Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 4: The Dance

Black As Night

Paradise Valley, Arizona
Wednesday, July 2, 1997
(10;30 pm)
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"Absolutely not! You are not taking your grandfather's car into Phoenix at ten-thirty at night when you are clearly stoned off your ass!"

Lindsey stood face to face with his only son in the living room of his in-laws' home in Arizona, and everyone left in the room after Jess' birthday cake and coffee sat watching as the two men squared off, the battle they'd been waging for months now coming to a head. They had all flown into Phoenix for the week of Jess' birthday and the Fourth of July, and for the past two days Aaron and his father had been exchanging nothing more than a few meager grunts of acknowledgment as the Buckingham family had converged on the Nicks family for what was supposed to have been a carefree start to summer vacation, as well as a last hurrah before Fleetwood Mac took The Dance on the road in the fall. Jess had gone upstairs to bed and Lori and Christopher had taken Jessi home to put her to bed, bringing Sara along for the sleepover the two cousins had been begging for all evening. Julia was helping Barbara clean up the kitchen, Stevie had curled up on the couch with the dog and a book, her hand firmly secured on the little bump she carried which she had just been told a week ago was a baby girl. But three generations of Nicks women had gathered in the living room when the shouting had begun, and it did not look like the war was anywhere close to over.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Dad!" Aaron said, glaring into the blue eyes that were carbon copies of his own. "You smoke plenty!"

"And I don't get behind the wheel of a car, genius! It's bad enough you scowled all through your grandfather's birthday like some kind of tough guy, but now you expect to drive stoned into the city to do...what, exactly? Where are you going?"

"Anywhere that isn't here," Aaron said, the venom in his tone biting into Stevie more than she'd expected it would. She had been writing off her son's bitter remarks since he'd heard about the new baby, but it was getting harder to keep it up.

"You will apologize to your grandmother right now!" Lindsey shouted, and he turned to his mother-in-law, who stood stunned in the archway to the dining room, dish towel in hand. "Barbara, I apologize for my kid. He's obviously not playing with a full deck tonight."

Barbara, ever the peacekeeper, stepped forward and put an affectionate hand on her grandson's arm. "Aaron, honey, you shouldn't be behind the wheel if you've been using anything mind-altering tonight," she said. "Your father is right. Maybe you'd like to spend the night at Uncle Christopher's? You know...take a little break? I'm happy to drive you."

"I appreciate the idea, Barbara, but he's not going anywhere until he apologizes." Lindsey would not be moved.

Aaron threw up his hands in anger. "Fuck! Dad! Every time I turn around you're demanding I apologize to somebody!"

"That's because every time I turn around, you're out here saying stupid shit!" You treat your little sister like dirt, you disrespect your mother every time she so much as looks in your direction...but this ends tonight, buddy boy! You tell your grandmother you're sorry for insulting her home after she prepared a delicious meal for you tonight, and for smoking pot on her property when you're not even old enough to drink." Lindsey folded his arms and stood in an hostile and unwavering stance. "Go ahead. We're all waiting."

Stevie decided enough was enough. She placed her bookmark with the picture of a piano on it into the gigantic novel she'd brought with her to Arizona for the trip. It was called Forever Amber, by the author Kathleen Winsor, and the heroine of the story was a strong female character so inspiring that Stevie had begun to wonder in her thoughts of her unborn baby girl if Amber was a name worthy of adding to the list she and Lindsey had begun to make when they'd gotten the results from the doctor that it was, indeed, a healthy baby girl growing inside of her. She gently moved Sara Belladonna from her lap and onto the floor, and the dog toddled off towards her water bowl in Barbara's kitchen. She stood up with considerable effort, just past the beginning of her second trimester and starting to show. In her oversized white t-shirt with multiply-cuffed sleeves and the first maternity jeans she'd ever owned because they hadn't existed on the market a decade before when she'd last shopped for maternity clothes, Stevie rose to her bare feet and looked back and forth between the two most important men in her life. She had never told Lindsey about the conversation she'd had with Julia back in May about Aaron's behavior, hoping it would get better on its own. Clearly, as a parent and as a wife, she'd made a mistake.