The Free Spirit

The Calm Before the Storm, 1962 (Part Three)

"Break it to me gently, let me down the easy way..."

Now home for quite some time, Don and I wanted the four of us to spend some time together as a family, so we went on a small family vacation. Seeing as the children had spent six weeks in Tennessee, we went to a place in the state of Texas called the Gulf of Mexico, where we also met up with young Katie Castor, now Sheridan, and her and Buddy Holly's four-year-old son, Charlie. Charlie was growing up to look so much like Buddy that Don and I pondered if Charlie actually was Buddy in some sort of strange way, but that would be impossible, as Charlie was a little over a year old already when his father passed. He did love his stepfather and his stepfather doted on him, and together, he and Katie had had a little girl that they called Susie. "She's named after that song you and your brother did, the one about Susie," Jean Sheridan, Katie's husband, said to us.

"'Wake Up Little Susie'? I'm sure she'll grow up to hate that song," Don said with a laugh. Like her mother, Susie had beautiful red hair - she was about Stacey's age, born a few months after her. Charlie and Susie were much like Elton in Stacey in that Elton and Charlie looked most like their fathers and Stacey and Susie looked most like their mothers.

We spent a good deal of time at the beach with the Sheridans, with Jean, Katie and Don getting sunburned while I in my darker skin simply laughed. "The best part about being mixed race? No sunburn!" I said with a laugh.

Jean was very interested in Don's time in the marines as well as his time in acting school, and Don happily relayed all of the stories to Jean one night over a beer. "Once we'd finally graduated from boot camp, I became a platoon leader. It meant that I got to wear a wristwatch and I was a junior officer - they bumped me up to second lieutenant because I was always a diligent worker. My brother, though, he got to be a flunky so he swept up and did all them menial tasks for me and other officers," Don explained.

"Don, that's such a derogatory word," I told him, a little surprised that he'd used it.

"Well, honey, that's what he called himself. I can't remember the proper term, I guess he was just a private, then," Don replied. "Anyway, because we're, ya know, the Everly Brothers, we wasn't allowed to do nothin' that coulda got us hurt or killed."

"Good god," I said, somewhat stunned. "Did that happen often?"

"Not often, but it did happen. Don't worry, honey, I never did none of the dangerous stuff. We wasn't allowed to replace targets on the rifle range but once, Phil was doin' it for about a half hour before he got found out and taken off of it. He really liked it."

"Where were you guys?" Jean asked him.

"Camp Matthews at Pendleton. We put on shows a lot for the guys there at the marine trainin' center," Don replied. Later in the evening, Don and I were curled up in bed beside each other in our small beach cottage - it was kind of like the one we stayed in on Long Beach Island, but smaller and only one floor. We had the windows open and we dozed off to the sound of the ocean crashing against the shore and feeling the warm summer breeze coming off of the ocean. "I like that Jean Sheridan," Don whispered into the darkness. "I'm glad Miss Katie found a guy that loves her. Buddy didn't treat her right."

"He didn't treat any woman he met right," I muttered sleepily.

"He seemed to love his wife... What makes ya say that about Buddy? He was a good guy," Don asked me.

"Do we really need to discuss it right now?"

"Well, now we definitely gotta, you've piqued my interest. It sounds like ya got somethin' to say."

"Don Everly, why can't I ever tell you no?" I let out a sigh. "Upon our first meeting, Buddy thought I was a call girl and was angry with me when I rejected his sexual advances, so... he hit me."