Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 96.3: 1968, Georgina

Chapter 96.3: 1968, Georgina

It seemed as if every song from The Sound of Music was stuck in my head, each one contending to be heard. I was still smiling, beaming up at the water stained ceiling in Paulie’s bedroom in the semi-darkness. The orange glow was coming in from the open window in the room as always, but it seemed warmer now somehow.

We’d sang throughout the movie, as nobody else had come. It truly was a miracle. I was so relaxed, so full of joy. We’d admired Paulie as he sang just like Julie Andrews, and Cha Cha had punched him in the shoulder for it in the middle of “My Favorite Things” which had made him burst into laughter which had made us all laugh mid-word. But watching Paulie sing like that, so animated like old times, fit for Broadway…it had made me puff up with pride knowing he was my best friend.

I’d forgotten that it was possible to be so happy. It was a high, an incredible natural high.

And after the movie, a sweet unexpected moment. Cha Cha told me he had to use the restroom, and we all did really. He’d pushed me towards the crossways between the men’s room and the women’s. A nervousness had started up inside of me, but without even a hesitation he’d turned left into the women’s. Paulie had followed right after us. I’d been shocked by this, but it just continued the glee for the night. Paulie had helped me in one of the stalls, and after we were all done we’d gone off into the night full of so much merriment. And in the car, to top it all off, we'd started singing again. All of us, singing together so loudly. You’d think we didn’t have a care in the world. It really felt like it.

Now Cha Cha had been dropped off, off to bed to dream about all of his favorite things. And I was in bed now, feeling like I was in the clouds I was so on top of the world.

This was the best birthday anything I’d ever experienced. I never wanted this feeling to end. My breath started to slow as I cuddled into the quilt around me, my throat making a small coo-ing noise like a happy baby, one I’d only made but extremely rarely. The most content sound in the world.

Crash! Bssh- Crsshh!

My breath caught as I sat up straight in the bed and started to scream, the pain rocketing up my middle in my sudden movement, the sitting up pose. I fell on my back, laid in the bed again, my heart going two hundred miles per minute and my breath coming too quick, I was almost hyperventilating.

Where was I? What was I-

Crssh! Bssh!

Glass?! The windows!

“Paulie!” I howled, hyperventilating in the semi-darkness, scared out of my mind. The fire escape!

“Fuck! What is that?!”

“Paulie, what is that?!”

“Shh! I don’t know!” Paulie was at the doorway now, standing in there but not looking at me. He stood there as if protectively, his hands on either side of the doorway but peering behind him.

“Paulie, what-“

Wham! Wham! Wham!

“Paulie…” I whispered, my voice shaking.

“That sounds close.”

“What is it…”

“I’m going to check it out. Its not in here.”

“I know, its not in here, but what is it…”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t leave me…”

“I have to. I’ll be right back. I’m just going to look out the window see if I can see what it is.”

“Okay…”

He disappeared from the doorway, and I breathed rapidly in the bed. I gripped my chest, trying to calm my breathing but it couldn’t be done. Paulie was here. He’d protect- the gun. There was a gun behind the mirror on the dresser. My eyes rocketed to the mirror. Stayed there.

“OH FUCK NOOOOO,” Paulie wailed from the living room, causing me to jump and cry out in pain, any effort to calm myself now completely out the window.

“Paulie, what?!” I cried out, so helpless. Unable to do anything. Tears welled into my eyes, my emotions coming up into them out of control.

“MY CAR! THEY’RE BASHING MY CAR!”

“WHAAAT?!”

“SOMEBODY IS FUCKING SMASHING MY CAR UP WITH CROWBARS AND SHIT!”

My breath hitched, unable to breathe now.

“NOOOOO, DON’T HURT MY PINK BETTYYY!” Paulie wailed from the living room, followed by a string of strong expletives. “Georginaaa, I’m going out there and I’m gonna kill those mother-!”

“NO, PAULIE, DON’T GO OUT THERE! DON’T GO OUT THERE!”

“THOSE FUCKING KIDS! WHAT THE FUCK- WHAT THE FUCK-!”

“CALL THE POLICE!”

“AHHHHHHH! NOT HER SIDE MIRRORS!”

“CALL GANYA!”

I was hyperventilating now. Gripping my sheets. I needed a paper bag. I needed- “I nee- need a pape- paper ba- bag-“ I hyperventilated, hoping he’d hear me. It felt like I was going to pass out. The sounds outside were getting louder, harder, making me shake knowing exactly what they were now-

“No, no, no,” I heard him wail outside the doorway. Heard him moving in the kitchen. Had he heard me?

“Paulie, I need-“ Desperate...

He appeared in the doorway again, his teeth showing but his lips drooped, his eyes darting from side to side in worry. In the dim orange light, I could see a paper lunch bag was in his hands. So thankfully, I took it from him and put it over my mouth and nose. I started to puff into it, felt my eyes roll back slightly into my head behind my closed eyelids.

“Why are they doing that? Why- why are they doing that-?” He babbled, not looking at me clearly. His hands went over his ears, then into his hair. He sat on the bed, helpless like me. He began to rock back and forth. “Fuck, I have to call someone. Who the fuck do I call? I can’t call the police.”

Why couldn’t he call the police?

“Bettyyy,” he wailed to himself, the sounds softer outside now. “They don’t make her tires anymore. The white kind…”

I could only puff into the bag and stare at him rocking. I wanted so badly to get up and hug him, take him in my arms, but I just couldn’t. It made the tears come.

“They smashed her windows out.” He let out a small sob, his hands going over his face. His shoulders started to jump up and down. My throat choked up, seeing this.

Silence but for his sobs filled the room. Eerie stilled silence, causing his sobs to be louder than they were. Ringing in my ears. Causing the helpless feeling to drill into me, taking over everything, even the fear. But the fear was so present, crushing and binding with everything we knew, oozing into everything, becoming the very reality.

The happiness some hours earlier seemed to drift away with the wind coming from the window, whistling into the sounds of the night and so far away it was becoming intangible again. Nothing but fear was present, everywhere in the darkness. Staring at Paulie's back, I started to whimper and cry, too confused and unprepared for this. We both were.