Back to Where We Started From (Miracle)

Chapter Fifty-Seven

September 4, 1978

Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, CA

"Ugh! I'm hungry," Tommy whined, throwing himself dramatically onto Julia's bed, where she laid smoking a joint.

"Me too. Order a pizza," Julia told him, passing the joint to him. Tommy took it gratefully, listening to the Grateful Dead record spinning on the record player.

"Jim said if we order anymore pizza he's gonna disconnect the phones," Tommy huffed.

Julie nodded, remembering the conversation about responsibility that Jim had with them. The conversation happened due in part to the fact that they had recently moved to a house in the deep recesses of Laura Canyon.

"Cook something then," Julia told him dismissively, leaning forward in an attempt to swipe the unsmoked joint from between his fingers. Tommy caught onto her plan, quickly pulling the joint away and taking a strong puff before passing it back to her.

"You cook something. You're a girl," Tommy rolled his eyes. Julia gasped, glaring at her friend.

"That's sexist! Women aren't just servants for men, ya know," Julia griped, kicking Tommy's leg. The two youngest members of the band had been left unsupervised for a rare occasion. Steven was visiting his family in Reno, Cyndi was off on a date with some guy Julia couldn't stand, and Jim had been away surfing in Malibu for the day.

"Fair enough, my bad," Tommy conceded, his head lolling lazily from one side of the pillow to the other. "What are we going to do then?"

"There has to be some food in this house, right?" Julia assumed, though she made no attempt to get up and go to the kitchen. After a few more minutes of passing the joint back and forth, Tommy decided enough was enough.

"Get up. We need to find food. We haven't eaten since breakfast," Tommy reminded her, standing up slowly.

"You mean when we were abandoned after breakfast?" Julia sighed dramatically. Tommy grabbed her hands, pulling her into a sitting position despite the fact that she allowed herself to be deadweight.

"Oh, Julie, not everyone is abandoning you just 'cause your mom did," Tommy rolled his eyes. Julia sat up fully, her eyes wide.

"Ouch, Tommy," she told him with a glare.

"Truth hurts, doll. Let's go," he insisted, pulling her up and out of her bedroom. After accepting that resisting was useless, Julia followed him down the staircase to the large kitchen. Tommy wasted no time opening up the pantry and pulling out random ingredients he found in there.

"Do you know how to make cookies?" Tommy questioned, pulling out an unopened bag of chocolate chips. Julia looked at the chocolate chips warily.

"No, but there has to be a cookbook around here, right?"

The two of them started combing the kitchen, looking for anything that could direct them on how to properly bake cookies.

"I found one! It's for desserts," Tommy announced, pulling a large red book from the very back of the pantry. "I'm sure we can figure it out."

Jim got out of his car, moving slowly due to his sore body. He had been gone the whole day surfing, and he was curious to see what he was returning to. It was against his better judgment to leave Julia and Tommy alone, but he felt some relief when he saw the house was still standing.

All the relief he felt was immediately diminished when he opened the front door. The smell of something burning quickly assaulted his senses. He dropped his stuff, rushing to the kitchen where the smell was coming from. The kitchen was filling with smoke, and Jim looked frantically around the kitchen.