Category: Great Are The Myths

The boy is vexed that I haven’t seen Love Me Tender, so he takes me to Loew’s that evening. He whispers all the way through, pointing out what he wishes he’d done differently. “We could’ve watched this at home, and you could’ve talked as much as you liked,” I tell him. He looks surprised. “What?…

Turns out I’m a little more sensitive than I thought.Thank God for Johnny and his guys taking me out last night. Johnny sees things clearly; he’s thoughtful. We talked about Jerry Lee, “Killer,” as they call him, how wild he is, yet how much of a genius. “He’s like a rock ’n’ roll Mozart,” someone…

Jerry Lee is playing piano on the session. I chat with Marion, sweet and wonderful as ever, the voice of reason. We listen in. It’s going well until the doorbell rings, and in comes the boy, accompanied by a mature-looking woman with a brown updo. He hasn’t seen me yet, and I consider slipping out…

Topper has been in Europe, visiting friends from school. He’s sent postcards from everywhere he’s passed through, Athens, the islands, Florence, the Cinque Terre, Monte Carlo, Nice, and Antibes. He writes that he’s happy to be back, and that he needs to see me in Pennsylvania.  Tilly’s gone abroad for the semester, studying Modern Languages…

On the morning of my twenty-first birthday, I’m woken by the boy, eager to show me his present. He pulls me out of bed and drags me downstairs.“C’mon, you lazy thing!” he laughs, hauling me through the kitchen, where Miss Mary has laid out a proper birthday feast.“Morning, sunshine,” she greets, opening the back door…

The coursework is getting harder, so I’m being kept busy, and I can’t wait for summer to arrive. There are highlights, too. I go up to see Topper at Harvard when I can, and I visit Cornelia at Radcliffe as well. She’s found herself a boyfriend, a cute, scatterbrained boy with a soft heart and…

Texas, 10 April 1956 Dear Birdsong, I’m flying around the country for personal appearances. I can’t begin to tell you about it, so I won’t! But I can promise you one thing: if you’re back with Miss Mary for your birthday this year, I will be too. I miss you, but you don’t seem to…

I bring Topper to the South for Easter in 1956. The boy is in Los Angeles, so we don’t see him. It feels strangely empty to be back home without him here. On Easter Sunday, he’s in San Diego for the Milton Berle Show. I drive over to visit his parents and see their new…

The boy is now a superstar. I can’t explain it. I’ve never experienced anything like it, nor, I believe, has America. It’s unnerving. It makes me nauseous. Sometimes, when it fully hits me, the realisation of it, I have what can only be described as a nervous breakdown: strange, weepy convulsions. “This can’t be good…

We’re at a restaurant in the city with executives from the boy’s record label. His cousin is here too, the one who thinks I talk too much for a girl. Tilly has promised to drop by. When she does, I’m chatting with Scotty, DJ, and Bill while the boy works the room, charming all the…