Three Day Summer(60)

Then there’s a final announcement. They ask everyone if we can help with taking some garbage out as we leave, and thank us, and it’s over. Time to go home.

Home. I am home. I can’t believe it. The circus came to town and now it’s leaving.

I look over at the boy still clutching my hand. Michael came to town and now he’s leaving too.

When he looks back at me, my panic is echoed in his eyes.

We stand still as everyone starts to move around us.

Finally, Michael speaks. “I had an amazing time,” he says, his voice a little hoarse.

I try to give him a big smile past the lump in my throat. “Of course you did,” I say. “You just saw Jimi. You talked to Janis Joplin. You got mistaken for a rock god.”

He shakes his head. “No,” he says emphatically. “I had an amazing time. With you.”

I take in a deep breath and then hug him. His voice reverberates at the top of my head. “I’m going to come back,” he says. “I have to drive home now but then I’m going to come back.”

Surprised, I break away from the hug to look up at his face.

“How . . . ,” I start. But he doesn’t let me finish.

He leans down and kisses me. It’s not the kiss of a rock god this time. It’s Michael’s kiss and it feels as comfortable and right as the most sure thing I know about myself: that I belong working in a hospital.

It answers my question, too. I don’t really need to know how or even when he’s coming back right now. I just believe him. Someday soon, he’ll be back.

We stay kissing and hugging for what seems like a long time as Mr. Yasgur’s farm starts to finally empty out.

After a while, slowly, Michael rolls up his sleeping bag and repacks his backpack. I fold up the blankets. I know we’re both taking our time.

“You’re meeting your friends at the medical tents, right?” I finally say gently, when I know we can’t keep putting off the inevitable for much longer.

He nods. “Walk me there?”

But I shake my head no. I think of Amanda and know that I don’t want my last memory of this weekend to be of her. “I think we should say our good-bye for now here.”

“Our good-bye for now,” Michael promises as he pulls on a strand of my hair and lets it slide through his fingers.

Then he suddenly dips me back to give me one final earth-shattering kiss. I swear I can hear Jimi’s guitar solo start singing again in my ear.

Maybe there will always be a little bit of rock god in him after all.





chapter 70


Michael


It’s strange to be going to the medical tents and be walking away from Cora instead of to her. She fills my every thought, though: her hair, her skin, the feel of her body. More than that, everything I’ve learned about her. Everything I have yet to learn.

I have a smile on my face when I think about that and all the time together that lies in our future. The time I’m going to find and make.

It’s pretty easy to pick out Evan and the girls now that the crowd has thinned out so much. They’re standing by the tents just like we said. Rob must have already split.

Evan gives me a hearty wave. Amanda scowls and looks away and, in a show of solidarity, Catherine and Suzie don’t really look at me either. I don’t pay much attention to any of it.

As we start to trek to the car, I ask Evan who his favorite act of yesterday was. He starts talking about Country Joe McDonald, when Suzie butts in and asks him how he could possibly say anyone other than Joe Cocker. A friendly argument ensues, one that Amanda can’t help but get involved in too, and I’m happy that my question had the intended effect. I’m free to be alone in my romantic haze amid the noise of the conversation.

It takes us over an hour to make it to our car. We have to walk slowly down the emergency lane of Route 17B, partially because it has opened up again and there is traffic going by, and partially because we don’t really remember exactly where the car is and have to keep a sharp eye out for it.

Finally we see it, the big purple boat gleaming in the sunlight. All that rain gave it a good car washing. My mom should be pleased.

We let out a collective shout of triumph as we run over to it, even Amanda.

But she refuses to sit in the front, giving Evan that honor.

As I start the car up and get ready to pull out, I think about the day that I can just turn around and come back here. To miraculous, wonderful Bethel.

I think I’ll do it right after I sign up for a college course when I get back home. Maybe something to do with journalism. As soon as I do that, I can come back and Cora and I can spend the last weeks of summer together. For now.

But if this weekend has confirmed anything for me, it’s how important now is. Now is all we have, really. And we never know when now will be the instant that changes everything.

So here’s to keeping an eye out for that moment when some clueless executive mistakes you for Roger Daltrey.

And here’s to f*cking going with it.





Acknowledgments


Agents don’t come any braver or truer than Victoria Marini. Thank you for helping Cora and Michael find the greatest home with the Simon & Schuster BFYR team. I’m especially grateful to Dani Young, for going to bat for a slacker hippie and a budding doctor, and doing so much to help them reach their full potential. Thank you times a million to Zareen Jaffery, for continuing that journey with me and for, quite simply, being a rock star of epic proportions. It’s been such a privilege to work with you both. Thank you to Krista Vossen, for designing the cover of my psychedelic dreams, and to Katharine R. Wiencke, for copyediting with the precision of a guitar virtuoso. And thank you to Justin Chanda and the rest of the incredible team at Simon & Schuster BFYR. I have half a mind to organize and dedicate a three-day festival to all of you.