Let It Bleed by Pamela Des Barres

Author:Pamela Des Barres
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-03-31T11:52:57+00:00

HOW DID YOU MEET EACH OF THE PEOPLE YOU’VE TRULY BEEN IN LOVE WITH? WRITE TWELVE MINUTES ON EACH.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A BLIND DATE?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? HAS IT HAPPENED TO YOU?

Ages ago I had an alt-pop band in need of a lead guitarist. A free ad in the Recycler was the way to find musicians back then. We spent a long time wording the ad so it reflected exactly the style we were going for—lots of jangle, harmony and sixties good vibes. A twelve-string Rickenbacker would be ideal, if you played one.

The night got away from me, and Giorgio, who had answered the ad, called to see if he could still come by and get the cassette tape of our music (I told you this was a long time ago).

“I’ll be right there to pick up the tape. Please don’t go to bed!” he pleaded.

There was something about a total stranger pleading with me not to end my day just yet, begging me to let him be part of it, to make a cameo appearance at the very end, to catch me before I went to dreamland and reset the clock and reset the day and didn’t wake up until it was tomorrow. Something haunting came down the phone line. I told him I’d wait for him to arrive.

I needed to look somewhat cool, as he’d no doubt be deciding whether to join our band based on his opinion of the lead singer. I kept my full outfit from the evening’s nightclub jaunt on—shoes, makeup and all. It was the ’80s, and my hair was bigger than big. I flipped my head upside down and then whipped it back just to make sure my ’do was big enough to impress.

The knock came. A respectfully quiet knock, so as not to disturb my neighbors so late at night in this cheap Hollywood apartment building with its echoing barren courtyard and paper-thin walls. I swung the door open.

The door frame held him perfectly in its rectangle, backlit from the yellowish courtyard lighting. The perfect silhouette with skinny legs and all. His large dark eyes blinked at me from under his deep brown curls.

The resounding words filled up my mind as if another person was announcing it. Another person from another place or time who knew way more about what was going on here. It was a pure, unadulterated recognition, a knowing on a cellular level that filled my core like melty toffee. Sweet, thorough familiarity. A smile filled me from the inside out, as the delighted voice inside my head greeted the person I’d spend the next two years with:

“You’re here!”

KATHRYN SMITH, SEATTLE

All the distinct, vibrant details, such as “echoing barren courtyard and paper-thin walls,” take you right to Kathryn’s Hollywood apartment as she’s about to meet a True Love. And how about her core being filled “like melty toffee”? Can’t you just feel that creamy rush?

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