Chapter Text
Summer, 1958
In the deep woods of Hoosier National Forest, fourteen-year-old Phillip Cunningham hears a cry. He freezes as he listens—is it a fawn? Or some other wounded animal? He sets down the pile of firewood he had been gathering and wipes his hands on his khaki pants. Perhaps he should go back and alert his troop. His father, the Scoutmaster, would know what to do. He hears the cry again but now it sounds almost like…a girl?
Curiosity takes control as he trudges deeper into the woods. He doesn’t have to walk much farther to find a girl about his age with a ponytail of moon-bright hair sprawled over a patch of poison ivy and crying her eyes out.
“You all right?” he asks.
She looks up at him and shrieks. Phil yelps and jumps back, smacking his head against a tree. The girl scrambles to her feet and hugs herself. Other than her tear-stained face, she looks physically okay in her cherry red shorts and matching striped top.
“Sorry, I didn’t—” he clears his throat and prays his face isn’t as red as her shorts. "I saw you crying and I thought it was because you fell into the poison ivy.”
She blinks her bright gray eyes. “Poison ivy? Where?”
“You’re standing in it.”
She looks down at her feet, then back at him.
“How do you know it’s poison ivy?”
“Leaves of three, let it be?”
She stares down at the foliage for a long moment, then stamps her foot and throws her head back.
“I. HATE. NATURE!”
Phil smacks back into the tree again.
The girl raises her hands to wipe her eyes and Phil yells, “Don’t touch your eyes! Don’t touch anything.” He takes a couple of steps towards her. “Is your campsite nearby?”
Her hands smack against her lean thighs. “I have no idea. My family and I were hiking together but I was too slow so they went ahead without me. I tried to find our campsite but got lost.”
Phil swallows down the irritation that this girl’s own family would leave her behind. Hands on hips, he nods to her.
“Well, follow me. I’ll take you to our campsite so we can treat the poison ivy and get you back to your family.”
“Is it far?”
“Not too far.” He loosely wraps his neckerchief around his hand before offering it to her. “I’m Phil.”
For the first time, she smiles as she shakes his hand. “Laura.”
She dabs her eyes and her pink cheeks with his neckerchief as he retraces his steps back to the main path towards camp. It gives his eyes something to do so he won’t stare at her.
“Where’re you from?” he asks.
“All sorts of places, but we moved to Hawkins a few weeks ago.”
“No kidding! That’s where I’m from.”
“Really? How is Hawkins?”
“I think it’s pretty swell, but it’s the only place I’ve ever known. I’m sure the places you’ve been have been far more exciting.” He steps over a fallen log and holds his hand out to her. “Is your family military?”
She smiles shyly as she presses her wrapped hand in his. “How’d you guess?”
“Well, it’s the only kind of job I can think of where you’d move all sorts of places.”
She leans her weight on his hand as she lifts one long leg and then the other over the log. When she lets go, he resists the urge to wipe his damp palm against his pants.
“My dad was in the Air Force, but now he’s going to fly regular airplanes,” she says. “What does your dad do?”
“He’s a bank manager during the week and Scoutmaster during the weekend. You’ll meet him when we get to camp. It’s at the top of this hill.”
“Great,” she sighs. “So, what do you do when you’re not doing boy scout stuff?”
“I like to read or listen to music.”
“What kind of music do you listen to?”
Finally, finally, he has an answer that he hopes won’t make him look like a total square.
“Rock and roll.”
Her eyes widen. “Like Elvis?”
“Elvis is all right,” he says with a shrug. “Do you like him?”
“I just know his songs from his movies,” she says, her cheeks reddening. “The ones they play on the radio, I mean. I’m not allowed to see his movies.”
From the way his cousin Jenny went rabid after dragging him to see Jailhouse Rock, he has an inkling as of why her parents wouldn’t let her see it.
“You ever heard of Fats Domino?” he asks.
She scrunches her face. “No.”
“Little Richard?”
She shakes her head.
“Elvis covered one of his songs, ‘Tutti Frutti.’”
Laura claps her hands and squeaks, “I love that song!”
They reach the campsite not long after. Heads turn as Phil leads Laura straight to his father, who in turn leads her to the water spigot to scrub off as much of the poison ivy’s oil as she could. Lonnie jogs up to Phil and sticks his tongue through the hole between his teeth. He was a year older but he and Phil were neighbors and friends since they were babies. Lonnie was tall and scrawny with a mop of red hair that resisted any sort of hair grease while Phil was sturdy and broad like an ox with mousy brown hair.
“Where in the heck did you find a girl in the middle of the woods?”
“She was lost,” Phil huffs, “I gotta go back and get the firewood.”
“Can I come with you and see if I can find a girl just as pretty?”
Phil shakes his head but accepts the help. To Lonnie’s dismay, the forest is fresh out of lost girls. When they return, Phil finds Laura sitting daintily on one of the split logs around the fire pit, her skin pink with calamine lotion. A pair of younger girls are being entertained by one of the older scouts while Phil’s father talks to who he could only assume are Laura’s parents.
“I take it those are your folks?” Phil asks as he sits next to her.
“Yeah. Turns out I wasn’t too far away from the hiking trail they were on. They followed it all the way here.”
“My dad will probably lead you back.”
She pouts and Phil finds it hard to breath past his heart in his throat.
“You can’t?”
“If you want me to, I can ask to come along,” he stammers.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she sighs.
“I want to.” He scratches the back of his sweaty neck and remembers that she still has his neckerchief. “You can tell me what you like to do when you’re not getting lost in the woods.”
“Roller skating and movies. Are there any rinks in Hawkins?”
“There’s a couple I know of nearby. And there’s the Hawk Theater in downtown Hawkins.”
Maybe we could go together sometime? he wants to ask and, from the eager way she’s looking at him, maybe she wants him to ask too. However, Phil’s never asked anyone out before and this feels too fast. Maybe he should give her his number first? Dang it, he knew he should have been paying attention to those educational videos in class!
Before he can untie his tongue, Laura’s parents have finished talking with his dad. Her father, Mr. Gilbert Masters, shakes his hand first. It takes everything in Phil to not ask if he’s been mistaken for Cary Grant. Her mother, a mirror image of Laura, shakes his hand next and thanks him for rescuing their daughter.
“The sun’s setting, so we better start hoofing it back to camp,” Mr. Masters says. “It was good to meet you, young man.”
Mrs. Masters pipes in, “Your father told me you live in Hawkins as well, so I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”
Phil says, “I’m sure we will. Did you need a guide back to your campsite?”
“I’ve got a map and a good sense of direction, son. We’ll make out all right,” Mr. Masters says, turning on his heel. “Come along, girls.”
The two younger girls skip ahead of their father and up the trail that winds back into the woods.
“Thank you again for looking after our girl,” Mrs. Masters says, placing a hand on Laura’s shoulder.
Laura looks back at him. She pulls up a small smile as she waves to him.
“Good bye, Phil.”
There’s still time to ask for her number, but it’s the wrong time. When they see each other at school (there’s only one Hawkins High, after all), he’ll ask her then.
“Bye, Laura,” he says, waving back.
He watches her and her mother catch up with the rest of their family. His dad joins him and pats him on the back.
“That was a good thing you did,” Dad says, then looks Phil up and down. “What happened to your neckerchief?”
Phil looks down at his shirt. He never did ask for it back.
Present Day
“On Blue-berry Hill…when I found you,” Phil mumbles along with Fats Domino as he flips through Chrissy and Peter’s baby photos in his study.
Half melted in his leather chair, Phil takes another sip of watery scotch. God, where did the time go? It couldn’t have been that long since Chrissy barely reached his knees. Peter had sprouted up like a weed, too. Phil never really noticed how big he’d gotten until they were squished on the couch together playing Donkey Kong after Chrissy and Eddie had left. When their pizza finally came, his son gobbled up his half in the blink of an eye. Soon he’d be grown and taking his own date to senior prom, but by then maybe Laura would actually stick around.
The moon stood still
On Blueberry Hill
And lingered until
My dream came true
He knows it’s for the best, however, that Laura went to her sister’s tonight. Things had become contentious over the past couple of months as Phil played referee between his wife and daughter, especially once Eddie was out of the hospital. It was jarring to see the young man with long hair and ripped jeans sitting on his knees next to Chrissy as they did their homework on the coffee table. Eddie didn’t fit, and at first Laura made him know he didn’t fit until Phil pulled her aside to tell her to stop. Now when Eddie came over, Laura left the house in a huff, and Phil would later sleep in a bed he set up in his study.
Despite looking out of place, there’s something familiar with how Eddie and Chrissy are around each other. They remind him of when he and Laura were first going steady in high school—hands always laced together, all giggly and sweet. Phil can’t recall now if Chrissy had ever been this silly when she was with Jason, but he’d only ever seen Jason at church or for the few formal minutes when he came to pick up Chrissy for a date. Laura might know.
The wind in the willow played
Love’s sweet melody
But all of those vows we made
Were not meant to be
But Laura was long gone when Eddie came to pick up Chrissy for prom. While Chrissy was getting ready, they chatted mostly about school and what Wayne was up to. Peter popped in to ask Eddie about some video game that had just come out at the arcade, and then Chrissy announced she was coming down.
Phil’s heart leapt in his mouth as he watched Chrissy float down the stairs in her glowing pink dress, wearing the string of pearls his mother gifted her on her sixteenth birthday. She beamed at Eddie as he took her hand. It hit Phil square in the chest that Chrissy really was all grown up now, and he wished Laura was here to share in his pride and grief.
Though we’re apart
You’re part of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
The phone rings. Phil checks his watch: it was only a little after nine. Laura was probably calling to let him know she was either on her way back or sleeping over at her sister’s. Snapping the baby book shut, Phil rolls off his chair and goes to pick up the phone in the hallway.
“Cunningham residence.”
“Hi, Daddy. It’s Chrissy.”
A chill prickles down his scalp. What happened in the span of a couple of hours that she’d need to call him sounding so sad? He pats his pockets for his car keys.
“Everything okay, honey?”
She sighs, “Did Mom tell you she’s chaperoning prom tonight?”
“What?” he says, rubbing his ear. Surely, he didn’t hear that right. “She’s at your Aunt Cathy’s.”
“I guess she changed her mind because she yelled at me and Eddie for dancing and threatened to kick him out.”
He leans on the little table the phone sits on. He thinks back to earlier that day: he had been reading the newspaper when Laura told him she’d be going to Cathy’s after lunch. She dressed nicely, but she always did when she left the house. Once ready, she sneered up at Chrissy’s door and left without another word.
“She never said anything to me, no,” he says. “Is she still there? I can talk to her—”
“No, we left. Eddie and me, that is,” she sniffles. “We’re getting dinner and then when the prom’s over, we’re going to Lana’s. Is it okay if I sleep over at her house tonight?”
Phil squeezes the phone cord. “Sure, honey, but did you need to stop here first—”
“No, it’s okay. We all have stuff at each other’s houses.”
“I’m sorry, peanut. I’ll talk to her when she gets home.”
“It won’t change anything, Dad.”
Chrissy’s voice cracks. Phil closes his eyes for a moment as he listens to Chrissy’s trembling breath. He can’t see the young woman in a pink ballgown anymore, but a weeping three year old in her blue Easter dress. He wishes this was the kind of hurt he could kiss to make it better.
“I know, but I still need to talk to her. Do you know when you’re coming home tomorrow?”
“No, not really.”
“Call in the morning, then, so I know where you are, okay? And tell Eddie he better be taking good care of you.”
His chest lightens at her soft laugh.
“More than you know.”
When he finally hangs up, his hand lingers on the receiver. He calls Cathy but it goes straight to the answering machine. He calls again, same result, so he leaves a message to have Laura call him back. He returns to his study, refills his drink, and sits in his chair.
This is a new low for Laura. She’ll try to pass it off as protecting their daughter in some way, but he knows that’s it more about getting back at him and Chrissy. She’ll never admit it. She’ll never apologize, but she can’t pull something like this again. He can’t get another phone call like that again.
It’s late when Laura finally pulls up. She saunters in, the dim light catching the sequins on her dark green dress, and knocks on the open door of his study.
“I’m back,” she sighs. “Is Chrissy home yet?”
“No, she’s sleeping over at a friend’s tonight.” Hands folded in his lap, he glares up at her. “You stayed awfully late at Cathy’s.”
Laura shrugs. “Well, that’s what happens when you have a Twilight Zone marathon and a couple bottles of wine.”
“You dressed up and didn’t go anywhere?”
She looks him up and down in a way that makes this throat feel warm.
“I should kick you out of bed more if it gets you to notice me again,” she purrs.
“I know you were at the prom, Laura,” he says, her name heavy on his tongue. “Can you tell me why?”
Laura blinks at him, her smug grin tightening into a thin line across her face.
“Cathy got a call from Theresa—”
“Who?”
“The school nurse. They’ve been friends ever since Julie started going to Hawkins High.” She flicks her fingers in the air as if to wipe the side note away. “Anyway, that they were short a chaperone and looking for someone to fill in. I had no where else to be and Cathy wanted to go to bed early, so I volunteered.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Don’t believe me, then. I’m too tired to care.”
Laura turns on her heel and starts up the stairs. Phil pushes himself up and follows her, fists buried deep in his pockets.
“I know what happened.”
She freezes on the top step. She doesn’t look back, but he can still hear her whisper, “Christ.”
“Chrissy called me in tears, Laura. You were yelling at them for dancing? Threatening to kick Eddie out?” His voice booms as his anger expands in the open air. “Worst of all, you lied. You lied so I wouldn’t be able to stop you from ruining Chrissy’s night. They left prom early because of you.”
“That was her decision to make,” she says slowly as she turns to face him. “They were behaving inappropriately and I warned them that that behavior could get them kicked out. If you had seen them, seen how they were practically fornicating in front of everyone, you would have stopped them too.”
“Somehow, I doubt that."
She smacks her hands against her sides. “Fine. I’m the bad guy, as always.”
“Well, you sure were tonight.”
“Excuse me?” she gasps.
“You heard me.”
“I expected you to know how to lead and protect this family, not welcome this wolf in sheep’s clothing with open arms! He’s probably defiling Chrissy as we speak, but you don’t care about letting him walk all over you. You’re pathetic, Phil.”
Her voice rises higher and higher as she stomps down the staircase. She stops when she’s eye level with him, her gray eyes glaring coldly at him. He resists fiddling with his collar as heat plumes up his neck.
“You can think I’m a doormat all you like, Laura, but when I say—”
“For weeks I let things go your way,” she fumes. “I’m tired of biting my tongue. I won’t let that monster in this house again.”
“It’s my name on the goddamn deed, so I can say who comes and goes. If you don’t like it—”
He clamps his mouth shut, the next treacherous words crashing behind his teeth. The rage he had been stoking is suddenly snuffed out. Even Laura sways from the shock and catches herself on the bannister.
“I should leave?” she gasps.
“I didn’t say that.”
Tears well up in Laura’s eyes and oh Lord he wishes he could turn back the clock to just a few moments ago.
“You’re choosing that monster over me?”
“No, Laura, I’m not—”
“Do you really think so little of me?” she cries.
Suddenly it’s hard for him to breathe. He should have never let his anger get the better of him. He should have never said anything at all.
“No, Laura, I love you.”
Phil reaches out for her hand and she flinches away.
“Then he cannot step foot in this house again,” she says.
He closes his eyes and takes a shallow breath as he feels the walls closing in.
“I can’t do that.”
“Then you don’t really love me, do you?”
He opens his eyes and her face shimmers with tears. It breaks his heart that he’s done this to her.
“That’s not true.”
“No, I hear you loud and clear, Phil. I’m leaving and getting a hotel room.”
“Please don’t. Laura!”
He grabs at her hand again when she moves up the stairs, but she slaps it away.
“Leave me alone!” she shrieks, but stops in her tracks. She glares at him, her jaw quivering. “I guess I can’t tell you what to do in your house. It’s your name on the goddamn deed, after all.”
Phil gasps as if he’s been knifed in the chest. They both know he could never force her to stay here, but what if she’s not there in the morning? What if she leaves and only comes home to hand him the divorce papers? What if she takes the kids and house, leaving him to fend for himself in an apartment downtown? When both kids turn eighteen, she’d never have to see his face again. He would have alienated his wife of almost twenty years, and for what?
He wants Chrissy to be happy. He knows Eddie makes her happy. Hell, he even likes him too! But the reality was that they were only teenagers. He and Laura made it only because they had similar interests and similar goals. Once Chrissy went off to college and Eddie started traveling to make it with his music, it would only be a matter of time before they broke things off.
He took his vows with Laura, and he needs to keep them.
“All right,” he sighs. “If it’ll make you happy, I’ll tell Chrissy that Eddie can’t come over for a little while.”
“Never again,” she snarls.
He swallows the thick air. “Fine.”
Laura wipes her eyes. She steps down to his level again. She kisses his cheek and murmurs her thanks, her fingers resting on his sternum.
“I need to shower, and I’m sure you do too,” she whispers, cloyingly sweet.
Bile that tastes like bitter scotch rises in his throat. “I’m going to bed. In my study.”
She shrugs and slips her hand away. “Suit yourself.”
He retreats to his study, locking the door behind him. He yanks off his shoes, then tears off his shirt and slacks before rolling onto the narrow bed he’d set up. He reaches over and switches off the lamp on his little table sandwiched between his bed and his chair. The sound of water from Laura’s shower rushes over head. He tries to focus on that to distract him from the ringing in his ears.
Hopefully, Chrissy will forgive him. When she gets married and has her own children, he hopes by then she’ll understand why he had to make such a difficult choice.
For now, he helplessly watches the minutes tick by on his alarm clock, inching him ever forward to the point of no return.