Chapter 63

63

She tells me she’s taking me somewhere special today, but is vague about the details.

“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
“Jamie, where are you taking me?”
“You’ll find out when we get there. Don’t ruin the surprise.”

Saturday morning. The three of us pile into Jamie’s Subaru. Jr. calls “Shotgun!” as soon as we step foot out of the door. “But I’m so much older than you,” I try and reason. Jr. just looks at me with those exceptional brown eyes that smile just like her mother’s and quips, “We’ll, you snooze you lose, old man.”

The two of us have grown quite fond of one another.

“It’s amazing how much she’s been around the house these two weeks,” her mother says to me last night as we’re preparing for bed. I nod, but cannot reply. My mouth is full of toothpaste.

She crawls into bed wearing a simple pair of turquoise panties and a white tank top that accentuates her breasts almost perfectly. At forty-two she still has an exceptional body and a flawless face that’s been freshly cleaned. The removal of make-up leaves God’s natural canvas completely unblemished. I can’t help but stare at her through the mirror as I absentmindedly brush my teeth. She catches my eye, and demurely smiles back.

“ I have a surprise for you tomorrow.” She says. “Hopefully Jamie will want to come along.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”

With the Jamie’s both in the front seats and me in the back we pull out of the driveway and into the street. From this vantage point it’s all but impossible to distinguish the two young ladies. The Jamie in the passenger seat opens a small carrying case and pulls out a compact disc. She slides it into the stereo and turns around to look at me. “This is one of my favorite albums,” she says just before she cranks up the volume.

And as we head away from the two Jamies' suburban neck of the world, the haunting guitar notes of “Gimmie Shelter” engulf us. Falling back into the car seat, Jamie, I’m not sure which Jamie, but Jamie rolls down all of the windows. With the breeze blowing in and out of the car Mick Jagger and his Stones musically take us back to 1969 while this road westward takes the three of us back to where we all began.

“You can’t always get what you want,” Mick celebrates at the end of Let it Bleed. “But if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.”