Stand Back (Mirage Era: Part 3)

He Asked Me For My Love And That Was All

ATTENTION, READERS:
You might ugly-cry on this one...
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Maui, Hawaii
Monday, October 5, 1987
(Morning)
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"Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday, my beautiful baby girl Robin...Happy Birthday to you..."

Stevie crept into her daughter's bedroom a little earlier than normal on the morning of her fourth birthday so they could spend some special time together alone before the baby woke up. Robin was sleeping in her little princess-themed bedroom filled with My Little Pony toys and scattered Barbie clothes under her pink covers, holding onto her new baby doll, the one Grandma Barbara had given her when Mommy was four, she'd told her last night, telling her the doll's name was Sara and she was from a long, long time ago. Stevie held in her hands something else she wanted to share with her daughter, another piece of birthday nostalgia.

"Robin Ann Lindsey Buckingham..." she called to the sleeping little girl softly, sitting on the end of her bed. "You're going to miss your cool special birthday stuff if you don't wake up, sweet girl."

Robin turned over in bed and opened the blue eyes her father had given her. "It's my birthday?"

"Yup! I told you last night there was only one more bedtime till your birthday, baby, and look at you! You did it!" They had been counting bedtimes till her birthday since September on the kitchen calendar at night before Robin went to bed.

"Are we going to open the presents now?" Robin rubbed her sleepy eyes and pushed tangled blonde curls out of her face.

"Not till Uncle Mick and Aunt Christine and everyone else comes over tonight for the party," Stevie said. Robin looked dejected. "But listen, I woke you up because I have one really special present for you, okay? It's a magic shirt you can wear in the house because when you wear it, you're part of a really cool, really special club. Mommy and Daddy are already in the club, and you are four years old today...I think you're old enough to be the the special club. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready!" Robin jumped up into a sitting position in bed, clapping her hands together and smiling. Her mom held up a big black t-shirt with a big red tongue on it that made her giggle and she sounded out the words on the shirt. She had been reading for almost a year, and Stevie had caught her trying to write a poem in her coloring book with a red crayon a few days ago and cried at the way her daughter was already following in her footsteps. Her preschool teacher had told them she was particularly gifted with language. "The Rolling Stones," Robin read. She giggled again, and Stevie laughed and poked her belly which made her laugh more.

"What's so funny, silly goose?" she asked, loving this little girl so much in this moment it took her breath away.

"That's a silly name, Mommy," Robin said in between giggles. "Is that the special club?"

"Kind of," Stevie said. "It's a cool band, you know, like cooler than even Mommy and Daddy's band, and if you're a cool person too, you are a fan and you play their music. You know that one song you like that Daddy plays, 'Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!'?" Robin nodded. "That's The Rolling Stones. But what makes it a really special club isn't the music or the band..." She took her daughter's tiny hands in hers. Once upon a time, Daddy went to a big concert! You know, like the ones Daddy and I perform with Aunt Christine and Uncle John and Uncle Mick?" Robin nodded, completely rapt in her mother's story. "He bought this t-shirt there. I loved this shirt and used to ask Daddy if I could wear it a lot, but Daddy always wanted to wear it too, so we took turns. You know why?"

"Because you loved each other?" Robin looked proud of her answer.

"Yes! Exactly! Mommy and Daddy love each other sooooooo much...that we decided to take turns." Stevie blinked back her tears. "Mommy and Daddy loved each one so much that we made you, sweet girl...and we made your brother the same way." She thought of her son, Aaron Morris Buckingham, a year old and asleep in the next room upstairs on the second floor of their home in Maui...their house on the hill...the kingdom Lindsey had built for them five years ago while she was pregnant with Robin and flying around the country on the Wild Heart tour. Aaron, named for her granddad and Lindsey's father, had been come soon after, born just before the Tango In The Night tour.