FEBRUARY 3, 1967…
"I wonder which house it is?" Madison Sage whispered to herself shutting off the ignition of her green beat-up Pontiac LeMans. She stepped out of the car and stretched her arms above her slim and shapely body. It felt good to feel the blood running through her legs again after sitting behind that wheel for the last five hours. She was the tender age of 21 and rather short, only 5'2". Her strawberry-blonde hair fell to the middle of her back and her eyes were bright blue.
Madison reached into the pocket of her blue jeans and pulled out a crumbled piece of paper. She looked at the paper then up and down the street at each house, obviously not seeing the one she was looking for. Being rather impatient and not wanting to waste a lot of time, she decided to go up to the house directly in front of her and ask. She took a rubber band out of her other pocket and pulled her hair into a loose ponytail, hoping it didn't look to wind-blown from driving with the windows open. Casually, she walked up the sidewalk to the front door and knocked.
"Is anyone going to get that?" Mike called from the top of the spiral staircase. He waited and whomever it was at the door knocked again. "I guess I will." He said under his breath bounding down the stairs tucking his black shirt in his jeans. When he got to the door he looked through the peephole and saw a pretty young woman standing outside. "Hi!" He said opening the door.
"Hi." Madison replied startled by the extremely tall, dark and handsome man standing in front of her. "Um…I'm looking for 1332 Beechwood."
Mike smiled, "Oh, that's right next door." He pointed to his left. "But no body lives there."
"Oh, I know…um…I live there." Madison smiled back fumbling over her words. "I mean, I'm moving in today. I guess I'm your new neighbor."
Mike gave a sigh of relief, grateful that Mr. Babbitt, the landlord, hadn't rented the house to some little old lady this time. "Well, hello new neighbor. I’m Mike Nesmith."
Madison giggled, "I'm Madison Sage."
Mike took her by the arm, "Come on in and meet my roommates."
"Well, I should really start…" Madison tried to protest but realized that Mike wasn't giving her must of a choice, so she followed willingly.
Once inside the pad, she noticed three other guys. A short one sitting on the windowsill talking on the phone. A tall one with light brown hair standing in front of the stove wearing an apron. And another tall one with fuzzy hair lying on the couch reading a magazine.
"Hey, guys, come meet our new neighbor." Mike called. "Davy, man, get off that phone. One of these days that thing is going to permanently attach itself to you."
Micky and Peter joined Mike and Davy quickly hung up the phone and followed.
"This is Madison Sage." Mike gestured. "She's moving in next door today."
"Hi Madison." Micky took her hand and kissed it, then looked up at her with a very goofy grin. "I'm Micky Dolenz."
"Hi, I'm Peter Tork." Peter said shyly.
"'Ello luv, I'm Davy Jones." Davy smiled sweetly, also taking her hand and planting several kisses on it.
"Stop slobbering on her." Micky said pulling her hand away from Davy. "You'll scare her away."
Madison giggled, "It's very nice to meet all of you. Please, call me Maddie." She looked down at her watch. "I should really get my stuff unloaded."
"Can we help you, Maddie?" Mike asked.
"No, I couldn't impose on you like that." Madison shook her head. Of course, inside she was thinking it would be nice to have some help.
"It's not problem, doll." Micky smiled gallantly. "We'd like to help."
"Okay, if you insist." Madison smiled.
"We do." Davy took her arm and slipped in through his own. "Come on, guys."
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The guys and Madison spent the next hour or so unloading Madison's car and the u-haul she had towed behind it, moving everything into her new home. It was a small beach house, two bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen and tiny eating area and a rather large living room. It also had a patio similar to the one at the pad, surrounded by empty flowerbeds.
"Where are you from, doll?" Micky asked flopping down on the flowered couch.
"Illinois." Madison replied popping her head out of a box she was digging through.
"You drove all the way from Illinois?" Peter asked astounded.
"Yes!" Madison smiled proudly. "It really wasn't so bad and it only took me three days to get here." She began digging through the box again.
Mike sat down on the floor and stretched his long legs out in front of him. "What do you do, Maddie?"
"I write children's stories." Madison said. She found five glasses wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of the box and walked into the kitchen to quickly wash them. "Anyone thirsty?"
"Yes!" They all replied in unison bounding for the kitchen.
Madison filled each glass with cold tap water and handed them out. "What do you guys do?"
"We look for work." Peter laughed.
Mike elbowed him in the ribs. "We have a band called The Monkees."
"I'd love to hear you play sometime." Madison said after taking a sip of water.
"You could come over tomorrow night and watch us rehearse." Micky smiled.
"Really?" Madison smiled back. "You sure you don't mind?"
"Not at all, doll." Micky winked. "We love an audience."
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Madison spent the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening unpacking her things. By the time she was finished it was almost 11:00 and she was exhausted but very happy. She flopped down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table looking around the living room. It was still a big mess, but it was her mess.
She leaned her head back against the couch and closed her eyes, giving a sigh of relief. It felt good to be away from Illinois and especially from him. She shook her head trying to rid it of the bad memories. Today was the beginning of her new life where no one knew her and best of all, no one knew where to find her.
She thought about her new neighbors who seemed nice, especially the fuzzy one. Cute too, she smiled. "I think I'm going to like it here." She said out loud.
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The next evening, Madison walked over to the pad and knocked on the door. She had spent most of the day finishing the unpacking and going to the grocery store. She also found time to bake a cake for the guys as a thank you.
Micky opened the door. "Hi doll." He smiled broadly.
"Hi." Madison smiled and stepped inside. "I made you guys something sweet for being so sweet to me yesterday." She held up the cake.
"Chocolate?" Micky drooled.
"Of course." She giggled.
Mike, Peter and Davy heard the word chocolate and immediately made a beeline to join Micky in swarming around her.
"Here, let me help you with that, doll." Micky said reaching for the cake.
Mike shoved him aside. "Oh, no you don't." He took the cake from Madison's hand and started walking towards the kitchen. "The rest of us want some too."
"I would have shared." Micky shoved his bottom lip in a pout face.
"Yeah, right." Davy laughed. "And I'm six feet tall."
They followed Mike into the kitchen where Peter and Davy grabbed some plates and glasses out of the cupboard. Mike took a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator and started pouring.
"No milk for me." Madison said taking charge of the cake cutting.
"You don't like milk either?" Micky asked.
Madison shook her head vehemently and made a distorted face. "Do you have any orange juice?"
"Your wish is my command, doll." Micky smiled taking a jug of orange juice out of the refrigerator. "I never knew anyone else who didn't like milk besides me."
"If you ask me, it's a little scary to think there are two of you." Davy shook his head.
They all had a good laugh and then gorged themselves on cake. Each of them had two pieces except for Madison who only had one and Micky who had three.
"If you're done stuffing your face, Mick, maybe we could rehearse." Mike said shaking his head at his friend, the bottomless pit.
Micky laughed, "Yeah, I guess that would be okay."
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Madison curled up on the couch to watch as they went up on the makeshift stage and gathered their instruments. They spent the rest of the evening singing and playing most of their songs, from "Last Train to Clarksville" to "All the King's Horses".
"That was so great!" Madison exclaimed standing up and clapping when they were finished for the evening. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, Maddie." Mike said as they put their instruments away.
"With a response like that, you can come and listen to us anytime, luv." Davy smiled.
"Glad you had a good time, Maddie." Peter said quietly. He was still quite shy around her.
Micky jumped off the stage and walked over to her. "Have you walked the beach yet?"
"Nope." Madison smiled. "I haven't had a chance."
"Well, we must change that. Come on." He grabbed her hand and led her out the back door hardly giving her time to say goodnight to the others.
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Micky and Madison walked along the beach hand-in-hand. "Why did you move to California?" Micky asked casually.
Madison dreaded that question but she knew one of them was going to ask it eventually. She couldn't possibly tell him the truth. "Umm…I…umm…I wanted to be closer to my publisher." She prayed that sounded good.
Micky had a feeling that Madison wasn't telling him the truth but he didn't want to push her. "Do you like writing children's stories?"
Whew, Madison thought to herself, maybe that would take care of it for a while. "Yeah, I really do." She smiled. "It can be very rewarding. I've already had one book of stories published."
They kept walking for a while in silence until Micky suggested they sit down. "It's really beautiful here." Madison sighed looking up at the stars sparkling over the ocean.
Micky was staring at her. "So are you." Damn, he cursed himself. Why did he say something like that? After all, they had just met and he had a girlfriend. But she was. Especially those eyes, they were so bright and clear, he thought for sure he could drown in them if he let himself.
Madison blushed, "Thank you."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you."
"You can embarrass me like that any time." She giggled.
"Did you have a boyfriend back in Illinois?" He asked.
"No!" Madison snapped harshly, then looked over at him. She could tell he was taken back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap." She smiled. "What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?"
Micky nodded, "Her name is Tina. You'll meet her soon, I'm sure." Micky knew for sure now that Madison was definitely hiding something.
They sat on the sand and talked way into the wee hours of the morning and found out they had a lot more in common besides a dislike for milk. They both like all kinds of music, old black and white movies and laughing, which they did a lot of. Micky found out that Madison didn't have much family except a younger sister. Her mother had died a few years earlier and her dad had left when she was a little girl. But that's all he found out. She was so very secretive about the rest of her past.
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Over the next few months, Madison and the guys became very close. In fact, the five of them were practically inseparable. Tina, Micky's girlfriend and Madison also became very good friends. It was good for both of them to have another girl around to do girl stuff with. They went shopping, had lunch, giggled and gossiped and borrowed each other's clothes.
Madison became close to each of the guys in different ways. Mike took it upon himself to become her big brother just as he had for the band. He was her sounding board and ready to give advice or help her when she had writer's block. Peter helped her plant a flower garden in those empty flowerbeds. He was over his shyness around her. He was the one she would spend quiet time with, whether it was watching TV or pulling weeds. Davy had thought about asking her out when she had first moved in but then discovered it was actually nice to be just friends with a girl.
But Micky became her best friend. They could spend hours sitting on the beach or at her house talking. He could make her laugh until her sides would ache and she brought out his serious side that rarely anyone else saw. The best part of their friendship was their ability to tell each other anything knowing the other would never judge.
Even though Madison knew he would never judge her, she still wasn't ready to tell him or anyone else about her past. She had tried a few hundred times, but could never find the right time or the right words. Micky never pushed her but knew she was holding something back.
Neither of them knew that the bounds of their friendship were about to be tested to see just how strong they were.
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