingham.

The big digital countdown clock above the stage read 11:59:30 when Stevie rallied the attention of the audience. "Are you ready for the new millennium?" she shouted into the mic to uproarious cheers. "Okay we're going to need you to count it down with us up here...welcome to The Year Two Thousand!"

Standing at his seat in the audience, Lindsey listened to the two young women at his side drunkenly giggling and the couple at his other side talking about parking. Stevie and her band began to count down from ten and the audience counted along, and Lindsey joined in, knowing that once he saw her and told her everything, the year 2000 would be the best year of his life...or at least since 1971, the first year he got to know what it was like to sleep beside her every night and wake up to her big, beautiful eyes looking at him with nothing but love every morning.

"...five...four...three...two...one...Happy New Year!"

Balloons and confetti showered the arena as everybody cheered and hugged and kissed and Stevie and the band launched into "Auld Lang Syne". Stevie, top hat and hair being rained down upon with confetti, was hugging Carlos Rio and playfully rocking back and forth with him when Lindsey looked up from his area of the audience. She moved on to Sharon and he watched her happily twirling around and then briefly disappear into darkness before the familiar sound of the drum beat of "Stand Back" filled the room. He watched her toss the black sparkling cape across one shoulder as she began to sing, "No one looked as I walked by...Just an invitation would have been just fine...Said no to him again and again...First he took my heart then he ran..."

Lindsey watched the rest of the show in awe, watching Stevie captivate the entire room and wondering why the hell he ever resented something so beautiful, so perfect, something she was so obviously born to do. He didn't even feel his usual uneasiness when she closed the show with "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You", which he knew she'd written for Joe Walsh after he'd shared the story of his daughter's death. It wasn't about another man; it was about her brilliant way of taking feelings and making them art, and he was falling more and more in love with her with every note she sang.

It was after one o'clock when the show was over, and Lindsey was already beginning to make his way through the arena to get to the backstage area. The year was an hour old, and as far as he was concerned it was an hour too long.

He sat down in her dressing room and waited for the rest of their lives to begin.

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Of all the people Stevie brushed past in the hallway to get to her dressing room in a hurry, the person who seemed the most confused was Karen. She watched as Stevie pushed past everyone as if she was rushing out of a burning building but still trying to be polite, and she asked Waddy, with whom Stevie had been whispering all night on stage, if he knew what was going on.

Waddy shook his head and put his hand on Karen's arm. "All I can say is...don't go in her dressing room. Wait for her to come out. She won't be alone."

Karen understood. She rolled her eyes. All she said back was, "I'll make sure there are tissues."

She stared ahead at the back of Stevie, watching her hair fly out behind her. Lindsey...I swear to God...don't fuck it up this time.

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"Happy New Year, angel."

Stevie stood at the closed door, hugging it and clinging to the doorknob. Lindsey stood up from the couch where he'd been sitting. He was smiling at her, but he could see how uneasy - even terrified - she looked. She was staring at him with big brown eyes that made her look like a frightened baby deer.

"What are you doing here?" She could hear the stammering of her voice.

"Did you get what I sent you?" he asked, slowly making his way towards her. She nodded, unable to respond. "I tried to figure out how to get 'Songbird' to play but I couldn't work it out."

"Lindsey..." She struggled to form words. "It's New Years Eve...what are you doing here, alone? Why aren't you..." She trailed off when he stood close enough to her for her to smell the leather and cologne and marijuana that was the smell of home. He finished her sentence for her.

"At home with my girlfriend and son?" She nodded again. "It's a very long story, Stevie...I really want to tell you all about it...remember that thing you said to me that last night in Michigan? How if I was really not making it out there, I could come to you and you'd take me in?" He was expecting her to give another nervous nod, but she was too stunned, too swept away by how close he was standing to her. She could feel his breath against her, feel his chest rising and falling as he breathed. She stared up into his eyes, saying nothing. "This is me coming to you, Stevie. This is me trying to say I'm not making it...and I'm here tonight to ask you..." He took her hand in his. It was trembling. "...to ask you to take me in."

Stevie finally said, in a tiny voice she didn't recognize, "Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?"

Lindsey shook his head, and then brought her hand to his lips to kiss her tiny fingers. "It's real, angel. I promise you. I know how this must seem...grand romantic gestures and all...but I couldn't just show up without the red roses, the Animal Crackers...I couldn't show up on New Years Eve empty-handed. But I promise you, this isn't a dream, or a trick, or an impulsive move...I'll explain it all, but..." He was standing closer to her now, trapping her against the door. Their eyes were locked together, and they had begun to breathe in perfect harmony. "Can I please give you a New Years kiss first? I know it's after midnight and I missed that but it's been two years since I've kissed you and..."

He didn't get a chance to say any more, because that was when Stevie felt a single tear trickle down her cheek as she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a kiss so passionate he lifted her a few inches from the floor. She was pinned between Lindsey and the dressing room door, their mouths and hands groping for contact, for relief, for answers, and for that moment, she didn't care why he was there or what he would eventually tell her.

She was too busy feeling her heart ache with joy because she was remembering what it felt like to be home.

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