Chapter 6. An Album for Kelly
Since we had to wait for supplies, this was the perfect time for a planned expedition to Burlington. It was just Tom and Win and me, and we gathered at Tom’s house on Pearl Street to wait for the bus. Kelly was there, and it was funny and ironic how nice she was to me; actually to all of us. The previous summer, the three of us had bussed down to Burlington to see Doctor No, and Kelly had given us a ton of crap, playing the “mothering” role, because we weren’t mature enough for the shock of seeing Ursula Andress in a bikini. But this summer, we were all a year older, and she didn’t seem to think that From Russia With Love would be too damaging to our fragile young libidos. I hadn’t said anything to Tom yet about my conversations with Kelly.
We enjoyed the film, of course, and talked at length about it as we walked from the Strong Theater to Church Street. Mostly we talked about the actress who played Tatiana. She was an Italian named Daniela Bianchi, and she was drop-dead gorgeous, but we all preferred Ursula. There was plenty of time before we had to catch the bus, so we wandered into Val Carter’s record shop to check out the latest Top Ten and look for our favorite singles.
We spent about twenty minutes in the store, and since we only had a little more than bus fare, Tom bought one 45. He was the most outwardly confident among us, a bold speaker, so he went to the counter and occupied the clerk with his paltry purchase while Win and I walked out with the records we wanted. The thing is, there was an album I wanted, and my skinny frame was barely wide enough to cover a 45. So I quickly checked the clerk, and just walked out with it.
Win kept a straight face as we left, but he kept looking back nervously towards the store as we hurried away. When we had made it around a corner, he couldn’t keep it in any longer.
“I don’t believe you did that!”
I told him it was just a spur of the moment thing, which was true. I certainly hadn’t planned it. Tom caught up with us, and his eyes bugged out when Win told him what I had done. Since it was obvious at that point that no one was chasing us, he was delighted, especially when I showed him the album. He grabbed it.
“The new Dylan album! This is great!”
Then I had to break the news to him.
“It’s for Kelly.”
This took a lot of explaining. All the way back to Essex on the bus, I laid out my deception strategy, and how Kelly played into it. It wasn’t entirely convincing, especially since I wasn’t sure myself if it was going to work. It was going to mean taking Kelly into our confidence. We didn’t necessarily have to tell her where we were going, only that we were going to disappear for a while. I was hoping we could convince her that our rebellion was a valid social statement, worthy of her support. All she had to do was, first, keep her mouth shut, and then, at the right time, blurt out a bit of semi-truthful information that would lead the cops in the wrong direction.
They both thought it was a great plan, or would be if it worked. The trouble with the plan, as we all knew, was that Kelly could blow the whole thing up if she decided to. Along with Karl and the kids who were helping us, she would be one more person we had to trust, and the whole thing would come crashing down if she turned us in. I asked the two of them to think about it overnight, bearing in mind that I thought it was vital that we find ways to steer the cops and our parents away from the simple solution of searching the woods by convincing them we had gone somewhere else.