I Will Run To You

Will You Please Make Up Your Mind (Part 3)

Buffalo, New York
Saturday, July 2, 1983
(11:30 pm)
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"Happy birthday to you...Happy birthday to you...Happy birthday dear Jess...Happy birthday to you!"

The restaurant downstairs at the only five-star hotel in Buffalo had been paid a handsome amount of money to remain open until one o'clock so that the Nicks family could celebrate their leader turning fifty-eight. Jess sat at the head of the table as his family sang to him over an elaborate chocolate cake, and leaned over out of his chair to make a wish on the candles he blew out while they clapped. He looked for a moment into the eyes of the woman with whom he'd shared his life for thirty-seven years, and Barbara smiled knowingly at the wish she knew he was making.

I wish for my baby girl to find the peace, the happiness and the safety she so desperately needs after everything she's been through these last ten years.

"Okay now let's boogie while they cut this bad boy up!" Stevie announced grandly, standing up from the table and motioning to the waiter who'd been paid double his wages to come over to dish out coffee and cake to the Nicks family. Someone Jess didn't see pressed a button on the sound system, and the room filled with the sound of Hank Williams, one of his favorite artists from his younger days. He caught Stevie smiling at him, as if to ask if he was enjoying his birthday so far.

"It's perfect, kiddo," he said. "Come on...let's do it like we did when you were three and this one was on in the house and you danced on the dining room table."

Stevie laughed at the memory and took her father's outstretched hand. "One dancing Teedee coming up!"

"Why don't you love me like you used to do?" Hank Williams sang in the song Stevie used to love once upon a time when her father and grandfather would play it at the bar and at home. "How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe? My hair's still curly and my eyes are still blue...Why don't you love me like you used to do?"

Lindsey stood off in the corner of the room near the table, his eyes moving from Christopher at the table, lighting his girlfriend's cigarette, to Barbara, who had picked up her camera and was taking pictures of her husband and daughter dancing. He felt strangely like an outsider and a part of the family all at once, his eyes moving towards the two people dancing when he heard the unmistakable sound of giggling. The Stevie giggle. He felt his heart in his throat and he couldn't stop smiling.

"Daddy, stop! I'm full of lobster!" Stevie was saying in between peels of laughter, Jess spinning her around with one hand as if she were a ballerina at three times the speed. She squealed, stumbling a bit until she was caught just in time.

"Well, why don't you be just like you used to be?How come you find so many faults with me?
Somebody's changed so let me give you a clue...Why don't you love me like you used to do?"

"Get in here, Barb! This one's looking a little green," Jess called out to his wife, who set down her camera and accepted his invitation to dance. Stevie backed away, laughing and holding onto her head in one hand and her stomach in the other, and the song changed as she started back towards the table.

"Said heeeeeeeey, good lookin'...Whaaaatcha got cookin'? How's about cookin' somethin' up with meeeeeeee?"

"He's a happy camper," Lindsey remarked, sitting down at the table beside Stevie. "You did a great job tonight. The show, the dinner...everything."

Stevie smiled, reaching for the cup of coffee the waiter had set at her place. She began to dress it with cream and several sugar packets. "He's my dad and he's gone above and beyond since the tour," she explained. "He deserves it." Stevie reached for a pack of Marlboros on the table and retrieved a cigarette from the pack. "Hard to believe I'm the same person who was a puddle twelve hours ago upstairs." She lit her cigarette and reclined in her seat, blowing a long line of smoke up into the air which mingled with Christy's. "Thank you, Lindsey. I would still be a puddle up there now if it wasn't for you."