say hello wave goodbye

65: memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead (1998)

Hello! I promised a few of you that I hadn't given up on this, and now I'm finally delivering on that promise. This has been a crazy school year and my students have taken all my mental energy by the end of the day, but the holiday weekend has given me a chance to finally buckle down and finish this, and it's an extra long chapter as a reward for your patience.

February 1998

Stevie purses her lips together to keep from smiling, pretending that she doesn't see Lindsey lurking behind her in the reflection of her vanity mirror. "Do I know you?"

"Do you want to?" he asks, and she rolls her eyes at his cheesy line. There was still some lingering irritation on her part about him inviting Kristen to the Grammys, but he was making up for it. When she had suddenly burst into tears on the way home from rehearsal, overcome by the thought that this may be their last performance as a quintet, he had pulled off onto a side street to focus on consoling her.

"I know, angel, it won't be the same. But we're lucky to have had the last year together, aren't we?" She nodded, sniffling. "Don't look at it as the end of Fleetwood Mac. Think of it as the beginning of Buckingham Nicks, volume II. With special guest stars Fleetwood and McVie."

"Don't let Mick hear you say that," she said, leaning over the center console to rest her head on his shoulder. Truthfully, she wasn't ready to even think about another album or tour without Chris, but they had time. Their schedule was already booked for the foreseeable future- she had the release of the box set and the tour ahead of her, plus several years worth of songs that she hoped to record soon. Lindsey had a solo album of his own almost completed (not to mention a baby 'in production').

When they got home, he volunteered to relieve Karen of her duties and take the dogs out for their walk and potty break while Stevie had her nightly soak in the tub. It was an obvious ploy to stay on her good side- and get Karen out of the house sooner- but she didn't mind at all.

Now he sits down beside her, moving her damp hair out of the way and pretending to bite at the base of her neck. Their eyes meet when he looks up at the mirror and he raises his eyebrows like he's thinking. "You know, I just realized you have this huge mirror in your bedroom and yet we've never-"

"No," she says firmly before he can get too carried away. "I would need to be seriously stoned to even consider it."

"We can make that happen," he offers, about to stand up until she puts her hand on his shoulder to push him back down. She had indulged a few times during their holiday break, but then it was back to work and back to looking after her voice. "Or...what if we just pretend?"

It had started on the night of their Hall of Fame ceremony and continued on through their time in Europe, this 'pretending' that they were their younger selves. Even disregarding their frequent breaks in character, it wasn't a completely accurate recreation- for that, they'd have to get fucked up and scream at each other when they weren't fucking- but it gave her an excuse to be a little more adventurous than she thought a nearly 50 year old woman should be. (Not that she was ever boring in the bedroom, even at her advanced age). "The time machine's gonna have to go pretty far back for that. Maybe back to the days when I was still stuffing my bra." She glances down at the neckline of her robe and shrugs. "Hard to believe there was ever a time when that was necessary!"

It was during their Fritz days, when they had a gig playing at a local high school prom and Stevie had chosen a dress that was a bit more formal than usual in honor of the occasion. She typically wore dresses with high necklines so as to not draw attention to the cleavage that she didn't have, but this one had a v-neck, and so she had stuffed a few socks in her bra before she left home. It might not have looked entirely natural, but no one would notice when she was on stage.