We Are One (The Monkees Family Vol. 1)

Chapter 2

The following Saturday night's gig found Gabby, Wendy and Dawn back on the dance floor at Cornwall's, rocking out to the Monkees' tunes, whooping and hooting and again creating their own whirlwind of energy and fun. This time, however, they moved closer to the stage and interacted somewhat more freely with the guys, much to the Monkees' delight and appreciation. There began to build a synergy between musicians and audience that normally was not present that lifted their performance to a higher level that gave the guys a real charge. By the end of the gig, everyone was flying high.

Shedding the bounds of their normally reserved and shy natures, after the last number was finished both Michael and Peter immediately left the stage, approached Wendy and Dawn and thanked them for attending. Pete was even so bold as to secure their company for another night at Eat at Ed's, then hurried back to the stage with Michael to begin the process of breaking down the equipment. Gabby gravitated towards the back of the club to the private offices of the club personnel and disappeared briefly into one of the offices, then emerged smiling and rejoined her friends. She whispered something to them and they nodded heads, then came to some agreement.

Micky had been hanging back, observing the action uncertainly, not sure of what his opening gambit with Gabby should be, after last week's embarrassing unmasking of him as a horndog groupie gatherer. Now he approached the girls and greeted them pleasantly and thanked them for attending the show and asked how they were doing, purposely keeping his conversation low-key and reserved. They all engaged with him and they chatted for a few moments, then a light brown haired, medium height, slightly dumpy but handsome guy approached Gabby and said "All ready to go! I've never been to this diner, so I'm looking forward to checking it out!"

Just at this moment, the big-boobed blonde from a couple of weeks ago came rushing up to Micky and threw her arms around his neck and burrowed her nose into his chest.

"Mickyyyyy!!! You were sensational!!! Do you have time for me??? Let's go find someplace to be together, hmmmm???" All of her sentences seemed to end with multiple punctuation marks.

Micky blushed and felt put on the spot. "Sarah, hi, well, we're all going out to a diner, you want to come along?"

The girl wrinkled her nose at him and said "Sandra, it's Sandra, silly!!!" Oh, you're such a naughty boy to forget my name. I'm going to have to punish you for that later. Sure, I'd love to come!!!" She purred as she uttered the word "punish." Micky's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he looked like he wanted to sink through a hole in the floor and let the Earth swallow him up and disappear. He cut a look over to Gabby, who had a very small smile at the corners of her lips, but she attempted to be discreet for Micky's sake and seemed to project some sympathy rather than triumph at what she could perceive was his utter humiliation. She appreciated the fact that he had the decency to appear to be humiliated. Their eyes met for a moment and they exchanged looks that spoke volumes of silent dialogue that Micky was desperate to get across: an apology on his part, a denial that this is who he was as a person; a skepticism on Gabby's part and a provisional absolution subject to further demonstration of proof and contrition.

Changing the topic abruptly, Gabby introduced everyone to her companion: "Hey, everyone, this is Fred, he's the assistant manager here at Cornwall's, and he's going to be joining us at Ed's." She then introduced Fred to Wendy and Dawn, then Micky introduced himself and Sandra and he excused himself to let everyone get acquainted while he left to help the other guys finish packing up the instruments. When that task was done, Davy joined the group with his stunning redhead from the week before and everyone learned her name was Lana. Then they met Mike and Pete at the Monkeemobile and the introductions were completed.