Waltz of Her Life

April 1977

"I can't believe you talked me into this!" Linda said. She looked upward for a moment, as dark rumbling clouds overhead sluiced torrents of rain onto the windshield. Wind rumbling across the highway kept trying to nudge "Myrtle," Linda's 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, into the other lane.

Lauren laughed. Her eyes sparkled in the overcast dimness and her long, dark hair tumbled in dancing waves over her shoulders. "Didn't you say that veewees were watertight? We could put a propeller on the end!"

Linda glanced anxiously at the gas gauge, which tickled the quarter tank mark. "Or we'll make you get out and push." They squinted together to look through the windshield.

Lauren ignored Linda's slightly caustic remark, the way she always did. "We're going to see Robert!" Lauren put her hands together and gazed heavenward in an overly dramatic gesture. "We're going to see Robert! For free! Isn't this great!" She excitedly patted Linda on the shoulder, so much that the steering wheel tugged to the right and the car nudged toward the shoulder.

Linda screamed. "Jeez, Laure! You wanna kill us both?"

Her friend's eyes opened wide. Linda glanced for a moment, to check their color.

In the year they'd known each other, Linda noticed that Lauren's eyes changed from dark blue to violet to brown whether she was happy, scared, or high. At that moment they were violet. Linda wondered what type of medical condition would cause that. She was studying nursing. Since she'd taken Psychology her first semester, she already knew her friend was crazy.

They would reach the exit for the west-east interstate soon. She was already running the defogger at full blast to keep the windshield clear but still struggled to see. "I still think it would have been easier to wait two weeks and go to St. Louis."

Lauren sighed deeply and shook her head. "But this is free! How many times have I got to tell you! Free! Free! We're going to see Robert and Jimmy, for free!"

"But they're playing on a Friday night at the Checkerdome! We wouldn't have had to miss class! And it's only a hundred miles away!"

"Free!" Lauren repeated. She spelled out the word, for extra emphasis. "Do you know how many people would give their left eyeball to see Zeppelin for free?"

"You're gross!"

Lauren settled back into her seat. "I can't believe I'm finally going to see them."

She started to sing: "Walking through the park just the other day baby…" Linda sang along: "Whattaya, Whattaya think I saw?For the next few miles, as she entered the interstate and they cruised east, they sang more Led Zeppelin songs, going from "Misty Mountain Hop," and "When the Levee Breaks," then moving into "Kashmir," and "Dancing Days." Their singing helped Linda forget that her car only had an AM radio, that she was missing a Biology lecture and English 2 class.