DASHED DREAMS (3 page)

The Chinese food was known to be excellent in the Sweetwater Café. All three girls decide to order and share. They ordered Lemon Chicken, Garlic Chicken, General Chicken, an order of Shrimp Tempera, and a couple of orders of fried Won Ton. They were sitting along the outer side of the restaurant against the walkway that connects the Silver Legacy to the El Dorado Hotel Casino, watching the tourists dropping coins into the slot machines placed along the walkway.

“Hey, after dinner shall we invest a couple of dollars?” Emma asked.

The girls agreed that they’d each start with twenty dollars and see how long it took to “own the casino,” as Lynda said. When their food arrived, all three took a deep breath to inhale the aromas of the foods, then started dishing out the food.

When they finished their dinner, the girls paid the check and made their way into the casino. They decided to play a round of the 25-cent “Wheel of Fortune” machines, with the mega jackpot up to $1.5 million. When they walked up to the bank of machines, the sounds emitted from the machines said, “Wheel of Fortune.” They started playing each hoping for the spin symbols to line up. They laughed, “Hey, forget hitting the Wheel of Fortune. Let’s get the spin!” They’d been playing for about three minutes when Lynda lined up the three spin symbols and the internal sound of clapping began. She hit the spin button. Around and around the wheel spun landing on the 1,000. Lynda started screaming and the “audience” was clapping.

“I just won $250.00!” she announced excitedly.

The next morning the girls drove to the airport almost in silence. “These early-morning flights are a bear…having to be at the airport so early,” Emma said.

After parking the car, they checked in and began their wait. They didn’t mind the wait as it gave the girls time to chat--as if they don’t chat every day. Emma spotted a newspaper shop across the lobby and decided get something to read. She asked if the other two would like something; both reading other things, they shook their heads no.

By the time Emma returned, they were calling their flight. The girls boarded the plane and got settled in their seats. Both Lynda and Jillian pulled out their reading material and started to read. Emma passed out the three magazines she’d purchased,
Great Country Gardens, Country Stars Today,
and
True Romances.
Thinking of Lynda’s comment on starting her mother’s flowerbed, Emma handed her the garden magazine. Lynda looked up at her and smiled. Emma handed Jillian the country magazine, “Here, Jillie, read something that’s lighter.” Jillian put down her medical journal and took the magazine.

“Thanks.”

Jillian looked at the cover picture of Pierce Layton and the feature story,
“Who’s Hot in Country?”
She whispered, “Who cares.” She paused for a second, staring at the picture. Nice, she thought. She opened the magazine to the featured article and found another picture of Layton with a few smaller pictures of “hot” stars. Jillian put her head against the seatback and began to daydream: What would it be like to be married and have a couple of children? The daydream turned into a dream because she was married to a faceless man and had faceless children; she was no longer a doctor; and she was very unhappy. She wakened with a start, when Emma jabbed her. “Jillie, are you asleep?”

Jillian placed her forehead on the cool window and looked at the clouds floating past. Trying to shake off the dream, she imagined what it’d be like not to be a doctor, which was something she’d wanted all her life. Well, she’d wanted to be a rodeo clown when she was five, but then the medical seed was planted when her grandmother fell off a horse and broke her hip. Jillian and her parents were at her side in the infirmary, and Jillian was fascinated with the fast-paced hospital. People would say, “Oh, you want to be a nurse.” And she’d say, “No, a doctor.” They would react strangely as if she was asking to be the Man in the Moon. She’d given up on romance to concentrate on her career. She’d gone to school with girls who were married during school or had gotten married after medical school. She wondered how many of them were still married. Jillian thought, it’s possible to be married, once your practice is secure, then you can set regular hours. But she always said, “I just haven’t found Mr. Right yet.”

The pilot announced their final descent into Seattle.

“Boy, that was a quick flight,” Emma said. “Lynda, did you learn everything from the magazine on flowerbeds, so you can whip my pants?” She laughed.

“Lynda, don’t let her fool you. She must be concerned that you’ll beat her or she wouldn’t be constantly bringing it up,” Jillian said.

“The proof’ll be in the pudding,” Emma sternly said. The three girls laughed, gathered their belongings, and prepared to land.

Their hotel was located down by the marina, a lovely location. The girls checked their bags with the bellman and found their way to the front desk.

“Good afternoon, may I help you?” the desk clerk asked.

“We’re checking in,” all three girls said at once, then laughed.

“We have reservations for three rooms.” The girls always got separate but adjoining rooms. After the end of a day of being tourists, each girl had her own bathroom and could relax in the bath as long as she wanted. When they opened the connecting doors, they’re together but still apart. They got their keys and while waiting for the elevator, compared room numbers.

Lynda was the last to arrive at the table. Carrying an orange flyer, she plopped down and said, “Here’s what I think we should do tomorrow night.”

The orange flyer was an advertisement, which read:
Memorial Auditorium’s Country Fest, Seattle Celebrates the Grand Old Opry. Appearing are Willie Nelson, Linda Scroggins, Robert John Montgomery, and Pierce Layton.

After lunch the girls talked to the concierge who made their reservations for the next evening’s concert. They found out what there was to do and see within walking distance of the hotel and they found a trolley system would take them almost anywhere they wanted to go. Armed with a trolley schedule and maps, they started for an afternoon of shopping.

The girls are shoppers, as are most women. Lynda’s always on the lookout for purses, any shape, any size. Emma’s a shoe horse, at last count with 30 pairs of shoes. Jillian usually shops for causal clothes.

They consulted a map and found that if they caught the trolley down the block, they could go over to a major shopping mall. Once settled on the trolley, Emma nudged Lynda and motioned upwards to an advertisement on the ceiling:
Seattle’s Memorial Auditorium’s Country Fest, Seattle Celebrates the Grand Old Opry.
They smiled at one another. Emma looked over to show Jillian, but noticed her friend was already looking at the pictures of the performers scheduled to appear.

“Hey, Jillie, Pierce Layton’s riding on this same trolley and he’s looking at you,” teases Emma. She and Lynda laughed.

“You both think you’re so funny.”

Shopping at the mall made for a pleasant afternoon. The girls split up at the shoe store and Jillian headed for a dress shop called, Career Casuals, located just around the corner. Jillian instantly found a princess A-line black and gray tweed dress, with three-quarter sleeves. She asked to try it on. The dress was a perfect fit. She came out of the dressing room and handed the dress to the sales clerk, “I’ll take this. Will you hold it for me?” The girl nodded. When Jillian had finished, she’d purchased four dresses, three pairs of slacks, and three matching casual blouses. At the register Jillian found a pair of square earrings to match the dress. The clerk left the clothing on hangers and placed a large plastic dress bag over them all. The girls were just about to enter as Jillian was coming out. She justified her purchases, by claiming she was replacing older work clothes.

On the trolley ride back to the hotel, the girls commented on how the scenery was wonderfully green with flowers and trees. The weather was partly cloudy and rainy. The girls always remarked about the green vegetation wherever they traveled, as Nevada is so dry and has so little greenery. At the hotel they decided to have dinner in rather than going out. All three ordered fish & chips and beer. Once all the shopping treasures were shown and remarks offered, the girls decided to turn in at about nine o’clock.

For years on their trips the girls had rated their days: a good day, a spectacular day, or a day not wanting to repeat. It’d been a good day for all three.

Later Lynda peeked in on Emma, “What time shall we meet for breakfast?” They agreed on nine and Lynda said, “I’ll let Jillie know.”

At nine o’clock the next morning, all three girls were in Em’s living room. They decided to go to Starbucks for muffins and coffee. The walk was only a couple of blocks down the street and the wait wasn’t to long. They sat outside at a table facing the marina. The sailboat masts wobbled in the breeze, as the sea gulls dipped and dove for food. At the table next to them sat four young women talking about the evening’s concert. “He’s such a dream, and his eyes are so sexy,” the one woman said. Another woman said, “I have a scrapbook of his pictures and articles about him. I understand Pierce Layton has a huge fan club and Robert John Montgomery’s also going to be there. WOW!”

Lynda leaned over. “Are you going to the concert? We have tickets and are very excited about seeing all the performers. I heard you mention Pierce Layton and Robert John Montgomery. I think all of us ladies will be drooling over them.” All the women laughed then introduced themselves, and began to talk about tonight’s concert.

After coffee, the ladies said goodbye. Emma mentioned that it was again time to go shopping. The girls shopped until they dropped. Armed with several shopping bags, they decided to head back to the hotel for a few hours’ rest before dinner and the concert.

Lynda and Emma came into Jillian’s room to see what she was wearing to the concert. They both wore jeans and Western boots. Jillian decided on capri pants, a tee shirt, and loafers. They teased her about not wearing jeans and boots to a Western concert. She just waved her hand at them, as if to say, “Oh, well…”

They met in the restaurant at six, the girls visibly excited about the concert. After dinner they grabbed a cab and headed for Seattle’s Municipal Auditorium.

The auditorium’s seating was set up with five long tables lengthwise in front of the stage, seating probably 20 people on each side; behind were rows of chairs and raisers with rows of chairs, seating several hundred people.

The show was a drinks-only show. Emma, Lynda, and Jillian were about fifth in line. The seats weren’t assigned, so it was just first come, first served. The three girls were shown to their seats. They were sitting next to the stage.

“Boy, how did you get these great seats?” Lynda asked to Emma. Smiling and pointing to her palm, Emma indicated that she gave the captain a tip.

The house lights were lowered, and an announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome from Nashville, Linda Scroggins.” The house roars with applause.

When Linda finished she introduced Willie Nelson, and then he introduced Pierce Layton. All performers just belted out song after song, and the audience clapped, stomped, and yelled! The girls looked at each other and were glad they came.

Pierce Layton’s the grandson of Uncle Felix Layton. Uncle Felix, as his fans called him, was a mega country Western star in the 1940’s and 1950’s, until he and his band were killed in a plane crash in Wyoming during a storm. Some critics say Pierce’s riding on his grandfather’s coattails. Given that or not he’s a tremendous performer and knows how to charm an audience.

After finishing his first song, he asked for the house lights to be turned up. He explained to the audience that he liked to be able to look into their eyes when he sings this next song,
Eyes of My Soul.
He explained that this song was a small one, as it sold only 1 million copies. The audience went crazy. He strolled from each side of the stage, singing and ending the song at center stage. When he finished, he kneeled, reached for Jillian’s hand, and kissed it. He winked at her, then stood, and the audience went crazy.

Robert John Montgomery, RJ, as his friends called him, stood offstage left, watching Pierce Layton sing and the audience going wild. The energy was great, and he was pleased that they’d be warmed up for him. He stepped further backstage, found a stool alongside a countertop, and puts down his glass. He sat down and picked up the crossword he’d been working on earlier during rehearsal. He divided his time between the puzzle and watching Pierce. He’d seen the hand kiss and thought: What a ham!