Joey was deeply asleep, dreaming he and Karen were bustling about on the boat, and when he hugged her from behind, he buried his face in her lustrous bronze hair, enjoying the scent and feel of it, his hands roaming over her baby-bump as he basked in his love for her and thoughts of the new life growing inside her.
Suddenly something struck him as very wrong; red hair? Karen had black hair, and she wasn’t pregnant when they made the trip to Lakebay. Who was he holding? He spun her around, and it wasn’t Karen at all, Karen was gone, and in her place was Luna Hollister, reaching out to him, her face concerned.
“Joey? Baby, what’s wrong?” Even her voice was wrong; it was Karen’s voice, but Karen was gone, and this other girl was here in her place, talking in her voice.
“No… no, why are you here, … Karen, Karen, where are you…?” His voice trailed away as he took Luna by the shoulders, needing to drag answers out of her; what had she done to Karen, where was she, why was Luna here instead of his wife?
Joey came awake with a jolt, most of the dream fading away, but the memory of dream-Karen sharp and vivid, and then she’d gone, and he’d dreamed of a girl he’d only met for a few minutes that day. Joey slumped back miserably; how could he get over his loss when she haunted his dreams and brought their life together back to him again and again, and what was he doing dreaming of Luna Hollister anyway? With tears in his eyes, feeling empty and betrayed by his dreams, Joey set himself for yet another weary, sleepless night as his emotions raged once again, misery, loss and anger churning inside him, compounded by his treasonous dreams about a girl he hardly knew.
Morning found him once more at a loose end. Tired as he was from a night of little sleep and no real rest, he couldn’t bring himself to try and sleep again; sleep brought dreams of her, and then he’d wake and find it had all just been a dream, and the hurt would roll back in again. After the vivid, disturbing dream of the night before, he had even less inclination to sleep.
So it was that Luna found him, quiet, withdrawn, uncommunicative when she dropped in as she said she would. She tried to draw him into conversation, but from the tired look in his eyes and the drawn lines on his face, she guessed he’d had a bad night, so soon made her excuses and left. Joey was uncomfortable with her presence, but with her gone the house seemed even emptier.
Every morning for the next week, Luna dropped by, checking on him. Joey had developed the routine of emailing Casey to give her a daily update on what he was doing and how he was, and from the tenor of his emails, Casey and Robbie decided that he wasn’t making anything like the effort he’d promised to try and put his life back in focus; quite the opposite, in fact.
Something was going on with him, and it was dragging him back down. They’d shared their misgivings with Sarah, and Sarah in turn had been talking to Jonah. He’d passed some of her worries on to Luna, who then pondered how to bring Joey out of the funk he seemed to be slipping back into.
Finally, ten days after he’d first come home, Luna decided that it was time he stopped brooding alone in that house and found some of the world again, and with Luna, to think was to act.
That evening, Joey answered a tapping at the door, to find a smiling Luna there, but instead of the usual jeans and tank-top, she was wearing a short-sleeved clingy white top with a low-cut back and a black tight skirt that barely came to the tops of her thighs. Her shining hair had been pulled over one shoulder in a loose twist and she was wearing black platform pumps, emphasising her long slender legs and making her almost the same height as him now.
“Come on Joe Anderson, tonight Springfield awaits your presence!” she grinned, her eyes narrowing slightly as Joey shook his head.
“Luna, I… I can’t … I, I…” he stuttered, making her purse her lips in exasperation.
“I said, come on!” she gritted. “You’ve been holed-up in here for over a week now, you don’t step outside, you don’t talk, you just sit in here and mope; well I’ve had enough; you’re coming with me, whether you like it or not, and I won’t take no for an answer! Now get your coat, Joe Anderson, and get in the car!”
Joey stared in silence at the fire in her eyes and swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. Luna stared at him in silence, one eyebrow slightly raised, a gesture he found hauntingly familiar, her flat expression segueing into a sunny smile as he slowly nodded and picked his leather jacket off the hall stand.
“There now, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?” she cooed, and Joey had to grin slightly at the note of triumph in her voice.
They made landfall in a bar on Serramonte, what passed for ‘downtown’ in Springfield. Joey was intrigued to see the envious looks from the other male patrons, but no-one accosted her when she slipped up to the bar and had a quick, whispered conversation with the bartender. When she rejoined him, her smile lit up the room, and a couple of seconds later, a girl brought over two beers and placed them on the table. Luna picked up her beer and tipped the bottle at Joey.
“This is nice. Thank you for coming out with me. There’s a band coming on later; local boys, but I hear they’re good. Maybe later you can show me some of those California dance moves!”
Joey made to protest, but caught her teasing grin, and smiled back sheepishly.
“I don’t really know how to dance properly; Karen always said she’d teach me, but…” he trailed off, breaking eye contact and taking a quick swallow of his beer rather than finish the sentence. Luna reached out and touched his arm gently.
“Then maybe I’ll show you some of them ole Springfield moves, Joe Anderson. Why, we practically invented Western Swing, right here in good ole Laroque County!”
Joey grinned as her accent broadened into a rural twang, Luna grinning back at the first genuine smile she’d seen from him.
“I’ve got to go to the little girl’s room; you wait here, I’ll only be a minute,” she smiled, patting his hand as she stood up and walked to the ladies’ restroom. Joey couldn’t help watching her hip-swaying strut as she walked away from him, her walk all the more sexy for being completely unconscious of his scrutiny; she wasn’t trying to tempt him or work him up; this was just Luna being herself, and Joey could feel himself responding to her on all sorts of levels; part of him saw her only as the family friend trying to help him over his shattering loss, but another, more primal part, saw her as something else entirely: a beautiful, desirable girl.
He tried almost in a panic to suppress and deny that thought; he loved Karen, and he always would; he couldn’t help it that a small, treacherous voice deep inside him insisted that she was gone, and that life went on, and perhaps it was time he accepted that. Besides, how many guys had a beautiful girl practically dragging him out of his house to take her dancing?
“Hey, you’re Joey Anderson, aren’t you?” said a young female voice, and Joey looked up to see a pretty waitress with a tray of empty glasses.
“Guilty,” smiled Joey. “Do I know you?”
The girl grinned in an open, friendly way.
“Prob’ly not; I was a sophomore when you graduated High School, but I remember you playing real tight with my brother against El Cerrito in the state championship playoffs; he was your defensive tackle.”
Joey looked closely at her, at her suddenly familiar features.
“Wait, you’re Elvis Hood’s little sister? I remember you! How is your brother? I haven’t seen or heard from him since the Senior Prom.”
The girl grinned.
“I guess you know about him, how he was, I mean. He came out to Mom and Daddy that night, they had a real big fight, and he left right after. He’s living in Long Beach now, he’s got a … y’know, a partner, they run a fitness club together, and I guess he’s happy, he says he is when he calls me, and he don’t sound like he’s lyin’. He told me he’d tried to get with you, and how you turned him down but were good about it, and you didn’t say anything to anyone, so thank you for that; I don’t think the other guys would have understood.”
She smiled again, and leaned closer.
“I saw you come in with Luna Hollister, so you just be careful; she’s nice, real nice, and I do mean that, but just you remember: you touch her anywhere ‘tween neck and knee-bones and she don’t like it, her uncle Jonah’s liable to get real indiscriminate on your ass, and if them other two are around, weelll, I wouldn’t give much for your chances! Just a friendly warning, y’understand!”
Joey nodded gravely.
“No chance of that; Luna’s just a family friend, helping me out while I’m…”
The girl cut him short.
“I know why you’re here, most everyone in town does. I’m real sorry for your loss. I remember your wife, she was Head cheerleader, but a real nice girl, never acted like queen of the school or anythin’ like that; you just take it easy now.”
Joey looked puzzled.
“How do you know…?”
The girl grinned.
“This is a small town, Joey Anderson; everyone knew why you were here the day after you arrived; my mama told me; Lord knows who told her. Don’t sweat it, no-one’s gonna disturb you; I hear Jonah put the word out about leaving you be, but anytime you wanna talk, come on down; I don’t charge for listening, and I guess I owe you at least that much for keepin’ shut about my brother.”
Joey looked up to see Luna threading her way through the tables toward him, smiling at the girl as she took her seat again.
“Hey Lou, how’s your mom?”
Lou grinned at the pair of them as she picked up her tray.
“She’s fine, Luna, and thanks for askin’. I gotta go now, but just nod if you want anythin’. See y’around, Joey Anderson!”