The Free Spirit

The Curse of Time, 1972 (Part Two)

"And the spell is still unbroken. I am her hidden slave till a casket from the witchwood bears my body to the grave..."

The second half of 1972 started out relatively all right. It started out with the release of Stories We Could Tell and the subsequent release party, at which Don was blissfully drunk and unaware of his behaviour. Phil's new relationship bliss was starting to wane, and he was becoming irritable with his brother's behaviour. "I don't know what you want me to do about it, Phillip. I don't control him, he's a fully grown adult man," I said to Phil when confronted.

"Can't you make him stop drinking or something?" he asked me irritably.

"You think I haven't tried that? How about you look at your own relationship with him because I can tell you right now that he's definitely not drinking because of me. I haven't done anything to make him rather be drunk than sober, and neither have my children," I said to him, and he looked at me with a somewhat offended look. "Don't look at me like that, I know you two have been squabbling a lot lately. You really think I haven't noticed? Or that anyone hasn't noticed?"

"If he can't get himself together soon, then we can't continue like this. I'd rather not have to force a breakup of the Everly Brothers but if he keeps actin' like this, I'll have no choice but to," Phil warned me, and he stormed off, in denial that his behaviour towards his brother was likely part of the reason for Don's drinking problems. Phil's anger lasted a short while, just until the beginning of July, when the brothers decided to take their families on a two-week vacation to Tennessee before a tour on America's west coast. Don and I just rented a house for the two weeks since we had the bigger family, while Phil, Patricia, Jason and Pippa stayed with Ike and Margaret in the same house they lived in when I first met and married Don.

We took the kids to Nashville to see the sights and explore the music scene, which had changed so much since the last time I was really there (whenever I visited Ike and Margaret, I never really went downtown - just stayed in Madison with them and the kids) and we also took the kids just sightseeing around Tennessee. We took long driving trips to places like Chattanooga to see Lookout Mountain or Gatlinburg just to see all the crazy sights. About a week into the trip, Patricia told us about this state park she'd found in some research called Rock Island State Park and mentioned that it was a swimming location and had waterfalls that we could play in and such. It had opened in 1969 and was a fine destination for a family vacation such as the one we were on. Ike and Margaret declined to join, so the ten of us got a hotel and to Rock Island State Park we went.

First, it was quite a hike down to the river, but we managed it, with Don carrying Marley on his shoulders and Phil carrying Pippa while Patricia led Jason over the slippery rocks. I tried to lead Maggie, but my little blonde hellion was always very independent and insisted that she could walk on the rocks on her own. "They're very slippery, sweetheart, and there's tiny waterfalls everywhere making the rocks even more slippery. Are you sure you don't want to hold Mummy's hand?" I asked my younger daughter.

"No, Mummy, I can do this!" said Maggie somewhat irritably, likely annoyed at me for not leaving her alone.

"If you slip and fall, honey, don't get upset when we told ya we'd help ya," Don said to her.

"I'm fine, Daddy! They're rocks! I can walk over rocks!" Maggie shouted at him.

"Yeah, they're slippery rocks. Just you wait, Mags," Don told her, glancing at me. We exchanged a look, but trudged on, keeping a watchful eye wherever we stepped and cautiously avoiding the small little waterfalls that trickled from the rocks above us. Maggie carelessly jumped from rock to rock, seemingly daring gravity to do its worst, and to our predictions, she stepped on a rock the wrong way and took a tumble straight into the icy water.