Story Week Part 3: Johnny and Pauline
For what seemed like hours, but was only seconds, Johnny paused to remember those early, happy days with Pauline so many years ago. They had met when they were children, probably no more than 12 years old. Funny, they were the exact same age and shared the same birthday.
Pauline lived just down the street from Johnny and Earl. An only child, she was immediately drawn to the closeness of the brothers' relationship and just liked to hang around. When Johnny and Earl played ball in the street, Pauline cheered them on. When their mother sent them to the store to pick up groceries with the few dollars their father had saved from his paycheck that week, Pauline tagged along. She didn't have much of a home life, only a mother and she wasn't around very much.
Pauline was a constant at Johnny and Earl's house. Their parents didn't mind very much. They liked Pauline. She was smart and helpful. And, everyone who met her even as a child recognized that Pauline was, and was going to be, a striking beauty.
At night when it was time to go to sleep, Johnny and Earl would talk about which one of them would marry Pauline. They could negotiate back and forth for hours to hold the "first in line" spot, both knowing that in the end, neither of them could make the decision that rested only with Pauline.
On June 22, Pauline and Johnny both turned eighteen. They had talked for weeks about how to celebrate, and secretly, whether to invite Earl.
"How about heading downtown? We could walk around Central Park?", Pauline asked Johnny.
Even then, Johnny had different ideas.
"Boring", he declared. "How about heading to El Morocco? Great club. We could have a few drinks, dance. Besides, I know a few of the people there," he said, nudging a little closer to her and speaking just above a whisper. "They would take care of us."
Pauline was skeptical. She had never been to El Morocco, or to any club for that matter. Until her 18th birthday, Pauline had largely refrained from stepping out of line. But, with Johnny's encouragement, it was possible that she was just about ready to take her first step.
Johnny kept at her to say, "yes" and finally, on the night before their birthday, Pauline relented. Johnny could be very persuasive.
On the evening of their eighteenth birthdays, Johnny and Pauline headed over to El Morocco. As if a premonition of things to come, it was dark that night. A storm was approaching and the rain started just as they were leaving Johnny's apartment. They were both enjoying walking in the rain -- and having the chance to be by themselves without Earl.
But, when they walked into the club, both shaking rain from their hair, things changed. It was quickly obvious to Pauline that Johnny had been here before. He was way too well known. He even knew the owner of the club, a young good looking man named Moe Schneider. Moe saw Johnny and Pauline walk in the door and made a line straight for them. Moe had a wide, welcoming smile, wore an expensive suit and was clearly taken with Pauline.
"Well, Johnny," Moe smiled, "who have you brought to meet me tonight?"
Johnny's heart sank and he knew immediately that this had been a bad idea.
"Hey Moe, this is my friend, Pauline," Johnny said, trying to place his emphasis squarely on the word "my". But, either it failed or Moe didn't care because before Johnny knew it, Pauline was on Moe's arm being escorted to his private room -- while Johnny tagged along.
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Needles boat lurched forward as it charged into the shoals of Big Net Island. During all of the commotion the boats had drifted too closely together – with Needles’ boat crashing into the wrong island and Meadowlark implementing various emergency measures to secure his boat and ensure that it too didn’t crash. While Meadowlark implemented his measures, passing words of calm and encouragement to his crew; residents of the island went to the shore to see Needle’s boat stuck on the beach.
Once they were secure, Meadowlark’s crew scrambled to assist Needles. Yes, Meadowlark didn’t fully trust Needles – but this was a crisis. On the beach, most of the island’s residents had taken out their cell phones and were photographing the wreck and posting the photos to their website, blogs, facebook, and linked in; filling up band-width and in-boxes with the posted photos, further trapping the men in the boat. The men on Needles’ boat felt like they were tumbling into a great void. One or two were offering to help Needles and his crew, but only if they were paid in advance and received a promise that the crew would help no one but islanders, and no one but islanders would be allowed to help the crew, for the entire year. Lemon, the Pearl, Rodman (all members of Needles’ crew) were in a panic that they would never get off the island, never see Gotham City or Philadelphia again, never fish or be able to fully tweet or effectively link themselves to others again; they would always be isolated on Big Net Island. The panic increased to the point where even World Peace was threatened.
Meadowlark watched the situation unfold in amazement, as he tried to assess whether the crew he had aboard with him and his boat were together strong enough to extricate Needles from the island; so that Meadowlark could pursue his goal of capturing and ruling Gotham City with assistance from Needles’ men. What he wouldn’t do for a mug of Brooklyn ale to calm his nerves!
Peaches quickly saw that to salvage the situation she would have to act. She called the Jersey Prince. He carried a lot of weight with her (almost a ton) when she needed steadying. As they spoke her plan was developed. She directed Neilson, Shel, Leigh and the Sas to throw a rope to Needles’ boat to tie the two together. She had Meadowlark and Dan the Man raise all the sails at once and then as the clouds gathered and the wind blew and the tide finally rose; Needles’ crew pushed their oars in to the beach, Meadowlark’s crew put their oars into the water and pulled, and together freed Needles’ boat and crew from Big Net Island.
Finally, Meadowlark had time to plan his capture of Gotham with Peaches and Needles. After talking well into the night they decided to contact The Raja – Friar Tuck, who knew a backdoor into Gotham H.Q. through the club that was dedicated to all Friars. Needles shocked Meadowlark and Peaches by saying that he didn't think he had ever met Friar Tuck. Meadowlark asked, how could you miss him - the Raja Tuck was so electric that his black hair had turned red and whenever he walked by a computer or server who were on emergency power they immediately renewed their energy supply simply by his touch.
Rather than email or text and leave a trail – they called Friar Tuck to discuss their plans. Tuck meditated on their plan for a few minutes and then urged them to sail to the 79th Street Boat Basin, where they could tie up their boats and proceed to Central Gotham. Having heard their tale of struggle at Big Net Island he asked if they needed any food or drink upon their arrival – perhaps they would like some ale or kool aid?
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Nancy great flashback!
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