Decade: late 1960s … initially

CRYSTAL BLUE PERSUASION

Part 1 by JoAnn Baca

* * *

Part 2 by Joann Baca

with an appearance by Jo Fredericks

Look over yonder
What do you see?
The sun is a-rising
Most definitely
A new day is coming
People are changing
Ain’t it beautiful?

~ Lyrics from Crystal Blue Persuasion by Eddie Gray, Tommy James, & Mike Vale

“C’mon, guys!” Pascal, fifteen years old and impatient as only a teenager can be, grabbed a basket from Rebecca and added it to the load he was already carrying. Lithe and strong, he defied his height by carrying the tallest, most ungainly items Uptop. He had a folding table slung over his shoulders, held in place by a couple of straps, and a beach umbrella, and now, taken from Rebecca, a fully loaded basket containing candles in various shapes and colors.

Rebecca still had a backpack and one basket to haul to the park, more than she had ever carried at one time. Vincent, beside her, was transporting two large sacks of crystals he and Winslow had painstakingly carved from a small chamber a short hike from the Hub. “I’m still not sure I should…” Vincent began.

“Not listening to any more Father-talk coming out of your mouth!” Winslow grumbled at him. “Been decided. This love-in is a great place to be sellin’ our wares with nobody lookin’ twice at how we’re dressed or even how you look! Half of ‘em’ll be high, the other half so open-minded their brains could fall out! Told ya, me and Rebecca scoped it out last weekend, and we’ll all…all,” he reiterated, staring at Vincent, “fit right in!”

Rebecca, huffing and puffing as she strove to keep up with the boys, agreed. “I saw people with masks on, and everyone has long hair and many guys have beards. We can just say you have a mask on. It’ll be fine, I promise. It’s so laid back, so…so cool!”

Rebecca’s boyfriend Freddy, the newest kid in the Tunnels, nodded. He had several blankets and pillows in his arms and tied to his back, as well as another basket of candles. “There’ll be thousands of people in the park, Vin. Easy to get lost in a hurry if anyone gets too nosy.”

“I want to get my face painted,” Rebecca said, dreamy-eyed in anticipation. “Maybe I can trade some candles for it.”

“I want to get some love beads,” Winslow said. “Saw kids wearing ‘em last weekend, and they are wicked. Yeah, trading’s a great idea, Becs.”

“What do you want, Vincent?” Pascal asked.

Their somewhat reluctant tag-along sighed. “Just…just to be Above in daylight…you know, just to be free for a while.”

Freddy replied, “We get that. It’s one reason we all insisted you come.”

“Father won’t be pleased if he finds out,” muttered Vincent, still worried, but craving the freedom of blue skies and open air so much he was willing to defy his parent’s edicts.

Winslow chuckled. “What the Old Man don’t know…”

Except for Freddy, they had all grown up Below, so most of them were aware of the ways to avoid sentries and move unseen through forgotten corridors in order to get Above. They had planned well; none of them had chores this Saturday, so they wouldn’t be expected anywhere until dinnertime, if then. They had told no others what they were planning, and vowed not to speak of their adventures when they returned.

“We’re here,” Freddy said unnecessarily, somewhat surprised at where he suddenly found himself. He missed the daylight more than even Vincent, having lived in it for sixteen years prior to moving Below with his mom to escape a violent family situation. He liked living Below but…Above still drew him like a magnet. It was Home.

Pascal went out first, whistling nonchalantly as he scoped out their surroundings. He gave a good look around then called to them. “All clear!”

Freddy went next. The plan was for him and Pascal to find a good place to set up their wares, then, while one began the process, the other would go back for the remaining members of the group.

Soon Pascal returned, waving those still hiding into the park. Winslow slipped from the protection of the tunnel quickly. Rebecca followed more slowly, until Pascal relieved her of half her burden. Vincent hung back for a moment, indecisive, but the lure of sun and laughter was impossible to resist at this point. He took a deep breath and strode out with a confidence he did not feel, catching up to his friends quickly.

Their stand was soon set up with candles and crystals. Behind it they could lounge on blankets and pillows under their umbrella.

Rebecca’s candles were a big hit, and the crystals were moving well, too. Soon she went off on her own, carrying a few candles, to find a face painter. When she returned, a vibrant unicorn covering her forehead and one cheek, Winslow took a turn, crystals in hand, coming back soon with love beads and a big smile on his face.

Vincent had been hanging back, but as an hour passed without anyone commenting on his appearance, he grew bolder, finally taking his turn manning their table, shyly conversing with browsers, although allowing Rebecca or Pascal to handle the money. And when the others pushed him to take a walk through the love-in on his own, he agreed with minimal prodding.

He was mesmerized by the sounds and sights. The people in the park were mostly around his age, the girls with flowers in their hair and wearing love beads, the skirts of their colorful granny dresses blowing in the soft summer breeze. Many of the boys wore funny little rectangular-lensed sunglasses, others wore odd hats or fringed leather vests, their hair long, guitars slung over their shoulders. Everywhere people danced to music, some as if in another world. Laughter bubbled through the air.

He could never have imagined such a gathering. It was as if freedom itself were on display. No anger, no fighting, just pure joy, abandon and fun. He soaked it in, turning his face to the sun and basking in its warmth while letting the gentle spirit of the love-in wash over him.

Someone tugged at his sleeve. Startled, he looked down at a pretty girl several years younger than he. She was wearing bell bottoms and a macrame top, with a small macrame purse slung over her shoulder.

“Hi!” she said. “Where’d you get that crystal necklace?”

He was tongue-tied. She was speaking to him as if he were just…anyone. No fear in her voice, no concern, just curiosity. Finally, he managed to say, “My friends.” He pointed vaguely over his shoulder.

“Show me?” She smiled and held out her hand.

He took it in his own gloved one, unaware of where he was going or even what he was doing, yet somehow he found his way back to the table he and the others were selling from.

The young girl cried out as they approached. “Groovy!” She let go of his hand and ran to the table, her fingers sliding over the crystals. “These are far out!” Looking back at Vincent, she said, “I want a blue one, like your eyes.”

He was stunned that she had noticed his eyes. He stood immobilized. He couldn’t process her request. How was he to help her?

Rebecca rescued him by picking up a couple of samples and saying, “I think these look the most like Vincent’s eyes, don’t you?”

The girl, whose own eyes were a stormy green, looked back at him, then at the crystals again. “Let me see.” She turned once more to him with the crystals in hand and held each one up close to his face, studying them, even as he studied her.

She was fresh-faced, with long straight hair that glowed like molten honey in the sunlight. Still fairly young, he could see that she would grow into a beauty. When she smiled, having made her decision, Vincent felt his heart skip a beat.

“This one!’ she announced. “This is a ‘Vincent’s Eye’!”

She turned and began looking at the candles, finally selecting a small round one in an azure color, then she opened the bag she carried and pulled out some bills.

As she was paying, a girl’s voice called out, “Cathy? Where’d you go?”

Over her shoulder, she said, “I’m here, Nancy! Almost done!”

Vincent hadn’t moved since the moment she had let go of his hand. He doubted he would ever move again. He was overwhelmed by the situation he found himself in, and by the total trust and delight in life the young girl exhibited. And that she…liked his eyes?!

The girl she had called Nancy ran up. “C’mon, Dad’s getting impatient. He wants to get out of here, away from the ‘dirty long-haired hippies’!”

“He did not call them that?!” Cathy squealed.

Rolling her eyes, Nancy replied, “He’s got to learn to hang loose!”

They both laughed.

Nancy grabbed Cathy’s free hand to pull her away, and Cathy let herself be pulled, but she waved the hand holding her candle and crystal at Vincent. “Bye! Hope we meet again sometime!” she called before disappearing from sight into the throng.

Pascal nudged Winslow. They both laughed at Vincent, still standing like a statue, staring after the two. Rebecca smacked them both on the shoulders. “It’s not like he’s had a lot of experience with girls,” she reminded them. “Be nice.”

The candles and crystals were nearly sold out and the sun was well past its zenith when Freddy mentioned it might be a good time to go, while there was still a big crowd and nobody would notice them disappearing into a tunnel.

With their baskets and bags nearly empty, it made for an easier return trip. Rebecca was sad that she had to wash her face at a public drinking fountain before going Below, but there was no way to explain her painted face. Still, she had enjoyed the experience of being turned into a unicorn, and the memory of it would live on.

Winslow tucked his love beads inside his vest. None of the others had purchased anything, but they all felt a little “high” from their experience…especially Vincent, who still seemed to be more than a bit dazed by his time at the love-in.

“Aw,” Freddy said, “that girl was too young for you anyway.”

“She won’t always be too young,” Rebecca remarked. “She only looked a couple years younger than us.”

“Who knows where we’ll all be in a couple more years,” mumbled Winslow. “Hope they are still having love-ins then though!”

 * * *

CRYSTAL BLUE PERSUASION, Part 2

(with a token appearance by Jo Fredericks)

Better get ready
Gonna see the light
Love, love is the answer
And that’s all right
So don’t you give up now
So easy to find
Just look to your soul
And open your mind

~ Lyrics from Crystal Blue Persuasion by Eddie Gray, Tommy James, & Mike Vale

Catherine smiled as she entered her childhood bedroom – the room that, with rare exceptions, she had not stepped foot in since going off to college. It seemed her dad hadn’t changed a thing in the intervening years. It was a time capsule, filled with a young girl’s interests – albums and posters of rock bands, photos torn from teen magazines of TV heartthrobs and movie stars she was in and out of love with weekly, photos of herself with friends and boyfriends…

Shaking her head with a smile, Catherine opened the closet doors and reached for a box on the upper shelf. She seemed to recall it contained photo albums from her school days. Nancy’s parents’ home had been flooded recently, and all their photo albums had been destroyed. Most of Nancy’s childhood photographs were in them. Catherine hoped to find some snapshots in her own albums to copy for her friend.

She was right; it held grade school- and high school-era albums. She lifted the box down and set it on her bed so she could go through everything. As she flipped through the albums, she selected the best shots she had, until she had quite a pile of them.

It was fun reminiscing over experiences both memorable and once forgotten, and Catherine’s hand often lingered before turning pages. At some point, she remembered to check her watch and realized she was taking longer than she’d anticipated to go through the albums. It was getting late, and she had plans with Vincent in a few hours. She had one album left to go through, and she contemplated leaving it unopened, as she had so many photos to copy already. But she knew that Nancy would find as many photos as she could for her if Catherine had been the one who had lost her own. So she lifted the last album out to put it on the bed and as she did, something slipped out of it and hit the bottom of the box with a gentle thud. Surprised, she set the album aside and plucked the item out.

A blue crystal?

She shook her head, unable to place it. Well, she could put it back with the photo albums, once she’d looked through the last one. For now, she opened the remaining album and flipped through it quickly. Mostly it contained photos of a trip to the Southwest with her father – her on a donkey in the Grand Canyon, him smiling as he panned for gold at some tourist spot, lots of snapshots of scenery and hotels. She almost gave up on the album, but on a whim flipped all the way to the last page.

There she was in bell bottoms and a macrame top, smiling at the camera, her friend Nancy by her side in a calico print granny dress. She frowned in concentration. Where and when was this taken? The background showed lots of people, lots of green grass… Then she recalled. She and Nancy had talked Nancy’s father into letting them attend a love-in in Central Park back in the late 60s. It had turned out to be a lot of fun for them, and horror-inducing for Nancy’s dad, who didn’t know what to make of the bearded, long-haired boys and the spaced-out girls, dancing and singing and laughing…and possibly smoking something illegal.

It was coming back to her now. She had bought something there… Oh, right! She grabbed the crystal. Blue. Why blue? There was a reason. And the reason was…a boy. Yes! A gorgeous, masked boy with the most beautiful crystal-blue eyes. She’d bought the crystal that matched his eyes.

She’d even held his hand briefly – very bold of her, as she had never held a boy’s hand before. But he’d seemed so sweet, and he’d had such lovely long golden hair, and he’d worn gloves, which was odd, but which somehow made it seem OK to hold his hand as he led her to the table where he and his friends were selling things.

Those eyes… She had thought about those eyes for a long while afterwards. In fact, she could trace her attraction to men with blue eyes from that very day. The thought made her smile, especially as the man she loved now had such incredible blue eyes. Like crystals.

A sudden thought made her quickly sit up straight.

* * *

“…and after I found this photo, I remembered I had bought the crystal from a really sweet boy with gorgeous long hair who was wearing a mask and gloves in the park that day.” Catherine finished relating her memory and showed the crystal to Vincent. “For a brief moment after I found it, I thought it might have been you who I met in the park that day, until I realized how impossible that must be.”

Vincent took the crystal from her and his eyes widened. She saw the truth as the memory dawned on him. When he looked at her again, she said, “It was you.”

He nodded. “The others convinced me to come along, certain I would fit in with the crowd. And I did. We had planned to repeat our adventure on another weekend, as we had made quite a bit of money on our one foray Above, but…Father found out about it somehow, and he made sure we never went again. Or at least, that I wasn’t able to. If you ask Rebecca, she might recall sneaking up a time or two without getting caught. But it was a day I have cherished, walking in the sunlight amongst so many happy people.”

Catherine looked down at the crystal then up at Vincent. “Did you ever realize it was me you met?”

He shook his head. “Not until now. But I do recall meeting that young girl then, quite clearly, and possibly there was a sense memory latent in me years later when I found you that made me trust that you would be a kind, good person.”

“You got that from five minutes with my teen-age self in 1969?!” She smiled, tilting her head.

“You were beautiful, and lighthearted, and so happy. It made my own heart ache to see you leave, although what else could have happened is beyond me. I only know I was struck to my core, meeting you, once you smiled at me.”

“Well, I’ll have you know that I have been attracted to men with blue eyes ever since that day!” She laughed gently at his tilted eyebrows. “So, in some small way, you were in my heart, too, since then.”

He leaned over and kissed her, sweetly but thoroughly. “As long as I’m the only blue-eyed man you are attracted to now…or man with eyes of any color, I suppose…I’m content, my love.”

He nuzzled her neck, grazing it with his incisors, and she could feel him smiling, knowing he had sent shivers of arousal cascading through her.

“So you are just…‘content’?” she teased, turning to lie atop him. She felt him hardening in response. “Is this what you call ‘content’?!” She wriggled a little, delighting at how much more “content” she was making him feel.

He chuffed a laugh which turned into a growl. “What was that song about blue crystals?”

He began to stroke her from neck to backside, languidly, and she growled in turn, aware that he knew what that did to her insides. She could barely think coherently now. Why was he asking about blue crystals?!

“Oh! You mean Crystal Blue Persuasion? It was…Yes! Right there! Ohhhh...a hit song in 1969, when…hmmmm…sooooo nice…when we first met.”

“That’s the one.” He flipped her over until he loomed above her, lowering himself gently but staying just…out…of…reach.

She pulled him down to cover her, her hips nudging him, wanting more. He was really quite aggravating, asking silly questions at a time like this. “So…what? What about it?” she moaned hoarsely.

“Persuade me,” he murmured, his raspy tongue lapping at her earlobe.

“You don’t seem like you need much persua… Oh, my GOD!”