
Tie Dye

Bonaventura Cozy Mysteries, Volume 2

Zara Brooks-Watson

Published by Zara Brooks-Watson, 2017.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

TIE DYE

**First edition. October 24, 2017.**

Copyright (C) 2017 Zara Brooks-Watson.

ISBN: 978-1386829928

Written by Zara Brooks-Watson.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also by Zara Brooks-Watson

Bonaventura Cozy Mysteries

Jitterbug

Tie Dye

Watch for more at Zara Brooks-Watson's site.
Tie Dye Copyright (C) 2017, Zara Brooks-Watson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from the author, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the author/publisher is a violation of the author's copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places; and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Other Books by This Author

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As Zara Brooks-Watson:

Jitterbug by Zara Brooks-Watson, A Bonaventura Cozy Mystery - Book One - The Fifties

Tie Dye by Zara Brooks-Watson, A Bonaventura Cozy Mystery - Book Two - The Sixties

____________________

The Silver Lake Cozy Mystery Series as Sophia Watson:

It All Comes Out in the Wash (Book 1)

Snow Angels (Book 2) - a cyber-crime mini-series, Book 1

That Summer in Silver Lake (Book 3)

Solstice (Book 4) - cyber-crime mini-series, Book 2

____________________

Poetry Journals, Short Story Collection & Children's Book as Cathy Smith:

Waiting for the Sunrise: The Collected Poetry of Cathy Smith, Vol. 1

Hidden Treasures: A Book of Short Stories

The Tree People: a beginning ecology storybook for ages 6-10

All e-books are also in paperback.

See this website for all book sales links, synopses and updates: silverlakemysteries.wixsite.com/sophia-watson

See the Other Books by this Author page.

Dedication:

For Daddy, my coming of age in the 60's, and what I wish Pop would have done - bought me a place like Julietta's, among other things ... maybe even studied Zen!

And for all the young men and women that lost their families in the Sixties due to their commitments to social consciousness and love.

In other words, those who were thrown out of their homes because they went to demonstrations, became civil rights advocates, anti-Jim Crow protesters, gay or women's liberation advocates - anti-draft/anti-war protesters or insisted on keeping their first loves despite parental objections. Or got caught smoking pot or tripping on hallucinogens.

And especially for those who insisted on keeping their babies against all these odds.

"Ti amo papa..." (I love you, daddy.)

[Disclaimer:- Please note that hallucinogens in the Sixties were not of the same composition they are now. LSD (which is a naturally occurring chemical called Lysergic acid derived from ergot fungus that grows on rye and other grains) was made with a standard recipe, Psilocybin (from mushrooms) and Mescaline (from Peyote cactus) were natural hallucinogens. These days LSD is a "designer" drug and there is no telling what it contains, therefore it can be very dangerous. The same may be true of the other natural hallucinogens. All three were non-addictive in the Sixties and usually safe in a benign and non-threatening environment. This book does not advocate drug taking. Marijuana was illegal in the United States far before LSD was. Marijuana was made illegal by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. LSD and other natural hallucinogens were legal in the US until October 6, 1966.]

# Table of Contents

Prelude

Chapter 1: Sweet Sixteen

Chapter 2: The Gift

Chapter 3: Two Runaway Hippies in Love

Chapter 4: Hell No! We Won't Go!

Chapter 5: Flower Power

Chapter 6: Make Love, Not War

Chapter 7: Harvard Square 1967

Chapter 8: Bitter Fruit

Chapter 9: Our Children Are the Future

Chapter 10: All You Need is Love

Chapter 11: A New Beginning

About Zara

***

Prelude:

(Fast Forward to 1970)

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We are stardust,

We are golden,

And we've got to get ourselves

Back to the garden...

("Woodstock" Written by Joni Mitchell, 1970 • Copyright (C) Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing)

***

(Flash Back to 1966)

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# Chapter One: Sweet Sixteen

A huge multi-colored strobe candle (which looks like a wax torch with a large hollow cardboard tube in the middle) held in place by the akimbo arms of a three-foot-tall, life-like, nude female plaster statue set high up on a dresser, flashed beautifully against the artfully painted dayglo mural on the bedroom wall.

Julietta Bonaventura delicately placed a peacock feather in the bottom rubber band of her long, single braid and put her shiny, silver four-tiered earrings in each pierced ear. She pulled on her large, red, yellow, blue and green sunburst-patterned, tie dyed cotton baggies and picked out a fine white lace sleeveless top and a matching tie dyed chiffon scarf.

She topped it all off with a woven Panama sun hat with a seagull feather stuck in the hatband. Thinking twice she also chose a wooden beaded necklace interspersed with turquoise beads and tiny Indian bells. She dabbed her wrists and neck with Patchouli oil which intensified the cloud of smoke from the huge stick of Patchouli incense in her room. Satisfied that she was seriously hippie chic, she packed her backpack with a tape recorder, Indian incense, a cotton coverlet from India, her tie-dyed blouses, shirts, floor length skirts, cotton bags and some of the marijuana from her garden neatly rolled inside sandwich bags and weighed to the ounce. She put on a jean jacket with a peace symbol sewn on the back underneath a rainbow.

She left the house and walked underneath a line of huge Elm trees towards the Burlington Northern train station two blocks away. Every day of the summer, Julie went downtown to Grant Park, a central meeting place of the "hippie nation" in the Chicago area. At her age, it was one of the few jobs she could get and make some real money. She would sit on her Indian coverlet on the grass in the cool shade of a big maple tree, burn incense and play her favorite tapes, attracting folks interested in her tie-dyed clothing and subtly finding out if they would also like some smoke.

On a good day, she could bring home 100 tax-free dollars or more, which was not bad for a fifteen-year-old in 1966. Not bad at all, and she expected that she could save quite a bit by the end of the summer. If her generous father did not buy her a car by the time she was sixteen, she could purchase her own. Even though her dad disapproved of hallucinogenics, she frequently procured LSD, Psilocybin and Mescaline for herself and to sell in the park. These drugs were popular semi-natural and legal street drugs at the time. Julie felt, from experience and street gossip, that these drugs were harmless when used in a friendly atmosphere. And they were non-addictive. They were usually ten dollars a hit. Her homegrown marijuana was $10 an ounce, loose. An ounce of dope could last a conservative smoker all month. A hit of acid lasted about 12 hours. Julie grew her own weed, but sometimes filched some of her dad's stash when she ran low. He did the same to her.

Vincente Bonaventura was Julietta's dad. He owned his own men's tailoring business and was a former employee of Sears Roebuck and Company catalog division located on the south side of Chicago across from the University of Chicago, in Hyde Park. He drove an MG and a Harley Davidson motorcycle. And, of course, being a tailor, was a very flashy, fancy dresser, not usually seen without a gold or red satin vest - unless he was repairing his vehicles, gardening or the like.

Originally, Vincente had come from the steamy, dark cypress bayous of Louisiana, his family being farmers in the area, selling their goods in places such as Mooringsport and Shreveport. Shreveport, even though located in the deep south, had small Slavic, Italian and Jewish communities. Mooringsport was the home of Huddie Ledbetter (aka "Lead Belly"), the famous African-American blues musician.

Julie boarded her train to downtown, heading towards the Canal Street exit of Union Station. She climbed up to the upper deck of the double decker train car where there were single seats next to the windows. She stuck her ticket in the holder at her feet. The conductor would be around to take and punch her ticket. All the conductors on this branch of the Burlington Northern were rather friendly black men. The station near her house was also in a hundred year old, suburban Chicago black neighborhood first populated by the families of early black railroad track workers when the track was first laid. It was an unusual neighborhood in that it had huge Victorian houses surrounded by large grassy yards. The residents of this neighborhood also had access to very good suburban schools. Julie's dad's house was in a tract home area with much smaller houses.

She dropped a hit of acid and began to watch the sunlight break into rainbows, swirling and dipping inside the train car. She hummed her favorite Joni Mitchell song. Bending her long braid over her shoulder, she played with the colors on her peacock feather.

She could walk from Union Station to Grant Park easily. And tripping, the walk would produce some spectacular fun in the sun, especially when she reached the shoreline of Lake Michigan and could play with the images coming up from the sparkling water.

Within an hour, the train pulled into Union Station and Julie disembarked. As she exited the huge, echoing train station, the scent from her Patchouli oil was intensified and seemed to billow up around her, making her smile to herself in the bright summer sunlight. As she reached the sidewalk, she started to skip, bouncing her backpack with each step and making other pedestrians either smile or frown at her "hippiness". She felt exhilarated and flashed a two-fingered peace sign at either reaction.

It was way too hot to wear her jacket, so she stopped and took it off, stuffing it into her backpack. The cooler breezes found the patterns of holes in her lace top and blew through them, cooling her overheated body. She thought of stopping at the Art Institute and just walking around in the lobby to cool off even more in their air conditioning. She totally loved the metal statue there of Rodin's Thinker. But she wanted to get to her spot under her usual Maple tree and get set up early so she could start selling. She took another hit of acid to make sure she was tripping for most of the day.

When Julie reached Grant Park, she put her paisley, multi-colored coverlet down under a big, shady Maple, turned her tape deck on Tuesday Afternoon from her Days of Future Passed tape of the Moody Blues and lit a stick of musk incense, sticking the end into the ground. She carefully stacked her colorful tie-dyed clothing to display a variety of styles, which included her hand-sewn shoulder bags with dozens of embroidered little mirrors face up so that the silvered glass reflected in the sunlight. She rested back against the tree trunk and lit a joint. This was heaven, she thought as she surveyed the colorful crowd of hippies walking around and looking at all the vendors, having their own picnics, playing guitars and flutes, singing, peacefully smoking weed and laughing.

Within a half hour, she had scored over a dozen customers - including one couple that also bought two ounces of weed. She was flying. She thought, Oh, happy day...

Next to her, still under the shade of the same big tree, were her usual neighbors selling Indian and handcrafted jewelry - an over-weight, white girl with long, beautiful, shining, black hair and a small, demur baby named Bruno. Her boyfriend, and the baby's father, was a very ebullient black man that sometimes sang along sweetly and loudly to Julie's music. Their names were Sherrie and Bud. They had known Julie for over a year.

Between customers, Julie listened to her music and tatted lace. Bud wrote in his diary and Sherrie nursed and took care of the genial Bruno who smiled at everything and everybody. A smiling, curly-haired, pretty brown baby sold or way helped to sell all their wares - which was mostly handcrafted pottery made by Sherrie. They all felt the tiny Bruno was their best salesman and frequently made jokes about it.

On the other side of Julie were two gay men who lived close by on the the near North side along the shore of Lake Michigan. They sold huarache sandals, Japanese Bonsai trees and handcrafted terrariums - all popular upwardly mobile hippie items.

They never wore color matched clothing and both tended towards stripes, super-wide bell bottoms, scarves, polka dots and pink. They also wore too much jewelry, including earrings in both ears. Julie loved her neighbors to pieces. They were all kind and helpful - and never stopped being interesting and funny.

The two gay sandal and plant salesmen, Theo and Mason, always bought cold drinks for everyone later in the afternoon, whenever they took a break. A hug and a cold drink was just what Julie needed on a slow day - which this wasn't, by far. She rolled joints for all, except the baby...who acted stoned anyway and didn't need anything special to put on his show.

Bruno giggled loudly when Julie put on Puff (The Magic Dragon) by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Sherrie said, "He really digs that song. He'll even clap his hands when he hears it sometimes."

The rest of the day rolled along slowly and pleasantly like a wide river, like the nearby DesPlaines river and its tributaries, one of which was in the Bonaventura's suburban township. Julie's lace shawl was almost finished by five o'clock. She had plans on tie dying it. Tie dyed cotton lace was super cool and would look seriously fine with her silver four-tiered earrings that hung low - from her ears to her shoulders, but not close enough to catch on her clothes.

Right about then, Julie packed up what was left of her wares and folded the coverlet, putting everything in her backpack. She hugged her friends and kissed little Bruno, put on her shades and sun hat and started on her way home.

__________

Julietta walked towards Union Station. This was one of the longest and hottest days she could ever remember. The way to the train station was a sizzling hotplate made of concrete - flat and unrelenting. Julie was still tripping, which was fine underneath the sweet, cool shade of her favorite hundred year old Maple where she had hidden, obscured from the vicious waves of heat surrounding her.

She had made a record amount of money and enjoyed the company of a fine crowd of musicians, fellow vendors and customers.

But now, she had one, fiery, unshaded block of high rise office buildings to walk past before she got to the train station. She felt like she was crawling on her hands and knees. That block was being traversed that slowly. It seemed as if this block was miles long. She knew, somehow, the devil sun would burn her up and evaporate her entire being, soul and all. She began to run.

That felt better as the breezes from her speed relieved her admittedly hallucinogenically enhanced discomfort. The sensation was everything short of a bad trip. Something she had never had and did not ever want. She was now, though, Rodin's peaceful "Runner", a complement to the Chicago Art Institute's huge metal Rodin statue, "The Thinker".

Julie became a bird. Her sweat evaporated in the rush of the wind. Tripping made her feel like she really was a bird, like she could hear her wings moving behind each shoulder.

She reached the revolving brass-framed glass doors of the train station and could feel the heaven-sent air conditioning whooshing in between each revolution of the multiple doors in the rotation as she entered. The station was at least twenty degrees cooler than the suffocating Chicago summer sun that had tried to smother her outside. She sat down on a wooden bench. She stretched and got up to get a sip of water from the blessedly cold water cooler, which Julie knew was the answer to her prayers made directly to any God that would listen. Her breath had reached past the scattered and thin clouds, importuning any Higher Being interested in listening to her for some relief from the heat.

"Let it rain," she had pleaded, knowing full well she was inconsequential in her influence upon any Olympus where the Gods probably still dwelt ... for all her hallucinating mind knew. And, as anyone who ever did LSD knows, one could well feel that one was in direct contact with the Almighty.

Julie heard a crack of thunder just as she dug into her Tupperware container of melty stuffed shells. She bought a cold Coke in wonder at the smell and sound of the rain from a series of open train docks at the end of the station. She ate her garlic bread sitting at the right hand of God. She felt the wooden bench next to her. There were no Olympians there. Drat!

Union Station was not Mt. Olympus, she knew that. Her imagination was a watercolor of dreams, but no hallucination could make her lose her grip on where she actually was, where she was actually going or the real, physical things she had to do. But, despite the extremely melted cheese in her pasta shells, they tasted divine. That was hallucinatory, but wonderful. The Coke was a spritz from heaven.

In between all of that, her dreams painted her senses in wide LSD-type swaths of auditory and visual waves of rather pleasant inspiration and unusual movement. All this deep thinking aside, Julie frequently sampled her own wares (in terms of the drugs she sold). She felt one needed to stay on top of the quality and purity of said wares. Her own wholesale dealer was a saint and an old high school friend, but she still felt the need to keep checking up on her.

Besides, she liked tripping. Her dad never caught her except once, when he cried, afraid for her safety. She just reassured him that hallucinogens would not cause genetic damage and thought it best to let it go at that. She also told him that high THC content in marijuana (like in Vietnamese natural) could cause similar hallucinations. That made him more assured, since he was such a pot-head himself.

"All Power to the people!" Julie jumped, then laughed. It was just the zillionth small protest march she had seen in the heart of the city. Her train was due in twenty minutes, so she had time to go outside and take a look. Another shout went up from the front of the station. It sounded like maybe a hundred people or slightly less. There was an echo resounding around the cathedral-like ceiling of the train station. The rain had lessened to a drizzle. It had stopped as quickly as it had started, a Chicago area phenomenon.

Maybe the echo was just the acid she had dropped. Julietta liked demonstrations, they were like parties with a higher purpose. Like New Year's Eve. Most of them were peaceful with no arrests or altercations. It usually did not hurt to check them out and even yell a loud, enthusiastic, "Right on!" It felt good. This freedom felt good. Julie liked most of the protest movements. She took a dislike to the violent ones, though. She and her dad, Vincente, were natural pacifists.

They had both experienced Jim Crow, being southerners originally. Julie remembered vividly being confused as to what bathroom she could use while continuing to chat with newly found black friends. Both Vince and Julie hated racial segregation.

She would have to hide her tripping from her father, who worried about it. That was not that hard to do, since she and her dad got along really well and she could joke with him and put him in a good mood. They were the only family that they had here in Chicago. She had a large, extended family down south, in Louisiana, New York City and Miami Beach, but that was far from Chicago. Her dad was her best friend, so she could go easy on him and his fears about hallucinogens.

__________

Vincente Bonaventura met his daughter at the door of their house that day, rubbing his hands together with a broad, white-toothed smile. Julie knew what it was immediately. Tomorrow was her sixteenth birthday. Her birthdays were always a big celebration with her dad. The delight that spread over her father's face belied the surprises he had in store for her. Julie laughed and ran to him, giving him a bear hug.

"What is it, Pop?" asked his daughter, as if she didn't know. She thought, must be a big one this year! Dad looks like he swallowed a live fifty pound big-mouthed bass whole, let alone a guppy!

Julie knew how to drive. Her father had taught her how to do that when she was about ten years old. That was when he first got his lemon yellow Corvette convertible. She would be getting her regular license next week when she completed the legal requirement of a driver education course, so she pretty much figured the fish that dad had swallowed was a car. She knew it! She could save the money she earned at Grant Park for college or a much desired cross-country road trip. The trip was something she had wanted for most of high school.

She hoped her dad had gotten her a cargo van. Hippie vans were the hot ticket right now. She could paint it with florescent butterflies, flowers and peace symbols. She started to jiggle with excitement. She could hardly wait. She hoped it had wall-to-wall shag carpeting and a good sound system, maybe even an eight track tape deck in the dashboard.

"Let me see!" she pleaded as she grasped her father's big hand. She pulled on his arm. She saw pink clouds of joy emanating all around him. He had always been an angel to her, but now she knew for sure (with a little happy help from her two tabs of LSD).

Her father said, "Hold on, Julie. It's not time yet. Your birthday is tomorrow. You have to wait."

Julietta knew her father was teasing her. He was a terrible tease.

Pop commented on seeing Julie's enthusiasm, "I know you wanted a truck."

Julie yelled, "You know it, daddy! What'd you get?! Hunh? What'd you get me?"

"Calm down, sugar," responded Vince. "This is only the first part of your birthday gift. I'll show it to you but you can't drive it until you get your license. I'll help you do that. The plates, insurance and registration are on me. I love you little girl." Vincente led Julietta by the hand as he said this, laughing lightly.

Julie, tripping like crazy, was turning red from excitement until she saw what her dad had bought her. A Ford pickup? Not what she had wanted, she thought with the beginning of tears in her eyes. Her disappointment was visible. She tried to turn the volume down as she groaned out loud, but Pop heard her and laughed. He laughed?! She felt like pommeling him with her fists, but she restrained herself. This was not funny.

Julie's sixteen year old bulldog, Romeo, always on her side, barked at Vince. Humph, thought Julie, smugly, See, even the dog knows what I wanted. Good, ol' loyal Romeo. Julie picked up the dog and hugged him. She said, trying to cover up her transparent reactions, "Blue! Why bright blue, dad? And why a pickup?! What do I need a pickup for?"

Her father got that "I swallowed a guppy" expression on his face again and spread his hands, saying, "There is more to your gift. Give it some time. You'll get the rest tomorrow. Then you will see why you might need a pickup."

Julie snorted and commented, "You got me a construction job? I'm a little small for that."

"Ha...no," answered her dad, "Keep guessing - you'll find out soon enough."

The intense heat of curiosity rose up Julie's neck, turning it bright red. Her father added, "Chun-hua is making dinner for us tomorrow."

Julie became excited. Yang Chun-hua was her dad's first girlfriend after the death of her mother, Emma. Emma passed away from Cholera the year she was born, so it had been a while since her father had had a relationship...almost ten years. Chun was an immigration lawyer that had graduated from the University of Chicago law school last year. Her father had first met her at her family restaurant (Yang's) in downtown Chicago.

Despite the fact that Chun had broken up with Vince, Vincente and Chun-hua were still friends. Vince had not felt the time was right to tell Julie about his painful breakup just yet. But, she knew anyway. She could feel it.

Julie felt complimented that Chun-hua would cook for her birthday. She absolutely loved traditional Chinese cooking. She loved Chun like the mother she never had and was glad that her father and Chun loved each other, too. That was so very like him. He was one big surprise. And one big hug of a man.

Julie grabbed her dad, holding onto him in affection, and said, "If Chun-hua is cooking tomorrow, I forgive you for getting me a pickup truck." She shrugged and continued, "I always forgive you for everything anyway."

"The mystery of the vehicle will be solved tomorrow, honey. Don't you worry. You will understand then," rejoined her father.

__________

[There are many stories about Vincente Bonaventura. But the story of what happened to his baby girl in 1950 still brings chills up and down his spine. That's why Vince broke his rule of non-violence and bought a gun, purely for self-defense. He knew he could kill to defend his home, his daughter - and even his 16-year-old bulldog. This is love. So, he also loved Romeo his rescued bulldog. Dig?

There had been threats in the past - the Willis cocaine cartel from his family home in the Louisiana bayou and Guy Rochelle the masquerading twin brother of an honest Asian Art dealer in Chicago, who was a reformed thief and who-knows-what-else. Harry Rochelle, his true-blue twin brother, was continuing to keep an eye on the transformed Guy, still the accountant for Vince's growing tailor shop.

How far in the past these threats to his innocence were, he did not know. That was why he had bought the gun.]

__________

Chun-hua got down with some serious pots and pans early the next day. Julie was glued to a high stool at the large work island in the middle of the kitchen. Not only could she design clothes and sew - she could cook magnificently, like a gourmet. She had been feeding her father since she was about six or seven. No lie. Even a kid could make a salad or fix a sandwich tray. Most of what they ate was Italian. So, she took an avid interest in Chun's recipes.

Julie was always hungry for something new. She loved Chun-hua and knew how to make a bang up Chinese red bean bun and was thirsty for more skills. Competence was her middle name. There must be a Chinese-Italian restaurant and family somewhere in New York City - where the world met, ate, married, loved and cooked.

Julie chopped the vegetables while Chun-hua (whose name, by the way, means Spring flower) did the more complicated, traditional preparations and combinations with fresh noodles, etc.

Vince came in, dressed in his finest men's wear creations, and put Dancin' in the Streets on at a moderate volume on his stereo. He sang and danced a little as he arranged roses, carnations, baby's breath and ferns in vases. Well, so it was a small party. But, you know Vince, he was nothing if he wasn't ornate at every opportunity. And, he also had a kick-ass tenor and falsetto. If he hadn't been a tailor, he could have recorded professionally. He simply preferred tailoring in a sunlit room to working in a smoke-filled lounge owned by someone else. Plus, he disliked alcohol and cigarettes. Working within a drunken crowd and a cloud of tobacco smoke was not something he would have wanted for his livelihood.

But he sang as sweetly as a nightingale. Folks outside his kitchen window stopped on the sidewalk to listen for a while. Chun-hua sparkled, but she also looked slightly forlorn and a little distant. Julie frowned and felt disappointed and confused. She figured that Chun, despite her break-up, missed her sensitive and talented dad. His singing brought the pain of separation to her face.

Julie grabbed her dad's sleeve, interrupted his angelic tones and pulled him into the other room, asking him what the problem was - as if she didn't already know.

Vince let a tear roll down his cheek.

Julie rejoined with, "Damn it, Pop! This is my big 'coming-of-age' birthday. It's time to celebrate. I am an adult today. What's the deal?! Give me some reasons! An explanation!"

"Okay. Okay, baby, I'll tell you," Julie's dad replied as he sniveled a little and blew his nose on a monogrammed handkerchief. "Chun-hua and I are not in a relationship anymore. Her parents arranged an engagement to another Chinese-American lawyer named Jimmy Wong. He's a really nice guy. Chun did not want to miss your birthday, so she came over despite our break up."

"That means you won't go out with her anymore and she won't come over here to stay? I won't see her, either?!" exclaimed Julie, as she stuck her jaw out in defiance. "So the last six years of you all being together doesn't mean anything?"

"Yeah, it does - but after today, she won't be over as much. You can go to see her in Chicago if you like, though. She has already said that is all right."

"Oh..." responded Julie, deflated. This was an ego-bender for her, despite having suspected as much already. She loved Chun like the mother she had never known and practically considered her a relative. The break up might have hurt her more than her father.

As the most delicious smells rose around Julie and her dad from Chun-hua's extraordinary six course dinner, they embraced each other. A timid knock came at their front door accompanied by a tiny whine. Julie looked at her father and asked, "Guests? Daddy, I thought this was just going to be an intimate dinner with family tonight."

Vince looked a little embarrassed and said, "You have one friend who begged to come over and join us. He has a little surprise for you."

"Who is it, Pop?" responded Julie, not wanting to be surprised by some friend she did not invite herself. This made her feel a little uncomfortable.

"Go and see. I think he is at the door now."

The timid knock came again, accompanied by another animal cry. Tripping over her father's big feet, curious as hell, Julietta ran to the door.

She laughed out loud as she swung the door open and gagged in mid-smile. Standing before her, at least a foot taller than the last time she had noticed him - which had obviously been a while - was Rico Anastasio Valente. She was close to either slamming the door in his face or nastily asking why the hell he was there, when she saw the cutest little gray, dappled, floppy-eared, gangly long-legged puppy in his arms. She gasped and cooed over the puppy, forgetting her vendetta, while continuing to glare at Rico in askance.

The puppy was obviously the progeny of Rico's Great Dane, the gray phantom, Vito. The puppy wagged his tail at her in a goofy, endearing and friendly way. Rico stammered, "Your dad said it was your birthday and invited me over. I wanted to apologize for that Halloween I tossed you into the bushes. Also, Vito sired about six puppies and I knew Romeo, your bulldog, was getting old and your dad said he would be okay with adopting one of Vito's pups. So here he is. Do you like him?" Rico looked at Julietta with an engaging grin. "He is pretty and has the best personality of the entire litter."

Julie thought, Rico grinning? Hard to believe that the biggest greaser in the neighborhood and her high school (I mean, he was very obviously NOT a hippie) could look into her eyes so beseechingly - seeking forgiveness, maybe? Hunh!

Julie stepped closer and asked to hold the young dog. She said, looking up at the much taller Rico, "What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one yet," answered Rico, lamely, embarrassed by Julie's negative reaction to him. Rico Valente and Julietta went to the same high school. She was going to be a junior in the coming school year. Rico was going to be a senior and due to graduate this year. He was an honor student and took mostly honors courses, with a grade point average of "A" or higher. He had a reputation of generally only talking to other honors students and students his own age. As a result, he and Julie rarely saw each other and when they did, they did not speak. He had grown a neatly sculpted goatee and neat, thin mustache. This made him look as if he was in his twenties, instead of going on eighteen.

Julie had to admit his embarrassment made him look chic and downright handsome. He was dressed in all black with a matching black leather suit coat which didn't hurt his looks any. For this occasion, he had knotted a black, satin tie. Not bad, the fashion-conscious Julie thought, complimented that he had dressed so debonair for her birthday.

Rico was thin, but muscular and wiry, with a signature pair of large, square, black glasses, giving him a serious and learned air. Everyone at school knew he was heading for law school and a full scholarship - maybe even to an Ivy League college. He was pretty high up on the ladder of success, and vying for class Valedictorian as well. Julie had no doubt that he would make it, all of it. Liked her, did he? Hunh!

The puppy was a heart-bender. He did truly look like Goofy with his overly long legs, friendly demeanor and long, floppy ears. Because of Rico's Ivy league ambitions, Julie decided to name him Yuppy. Besides, that rhymed with puppy. So, the little fellow was now officially the Yuppy puppy. Ha!

Julie reluctantly invited Rico inside and said, "We're having authentic, traditional, homemade Chinese food for dinner. Pop is also making a strawberry cheesecake. Of course, you may come. I like the puppy, by the way. Thank you."

Julie, never stingy with affection, hugged Rico - which embarrassed him even more. She pulled him inside the house, in a tentative, but grand, gesture of forgiveness.

She put Yuppy down on the floor in front of her old bulldog Romeo who looked at the big puppy (who was already much taller than he was) benignly, with a questioning air, snorted a couple of times and walked away. Julie had to admit that Yuppy was a pretty boy, his gray-spotted hair was sleek and shiny.

He ran after Romeo who grunted like a pig and seemed content to let Yuppy follow his fat, waggling ass. Julie knew that Vito, Yuppy's sire, was only a medium-sized Great Dane, which was just fine since full-sized Great Danes were too big to handle and tended to have short lives and heart problems. The big ones were a good four feet tall, or more, at the back. Not to mention how tall they got when they stood on their hind legs.

Julie had seen a full-sized Great Dane in Mexico. It had gotten loose from its fenced-in yard and had run down the street in the direction of the grocery store, with a trail of men running uselessly after it. She had seen another full-sized Great Dane once in Daytona Beach when she was out walking Romeo in the morning. It was a good thing that that dog was well trained, its size had scared her. Romeo was the size of a meatball compared to that huge dog.

"So, what did you decide to name him?" asked Rico in front of Vincente who looked at Yuppy in amusement and seemed to twinkle all over. Vince loved a good dog.

"Yuppy," answered Julie with a smirk at the high-up-on-it Rico, hoping he wouldn't get the connection to his academic ambitions.

But he did and frowned, obviously not pleased with the name.

"Like Yuppy puppy," said Julie, trying to deflect Rico's disapproval. He smiled despite the quasi-insult.

"Cute," he commented, trying to be amiable. "I thought of giving you the dog because Romeo is getting on in age and you might want a young companion for him."

"A Great Dane?! There is the size difference, you know," retorted Julie, glad Rico had not worried about that. She was already in love with the puppy. She could raise it to respect smaller dogs, etc. It would not be an issue.

Rico shrugged and said, "Happy sixteenth birthday, Julie." He uncharacteristically reached over and hugged Julie, pecking her on the cheek. Julie let him, which was also uncharacteristic of her.

There was then a whole lot of hugging going on. It was a time for everyone to let Julie know how much they loved her. But Rico?! Why would Pop invite Rico? It wasn't a joke. He knew she sort of avoided contact with him. She thought he was a stuck-up prig. But, Rico looked apologetic and even handsome right now. Yuppy was way sweet. Pop had probably known about the puppies. He was a sucker for a cute baby animal. Just like Romeo had stolen his heart when he was just skin and bones, starving, shivering and hiding underneath a pile of dead leaves in the Louisiana bayou being threatened by a panther. It was just like dad to see something in Rico just to get next to the puppy.

Well, Rico was special, but she didn't like him looking down on her. Oh well, it was all good - for the sake of Yuppy puppy - that cute, little bean.

Dinner was a Chinese extravaganza, ending with a touch of Italian. Rico had brought a bag of fresh cannoli that his mother had made and Vince, of course, had made that triple layer strawberry cheesecake.

Julie blew the candles out on her cake and turned her attention to Yuppy who was getting along with Romeo like glue on paper. The little bulldog let Yuppy sleep with his large head on his chest, using it like a pillow. They followed each other around, shared toys, played a gentle tug of war, and cuddled up to rest and sleep. It looked like they were a going to be a good match. Yuppy was only about two months old, but he was already twice the size of Romeo.

Julie felt really good about the puppy and grabbed him away from Romeo, putting him into her lap. Rico and Vince were off by themselves in the living room talking about the economics of small businesses and Chun-hua was listening politely while glancing at her watch. Julie felt distant from all the adult and semi-adult conversation and drama.

After eating dinner Julie took Yuppy outside to the porch to smoke a joint alone with the new dog. Rico didn't like marijuana and Julie still wasn't sure she liked Rico, but he seemed content to talk to her dad and Chun-hua and impress them with his maturity and intelligence. Julie turned on her tape recorder and played In My Life from her Judy Collins tape collection, drowning out the boring conversation, having way more fun getting high, listening to a favorite song and cuddling her new dog. One of her favorite dog tricks was to put a new puppy inside her jacket and zip it up with its head peeping out the opening. It trained the young dog to be calm, quiet and trusting. She did this now as she smoked weed. It felt really good.

After a short while, Chun-hua poked her head inside the porch door and said goodbye. Laughing about the cloud of weed surrounding Julietta (which was rather generous of a lawyer - immigration, civil lawyer or not). Yuppy got all excited to see Chun, who he had never formally met before. But a puppy is usually way happy to see any new visitor.

"Who is this?" asked Chun, pointing to the dog, still smiling about Julie's large clouds of joy.

"Yuppy is one of my birthday presents. He's one of Vito's puppies."

"Oh, nice."

"Yeah, I really like him."

"Is he going to be as big as Vito?"

Julie laughed and replied, "Yeah, mostly. He will probably be as large, but Vito is only a medium-sized Great Dane, not full size."

Chun reached over and picked the puppy up just as Romeo swaggered in. "No jealousy from the older dog?"

"Not that I can see. They seem to get along just fine. You should have seen them while you were cooking. Romeo is a cream puff," answered Julie.

Chun left and Julie buried her face in Yuppy's soft flesh. It made her sorrow at the confirmation of losing her newest mother-figure less painful. She hugged her new puppy who slobbered all over her face. That made her feel better.

Julie just could not bring herself to forgive Rico for humiliating and bullying her on that Halloween when she was ten. She knew it was sort of mean of her considering his gift of the puppy, but she also knew her father would have gone a stretch to get a dog like Yuppy. So, the pressure on her to forgive Rico was her dad's fault. It pissed her off that her father had given her a gift after giving her something he must have known she really did not want - that cheesy, blue, Ford F-Series pickup. What in tarnation could she do with a pickup truck?! Stick her friends in the back in the rain and snow? Really?!

She just could not see her friends riding along in the back of a truck on a rainy Friday night. Or in the winter wind. It made no sense to her at all.

Rico left their house without a goodbye to her. She didn't mind that. In a mean spirit, she thought, good riddance. She was only slightly mollified toward him because she liked Yuppy. Rico could ride in the back of her new truck in the winter or the rain, she thought, vindictively.

She kissed her dad goodnight, counted the savings she had accumulated towards getting a cargo van - which she still wanted (more than ever). She wondered if her dad would feel bad if she sold the truck to help pay for what she really wanted.

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# Chapter Two: The Gift

The next day dawned bright and clear. Yuppy had slept with her up by her head, with his own little head on the pillow next to hers. He snored lightly along with Romeo who lay on the rug on her bedroom floor and tended to snore with much more volume. She patted her new puppy and smiled into his pretty, golden-flecked eyes.

She let both dogs out into their fenced-in yard while her father made breakfast. Her dad seemed unusually cheerful this morning. He whistled to the radio and hummed as he whipped up cheese omelets.

"What's up, dad?" Julie asked, thinking that he must have had a big order come in for his tailoring shop, or made a great deal of money selling some of his IBM stock (only to buy more later). Her father had been buying IBM since 1952. The stock had increased in value a great deal since then, as the company grew from a small business machine concern to an international company. This had enabled him to buy the house they had initially rented in the Chicago suburbs.

"Oh, honey," he retorted, cheerfully, serving their omelets with a flourish. "I have another surprise for you this morning."

Julie felt sort of depressed after the two near misses in her dad's gifts so far (Rico and the truck). He noticed the shadow that clouded her expression. He actually laughed. This pretty much enraged the already disappointed Julie. He commented, ignoring Julie's vibes, "I will show you the next part of your birthday gift after breakfast."

"Where is it?" asked the unenthusiastic Julie.

"We have to drive over to see it. I guarantee you will like it and the truck will make more sense when you see what I got for you. Don't get upset. I know what you really wanted. There is more to this than you have seen so far."

Julie covered her mouth with her hand and lowered her head so that her very curly black hair covered part of her face to hide her skepticism. He father laughed again.

Irritated, she thought, He's awfully sure of himself. We'll see about that!

After breakfast, the two of them piled into Julie's new truck and headed out towards I-80 and the rural areas of central Illinois. Julie became more and more mystified as to what could be way out here - in the middle of nowhere - that her dad was so excited about. A cow? A horse? A cornfield? Shit, she didn't know!

He lit a joint and put on an 8-track tape of Rubber Soul by the Beatles. This was the only part of the truck that Julie really, really liked - the 8-track sound system. She was also crazy about Rubber Soul - especially the song Norwegian Wood which echoed beautifully around the cab of the truck as they turned onto several dirt roads leading into some rather deep, old forest.

Well, she had to say she was enjoying the ride, the high with her Pop and the fine sound system in the mystery truck. Many questions swirled through Julie's head. She almost got dizzy trying to figure her dad out. That's what fathers are for ... mystery. And Vincente was right now, truly mysterious. Drat! She thought, ruefully.

She liked Yuppy enough to forgive her dad for the Rico thing, but the truck and this weird ride deep into the forests of central - almost southern - Illinois mystified her. She had no idea what was going on.

Her dad crossed over a small river on a wood and concrete bridge. The place delighted Julie despite her confusion as to why they were there. A picnic? She thought, maybe we are going to visit a talented and artistic hermit. There were lots of them these days. Young hippies didn't mind old people if they were liberal and creative.

Suddenly, they drove into a beautiful clearing and up a drive towards a large barn which had two stories and a two bay garage with a stove pipe peeking out of a powder-coated metal roof. Vince parked the truck in front of the building and said, "We're here!"

Julie retorted, "Where?!" She really thought she was right about visiting an artisan. Maybe it was a potter and dad was going to let her pick out something she liked. She got a little more enthused.

"Just wait. You'll see..." Vince said.

The place had been painted a bright red and white recently and was in good shape. Vince did not, to Julie's surprise, even knock on the first floor door, despite the shiny brass gargoyle knocker. Again, to her shock, he opened the lacquered, white door with a key. She thought, He really must know this guy well.

He did not even shout a greeting as they walked in the main entrance. There was an empty, long, wooden work bench extending the full length of the building, a gray painted cement floor with a drain and a wooden staircase leading to a second floor. The entire place was empty. There were several wide windows, curtained with new floral-printed cotton curtains. It was rather feminine, but mystifyingly empty of any sign of human or animal habitation. It was kind of obvious so far that no one lived there. This bewildered Julietta. There was, though, a large camper shell in the back of the garage area which intrigued her.

"How do you like it?" asked her dad, pirouetting around in a circle, spreading his arms like wings in a gesture of generosity.

"Hmm?" answered Julie.

"Do you like the place?"

"It's okay. Who lives here, Papa?" she asked as he switched the lights on, leading her up the obviously recently repaired wooden staircase to the second floor. The smell of fresh, new wood was very pleasing.

Vince did not reply to his daughter.

She thought, He sure is taking a lot of liberties in this place. Maybe I am supposed to house sit. Damn, he could have asked me first!

The second floor was as big as the first floor. Most of it was covered by a new, thick, yellow and brown shag carpet. There was a wood stove up on a ceramic tiled stand next to a rather large, neatly cut wood pile inside a wood box, a small kitchenette and a full bathroom.

"Nice place," commented Julie, musingly, warming to the hippie-gathering potential of the place. There was a lot of comfortable space to crash and party and make handicrafts. The windows up here were large, overlooking the front field and driveway. They had a spectacular view of the surrounding old-growth forest. She almost wished the place was hers.

"This building sits on ten acres of forest," responded her dad, enthusiastically.

"Why are we here, Pop?"

Her dad turned red and said, "This is the second part of your birthday present. This place is yours, Julie. By the way the Northern Lite camper shell downstairs is a perfect fit for your F Series Ford pickup. I thought you might need a truck like that to plow snow in the winter and haul firewood for your stove. This place is heated by that wood stove and a series of aluminum vents that blow warm air around the building using electric fans. You can also use ceramic heaters in places like the bathroom and that long crafts table downstairs to warm it up even more. There is another wood stove downstairs if you need it."

Julie was entranced and jumped around, flabbergasted. It was hers!

Her father threw his arms around her and said, warmly, "I knew you would love this place. It is perfect for your tie dye business and friends. The truck can easily be converted to something more comfortable for travel or fun. The camper shell has a kitchen, a full bathroom, sleeping (for six) and sitting areas. It is fully equipped, insulated and functional. I know you had plans to travel out to California. You are not that far from downtown Chicago and you can come out here whenever you want to. It is, as you can tell, less than an hour from our house in the suburbs. You can just take I-80."

He added, with a twinkle in his eyes, "I think Yuppy would love it out here. You don't need to bring Rico." He looked at the shag carpet for a moment.

Julie was shocked. Of all the people to think of now! Why Rico?! "I'd rather invite Jacinta Garcia. I haven't seen her in ages."

"Yeah," replied Vincente. "I know you don't really like Rico. I was not being sarcastic. I only got in touch with him to get one of his puppies and it seemed really rude to exclude him from dinner. Why bully back to a bully if you want him to stop harassing you?"

God, thought Julie. No need to be rude towards Rico! - Even after he threw me bodily into the evergreen bushes on Halloween when I was ten, ruining my homemade, perfect, new Minnie Mouse costume. The rat! And acting like he was better than everyone else in high school. Stuck up jerk!

"It's okay," she answered, biting her lip. "This place is fantastic, Poppa! It is beyond my wildest dreams! Any ideas for decorating? It could use some furniture. We could go to thrift stores and yard sales and take a look." She took no time trying to be true to the Bonaventura name and save a penny. Yes! "By the way," she added, lying slightly. "It was almost worth inviting Rico to dinner to get that wonderful puppy. I love him. Yuppy that is." She definitely did not love Rico.

"I'll come up with some furnishings," answered Vince, with his face aglow. He kissed his daughter on the cheek and laughed. "Your pickup will make the hauling easy. Let's go downstairs. I want to show you the camper."

The Northern Lite slide-in camper was parked inside one of the first floor garage bays and stood upright on its own four extended steel poles, making it easy to climb inside and take a look, also making it easy to use as an extra room for guests who might like the privacy. It was constructed so that one could back the pickup underneath it and unlock the poles, retracting them as soon as the shell was firmly situated on the truck. Same with setting it back up on the poles again and pulling the truck out from under the camper. Northern Lite was a great Canadian brand. Few Americans knew about it, but leave it to Vince to find out.

Julie gasped when she entered the small camper. She had never seen the inside of a camper before. It was, as she now knew, a brand new 1966 Northern Lite. It was fully insulated, using heat from an added unit inside the camper which was electric (using a large three-prong plug or the generator) instead of the more common propane. Vince had had that installed since he thought propane heaters were more dangerous than using the camper's generator. Propane could easily leak and the unit would have to be tested regularly. It was far safer to use the generator.

Julie thought her dad was a bit of a genius.

__________

"You're joking!" exclaimed the old man as he spooned a plate of buttered grits into his mouth at Daisy's, a local diner where all his Mill worker friends hung out every day of the week.

"Nope, I kid you not." answered his much younger friend, laughing at his old friend's appalled expression. "A hippie girl and her druggie dad just moved into Rod Kneeland's old garage. Bought the land, too. I could smell that evil marijuana wafting from the cab of their truck, all fresh like..."

"They bought all ten acres?"

"Yup. Soon all their hippie friends will overrun the whole town of Midville with their tie dye, marijuana and LSD - turning all our young'uns into long-haired rock music freaks and drug fiends. Ever one of 'em."

"Dirty hippies."

"We can stop 'em, Garth. We can scare 'em and freak 'em out. Drive 'em off Rod's land - our land."

"Their money don't mean nothin'..."

"Cain't buy our history."

"Nope. No amount of buying and sellin' can do that."

"Let's not bring the cops in on our arses. We need to be subtle, even though we know ever one of the local policemen hates the hair off''n any hippie."

"We can still be mean."

"Yeah. Just about mean enough to make them want to leave the county," Todd Stevens declared a bit too loudly with a belly laugh, so that Garth Broderick held an index finger to his lips. Todd continued, lowering his voice a little, "Let's start now...right from their first day here."

"Right now?! Let me finish my eggs and grits first."

"Uh, sure," responded Todd, anxious to get going. "We can take my truck over there."

"What about work?" questioned Garth.

"We can call in late. Throw me a dime, brother, I'll use Daisy's pay phone."

Garth tossed Todd a dime. "That's fine by me. My back hurts anyway. I might even take the whole day off."

Todd responded, "Okay. You want me to tell the Mill that for you?"

Garth answered through a mouthful of scrambled eggs, "Sure. Go ahead."

"I need the hours, but I'll talk to them for you. I can go in later, after their first coffee break."

"Thanks. I'll be finished with my breakfast in a few minutes."

"Let's make a plan," said Todd with a cruel bend to his mouth.

__________

Vincente jerked his head up as the hair on his neck began to rise. Julie, also felt something odd and uncomfortable.

"There!" exclaimed Vince, excitedly. "Over there behind the trees! There's a couple of men."

Julie answered with some doubt, "Maybe they're hunting. They might not know anyone new moved in here."

"They don't act like they're hunting. They're not moving."

"Maybe they're stalking prey."

"Yeah," answered Vince, sourly. "Like us."

"Jeez, dad. Not everyone is following you around," responded Julie, referring to their problems of her youth with a southern cocaine cartel. "The cartel is gone. They're not coming back."

"Yeah, Julie, I guess so. Wait a minute...I'll warn these guys off." Vincente took a deep breath, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted in a booming voice, "Hey!! You two! No hunting here! We just moved in. We're the new owners of this land!"

The two men disappeared into the woods immediately like spooked jack rabbits. The way they ran away instead of shyly coming forward to meet their new neighbors and apologize freaked Julie out. Vince also thought their behavior was unusual for an accidental occurrence. It was like they were there for other reasons.

He spoke, "They seem a mite unfriendly, don't you think?"

"Yeah," said Julie. "Like they were afraid of us."

"Or guilty," added Vince in a flat voice.

"I wonder why they would be so scared?" Julie shivered. She changed the subject. "Let's take the camper with us. I want to show it off to my friends from school. We can park the pickup at home so we can haul furniture."

"Sure, baby. Let me back the truck into the building. You pull the bay door open."

"Dad," said Julie, hesitantly. "You don't think those guys will break in or destroy anything, do you?"

"Naw, honey. They're probably just a couple of curious local farmers. But make sure you lock everything up tight."

Julie still felt uncomfortable about the presence of those sneaky men and she started wringing her hands as her dad backed the truck under the camper that was held up on its stilts. She went back into the building and retracted the steel poles so that the camper rested neatly inside the back of the Ford.

__________

"You saw them and you didn't talk to them?" asked the local desk cop when Vince and Julie had returned home to the suburbs.

"I told you I shouted at them..." explained Vincente, wearily.

"From a distance."

"Yes, from a distance...We thought they were hunters - that they had guns. We didn't think it was wise to chase them. They ran off right away."

"Hmm..." mused the policewoman at the desk. "But you felt it was important enough to report it?"

Vince winced with aggravation. "Look," he said, putting his palm on the policewoman's desk. "It seems pretty rational not to want to get shot. Or to have my daughter shot. I am a sworn deputy..."

"...of some backwater, Mexican precinct that you last visited about six years ago."

"Monterrey, Mexico," stated Vince, offended, "...is a major city."

"Chief Garcia is only the head of one precinct in that huge city that no one in the United States has ever heard of." Then the officer sent a zinger of a question at him, "And how did you manage to get deputized and then leave the country?"

Vince shifted uncomfortably. "Long story..." he stated, helplessly spreading his hands. He tried not to feel obliged to repeat the story of his escape from a false accusation of murder many years ago down south.

"Mr. Bonaventura, I'm not really interested in that story. We are aware you helped the FBI and the DEA capture a drug cartel and bring them to justice. Did it have to do with that?"

"Yes."

"This incident, we hope, is unrelated. That particular county in rural Illinois can be difficult to deal with, even for a suburban police department. They stick together with their constituents in some dubious ways." The policewoman who was giving Vincente a rather hard time ruffled her hair with both hands and continued, "I'll tell you what I will do. I will keep our department updated on any disturbing activity around your daughter's new land parcel and building. I will notify the state police, as well, that there might be a harassment case developing."

"That sounds good for now," Vince frowned with concern and some relief. "Are you sure that that police station would be uncooperative?"

"Pretty much so. We need to develop a more serious case first. The state police would be our best shot. I am more confident that they would offer their protection if these guys are locals in that county."

Vince frowned even deeper at the phrase 'our best shot'.

__________

Julie was out with her friends, parking near her new building by the river at the entrance of her land. All the girls had dropped a hit of acid and were getting ready to light a small campfire on a graveled area near the shore. They had all traveled there in Julie's new camper.

"Oh, Wow!!" exclaimed one of her friends excitedly, Reese, to be exact. "Look at all those colors!"

"Where?" asked the other girl, Livia, "I don't see anything."

"Oh, guess it's just me, or the acid. It's all in my head. But you should see it!!"

Julie turned the key in the truck's ignition, sure it was the acid, and popped her 8-track tape of Eight Miles High by The Byrds into the tape deck. The music reverberated around the forest, diving into their hallucinogenic audio perceptions in a delightful way.

Julie hallucinogenically tasted strawberries along with the music. The hills were definitely alive! Julie laughed and shouted over her shoulder, "You're just stoned, Reese!"

"Shit, yeah, very," Reese answered with a sweet laugh. The same friend walked slowly towards the water of the river, shaking her head, her blonde hair flying in the wind. "Oh, wow, look at that water! It is the Universe! It flows into the Cosmos! It is moving all over!! Maybe all over the world, too!"

"Like it flows into Forever," said Julie's other friend, Livia, also fascinated by hallucinations involving the water and the newly enchanted forest.

Julie whistled at their visions and chuckled to herself. She noticed two sets of large boot prints (way too large to be Reese's, Livia's or her own) in the soft dirt of the shoreline. She startled as she glimpsed a flash of plaid (like from a flannel shirt) behind the trees, like before. Those rotten cowards, she thought, as she kept an eye on the safety of her friends, playing carelessly in the river water, unaware they were all probably being watched by two interlopers.

The music from the truck distracted her, and her own hallucinations took her worry about the stalkers away as breezes from the river surrounded her. "It's all connected," said Julie out loud, mysteriously. "The Universe - the Cosmos - Everything." She moved slowly sideways towards where she had seen the flannel shirt flashing in the trees. She was not afraid.

The blond girl, Reese, walked all the way into the river with her clothes on while Livia, Julie's other friend, lit the camp fire with a few adjunct oh wows!! When the fire caught, going up into the twilight sky in orange and red flames, Julie used the last of the sunlight to look for that flannel shirt in the forest again. She heard a clumsy scuffle, a lot of crackling twigs and some uncovert-like swearing. A voice said, "She saw us!" She then saw the backs of two men, one large and one smaller and elderly, hightailing it away further into the forest. It looked as if they had rifles...

Julie figured the two stalkers were gone for now and went into the camper to get their dinner, hot dogs and potato salad, to be feasted on outside and cooked over the camp fire. Everything tastes better when cooked outside over wood. She turned the truck's spotlight on their picnic area. Reese came out of the river, soaked, with a huge smile on her face. Julie threw a beach towel over her. They sat down in front of the fire, humming to the music coming from the truck.

They all lit joints. Julie had gotten generous with her homegrown dope. They all, in about 90 seconds of deep inhalation, got convulsive giggles. Reese got deep hiccups after a few bites of her hot dog. She laughed at the same time as she hiccupped, which caused her to choke. Livia and Julie pounded on her back and she grossly spit out a bit of hot dog with ketchup on it. She also burped suddenly, explosively and loudly. She said, "Oh gawd, my guts moved!"

Julie looked shocked and concerned, "Are you all right?"

Reese answered, laughing, "Yeah, everything just snapped back into place after that burp." Reese then farted loudly. All three girls broke out in laughter. The fire had warmed them. Reese's clothing was almost dry, except for the seat of her pants - where she was sitting. Julie forgot all about the voyeurs in the trees. Well, they got a concert just now if they were still there, she thought.

Because Julie did not like alcohol, there wasn't any. Not like the girls needed any. It was the perfect time to invite her friends to her new 'house'.

It was time to go. It was too dark to see anything except for the area lit by the truck's spotlight and a small area around the camp fire. Julie took a quick look around. There were no signs of her stalkers. The fire was almost out and Julie poured river water on the embers and stamped the rest of the charcoal into the gravel and dirt with her construction boots.

Reese, Livia and Julie all rode in the cab of the truck squashed in together. It took only five minutes to reach her red barn/cabin. Both Livia and Reese said, "Wow!" together at the same time, like twins. Then they said it again, together, "Wow!"

"Right on!" said Julie at their wonderment. She truly loved her new place by now. It was a young hippie's dream and showing it off gave her a thrill.

Julie lit the wood stove upstairs and gave Reese some of her dry work clothing she had stashed there already. They spread out on the shag carpet in sleeping bags. She wished she had Yuppy with her if only for the warning noise. Romeo was useless as a guard dog, mostly. He was too friendly to strangers and didn't tend to bark very much. The wood stove was ecstasy and she lit an incense cone.

Julie had locked the camper and pickup downstairs inside one of the bays, locked all the doors and windows and felt a contentment she had not felt since she and her dad had visited the Louisiana bayou where they were from.

Her friends fell into a deep slumber and Julie, with no worries on her mind, soon followed. The bright, full moon passed through the large windows of the upstairs loft. It lit the room like the sun, but no one was awake. Many deer moved soundlessly through Julie's field and back into the forest again. Wild rabbits played in the safety lights illuminating the drive and front of the barn. Peace reigned in the woods.

Reese snored (of course). Julie missed her dogs. Romeo tended to snore loudly, as well. She actually had a bit of homesickness and smoked a joint sitting up next to the stove, looking out the window by herself as her two friends slept. The impressiveness of the moonlit night soothed her.

In the morning, Julie saw a Snickers candy bar wrapper on the ground next to her building. She, Reese, Livia and her dad did not eat candy. A thrill of fear crept up her spine.

__________

Garth Broderick reeled in his fishing line just as Todd Stevens gave a boisterous shout. "Got one, good buddy! Got me a big trout!"

Garth coughed. He was ready to eat. He yawned. He had been dozing sitting up. They had been out in the cold morning air fishing since before dawn. It was still dark when they had set their folding lawn chairs on the bridge. Their pails were just about full of fish. Garth stretched and yawned again, ready to go back to sleep. It was a good beginning to the weekend.

"Hey, old man," said Todd. "Wake up! The sun is a'shinin' now. Time for coffee and trout. I'll cook since you're so tired. Let's set up the propane stove in a different clearing just in case those damn hippie chicks come this way. They have to cross the bridge to get to I-80. I don't want them to see what we look like, even though they don't know us."

"Of course. Good idea. Come on, then..." Garth picked up his chair, tackle box and other equipment. He let Todd carry his heavy pail full of fish. They loaded their pickup and drove to a spot on Garth's land. They didn't want those peculiar girls to see them even if they were presently innocent. That river was part of the national forest, but it still felt funny to be out in the open should they drive by. They had plans to disturb those hippies even more in order to drive them away from their old friend's land.

Besides, they just didn't like hippies or the cowards protesting their government's war in Vietnam. Garth rubbed his hands in the cold of the damp country dawn and chuckled, thinking about scaring those young hippies and their friends. Screw Hanoi Jane Fonda, the traitor to his beloved United States. He had fought in World War II, was decorated and proud of it.

He thought to himself, Damn hippies.

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# Chapter Three: Two Runaway Hippies in Love

"One, two, three. What are we fightin' for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn - next stop is Vietnam..."

("I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" by Country Joe McDonald)

The United States killed about 25,000 Vietnamese civilians per year during the Vietnam war. Approximately 250 US military were killed per week during the war. These facts lay heavily on Julietta Bonaventura's mind as she resumed her small entrepreneurship in Grant Park after her weekend out with Reese and Livia.

Grant Park was a hotbed of political activity and a hub of hippie news. The recent words of Martin Luther King, Jr. resounded in her head, "An unjust law is no law at all." This was the preacher's answer to George Wallace, governor of Alabama, who had made the ugly statement, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever."

This was the era before the Voter Rights Act. Black people were not allowed to vote down south, nor could they use a public library among other irrational restrictions. Many African-Americans could not read, add or subtract due to these Jim Crow laws. One might think the 1960's was a modern era, but many African-Americans did not learn how to read or do simple mathematics until after 1960. Nor did people in London, or England as a whole, have access to refrigerators or televisions until after the '60s. The world was changing rapidly. NASA had said that they were close to putting a man on the moon.

Julie hoped that they would not. What for? she thought. You go there. I'll stay here, thank you.

A group of hippies, gathering on a large blanket held an over-sized sign that said,

"Don't Sell Out to the Establishment."

They were obviously doing some kind of political work, maybe doing something like the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) offering free breakfasts and lunches to school children like the Black Panthers did in California. It was a white group, but many activists imitated good ideas like that regardless of the communities they came from. She had heard some gossip going around to that effect. She would go over later and see what they were about.

Julie put A Hard Day's Night by the Beatles on her tape deck and relaxed, waiting for her first customer. It was a mix tape with Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan on it, too - also, You Really Got Me by the Kinks. A nice upbeat mix. There was so much going on now. It was a good time, a great time to go through puberty and come of age. She felt pretty comfortable selling good quality, natural hallucinogens since they were legal in America at this point in time. She had to hide the pot, though, since that was not.

She bobbed her head to the music, smiled at Sherrie and Bud and dropped a hit of acid, watching the watercolor sky and trees sway in a fluid way that was probably not real, but very artistic and poetic. She felt inspired. She adjusted the peacock feathers in her hair and put on one of her beaded bracelets to show off to anyone stopping to look at her tie dye wares and other handicrafts. She tried to dress like Janis Joplin and was proud of it and her wildly long curly black hair. This was the era of natural, long hair and she was proud of her curls and her Italian good looks.

She lit a giant stick of musk incense. Sherrie smiled at her. Julie offered her and her boyfriend a free hit of acid. Why not? They often brought her business with their kind and thoughtful ways. The baby, Bruno giggled. Little did he know. Ha...

Theo and Mason, the two gay men that were usually on the other side of her, offered to buy everyone a soft drink or fruit juice. Julie was happy to ask for apple juice with ice and a straw. It was a very hot day in downtown Chicago. As usual, Theo and Mason were dressed in loud colors and exaggerated bell bottoms. They wore matching pink, frilly shirts and pink striped bell bottoms. As an accent, they also wore purple berets. They might match each other, but their patterns and colors rarely matched each outfit stylistically. Although, that was a popular thing right now. They were so very generous. They swished off to the vendors to get the drinks, holding hands. They were free and safe in the park and parts of the near North Side that were predominantly gay. No one would bother them.

Bud's brown skin shone with the sunlight and he smelled a little like lemon or lime. He told Julie that he rubbed a lemon or lime on his skin to give it that scent. Sherrie lit a joint, Bruno giggled. Her own fair skin was beginning to get a dark tan in the harsh Chicago summer sun.

Bud and Sherrie kissed and Sherrie gave Bud a "shotgun" hit with her joint. "Shotguns" were created when one person deftly held the lit end of the joint in their mouth (without burning themselves) and the other person held the other end in their mouth. The person who held the lit end blew backwards, blowing smoke into the mouth of the other person. It was usually a super hit, very powerful and kind of sexy, too. One needed to be kind of close to another person to do this, obviously. It was a sort of natural bong hit, without the bong.

After all of them had gotten high, Julie told Bud and Sherrie about the stalkers that had bothered her, Reese and Livia out in central Illinois. They both shook their heads, but congratulated her on her new place.

Sherrie said, "Your dad really has some wisdom. He must respect your artistry. Also, it is a great thing to ensure your survival by basically giving you a small house to live your life in. It shows a lot of trust in you." She looked sad for a moment, then continued, "Bud and I have housing problems all the time. My folks rejected me when I got pregnant with Bruno. They won't help us at all. My folks feel that if this is the kind of unmarried relationship that I want - I am adult enough to be completely on my own without any help from them. They have never even seen Bruno. They refused to buy him a stroller or baby clothes." She paused, wiped a tear away from her cheek, then continued, "I miss them anyway."

Julie answered sympathetically, "That's too bad. It's true that my dad is really special. He always has been. He has always looked out for me." Julie smiled warmly and reached out to hug Sherrie. She continued, "He's a great cook, too. One of these days I will have to bring you one of his dishes, which are wonderful cold, too. You can take it home and heat it up if you want."

Sherrie reached back and caressed Julie's shoulder. "I love you, Julietta Bonaventura, girl..."

"Back at you," replied Julie.

"Forever," they both said simultaneously and laughed.

Julie stared into the gathering crowd in the center of the field in front of her. She had a couple of customers who bought tie dyed shoulder bags which were her most popular item, outside of her dime bags of marijuana - (one ounce was $10 (or a 'dime') back in the day). Once they were gone, she refocused her attention on the gathering, wondering if there would be trouble. A lot of demonstrations in downtown Chicago (especially anti-war, anti-draft demonstrations) went bad suddenly when the Chicago police started bashing into the hippie crowds (including onlookers) with their nightsticks without warning. Or opening up with tear gas canisters.

Julie wondered if she should start packing up. She leaned into Sherrie who was nursing little Bruno saying, "You know what's up over there?" pointing at the unusually large crowd with her elbow. Sherrie shook her head "no". She frowned and pulled her shirt back down, packing Bruno's diaper bag. She said, "I think we are going to leave. I have the baby here and it gets nasty too easily. I don't want to risk it. We can always come back later." Bud packed their wares into two picnic baskets and folded their blanket. Julie got nervous.

She thought quickly that she should also pack up and leave just a little early. She glanced around the growing crowd. She threw a look around the periphery - checking for any approaching squadrons of police. She really wasn't into getting tear gassed and knew these things could deteriorate into violence really quickly. She went back to packing her things.

Suddenly...she caught her breath as two shiny, black, pointy-toed, Cuban-heeled shoes stopped right in front of her spot under the maple tree. She followed two black, sharply pressed pants legs apprehensively and slowly upwards until she saw a very familiar face peering back at her with a broad, questioning smile. But, to Julie, the familiar man seemed like the Charles-Dickens-Greaser-Phantom- of-the-Ghost-of-Hippie-Past.

"Rico?!" she exclaimed, almost horrified - her fear turning into a smoldering anger. Again?! What did Rico have on his mind, following her around like that?! "What the hell are you doing here? I'm busy. I'm getting ready to leave. The cops could try and break up that gathering any minute now. I've seen it happen before more than once. Remember the demonstrations last year? Or maybe you don't keep up with things like that."

Rico shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He smoothed his greased, duck tail haircut and adjusted his short, black leather jacket. "I don't think the cops would bother that group. They are not doing a protest. We are only organizing food Cooperatives, city-wide food banks and, also, meeting with a local neighborhood Gay Liberation to seek their help in the near North Side."

"We?" questioned Julie. "Are you gay?"

"Yeah, I work with a suburban food Cooperative that serves inner city Little Italy. And, uh, no, I'm not gay."

"Oh," answered Julie, relieved that Rico had just run into her by chance, something that seemed to happen a lot in The Age of Aquarius. The word karma was just becoming popular. She was a little disappointed that he wasn't gay, though. Didn't take him off the radar enough for her. "Okay," she continued. "I still need to pack up." She grumbled to herself silently, hoping Rico wouldn't offer to leave with her. So, what does Rico do? Invite himself along. S-word! Screw my karma!

"I'm pretty much done here, myself," he said. "I have a list of new volunteers and a list of prospective food banks and Cooperatives. It looks promising."

"I didn't know you cared about stuff like that." In fact, thought Julie vindictively, I didn't think you knew there were other people on planet Earth besides yourself.

Rico drew himself up a little and said in a serious, deep voice, "When it comes to my people and community - I care a great deal. Besides my school work, I work at developing food sources for less privileged folks in the city. I won't forget where I came from. I might do Urban Studies along with pre-law in college."

Julie felt intimidated by his surprising outburst of social consciousness and said, "How nice." She actually meant it too.

Rico commented back, "Say, I'm getting ready to go. I don't think there will be any trouble, but all my work is done for today. There won't be a head-bashing fest - I'm pretty sure."

Julie flinched and said, "Sure, okay. I'm almost ready." She felt embarrassed enough not to be mean to Rico, although she invisibly kicked herself for agreeing to accompany him. She really liked that long walk from Grant Park to Union Station by herself - just enjoying the summer weather, soon to disappear into Fall. Shit! She cursed to herself.

Rico smiled broadly at her. Julie noted that he was really handsome when he smiled. His deep, dark silken ebony eyes sparkled as if they had diamonds in them and his teeth were brilliant white against his flawless brown skin. It was as if a zit would not dare exist anywhere near Rico Anastasio Valente. "Great Julie!" answered Rico enthusiastically. "Thanks! I really want to see Yuppy and check out how much he has grown."

Julie yelped internally. She had not invited him into her house. Shit, shit, shit... "He gets bigger and bigger every day and looks more and more like a Great Dane and less like a small hound," she stated in a subdued voice, almost under her breath. She finished packing her backpack. Rico helped her on with the thing. Damn, why does this guy have to be so handsome and gentlemanly? What happened to that mean, old bully? And why does he have to have skin like smooth, brown velvet - with two big dimples, one on each cheek and a big John Travolta cleft chin with matching curly hair? She might even try harder to be kind to him just to see that smile flash at her again. He was being so nice, why not? She could think of a million reasons involving Rico-Valente-Past as to why not, but she smiled at him in spite of herself, thinking cynically, Is this the end of Rico?

Or....

__________

Of course, it started raining as Rico and Julie walked slowly to Union Station. Rico opened a super-sized beach umbrella and Julie put her rain poncho on over herself and her backpack. She loved the smell of the warm, summer rain, especially downtown. It filled her being and she almost wished she was alone. It was not hard to wish that Rico was not there even though he shared his umbrella with her.

Thunder hit in a percussive crash, just as the two teenagers entered the train station. It made Julie laugh and jump at the same time. The rain beat down ten times harder than before. Deep, impenetrable, obsidian black clouds rolled in and covered most of the light in the sky. The street lights came on. The temperature went from warm and humid to cool with an almost wintry edge.

Even the usually stoic Rico chuckled over the fact that they had just made it inside the brass and glass protection of the huge train station - by ten seconds or less. "Phew!" he exclaimed, with another laugh and a sigh. He hugged Julie with one of his long, perfectly muscled arms slung over her shoulders momentarily. Good thing he released her, or she would have punched him in the gut.

The two teenagers stood on their commuter train platform listening to the intense patter of the rain storm. The double decker suburban commuter train pulled into the station in a cloud of sour steam emitted from underneath its steel wheels. The dark blue hatted conductor stood beside an opened door. The only open door on the long train. If the conductor stopped you from going to the other cars then you knew that this was one of the last trains of the day and this was the only car that was open. The other train cars were locked. Rico and Julie boarded and went upstairs to the single seats where they would both have a window. Rico bought his ticket from the conductor. Julie tore out one ticket from her book of tickets, which she bought monthly.

Julie watched the rain stream down the train window and got lost in a reverie until the two had to disembark at their neighborhood station. They ran, shouting and stamping through the old station's wooden tunnel, built over one hundred years ago, listening to the close echoes of their voices and feet and trying to avoid the intense smell of decades worth of male urine.

It had stopped raining just as suddenly as it had started - true to form for the beginning of Fall in the Midwest. The large elms that lined Julie's street were still dripping rainwater and mist, which they would continue to do until the night dried them out and the sun of the next dawn increased their growth. She pulled her jacket tighter to shut out the chill brought on by the sudden short rainfall.

Rico hesitated at Julie's house like he wanted (of all things!) to come in. That was not like him. He had not been exactly what one would call friendly when he was younger. Apparently, Julie noted, he had changed and matured. Rather nicely, she thought. Julie, remembered ruefully what a pain he used to be.

She still sort of refused to believe in this seeming change in him. She did not want to be bullied by Rico unawares. She did not want to be a fool. She remembered with bitterness being tormented by him when she was much younger...and still hadn't really forgiven him. The Halloween incident was not the only instance of his bullying.

But Rico had no meanness on his mind. He suddenly smiled and Julie was taken aback. You know, he had certainly matured and the smooth, perfect brown skin of his face set a dazzling frame around his perfect, white teeth. "It would be nice to walk Vito and Yuppy together. I know how much you like walking in the dark. Want to take them out together tonight? I mean, if it doesn't rain again," asked Rico. He did a double take, noticing Julie's reticence and added quietly, "It wouldn't be a date. I just thought it would be fun."

Julie stuttered, "Uh. Yeah. Sure..." not meaning a word of it, but embarrassed at her own transparent attitude.

Rico brightened and said, "Oh, good! I'll come by around 11 pm."

"Okay," answered Julie.

Julie sat silently throughout dinner. Her father thought she wasn't feeling well. She turned the TV on so she could watch a favorite show of hers, The Smothers Brothers Show. Her shoulders were still slumped. She could not laugh at jokes she usually thought were really funny. She had not said a word to her father in over an hour.

"What's the matter, Sweetie?" asked Vince, concerned. He reached over and felt Julie's forehead. Julie flinched and drew away. She answered, "Oh, Pop - it's nothing." She looked at the clock apprehensively and decided to take a nap. Maybe her father would answer the door and tell Rico she was sick and went to bed early.

The doorbell rang before Julie could go to her bedroom and hide. Why was Rico so damn early?! She literally jumped to her feet. Vince got to the door first, though, letting Rico in with his huge, silent dog, Vito, the gray ghost. Yuppy ran circles around the big dog and did everything but clap two hands that he didn't have as he raced around the room yipping very short, high excited barks.

Vince gave Julie a cryptic look and sat back down in his usual Laz-E-Boy watching a very interrupted Smothers Brothers Show. "Going on a date?" he asked his daughter, quietly, with a salting of triumphant sarcasm and a slightly quizzical grin.

"Not exactly, Pop," answered Julie, miffed.

"We're just walking dogs," answered the rather dashing Rico, flashing his dimples and pearly whites. He hugged Vito in a successful attempt to keep him from chasing the puppy around the room. A very disgruntled small bulldog hid behind the couch. He growled ineffectively, Julie laughed in spite of herself. Poor Romeo, he just could not gain Alpha status with this Danish invasion. All fifteen pounds of him was overwhelmed with the situation. He lacked about one hundred pounds to make any impression on the bigger dogs at all.

Rico grinned even more widely and pulled Vito out the door, waving at Julie to follow. She leashed Yuppy and followed his lead.

Yuppy was growing rapidly and he was almost half Vito's size. It was a good thing both dogs were well trained, otherwise they would have left Rico and Julie far behind, trailing their leashes in their joyous reunion down the darkened suburban streets.

It was pitch dark, but warm, the way Julie liked it. They sauntered slowly under the moonlight in the general direction of the town center.

Julie saw a familiar-looking shadow up ahead. Listening closely, she could hear the sound of small bells. Yuppy got excited. "Reese?" called out Julie. Reese was the only person she knew that wore bells. She could also smell the pungent scent of reefer. She snickered.

Back in '66 it was generally pretty safe to walk down some deserted suburban streets smoking a clandestine joint - at least with a little carefulness. Rico tensed as the smell drifted their way, but Julie laughed and shouted, "Hi!" at Reese who laughed and ran over to them. The moonlight drifted overhead and sent shifting shadows around the large maples lining the street they were on. Vito sat down and looked downright elegant with the streetlights and moonlight tripping over his shining gray hair. Yuppy looked at the bigger dog and lay down amenably on the sidewalk next to him.

Julie and Reese shared what was left of her joint and Reese offered another, fresh one. Rico declined. The two girls sat down on someone's front lawn, enjoying the coolness of the grass. Rico remained standing, looking awkward, but quiet. Julie thought, Good, got you back - now you wait for me. She still had a little vindictiveness towards the boy, but it was fading with his polite and considerate ambiance.

Reese brought Julie up to date with her newest adventures. She had joined a Guru Maharaji group in Chicago. They were not supposed to smoke weed, but she felt that was not a rule she could keep. Julie was curious and Reese told her that meditation was a lot of fun. That was what the group did together, mostly. Reese said she would teach Julie how to meditate if she wanted to learn. Julie got excited and invited her to spend the weekend at her new place in the country. Reese smiled and said she could pick her up on Friday and that she would love to go.

__________

Goin' up the country, don't you want to go?

Goin' up the country, don't you want to go?

("Goin' up the Country" by Alan Wilson, Sony ATV Music Publishing LLC, recorded by Canned Heat, 1968.)

Reese and Rico were packed and psyched for their weekend at Julie's "Barn". Rico brought Vito. He did not do any drugs including reefer, nor did he drink alcohol except around his family, but he wore one of Julie's red and gold tie dyed canvas jackets and included a complementary wood bead necklace as a surprise. It did. Surprise, that is. He also did not grease his hair and wore it naturally curly in a soft halo around his head. He looked dynamite good. For a guy with a checkered past, he was making a rather good impression.

Reese made up for Rico's dry ideas of not carrying any street drugs with her homemade 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies', her locally famous hashish peanut butter-chocolate chip, honey-sweetened cookies. She also brought peanut butter muffins infused with Psilocybin (magic, hallucinogenic mushrooms). Yeah, let's get it on!

Vito, that silent giant, was a good three feet tall on all fours. No one minded that Rico did not drink or do drugs. Every person's personal preferences were their own at the Barn - except overdosing or addictive drugs. Anything that could harm like that was not welcome and Julie was not quiet about it, either.

Yuppy sat joyfully next to Vito in the camper. They both lay out on the folded couch-bed so they could look out the window. Vito's bulk kept Yup from sliding off the couch at every turn.

Romeo, Vince and Julie's elderly bulldog, decided wisely not to join the journey of the giants this time.

All three friends sat on the truck seat. After they had crossed the river, they parked to show Rico the new favorite spot of theirs on the shore. Reese, of course - being their neighborhood pot-head, lit a joint. Rico abstained, but Julie got out of the truck with Reese and walked along the shore smoking with her. Rico got out and stretched, letting Vito and Yuppy run around a little.

Vito lofted his huge head, spread his nostrils and loudly sniffed the air. He howled a little - which was thinly echoed by Yup. All three friends had heard thunder, so they thought that was the source of Vito's concern. Rico shouted suddenly at Reese and Julie, pointing to a clearing in the forest.

Two brown and white ponies walked slowly through a field. They carried two hippie-looking people with large backpacks. A man ... and a woman in a long ankle-length, wide, ruffled skirt rode the Pintos.

Julie shouted at them and waved. Reese did the same. The girl, or woman, looked at them and seemed to startle. She urged her horse forward and broke into a canter, running her steed into the shelter of some obfuscating trees. The boy, or man, did the same thing.

"Looks like they're afraid of us," said Reese.

"Yeah," answered Rico, calling Vito and Yuppy back to the camper, shutting the door behind them.

"They're almost at my Barn," added Julie. "I don't know them, though. They really look cool on those beautiful horses."

"Yeah," said Rico, the walking encyclopedia. "Those are definitely ponies. They have too small a stature to be called horses. Looks like those folks might be camping out."

"Let's go," said Julie, pushing her friends towards the truck. "I think they might be heading to the Barn. I want to meet them"

"Yeah!" echoed Reese, enthusiastically.

The three friends climbed into Julie's truck and rode down the dirt road to her place. Sure enough, both horses were tied up in front of her garage/workshop door. The man and woman (who were actually only teenagers looking to be around 17 or so) were washing off at Julie's outside spigot. They both looked up as Julie's truck drove in.

The sky was darkening and more thunder could be heard in the distance. Julie was anxious to light a fire in her stove and warm the place up. She had decided to invite both the new strangers in for the night or weekend. She had taken an instant liking to them already. She raised the garage door and waved them over, calling them to come on in.

There were many young people traveling these days, away from their families and parents. There was a very widespread, general camaraderie among young people, a willingness to reach out and help as many people as they could. "Share the land..." as the song was to say in 1970:

Have you been around?

Have you done your share of comin' down

From the different things that people do?

Have you been aware

You got brothers and sisters who care

About what's gonna happened to you a year from now?

Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand.

Maybe I'll be there to share the land

That they'll be givin' away

When we all live together.

I'm talkin' 'bout together now.

("Share the Land" by Burton Cummings, recorded by The Guess Who, 1970, copyright BMG Rights Management US, LLC.)

Julie was more than willing to share with these two travelers, brothers and sisters of the Sixties. Julie started up the truck and pulled inside one of the bays. Rico was awed by her new place. Because Julietta had called it a barn, he had expected the place to have stalls, old hay and the smell of horse dung. He was surprised at her workshop and tie dye operation that now filled the long, wooden work table on the first floor.

She hopped out of the truck and walked over to the two campers still cooling themselves off at the side of her building at the water spigot. She patted the friendly ponies as she passed them. Vito and Yuppy stood at a little distance from the horses, acting friendly themselves. Yuppy got pretty close, dragging Vito with him. They artfully stayed a safe distance from the hooves. The four animals touched noses and seemed to get along right away.

As Julie walked towards the newcomers, the girl caught sight of Vito and gasped, showing some fear. The boy saw Yuppy and giggled, pointing at the antics of the little spotted gray puppy as he tried to nip at Vito's legs and engage him, fruitlessly, in some playful game. Vito, ever the obedient gentleman, walked slowly behind Julie, sniffing at the two new folks. The girl still seemed afraid of the huge Great Dane, even with Julie between him and the two riders. Not much surprise there.

Julie smiled at both her new visitors and said, "No worry, guys. The big dog is super friendly. Vito wouldn't hurt anyone unless they tried to hurt me or my friends. Say," she paused. "Why don't you both come up and join us for dinner?" The two campers smiled.

Julie continued, "We have some reefer and hash cookies for dessert," she added, coyly. She tactfully left out the part about the acid muffins, since some folks did not like hallucinogens at this point in time.

Both of her visitors laughed. "I'm Winslow Kelly," said the boy. "And this is Sarah, my wife." The girl smiled shyly.

When they had finished freshening up, they followed Julie, Rico, Reese and the two dogs upstairs to the loft. Vito immediately settled his large, gray form into a bean bag chair. Thunder sounded loudly this time - and much closer - outside.

Just as Winslow and Sarah brought their ponies into the second bay of the garage downstairs, the rain started, but it turned out to be a light shower that only lasted a short time. It was more of a lightning storm than a rain storm. This was typical of central Illinois in the Sixties. Julie looked anxiously out the loft windows for any tornado funnels which was also typical of weather like this.

Reese, smiling, slipped Rico a couple of her hash cookies, while Julie (who knew what she had just done) frowned and made peppermint tea to warm everyone up after the rain. She also lit the propane camp stove and began heating up the lasagna she had brought from home.

Winslow and Sarah looked hungry enough to eat the everything. Hungry and anxious. Julie found a couple of rather fresh Timothy hay bales downstairs, so she fed those to the ponies. Her dad, bless him, must have put them there.

In about fifteen minutes, Rico began to laugh. He spread his arms wide as Julie served dinner at her rustic dining table made from sturdy but rough wooden planks she had scavenged from a corner in the workshop. "It's so beautiful here! I love it! The air smells so fresh and clean! This dinner is great! I just love it! You even brought garlic bread!" exclaimed the unknowingly intoxicated Rico.

Reese hid her laughter and put two more hash cookies on Rico's dinner plate, waving her hand over the cookie dish and telling everyone to help themselves. Julie took Reese aside and said, "You are really going to need help if Rico ever finds out why he's so happy right now. Reese, what were you thinking of?! You know about his temper!"

"No problem, Julie. I won't tell if you don't."

"Duh, Reese. I guess he'll just think the countryside is an unusually happy place. Give me an acid muffin - and don't you dare slip him or our guests one of those!"

"Wouldn't think of it."

Julie gave Reese a fish eye and said, "Better not!"

Rico came over to the stove, kissed Julie politely on the cheek and said with a wide smile on his face, "That was a great dinner! You are a wonderful cook and I just love your new place." The dimples shone on his perfect face. Julie felt very shy from the kiss. This was a totally new Rico. Gone was the bad-tempered bully of her childhood. Rico noticed her confusion and told her how pretty he thought she was.

He also apologized for throwing her in the bushes when she was ten. He said, "It isn't funny anymore." He also said he would never hurt her again. Reese and Rico were happy to eat cookies and drink tea. Julie gave Reese a look again. Rico enthusiastically complimented Reese on the fine cookies. Even Julie had to laugh at that.

Julie did not know how to handle this change in Rico. She hoped it wasn't just the hash cookies.

Rico slept in her RV. After Rico went downstairs, Reese handed out the hallucinogenic muffins, warning Sarah and Winslow what was in them. Julie put on some music and lit some incense.

The next morning, she called Vito and Yuppy as an excuse to put some distance between her and Rico and to take them outside for a run and the usual doggy reasons. Vito began barking (which echoed all over the place due to Julie's imbibing a little of an acid muffin for breakfast). Yuppy ran after Vito, all long gangly legs and silly baby lack of coordination, trying to bark as deeply and loudly as a full-grown, adult Great Dane, like his dad. But, he could only manage to bark in a high, puppy voice.

Julie ran behind them laughing. Her friends - especially Winslow and Sarah - were still up in the loft stuffing their faces with scrambled eggs and toast (no muffins) and drinking hot tea - also having a little fun with the peanut butter cookies. Her two new friends, it turned out, had not eaten in a couple of days, so they were ravenous. They had no money at all and had both run away from home to get married without the permission of their parents, so they were pretty ragged.

Julie ran after the dogs and ran right into the large, muscular bodies of Garth Broderick and Todd Stevens. She gasped in horror, slipped on the wet grass and fell on her face at their feet. Vito and the puppy ran over too. Julie was afraid the two stalkers would hurt the dogs so she tried to shoo them away. Garth started laughing roughly at her fear and weakness. Neither man tried to help her up. She just had to, clumsily, climb up out of the wet grass herself.

Todd broke into a run towards Julie's front forest and hid himself in the trees. Garth walked in the same direction, still laughing at her. She yelled after him as Vito started to bark, "You're trespassing! You don't have my permission to be here. You'd better..." She sputtered when Garth continued walking away, showing no fear at all.

He, in fact, yelled back at Julie, defiantly, "We're from Midville, born and bred. We check zoning code violations. You might have a few with those ponies you're keeping in your garage. Not sure that's legal. You might not be zoned for livestock." He was perfectly sure that he and Todd had the town officers and Midville police in their pockets. So, even though the two men were just snooping, had no official connections and they were just sticking their noses where they didn't belong - he was pretty sure the local officials would do no more than slap their wrists for lying and trespassing, if they did anything at all.

This was their town and no durn hippies were going to take that away from them, by gawd! No sir!! He yelled over his shoulder, "You better tie those dogs up, too! Loose dogs are illegal in this town!"

Julie, nonplussed, yelled back, "This is my land. We were just walking around the barn together. My dogs stay with me. They weren't wandering around anywhere."

"Too bad," answered Garth, getting further away. "You might have to pay a penalty for that if I catch you letting them walk around without a leash in the future. Or, the cops could take your dogs away. I can call the dog catcher on you."

Julie turned red with rage. She knew she could call her dad and, also, Chun-hua - who was licensed to practice law in the entire state of Illinois. "Fuck you!" she muttered under her breath. She and the dogs went inside.

Rico had surprised everyone and made breakfast for those who hadn't had any. So, Julie fed the dogs and sat right down. She told everyone what had just happened and assured them that the two intruders were gone without any more of a hassle. Winslow and Sarah wanted to move on after breakfast. Julie said she didn't blame them but told them she would pack some sandwiches and apple juice for them. They looked shy and grateful. Sarah reached out to hug her.

Julie was really glad her father had found the couches with the fold out double beds at yard sales. He had given her the large propane camp stove (which she had set up on ceramic tiles on an old-fashioned metal-topped table) and a small refrigerator, too. She had stocked it full of food. There were two sinks upstairs - one in the bathroom and one where they had built her improvised kitchen (which was set on the original wooden floor and not the shag rug) off the large common room with the fold out beds in it. Her dad had also found an old linoleum-topped table that worked just fine as a prep counter. There was also a deep utility sink downstairs next to her huge, long wooden work table (which extended the entire length of the garage). She used that for her tie dye workshop.

Her dad had also recently brought over three large overstuffed chairs and a couple of end tables, so Julie and her guests were seriously comfortable. The best surprise Vincente had given Julietta were five beautifully framed dayglo Peter Max posters (complete with a black light), giving a splash of vibrant color to her pine paneled walls. Dayglo lit with a black light was luminescent when one turned the lights off.

Julie put some 45's on her old, used record player, lit some incense and a strobe candle. They all, except for Rico, smoked a very mellow joint as the sun streamed through Julie's newly hung flowered, cotton curtains. Rico helped himself to the last of Reese's hash cookies much to the amusement of both Reese and Julie. The sound of the Supremes singing You Keep Me Hangin' On drifted around the loft pleasantly on the heavy patchouli scent of the incense.

The ponies started stamping and making some noise downstairs and Winslow slung a large backpack over his strong shoulders. Sarah accepted a bag of sandwiches and drinks from Julie and the two young lovers were on their way after a very refreshing visit.

The rain had stopped long ago and the sunny, warm weather was perfect for travel. The four wild apple trees on Julie's land were producing large, clean Macintosh. Sarah slipped off her pony and picked a few large, unblemished pieces of fruit. She smiled at Winslow. She remembered what Julie had said, trying to reassure the two of them when they expressed worry about their parents catching them. "Don't worry too much. It's the love. It's all about the love."

With this happy thought, Sarah re-mounted her pinto and the two teenagers walked towards the road leading out of Julie's land. Up ahead, they spotted a pickup parked peculiarly across the road, blocking access. Both riders felt afraid. Garth Broderick stood in the middle of the road, arms akimbo, leaning on the side of his pickup truck. They trotted up to Garth, not having much of a choice and dismounted, leading their horses towards him. Winslow began to sweat.

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# Chapter Four: Hell No! We Won't Go! All Power to the People!

Back in the suburbs, Rico saw Julie pack a sizable set of sandwich bags filled with cut and sifted marijuana, neatly and carefully in her backpack. These were tucked, hidden, in the middle of her tie-dyed products. The two were on their way to downtown Chicago and Grant Park. Rico grabbed Julie's arm and said, excitedly, "What's this?! You sell weed in the park?! Don't you know you can be arrested for doing that? It's illegal! The next thing you'll be telling me that you are joining an anti-draft protest!"

"Uh," answered Julietta, a little weirded out to say the least (since she always forgot that Rico - the gangster-looking greaser - was very conservative about street drugs, regardless of his happy, but unknowing, encounter with Reese's hash cookies). "Yeah, I do," she answered. "And if I march with the protesters down Michigan Avenue, that's my own business!"

She felt stupid but angry around Rico as usual, throwing her hands up in the air in a helpless gesture as she shrugged her shoulders. Rico actually looked angry right back at her for the first time since they were little kids. Julie ducked inside her mind and called out for her father (who was a notorious pot- head and had been a World War II draft dodger).

"Daddy!" she yelled, desperately hoping her father had not stepped out with Chun-hua. She kind of knew they wanted to get back together, even though Chun's parents had arranged that marriage with Jimmy Wong, another lawyer from the University of Chicago. Chun did not think it was a marriage made in heaven, although she liked the guy. The two had very different life plans and that was causing problems.

Her father had, indeed, left already. Drat! she thought. Figures that Rico didn't mind going to fight in Vietnam. She sort of felt sorry for him, being that backward. Maybe the war would be over by the time he was eligible for the draft. Or the draft would.

"You know I don't like street drugs," continued Rico, pushing on that sore spot.

Oh, yeah, thought Julie. And what business is that of yours? Who made you my critic all of a sudden? She commented right back, "Well, reefer should be legal. LSD is."

"That doesn't make it right - or safe," shot Rico with a shocked look on his face.

"I can't handle this, Rico," answered Julie, disgusted. "Even my dad smokes reefer. Don't go back to telling me what to do - or our friendship will end right there. Dig it?!" Julie finished packing her wares for Grant Park and pushed Rico aside so she could choose her jewelry, getting ready to leave with or without him. Friendship was an option with Rico Valente, anyway. He was the stereotypical Sixties honor student, giving honor students a bad name.

"Vince smokes marijuana?!" continued Rico, insistent on making himself obnoxious.

Julie's eyes sparked. She threw herself at him verbally with, "Remember how much fun my Barn was? You really want to know why? Reese's peanut butter cookies had a significant amount of hashish in them. You might want to know that hashish is made from the concentrated resin of marijuana. We just didn't tell you what was in the cookies, because you are so uptight. Good thing you didn't try the muffins - they had Psilocybin in them. We kept those away from you."

"Hashish?! I could have been arrested!"

"Well, you weren't and it looks as if you liked it a whole lot. So right on, don't be so stuck up."

Rico exclaimed defensively, "I'm not!" and fell silent.

Before Julie left for the train to downtown, he went home - to her vast relief. She gathered her dark, curly hair at the nape of her neck and put on a headband with small, embroidered colorful designs around it. She added her wooden, beaded necklace and silver, tiered Indian earrings.

She put on her tie-dyed white canvas jacket. Shouldering her backpack, she walked to the train. She took Yuppy with her on a nice, red canvas leash. He might turn out to be a good salesman and she enjoyed his affectionate company. It was good for him to be outside all day instead of sitting inside with old Romeo until somebody got home. He was just as well behaved as Romeo and usually waited for his doggy business until he was taken out for a walk in the evening - or used the newspapers they set on the linoleum in the porch for the two dogs. He was not destructive and had been gently and competently trained with a kind hand.

She looked down at his shiny, dappled back. She had gotten him a decorative collar and it was very pretty against the shine of his coat. He had doubled in size since she had gotten him from Rico. The puppy looked up at her and wagged his tail. "Good boy, Yup," she said, pausing to give him a pat on the back. He wagged his tail again. She smoothed the hair on his head.

He was so quiet, she was pretty sure they would let him on the train. At this time of day, the cars were pretty much empty. The morning commuter rush hour was over.

__________

Back out in the country, Winslow and Sarah were, amazingly, still in the company of the family of Garth Broderick. Main reason - Garth liked those Pinto ponies. He had decided to give these two hippie kids a pass when he found out that Winslow was a farrier (a professional that trims and shoes horse hooves) - and an excellent one at that. In exchange for short term room and board, the two young lovers took care of the Broderick family's four horses as well as their own.

Sarah groomed and exercised them and Winslow took care of their hooves and shoes - mucking out the stalls every day in his extra time. He also ran a small farrier business among the friends of the Broderick family. This gave Winslow and Sarah a fair amount of savings and pocket money for more supplies. They both planned to travel on, but the stop-over was a welcome and lucrative rest. Sarah found she had some talent as a horse trainer and added that to Winslow's farrier business.

They slept in Garth's hay loft and used the bathroom in his house. They were also invited to eat with the family. Sarah traded her ankle-length skirts for jeans and Winslow made an effort to wear his Western-style gear. The Brodericks were still wary of hippies and were pro-war. Garth did not say much about Julietta and Vincente Bonaventura, but it was clear that Sarah and Winslow Kelly were an exception and he still did not like the liberal Bonaventuras one little whit.

Garth had a pregnant mare and the two teenagers had decided to stay on at least until she had foaled which would be towards the end of the summer.

Surprisingly, Garth and his family were warm, understanding, protective and generous with Winslow and Sarah. Sarah got a couple of other jobs grooming, exercising and training more horses in the local area. She rode her pony to work. Winslow slowly became well-known and admired for his quick-handed, gentle farrier skills and Sarah was also mildly popular.

The whole thing was kind of amazing, but when it came to horses, Garth was willing to overlook a lot of his own prejudices. A good farrier was like gold to him. He even offered to get Winslow Kelly a local business license and loan him the money to purchase his own land and a truck.

Winslow declined the kind offer. He didn't see any reason to have to pay taxes or owe anyone anything. He wanted his freedom. He and Sarah had their hearts set on joining a commune. Maybe joining Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters on their school bus cross-country. Sarah didn't like their polyamorous lifestyle, though. She wanted to have Winslow's children and spend her life with him. Free love was not her thing. There were other places that were friendlier towards faithful couples, which were, in both their opinions, great places to raise a new generation - the communes.

1966 was a hotbed of anti-war protest and finding a place where they could not be found by the draft or their parents was very appealing to them. They both felt the newly forming communes would be a great place to raise their children in a radical rural community and get back to the land and a natural, healthy way to live. Sarah wanted to learn how to make pottery. Winslow could easily run a farrier business from a commune as well as donate time to the commune horses or livery.

Garth Broderick was, of course, disappointed that Winslow turned his offers down (although he knew Win and Sarah wanted to leave eventually). He would probably continue to stand by the Kellys and bring in new customers for both of them until they did.

Todd Stevens vigorously disagreed with his best friend and told him that he would be sorry that he had helped them. And he told him so repeatedly. Todd didn't trust the Kellys or like them in the least. Todd made Garth's ears ring with his warnings that hippies were not good people, like themselves. He continuously told Garth that people like the Kellys hated America and were disloyal to the red, white and blue. Garth finally told him to shove it and that he was just giving the two youngsters a chance in life. That was all. And that everyone deserved that.

Todd shot back at him with, "What about Julie and Vince Bonaventura? Hmm, Garth, you old fogey?!"

That made Garth hesitate for a moment. He just said, "Maybe these kids are different. They are married, you know."

"So what?!" said Todd, shoving his finger into Garth's shoulders. "She must be on that new birth control pill or she would be pregnant by now."

"Maybe. There are ordinary people that use that pill these days. They might want to wait until they are settled down. Think how much easier our lives would have been if we could have controlled when we had our first child."

Todd frowned and said scornfully, "We had to marry if the girl got pregnant. Had to. There was no choice. We might have been bad boys, but we made it right. Everyone should have to do that. Otherwise we give girls the right to be promiscuous."

"I would have married Melissa anyway," said Garth softly.

"Who knows?" continued Todd angrily. "Maybe we didn't need that freedom. Your daughters use that pill?"

"I wouldn't mind if they did," challenged Garth. "They are beautiful, intelligent and reasonable girls. I want them to have a choice."

"Choice?! What's that? Pretty soon Women's Lib and that witch Gloria Steinem will be asking for legal abortions. You sound like a damn liberal."

"Jeez, Todd. I'm still your good buddy. We just have our own opinions, that's all. I wouldn't mind legal abortions. I don't want my girls to make a mistake and have to pay for it with their lives."

"That's what's wrong with you. You have too many daughters. Four of them! They ruin your mind. Take me, I have four sons. They are the salt of the earth. You need more boys in your life to straighten out your mind."

Garth Broderick sighed loudly and took a deep chug of his beer, wishing that Todd would just let it go for a change. One day, he was going to get the two of them in trouble with his aggressive opinions and ways. He had one mean thought, If Todd wasn't 4F he would be fighting in the jungles of 'Nam instead of mouthing off at him.

Garth really felt that Civil Rights belonged to everyone. When the rednecks in town said mean things about Black folks down south during Martin Luther King's protests, he kept quiet and did not add to the conversation. He even supported the new Title VII Amendment to the Constitution enabling women to go to court over equality in the work place. Why he had a wife and four daughters, didn't he? He darn well knew he was the minority in his own home, but he loved it. And loved them too.

__________

Towards the end of the summer, Garth was sitting on the porch in the evening, resting and enjoying some cool evening air as the sun went down behind the trees of the forest. With their red and blue lights blazing and sirens blaring, the local police roared down the main street of Midville going way too fast. They turned onto the silent, sedate dirt and gravel road to the Broderick Family home, passing one or two of his corn fields in their frantic journey to the farmhouse. The two cruisers screeched to a halt raising clouds of dust in front of the large, gray house. Garth, himself, gazed upon the scene with his mouth wide open in confusion, while his hunting dog brayed at all the commotion.

Four uniformed officers jumped from their vehicles. One of them led with his service weapon. Garth stood up and unconsciously raised his arms up over his head in surrender, regardless of the fact the two men had known each other since childhood. Another officer pushed him aside and shouted at him over the still braying hound, "No, Garth! It's not you. Where are those two kids that live here? The ones with the spotted ponies?!"

Garth was stunned for a moment and lost his voice. Then he stuttered, "Wha...What have they done? They left. They're gone."

"Did they take those pintos with them?" questioned the officer with the gun, looking grim.

"Of course," answered Garth. "I didn't want them to leave in this god-awful weather - with all the tornado warnings and all. But, they had been planning on traveling on for some time now. They were good, honest people. Imagine kids that young getting married?" He smiled, remembering the two youngsters fondly.

Another officer looked at Garth sideways and commented snidely, "No...and no."

"Hunh?" queried Garth, confused.

"First off," continued the cop. "They are not married. Sarah's real name is not Kelly. It is Edelstein. Secondly, those horses are stolen. And," he paused dramatically. "Her parents have been looking for them for months. Sarah is underage and a runaway."

Garth sat down on his porch chair suddenly and buried his face in his hands. "I should have known. Damn hippies. Todd Stevens warned me that they were up to something. It angered me and I ignored him."

"You should have listened to him," remonstrated a third officer more quietly as the dog stopped howling.

"I know," said Garth remorsefully, shaking his head. "And my wife liked them so much."

"Any idea where they might be going? Which way they were headed?" The officer sat down in the chair next to Garth's and lay a hand on his shoulder.

Garth shook his head. "I don't rightly know," he answered. "I heard them talking about going to Missouri. But, I'm not sure exactly where they were talking about." Garth, despite the shock of finding out about Winslow Kelly and Sarah Edelstein's real situation, had no intention of putting the cops on their trail. Their names sounded funny to him, but he was feeling bad about the whole thing. He didn't really care. He had a lot of friendship invested in those two - horse thieves or not.

A fine farrier such as Winslow would not even get close to mishandling or abusing a horse, he thought. If the cops - god forbid - should catch up with the two lovers, the previous owner of the ponies would probably find them in better shape (all carefully curried by Sarah and with plenty of exercise from their journey) than they had been - just standing around in a pasture year in and year out. God knows. Garth snorted a laugh to himself. Lord knows, their hooves would be in excellent shape. He had seen Winslow put on brand new horse shoes after cleaning and trimming their hooves right before they left. Real smart kids they were, too. Their folks should be proud of them. They made a good duo. They were dynamic in Garth's opinion which might just count for something later.

He knew the kids had packed many new camping supplies and had plenty of savings to start a good, solid life together. Dang it, he thought again. Millie and me practically gave birth to our first baby before we were married. Good thing she was a bit over-weight and you couldn't tell. Garth chuckled again.

The four policemen shuffled their feet on the wooden boards of the front porch. "Okay if we take a look around?"

"Sure," answered Garth, off guard. "They stayed in the loft in my barn out back."

"This is no laughing matter, Mr. Broderick. Those two are wanted for felony horse theft. Those were valuable show ponies. Keep thinking, try and remember if there is anything else that they said that could help us. We'll go out back and see if they left any clues as to where they are heading. We need to talk to your wife as well."

"Okay," answer Garth, depressed but resigned. "Do what you must." He was pretty sure he did not want to help the police any more than he had to.

__________

A large anti-war rally greeted Julietta when she and Yuppy arrived at Grant Park. She wound her way through the huge throng and was happy to find her place underneath the big maple tree uninhabited. Bruno, Sherrie and Bud were there already. Theo and Mason were also there with a large cooler full of cold drinks. Julie asked for one and got a diet Sprite, her sugarless favorite. Of course, Theo and Mason wore mismatched clothes, but twinned. They had on pink T-shirts, multi-colored bead necklaces and yellow striped super-sized bell bottoms. They wore Panama hats to shade themselves from the hot Chicago sun. Loud, sporadic chants of "Hell no, we won't go!" and "All power to the people!" broke the air occasionally. A recording of Joan Baez was played over a loudspeaker. Julie loved this. It was her idea of real fun. She very much supported this politic.

Bruno started nursing from Sherrie as soon as he saw Julie drinking her Sprite. It was going to be a super sales day, she could tell. As soon as she put her first tie dye creation down on the Indian cloth, someone bought it and a line formed immediately afterward. People were that curious to see what else she had.

Her reefer sold out the first hour and she was amused to see clouds of marijuana smoke forming near her vending position. She put on Richie Havens version of Eleanor Rigby from his new Mixed Bag tape when it was quiet enough to do so.

The entire day was amazing. Julie sold everything she had - everything - way before 5 pm. The combination of the huge crowd that was in the park for the demonstration and Yuppy's sweet, alluring presence was magic. Quite a few folks had already put on her handcrafted tie dye T-shirts.

She even had time to link arms with Theo and Mason and join the gay anti-war contingent for a short walk up Michigan Avenue (with the dog), while Sherrie and Bud watched her backpack. So what if it was gay?! Who would know, anyway? She only wished Rico had been there to see her march with the gay boys. It would serve him right to be shocked. He thought that he was Mr. Liberal and needed to teach everyone else how to behave.

The protests were so much fun, like a 4th of July picnic - assuming one left before there were any confrontations with the cops, which she and Theo usually did, although Mason was more into standoffs. They had to drag him along when they left a little early.

After the fun on Michigan Avenue, Julie packed up, gave free joints to Sherrie, Bud, Theo and Mason, kissed little Bruno and headed off towards Adams Street and Union Station. She planned on going out to her workshop tomorrow since she could make tons more tie dye there without making a mess or disturbing her father.

Vince usually supported Julie's handicrafts, ever since she had hand sewn her own doll clothes as a child. He, being a professional tailor and clothing designer, had taught Julie everything she knew about design - and he was very proud of her talent. Remember, it was his idea to find a place that could be her workshop. He trusted her on her own and had made sure that there was a telephone installed in a hidden cubby behind a small locked door in her loft.

These days one had to hide the telephone and maybe even put a lock on it, since so many youngsters would sneak long distance calls if they could. That habit could get impossibly expensive. Ah, hippies!

It actually managed not to rain on her walk to the train. Unusual for mid-summer in the Windy City of Chicago - but seriously nice if you could bear the heat. The sun reflected harshly in the windows off the side street high rise office buildings. Julie put on her over-sized sunglasses and pulled her wide-brimmed, woven Panama hat lower on her forehead, shading her face. It got broiling hot before the sun finally and mercifully disappeared behind Chicago's high rises, so Julie - having an extra fifteen minutes or so due to her leaving early and her good luck selling today - stood in a shady alley and drank an only slightly cool soda Mason had given her as she left the park. Yuppy was grateful for the shade, too.

She had plenty of time to make her train and got a good single seat in the upper level before the commuters got on. She hid a rather quiet, probably very thirsty, Yuppy between her knees so he wasn't so obviously there. Normally, at this time of day (rush hour), it was hard to get a seat in the popular upper berth of the train cars. But today, it was easy since Julie was so early.

As soon as the train pulled away from the station, Yup fell asleep curled upon her high-top sneakers. He woke up and sat up straight when the other passengers had to pass her in small the aisle next to her seat.

She got a lot of smiles when they noticed his quiet presence. He curled up again, but opened an eye when the conductor punched her ticket and put it back into the steel clip on the side of the floor of the upper deck. Julie patted the puppy on the back to keep him from snoring too loudly (a habit he had picked up from Julie's bulldog Romeo). Instead, he would snort and sputter a little, making some of the other passengers laugh quietly. No one seemed object to his presence. He got a lot of smiles as usual.

When Julie got home, she began packing supplies, clothes and food to take to the Barn. She needed to sew and dye new clothing and shoulder bags for her vending business in Grant Park, since she had sold everything she had. She had bought several packages of the more popular sizes of white and gold T-shirts, so she saved on sewing time with those. She planned on sewing the cotton skirts and bags. All simple, quick and easy patterns.

She sat down and counted out her profits for the day and was again amazed that in one day, she had made slightly over two hundred dollars! By that evening, after supper, she was on her way into central Illinois farm country with Yuppy who was proving to be an easy companion, even though he was slightly under five months old. He was very amiable and easy to train. His back was now up to her knees. He was definitely going to be as big as his father, Vito. And just as amiable and quiet, unless he or his favorite people were threatened. No fool would threaten Vito. He could easily knock a full-grown man on his ass and then some. Julie felt a rush of love for Yuppy as she loaded him next to her in the cab of the Ford. She had decided to leave early since a large rain storm had been predicted. She was trying to get to her place before the sky opened up with heavy rains.

__________

By the time Julie turned off the Interstate and headed into Midville, connecting with the road to her place, the sky had turned an angry black and gray. She was forced to turn her headlights on. It began to hail viciously. Summer hail! Julie was almost afraid it would break her windshield. Lightning also seemed to strike a little too close for comfort. Yuppy began to whine and pawed at her arm. She patted his head and stepped on the gas, kicking up the mud and gravel from the dirt road to the Barn.

The hail rattled against the roof of the cab. Yuppy whined some more and put his little head (which was getting a lot bigger by the moment) under Julie's arm. She smoothed his face with her other hand as they both jumped from the noise of the crackling thunder railing against the blackened sky. A large, ragged bolt of lightning split the sky again as Julie pulled across the river which had turned into a raging torrent, overflowing both banks and flowing into the edge of the forest.

Julie pushed her truck faster along the dirt road and parked in front of her barn. She jumped out of her truck and quickly rolled up one of the bay doors, pulling into the garage area, her truck and camper dripping onto the cement floor as the storm continued to rage, bang and crash outside. Yuppy jumped out of the cab and went right to his new dog bed on the floor of the workshop underneath the long wooden work table. He whined again and curled up defensively into a tight circle.

Julie smiled at him and climbed the stairs to her loft, unlocking the door at the top, the puppy followed eagerly. First thing she did was to light the wood stove, then pull out one of the double hide-a-beds. She pulled off her jeans and sneakers, hung them in the bathroom to dry, put on some flannel pajamas and lay down luxuriating in the warmth, protected from the storm outside. Yuppy jumped on the bed and snuggled against her side.

Outside, it was only five o'clock, but it looked like midnight. The sky was that opaque. Julie shivered and felt reassured by the pressure of Yuppy's back. Dogs are just so very cool, she thought, seriously glad for the company. Yup licked her hand. His eyes sparkled. She fell asleep in the half light, forgetting to lock the door to the loft. Forgetting to lock any of her doors. It had been a long day.

Yuppy woke her up the next morning barking at the loft door. It was bright and sunny. The exact opposite of the previous night. Julie smiled and went down the stairs to let Yuppy out.

She put a cloth on her shag rug and laid out the T-shirts she wanted to tie patterns in for the first dying - in dark blue Rit dye. She sat on the floor after eating a bowl of granola and yogurt and tied up a few tees. She went downstairs, went outside and made sure her clotheslines were secure. She let Yup in, fed him and started boiling her first vat of dye. Then Julie went back upstairs to tie more tees, shut the door to the loft (leaving Yuppy in the workshop area) so he wouldn't trample her tees.

Her dad had thought of everything! She really loved him. He was her best friend and confidant. He had strung multiple clotheslines for her, knowing she would need them for her handicrafts. There were a few lines in the workshop/garage area also, in case it rained. The cement floor had a drain in it so it was easy to squeegee the water off the floor into the drain.

Yuppy followed her outside when she hung her first set of dyed T-shirts. Suddenly, he brayed like a hound and ran off towards the little forested area in the front of her property. She called him, but he ignored her. She shrugged and went back inside to tie more tees and dye them. This time in light Lavender.

She heard Yuppy come in the open garage door and scratch at the door to the loft. When her next set of tees were finished being tied, she went downstairs to stick them in the hot vat of dye. She gave Yup a doggy cookie and shut the small garage door (next to the two large bay doors) that served as her front door. Her mailbox was down the road, located right after the bridge over the river where her property started.

She went out again, carefully shutting the puppy inside, and hung the rest of this morning's work on the line. She kept the dye for the second dying for when the first shirts were dry and prepared another pot of much lighter blue for the third dying. She let Yuppy upstairs and set up her sewing machine, laying out patterns and material for her ankle length tie dye skirts and a few shoulder bags.

Yup, even at his young age, was obedient and careful not to step on her patterns. Julie wiped his big, baby feet just in case. He climbed up on a bean bag chair and cozied himself in, falling asleep, eventually snoring loudly, the sound resounding against Julie's large windows in the front of the loft. She laughed to herself. Bless Romeo for teaching him to do that, she thought humorously.

She sewed all afternoon, got quite a few pieces finished, went downstairs, got the dry T-shirts off the clotheslines, untied them, ironed them and retied them for the second dying. She dyed them with the Lavender and hung them downstairs in the garage to dry a second time and fell asleep exhausted next to Yuppy on the fold out bed. She had simply closed the door to the loft, forgetting to lock it or any of her doors. The door to the loft also stood slightly open. Tiredness had made her forget, or not care too much after such a productive day.

Night fell and Julie slept on, happy with the days' accomplishments, not hungry and grateful for the early rest. Yuppy snored loudly. Julie ignored him, but she did awaken once with a chuckle. Yup was laying on his back with his legs and feet in the air above him, beyond cute.

She fell back asleep without eating another meal and awoke again around midnight to the ballistic sound of Yuppy barking (and sounding bigger and older than he was). Yup had run to the door of the loft and was quite obviously agitated. Julie groaned and tried to roll over and cover her ears, pulling the quilt over her head.

__________

Outside the Barn, Garth Broderick and Todd Stevens slid along the side of the building, avoiding the arc lights illuminating the front of Julie's place. They tried the small door to the garage and laughed quietly when they discovered that it was unlocked. Garth whispered quietly, "Winslow and Sarah might be here. Come on Todd, let's look."

Todd responded, "I don't think their horses would be that quiet. They're probably halfway to Texas by now."

"Maybe," answered Garth. "Win did say he had an offer to farrier from a ranch out there in exchange for room and board, like he did at my place until my mare foaled. He handles a file on a hoof like the bow on a cello - gentle, sure, professional and strong. He's very talented."

Todd scowled, "I thought you were way too soft on those pot-smoking hippie scum. You were asking for it. You see how they lied to you?! They're not even married and those horses you loved so much are not even theirs. They were stolen! You were played for a fool."

Garth drew his hand away from Julie's doorknob as if he had been burned. He looked genuinely hurt. He looked down and shuffled his boots in the gravel of the driveway and said quietly, "I don't think they smoked pot at my house. Hippies can be people, too, you know. They're young. Young folks do foolish things and make mistakes. Remember us? We were no angels. We didn't smoke pot, but we didn't even know what it was. We drank whiskey and got drunk on our dads' beer and even got locked up for underage drinking. So what's the big difference, except a bit of luck? And a different time and place."

Todd pushed him aside and grabbed at the doorknob. "Yeah, mistakes like committing grand theft felonies and lying to you when you were kind to them." He jerked the door to Julie's garage open and held his finger to his lips. All they saw in the dark was Julie's tie dye hanging on the line and her camper truck. Garth whispered, tugging at Todd's elbow, "Come on, let's go. Those kids aren't here. There is no sign of their horses. Let's get out of here, or we will have to explain trespassing to Hank Phillips over at the police station and embarrass ourselves to our wives and families."

Very loud barking startled both men. Garth pushed Todd outside and they ran for their pickup which was parked near the tree line. Garth gasped and said, "This is just not fun anymore. There is no point. Those kids are gone."

Todd gasped, while he was running, "It was not meant to be fun."

Garth answered, slowing down and looking behind him apprehensively, "Then why were we doing it?"

Todd stopped suddenly and said, "We need to teach that hippie chick a lesson. I'm going back to her place."

"What for?" commented Garth, worried.

"I'm going to give it to her."

"Shit, Todd. I'm outta' here."

"Go then. I'm not a coward. See you later."

Garth stomped over to his truck and left, disgusted and tired of harassing people, hippies or not.

Todd Stevens waved his friend off after promising to meet him at the bridge after an hour or so. He sauntered pensively, plotting his way back to that hippie chick's barn. He knew her and her father's names by now, but only thought of them as drug smoking weirdos. No real need for names. He laid plans to harass the girl and hopefully scare her away from here. He counted on her sleeping late - like lazy hippies do.

Julietta did not disappoint Todd. She figured her tie dye drying on the garage clothesline would be dry enough to dye a third time around noon. Why wake earlier? She was hungry now, so she planned on reheating some spaghetti in her dad's homemade sauce as soon as she awoke. To her, her father's pasta in sauce was better re-heated anyway. She had cold, homegrown peppermint tea in her refrigerator for a nice summertime refreshing drink. She hated most sodas. Too sugary for her - or her dad for that matter. It was a generational thing in the Bonaventura family. No sugar since her beloved mother, Emma, had died from Cholera. That changes a lot of things for a family.

Todd took full advantage of the extra time Julie's oversleeping gave him and sneaked back inside her garage. He found the fuse box and removed all her fuses, cutting as many electrical lines as he could. He pulled all her tie dye T-shirts off her clothesline and trampled on them, grinding them into the dirty cement floor with the heels of his muddy work boots, gleefully and with enthusiasm.

Just as he was about to sneak back out her unlocked front door, he felt a sharp pain behind his knee and another one in the calf of his other leg. He grunted, thinking it was brown recluse spiders that had crawled up his pant legs. They were common here, especially in the summer. While not as dangerous as black widows, they still really hurt and left a large bump or a sore where they bit you. Todd grunted again and - to his shock and surprise - heard a low growl right behind him. That was not a spider.

He swung around to see a large Great Dane puppy behind him, snarling and baring some rather large teeth. The dog was as quiet as a snake, and just as sneaky. Todd ran for the door and just made it outside before that snake of a dog bit him again. He could feel moisture on the back of each leg that he assumed was blood. He swore and limped towards the woods.

The dog let loose with a ballistic series of yowls which made Todd Stevens rush along as fast as his injured legs would let him. He was pretty angry by now, just planning on letting the police know about that dog. Maybe he could combine that with some other lie to cover up his trespassing. He could always deny cutting her electricity (and say that she had done it herself to frame him and make him look bad) or deny trampling her stupid, ugly tie dye, using the same excuse.

He would get her good, having grown up with practically the entire local police force. He was soon within the forest, walking towards the river and the bridge where his buddy Garth Broderick would pick him up in his truck. He rubbed his hands together and laughed despite the pain in his legs from the dog bites. When he got to the water, he looked behind himself into the trees. There was no one following him.

He limped to the bridge and sat down on a tree stump, hidden from the road, just in case that hippie weirdo tried to look for him. He picked up some rocks and a stout tree branch in case that vicious Great Dane was loose. He ground his teeth and hoped Garth would hurry it up, dang it!

__________

Julie awoke with a start to the clamor of Yuppy's loud, excited barking. She frowned and stretched, thinking one of her friends must have driven up to her place. She hoped it wasn't Rico. It was too dark a thought to wake up with. Rico was just getting too pushy lately and she didn't feel like seeing him. She was not inclined, in the least, to be his girlfriend. He acted as if that was what he wanted and was getting too possessive.

Everyone who knew her, knew she would fight like a tiger for her independence. Wasn't that why her dad had bought the Barn for her in the first place? She was a wild cat when it came to her freedom. That was what the Sixties were all about to her. Freedom included her, as well as everyone else that needed it.

She frowned again at the commotion Yuppy was making. He must have pushed the loft door open or she had forgotten to close it. She thought, ruefully, Dang, I know I didn't lock up last night. She felt a chill and shook inadvertently. Then, she calmed down and figured it must be Reese or Livia, or both of them and smiled at the thought. Reese had just bought an old car, a small Rambler.

"Yuppy!" she yelled as she got up and put her work clothes on, glancing at the neat pile of shoulder bags and ankle-length skirts she planned on dying today. She smiled to herself. She had gotten so much done yesterday...about five skirts and an equal number of bags. She had ten T-shirts ready to get their third dye job, probably light blue, today. She would have a nice, big inventory of handicrafts to sell at the park next week. She needed to fill as many dime bags of dried marijuana from her garden as she could get to top it all off.

"Yuppy!" she yelled again. She heard a distant bark and the sound of her big, lanky puppy clomping up the stairs to the loft. Now she was sure she had not even locked the outside door to the garage. She was going to have to remind herself to be more careful, she thought.

She turned her propane stove on to warm her spaghetti in the sauce. She noted, ruefully, that her fridge was not running. She knew for a fact that her dad had set up all her electricity and phone and everything at least two months ago. She and her friends had been running all her appliances for that long. Maybe she had thrown a main fuse. Maybe the fridge had broken. It was an old one that her father had picked up at a yard sale. She would have to go down and check the fuse box after eating. She was too ravenous to do it now.

She ate quietly and quickly, thinking she had better call her dad. Julie finished and put her dishes in the sink. She turned her water on to soak the dishes and pot, but nothing came out of the faucet. She grumbled to herself. The electric water pump from her well was also not working.

Julie padded over to her telephone nook and took the phone out of its cabinet. There was no dial tone. Now she was really concerned and a little scared, remembering the two local bullies that had tried to scare her numerous times before, even lighting firecrackers next to her building to freak her out. They were freaks all right. The worst kind, not the hippie kind that you might like or find interesting.

She threw her heavy jean jacket on, since it was August and getting colder in the mornings out here in the country, and went downstairs, Yuppy following right behind her. She cried out when she saw her handiwork all over the floor.

Julietta cried real tears as she picked everything up, shook it out and tried to brush the mud and dirt from her shirts. Some of it came off. She was glad nothing was torn and the shirts had dried, so it looked like she could wash them and might be able to salvage her work.

Going over to her front door, she noticed that it was unlocked as she had suspected. She swore at her negligence and locked it. She noticed, when she turned around to face the fuse box, that the electric and phone wires near her fuse box where cut and hanging out of the box. She cried out again. Yuppy, who was following her, came over and nudged her hand. She smoothed the hair on his sleek head and felt slightly better. "Good boy," she said to him, realizing he might have chased off her aggressors.

She went upstairs and got her sewing, folded the dirty T-shirts and packed up. On the way downstairs, she locked her loft door. She opened the garage bay door and she and Yuppy got into her camper. No way was she staying after this. She could dye everything at home.

After hopping out of her truck to lock every door securely - Julie drove away from the Barn feeling very invaded and upset. It even bothered her that she had to bring her dirty dishes home. Without electricity to run the water pump from her well, she knew that there would be no water. Her water heater was electric as well, although she could heat water on her wood stoves in a pinch. She made a note to ask her dad to put in a hand pump (maybe in the garage) if possible considering the water table depth. She sort of remembered that the water table was shallow enough.

Julie didn't want to report anything to the local police. Her dad had taken care of some of the harassment complaints before. The suburban cops had told him that they had problems themselves with that particular police department. So, her Pop would have to figure it out again. He was good at things like that. Many years ago, when she was a little girl, he had pretty much single-handedly foiled an entire southern drug cartel from Louisiana.

He could do it again. Her father, Vincente Bonaventura, was a hero in her eyes. That would never fade. He could usually take some time off from his tailoring business to argue her case with the cops. Although his ex-girlfriend, Yang Chun-hua, was a civil immigration attorney, they were still close friends and she could help him anyway off the record - even though this was a criminal matter.

Julie winced when she thought of Vince's new girlfriend, the one that he had started going out with when he broke up with Chun-hua. Miss Shirley Holmes was a real sweetheart, truly, but a chain smoker and probably an alcoholic. She was a stewardess on American Airlines and drop-dead gorgeous even without makeup.

Julie loved her to bits, but could not figure out how Vince hooked up with someone who was addicted to two vices that he hated. Three vices, actually, she loved her coffee cakes and sugar sweets, also. Make that four if you add coffee and caffeinated soda to it. For kindness, she had it all, though.

She never forgot that her favorite, Chun, was engaged to be married to another University of Chicago, Chinese-American lawyer, Jimmy Wong. She had met him and he was really nice and very good looking, but she knew that Chun's parents had everything to do with the engagement. It broke her dad's heart, but he never seemed to blame Chun. All he wanted from the break-up was her friendship and Chun-hua was more than willing to give him that, despite Jimmy's objections. Her dad was a doll.

Vince was too soft, that's how he had started dating Shirley. Julie thought he felt sorry for her and wanted to change her. Fat chance, she thought. Shirley had to drink her beer and whiskey outside and smoke her cigarettes out there, too. So, she had a spot in the garden underneath the flower trellis, on the lawn furniture or hammock, depending on her level of sobriety and sense of balance at the time. Julie felt sorry for her also because she was as nice as apple pie - and, thinking of it, could cook really good, too. Just had some lousy habits.

So, even though Shirley came over frequently to see Vince, he made her spend a great deal of time outside. He was fixing up part of the porch for her and her bad habits for this winter. He, of course, spent a great deal of time outside with her as well. He thought it was real romantic. Julie thought, our family is Roman enough without Pop holding hands with Miss Holmes outside under the arbor. But Julie wasn't mean about the situation. Shirley treated her well. Guess she had just lost it over her addictions.

Julie cheered up a little thinking about how friendly the pretty Miss Holmes was and popped in her tape of The Smothers Brothers It Must Have Been Something I Said. She laughed to herself, Yuppy put his head into her lap. While she patted her big, soft, loyal and protective dog, she thought she was pretty lucky and cheered right up. Her dad would take care of his own mess, meanwhile she could enjoy a simple friendship with the kind Miss Holmes.

Julie thought of Winslow and Sarah and wondered how they were. She had heard they had made an unlikely friend out of Garth - one of her own nemesis. Horses do that. She had seen Sarah once or twice in the last few months when she had come over to visit. High school would be starting soon and she knew Win and Sarah were planning on leaving the area as soon as they had saved enough money to move on. Sarah had not finished high school, Win had. But Julie knew that Sarah had more interest in having children than going back to school.

Sarah had told her that they had been writing to a few communes forming in Missouri. Julie sure hoped they would come by to say goodbye before they left. Sarah had her mailing address and phone number.

"Hot town, summer in the city..." sang Julie to herself, rhythmically, thinking of Grant Park. Yuppy moved up and licked her face. She kissed her dog on the mug.

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# Chapter Five: Flower Power

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Just kicking down the cobblestones

Looking for fun and feelin' groovy

Ba da da da da da da, feelin' groovy...

Hello, lamppost, what'cha knowin'?

I've come to watch your flowers growin'

Ain't'cha got no rhymes for me?

Doot-in doo-doo, feelin' groovy

Ba da da da da da da, feelin' groovy...

(Paul Simon, "The 59th Street Bridge Song", from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, 1966. Copyright Universal Music Publishing Group.)

Sure enough, when Julie got home, Shirley Holmes was outside in Vincente Bonaventura's rose garden, next to the marijuana patch which was hidden inside a few rows of corn among the vegetables. She was swinging on the hammock, obviously not too drunk, but drinking whiskey sours and smoking like a chimney from an entire carton of cigarettes. A pack was never enough for her. Yuppy galloped over to her, almost knocking her drunk, astoundingly beautiful (as usual), sweet, friendly arse onto the patio tiles.

Julietta grunted, smiled and waved at her dad's new, somewhat strange, girlfriend, who (she had to admit) was a natural beauty. Julie smiled again and thought of Reese's comment about Shirl's drinking and smoking: "Don't get hung up on it, girl. It's just a habit. Shirley is a nice lady. We all like her. She has enough pretty to make up for all of it. She just needs a little healthy."

"Right on, Reese. You are so right," Julie had added, appreciative of Reese's colloquial wisdom and aptitude for social forgiveness. She totally agreed with Reese, but still liked Chun-hua better, secretly. What to do about her impending marriage to Jimmy Wong? Julie did not know. She wished she did.

"Come on over, honey," said the obviously sloshed Shirley, opening her arms wide and rocking the hammock dangerously. Julie gave her a hug, gasped at her whiskey-laden breath and sat down next to her on a lawn chair. Yuppy nudged Shirl's hand and lay down in the shade underneath the hammock.

Shirley offered Julie a shot of whiskey, but Julie took out a joint and opened a small bottle of orange juice instead. Shirl wrinkled her nose and said, "I don't know how you can smoke that stuff. You and your pot-headed daddy. It smells so bad. Give me my Jim Beam or Jackie D. and I'm happy." She offered Julie a cigarette as she swung gently back and forth on the hammock. Yup was still laying in the shade underneath her, catching a few early evening breezes. Julie turned the cigarette down.

"Your dad is bringing a full dinner from Chun-hua's restaurant, so we don't have to cook tonight," slurred Shirley.

Julie smiled. Although Shirley and her dad were excellent cooks, she really enjoyed the food from Yang's. "How is Chun, anyway?" asked Julie, knowing full well there was no real rivalry between Shirley and Chun-hua. They were friendly towards each other.

Shirley looked away for a second, "Oh, she's not happy. I don't think she really loves Jimmy. They want very different things from their lives and careers. I think the whole marriage thing was concocted by Chun and Jimmy's parents. Chun told me that she is fighting it and does not want to set a date for the ceremony."

Julie looked a little shocked, but felt more hopeful she would get her beloved Chun back again. She kissed Shirley on the cheek and went into the house, still musing on what Shirl had told her. She was getting her clothes ready for next week, when school would start again. She would be a junior, Rico a senior - and she wanted to look mature and more grown up than last year.

She had made a good deal of money this summer. With that nest egg, plus her new place, she felt pretty darn good.

Julie looked up. She had heard a scream from outside. She could also hear loud barking. She called Yuppy. There was no answer. She thought she had better go take a look outside. She didn't want her dog wandering around. The scream sounded like Shirley. She ran to the front door and went outside to investigate. With Shirley getting so drunk, anything could happen. And it sure did.

__________

Julietta dressed sort of conservatively for her first day of school. It felt like it always did, a debut. She wore no feathers in her dark, long, curly hair. Instead, she pulled it back with a broad ribbon. It was braided into one large, long, thick braid. She wore dark blue knee socks and a tartan plaid, box-pleated skirt with a long-sleeved blouse that had lace at the neck and wrists. Over that she wore a white button up fisherman knit sweater. Her panties were light colored tie dye, though. And she wore tiny bells on a bracelet. The hippie nation was not all that forgotten.

The first person she ran into in the hall on her way to her classroom was Rico Valente. At least - he sort of looked like Rico. She hardly recognized him. His hair was neatly shoulder length! He had grown a full beard in the last couple of weeks. There was a large, wooden beaded necklace around his neck with a carved peace symbol at the bottom. He had on a large tie-dyed T-shirt with a blazer over that. He definitely looked hippie-Ivy League and downright pretty hip in general.

Julie's mouth fell open in shock as she walked up to him. "Hey, Julie," he said, flashing his bright, pure white smile underneath the dark beard. That smile had started getting to her, she couldn't shake it.

"Trying to be a hippie, Rico?" questioned Julie, incredulously.

"Yeah, man..." retorted the newly hip Rico.

"Looks good. Real nice, Rico," Julie complimented him, wondering why the change.

"Thanks," answered Rico, looking a little embarrassed. "How's everyone at your house? Yuppy and all?"

Julie smiled. "The dog's just fine, almost full grown, but still acting like a puppy. Shirley, by the way, is in the hospital."

Rico looked into her eyes and said, "Really? What happened?"

"Well," Julie began. "You know she drinks a little too much. She catapulted off our hammock onto some rough-edged patio tiles when she was too drunk to balance herself. She broke an arm and a leg. She's pretty unhappy right now because she is flat on her back with her arm and leg in traction in a hospital bed. She can't smoke or drink. So, she is miserable.

"She cannot get to the hospital Solarium, which is the only place they allow smoking. And no one is bringing her any alcohol. She cannot drink, anyway, due to her antibiotics and pain medication. So... she is going slowly crazy. My dad is glad she has to detox. But, I do not put much on that. I don't think it will last past her hospitalization. Daddy says it is about time she quit smoking and drinking. I think he is dreaming."

"Hmm..." answered Rico. "I see. Have you heard from Sarah and Winslow?"

"No, I would imagine that they will write to me or call when they can. I haven't been out to my Barn recently. You do look great, Rico, by the way." Julie smiled at him. It was even sincere. He was not the only one that could change.

He smiled back at her as their first period bell rang and reached over suddenly and gave her a bear hug.

Julie didn't have time to pull away and actually enjoyed the hug - wondering again at these changes in her old, childhood nemesis. Well, things do change, she thought to herself, sauntering to her first period class, hugging her books to her chest. She chuckled to herself and felt interested in her future with this old "friend" of hers. Who knows? Maybe she will take the parenthesis off the word friend one day.

__________

Two rather well-kept brown and white Pintos were found wandering the back roads of central Illinois farm country. One rather angry rancher had been tracking them and the two young horse thieves that had stolen them from his pasture. Both horses had new horse shoes on, and were identified by the brands on their haunches. The local police brought them in and had them safely stored in a local officer's barn. The two young thieves were nowhere to be found.

Garth Broderick was able to put names to the thieves and corroborate what the cops already had known. He did not identify them easily, but with Todd Stevens pushing him to not protect his former employees, he turned their names in to the police station when they heard that the ponies were to be returned to their owner. Garth gave a sort of unwilling testimony that Sarah Edelstein and Winslow Kelly were basically good people, but the owner of the Pintos pressed charges anyway and officially made the two young people fugitives.

To add to the confusion, Sarah's parents showed up at the station and officially listed their daughter as a local missing person and pushed the local police to find out as much as they could about where their daughter might be.

There had been no sign of the two youngsters since they had left Garth's. They had been hiding out with their Pintos in the local forests by the border of Illinois and Missouri. The horses were so used to living at the Broderick's that they had found their own way back to the roads they were familiar with just as Winslow had predicted.

__________

Sarah Edelstein and Winslow Kelly shifted the weight of their backpacks and walked towards the Greyhound station. Sarah sat down suddenly on the forest floor, blowing her bangs from her forehead and wiping sweat from her face. She started crying and said, looking up at Winslow, pleading, "I'm so tired and hungry, Win. Can we get something to eat? We can panhandle to make up for the money we spend."

"No, Sarah... That is not a good idea. The cops are probably looking for us right now. It is best if we keep a low profile. We spent everything trying to get this far. There just isn't anything left. You know we only have enough for two tickets to our pickup point in Arkansas. We can eat when we get there. There will be plenty of food on the commune. They are a farm."

Sarah continued to cry and begged Winslow again. She got up and walked away from him, saying, "I'm going to call home. They'll send money. I'm tired. I know I can always go back to school."

Winslow tried to stop her, but she went to the nearest pay phone and called her parents collect. Her parents were delighted to hear from her and sent money via Western Union without a hassle. They expected her to buy a ticket home with it.

Win and Sarah had spent the night in the Greyhound station and bought hamburgers, fries and milkshakes instead of her ticket home. They got their tickets with what was left of their savings and the cash that Sarah's parents sent. The Missouri commune van made regular runs to the Greyhound station in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Sarah was pretty sure she was pregnant and could not go home that way, anyway. She had just lied to get the money to help start her new life with Winslow and their child-to-be. Her parents would never have approved. They would have forced her to put her newborn up for adoption. She totally refused to do that. She wanted the baby and was looking forward to raising her own child.

She felt bad about lying to her folks, but they would not have given her anything if they had known the truth. She knew she was not alone in this situation. Many young women had to try and raise their own babies without parental support or family approval. The communes were familiar with this situation and offered comfort, midwives, prenatal care and a large support system - besides being a fantastic place for raising a child of any race or ethnicity. They offered the loving arms of an entire community and nature - and, by the way, excellent home-grown food. Most of them were free of charge. There were no fees for medical care, food, rent or clothing, or anything else such as child care.

Winslow hugged Sarah tightly before they boarded their bus. The commune van would pick them up at the bus station and drive them to their new home. They were welcoming new members at the time and were child-friendly. They knew Sarah might be pregnant. They were especially interested in Winslow's farrier talents for their own horses and were willing to share some of the money with him if he also wanted to work for himself from the communal land.

The commune, The Ark, like most communes, was free of charge - but any money you made there you had to share with the entire community, fifty-fifty. Winslow was happy to do that. Sarah and he had spent most of their savings camping out in the forest. They had a small amount left over, but wanted, eventually, to buy their own land.

After they had found out that they were being tracked by the farmer they had stolen the horses from, they had wisely released the horses - thinking they might be seen and recognized (which they were). Horses can home just like pigeons, so Winslow and Sarah hoped that they would find their way back to Garth's which they did after the two fugitives rode them back to Midville and walked to the state border again.

__________

Shirley Holmes went home after recuperating in the hospital for several weeks. The first thing she did was buy a carton of cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels (which she called Jackie D.). She had detoxed enough for her own tastes, much to Vincente's disappointment. But, she would have none of this detox business. She chain-smoked and got totally drunk from her wheelchair a soon as she got back home. Back to her jolly old self.

By Christmas that year Shirley was one big mess. Barely walking by then, she had lost her job as a stewardess and lived on welfare, food stamps and Vincente Bonaventura's good will. He would visit and hide her alcohol in an attempt to get her to quit. Julie nicknamed her 'Sherlock' because of her last name - Holmes - and the uncanny fact that she somehow always sniffed out that bottle.

__________

Vince had been meditating at a Chicago Zen temple and decided to spend the holidays at a Zen retreat at their mother temple in Japan, much to Julie's interest and disappointment. Julie loved the holidays with her father, but Vince felt that he needed spiritual support and a break from his rather sad, downhill relationship with Shirley Holmes - and the painful breakup with Chun-hua.

Julie bit her lip and made arrangements with Rico to have him over for part of the holidays. They had thoroughly reconciled and were dating regularly. He was actually a lot of fun when he didn't aggravate her. She planned on going out to eat in Little Italy and cooking for the two of them at her house. Rico was still a straight A student, but now he had shaved his beard into a lush, finely shaped long mustache and was on the hippie trail - a converted greaser, but definitely a hippie Ivy League-type climber. A "climber" was an upwardly mobile, social status conscious preppie aspirant of the middle class. That seems contradictory, but there were a lot of suburban teens that fit that combination.

Rico showed up for their date on Christmas in a red velvet suit jacket, a rainbow tie dyed dress shirt with a matching tie and black dress pants. Julie was thrilled at his attire. Seriously. She wore a velvet tie dyed dress she had made herself and a matching winter faux fur coat, hat and muffler.

Yuppy, by this time, was practically an adult and turning out to be taller and larger than his dad, Vito (the gray ghost) - but with the same good manners a huge dog should always have. Romeo, despite his smallness and the fact that he was a bulldog, was Yuppy's best friend and brother. They always slept on top of each other (Romeo obviously on top) or cuddled close. They were a very funny pair. Julie put red bows on each of them for the holidays. They were pretty benign about that.

__________

Because Julie's dad was in Japan, Julie gave Rico much more attention than usual. He was a real gentleman over the holidays, she had to admit, and was pleasantly surprised at Rico's sense of humor. Swear to god, she was floored that he even had one. He gave her a very pretty rhinestone bracelet and a dozen red roses, putting one in his lapel for Christmas. And you know he looked seriously good in that red velvet jacket, as well. Julie had a really good time going out to eat with him and got over missing her dad, at least for a little while.

Shirley called from the hospital. She had fallen (when drunk) and injured herself again. Right now, there would be no Vincente to depend on - at least not for another couple of weeks or so. Julie felt that she could not visit her, as she had school soon after New Year's. But, she was going to try and fit a visit in with the few days she had left of the holiday anyway. She couldn't just leave Shirley to suffer alone at Christmas. She wanted to help her, despite Shirley's own culpability in her health issues. No blame, just good will. Everyone knew where Shirley was at with her bad habits. No need to punish her.

Julie promised to visit on the coming holiday weekend - and yes, - she would bring her a carton of cigarettes which Shirley could smoke in the hospital Sanitarium/sun room. Julie figured it was Shirley's own decision as to whether or not she would smoke. It was unclear as to what Shirl's complete health situation was.

Julie loved her despite her problems. Shirley Holmes was a very nice, sensitive, giving person, but Julie still longed for the unaddicted, healthy, talented Chun-hua Yang (or Yang Chun-hua as is the traditional Chinese nomenclature - last name first).

So, Rico shaved his beard, but kept a nicely trimmed goatee and mustache with long, handsome, sideburns. He did look fine and went with her to the hospital, keeping any negative opinions to himself. He brought Shirley a bouquet as well, which truly seemed to cheer her up.

By the time New Year's came and went, Julie finally had time to visit Shirley. She was shocked at her appearance. Tubes ran all over her face and chest. She could speak, but barely. Julie and Rico pretty much figured that this was much more than a fall. There was no way that Shirley could smoke or drink alcohol. They spoke through a nurse, mostly. The hospital wanted to release her to a nursing home when the time came, which, of course, Shirley had strenuously objected to. But, her sister, who was quickly becoming a guardian, was okay with the idea. So much for the Jack Daniels and Tareytons. No more booze, no more cigarettes - ever.

The nurse (with Shirley's sister's consent) took Julie aside and told her that Shirley was dying of emphysema and not to bring her any more cigarettes. She needed to use an oxygen tube and there were no flammable objects allowed around her. They had already confiscated several miniature bottles of whiskey.

The nurse said, "I think she is just bound and determined to kill herself. Her bones will not heal properly with the amount of alcohol and tobacco she consumes, especially so close to her accident. She was scheduled to have her arm and leg casts off this week, but that is not possible due to her present condition. Her X-rays show only a slow knitting of her bones."

__________

By the end of January 1967, Shirley Holmes had passed away from Cirrhosis of the liver and self-induced alcohol poisoning. When her lungs finally collapsed, it spelled a quick end. She had played as many patients as she could to run to the liquor store for her while still in the hospital.

Julie and Vince were heartbroken. Vince had decided to extend his stay at the Zen Temple in Japan a few weeks longer, when he found out. Julie had been forced to tell him what had happened to Shirley over the phone and Vince, predictably, was very shaken. He had truly loved Shirley Holmes.

The good news was that Chun-hua had defied her parents and refused to go through with the marriage to Jimmy Wong. Actually, her parents did not have that much against canceling the wedding plans. Surprisingly, Jimmy had planned on returning to China as soon as possible after the marriage. He really did not want to stay in America. The Yangs did not want to lose their daughter that soon and disagreed with Jimmy's plans vehemently, breaking off the engagement themselves.

Chun's law practice was here in the United States. She had her own office and regular clients. She could not just leave them, any more than she could leave her family. There were very few bi-lingual English-and-Chinese-speaking immigration lawyers in Chicago at the time. She not only had a career here, but also a life's mission. She was dedicated to her practice and her parents agreed with her. Jimmy was free to leave, but not with her. Julie did not mention all of this to her father. She wanted Chun to tell him herself.

__________

Julie soothed her feelings by inviting Rico over as much as possible. They enjoyed several evenings at her home eating dinner and watching television next to the fireplace. Julie also invited Reese and Livia over once or twice for a couple of overnights and long talks about Shirley, Chun-hua and life in general. It helped.

Winslow and Sarah sent a letter to Julie giving her the address and location of The Ark, the commune that they had joined in Missouri. They wanted her to come and visit some time. Sarah told Julie that she was due to give birth at the beginning of next summer. Sarah told her that she was delighted to start her family in the commune. The children there were very happy and they had their own babysitting group and school house. There were also several playgrounds on the farmland and a couple of experienced midwives.

Sarah's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein, had somehow found Julie's phone number and called her over the holidays looking for their daughter. They seemed to be in a state of suppressed rage. There was no way Julie was going to tell them that Sarah was pregnant. Nor did she want to tell them where she was. She did reassure them that when Sarah wrote to her (without a return address) she seemed just fine and was very happy traveling cross-country. She said she was unsure if Sarah was still with Winslow. She told the Edelsteins as many happy lies as she could think of. She felt that she was very lucky to have the understanding father that she had. She vowed to protect Sarah and Winslow and the little Kelly-to-be with all her might.

__________

One evening, late - after Rico had gone home, the doorbell rang. Julie did not like late night visits. The first thing she thought of was that it was the Edelsteins looking for their daughter. She peeked out the living room picture window, gently pulling aside the drapes. Her heart stopped for a second as she spied the only slightly familiar form of a very tall man with a cane. Deep in her memory, she connected the image of this man with something that scared her, but she could not remember exactly what it was. Her lack of memory did not help allay her fear. She wished that Rico had stayed a little longer. A thrill of terror went through her body.

Julie noticed that an old, but well-kept, silver Mercedes with a driver was parked in front of the house. What really made her heart skip a beat or two was the oddly familiar limp this unusually tall man had. He smiled back at her as if he was an old friend. He had caught a glimpse of her peering at him through the window.

He rang the doorbell again. Julie hesitated and thought of calling Rico on the phone. She did. She had a quick conversation with him and pleaded for him to come back over right away. She told him to run. She said she would leave the door unlocked for him and to walk right on in. Good thing he lived close by. Fear ran through her again. She was afraid of remembering who this man was. She wondered what the man would do if she didn't answer the door. She knew he had seen her. She needed to find out what he wanted and gauge her safety. Better to let him in than find out that he was dangerous and creeping around the house trying to sneak in.

She ran into her dad's bedroom and got his gun. It was loaded. She practiced pulling the safety off and on and put the gun in her pocket just as she heard an insistent banging on the front door. This guy was definitely not going away. She decided to answer it rather than worry about a phantom of a memory. She did not want this man to have to come back again. She wanted to deal with this situation right now.

Julie opened the front door slowly with one hand on her father's gun. She stuttered, trying not to show any fear, "Who - w - who are you?"

The tall, impeccably dressed man, smiled in a friendly way, putting Julie a little more at ease. Answering a question with a question, the man said, "And you are Julie? I haven't seen you since you and your father first moved here. You were about eight years old at the time I was last here."

Julie's memory did not get much clearer. The tall man went on, "I grew up with your father. Is he here? I would like to talk to him." Julie went cold again. That was the one question she dreaded. Just as she fumbled with the answer, she saw Rico glide up on his bicycle. He put it against a tree and walked up behind the strange man.

"Can I help you?" asked Rico in a deep voice from behind the stranger.

The tall man whirled around, surprisingly agile for a man with a cane. He smiled at Rico and questioned, "And you are?"

"Actually," said Rico, his brown face looking even darker, like a thunder cloud. "The question is - who are you? I am Julietta's boyfriend Rico Valente." He rolled the "R" in Rico extra hard, making Julie laugh to herself, figuring Rico had this guy but good.

"Oh," answered the man, looking eye to eye with Rico who was almost as tall as he was. "I am Bannister Willis from Louisiana. I grew up with Julie's dad, Vincente. I just arrived from Europe and wanted to see the Bonaventuras for the holidays."

In a flash, Julie remembered who Willis was. How could she forget that name?

Julie waved them both inside with a defeated gesture. It must be a year of welcoming one's enemies. With all due respect, maybe it was the Chinese year of the Skunk.

Yuppy sniffed at Willis and wagged his judicious tail at Rico who patted his head and said, "Hi, Yup." This act of recognition got him one big Great Dane puppy in the lap. Rico squished him over to the side of the chair. Romeo gave Willis a slight growl and walked out of the room and into the kitchen carrying a feeling of disgust and distrust with him. He seemed to remember who he was.

"My dad is in Japan right now," commented Julie.

"Oh, really? Does he have business there?" asked a curious Bannister.

"No. He's studying Zen and is on a meditation retreat at a Zen temple."

Bannister laughed - which Julie thought was way too presumptive and arrogant.

"So, there's really no point to you being here," she said, rather rudely. Now it was Rico's turn to smirk. Bannister shifted in his chair uncomfortably.

__________

Winslow got closer to Sarah as they sat on their bed in the commune dorm building, West Wind (all the buildings had kitschy names like that - all the members had nicknames, too). They had a lovely second story porch overlooking the apple orchard and sheep pasture. At night, a large pack of coyotes would howl and serenade them until the moon came up. Amazingly, the coyote never attacked the lambs or sheep. They did eat a chicken or two occasionally until one of the members shot only a single coyote and tacked his skin on the side of the chicken coop. It was cruel, but this magic kept the other coyotes at bay from then on. No more dead chickens.

Winslow smoothed the cloth over Sarah's big belly. They kissed. Winslow spoke quietly in the candlelight of their big room, "You know we can take a month off as soon as we want to. I think we can take that trip to San Francisco to see Haight-Ashbury and your sister. We have plenty of money from my farrier work and the commune community meeting should approve the trip."

"What about our room?"

"I think they will save it for us. You could have the baby here with the commune midwives before we go."

"Then we can go with the baby."

"Yeah, if you are comfortable traveling by then."

"Maybe after the first month. We can wait and see what the baby will be like. If he or she is fussy, we might want to wait."

"True. We can take one of the commune vans and pay for the gas. That way we can stay in the van if we need to. It will be warm in California. We could save a little money by sleeping in the van. When it is cold and uncomfortable, we can stay in a motel."

"I am due very soon," commented Sarah with a smile.

"Yeah, sweetheart. I know that."

"Very soon," repeated Sarah, rubbing her own belly.

__________

Within two weeks, Sarah started experiencing labor pains and two of the commune midwives attended one of the easiest births they had ever seen. No need to call an ambulance. The baby just slid right out onto the birthing spread.

Winslow and Sarah named their brand new daughter Ariel. The baby was robust, healthy and never cried. Her young parents were delighted with her. She was frequently serenaded by the commune musicians. As she got a little older, she even laughed at the drummer, delighted and amused at his loud banging. She was very even-tempered and took to everyone. Filled with laughter and affection, Ariel loved riding in the kiddie chair accompanying Sarah on her weekly commune duty of driving to a local grocery store to procure whatever was not grown at the Ark.

The two young communalists made plans to drive to Haight-Ashbury where Sarah's sister shared a house with several other hippie artists. She was a sculptor and a painter and was in her early twenties. She was also a graduate student at a local UC Berkeley extension studying art and business. She had promised not to say anything to their parents.

Sarah seriously explained that their mother and dad would not like the fact that she had had Ariel and could try and have the baby taken from her and put into custody. Her mother was that stuck up and unforgiving. She would not even adopt her own grandchild herself. Sarah's sister, Rachel, agreed that it would be a real horror show.

This was not an uncommon scenario in the Sixties, when adult children would choose a path in life that their more conservative parents did not approve of. This was true, especially when a daughter or son chose a partner on their own and had the temerity to have one or more children without parental approval.

Mental hospitals and jails were filled with people whose parents disapproved of their "sacrilegious" beliefs in Zen, Hindu dharma, Hare Krishna lifestyles or communalism. It was also common for the grandparents of such a child that was born to even a loving, drug-free set of young lovers to be taken away by force and put into foster care or up for adoption. It was a dangerously ugly time for young eloping lovers.

__________

Winslow and Sarah drove from the Ark commune in Missouri to Haight-Ashbury about a month later, when Ariel was a little older and stronger. It was heaven to break through the winter weather with the balmy warmth of southern California. Ariel was all grins and smiles. They could not have asked for a more cooperative, perfect and placid baby. She loved the sun and began to get a baby tan which Win and Sarah thought was very funny. Rachel fell in love with her niece as soon as she held her for the first time. Sarah was blissful. It was the peaceful, creative acceptance she had always wanted from her family.

Rachel truly respected Winslow and was impressed with the tales of his farrier talents and his aptitude on guitar. He was quite a fine musician, also. The local music scene in the Haight was blossoming at the time and Win picked up many new songs when he went outside with his guitar and would sing them at home in Rachel's house, making him a rather popular visitor with Rachel's roommates.

Now that Sarah was eighteen, she felt nothing could hurt her anymore. Looking to the future, she could not have been more wrong. It was now 1967 and she was bursting with happiness and the freedom to chart her own course as an adult.

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# Chapter Six: Make Love not War, 1967

"Are you going to San Francisco?"

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

If you're going to San Francisco,

You're gonna meet some gentle people there.

For those who come to San Francisco,

Summertime will be a love-in there...

All across the nation

Such a strange vibration

People in motion.

There's a whole generation

with a new explanation...

("Are You Going to San Francisco?" lyrics and music by Scott McKenzie of the Mamas and the Papas, 1967.)

It was the winter before the Summer of Love, 1967, and the famous outdoor concert in San Francisco, when thousands of hippies descended on the cheap neighborhoods of Haight-Ashbury. It was the creative period before the coming of Woodstock on the East coast.

Winslow and Sarah were lucky to have Sarah's sister's place to stay in. There were young people literally sleeping and living along the sidewalks at the time. Good people, amazing people, but not a way that Sarah and Winslow with the new baby wanted to live, although they walked the streets daily, making friends, eating free food, Winslow playing his guitar and feeling like the world had come to visit.

In the middle of this unexpected explosion of friendship arrived the shocked parents of Sarah and Rachel Edelstein. The visit was uninvited and unwelcome.

The same day, only minutes before the Edelsteins arrived, Sarah got a disturbing phone call from Julietta Bonaventura, her bosom buddy from Chicago.

Julie had called to warn her about the dire visit. Winslow had just made Sarah and Ariel flower wreaths for their hair. There was no place to run to, everywhere was overflowing with new arrivals to the city. The police were out cracking down on street people and folks who slept outside, so staying in the van was not safe. Besides, Ariel needed access to regular bathing.

Julie had said, "It seems as if my karma has come up. This guy from my father's past in Louisiana came to visit, scaring the daylights out of me. Rico was at the house, so that made it easier.

"This old guy, Bannister Willis, was part of a huge, family drug cartel from daddy's hometown in the bayou. They had once forced my father (and me, since I was with him) to send packages of uncut cocaine to a lab at Princeton in New Jersey where Willis was teaching chemistry. They might have done this behind Bannister's back, or not, but he was still involved due to his end of the cocaine business."

"Oh, my god!" Sarah had commented. "Is he still a gangster?"

"Not really, as it turns out. He has been working at a pharmacy in Britain for many years - hiding from the FBI and DEA. He is wanted for drug felonies in the past."

"Why would he involve you?"

"He didn't, really. He was looking for my dad. When I told him that daddy was in Japan, he just told me his story and said he was only visiting the United States for a short time before he went back into hiding in Europe. He left a gift for my father and apologized for scaring me. He seemed very happy to see me. I think he knew me when I was a baby."

"Wow. A real gangster."

"According to him, he is just on the lam and not involved in the cocaine business anymore. He left his card for my dad and told me not to tell anyone that he had been there."

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, Sarah, I'm fine. I was a little frightened, but I'm cool with it now. That isn't the half of it ... Listen to this ..." Julie could hear Ariel gurgling on the other end of the line. "Your parents ..." she continued. (Julie went on to tell Sarah the news about her parents plans to go to the West Coast.) She said, "Oh, Sarah, what are you going to do? You need to hide from them!"

"We can't. We have to stay here. I'm eighteen now and legally married, so I have some protection. My legal name is Sarah Kelly now."

"You need a lawyer from legal aid, anyway," said the worldly-wise Julie. "Your folks are way more than angry. They are irrational."

"What did you say to them, Julie?" asked Sarah, sounding concerned.

"As little as possible. They don't know about the baby or the fact that you are married. They just assumed that Winslow is the reason you haven't come home. They are full of blame in terms of him."

Sarah made an angry sound on the phone and retorted, "Winslow is a wonderful father and husband. I was very lucky to have met him. He has nothing to do with why I haven't come home. My parents are the reason I haven't come home. They are so negative and judgmental. They threaten me all the time and treat me like I am a young child. I am a mature adult now and a mother as well. I am very happy with my life the way it is.

"My sister is family too and she is nice to me and a wonderful aunt to my baby. My parents need to accept me and the life I have chosen. I will be taking my GED on the commune, so I have an option to continue my education even as the mother to my daughter. It is a new day - they need to gain some understanding."

There was a commotion over the phone on Sarah's side of the line. Julie heard Ariel start to cry. Sarah blurted into the phone, "Oh my god, Julie, they are here! I have to go. I will call you as soon as I can."

"Okay, Sarah. Let me know what's going on. Good luck and always remember I will stand by you and help in any way I can."

The phone went dead and Julie hung up with a heavy heart.

Sarah had been quietly breast-feeding Ariel while she was on the phone with Julie. Winslow played the guitar in the background. Her sister, Rachel and Rachel's roommates cooked dinner in the kitchen. Into this bucolic, peaceful home stormed Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein, bursting with anger and disgust, making the baby scream with fright.

This was, unfortunately, not an uncommon scene back in the Sixties. Sherrie, Bud and Bruno (from Grant Park) had also been through the fire with her family, as well as many others. Julie was proud of her relationship with her father, which was that of a friend and a kind, understanding mentor - nothing like the Edelsteins.

Mrs. Edelstein threatened to put Sarah in a mental institution if she did not return home with them immediately and leave Winslow behind. She announced that she would not have the baby from such a union (her own grandchild!) in her house and Ariel was to be removed by child protective services before they left for Chicago. Later, the baby was to be put up for adoption at a private agency chosen by the Edelsteins after a short stay in a foster home.

Nothing Sarah or Winslow said could calm the hysterical couple down. Rachel kept her head and called the local, newly formed, legal aid office. They agreed to send a lawyer to her home and advised Rachel of Win and Sarah's rights under the law.

On the advice of the lawyer, Winslow, Sarah and baby Ariel left the next day to go back into hiding on the commune in Missouri. Sarah's parents were unaware of Win and Sarah's new home and were furious they had gotten away again after Win and Sarah's lawyer had convinced them to let the young couple pack their belongings overnight. They were gone before the Edelsteins arrived the next morning to pick them up.

Sarah's sister, Rachel, just shrugged her shoulders and told her parents that she hadn't had the time to find out where her sister usually lived, but that Winslow was an upstanding, talented man, a good father and in the face of the severe criticism of her parents - undeserving of the sadistic evaluation they had foisted on him.

Angry and vowing to break up Sarah's marriage and young family, Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein stormed out of Rachel's house to the great relief of everyone who lived there.

__________

When Vincente got home from his retreat in Japan, he heard an earful from his daughter. He was, as Julie's best friend, sort of horrified about the behavior of the senior Edelsteins. He hadn't met Winslow and Sarah yet, but Julie had given him the scooby about what had gone down around her Barn and what she had heard about the incident in California.

He was, also, notably upset about Bannister's visit and told Julie that it was not necessary to worry about him. He was happy that Rico had come over to support her and called him on the phone to assure him that Bannister was harmless at this point. He also added that he did not like Willis prowling around his home due to the fact that he was still a wanted man, a fugitive from the law. He and Julie no longer wanted to bear any blame for the actions of his family, a former southern cocaine cartel. Bannister, himself, was an old childhood friend of Vincente's. That was why he wanted to stay in touch. But, after all that had happened, Vince was not enthused about staying close to him.

Julie knew that it was Bannister's family that had targeted her father to carry uncut cocaine for them for many years. He was also slightly involved in her kidnapping as an infant (albeit unaware of it). She was kidnapped by a gas station owner in Tennessee in order to ensure her father's compliance as an unwilling drug mule. Vince was a little angry that Bannister had felt free to come to his home. He still loved the guy, but did not want to be involved in his legal problems. He felt nervous that Bannister had come back from his hiding places in Europe.

A few days later, while Vince was still taking some time off and Julie was in school, the doorbell rang. Vince saw an older man and woman at the door. He looked at them closely from his living room window. He did not recognize them, but got a feeling of hesitancy and querulousness as an intuitive response. He had no idea who they were. He almost felt afraid of them. Feeling silly, he walked over and opened his front door.

"Hello?" he greeted the couple.

"Are you Mr. Vincent Bonaventura?" asked the man, without smiling.

Right away, Vince was on guard. He replied, "Vincente" with a heavy emphasis on the "tey".

The man frowned. He continued, "We are the parents of one of your daughter's friends."

Vince felt awkward just standing at his front door, but he truly did not feel like inviting these two rather unfriendly strangers into his home.

"What has my daughter got to do with you?"

The woman startled at this confrontational question. She stared directly into Vincente's eyes and said, "We consider our child missing and think your daughter knows where she is. We are afraid our child might be in danger."

"Why don't you go to the police?"

"We did," said the man. "They listed her as a missing person, but have not been able to find her. So, we took matters into our own hands."

"Why come here?" asked Vincente, getting more and more defensive.

"Is your daughter home?" asked the woman sternly, changing the subject. "We would like to speak to both of you together."

Julie walked up behind her father and put her hand on his shoulder. She whispered, "What's going on, Pop?"

"That's Julie?" asked the man, squinting, trying to see Julie who was still hiding behind her father.

Vince stiffened. They were still standing at the door. He asked, "How do you know my daughter?" with a hint of anger and suspicion in his voice.

Now it was the man's turn to act defensively.

Julie broke the cold, icy atmosphere by saying, "This is Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein, Sarah Edelstein's parents. I met them at my place in central Illinois. They were looking for Sarah."

"We still are," said Mrs. Edelstein. "She ran away again."

"Well, she's over eighteen. She can legally make her own decisions now. Besides, she's the mother of a beautiful baby girl," retorted Julie, still standing behind her father, using him as a human shield.

"Oh, no, she isn't!" cried Mrs. Edelstein. "I fully intend to have Sarah's mental health evaluated, even if I have to commit her involuntarily. One can do that at any age. That infant is, as far as I'm concerned, totally at risk. She needs to go to a normal couple and be raised in a normal home. We cannot take her. She is not wanted in our family, god knows how she got born anyway. She could be a product of rape - but she still needs a traditional mother and father. I intend to call Child Protective Services and have them take a close look at how the baby is cared for."

"Ariel has Winslow and Sarah. They are good people and good, devoted parents," said Julie, starting to feel miserable.

Mrs. Edelstein jerked her head up at Julie's polite and heart felt words. "Oh no, no, no! Sarah's version of devotion has always been more like obsession. She has no maturity. All she knows is to do whatever crazy thing she wants to. She needs to be stopped. That infant needs to be put in a good home with decent ordinary food. You should see what she eats. She is probably breast feeding that poor thing! That is filthy." Mrs. Edelstein repeated hotly, "She needs to be stopped!"

She continued, "And we mean to stop her!"

Vince tried not to laugh at the comment about breast feeding (which was a tradition in his family) and spoke up quietly, almost hissing, "I would invite the two of you in, but we are getting ready for dinner right now." He intentionally left out the part about inviting them to dine with him. "Also," said Vince, speaking a little louder. "Julie has assured me that the Kellys are talented, well respected and very mature for their ages. My own daughter runs her own small business, is an A student and always clues me in on what she is doing ...Winslow Kelly - as per Julie - is a wonderful, talented farrier and doing fine at making a living that way."

"For a rapist, con man and opportunist," added Mrs. Edelstein in harsh tones.

Vince had had enough and said, more loudly, "I think the two of you need to leave ..."

Mr. Edelstein looked at Vince and asked in a sort of conciliatory tone, "If you can, please let us know if you or Julie see Sarah. Julie has our phone number." He offered his hand to Vince.

Vince frowned and ignored the hand, but turned towards his daughter, saying, "That is entirely up to Julie. Perhaps you two have some thinking to do. It might help to soften your stance on your daughter. Kids just don't respond well to commandments or threats."

Julie stepped forward, finally, and said, "I do not know where Sarah and Winslow are, but if anything changes in terms of them being afraid of you, I will see what they have to say. I am not sure they will tell me where they are living." She crossed her fingers at this last statement, since she knew darn well where they were. "I think it would help if you re-considered your threats to take their new baby away and force Sarah into mental health treatment. Perhaps it is you who need to change."

Mrs. Edelstein sent Julie a nasty look, but Mr. Edelstein looked down at his feet and seemed a little sad and even embarrassed, which was not lost on Julie. Vince reached out and grabbed Mr. Edelstein's hand, finally, giving the meeting a tone of some conciliation. They shook hands and Mr. Edelstein gave Vince a weak smile. The two Edelsteins walked to their car and drove away. Vince felt a wave of nausea and disgust come over him. He thought, how can they just toss their own child and grandchild away like that? What is wrong with those two people?

He and Julie had had their arguments, but he couldn't even imagine treating her like she was a stranger. The thought made him smile to himself. His daughter was his dearest friend, not just his daughter or blood relative.

"Well," said Vince, pulling himself back to reality and looking at his beloved daughter deeply. "That stunk. That poor girl has some real fish to fry with parents like that. I can't understand their lack of trust or understanding. After all, they raised her. They must know her somewhat."

"Yeah, Pop," answered Julie, reaching out and hugging her father. She kissed him gently on the cheek and said, "I'm so glad you're my dad."

He smiled at Julie's curly head and said, "I would never do that to you." Then he laughed and continued, "I can call you crazy without any help from anyone else."

Julie punched him gently on the shoulder. He ruffled her hair and said, "And, by the way, I do not think you are crazy...usually. You do, though, need to call Sarah on the phone and update her on what her parents are doing."

"Thanks for your qualified faith in my mental health. I will call the commune number later and see if Winslow, Sarah and Ariel are back from California yet. Someone from the commune office needs to run up to their dorm building and get them. They only have phones in the office."

__________

Later, that day, Julie put in a call to the Ark. Winslow and Sarah had just arrived back about two hours earlier. By some luck, Sarah was in the commune office when Julie called.

Sarah was appalled that her parents had found Julie's home address. She was aware that they were threatening her, Winslow and her daughter and told Julie about their narrow escape from them in California.

Julie made it clear that she and her father's lips were sealed as to Sarah's whereabouts and advised her to look for some free legal counsel. As luck would have it, there was a civil lawyer with a Missouri law license living at the Ark. She said that she and Winslow would consult her about their problems with her parents.

"Above all, Sarah," said Julie, warmly. "Don't worry about me and my dad. We are your friends for life. If worse comes to worse, we will hire a lawyer for you - or you, Winslow and Ariel can hide out here at my Pop's house or live in my place in Midville."

"Oh, Julie," exclaimed Sarah, equally warmly. "You are the best! Winslow and I are trying to buy a small farm near the commune. We almost have enough money saved up now. It might take, maybe, another year at the very most. There are some really nice farm houses with large acreage around the commune area."

"Wow! That would be really wonderful! So, Win's doing pretty well with the horse business?"

"Definitely. I'm learning to make pottery and selling it online. It is pretty lucrative and I can work here at the Ark and take care of the baby at the same time. There are electric turning tables and kilns that I can use here and an entire pottery studio with all the glazes I could want. They let me use their pottery supplies for free. As long as we all work at the commune industries, we have a lot of opportunities for free creativity and our own small businesses. They come first, though. I drive the van to the stores in Mountain Home, Arkansas every week and babysit for some of the younger commune children along with Ariel. Those are my jobs. They are good jobs because Ariel is with me all the time. Winslow works on the ranch and runs his outside business. I do a small amount of horse training, too.

"I can work here even after we move, until we can afford to put in our own studio. Win and I can work something out with the Ark. With his skills, they might want him to visit and do his farrier work in exchange for letting me use the pottery studio and some of their pasture for my training business. That would be fine with us. We love it here. Plus, bringing Ariel here would be really nice, too. This is a great place for kids. There are always extra baby sitters and the children are close to each other. Ariel already has her admirers."

Despite her optimism, Julie heard Sarah start crying quietly on the phone. She spoke, "Sarah? Are you okay?"

"No, Julie. I am not okay. I am grateful for my child, sister, my sister's friends and husband, and our new lives here in Missouri and the Ark - but why do I have to have such horrid parents?! Your dad is an angel! Mine folks are demons. After all, I am a mother now!"

Julie was stymied - she didn't know what to say. Then she remembered what she had heard in Midville when she had gone into town to get supplies for her place recently. She told Sarah, almost in a whisper, "Oh, Sarah, don't cry. I have some good news for you. I heard that your old employer, Garth Broderick talked to the local cops and the farmer who owns the horses you and Winslow took."

She heard a gasp on the other end of the line. Poor Sarah, she had so much to fear. "No, no, no..." she protested with anxiety written in her voice.

Julie went on more loudly over Sarah's objections, "Garth is on your side. He talked the cops into reducing your charges from grand larceny and felony horse theft to a misdemeanor. He got the farmer and owner of the horses to agree - especially after he pointed out how nicely his horses were curried and how nicely their hooves were trimmed, and the brand-new shoes you put on them before you released them.

"Broderick also pointed out that Winslow obviously knew what he was doing when he let the horses go so they would be discovered as quickly as possible. He also said Winslow had to earn the saddles and tack the horses were wearing. That all was worth something in terms of an apology and restitution. All parties agreed.

"The former owner said he would let the issue go. The cops agreed with him. You and Win are no longer wanted by the police. They dropped the felony charges."

Sarah stopped crying and said, "Oh, my god, Julie, that's wonderful! We were so afraid that my parents could use that to break up our little family." Her voice changed and she continued, "Now all I have to do is convince my parents that I am not crazy and that I have the right to keep and raise my own child."

__________

Mrs. Edelstein had hired a private investigator to trace her errant daughter. Her lawyer assured her that if there was any proof that Sarah took any street drugs on a regular basis (he felt the cops could order a piss test or blood test as soon as she was in custody) the baby could be removed and maybe the marriage annulled if it could be proven that Sarah married before eighteen and lied about her age. Mrs. Edelstein was pretty sure that Sarah was capable of lying for this reason and many others. She liked this lawyer and had had him on retainer for the last year so she could plot her daughter's capture.

The PI could not find Winslow and Sarah after they had left San Francisco. Their lawyer was frustrated that the Edelsteins had not called in the local police to have the Kellys put in custody when they were visiting California. Mr. Edelstein was one-hundred percent in favor of calling in the police, but Mrs. Edelstein did not want to involve her other daughter, Rachel. She was afraid that Rachel could be accused of hiding a fugitive and would also get into trouble. Rachel was older and a successful college student and Mrs. Edelstein did not want to get her antagonized. She had enough trouble with Sarah.

It was sort of hypocritical to let Rachel go and bother Sarah, but that was also common in this era. Mr. Edelstein, quietly and without saying anything about it, did not care if Rachel or even Sarah took street drugs as long as they came home to him and, hopefully, were careful about what they did.

Their PI was in the process of combing the state of Illinois for the two youngsters - which was how he nabbed the home address of Julietta and Vincente Bonaventura. He really did not want to give out this address to the Edelsteins. He was worried that they would overdo their visit to the Bonaventura's home and get in some legal trouble, but he stood firm on this belief that they had the right to "rescue" their daughter from a hippie lifestyle. He also did not approve of hippies or even liberal politics.

__________

The Chicago winter was as uneventful as it was ferocious. It seemed to snow continuously. As the hard winds blew around the windy city, Julie sat at home and watched her dad make fires in their fireplace almost every evening while she did her homework. Rico came over frequently - especially since he had bought a car. He was really good at tutoring her in math and any other subject she needed help with.

He shoveled the front walk for Vince and went around the neighborhood making fistfuls of money shoveling snow for other people and tightening his man-muscles. His bright white smile and handsome, strike-you-dead Danny Nucci good looks along with a very sincere friendliness got him a lot of shoveling jobs. The tips in this burgeoning middle-class suburb started at around ten dollars per front walk. Throw in the front stairs and sidewalk to the driveway, you would make top dollar in tips and get invited to warm-up inside. Rico was making about a hundred dollars or more per night, plus all the hot chocolate he could drink and a few bites of someone's famous fresh cupcakes, cookies or coffee cake. This simple occupation was seriously worth a lot of money. It took a grown man to muster up the stamina needed to earn this much money each time it snowed. And, as we have said, it snowed a lot that year.

One evening Rico knocked on Julie's front door around midnight, glowing red-cheeked despite his dark skin color with very fairy-like snow crystals swirling around his head like a million stars. To say he looked good was a vast understatement. Julie could not help smiling when she saw him despite his weird timing.

He gave Julie a very frosty hug when she, surprised at seeing him so late, opened the door with a question on her face. She laughed out loud and pulled him inside by his coat, sitting him down on the couch in front of the fire that still roared in brilliant yellows, reds and golds in her living room. Vince had long since gone to bed.

"I just need to sit down a second before I drive home," he gasped, definitely looking rather beat. "I made over $200 bucks tonight!" he added with excitement, flashing his dimpled smile at her with the triumph of a successful decathlon athlete.

Julie went into the kitchen to put a kettle of water on for tea. When she did, she heard an explosion of snoring coming from the living room couch. She laughed and ran back to see Rico with his head thrown back, mouth wide open, still sitting up in front of the fire (with his boots, hat and coat still on) - totally sound asleep.

Julie tried to rouse him, but it did not work. He was so tired that he didn't even hear her. So, she pulled his boots and hat off. She looked over her shoulder out the large picture window at the cold winter sky. It must be the full moon, she thought. The moon, indeed shone like a huge solid silver arc lamp, intensely breaking through the dark painted clouds of the night - helping to rend the darkness apart, so that the beginnings of a smattering of stars reflected on a light shower of crystal snowflakes.

Julie looked up from her biology book and said to a completely unconscious Rico, uselessly - but she couldn't help talking to his unconscious form, "You know no two snowflakes are ever exactly alike? Sort of like human beings." She laughed to herself with the analogy that humans were like flakes of ice.

Yuppy woke up from his sleep next to Rico and gazed deeply into Julie's eyes. Well, at least he was awake. The dog had been asleep, resting his head on Rico's thigh. Julie's old bulldog, Romeo, who was famous for his loud snoring, snorted in antiphon to Rico's snorkeling noises.

Rico yawned and stretched, looked at Julie as if he didn't expect to see her there and ran his hand over Yup's sleek head and neck, blinking awake. Romeo went on snoring in the other room. But, he, too, awoke, padding into the living room to see what was going on there, sure not to miss a thing. The old bulldog, stretched and yawned, making a squeaking noise and sneezing.

"Uh, Julie," said Rico, obviously confused as to why he was still there at Julie's home.

"You fell asleep, Rico," answered Julie, looking at the clock. It was way past 1 am. "You might as well spend the night. My dad won't mind. Lay down. I'll get you some blankets and a pillow." Julie put more wood on the fire in the fireplace, making the room drowsy and pleasantly warm. The fireplace truly took the winter chill off this room connected with the front door.

"Oh, jeez," commented Rico. "My parents..."

"I'll call them. I'm sure they will understand."

"Okay, yeah. Thanks. I'm just beat from shoveling all that snow. My muscles are sore."

"I know." Julie looked out the large living room windows and laughed. "We just got hit with another two feet. Looks icy, too."

Rico groaned and stretched out on the couch. Julie got some blankets and covered him, sticking a pillow under his head. The fire roared counteracting the moaning winter squall outside, probably obliterating all of Rico's hard work from that night.

Before he fell asleep again, he sat up, pulling the fluffy wool blankets under his chin. "Julie?" he inquired in a deep voice.

"Hmm?" answered Julie sitting down in a wing chair and putting the tiny Romeo in her lap. Romeo growled at Yuppy who had come over to them, not that he could fit in the chair with the two of them anymore. But, the gangly Great Dane spread out on Julie's feet. Hemmed in, the suddenly unfriendly, possibly jealous, Romeo showed his teeth to the over-sized puppy.

Yuppy the puppy was big enough to sweep the little bulldog off Julie's lap with one huge paw, but instead put his head on the floor with a small whine at being rejected.

"What is it, Rico?" questioned Julie, petting the crotchety, old Romeo (who really didn't deserve any affection after that show of meanness).

"Uh. I came over after working because I have something to tell you."

"Yeah?" said Julie, her curiosity peaked.

"I got a letter of acceptance from Harvard early this afternoon."

"Wow, really?! God, Rico, that's great!" exclaimed Julie, feeling a little distant. She had come to like Rico deeply (and to depend on him for some things). She would miss his bumbling attempts at closeness. Even her Danny Nucci film collection could not replace the appearance of the handsome Rico at her door. She paused, lost in feelings and thoughts of his absence.

"I got a full scholarship from the school for pre-law." Rico noted the slightly forlorn look on Julie's face. "Don't worry. You can come and visit me anytime. There are lots of things to do in Harvard Square. Dad is setting me up in my own apartment in Somerville within walking distance of Harvard Yard. That will save thousands of dollars, since Somerville is cheap and small apartments are usually available for rent. It will be a lot more peaceful than a dormitory. There is also a Little Italy in East Cambridge, so we can go over there and get some nice Italian groceries. Boston's East End also has some great Italian food, too."

Julie brightened a little. "I know. Me and Pop used to live in Dorchester, which is right on the Green Line into Boston's other neighborhoods. We went to Haymarket Square to the outdoor..."

"...market! Yeah! That's a great way to get fresh foods and save money, too! I have about $10,000 saved up from all my part-time jobs. Have to keep my grades up, though. I think I might be in line for Valedictorian in my graduating class of 1967."

Julie looked at Rico with a pride she had tried to avoid before. She would be sorry to lose such a good tutor. Her grades had gone up appreciably, too. She had even made the honor roll herself this last semester. Algebra would have been a horror show if it hadn't been for Rico. The same with Chemistry I. She smiled at him.

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# Chapter Seven: Harvard Square 1967, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant. You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant. Walk right in, it's around the back, just about a half a mile from the railroad track. You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant ... except for Alice."

("Alice's Restaurant Massacree". Written by Arlo Guthrie and Garry Sherman. Copyright Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, The Bicycle Music Company. 1965. First heard at the Newport Folk Festival, July, 1967)

August 1967 came upon Julie and Rico as suddenly as Rico's graduation from high school had. Julie would be a Senior herself this year. And, yes, Rico had been class Valedictorian. Julie had made tons of money in the park that summer and had gotten some great post cards from Winslow and Sarah (still not caught by Sarah's parents). The two Kellys had attended the San Francisco "Summer of Love" concerts, staying with Sarah's sister again.

Reese and Livia had joined Julie in Grant Park and helped with her tie dye industry, going with her to her Midville hideaway to work on dying cloth. They had plans they did not share with Julie. Plans that had to do with Sarah and Winslow Kelly and their indignation at what Sarah's parents were doing.

__________

Julie drove to Massachusetts with Rico and his family to move him into his new apartment near Harvard. Julie felt right at home in Harvard Square. Mr. Valente, Rico's dad, went to Nini's Corner or Out of Town News to get a copy of an Italian newspaper to read the news about Italy in his native tongue. Nini's and the other Harvard Square iconic international news store, of course, had newspapers, magazines and cigarettes from all over the world.

Something new, as a true introduction to Harvard Yard was Frisbee (named after the Frisbie Pie Company, Connecticut, and its famous pie plates). Julie bought a few, now manufactured, brightly colored, plastic Frisbees - one as a gift for her dad and Yuppy and a few for Reese, herself and Livia.

Musicians were usually lining the streets all day and into the night. Harvard Square was filled with music. Tracy Chapman (much later than the Sixties) was one famous product of Harvard Square street music and, later, the nearby subway stop. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were two of the many famous musicians who played the popular coffee houses of the Square. Julie begged Rico to take some time out from buying textbooks and go with her to a Baez-Dylan concert. He agreed and they went out to hear their current hit songs at Club 47 on Auburn Street (now Club Passim) with Bob Dylan.

On the way over to the Club 47, Rico and Julie watched some of the street entertainers. Julie loved the Square. It was her kind of place. She and Rico split their change between the many street beggars there (panhandlers) who placed themselves strategically between street musicians and their equipment.

She was only a little girl the last time she was there and was usually more interested in getting to the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street to read kid's books than street life in the Square.

Rico was also captivated, in fact totally fascinated, by the lightning rod (and under the table betting) at the chess clock tables in front of the Harvard Student Union and other places around the Square. After Mr. Valente told Rico to not take too much time or lose too much money (ha ... Rico was a really good chess player, although he had never played against a clock before) - Mr. Valente, himself, sauntered over to the backgammon tables, thinking to possibly win a few games, hopefully, against the international players represented there. It was not unusual to hear ten different languages spoken around the gaming tables, or throughout the Square for that matter. Harvard was wildly international.

Hacky sack (which is a version of soccer played with a small cloth bead-filled sack, invented in 1972), Frisbee (invented in the Fifties), chess (been in the Square a long, long time - even Bob Dylan played outside) and local music (historic note: much more active after the rebuilding of the Square in 1978) represented a sort of ongoing entertainment heaven for both Rico and Julie. Rico's fascination with Civil Law made his happiness complete as he sat down with his dad in the evenings to choose his courses for the fall.

He started missing his big dog Vito so badly, that he and his father went over to the Boston MSPCA in Jamaica Plain (the Angell Memorial) and got a puppy of no particular breed. It was just a cute, little, black and white spotted mutt with big brown, expressive eyes, who was probably not going to be anywhere near as big as Vito. He was just a regular, medium-sized dog.

Rico and Mr. Valente were both big advocates of "Adopt don't Shop". Even Vito, Rico's gray ghost of a hulking Great Dane, was rescued from an early Great Dane breed-specific rescue organization. Vito was friendly towards smaller dogs, almost goofy in his attempts to play, so Rico was in good shape with the new pupper.

The new dog was a pretty hound mix and about eight weeks old. Something about Rico and his dad made dogs attractively quiet and obedient. Rico inventively named the new puppy Spot. He had signed up as a tutor for an elementary school children's after-school remedial reading program in Boston. The phrase, "Run, Spot, run..." made him giggle obsessively to himself. Not that anyone read that stuff anymore. It was the Sixties and children's books were undergoing new community analysis and criticism.

Spot was a sweetheart and took away Rico's homesickness at being separated from Vito. Having a potentially smaller dog was convenient and nice. Rico taught Spot not to tear up his Frisbee, but to chase it and bring it back to him undamaged. Spot was a natural.

Julie was crazy about the new puppy. She was not particularly interested in college, so being a dog person, she way preferred to be involved in taking care of Spot and adding a feminine touch to his training. And a kiss or two. She got him a six pack of green tennis balls. Spot found a comfort zone on top of Julie's foot.

Rico was also spending time learning things about Harvard student earning potentials at the chess tables. He was also an ace card player and found out that some students in financial need used their chess winnings to go to Monte Carlo in Monaco where there were many gaming chances to win large amounts of money - in the established contests and off-casino in pool, poker, chess, bridge, backgammon, etc. A few students even earned tuition this way at a multiplicity of tournaments while exploring the beaches of the Riviera. There were cheap rooming houses in the beach community, also.

When Rico became absorbed in reading his law textbooks in the evening, Julie took Spot out and walked through the Yard to the Square to enjoy the hippie crowds, street music and carnival-like atmosphere. She made a mental note to bring her tie dye products the next time she visited. Soon, she would need to fly back to Chicago to start her senior year in high school.

Reese and Livia were dying cloth for Julie at the Barn in Midville. She phoned them to see how they were doing. Reese answered the phone and was upset because Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein had been snooping around Julie's place, challenging her friends to tell them where their daughter was hiding. Reese said she told them, "Well, your daughter would not have to run away from you if you were less judgmental and nicer to her. I mean, really, she is raising your grandchild! I don't have a clue as to where they are. They haven't been in this area for about a year, as far as I know."

Reese went on in a conspiratorial tone of voice, "You would not believe what Mrs. Edelstein said after that!"

She said, "I am sending our Private Investigator to make sure you are telling the truth. As far as this illegitimate child is concerned, I have the right to decide what to do with her."

Reese said, indignantly, that she told Mrs. Edelstein, "No one is allowed to trespass on our land. So, stay away - and that goes for your private dick, too. You and your PI are not welcome here." She said she hung up on her. She continued, "Poor Sarah. Her parents are crazies. I'll bet she and Winslow are making a bunch of money, too. The old bag."

Julie laughed ruefully and retorted, "Shit, I know. You know they had the nerve to come to my house. They really pissed my father off. My dad is a super guy, but cannot stand the persecution of innocent people. You know Sarah and Winslow have an attorney at the Ark.

"You are right about making money. Sarah is making and selling her own handcrafted pottery. There are many places in the Missouri Ozarks, where the Ark is, that attract tourists. She also has plans to build her own studio and paddocks for her horse training business."

"Right on!" said Reese, enthused.

"What's Livia doin'?" asked Julie.

"She's outside putting our new tie dye on the clothesline to dry. You've gotta see it, Jules - you'll love our designs!"

"That's so helpful, Reese. Thanks!"

"Que nada..."

"See you later."

"Bye, Julie. Coming home soon?"

"Yup. I'll be out to the Barn next weekend."

"Groovy. Just in time for the last pot harvest of the season."

"Jeez, Reese - you're such a pot head!"

"True, bye, Julie."

Julie signed off and went into Rico's new living room to join his family there.

Rico's nosy ears pricked up at Julie's reference to marijuana and he reminded her that he, as a Harvard student, could not be around anything illegal or he would not only lose his scholarship, but also would be disqualified to pass the bar later when he graduated Law School. Or would even be refused admission into Law School, for that matter. Julie bit her lips and agreed to be more careful. She thought to herself, well he chose the right profession for his usual stuck up attitude. She reminded herself to respect his wishes. She felt that everyone had the right to their own dreams. Can't expect everyone to dream the same dreams, she thought.

This really would not be all that difficult for her, since her friends at school would be thousands of miles away from Rico. Not that she wanted to be that far from him. But, she would see him at Christmas and all the holidays. Without pot or hallucinogens. It hurt to think that way, but she did not want to ruin his chances in school. That would be seriously not what she would want.

__________

Julie took the hint, grabbed Spot and his leash and ran out the door. She walked the dog to the Charles river and sat down on a bench watching the last shred of daylight poised against the final runs of the Harvard crewing teams, until the sun began to set over the gentle, rippling water. Spot and she wandered over to the river bank before the last golden light faded. He scooted under some tall wildflowers. Good thing he was on a leash or she would have lost him in the impossibly thick underbrush along the river bank.

The Harvard campus had so many interesting nooks and corners. The trees inside the Yard were huge. They had trunks so large that Julie could not wrap her arms around them. Only the virgin uncut cypress in the Louisiana bayous were larger. The Harvard Yard trees were mostly very old maples. Maybe hundreds of years old.

There was a cherry orchard over by the Business School, where she and Spot walked over to right now. It was across the river. Someone told her that the cherry trees were over a hundred years old. Maybe, maybe not - but the cherries were really sweet. There was a yellow, very small, wooden house over by the Massachusetts Avenue bus stop that was used as a Harvard University administration office which George Washington had lived in during the Revolutionary War. Lots of old, historic things here. There was a church in the Square that was so old that part of it was still made of whole, squared-off logs. Someone in the Square had said a local man had found an original Shakespeare manuscript and donated it to the school. She got an earful of interesting anecdotes just talking to strangers around the school, like one of the libraries was donated and built by some rich person because their son had died on the Titanic (the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library).

But Julie's favorite place that she meandered over to that evening with Spot was hidden in a group of tall pine trees behind the Business School by their parking lot. These trees always seemed to have owls roosting in the upper branches. Spot was quiet and the two of them spied an owl or two without his barking at them. Julie really liked this new dog. He was so very easy to be with. She was sure that Vito, Yuppy and Romeo would get along with him. She thought, Yeah, if Rico ever comes back to Chicago again. She thought with a sinking heart, how could he leave this fantasy world filled with so many beautiful things? Just to see her? She doubted it somehow. Well, he would want to visit his family, too, she rationalized.

Funny how things had changed from childhood to her teenage years. She remembered when she couldn't stand Rico. But, then again, he was a bully at one time. He, also, had transformed. Transformed into a really kind, considerate person. She was going to miss him coming around to her house. Miss his dimpled, shy smile. And his knock-out good looks.

__________

She thought about some of the things that Reese had told her about. Things she had said to the Edelsteins. Reese had lied to them on purpose and told them that Sarah was getting a divorce. Julie felt that this might not have been such a good idea. What if they caught up with Sarah and used that as an excuse to nab her? Or, god forbid, hold her against her will? There were some freaky people around that promoted "reverse brainwashing" techniques for their runaway children. The Edelsteins had enough money to hire one of these fools.

Reese thought that maybe they might leave Sarah alone if they thought she wasn't with Winslow anymore. Julie doubted that and told her not to make stuff up anymore, that it could backfire. The Edelsteins might think there was no one there to protect her. It could make them more aggressive.

But, before anything Reese set off could backfire, Sarah called Rico's new place in Somerville (to Julie's surprise). Reese, of course, had given her the phone number. Sarah was not happy about what Reese had said to her parents, but giggled about it anyway. Her big news was that now that Ariel was a year old, Sarah was pregnant with her second child.

She brilliantly added that due to Reese's concoction about the divorce, her parents might not know what name to trace her with. She also told Julie that the two of them had bought a farm with 40 acres of land within a half hour drive of the commune. Sarah was delighted and said she, Winslow and Ariel were moving this weekend.

Sarah went on to tell Julie that Winslow's parents had given them a pickup truck, their own pottery studio (complete with potter's supplies, a wheel and kiln), farrier tools for Winslow and were in the process of remodeling their barn.

She said, "The Kellys are so very nice. They really love us to pieces and are staying at the Ark right now in the guest lodge so they can help us move Friday. They are truly angels!" She paused because it seemed as if she was sort of choked up. "Not like my parents," she added slightly tearfully. "They are so good with Ariel. They bought her loads of toys and baby clothes, even a cute little toddler swing." She paused again, significantly. Then continued, "Now I know what real grandparents are like. They even admire our commune. They said that they thought it was very innovative, economical and well-organized - which it is."

Julie gulped and congratulated Sarah on her pregnancy and was delighted that Win's parents were so understanding and loving.

__________

When Winslow, Sarah and Ariel moved into their new farmhouse, Win's parents helped them pack, move and unpack. They saw to it that they got everything they needed and bought them extra groceries just to make sure they were comfortable and well cared for.

Fiona Kelly, Winslow's mother, even sat down with Sarah (whom she called her daughter) in order to learn how to shape a clay pot. There was truly love all around. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly even liked the music of the Sixties and listened to the recording that Winslow had made of the outdoor concerts during the Summer of Love in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the Edelsteins were snooping around Julietta Bonaventura's place in Midville - stumbling into the pot holes Reese had dug and hidden. When she took the now pretty much full grown Yuppy out there with her, she set him off - scaring the interlopers into running back to their car.

The Edelstein's Private Investigator was beginning to notice somewhat of a trail leading from Illinois to the West Coast and possibly places in between. He showed up at a few places in Missouri, but no one knew Sarah or Winslow. It was a frustrating trip for him. And useless.

He went back to Midville and spoke to the police and Garth Broderick - and tried to question Reese who slammed the door in his face.

Garth was disturbed that the Edelsteins were still hunting for Sarah and Winslow like they were some sort of wild animals. He felt their attitude was not normal. If he had known anything, he sure wouldn't have talked to this weirdo (the PI) who had agreed to track down one older teenager whom he had respected for her consistent work and talent with horses.

Garth decided to talk to Sarah's parents and try to get them to leave her alone. Sarah, Winslow and especially Ariel were not hippies to him anymore, they were just plain good folks. Even "that Bonaventura place" was beginning to change shape in his mind. Sure, he didn't like the hippie free love and drug scene - but he had learned from Sarah and Winslow that not all folks that dressed like hippies did things like that.

The PI was more determined than ever to find Sarah and bring her back to her parents at all cost. After his last encounter with that hippie girl over at that place in Midville, he had become enraged and was determined to watch the place - sure that somehow those hippies would lead him to Sarah Edelstein or whatever her name was now.

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# Chapter Eight: Bitter Fruit

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, 'n' how many years can a mountain exist

Before it's washed to the sea?

Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free?

Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

("Blowin' in the Wind", Music by Bob Dylan, 1963, original lyrics by Lorre Wyatt.)

Sarah had just moved into her new home. She heard about the Private Eye that was looking for her. Garth Broderick, her old employer had called her to warn her, and was very upset that the PI had spoken to him. He told her to try and cover her tracks as much as she could.

Without saying anything to her dear Winslow, she thought of running away with Ariel, leading her parents away from her new home. She felt very confused. She finally spoke to Winslow about it and he agreed that perhaps she should stay with her sister again. For a while anyway. That way if the PI showed up at their farm, she wouldn't be there and Win could pretend that he did not know where she was. Sarah was not happy about having to leave, being so pregnant, but she needed to protect Ariel. If she gave birth at her sister's place, the new baby would also be hidden as well. It sounded like a good plan. She and Winslow could choose to do such a thing out of necessity. Sarah was sad to leave her new home or give birth to her baby without Winslow. But protecting her children at all cost was more important.

__________

After his last encounter with that hippie girl, Reese, over at the hippie place in Midville, Sam Jagger (the PI) had become enraged and was determined to watch their every move - sure they were somehow linked to Sarah Edelstein's disappearance.

In hot pursuit of the very pregnant Sarah Edelstein-Kelly and her one year old daughter, was this very agitated Private Investigator, who had made the chase a personal thing. He gritted his teeth as he drove almost the entire length of Missouri. He was determined to capture the Edelstein girl and force her to reconcile with her parents and remake her into a respectable middle-class woman who was willing to give up all thoughts of motherhood. He even had an Edelstein approved private adoption agency to send Ariel to if child services would not accept her.

He had heard a vile rumor that Sarah was pregnant again. He ground his already clenched teeth together. A baby factory, he thought grimly to himself. All these hippie kids do is fuck and take street drugs. He couldn't wait to grab that miscreant, Sarah. He inwardly thanked her parents for their insistent business over the past year or so. And their generous payments. He was due to receive a large $30,000 commission if he nabbed the little bitch. Which, for him, was not an if. Live and let live was not something he had ever had the privilege of experiencing.

He was a failed cop and this career was all he had left. He had never had children, even with two failed marriages. Now, especially in this explosion of personal "freedoms", he did not even want a child. What if they turned out like Sarah Edelstein? He wanted ownership of his children. Not half a child. One that left and never came back. Or disagreed with him all the time. Damn the reasons for their disagreements. Who cared about "why"?!

This bounty hunter of a man never even considered that the Edelstein's disapproval of Sarah's then boyfriend had forced her out of their home. He just thought that something unidentifiable had happened, and that kids "like that" left their homes for no reason except being egotistical and headstrong. One gives them so much love and they just reject that love.

Sam Jagger screamed out loud to himself as he drove down the highway.

He truly hated Sarah Edelstein. He had a stereotype in his mind that made his "prey" just plain evil. He finally drove up to an old farmhouse and pulled up behind a stand of trees to hide his car. He has slept well last night in a Missouri motel, thinking his great task was almost completed. He was sure Sarah and that child were here.

He got out of his car and sidled up to the side of the house. He stooped under a window near the kitchen. He couldn't hear anything at first. Then, he heard a couple of men talking excitedly. Those were not the voices of young people.

He managed to get a quick peek into a kitchen window. It was not what he was expecting. There were two older men talking to each other. Sam pounded his fist quietly into his other hand. He was positive he had gotten the right address. This was definitely the new Kelly farmstead. But it seemed that the Kellys were not there, which was something he knew he could not predict. But who were these men? Relatives? He wanted to get the youngsters alone and scare them. This could stand in the way of his plans to overwhelm them.

Suddenly, he heard a younger voice laughing. He looked in the window again and saw Winslow Kelly. He knew for sure it was him because he had been given many photos of both Winslow and Sarah. Nothing of their child, but he didn't need that.

No Sarah, though. Maybe she was out shopping or something. Who were those men? That was a game changer for Jagger. Even with his gun he was not into a fight with what seemed to be two linebackers, older or not. He just wanted to grab a girl and a toddler easily. Like taking candy from a baby. No big conflicts - just scare a couple of kids - collect a cool $30,000 plus his hourly rate and travel expenses. This was no cheap thrill.

Sam Jagger tripped over some old trash and crashed noisily to the ground in his excitement, thinking about the money he would get.

"What was that?!" exclaimed one of the large men in Winslow's kitchen. It was his dad, appropriately named Angus. Big Irishman, getting suspicious at the noise outside the house.

Garth Broderick and Angus Kelly were on him in a second. Sam swore to himself. He saw hundred dollar bills flying away in the wind in his imagination. Garth and Angus got on either side of Sam and pulled him up, locking him tight between the two of them.

"I'll call the police!" screamed Jagger. "You can't touch me!"

"Oh, the cops are already on their way. You are, by the way, trespassing. So, it is you who can't do this." Garth and Angus braced themselves tighter against Jagger's sides.

Two local cops in uniform came running around the corner of the house with their service weapons drawn, handcuffs out. Sam Jagger tried to run, but found it impossible to move from between those two large, muscular men.

"You are under arrest for criminal trespass!" said the cop that was handcuffing him and explaining his Miranda rights.

Sam exclaimed, "I was sent here by Sarah Edelstein's parents. That gives me a perfect right to be here."

"If you are carrying a weapon - that shows criminal intent. For your information, Sarah is not here. She is legally married and over eighteen - so even her parents would need her permission to come here. They have no rights on Winslow Kelly's property. It is his name that is on the deed," said Kelly's father.

Sam frowned deeply and asked, "Well, then, where is Sarah?"

"That is a question, isn't it?" stated Angus Kelly, angrily.

Garth said with equal anger, "That is none of your business. Maybe a jail term is just the wakeup call you need."

Sam exclaimed again, as the cops started leading him to their squad car, "Aren't you the neighbor of that hippie chick, Julietta Bonaventura from Midville?! Why are you here?"

"Again, none of your business. Yeah, Winslow and Sarah Kelly used to work for me. I'm visiting and helping them choose a couple of horses for their personal livery."

"Personal livery!" exclaimed Sam Jagger, obviously outraged. "They are horse thieves!"

Garth blew up at this. "All charges have been officially dropped. The horses were returned to their owner." He turned to the cops and said, "Can't you guys hurry up and haul this jerk off somewhere?"

One of the cops nodded and said, while he pulled at Sam to move a little faster towards their squad car, "Off to sentencing and your court date, guy. Your rights - regardless of who sent you - ended at the Kelly's property line."

Sam tried not to scream, so he screeched instead. Garth laughed at him.

__________

The room was shrouded in darkness with dark tie dyed, hand sewn ceiling to floor curtains converted from dark green, re-done, embroidered curtains drawn shut, with only a little sunlight scattered across the wooden floor. There were candles ringing the entire room creating a dim, but peaceful lighted atmosphere. Large pillows were strewn around the floor along with two mattresses that served as low-slung couches. Sarah Edelstein-Kelly lay on one of them. Incense, mostly Patchouli, filled the air.

Sarah had just given birth to a son. She named him Adam. He was red-cheeked, sort of quiet like Ariel and very robust-looking. He was now nursing and on the verge of sleep. He had a shockingly thick head of brown, curly hair. The sun shone once in a while across the wood floor, peeking occasionally around the curtains as it intensified while it began setting.

Seductive cooking smells drifted through the incense and found their way around the room. It made Sarah realize that despite the work she just gone through giving birth, she was both tired and rather hungry.

The birth of her son had been easy. It was so easy, it came as a surprise to her, her sister and everyone in the household. The baby was about two weeks early. There had been no time to even call a taxi. Sarah's sister, Rachel, had a friend that was a midwife who lived on the same block and was in the house, having been invited to dinner. The midwife assisted at the birth, cleaning up Sarah and the new baby - tying off his umbilical and swaddling him expertly, administering antiseptics to Sarah, as well.

She had delivered Haight-Ashbury babies for years and lived in another Co-operative household similar to Rachel's. Rachel's Co-op was for artists and the midwife was in a community health Co-op. Her co-operative also ran a free health service in the city center where they had access to a few medical students and a couple of volunteer medical doctors. The midwife, herself, gave prenatal examinations and nutritional-medical advice.

Sarah fell asleep with Adam while the midwife kept watch and ate a bowl of vegetarian stew that was prepared for Rachel's entire household and, also, a daily free food giveaway in a local park. Sarah began to snore. Adam gurgled and smiled. The midwife thought, this is going to be a really good baby. Only a few hours old and already smiling. Guess he has the Kelly sense of humor.

The neighborhood Co-operative midwife, Lena Bloomington, had not intended to assist at the birth of Sarah's son. She had to. She was actually over at Rachel's for dinner when Sarah broke her water and went immediately into a very intense, very short labor. It took her about fifteen minutes to give birth to Adam.

She, basically, just leaned over on the couch-mattress to aid, advise, clean up and oversee Adam's sudden, easy appearance on the planet Earth.

Now, his big sister tentatively walked into the birthing room quietly in her stocking feet, with a curious smile on her face. She lisped, "Mama? Are you all right?" The birth had been so quick that Sarah had not even called out. But, the atmosphere in the household had obviously changed into something kind of naturally intoxicated. One by one, Rachel's roommates and friends peeked into the room to see the new baby.

Ariel started a conversation with Lena, sitting down next to her to see her new brother close up.

__________

At the same time that Adam was being born, another car again sat hidden in the trees off to the side of the Kelly's dirt road. The police speeding down the road with Sam Jagger did not see it, to the great relief of its occupant. Some confusion ensued, but the dark Buick started its engine and slowly crept forward back onto the road.

There were no more cars driving down this isolated dirt road as the Buick crept quietly up to the Kelly farmhouse and parked again behind a stand of trees. The single occupant got out and clicked the car door shut without much noise.

This time, though, the man strode up to the front door, his getaway vehicle hidden - just in case. He knocked loudly. Winslow Kelly answered and was shocked to see Chaim Edelstein who had arranged to meet Sam Jagger at the Kelly farmhouse, but had just missed him.

"Mr. Kelly," said Edelstein forcefully. "Where is my daughter?"

Winslow stammered, "I - I don't know. She left with Ariel about a month ago."

Garth Broderick and a very angry, red-faced Angus Kelly appeared behind the slender, shaking Winslow.

"Don't lie to me!" shouted Edelstein. "I know you know where she is!" He moved towards Winslow in a threatening way, his hands balled into fists.

Garth moved at Chaim in an equally threatening manner, and said, "You have no right to be here. This is private property! Your private investigator was just arrested for criminal trespass. Do you want to be the next?"

Edelstein barreled forward, violently knocking Winslow to the floor and attacked Garth with both his fists, hitting him square in the jaw and dazing him for a second. Angus Kelly punched Chaim in the face and pushed him to the floor.

Then ensued an out and out melee. Edelstein smacked Winslow in the jaw as he got up, knocking him out. For a guy who wanted information on his daughter, this was not the cleverest of moves. In turn, Angus and Garth both attacked Chaim at the same time and knocked him out, watching him float deftly to the floor again. Angus spied some clothesline and reached behind himself to grab it. Garth restrained Chaim, the intruder, as he slowly came to. Both Angus and Garth were twice as big as Edelstein and held him flat on the floor, tying him with the clothesline until he couldn't move, unless he rolled with his entire body. Which he did.

After a few minutes, when he noticed that Winslow had regained consciousness, Chaim said crassly, "Hey! You even have furniture. Nice stuff, too. You're no hippie - you look like you have money."

Winslow answered groggily, "I work as a farrier. I do pretty well."

"What's a farrier?" asked Chaim, sounding more demur since he had been knocked unconscious.

Winslow answered, "I trim horse hooves and put their shoes on. It's an in-demand talent."

"Looks like it from the looks of your place."

"My folks give us all kinds of gifts. They love Sarah, too."

At the sound of Sarah's name, Chaim groaned in frustration and irritation and rolled around the kitchen floor again. He said, "If you people don't kill me, my wife will. She hates Winslow and won't forgive me for failing in this mission." Angus kicked Chaim in the side. Chaim groaned in pain and struggled against his bonds to no avail. He rolled himself into the stove with a thud. "Ow!" he exclaimed.

The sound of a dying police siren broke into the kitchen. Angus said to Edelstein (who was face down on the floor, his side against the stove), "Now you'll see what you get. The last guy who tried to invade our property is now in jail."

Chaim asked a muffled question, "Who was that?" As if he didn't already know.

"Your private investigator, Sam Jagger. His court date is next month. The sheriff won't let him post bail, either. So, he won't be back any time soon."

"We'll just hire another detective. My wife won't give up. She is determined to get Sarah back. I think differently. All this force is driving my daughter away. We cannot lock her up like a prisoner. She'd just run away from us again as a result.

"This is a nice home. Maybe I can convince my wife to change her strategy. This shit hurts. I love my daughter and I want her to love me, too. I am beginning to think this strategy is not going to produce the love I want in my relationship with Sarah. You just cannot force someone to love you."

Garth looked at the trussed up figure of Chaim Edelstein on the floor with a snort and said, "About time you started to see the light. Winslow, here, worked for and lived with me for about a year. I know, for a fact, how good a person he is.

"I didn't like or trust hippies at all until I met Winslow and Sarah. It really isn't worth your time to persecute Sarah's family. You are right to want to change." Garth smiled at Winslow and rubbed his back as the boy sat down on a chair, still a little dizzy from the punch Chaim had delivered.

A police sergeant burst into the kitchen. The front door was still unlocked from the previous ruckus.

"What is this?!" he exclaimed spying Chaim Edelstein wrapped in his rope cocoon, still face down on the floor and wedged into the stove. One of the rope coils must have caught on a stove handle, because it seemed as it Chaim could not roll away to face any of the men in the kitchen. He coughed.

"You can't do that! That's illegal! You can't tie anyone up like that!" said the sergeant striding over to Chaim and grabbing one strand of rope, pulling on it. Chaim yelled out, "Ow! That hurts! Stop it!"

The sergeant took out a utility knife and cut one of the ropes, saying, "Ah, Jeez, sorry guy."

The sergeant unwrapped Chaim from his bondage. Angus Kelly objected loudly, "He attacked us! He punched my son and knocked him unconscious! This is a dangerous man and a trespasser!"

"Is this true?" asked the uniformed officer. Chaim Edelstein looked down at his feet and nodded sheepishly. "My daughter lives here. Me and my wife sent our private detective over her to speak to Sarah and try and convince her to come home to us."

Winslow was visibly upset at this statement and complained, "They were trying to kidnap Sarah and my children. The police at your station already have Sam Jagger, their detective, in custody. See this bruise on my jaw? Edelstein, here, just put that there. I agree with my father - this man is trespassing and dangerous to us. He has no right to be here. My dad tied him up to protect me from him. I am his daughter's husband. I own this property. This is my home."

The sergeant furrowed his brow and looked deeply at Winslow and Chaim in turn. He pulled Chaim's hands behind his back and cuffed them. Chaim let out an involuntary "Hey!".

"The property owner has the right to complain about your presence here and your refusal to leave these premises. It seems too, that you might have instigated this altercation. If you want to talk to Winslow's wife, you can call her on the phone. Any action against her or Kelly's child is strictly off-bounds. You are under arrest for criminal trespass and assault and will be put into custody at the local jail. I need to warn you that any further actions involving violence, trespass, assault or coercion will be dealt with by our local authorities."

__________

Sam Jagger had used his phone call to notify Mrs. Edelstein, who was also aware of her husband's activities. Jagger's legal defense was her responsibility. She hired another private investigator, Jacob Skinner, who immediately (after a few hours of research into the Edelstein problem) advised her that he wanted to go to Haight-Ashbury and take a look at the family's eldest daughter, Rachel. He had a strong hunch that Rachel was helping her sister and that, perhaps, this was the reason why no one could catch up to Sarah. Mrs. Edelstein readily agreed and was delighted that Skinner had thought of this. She financed Jacob Skinner's trip to San Francisco and he was on the next available flight to that city.

Chaim Edelstein, now in jail, was having a serious change of heart and began to object to his wife's aggression towards Sarah, especially since it now involved Rachel. But, Mrs. Edelstein would have nothing to do with his objections. She felt jail was weakening his resolve to get his youngest daughter back. No bail had been set for him, either, like Sam Jagger. He and Jagger were considered a local nuisance and a risk and danger to the Kelly household.

Mrs. Edelstein would not be deterred and Skinner had his plans. She supported her new private investigator one hundred percent, and was not even close to quitting. She was more determined than ever. Sarah would not, she felt, slip through her grasp again.

__________

Jacob Skinner walked the streets of Haight-Ashbury getting his bearings and getting more disgusted by the hour. Hippies basically lived on the sidewalk and crashed anywhere they could, which was everywhere. Sure, there was a lot of music and generosity, but nowhere near enough generosity to go around. Skinner reached his limit when he saw a very pregnant young girl sleeping on a blanket on the sidewalk. Everyone had to walk around her sleeping figure carefully. She had a cup out for "donations", so occasionally a passerby would drop some money in it. He did not. He felt she should be at home with her family, not out here.

He thought of the highly paid mission he was on and gathered his wits. He walked back to his hotel.

__________

He had Rachel Edelstein's address and had scoped the large house she lived in quite a few times. He knew all the entrances and possible exits. He had cheaply hired four rather derelict, alcoholic older hippie types to help him invade the household. This, he thought, would not be a failure. He was sure that Sarah was there. In fact, he was thought he saw her on the street several times, although the girl he assumed was Sarah looked a little different from her photographs. This girl had a small baby with her strapped in one of those weird slings kids used for babies these days. It could be someone else's baby. Sarah, as far as he knew, had only one child and that kid was a toddler.

He had definitely seen Rachel Edelstein, Sarah's sister. He was timing his foray into the house for when he knew Rachel had gone out for her weekly grocery shopping. It was obvious that she did this because she took a cart with her that came back filled with grocery bags later. The girl he thought was Sarah rarely went out and seemed a little shy, reticent and maybe even scared. She tended to hug her infant rather tightly when passing people on the sidewalk. She seemed furtive, even.

Problem was, Skinner had been told that Sarah had a two-year-old - not a baby - so this might be just another hippie chick that looked a bit like the photos he had been given. What moved his mind in the direction of assuming that this was Sarah, was that the girl he had seen with the baby always came and went from Rachel Edelstein's house. So, she must be living there. She looked too much like Sarah to discount it.

Skinner and his ragged crew were going to pretend they wanted information about food, medical clinics and housing in the Haight. He was sure they would invite them in. Maybe even offer them a meal or a place to crash overnight. The Haight was like that. To him it was sort of a free for all. To the hippies, he knew, this openness was just trust and understanding. Their good will towards each other was foolish to him. Skinner grinned an evil grin to himself. Not a bad way to make $30,000 which was his base pay plus expenses and perhaps a bonus if he brought the errant kid to Mrs. Edelstein who was intent on getting her daughter out of this hippie mess.

That afternoon, all five men waited until they saw Rachel leave with her shopping cart. No one had seen the girl with the baby leave the house that day. They were ready. Skinner had given all five men hotel accommodations and new clothing so they would seem less like the bums they were and more like hippies. He also had changed into similar hippie-like clothing.

The ruse worked like a magic charm. A young man answered Rachel's door and, wonder of wonders, invited them inside for a meal! All five men trooped into the kitchen and sat down to a rather abundant vegetable stew with potatoes and rice pudding. Skinner's plans had been carefully explained to his henchmen the day before their raid on Rachel's household. Each one of them knew who they were looking for, when to run, how to get out of the house and where to meet up afterwards.

His crew amazed even him. They made very amusing conversation and genuinely seemed to enjoy the meal and hospitality. Rachel's roommates seemed to like his crew. Sarah did not come down for the meal. Skinner asked about her without using her name, saying he had met her on the street. Her roommates said she often had her meals brought to her since she was still nursing her baby.

This was a complication. The infant Skinner had seen her with was actually hers! Apparently, her mother did not know she had another child! This was not unusual for the relatives of a runaway. They were usually rather distant from each other. Well, he had only been hired to nab Sarah and Ariel, the toddler. One or the other or both. Skinner guessed the infant would have to come along also. If he grabbed Sarah, he would also have to take the baby. It made the kidnapping more difficult, but he could figure out what to do. The Edelsteins had plenty of money to cover any unexpected expense.

They had all been prepared for a big fight if Sarah and the child had shown up at the table, so Skinner's crew had been vastly relieved to know that they weren't coming down to eat and they could avoid an upfront altercation with Rachel's roommates which could be very ugly. But, now they still had to move quickly if they were to search the entire house.

Snatching Sarah now that Rachel's roommates had confirmed she lived in the house would be easier since they could sneak around and look for her and maybe even get her out of the house without anyone knowing about it.

Rachel's roommates had mentioned Sarah and the new bay, Adam, by name. Skinner now had a positive ID. They all had guns, plastic ties, rope and duct tape. Enough stuff to quiet the entire household if they needed to. Their van was parked in front of the house.

One of the crew made a fake move to the bathroom. Instead, he looked around and went to the second floor, looked around there and went to the third floor where he found Ariel playing alone in the middle of a bunch of toys in one of the rooms. He could not find Sarah or Adam. He checked the photo he had of Ariel and was sure it was her. He also checked all the third floor rooms again and did not see anyone else except another unsuspecting child on the way to the play room that Ariel was in.

He quickly entered the play room, grabbed Ariel with a big, silly smile on his face that disarmed the toddler, and carried her to the basement level. Looking both ways, he slid out the basement exit. He told the little girl, "We're going for ice cream." She smiled delightedly as he put her into a child seat in the back of the van. She hugged and kissed him before she settled back into the seat.

"First," he said to the child. "We have to wait for my friends to come back."

After about a half hour of nervous waiting, he saw the other four men exit from the front door of the house, empty handed - without Sarah. They approached the van quickly and got in. Skinner smiled when he saw Ariel. They left in a hurry, skidding out of the parking space onto Ashbury Street. Both Skinner and the driver had looked all over the house but could not find Sarah or the baby. They were all sure that Sarah would be more negotiable once she found out that her mother had Ariel. So, their plan might still be a success.

__________

Mrs. Edelstein was not pleased. Not at all. She told Skinner in a tight voice, "You were hired to bring my daughter back. I will give you half price for the child. I am putting her up for adoption once I gain custody anyway. I don't want her. I consider her a bastard and will not have a child conceived in sin or born out of wedlock in my home."

Skinner gritted his teeth and explained that Sarah might well contact her if she kept the child for a while and even offered to take care of Ariel himself until contacted by her mother. He felt that a plan was better than a knee-jerk reaction. Mrs. Edelstein's vindictiveness was finally starting to get to him. He was a very slick, successful private investigator and felt that his plan would get Mrs. Edelstein what she wanted. He explained this to her.

"You mean use Ariel like a hostage?" asked Mrs. Edelstein, finally sounding intrigued.

"Exactly. I doubt if Sarah would give up her daughter without a fight. There was no sign of her or the new baby when we looked through Rachel's house, although her roommates assured us that Sarah and her baby were living there."

"What new baby?!" asked Mrs. Edelstein, back to her old hysterical self and giving her voice a screechy sound.

Skinner tried to calm her down using a very moderate tone of voice, "Sarah's friends confirmed that she had just given birth to a son. We couldn't find either of them. Rachel's roommates said she was probably upstairs breast feeding the baby, which was why we didn't see her at lunch."

"Another bastard?! Breast feeding?! That is disgusting!" exclaimed his client.

Skinner went on, "There is solid evidence that Sarah has been legally married to Winslow Kelly since she was eighteen. The new baby is not illegitimate."

"As far as I am concerned, Sarah has no legal rights. I know our local district judge here in Chicago. I went to grammar school and high school with him. I am sure he will rule in my favor and give me custody of both children due to Sarah's probable drug usage and vagabond lifestyle. Why, I've even heard she is a vegetarian! I will not permit it! She is an unfit mother! You cannot raise children on vegetables alone! That is child abuse!"

Mr. Skinner snickered at that and said, "It is not illegal to be a vegetarian." As much as he didn't like vegetarians and felt they were all lying anyway and ate at MacDonald's any time they felt like it, he was an officer of the law and felt it was his duty to advise Mrs. Edelstein.

"You had better be careful, Mr. Skinner. I don't need you. I can always hire another private detective. Bring the child to me when you land in Chicago. I will be there waiting for you. Then we will see if your hostage idea will work. It might. If it does, I will pay you your full commission. I am an honest woman, but you have to deliver my daughter to me as agreed."

There was a thoughtful silence, then Mrs. Edelstein continued, "The little bastard is still a human being, so get her everything she needs, keep the receipts and I will reimburse you for everything. She should go to her new adoptive parents well-kept and cared for. Does she talk?"

"Um, okay Mrs. Edelstein. Yes, she speaks a little. She is an easy child to care for and rather good tempered. She doesn't cry or fuss easily."

"I didn't ask your opinion. Bring her to me at the airport. I will be waiting for you there.

"Oh, of course. I will call you with my flight arrangements."

"Good," answered Mrs. Edelstein curtly and hung up.

__________

Sarah was frantic when she realized that Ariel was not in the house. She called the San Francisco Police Department and they came over to interview her, getting a photo of her daughter and a description of the five men who were suspected of abducting her. No one had called to ask for a ransom.

Rachel was furious that her roommates had let five strangers wander around their house even though they had been warned that Sarah and Rachel's parents were not friendly in the extreme. They complained that they had not made any connection with that situation and their visitors. They had only seen five hungry strangers and offered them their usual hospitality.

When Sarah called Winslow to apprise him of the situation, she became doubly frantic when she heard that her parent's private investigator, Sam Jagger, had found their new home in Missouri. She called the San Francisco police again and gave them this new information, sure her parents were involved in the kidnapping of her eldest child. The fact that her father and his hired private detective were in the custody of the police in Missouri lent credence to her statement to the local police about the kidnapping being engineered by her parents. Despite the police prejudice against hippies, they took this very seriously.

Sarah also phoned Julie Bonaventura and asked to stay at her home, since she trusted Vincente, her father and they both lived near Chicago, where Sarah suspected her daughter was being transported to. Using Rachel's home as a hideout had also been compromised because of the kidnapping.

The police in two states were leaning away from trafficking and towards a family dispute and family abduction. It was a general relief that the toddler would possibly not be abused or killed. The likelihood of any violence towards Ariel had deescalated sharply.

__________

Julie, Reese and Livia had just started their senior year in high school. Julie was back in the suburbs of Chicago at home with her dad. The three girls were horrified with the news about Sarah Kelly's daughter. There were so many young people being chased as runaways these days. There were even people that held them in bondage to "deprogram" them from whatever philosophy their parents did not like. Wealthy parents routinely refused to even feed their own children if they were hippie runaways. Or would lock them out of their family homes and call the police if they showed up there. It was chaos and common in the hippie community. It made the three girls wonder about this violation of personal freedom during the time of their coming of age. The contradictions in this chaos and the love that should have been there was the conundrum of The Age of Aquarius:

Harmony and understanding.

Sympathy and trust abounding.

No more falsehoods or derision.

Golden living dreams of visions.

Mystic crystal revelation

and the mind's true liberation:

Aquarius...

Aquarius...

("The Age of Aquarius-Let the Sunshine In" Written for the 1967 musical "Hair" by James Rado and Gerome Ragni - lyrics, Galt MacDermott - music.)

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# Chapter Nine: Children Are the Future

As soon as Vincente Bonaventura heard about Sarah Kelly's predicament, he immediately agreed to have her stay with Julie and himself. He called Chun-hua who was a civil attorney. She advised him that Sarah's case might be a criminal matter, so he needed to contact the correct type of attorney. But, she said she could handle some family court matters up until the situation became criminal which it sounded like it might be.

__________

Sarah walked into Julie's house and was immediately greeted by Yuppy, who was now slightly bigger than his father, Vito, just a little over three feet at the back. No lie. He was, though, a really sweet, obedient dog. Sarah grabbed Yup around his neck and sobbed. She put Adam against the back of the couch and continued crying and stroking the big Great Dane puppy gently. Her tears wet his back. She sat down on the couch next to little Adam who gurgled and smiled at the dog. He reached out to Yuppy and opened his hand. Yuppy put his huge head in Sarah's lap and flicked the tip of his tongue at Adam as he closed his eyes.

Sarah laughed at the dog.

She said to a sad-eyed Julie, "The war in Vietnam will be over soon. They say the draft will end at about the same time. I worry about Winslow. What would the children and I do without him?" Sarah went on crying. "My children..." she sobbed.

Chun-hua walked into the den and looked at this heartbreaking scene. "Your marriage and the two children should give Winslow a deferment. That is probably why he hasn't been called up so far."

"Who are you?" asked Sarah, quietly confused.

"A lawyer and a good friend of Vincente - uh, Julie's dad."

"Are you going to be my lawyer?"

"To begin with. But, it seems part of your case involves criminal behavior, so you will need a referral to a good criminal lawyer."

"We can't pay. We just bought a farm and started paying a mortgage." Sarah started crying again. Chun-hua sat down next to her and put her arm around Sarah's shaking shoulders. Chun went on, "I'm sure I can find you a pro bono attorney, a free lawyer that donates services.

"For starters, I will be there to prevent your children from being put into the sole custody of your mother and dad. I believe they have a case against you and Winslow and are trying to declare the two of you unfit parents. I can fight that in civil court because I am licensed for the state of Illinois. Family court is one of my areas of specialty."

Julie brought Sarah a box of Kleenex. She picked up the baby who was starting to look bewildered and concerned and sat down next to Sarah. Yuppy's soft head was soaked with Sarah's tears. Romeo came over and sat on Julie's foot which was what he did when he wanted comfort and reassurance.

Sarah said, "They have a lot of nerve disturbing the beautiful people of the Haight, such as my sister's roommates. They all work to make this a better world, either in local medical or legal clinics, or food programs and the like."

Chun answered, "As sure as the cops are that your parents are responsible for kidnapping Ariel, we still need more hard-core evidence. We need to find out exactly where she is as soon as possible. And we will do that, rest assured."

"I can't rest." Sarah gasped. "Without the children, Winslow will have to go to Vietnam. I will lose everything. My home, my husband, everything."

"No, you won't." said Chun decisively. "Have you ever done street drugs?"

Sarah looked up abruptly. "I generally only smoke reefer occasionally. But I am nursing right now, so, no, I do not even drink alcohol, caffeine soda, coffee or tea. I have a responsibility to my baby."

"No LSD? Nothing addicting?"

"No."

"I'm against the war myself," said Chun. "We can defend you. There are so many young people in your position. Just be grateful your parents didn't hire a deprogrammer. They're psychotic and occasionally win the most ridiculous and harmful cases. But yours, Sarah - we will win!"

Fear and doubt crossed Sarah's face, lingering in her eyes. She looked at her infant son sleeping peacefully in Julie's arms.

Sarah exclaimed, suddenly, "You know 200 American soldiers are killed in Vietnam on average every week?!"

Chun-hua rubbed Sarah's back and said, "I know, Sweetie."

"Sometimes they win ground at the expense of an entire squadron and are not sent reinforcements so they have to retreat again and continuously lose the ground they have been commanded to capture. This happens so frequently that one wonders how much this policy contributes to the death toll."

"Sarah?" asked Julie. "We have to think about the present and take everything little by little. Chun will be here with us. She is staying here. My dad has a gun. No one will enter this house without our permission and the knowledge of the local police."

"You will have a free criminal lawyer by tomorrow, I promise you, Sarah," added Chun.

Romeo groaned and rolled off Julie's foot. Yuppy belched loudly and went over to the front door and scratched on it, wanting to go out into the yard.

Sarah shocked everyone again by saying, "Yeah, Adolf Hitler was a watercolor artist and painted flowers. Some historians say he was violent because he was unsuccessful at gaining admission to a decent, first rate art school. Things are not always as they seem. Not everything is 100% Yang or 100% Yin."

Vincente walked into the room. He asked, "What is this about Yin and Yang?"

Chun laughed a little and said, "We are trying to reassure and comfort Sarah. She is thinking ahead of us."

Sarah got up and asked Julie for the now wide-eyed, fidgety Adam. She said, "I think my son is hungry. Please excuse me, I need to let him nurse."

Vince smiled and said, "Sure, Honey, just go on into the other room if you wish."

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# Chapter Ten: All You Need Is Love

Close your eyes and I'll kiss you

Tomorrow I'll miss you.

Remember I'll always be true.

And then while I'm away,

I'll write home every day

And I'll send all my loving to you.

I'll pretend that I'm kissing

The lips I am missing

And hope that my dreams will come true.

And then while I'm away,

I'll write home every day

And I'll send all my loving to you

All my loving, I will send to you.

All my loving, darling I'll be true.

("All My Loving" words by John Lennon, music by Paul McCartney, 1963)

Julie's mind went back to the stories her dad had told her about her own kidnapping as an infant. She could not remember very much, but she did remember the music of Pedro Mendoza and Juan Ramirez. Beautiful Mariachi trumpet recordings. Even to this day she loved Mariachi. These gentle Mexican farm workers had accidentally picked her basket up at the Texaco station where her father had forgotten it on the ground. They were innocent of kidnapping, but the Willis cocaine cartel had left her there at their farm anyway, claiming her abduction and using it for their own purposes. Mendoza and Ramirez unknowingly cared for her while the cartel threatened Vincente, her father, despite the protestations of Bannister who had not colluded with the real architect of Julie's disappearance who was the owner of the service station (and a member of the cocaine cartel).

She also remembered being a little scared when Bannister Willis had left her basket on the front porch of her dad's boarding house in Charlottesville, Virginia in order to return her to her father.

The sunlight. She remembered the beautiful, gentle sunlight on the porch, if not the porch or the situation itself. She remembered the little noises she made to attract someone to help her. And daddy showed up and took her inside out of the growing heat of the Charlottesville summer sun.

She never got over fearing Bannister, even when it was explained to her that he did not intend to have her kidnapped and had worked to get her and her dad away from his family's cocaine transporting. That he was trapped into his family's drug business and did not want Vincente and Julietta to be trapped like he was. She still never really liked him and felt a thrill of fear when he was around.

She remembered a horrible growling noise and feeling cold and scared at first when her basket was still on the ground at the gas station. Then came the music, the beautiful Mariachi music, warm milk, light and comfort. The kind, smiling faces of the two Mexicans.

Pedro and Juan had rescued her. They were not a part of the original kidnapping. They loved her, too. They had thought that maybe she was an abandoned Mexican baby, although she was not. Julie could remember that music. It played in her head now like the dream-like music of a music box. As Julie drifted off over her old memories, Chun-hua took Sarah aside and spoke to her intensively in a whisper.

__________

Sarah dialed the telephone. She missed care taking and training horses. She once did that and raised an infant at the same time at the Ark. Horses and babies. One of the horses foaled when she was at the Brodericks who had given her a start in the horse training business. She helped with the birth. Humans and horses, not all that different from each other. Especially head-strong and stubborn people. Both needed to be calmed, soothed and gentled so they could 'join up'.

Her mother needed to be led in that kind of circle. Trained like a difficult horse. Carefully. Very carefully. With caution...

"Hello?" said the voice on the other end of the line.

"Hi, mother," answered Sarah, tentatively.

"Sarah?! Darling! Where are you?"

Why would she ask the most difficult question first, indicating that her focus was on her own wants? As if this was a greeting.

"I'm at a friend's house. I called you about Ariel. She's missing."

"She's safe now. She's here with me."

"Oh," commented Sarah, not surprised, but at a loss.

"She looks just exactly like you when you were her age. She's very quiet and good-natured. A good girl."

"Oh, mom..."

"I know. You should come over. She keeps asking for 'Sawah'. I think she means you. Doesn't she call you mommy?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, of course. It's from Winslow. He takes care of her when he is home and I am busy making pottery or shopping."

"Will you come?"

"Yes, mother. What time is good for you?" Sarah was being purposely diplomatic. She had decided that visiting was more than safe. She doubted her mother would use shackles, chains or chloroform on her. Guilt, maybe, but she felt she could work past anything with Ariel next to her, now that Chun-hua had talked her into being brave enough to confront her tyrannical mother.

"Mom?"

"Yes?" Her mother hesitated, then said, "Dear..."

"I have a new baby, a son. His name is Adam."

"Will you bring him?"

Sarah felt a chill run down her back.

"Not this time. He has a cold," she lied. She swore she could feel her mother's tension and anxiety over the silence on the phone. She kicked herself for telling her mother about the new baby, but that was part of her plan. It wasn't as if she couldn't find out. Sarah, at this point, felt it was better if she was in command of the information flow instead of a hired detective with dubious loyalties and politics.

All you need is love...All you need is love...All you need is love, love. Love is all you need...

("All you need is love" lyrics John Lennon, music Paul McCartney, 1967)

Sarah wished that Julie would turn that darn record off. It was a new single. For her, they should be singing, "Strength ... Strength ... Strength is all you need..."

"Okay," replied her mother, uncharacteristically yielding. "This weekend would be good."

That was tomorrow! thought Sarah, panicking. "Okay I'll be there Saturday in the morning sometime," she replied in a shaky voice. Her palms were cold and wet with perspiration. Well, at least, she thought, her mother seemed a little warmer than usual. She frowned. This had better work. It was all Chun's idea. She thought it was a good one at the time. Not that she had a whole lot of options in the view of her mother taking her children away, legally or not. She was nervous now, but still determined to follow through, if not for herself, for her children.

Chun-hua came up behind Sarah and put her arms around her shoulders, whispering in her free ear, "Hang up, Sarah. Do this quickly. We have more information. I just spoke to Winslow. We have enough evidence to make this a criminal case. I don't think he is going to like what you are doing."

Sarah said goodbye to her mother and reassured her that she would be on time tomorrow. She hung up the phone and swung around to meet Chun's eyes.

"What is going on? Why did you call Winslow without me?" Sarah felt a rising confusion and anger.

"I felt it was necessary as your lawyer. All I could see were police reports. I thought there could be some sort of resolution between your husband..."

"And my father?! I could have told you how weak my father is. He spent his entire adult life just doing whatever my mother wanted him to do. Sure, there might be a reconciliation, but I can tell you that it will be up to me to arrange that. Of course, Winslow won't like that - neither will my dad. But things could change the way you described. Your point about getting what I want by being personally flexible, as opposed to running, litigating and fighting was well taken. I believe you.

"Winslow's opinion won't change that. He doesn't know anything about the inner workings of a dysfunctional family like mine. His family is perfect. Well, maybe not perfectly perfect - no one is all that. But his family still loves him even though I am not from their culture or religion. They care about me and accept our children as their own. I think I can say that at this moment, they consider me their daughter and kin ... which is way more positive than my own parents feel about my choice of partner and my children.

"As you told me, that is something I need to build in my own parent's home. I'll talk to Winslow later. I have a plan, too. He'll go along with it. He is easy to talk to. This will work, Chun, you will see..."

Chun-hua kissed Sarah on the cheek and smoothed her curly blonde hair gently. "Okay, baby," she said with a small smile. "Stay strong - I'll be at your side. And watching your back."

Julie had a habit of playing records more times than one - many more times. When Sarah came out of the kitchen with Chun-hua, she heard -

There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game. It's eee...asy. Nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time. It's eee...asy...

("All you need is love" lyrics John Lennon, music Paul McCartney, 1967)

Adam started to cry. Sarah raised her voice and sort of shouted, "Damn it, Julie, could you please turn that song off?!" She loved the song, but, given her present circumstances, it was inappropriate emotionally.

Julie jiggled Adam around on her knees, uselessly. Sarah came over to the couch and picked him up. He stopped crying like someone had pulled his "off" switch.

"Time for more mommy," Sarah said with a sweet smile on her face as Julie turned off the redundant turntable. She said at Sarah, "Yeah. I guess a hungry baby is an angry baby."

Sarah laughed and sat down on the couch, pulling her blouse up, giving Adam his favorite nipple. "Might as well enjoy this now. As soon as my mother sees me breast feeding, it will be a breast pump, cow's milk, formula and a glass bottle. But Adam is not coming with me tomorrow. Mother knows."

"Shit," said Julie, aggravated and, once again, grateful for her own father's compassion, understanding and intelligence...and, yes, even his new Zen attitude and meditation.

Sarah laughingly said that it was never hard to get either one of her babies to suckle. Adam sucked loudly at Sarah's breast as if to prove that point. She said, "They always knew what my titty was for. I have to say I am grateful for their big, healthy appetites. But I always have enough for the refrigerator - which helps. Lots. I will pump some for you for tomorrow when I am gone. It's a good thing you won't be in school."

__________

That weekend, Sarah walked up to her parent's house. Her hand shook when she reached up to the bell. She heard her daughter's laughter coming from inside the house and she steeled herself for this meeting. She missed the feeling of her newborn son hanging in his Snugly on her chest. She felt like crying, then thought, this had better work. If I give up all my pride and ...

The door opened to reveal her mother hugging Ariel to her chest. Channah Edelstein smiled at Sarah. "Come in! Come in! Ariel and I were playing. Come and join us."

Sarah was shocked. Her mother's unusual happiness was palpable. Sarah could not remember when she had last smiled at her. When she was ten, maybe? It was so long ago. Sarah forgot everything when she stepped into her mother's living room.

The room was a young child's dream world. It was filled with brand new toys - large and small. Ariel rushed over to a baby carriage on wheels with a dressed up baby doll in it under a colorful baby blanket. She said, loudly to Sarah, "Look, mommy, look! I have my own baby, just like you!" Sarah felt her eyes tear up. She tried to hide her crying and sat down on the couch, swiping at her eyes.

Her mother sat right down on the floor. Sarah could not remember ever seeing her mother do that before - with her obsessive-compulsive cleaning psyche. Not even once had she ever seen her mother sit on a floor. It seemed that Ariel had charmed her like an Indian snake charmer charms a cobra. She and her daughter giggled over the baby doll, talking fantasy toy language.

Sarah sat in shock, not knowing how to start a conversation with this new personality her mother had acquired. Her mother turned to her and said, "Well, Sarah, honey, we are getting ready for a special lunch - since you are here. Would you like some coffee while I finish setting things out on the dining table?"

Sarah looked up at the dining room table. There were flowers set out and her mother's best table cloth and dinnerware. She felt a little disarmed. That, she figured, would not last long. She answered her mother, "No, mom. I'm nursing, I can't drink coffee right now. I limit myself to fresh fruit and vegetable juices."

Her mother frowned and looked uncertain, then brightened. "Oh, that's okay. I got a juicer for Ariel. I'll make you our new favorite - homemade V8. Ariel loves it. I think you will too."

Sarah's mouth fell open. This was not the mother that she was familiar with. As she pondered these amazing changes in her parent, Channah Edelstein asked, bemused, "Do you want some juice while you are waiting?"

"Uh, yeah, mom," answered Sarah, trying to keep the amazement out of her voice. She hesitated for a moment, then forged ahead, swallowing hard, "Mom? I came over to discuss Ariel."

Her mother, to Sarah's confounded sensibilities, laughed! She actually laughed about this situation. Sarah felt anger rising in her chest.

"Oh, dear! Don't worry. Ariel and I get along just fine! She is precious. The best grandchild I could have wished for. She is very obedient - not a complainer and getting pretty good at Kosher, too. She should be a wiz in Hebrew!"

Ariel lisped, looking up from a doll house, "There...I know everything! There are two diff-ent plates..."

Sarah burst out, "Then why do you want her to go to foster care and be put up for adoption?!"

"Things change," said Channah in an almost offhand way. "After living with Ariel, I would not give her up for the world."

Sarah mumbled under her breath, "Neither would I ..."

Channah looked up suddenly, "What?!" she asked in a tone of voice that frightened Sarah again.

"Nothing, mom." answered Sarah, starting to give way to obvious confusion.

__________

They all sat down to eat. Sarah noticed, once again, her mother had bought a brand new high chair and toddler sippy cups and plates. Channah sat close to Ariel and patiently helped her eat. Even though she had cooked a vegetarian meal for Sarah, she did not feed that to Ariel.

Sarah felt empty and tried to hide her loss of appetite. Half of her mission had been accomplished without much to do on her part - her mother seemed intent on keeping Ariel. This was a step in the right direction. What about her? What about Adam? Winslow? These questions made Sarah feel dizzy with worry. Then her mother cast the next stone.

"Sarah, I've been thinking. How would you feel about living here with us? It could be a lot of fun."

Sarah felt a pain in her chest.

Her mother went on, "I would love to meet Adam."

"I will think about it, mother. My husband and I just bought a new home. Winslow is also a consideration. He runs a small business and I have a new business, too - a pottery studio. I make ceramics and love it."

The light went out in her mother's eyes. They became cold, black coals, devoid of their former joy. There was no smiling transformation now. She dropped her hand away from Ariel. Ariel began to pout and looked at Sarah with wide eyes like right before she would begin to cry. It was a heart-wrenching, pleading look.

"I thought you and that man were separated. I can provide anything you might need. You don't have to work. You don't need that broken down old hippie house - you can live here with your family."

That spun Sarah roughly onto an emotional roller coaster. There she was - Channah Edelstein in all her manipulative, selfish glory. Everything was about her and what she wanted.

Sarah went a step further, "Ariel has been raised on a vegetarian diet, mother. She does not eat meat, fish, cheese or eggs. Milk and yogurt are okay - no sugar or corn syrup, though. We give her slices of fruit for sweets ... not candy."

They had finished eating, so Channah slapped her luncheon dishes into the sink loudly enough to set Ariel to crying. She said over her shoulder, "See what you have done?! You made your daughter cry. Now I need go upstairs and put Ariel to bed. You have upset her. Why can't you just do what I want you to? I am your mother. Don't forget that fact. I am the elder here.

"Such a skimpy, deficient diet is not healthy for a growing child. I will not tolerate it! I will have legal custody of Ariel and Adam as well. They will be raised the way I see best. I also might not like your vegetarian breast milk.

"We are modern in this household. In the old days women had to breast feed. There were no other options. Now, things are different. You can do what you want with your own life. But, you will not have these poor, innocent children to raise in your drug-soaked, hippie way - around your good-for-nothing man who seduced you into this kind of life. I have never liked or trusted him.

"I will have your marriage annulled if I have to, especially if I can prove you were under eighteen when you married...or you were coerced in some way..." With that, Channah took the still crying Ariel upstairs, leaving her stunned and helpless daughter still sitting at the dining table.

Sarah ran to the bathroom and vomited. She washed her face and rinsed out her mouth as she began to cry. She knew this meeting would be difficult, but what really tore at her gut was her mother's mercurial temperament. And her stony attitude about 'that man', her loving husband, Winslow. One minute her mother was smiling, happy and pretty much normal - the next minute she was grasping, selfish, cruel and manipulative.

Sarah was determined. She dried her tears and began to make plans of her own. She could not risk losing either her children or Winslow. She was ready to fight and do some manipulating of her own.

This was her mother's last stand. It was time Channah gave her youngest daughter some respect. How to get there was the thing. Chun-hua had put some of this plan together and Sarah had agreed to it. It seemed rather precipitous at the time, but worth a try. Now, Sarah had to improvise on her own. She felt sick from this afternoon, like she used to feel when she was a young teenager and her mother would invade her privacy and manipulate her friendships, trying to put herself first...ahead of any of Sarah's other relationships.

She just wanted to get out of this house. She wanted to run again. Back to Winslow's loving arms and their new, beautiful home. She missed him at that moment so badly that it actually hurt. As soon as her mother came downstairs again, she would give some excuse and leave. She could continue this conversation with her later. Much later.

She needed to find a way to take Ariel with her if she could. She really did not want to damage her mother's good mood by calling the police, if she could help it. It was important, because her mother would be there for the rest of her life and Sarah did not want that presence to be a threatening one as it had been in the past. But if she had to call the police, she had to. After all, her parents would not get custody if they obtained Ariel through an abduction.

__________

Channah came downstairs with a smile on her face. "Are you feeling better, dear?" she asked Sarah with a grin, as if she knew that she could not hold down her food and was enjoying that. "You must come upstairs and see Ariel's room. I converted our guest room into her nursery. It is beautiful. She loves it."

"Later, mother. I am getting tired. I need to go home."

Her mother frowned and said, "You can lay down here. Your old room is clean and ready for you."

Sarah thought, I'm sure it is, you old manipulative bag... She said out loud, "I need to get back to Adam. I only left enough breast milk for this afternoon. I planned on being back for dinner."

Her mother sat close to her on the couch and put her hand on Sarah's thigh, looking sadly into her eyes, "Where are you staying? You have to tell me. Can't you stay overnight at least? It is about time you weaned your son, anyway."

Sarah moved over so that her mother could not touch her. She thought, What the hell would you know about weaning my child? He isn't even a month old! She was so tired of her mother right now. It would be difficult to get Ariel without calling the police to have her removed.

She couldn't call them from here. She would have to get to a pay phone. She didn't think her mother would even guess that she was going to do that after the entire afternoon they spent together.

Somehow, Sarah managed to get out the door. She hugged her mother on the porch in a final deceptive attempt to quell her manipulations. It worked. After promising to call her, Channah let her go. Sarah felt exhilarated! Chun's plan had worked like a dream. Everything except convincing her mother to drop the custody battle had worked. Channah had no intention of putting Sarah's children up for adoption. That was a first-class victory! She would have Ariel back today and maybe even put her mother in jail, like her dad. Sarah felt they both belonged there for a long time.

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# Chapter Eleven: A New Beginning

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THE POLICE TOOK CHANNAH Edelstein into custody that same night after Sarah left and called 911. Chun-hua assured her that this would definitely put a dent in any custody battle that Mrs. Edelstein could initiate, especially since Chaim Edelstein was also in police custody and had an assault charge against him, as well as being party to Ariel's abduction. Still Sarah felt nervous and alone, even when the cops brought Ariel back to her at Vince Bonaventura's house. She felt that she could never be safe again, even with restraining orders out against both her parents.

Ariel really didn't understand why she had to leave the "nice house" and all her toys. This was going to be a small problem. Channah knew quite well how to influence a person to get her way, especially a young child.

But Sarah had taught Ariel how to use logical thinking and she told Ariel that she was her mother and she loved her and all the toys in the world could not replace that. Ariel agreed, albeit a little reluctantly. She gave her mother a hug and asked, "But we can go back there some time and play with those toys, right mommy?" Her mother assured her that they would go back there some time.

What Sarah wanted to do was to come to a real agreement with her parents. Jail was way okay for now. It made her feel temporarily safe, but there had to be another, solid, long-term agreement with Channah and Chaim. They must agree to set normal boundaries as parents and grandparents. Sarah called her sister Rachel in California and she agreed that would be the best solution. She also consulted Chun-hua and she readily agreed and told her that was what she wanted from the beginning of this tough negotiation.

She called Winslow. He was very angry. She tried to calm him down, but he was furious that she had decided to visit her mother without consulting him. He said, "Ariel is my daughter, too, Sarah! I don't believe you! But, you have Ariel now?"

"Yes, Winslow. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was going over there. Both my parents are in police custody for now. Chun-hua didn't think you would approve of this move."

"Who is Chun-hua? And, yes, she was right. I don't. That was so unsafe. Your mother could have done anything - chloroformed you, tied you up and locked you and the baby in a room."

"I didn't bring Adam."

"That's even worse. She could have held you hostage to get her evil hands on our other child!"

"But she didn't. She changed. She fell in love with Ariel. She still wanted custody, but changed her mind about putting her up for adoption and sending her through the foster care system."

"Wow, that is different!"

"I doubt if she will have much success with custody since she is now accused of hiring kidnappers and father is in jail for breaking and entering, assault, criminal trespass and being party to planning the kidnapping."

"Doesn't sound likely that any court would listen to them now."

"There is still more I would like to do to mend this situation."

Winslow's voice became husky with emotion. "I forbid you to go anywhere near those two people! As long as I am your husband, I vow to protect you from evil. And I shall do just that, Sarah!"

"Oh, Winslow! You forbid me? I am your best friend. Help me do this. Come with me." Sarah heard her husband breathe out loudly in a resigned sigh. He said, "Okay, as long as you agree to do this with me, I will go with you. You've succeeded so far. I think we can end this silly persecution with your loving hands and mind."

"Thank you, Winslow. Thank you so much, Darling."

"I love you. Be in touch. Let me know what is happening to your mother. I'll keep an eye on the court case with your father."

"Of course..."

This was Sarah and Winslow's very first serious disagreement. Even in high school they never fought or had a serious argument. Sarah ran away with Winslow when she was still in high school. She had been working towards her GED diploma when all this fighting with her parents had interrupted her studies. Sarah was also thinking of taking some finance courses in junior college and maybe even getting an accounting degree. She was a fine horse trainer with a solid gold reputation and in the process of becoming a potter. With Winslow's farrier business and all her businesses, accounting would be an asset to her young family. She had always been good at math, too.

__________

After about sixty days confinement and two court appearances for both Mr. And Mrs. Edelstein, they were released and given five years supervised probation. That kind of probation meant that they could not even travel out of state without the permission of their probation officer. It also meant that they had to see their probation officer at the police department once a week. They were also mandated to see a psychologist once a week.

They were released mostly due to Sarah's dropping the kidnapping charges and Winslow not pressing charges for Chaim's assault and criminal trespass. In return, Sarah and Winslow expected the Edelsteins to behave like normal people and stop stalking them and attempting to break their family apart. It was an excellent plea deal meant to stop the Edelsteins from further encroachment on their daughter's young family. It also ended their custody battle, cold.

Angus and Fiona Kelly felt their son's moves were naive, but both Winslow and Sarah felt it was necessary to normalize their relationship with her parents for the betterment of Adam and Ariel's future. They both also felt that at some time in the future, their children would want to know what had happened with their grandparents.

"Really," said Sarah to Chun-hua. "These children need the security of both sets of grandparents. Kids - especially grown children - would question odd activities. It will be difficult enough to explain Ariel's kidnapping, let alone any further strange, uncommon actions that are not accepted among other grandparents. Both my parents have agreed to this and have promised to desist their illegal and other intrusive activities in the future." Chun smiled at Sarah and hugged her, telling her how proud she was of her handling of this situation.

__________

Sarah was again invited over to her parent's house about a month after their release from prison. She had come over with Winslow, but had wisely left the two children with Julie Bonaventura. She really didn't like taking Adam out in winter weather, anyway. She and the kids were staying with the Bonaventura's for a couple of days. Winslow had driven their truck from Missouri. It was an eight hour drive from their new farmstead.

Again, Channah Edelstein answered the door and was shocked to see Winslow standing there next to her daughter. He had not been explicitly invited. Channah's reaction was priceless. She faltered for a millisecond, grabbed Sarah's sleeve and pulled her forward into the living room with a frown. She said tersely, but not angrily, "What is he doing here?!"

"He's my husband, mother," answered Sarah, looking over her shoulder and waving Winslow inside. Winslow put his hands in his jean's pockets and hung his head. He still had his "farrier's cap" on - his worn, dirty, tan cowboy hat. It was a comfort zone of his. He was not expecting to have to meet Sarah's parents. He had only come to pick her up and bring her back to Missouri.

Chaim walked in, took one look at Winslow and his wife and chuckled as he said, "Wore your yarmulke, eh, dude?" He noted Channah's frown and chuckled even more. He dared to say, "Come on, Channah, you know you like him. Snap out of it. You wanted Sarah back. Now here she is. You checked on it, she was eighteen when she married this wrangler - so she's all grown up - let it go" He paused, thoughtfully, and said again, "...Let it go, woman."

Sarah's mother stopped and gave Chaim a deep look and looked down just as Winslow looked up for the first time and smiled a small, shy smile at Chaim. Chaim waved his hand right at his wife and Winslow and walked into the kitchen, saying, "You two figure it out." He spoke as if Sarah wasn't there. He shouldn't have. She grabbed the arms of both her mother and Winslow and pulled them towards the couch.

Her dad set the table. He looked into the living room and said, "Truce?" Channah reached over the armrest on the couch and put one of Sarah's favorite folk song tapes into their large living room stereo. It was an incredibly nice thing to do. Channah always did like that music anyway. It was Judy Collins singing Leonard Cohen. Channah actually did have some real sorrow at the thought of losing Sarah and the children. She had been very confused. This song reminded her of Sarah as a small child.

I loved you in the morning our kisses deep and warm.

Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm.

Yes, many loved before us,

I know that we are not new.

In city and in forest, they smiled like me and you.

But now it's come to distances and both of us must try.

Your eyes are soft with sorrow. Hey, that's no way to say goodbye...

("Hey, That's no Way to Say Goodbye" music and lyrics by Leonard Cohen, 1967)

Sarah winked at her husband, signaling her happiness at the favorite song. Winslow looked a little confused and embarrassed. He finally felt comfortable enough to take his hat off and put it on the coffee table. It was pretty dirty, anyway, he thought, ruefully.

He had come right from work, so he had forgotten that he even had it on. He didn't even stop to take a shower or pack a suitcase. It smelled like friendly horses - so he liked it. It was good for calming horses while he worked on their hooves. At least sometimes. Still and all, when it worked its mellow magic - he was glad he had it. It was his lucky hat.

Then he had gotten embarrassed until he took it off. That look from Channah ... It had made him self-conscious. It made him feel that he was nothing but a ranch hand. A yokel. Trash.

Now he could breathe, though. Sarah's cruel mother had changed her attitude with the song. Now she acted as if she was a changed person. He wasn't in any doubt that she had hated her incarceration. He wasn't surprised about that. He felt that her time in prison had changed her. He felt that was as it should be. Winslow was starting to feel a little conciliatory towards Channah. Just a little...slowly. Very slowly.

__________

As everyone sat down to eat, Chaim nonchalantly looked at Winslow's feet and commented, "So you're a real Midwestern cowboy, eh?"

Winslow shifted his cowboy boots back and forth underneath the table uncomfortably. "Not really," he mumbled, shyness getting the best of him again. "I ride horses only occasionally to test how their hooves feel to them and check the sturdiness of their legs. But I am just a farrier. Your daughter is the real horsewoman. She is a wonderful horse trainer with a big reputation across the Midwest. She is also a fantastic artist."

Sarah drifted off, dreaming, as she only half-listened to the conversation. She heard Winslow say something about horses from a distance. Unable to concentrate, she thought about her children, wishing she was home. Home at her new farmhouse. She missed it terribly, even though they had just moved in. Winslow's parents had bought a lot of new furniture for them. Win had to be the only one to help them pick it out. She didn't mind that, but she wanted more time to enjoy it.

She had only been home in Missouri for a few months and had not told Winslow that she was actually coming back to Illinois so that she could see her parents. Again, she didn't think he would agree, but she felt it was important enough to lie to him about. He must have suspected something, though. Dang! She wished that he had thought to at least change his clothes. He liked that smell of horses a little too much. That was her own fault, since she couldn't tell him about her real mission.

She drifted into a daydream about her life as a horse trainer. She was taking time off from the horses for Adam and to better learn the pottery trade. As soon as her son was a little older and weaned onto solid food - and their barn and paddocks were remodeled to her satisfaction - she would work on getting new clientele and begin giving small horse training workshops at her home. This was a life's dream for her. She loved horses the way that Julietta Bonaventura loved dogs. She loved them more than human beings except for Winslow, Adam and Ariel.

She came back to the present when Winslow kicked her under the table. She had followed the conversation, but sort of got lost in her own space. This space was something she needed desperately when involved with her parents. She blurted out, "Winslow is a very popular farrier because he has a reputation for being gentle with horses. He is usually in great demand," said Sarah, breaking out of her reverie.

"What, exactly, does a farrier do?" asked Chaim.

"They file and cut overgrown hooves and maintain them so that they do not hurt the animal. Winslow is also learning to be a blacksmith - to make horse shoes, so he can custom make shoes for his clients and put them on as well. He is essential to the health of a horse's legs and feet. They cannot walk without a good farrier. They could become crippled."

Shifting his interest back to Sarah, Chaim asked, "Can you teach me how to ride?"

Sarah looked at him, surprised. He had never shown any real interest in her life skills, even when she was in school.

"Yeah, I mean it. I want to be a cowpoke too. It would be fun to learn. Not on Shabbat, but, you know, any other time."

Sarah felt an unusual surge of excitement at the prospect of getting closer to her father and the chance to get a bit showy, too. "Of course," she answered enthusiastically. "You can come over to our new barn and pastures as soon as we finish construction on them. They will be beautiful. Winslow is a wonderful carpenter, too. He does most of our repairs himself."

Chaim gave Channah a deep look and said, "I think we might be able to help with that construction. Can you use more materials or tools?"

Winslow sat up straight. That was his project and, yes, he needed and wanted all kinds of new tools and lumber. All of which was more expensive than their budget would allow right now. His folks had extended themselves with the furniture and he could not ask them for any more.

"Um, yeah, dad," said Sarah. "Winslow's parents bought all kinds of new furniture for us. They cannot afford any more. But if you really want to help, we could use a lumber mill so that Winslow can cut his own lumber from our own trees and save money on buying lumber. And we also need lumber from regular suppliers to get started. You should talk to him about this project. He is the architect."

Chaim smiled warmly at his son-in-law. Winslow grinned back.

"I think we can help with all of that. Could you use an extra hand while building? I am still pretty fit." Pop Edelstein flexed his arm to show his muscles.

"Not at the table, Chaim," said Channah who could not help laughing at his display. Riding horses, though, was not Channah's main desire in life. She thought they were too big for her. The atmosphere around the table had truly brightened. Win and Sarah smiled at each other. They held hands and pressed their fingers into each other's palms with some expectation, excitement. They had savings, but it was mostly for the children. So, it was not nearly enough to build a new barn - let alone buy a saw mill, which was usually thousands of dollars.

"Okay, Mr. Edelstein," commented Winslow. "I will show you our plans for the barn, paddocks and new fenced-in pasture. By the way, we could use a gas-powered fence hole auger, too. There are too many posts to put in by hand. We could save money by not having to hire outside labor to dig fence post holes."

"First off, call me Chaim or dad. Secondly, I am retired, so I have plenty of time. I am sure my probation officer will allow me to go to Missouri to be with you and help out. Are you sure you want me there? I have changed, you know."

"Oh, yes, Chaim! I would be glad to have you in my home. We have plenty of extra room. Mrs. Edelstein is welcome too."

Sarah laughed and said, "We can do kosher for you. Generally, we do not do that right now, but I can set it up if you give me enough time. You can help me babysit. Maybe my pottery studio would also interest you." Sarah knew her mother had some art skills.

Channah answered, "I would love that, Sarah. You know I want to meet Adam and I am totally enthralled with Ariel. I can bring some of the toys I bought her also."

Sarah smiled at her mother and put her hand on her mother's arm, saying, "I am sure Ariel would be totally delighted to get some of her toys. She has been asking to come over to your house and has definitely missed her multitude of toys."

Sarah wondered at the changes in her parents as they cleared the table and prepared for dessert. Winslow excused himself to go to the bathroom and freshen up a little since he was still a little embarrassed about the fact that he had to come over to the in-law's house right from a stable.

Being the only one left at the table, Sarah thought of the many things she could have told her father, shared with him, had he been closer when she was a child. He never even knew how much she treasured her riding lessons. All he did was pay for them, otherwise he completely ignored them.

Her mother simply used her success in riding and her trophies to get in more tightly with the upper-class crowd at her country club. As with all of Sarah's achievements, Channah used it to increase her social status while ignoring the deeper meanings to her daughter.

At the same time, Sarah could barely get decent riding gear from her wealthy parents. She had to wear ill-fitting hand-me-downs from her sister. Sarah winced at the memory and wondered even to this day why her sister was treated so much better than she was. She never really felt she belonged to the same family. Sometimes she would wonder if she had been adopted.

__________

Winslow went out the side door silently and closed it with a quiet click. He ran to his dinged up old pickup and drove off, turning on the radio as he did, smiling with the ease of his exit. He listened to Janis Joplin sing "Ball and Chain" a favorite of his.

Somehow, the music made him wonder where the war in Vietnam was going - the draft and the honesty in the social revolutions of this historic era: "Somethin' grabbed ahold of me, darling. Honey, it felt to me, honey like, yeah, a ball and chain. Oh, honey, you know what I mean. It just hurts me." ("Ball and Chain, music and lyrics by Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton, 1956).

Back at the Edelstein's everyone was wondering why Winslow was taking so long. They all moved into the living room and sat on the couch again. Chaim asked Sarah, "Do you think he is taking a shower? We can get him some extra large bath towels. He might even be able to wear some of my clothes. I don't mind. He drove so far to see us, it is the least I can do."

Channah said, "Why don't you go check on him? We saved some cake for him."

Sarah went and checked all the bathrooms. There was no sign of Win. For some reason, she called his name out a window. Maybe his nervousness got the best of him. She could see around to the front of the house and their truck wasn't there. She was heartbroken. She thought desperately, He left! He left without her?! Why? Things were going so well! Or so she thought. Perhaps he was just embarrassed because he didn't expect to meet her parents in his work clothes. Sarah sunk into a depression. Again, it was her own fault in not warning him.

Her parents had tried so hard. She really had thought everything was going pretty well. But, she knew how sensitive Winslow could be, especially with her dad's crass comments about Midwestern cowboys. Perhaps he just couldn't take it anymore. She knew she could get a ride from Julie, pick up her children and have Julie drive her home to Missouri. Winslow might have run all the way home in his embarrassment.

"Home", that word sounded ever so sweet. She felt sorry for her husband, feeling so ill-at-ease. Although her parents had meant well, some things one just cannot control - such as the feelings of others. Sarah walked slowly down the stairs to the living room.

"Did he leave?" asked her father, perceptively. "I'm really sorry, honey. I didn't mean to be so rough on him. I really am sorry. I will apologize to him. I was just trying to crack a few stupid jokes."

"It's okay, Chaim," said his wife. "We'll see him again. He's probably just tired from work and that long drive."

Sarah sat down and put her arms around the shoulders of both her parents. She said, with tears streaming down her cheeks, "Oh dad...oh momma. It's just Winslow. When it comes to his work with horses, he is overly sensitive. They are his first love..."

"Before you?" questioned her mother, surprisingly referring to her elopement at such a young age. Taking the risk of offending her daughter all over again.

"Yes, mother, even before me. His dream was to curry horses, to help keep them healthy. Even as a young boy he had this dream. Way before me."

"I am so very stupid," repeated Chaim. "I liked him so much." Again and again he apologized.

Sarah realized she was exhausted and started to doze after that heavy meal. Her parents moved off the couch and let her sleep.

__________

Somewhere off in the distance, deep within Sarah's dreaming mind, still asleep, she thought she heard the voices of her children. She heard Adam squeal and Ariel laughing. She awoke when she thought she heard Winslow's voice and felt his soft touch.

Her eyelids fluttered in the glare of the setting sun shining through the large windows of her parent's house. She stretched, felt a little woozy and depressed when she thought about what had happened.

But Winslow was actually here again! It was not a dream. And he had brought their children over! Now she arose off the couch laughing with joy. Ariel ran over to her and they embraced. Winslow put Adam into her arms and he gurgled and smiled up at her.

Her mother was on the floor again surrounded by Ariel's toys. Chaim had Winslow's cowboy hat on.

"Sorry to upset you, honey," said Winslow with a sly grin. "But I left to go pick up the children. I figured it was time to bring the whole family together. High time." He sat down next to her and kissed her, smiling that alluring shy smile of his, making his dimples flash at her.

"You're definitely forgiven," said Sarah smothered by both children and her husband. She was crying and laughing at the same time.

__________

All went well after that joyful reunion and the new barn and paddocks were built by the end of 1968. The next year was Woodstock and Julie, Reese, Livia and Rico took her camper up to Yasgur's farm to join in the celebration. They got there before the 15th of August, so they avoided the traffic jams and got a good spot and saw all three days of the concerts. They even stayed after the muddy thunderstorm on the last day - long enough to hear Jimi Hendrix play the last two hours of the festival and his famous guitar medley that included his blues version of the Star Spangled Banner.

__________

The Vietnam war ended in 1975, two years after the selective service and draft had ended on January 27, 1973. The young people in America were in a state of euphoria. Julie, Reese and Livia had graduated high school - Rico was now enrolled in Harvard Law school, still on scholarship after taking some time off and traveling in Italy. Spot was still at his side.

And Winslow, Sarah, Adam and Ariel were reunited with both sides of their family. They were one big, happy Jewish-Irish-American family ... free of war, sorrow and prejudice, riding their horses into the sun.

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About the Author

ZARA ALSO WRITES UNDER the pen names of Sophia Watson (The Silver Lake Cozy Mysteries) and her real name, Cathy Smith. She lives in northern Maine near the Canadian border, overlooking Quebec. She spends the long, cold Maine winters writing cozy mysteries, poetry and taking photos. Her close companion is her 13 lb. Yorkshire Terrier, Sparky.

She graduated from Boston University magna cum laude and attended Harvard for graduate school. She has been writing since she was a child. She loves riding her hot pink scooter and enjoying the countryside of her rural area.

She has been a lacto-vegetarian since the eighties and studies Zen and meditation. She grew up outside of Chicago and has lived in a commune in Missouri. In terms of the Sixties, she was a hippie that liked all the songs that Julietta Bonaventura liked and barely missed getting mashed at the Democratic National Convention in downtown Chicago. She missed the riots by a couple of hours.

She comes from a long line of southern, liberal Democrats and supported many Democratic candidates for office and was active in the Civil Rights Movement.

For all books and updates, see: silverlakemysteries.wixsite.com/sophia-watson Go to the "Other Books by this Author" page.

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Connecting independent readers to independent writers.
Did you love _Tie Dye_? Then you should read _Jitterbug_ by Zara Brooks-Watson!

It was an entirely different world in Fifties' America. Enter here ... dance with us.

Vincente Bonaventura, an Italian gentleman farmer/tailor from the bayous of Louisiana sets out, after his beloved wife dies of Cholera, to make his fortune in something other than farming. His mother offers to raise his newborn daughter, Julietta. He refuses and insists on taking her with him.

He becomes a door-to-door salesman, selling everything he can from coast to coast, but runs into some misfortune to the tune of an old childhood "friend" who stashes uncut cocaine in his car from time to time.

We follow Vince and his daughter (and their rescued bulldog puppy) for eight years as they try to shake this cartel and stop being unwilling drug mules.

The book follows the three of them from the south to the east coast to Mexico to Chicago where they finally find some peace.

See the Sixties sequel by the same author, **_Tie Dye_**. Julie as a smart, socially-conscious hippie chick.

Read more at Zara Brooks-Watson's site.
Also by Zara Brooks-Watson

Bonaventura Cozy Mysteries

Jitterbug

Tie Dye

Watch for more at Zara Brooks-Watson's site.
