Part One
It was Micky who first noticed something strange about Mike. It had started with the letter. Ellen had promised to send him a picture and she had, along with a long letter thanking him for everything he had done for her. The picture now occupied an honored spot beside his bed that had once belonged to a picture of his mother and the letter, which had been read so many times the tape on it was falling apart, was below it. And then there was the fact that he had gone to see Ellen's play so many times even he had lost count. No doubt about it, Mike was totally, helplessly, hopelessly in love. Well, maybe not so hopelessly if Micky could help it. There had to be some way to get Mike and Ellen together, at least for the sake of the band. Lately Mike had been unable to concentrate on anything, which was usually a problem with Davy, but never Mike.
One evening, while Mike was gone somewhere, probably just out for a walk as he tended to do a lot, Micky decided it was time to take action and quickly enlisted the help of Peter and Davy.
"As you have probably noticed, Mike is not acting like himself lately,"
Micky said once the meeting got started.
"Where is he anyway?" Peter asked, looking around. "Look up a few paragraphs. It says he went for a walk," Micky said.
"What's wrong with Mike?" Davy asked.
"For those of you just joining us, Mike is in love," Micky said, rolling his eyes in frustration.
"That's not fair," Davy said. "I always get the girl." "Not this time, babe. The Writer doesn't really like you that much so you might want to be careful. No telling what might happen to you, you don't want to get hurt," Micky said. "Any other questions?"
"Who's the girl?" Peter asked, envious that Mike was getting a girl, but not saying anything for fear of what might happen to him. He would just stick with his wild fantasies about that girl that worked at the flower shop down the block, Miranda. Now there was a chick he could dig.
"Ellen," Micky answered.
"Who?" Davy asked, still very pissed that the Writer wouldn't let him
have a girl. It was in his contract that he got a girl every time, even when it was somebody else's turn. It just wasn't fair.
"Ellen Farnsby, the actress," Micky said, trying not to get upset with
Peter and Davy, which was really hard, especially with Davy. The Writer did not like him at all. "Haven't you guys noticed that he keeps her picture by his bed, he keeps rereading that letter she sent him, and he went to see her play so many times he's beginning to quote it in his sleep."
"I was wondering what that noise was," Davy said, plotting his escape in case the Writer got really mean.
"Anyway, Mike needs our help," Micky said, wondering what the Writer
was planning to do to him. That's when he noticed his hair, which had been straight, had suddenly become very curly. he thought.
"Hey, Micky, something just happened to your hair," Davy said, forgetting for a moment that he was plotting his revenge on the Writer.
"Yeah, isn't it groovy?"
Peter, still deeply immersed in his fantasy about Miranda, mumbled,
"Yeah, real groovy."
"Could we please get back to what we were talking about before?" Micky said.
"What was that?" Peter asked, finally giving up on his fantasy about
Miranda, at least for then. He could always pick it up later.
"We were talking about Mike," Micky said, resisting the urge to slap Peter. Instead, he slapped Davy.
"What did you do that for?" Davy asked, holding his chin. "I'm not allowed to hit Peter," Micky replied. "Now, could we please finish before Mike gets back. Does anybody have any suggestions on what we can do?"
"Does Ms. Farnsby remember Mike?" Davy asked. "She sent him a letter a few days ago. It was about time, he was complaining about not having anything to read."
"So chances are she's interested in him?" Davy asked, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in his right foot.
"I would think so," Micky said. "I happened to sneak a peak at the letter. In fact, I have it right here." He held up the letter. "Observe the following things. It's handwritten, not some typical fan letter, it's very friendly, and it's signed, with much love, Ellen.' Men, I think it's time to get those two together."
"What about me?" Davy asked, very concerned about his image and his health.
"Maybe next week," Micky said. "Now, back to Mike. Any ideas?" Mike returned half an hour later, blissfully unaware that his friends were planning on inviting the object of his desires and fantasies to dinner. He was unaware his friends knew he was in love. He was unaware of Micky's hair morph or that Davy was limping and bruised. In other words he was totally out of it, high on love.
The next morning, while Mike was still sleeping, Micky, Peter and Davy finalized their plans on inviting Ellen to dinner, which is what they had decided to do. "We don't have much time before he wakes up so we better hurry," Micky said.
After breakfast, Mike announced it was time for a meeting, which caused everybody to groan in protest. Mike ignored them and started the meeting anyway. "We haven't worked in weeks, the rent is late, and Mr. Babbit is probably going to kick us out any day now," he said.
"Can't it wait until later?" Davy complained. He hadn't slept very well the night before plagued by nightmares that he chose not to remember.
"No," Micky said. "The sooner we get started on this the more time we
have to prepare. Davy, you go talk to the neighbors about food. Turn on the charm big time."
"I don't feel very charming this morning." "I don't care, pretend or something. This is important" Micky said.
"Peter, you go to the library and see what you can find on etiquette. We want Ellen to be impressed."
"Why do I have to be the one to go to the library?" Peter asked. He
also hadn't slept very well, but instead of nightmares, he had dreamed about Miranda.
"Because you're the only one who doesn't have any overdue fines," Micky explained. "I'm going to call her and invite her to dinner. Any questions?"
"When is it going to be?" Peter asked.
"Saturday night, which gives us four days to get ready." "Are you sure we can pull this off?" Davy asked. "Of course we can. Just think of all the things Mike has done for us.
It's about time we did something nice for him. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Peter and Davy said.
"Good. Now go do what I told you."
Once they were gone, Micky called Ellen. (Mike kept her number by the phone, but he never called her.) She answered on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Hi," Micky said, "Is this Ellen Farnsby?" "Yes," she answered. "Who is this?"
"You probably don't remember me, but I'm Micky Dolenz, I used to work at Urgent Answering Service. I'm a friend of Mike Nesmith."
"Oh, I remember you. What can I do for you?" "Well, I was wondering if you're not busy Saturday night, how would you like to come over to my place for dinner?"
"I don't know," she said. "I really don't know you and I might be busy."
"I guess I didn't explain it. This would be dinner with me and my friends, Davy, Peter, and of course Mike. See, Mike really likes you and he would have asked you out himself, but he's a little shy and he doesn't even know I'm doing this."
"Oh, I understand. Well, in that case I'll be there. What time would it be?"
"Saturday at 8:00 p.m. The address is 1334 Beechwood Drive, but I guess you already knew that."
"I'll be there," she said. "Thanks, Micky. Oh, tell Mike I said hello."
"I will. Thanks, Ellen. Bye," Micky said and hung up. "Hey, Micky, who were you just talking to?" Mike asked, coming downstairs.
Uh, nobody. Wrong number," Micky answered. "That happens. Where's Peter and Davy?"
"They went shopping."
"Shopping? How could they go shopping? We don't have any money. We haven't worked in a month," Mike said, suddenly noticing something different about Micky's hair. "Uh, Micky, what happened to your hair?" he asked.
"It's curly now, just happened last night. Do you like it?" "Yeah, it's real groovy," Mike said, fixing himself a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast.
Peter returned twenty minutes later, a stack of library books in his hands. "Micky, I found plenty of good books and a cookbook and oh, hi, Mike"
"Hi, Peter. I thought you went shopping." "No, I went to the library to get books on-" He stopped, noticing that Micky was frantically waving his arms and mouthing something to him. "I got some books to read so I won't get bored when we're not working."
"I hope you won't have time to do that. When Davy gets back, we need to have a meeting. It's been too long since our last gig," Mike said. He had often thought about asking Ellen if she knew anybody who could help them, but every time he started to call her, he got nervous and hung up before he dialed. He knew there was nothing to be afraid of, Ellen was his friend and she would probably be willing to help them out, but something stopped him. Several times he had thought about asking her on a date, that maybe there should be something more to the relationship, but he wasn't sure what to do. He hadn't dated much, didn't have much experience, except for that girl in New York, but that had been three years ago and things changed. Maybe he could ask Davy for some advice. If anybody knew about girls, it was Davy. Strange thing was, Davy didn't seem to have a girlfriend for too long. He always had somebody new.
"I didn't tell him yet," Micky told Peter while Mike was in the bathroom.
"She said yes?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, I think she really likes Mike, judging from the way she was acting. I really think this is going to work out."
"When are you going to tell him?"
"Later, after Davy gets back."
Davy returned in a few minutes with the news that Mrs. Purdy would help them cook dinner if they agreed to play at her granddaughter's birthday party in two weeks. They would even get paid for it, taking care of two problems.
"He always threatens, but he never actually kicks us out," Peter said.
"This time he just might do it," Mike said. "We don't have to worry about that," Davy said. "I got us a job this morning."
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Mike asked. "You didn't give me a chance. Mrs. Purdy wants us to play at her granddaughter's birthday party in two weeks. It's $200 plus, uh, well, never mind that, it's $200."
Something's up, Mike suddenly realized. The guys sure are acting strange. Davy was forgetting things, Peter went to the library, and of course there was that thing about Micky's hair and the mysterious phone call which he was willing to bet was not a wrong number. "Okay, what's going on here and I want the truth," he said.
Micky, Davy, and Peter looked at each other. "Should we tell him?"
Micky asked.
"Yes," Davy said, "I think it's time."
"Are you sure?" Peter asked.
"Better now than later," Micky said.
"Tell me what?" Mike asked, a little scared. "Mike," Micky said, "we are your friends and you're very important to
us and the group so we decided it was time we did something for you so I invited Ellen to dinner Saturday night so maybe you could get together."
They expected him to be surprised, excited, maybe a little pissed, but
he reacted in a way none of them expected. Mike fainted.
"I think he took that rather well," Davy said. Once again Micky felt the urge to slap him, but this time he resisted.
He knelt on the floor beside Mike. "Come on, wake up" he said. "I didn't think you would take it like this."
Mike slowly opened his eyes and looked around. "What happened?" "You fainted when I told you that I invited Ellen to dinner," Micky explained, helping Mike up off the floor.
"Why?"
"I don't know, you're the one who fainted." "Not that, I meant why did you invite Ellen to dinner?" Had it been
that obvious to his friends?
"Well, like I said, you're our friend and we wanted to show you how
much we care and thought this would be a good way of doing that. Besides, we know how much you like her and we hope it works out for you," Micky said.
"Was it that obvious?"
"Yes," they all said.
"Then I guess we better start getting ready for Saturday night."