About a week later, Mike sat on a rocky cliff over looking the ocean. He stared at the water below, glistening like a large sapphire. His mind was half on the girl he'd seen and half on his present problem.
The gig that they'd had for the past few weeks now was at Club Casanova. The manager, a Mr. Olsheim, was quite impressed with their music. He also had some impressive friends, and had told Mike (though not the others) that there might be a friend of his, a record company executive, at the next gig.
Mike had decided not to tell the others. He knew how they'd probably get if they expected it. They'd fall head over heels trying to impress the man, and just end up making them all look like clumsy fools.
No, it was definitely better not to tell his bandmates. But the thought of even getting close to success had him worried and thinking. He knew it was better to not think of things before they happened because that might "jinx" it, but he was still worried.
For a while, it had almost seemed like they weren't even a band anymore. With all the problems they'd had. First the whole "were-animals" thing, and then Micky's love problems, and then Peter disappearing. Now it was finally good to know they were getting back on track.
But was it all happening too fast? Mike sighed, and dragged his thoughts away from the music industry and back towards the girl.
Usually, he didn't fall head over heels with every girl that he met, so he knew that this one HAD to be special. He closed his eyes momentarily, remembering what she'd looked like. Long auburn hair, unkempt and slightly frizzy from the ocean. Dark blue eyes that sparkled in the sunshine and reflected against the water. She was almost like a dream.
But she couldn't have been a dream. He'd talked to her. And he could NOT, no matter what he tried, stop thinking about her. It was driving him bonkers. Happily bonkers, but still bonkers.
Especially if he never saw her again.
The beach was glorious. The sun was shining quite brightly, and everyone appeared to be in a good mood. Micky and Davy were in the water, splashing around with Joanne and Nicole, and Peter and Thomas were sitting on the sand, building a gloriously tall castle.
Mike sat on the towel overlooking the scene. His long legs stretched out in front of him as he relaxed. The sun above was shining brightly. He shielded his eyes from the sun and rummaged around in the bag they'd brought for some sunglasses.
He put them on and looked through them out towards the water, watching the swimmers. There seemed to be a few families on the beach today. Not too far away from where they were camped out was another small family with a boy who seemed to be slightly afraid of the water and a girl eager to jump in. Further down the beach he could see another family, this one with older children, building a sandcastle and enjoying the sun.
Even further down there were some girls lying in the sun. They appeared to be alone, and he glanced at Davy, knowing either he or Micky would probably head over to them after a while if the kids were occupied with something else.
But for now, both were playing the role of devoted uncle. Thomas had latched on to Davy early in life, quickly establishing the short Englishman as his favorite of his adopted uncles. It was often Davy who took the duty of babysitting, taking Thomas to movies, the park, and various other things.
And now it seemed that Joanne was taking a liking to Micky. She hung around him a lot, and Mike noticed that he paid attention to her. If Davy was Thomas' favorite uncle, Micky was obviously Joanne's.
At first Mike had worried that Joanne was showing more than just love toward a favorite uncle, but after being around the two of them, he realized that was nearly impossible. After all, Joanne was too young for such a thing.
Mike's thoughts today were on the girl. It had been nearly two weeks, but she was still fresh in his mind. He hadn't seen her around at any clubs or anything lately. Nor was she at the beach.
The only time he'd seen her had been near the lagoon. Swimming in the ocean.
That settled it, Mike decided. He was going to go back to the lagoon as soon as possible and find her. At least get a name out of her so that he would know what to call her.
And he would have to go alone.
