Nantucket 6583 Bayshore

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Spoilers:  Slight mention of “Hours of Desperation”. Which is, incidentally, one of my favorite episodes.

Disclaimers:  The characters and situations of the television program "Charlie's Angels" are the creation and property of Spelling-Goldberg Productions and Columbia Pictures Television, and have been used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended. However, I reserve the rights to the plot. You may download and distribute this story as long as my name stays on the by-line.

Rating:  G

Summary: Kelly remembers an evening after a long weekend with the girls.

Warning: This work of fan fiction will produce WAFF (a warm and fuzzy feeling) around the heart area. Every now and then, I need to get fic like this out of my system, so you’ll just have to put up with it.

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                My happiest memory of the girls, the one that gradually separated itself from the general tangle of pleasant, warm moments was from the spring of 1978. It was late, the end of a summer day seasoned with gentle rays of sunlight and tasting of cream. We had started out early from Las Vegas and after stopping at various places to eat, we’d reached LA in time to view the sunset.

Sabrina’s orange pinto came up the hill leading to the small side street. It hung a right and came to a stop at the foot of a small pond. Bri opened her car door. Strains of Derek and the Dominoes could be heard from the car radio before she turned the key and the motor died with a protesting sigh.

Bri got out of the car and stretched her arms toward the sky. I climbed out of the front seat and pushed it forward so Kris could get out and stretch her legs. I took out the bag of groceries from the trunk. Kris was still humming the last bars of “Layla” as she moved to stand beside Sabrina.

            “Ooof. I can’t believe we have to go back to work tomorrow.”  Sabrina groaned. “I thought this was supposed to be a cushy job.”

            “I’m beginning to suspect that Charlie picks up cases really fast whenever we plan a long weekend.” Kris grinned. “After all, time is money.”

            “Oh God. If Bosley says that one more time…” Sabrina trailed off.

            I rolled my eyes and took out the cheese and the ciabatta. I handed Kris the bottle of wine. Kris took out her Swiss knife and pulled out the corkscrew, holding the bottle gingerly in one hand she drove it into the cork. Grimacing, she put the bottle between her legs and pulled out the cork with a pop.

            “How genteel.” Sabrina commented.

            “Thanks.” Kris drawled. “I learned it in finishing school.”

            Sabrina poured the wine into the plastic cups we’d bought at the supermarket and used Kris’s knife to slice the wedge of cheese. Kris leaned on the hood of the car and yelped. Bri let out a laugh, and reached out to stroke Kris’s hair in sympathy.

“Come on,” Bri beckoned as she settled herself on the roof, “It’s cooler up here.”

I draped the length of my legs over the windshield and poured out some wine into three small paper cups. We sat there in companionable silence as we watched the sky turn into a swath of chiffon dyed a brilliant gray.

            “What are you thinking of, Kelly?” Bri asked in a sleepy voice.

            “Nothing.”

“Not even all that money you won at black jack and poker?” Kris asked as she lay down and stretched out on the car roof.

            “Okay, a thousand dollars of nothing.”

            Kris giggled. “She’s rich.”

            “What’cha gonna do with it, Kel?” Bri asked with a smile.

            “I don’t know…” I began. “I was kind of thinking…”

            “Mmhmm…” Kris encouraged. “A romantic weekend?”

            I stuck my tongue out. “With whom? One of the three stooges who tried to pick us up at The Sands? Mr. Hey-baby-lose-your-friends-and-I’ll-do-things-you-never-even-thought-was-possible-for-the-next-thirty-six-hours…?”

            Bri laughed loudly. “No way, he did not say that!”

            “No,” I deadpanned, “he whispered it in my ear.”

            “Yuck!” Bri said, making a face.

            “Well, he was better than the one who came up to me.” Kris gasped through her laughter. “I got Curly!”

            “Why, what did he say?”

            “He didn’t say a thing. He was looking at me like a UFO was landing right behind my back or something. Then his eyes started bugging out even more…” Kris paused to imitate, inflating her face to imitate the man’s obesity. Bri and I clutched helplessly at our stomachs. My eyes were starting to tear up.

            “Then his lips – they looked like rubber tires, complete with the tread marks.” Kris continued.  “Anyway, they opened as if they were going to move, but a little bit of drool slipped out…”

            “Ewww!” Bri and I chorused.

            “Anyone try to pick you up, Bri?” Kris asked with a laugh.

            “Oh God.” Bri said, as she hopped off the roof. “There was this one guy who makes me wish I was still married… or a nun.”

            Kris bent over eagerly, holding out her empty cup. I laughed and gave her a small shove. “Someone’s looking to get drunk…”

            Kris leapt off the roof, landed with the flair of a gymnast, and executed a low bow before us. “I learned from the best.”

            I got off the car as well. “So what was your guy like, Bri?”

            “Older than sin and I swear to you the man thought he was Shaft.” Bri complained. “The guy looked like a giant Chihuahua! A mutant rat-dog! And then there he was singing along with the band, he was twitching! He couldn’t dance a step! I couldn’t do anything but look at him with this horrified look on my face. And where were my best friends? You guys were supposed to save me!”

            “Aw, what’s a twitching mutant Chihuahua.” I said dryly. “You’ve handled worse.”

            “That’s the sick part!” Sabrina laughed. “Why do we attract these men? I mean, all we get are losers, weirdos, or criminals!”

            “Well, you know what they say,” Kris smiled, “men are like toilets. They’re either busted, taken, or full of crap.”

            Bri shook her head and walked towards the surface of the pond. She was looking down at the ground as she went along. Casually she picked up a rock and threw it into the water. It sank with a loud plop. She bent to pick up another rock, and another.

            Kris and I observed with raised eyebrows. I took a bite of cheese as Kris murmured. “Think we should help her out?”

            I grinned. “We’d better. Or else there won’t be a pond left.”

            Downing what was left of her cup, Kris ran over to Sabrina, picked up a suitably flat rock and flicked her wrist outward. The rock skimmed the water, bouncing twice before it sank into the water.

            “Show-off!” Sabrina laughed, poking Kris in the ribs.

            Kris yelped in surprise and chased Sabrina around the pond. I shook my head and smiled, enjoying the moment. Life was beautiful when it was like this, peaceful, not trying to tie you up in the snares of your own making, not trying to hurt you. The sky was a fluid arc of pastel dipping into the rich tints of the land. It was as if heaven had reached down to kiss its child in the forehead.

            Smiling, I walked to the edge of the pond. The water gleamed like polished pewter on a sideboard. Images of clouds and leaves lay on the slowly revolving surface. I found a small round stone with one flat side. Aligning one of its edges with the inside of my index finger, I took a couple of steps till the water was lapping gently at my feet. I leaned over and sent the rock flying with a flick of my wrist.

            It wailed over the water, hopping high into the air three times before it finally sank some twenty meters away.

            I turned to find Kris and Sabrina looking at me with raised eyebrows.

            “That,” I instructed, “is how one skims a rock.” Picking up another similarly shaped rock; I offered it to Bri. “Try it.”

            Sabrina took the rock and tried to fit it into the curl of her forefinger.

            “No, no.” Kris said. “You’re holding it too tight.”

            I looked at Bri’s fingers. “Let it rest on the side of your middle finger.”

            Sabrina nodded and adjusted her hold on the rock. Trying to lean as I had, she looked at me. “So, I just throw it?”

            Kris laughed. “You don’t just throw it. There’s a knack to it.”

            I pantomimed the procedure with my own empty hand.

            “Oh okay,” Bri said. “The bottom of the rock has to be parallel to the water’s surface, and then you put a backspin on it so that it’s stable when it hits the water.”

            “Well, when you put it that way, it sort of takes the fun out of it.” Kris grinned.

            Sabrina went through the motion a couple of times until she felt she’d gotten the hang of it. Then she turned toward the pond, drew the stone back, and flipped it over the water. It turned sideways as it flew made a loud plunk when it hit the water, and sank like a – well, like a stone. Bri frowned.

            Kris sighed. “This could take some work.”

            Ten minutes later, Bri had gotten to two hops – not bad, but not great. “This is crazy. It’s pointless, What use is this skill, anyway.”

            “You know what, Bri?” Kris commented as she leaned against a weeping willow and skimmed another stone effortlessly. “Your problem is that you think too much. You need to do something pointless once in a while.”

            I nodded. “It’s healthy for you. And you’ll be able to teach your own kids to do this. With your genes, they’ll need to know how to relax.”

            “Oh, the uptight one speaks!” Sabrina said dryly.

            I could feel my cheeks redden.

            Bri sat down on the ground, tired and out of her formerly playful mood. “It isn’t therapeutic when you start feeling stupid.”

            Kris’s eyes shifted in her direction briefly and then focused on picking another rock. “Well, it relaxes me. It gives me an opportunity to clear my mind. What I’d like to know is how you can skim all the way to the other end of the pond.”

            I smiled. “I have one simple secret. I don’t stop to think about it. After all, thinking has nothing to do with it. After all, you’re only throwing rocks. You don’t exactly need a diploma for this.”

            Bri couldn’t help but chuckle and pick up another stone. Positioning it the way Kris had taught her, she pulled back and let it fly.

            One hop, two.

            Three!

            And it wasn’t done yet. With one last burst of energy, the stone leapt in a high fluid arc. Four.

            Bri turned to me. “Well?”

            I smiled and grunted approvingly. “Much better.”

            Kris clapped her on the back. And then something changed in her eyes, softened. Kris gave a small smile as she picked up another rock. “So what’s been bugging you?”

            “Isn’t it obvious?”

            “Ahhh…still?”

            Bri nodded. “That and the fact that the plumbing in my apartment is all backed up. I keep calling the super to fix it, and then he hems and he haws and… what?”

            “You’re changing the subject, Bri.” I observed.

            “Really, the truth is right in front of you, you’re just scared of it.” Kris said.

            “You’re just saying that ‘cause you like him.” Bri protested.

            “I’m saying that because you love him.” Kris retorted. “Bri, everyone can see it and sense it. Why can’t you? Why are you fighting it?”

            Sabrina was silent; taking another rock and skimming it clear across the pond.

            “What?” Kris pressed. “You can’t talk to him? You’re bored? You think he’s bored? You don’t bring me flowers anymore?”

            Bri grinned. I reached out to poke her in the ribs and she laughed.

            “Getting too hot for you, Duncan?” I asked.

            “You could say that.” Bri sighed. “He just turned serious on me all of a sudden.”

            “And so we ran to Vegas.” Kris laughed.

            Sabrina punched her playfully. “I’m not joking. He just started talking about five years from now, and I got spooked. He was going on and on about joint bank accounts and kids.”

            There was complete silence as Bri’s statement penetrated the serenity of the pond.

            “THAT’S IT?” I asked incredulously. “That’s the reason you’ve been freaking out? So what if you’re getting serious? Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? 12 years of dealing with the opposite sex and hoping for The One, and NOW you lose it?!”

            I laughed and sank down on the ground beside Sabrina, putting her arm around her shoulder. “Twelve years of dating experience and all you know how to do is break up?”

            “Happiness: the final frontier.” Kris said in a deep voice. She hummed the Star Trek theme and burst into a giggle.

            Bri was caught up by Kris’s laugh. Her smile collapsed into a chuckle then grew into a full, uninhibited gale of laughter. We were all breathless when we regained control, relapsing into new spasms and then taking deep breaths and wiping our eyes. Neither of us could pinpoint what had been so outrageously funny. Our laughter had fed on itself. It was as much a release of accumulated tension, as the humor.

            “I don’t know.” Bri smiled, regaining her breath. “What is love, anyway? I mean, I know I love being with him, but forever? That’s a bit of a stretch.”

            “Well, forever is easy.” Kris said. “It’s always that’s hard to achieve.”

            Bri nodded. “There’s such a fine line between to have and to hold, and to have to hold. I just don’t want to get into anything serious so soon.”

            “Well, whatever makes you happy.” I said, retrieving the wine and pouring us all out some more.

            Bri smiled. “I wish I were more like you, Kris.”

            “Me?” Kris repeated, mystified.

            “You’re the brave one.”

            “Nah.” Kris said, trying to laugh it off.

            “Really. You’re the one who’s never afraid to show people how you feel. You give yourself first and without reservation. That takes guts.” Sabrina said softly. “I envy you.”

            “Bri…” Kris trailed off.

            “I wish I could find a guy who would love me that much.” I said.

            “Someone will, Kelly.” Bri replied.

            I shrugged. “Who knows?”

            “I know.” Bri laughed. “Listen, I’m sure people fall in love with you all the time. They’re probably just too scared to show it.”

            Kris grinned. “Plus, there are all these guys who ask for your number…”

            I shook my head. “Oh I know I can do that… make men want me. It’s easy if you know how. I can make them look, and want, hunger and twist in their sleep… but that’s not love, is it?”

            “Is that what happened to David?” Bri asked quietly.

            I shrugged. “His choices were his. My feelings were mine. And so I left it at that.”

            There was silence as we stared out over the pond. I could hear a bird or two taking wing from the trees that surrounded the little grove. Above us the sky was a deep indigo, swelling like a bruise. It would be dark soon.

            Sabrina got up and turned on the headlights of the Pinto. I blinked as the scene was flooded with white light. We all resumed our positions on the roof of the car. I don’t know how long we were silent, how long we sat there with our own separate twilight thoughts. I only remember that Sabrina lay down and stretched out, looking at the stars, and then she began to speak…

            “You who never arrived,

            in my arms, Beloved, who were lost

            from the start,

            I don’t even know what songs

            would please you. I have given up trying

            to recognize you in the surging wave of the next

            moment. All the immense

            images in me – the far-off, deeply-felt landscape,

            cities, towers, and bridges, and un-

            suspected turns in the path,

            and those powerful lands that were once

            pulsing with the life of the gods –

            all rise within me to mean

            you, who forever elude me.

            You, Beloved, who are all

            The gardens I have ever gazed at,

            longing. An open window

            in a country house --, and you almost

            stepped out, pensive, to meet me. Streets that I chanced upon, --

            you had just walked down them and vanished.

            And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors

            Were still dizzy with your presence and, startled, gave back

            my too-sudden image. Who knows? Perhaps the same

            bird echoed through both of us

            yesterday, separate, in the evening…”

            Her breath was as slight as the new-risen wind in the grass when she finished the poem, and Kris and I sat in silence.

            “I really love when you say that, Bri.” Kris smiled.

            “You should hear it in German.” Sabrina laughed.

            Kris made a face. “No thanks, German is such a hard language. I can’t imagine anything romantic being spoken in German.”

            “You should really give me a copy of that.” I said, smiling. “Rilke, isn’t it?”

            “Yeah.” Bri drawled. “How long do you think we’ll be missing men we haven’t even met yet?”

            “I don’t know,” I said, “but it’s been a long drought.”

            Kris smiled. “I don’t think love is something you find by wanting to get it. I think you find it by giving it. I guess you just have to live in love, you know.”

            “In love with what?”

            “With life.” She replied, throwing her hands out expansively to embrace the world. “With everything.”

            “How do you do that?” Bri asked, shaking her head.

            “What?”

            “Stay so optimistic.” Bri replied.

            “It’s probably exhausting.” I added.

            “Well, It does take a lot of work.” Kris smiled. “But it helps to have good friends like you two in this town.”

            “Awww.” Bri said, giving her a quick hug.

            “Did you leave your heart in San Francisco?” I teased.

            “Oh, I left a lot of things in San Francisco.” Kris said, rolling her eyes. “I lost a lot of things there too.”

            “Really? Do tell.” Bri grinned.

            “Oh, you know…”

            “What?” I asked innocently. “Wallet, keys, glasses… virginity.”

            Kris blushed and swatted me on the arm.

            “Oho. So, it’s true!” Bri said, grinning even wider.

            Kris was really turning into a beet; she opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.

            “Well, I must say I’m impressed.” I laughed.

            Kris’s eyebrows went up in elegant query.

            “I’m amazed it took you so long to lose it.” I deadpanned.

            Kris shoved me off the roof and onto the hood.

            “Hey, easy!” Bri protested. “We’re ruining the shocks as it is!”

            “Do you care?” Kris said, turning to Sabrina’s prone form.

            “No. Not right now.”

            I laughed. I got off the hood and reached through the window to pull two small boxes from my bag. Reclaiming my seat on the roof, I held out the boxes to the girls.

            Sabrina tilted her head and looked at me questioningly. I shrugged and motioned for her to take the box. Kris was already holding it up to her ear and shaking the box gently to see if she could tell what it was.

I glanced down at my hands uncomfortably. “I just thought… well, you guys do so  much for me…and I really don’t… you know…”

            I heard Sabrina gasp as she opened the box first. Kris gave a little squeal of delight moments later.

            “Look, I know it’s hokey. But I just figured that we should have something with us that would remind us of…well...”

            Sabrina and Kris each had a third of a simple gold medallion that I had a jeweler make. I had it broken into three pieces, and each piece had a loop of gold on top so it could be worn on a chain.

            “What’s the inscription supposed to say?” Kris asked, as she unsuccessfully tried to join her piece and Sabrina’s.

            I pulled the necklace free from my collar, and put the pieces together.

            “Sabrina, Kelly, and Kris. Siempre recuerda. 5 March 1978.” Kris read. “What does ‘siempre recuerda’ mean?”

            “It means: always remember.” Sabrina said softly, putting her arm around me. She loved it; I could see it in her softly focused gratitude, her slow-forming smile with its hint of bewilderment.

            “Oh Kelly, thank you.” Kris smiled. “It’s beautiful.”

            “I’m glad you like it.” I said, feeling my cheeks go red.

            “I love you guys.” Kris declared suddenly, throwing her arms around us. “You’re the best!”

            “Yeah.” Sabrina deadpanned. “We know.”

            Kris made a face at Sabrina and tried to shove her off the roof and onto the hood. I laughed. My life had no direction, no clear purpose, and yet I was happy.

            A cool wind blew through the trees, making us all shiver. Kris got off the roof and picked up the plastic cups before they could be blown into the pond. Sabrina and I split the remaining portions of bread, cheese, and wine equally.

            “How’d you know about this place, Bri?” Kris asked in wonder.

            “I don’t know. I just, found it one day.”

            I said. “Nantucket 6583 Bayshore. I’ll have to remember.”

            Sabrina grinned, as she fastened Kris’s necklace for her. “Don’t worry. We will.