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Love and hate, part 1
AUTHOR'S NOTES This story's main character is a Lynnie Solero, who is like a mix between Madonna, Lisa Marie Presley, Debbie Rowe and me. But this story is also about what Michael and his family could have been like and almost about what they are like. It's like about the Jacksons in an alternative universe or world. It's based on fantasies, that I started having back in the late 1990s. All names on towns, cities, countries and isles are as they are in the real world, so that the story will be easier to understand, but when it comes to names of people, I have done some changes. All last names of characters, which are based on real people, are changed. Most notably, Presley has become Leisure and Jackson has become Solero. I also changed the nick name of Michael oldest brother Sigmund Esco. In real life, he's known as Jackie, but in my story, he's known as Siggy. §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ FOREWORD The reason why Iâ??ll call this book â??Love and hateâ? is because it is about the people I canâ??t stop loving and about the people I canâ??t stop hating. As much as this is my autobiography, this book is also about them, because my life has been deeply affected by these people, who I either love or hate. I wonâ??t name those I hate here, since I will let you figure out who they are by yourselves, while reading this book. However, I do want to dedicate this book to those I love. First, I want to dedicate it to my husband Michael Solero, my love and my life. Youâ??re almost the sole reason why I write this book, so that people can understand you better. And I also want to dedicate this book to our children and our grandchildren, so that you once and for all can find out more about your background. I also want to dedicate it to my mother Carla, and to my half-sister Lucy Leisure and her children, and to my brothers-and-sisters-in-law in the Solero clan, including Jovonnie, with their families, and to my poor mother-in-law Katherine Solero, whome I always have felt such pity for, and to our Bridget Atwood and her family. I also want to dedicate this book to some, who are dead now, like my father Elvis Leisure, all of my grandparents, my friends Laura Barnes and Luna Squarr, and to our late half-brother Charlie Lacenby. Lynnie Solero §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ Chapter 1: An unhappy marriage. - You swine, Elvis! How could you? I thought you loved me! But if you love me, why do you treat me like this? - Shut up, Carla! Just shut up, wonâ??t you! Canâ??t you see, that you scare Lynnie with your yelling? - And whose fault would that be then, huh? It would only be yours, you adulteror, because you constantly aggrivate me with all your flirting and cheating! Oh, if I only could divorce you, you... And they could keep on arguing like this for hours. It was as if they couldnâ??t speak to each other in any other way. Sometimes, one of them could even destroy something in their anger. There were many ornaments and plates made of glass or porcelain, which ended up in wee smithereens. And sometimes, they could even start beating each other. I was still very young, when my parents started arguing like this. It was terrible to see and hear how they acted, and even though they tried hiding it from me, I couldnâ??t help noticing how their marriage got less and less happy. I used to take one of my dolls or a stuffed animal with me and hide somewhere, usually under my bed in my room, trying not to hear how my parents constantly argued as if they no longer could communicate in any other fashion. I actually almost made myself a little house of my own under my bed, where I could hide with some of my toys. But alas, I could never get deep enough under anything, that I could no longer hear my mumâ??s shrill screams and my dadâ??s angry bellowing. The sounds of their constant arguements always traveled through every door and wall. The whole house could hear how they argued, but no one wanted to talk about it. My grandfather and the servants ignored it, and since I was so little, I didnâ??t understand, that a marriage isnâ??t supposed to consist of all this anger every day, even though my parents started to frighten me, so I didnâ??t know, that it was anything to talk about either.My earliest memories do consist of happy moments with my parents, when they didnâ??t argue, for I was with them. They sure cared about me as much as parents can care for their daughter, and they often took me out for walks and trips to different places, or they played games with me. They wanted my childhood to be happy, and even though the love between them had totally disappeared otherwise, they still shared this mutual love for me, their only child. But of course, my earliest memories also consist of how I tried escaping their arguements, even though I was never able to get away from it. It was terrible having to grow up in such a home, even with the many happy moments. I grew up in a house called Graceland. Dad had bought it to live there with his parents. When he married my mum, she of course moved into Graceland too. Iâ??m actually the sole owner of that same property today, since my half- sister Lucy sold her part of it to me in the earliest 1990s, and I gladly bought her half of it, since Iâ??ve always loved it more than what I love any other place in the world. No house will ever be more home to me than Graceland, even though I have lived at many other places in my life. It was my first home, and my father, my grandfather and my half-sister Lucy lived there for years. I could always feel welcome there, when I couldnâ??t live anywhere else. I have also lived there a lot with my own family, after I started getting it, with my husband and our seven kids. My husband prefers bigger places, where you can have lots of animals, but I always loved Graceland the most. Lucy has never loved Graceland as much as I do, and that must be why she could sell her half of the property to me, while I donâ??t know if I ever could sell Graceland at all. But Lucy has also never been a family person, unlike me. Sheâ??s more of a party person, and she wanted the money she could get from selling her part of our fatherâ??s house more than what she wanted to keep it for family reasons, that it once belonged to our father and to his parents too. I gladly bought her part of Graceland though, and already when I was a little girl, I loved it as much as I still love it. But it was also within those four walls, right at this place, which I loved and still love so much, that my parents had most of their many arguements. I hate to talk about this, but itâ??s been many years since it happened now, and itâ??s time now to stop trying to hide it. I still really donâ??t want to think about this, but my father had big difficulties with sticking to one woman at a time. It canâ??t have been hard for Dad to find willing women, since there always seemed to be another woman around, and he knew how to get them excactly where he wanted. I donâ??t know excactly how he found them or where he found them, and I really donâ??t want to know that either, but they were there, and my mother knew all about this. She always called him â??you adulterorâ?. When I was little, I didnâ??t know what that word meant, but I sure do now, and Iâ??m affraid, that it was a perfect name for my father. He was unfaithful both to my mother and to his second wife Priscilla. My mother started feeling unhappy with my father already when I was a baby in the late 1950s, and by the time when I was a toddler in the early 1960s, their marriage had really become no more than a mirage of what a marriage should be. They would always act as if they still were happy together in front of other people. But as soon as no one outside of the family was around... Letâ??s just say, that they almost always argued as soon as they would spend any time at all together in our home. Of course, I didnâ??t know what a divorce was yet at that very tender age. I could only assume, that parents always were supposed to stay together, even if they argued a lot. But when my mother finally left my father after years of great unhappiness, it still didnâ??t come as a surprise to me. Mum couldnâ??t help thinking about a divorce, but several things kept her from taking that step. She didnâ??t want me to become a divorce child. She didnâ??t want the tabloids to have anything to write about us. And she was a Catholic, and our Holy See frowns upon divorces. But eventually, Mum just couldnâ??t stand living with Dad one day longer, and I was only seven years old, when Mum made up her mind about ending this awful marriage. I had just started the second grade in elementary school at the time, and one day, I came home to Graceland only to hear how Mum was yelling at Dad again. - Oh, I know where you were last night, Elvis! You were with another woman, werenâ??t you? You went to see one of your sluts, didnâ??t you! You nasty adulteror! You are such a swine, Elvis! Youâ??re such a nasty swine! Well, this was nothing unusual of course, but this time, she hadnâ??t even bothered to care if all of our neighbors in three streets could hear how she accused her husband of adultery or not. Iâ??m sure a lot of people heard it though, and even though I didnâ??t understand everything she said, I still understood, that it was worse between my parents now than what it ever had been before, and thatâ??s really saying something! Mum stood outside on the stoop with the front door wide open and yelled into the house: - Weâ??re through, Elvis! Damn it, weâ??re through! I donâ??t wanna see you again! Oh, Iâ??m leaving you now! Do you hear me? Iâ??M LEAVING YOU! Dad obviously still was somewhere indoors, since Mum yelled at him into the house, and suddenly, I could also hear him answering Mum: - Fine, Carla! Leave then! Believe me, Iâ??ve had enough of your yelling! - And Iâ??m taking Lynnie with me, Mum continued. And I was petrified with fear, when I heard Mum talking about taking me away from Dad. - What, Dad yelled from inside the house. Where would you take the girl, woman? You donâ??t have anywhere to live on your own! Are you gonna subject Lynnie to that? Mum realised, that Dad was right, but she still wouldnâ??t let me stay at Graceland without her, so she answered: - Well, Iâ??m not leaving her here! Sheâ??s coming with me, and thatâ??s final! And then, she must have seen me standing in the drive, because she suddenly grabbed my right hand with a very violent grip, and after that, she took me down the street. I could hardly keep up with my very aggrivated mother, and my hand was still hurting from her hard grip. Dad had now ran out on the stoop, and when I saw my father, I started crying. I did know, that they argued all the time, but I still never wanted them to split up, and I didnâ??t want to be taken away from Dad, Grandpa or even Graceland. But Mum only stopped a cab and took me to her parents, where we lived for two years after this terrible day. §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ Chapter 2: My two different families. Unfortuneately, I never had a chance to know one of my grandmothers, for my fatherâ??s mother died in 1957, the year before I was born, but I did get to know my fatherâ??s father and both my motherâ??s parents. When I was born on June 23rd 1958, my parents decided to name me after both of their mothers. Because of this, my name actually is Gladys Evelyn, since my fatherâ??s motherâ??s name was Gladys, and my motherâ??s motherâ??s name was Evelina. But they decided to call me â??Lynnieâ?, and â??Lynnieâ? also is what people always have called me. No, I hardly even feel as a Gladys Evelyn! My father was Elvis Leisure, the big rockâ??nâ??roll legend, and my mother, Carla Russo, had also been a sucessful performer when she was very young back in the 1950s. My mother has hardly performed at all since she married my father, and now, five decades later, Mum is mostly known as one of my fatherâ??s two wives or as my mother. But of course, that doesnâ??t mean, that she lost all of her talents just by giving birth to me or by getting married. She wanted to take good care of me, when I was a baby, so she couldnâ??t work then, and I had hardly left infancy before all that unhappiness in her marriage to my father made her so depressed, that she lost all interests in going back to â??showbizâ?, that she might have had otherwise. So only my father could continue as a professional enter-tainer after I was born, while my mother eventually sank into near oblivion to only be remembered by some people of her generation, who still seem to remember a lot of the music of the 50s, or by those people, who somehow seem to know each and every thing about me and/or my father. Seeing how life turned out for her, how she had to watch her ex-husband remaining star until his premature death, was one of the reasons why I couldnâ??t focus on just being a wife and a mother, even though I would have liked that. I didnâ??t want my talents to be wasted, when those of my husband wouldnâ??t be. I didnâ??t want to be like my mother. Both of my fatherâ??s parents were born here in America, but on the other hand, both of my motherâ??s parents were these genuine first generation immigrants from Europe. My motherâ??s father, Luigi Russo, was actually an Italian, born on the beautiful island of Capri not far from the city of Naples in southwestern Italy. But my motherâ??s mother, Evelina Andersson, was Swedish. She was born outside a small town called Ã?rnsköldsvik in northeastern Sweden. I have been able to visit relatives in both of these places during my life, and both of those journeys were terrific. My motherâ??s parents belonged to the last larger groups of immigrants coming over from Europe here to America, and they both arrived to their new country in the 1930s. Even though Swedish people and Italian people usually werenâ??t keen on socializing with each other in America, since their ways are incredibly different from each other, my grandparents managed to end up together. Itâ??s really strange too, since they came from two totally different countries. The Italian culture and the Swedish culture are very different from each other. The island of Capri in Italy becomes hot like an owen in the summer, while the town of Ã?rnsköldsvik in Sweden gets cold like a freezer in the winter, only that is a really big difference! Itâ??s almost impossible to understand, that the two places both are in Europe, thatâ??s how different they are. And the Italian and the Swedish donâ??t even have the same faith. My motherâ??s mother was originally raised as a follower of the Swedish Lutheran faith, while my motherâ??s father, like most Italians, had been raised as a Roman Catholic. So my grandmother had to convert to the Catholic faith, when she married my grandfather, so that she would be a little bit more pleasing to his very Catholic Italian family. My grandmotherâ??s Swedish Lutheran family canâ??t have liked it though. They could only have thought, that their daughter had lost her mind while living over in America. But nevertheless, my own mother was practically raised in the Catholic church, and I ended up sharing her faith. Mum can speak both fluent Swedish and fluent Italian, since she grew up with both her fatherâ??s and her motherâ??s different families, and even I and my half-brother Charlie have learned to speak a little of both of these languages. None of us are are as good at it as our mother is though. But weâ??ll be the last ones to speak these languages at all, since our children havenâ??t been able to learn much of it, and they easily forget the little they have learned. My fatherâ??s parents werenâ??t Catholics at all, since they belonged to a baptist church, but they could still accept, that their son got married to my very Catholic mother. My motherâ??s parents approved of their marriage as well. Grandma Leisure, from whom I got ther name Gladys, had already passed away ten months before I was born, but Grandpa Leisure, Vernon, even ended up surviving my father, his son. But then, Dad also died by a sudden decades before it should have been his time to go. Mum and I lived with her parents for two years after she had taken me away from my father, while Dad and his father still lived at Graceland, which had been my only home for those first seven years of my life, when my parents still lived together, even with all the unhappiness. In the beginning, I couldnâ??t even be sure, that I would ever see my father and my grandfather again. All those years at Graceland started seeming like a strange dream, where I had lived a house much more beautiful than even that of my motherâ??s parents, and where I had had a father and another grandfather, but where I also had had to hear how my parents argued for hours as good as every day. But after a month or two, Mum started allowing me to go for visits to Graceland to see my father and his father, though she did make sure, that no one ever could forget, that she was the one, who had the real custody over me. Mum managed to get a divorce from Dad, and as almost was the rule back in the 60s, she was also automatically granted the custody over me, since she was the mother. My father couldnâ??t win over his ex-wife in such a case. Dad was allowed to see me a couple of times a month, and then, I could actually go to Graceland again and have fun there with Dad and Grandpa. I just loved those days. Graceland was so much lovelier than the house, where I lived with my mother and her parents. But I couldnâ??t live at Graceland aymore, since Mum had custody over me, though Dad of course had to give her a really insane lot of money every month as child support. I had to become practically homeless before I could really live with my own father again. I started missing those days, when my parents still were together, even with all their arguing. Parents couldnâ??t be supposed to split up like this! But I had realised, that their marriage had been unhappy to no end. I was a little older now, and I had understood, that parents werenâ??t supposed to behave like mine did. Nobody elseâ??s parents seemed to have arguements at all, while mine couldnâ??t be in the same room for a minute before they started yelling at each other, throwing things to the floor and beating each other up. This realisation, that my parents werenâ??t normal, only made things worse. Not only had my parents scared me with their behavior for as long as I could remember, they had also made me grow up in a family, that wasnâ??t like a family should be. This made me incredibly sad. I had been subjected to a terrible thing without knowing it, because even though my parents had scared me, I hadnâ??t been able to realise, that their behavior was unnormal. The only thing normal about what happened at Graceland during those years was my reaction to hide from all the anger and violence. But like most children with divorced parents, I still used to have this childish dream, that my mum and dad would get back together sometime. But as the months passed by, that dream seemed less and less likely, and when both my parents re-married after having been divorced for a while, I even had to stop dreaming about them having a reunion, no matter how bad it made me feel and how much it mad me cry. Dadâ??s second wifeâ??s name was Priscilla Baxter, and he got married her in 1967, when I was nine years old and my parents had been divorced for twenty months. Priscilla gace birth to my half sister Lucy in 1968, but my father couldnâ??t stay faithful to her either, so that marriage wouldnâ??t longer than his marriage with my mother did. And while Dad got married to Priscilla, Mum managed to find her second husband in our local church. Grandpa Russo got ill, when I was around ten years old, and the, Mumâ??s parents decided to sell their house and move into an apartment, so that they could â??live a more comfortable life during these few years we have leftâ?. When this happened, Mum decided to not live with her parents any longer, so she bought this little apartment, where she and I could live. This new apartment of ours was actually really nice, as far as I remember it, and our new neighborhood was nice too, except for one thing, according to my mostly very devout Catholic mother: The closest Catholic church was situated several miles away from where we lived now, and that was in a totally different neighborhood too, where almost everybody was more or less poor, and she didnâ??t want to take me there. And we really didnâ??t know anybody in that neighborhood either, so why should she have taken me to church there? My mother did some serious thinking about this, and she eventually decided to start going to the local church in our new neighborhood, though it was not really Catholic. - But arenâ??t these people true Christians too, Mum finally proclaimed. And after all, doesnâ??t Our Lord approve of all His churches? I had not only visited Catholic churches with my mother and her parents in my life, but I had also visited some baptist churches with my parents and my fatherâ??s father, so I didnâ??t have anything against going to a third kind of church either. So Mum finally took me to the local church, even though most of the other people going to that church obviously were more Protestant than Catholic in their Christianity. It was also in this church, where we first met Mumâ??s second husband: Winston Lacenby. He was a widower, whose first wife had died of cancer some years earlier. He already had two children from that marriage, but his son Robert had moved out, so only his daughter Bridget still lived with him, when Mum and Winston got married. In 1970, they also had a son: My half-brother Charles, who we usually call Charlie. §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ Chapter 3: The embodiment of loveliness. What would my life have been without him? No, seriously, I canâ??t imagine my life without him! If I never had met him, my life wouldnâ??t have been like this. It would have been a totally different life, that would sure feel completely meaningless and empty. But really, I canâ??t imagine my life without him! Our lives are so linked together, that they just canâ??t be lived apart. They have to be lived together! For better and for worse, weâ??re each otherâ??s destiny. Already when I only saw him in pictures or on TV, I immediately fell for him. But still, I couldnâ??t know as a 11-year-old, that he was my destiny. I was thrilled by the fact, that he was almost as old as me, but at the time, I still was a little bit too young to be able to admire him for how talented the guy is, when he could be that awfully good already as an eleven-year-old boy. But how did I actually meet him then? How did I finally get to know the man, who became my love and my life, who is the embodiment of loveliness to me? Well, I had to become a part of his show business world before I could meet him. But I was actually born into it, since both my parents were entertainers, and for as long I can remember, I have always loved singing and dancing, so really, it was hardly difficult for me at all to get into it. When my parents still would live together at Graceland, they often sang songs and played a lot of music with me. And even though Mum and Dad seemed like they could argue about almost anything else in the world, they still were quick to agree on that I had inherited their talents. When I only was ten years old, back in 1968, I also sang with my father on TV, when he was doing a live concert. I loved singing with Dad on that TV concert, and people started noticing me in my own right after that. And when I was twelve years old, things really started happening... After the big success of the five boys in the Solero Five, they were thinking of making a band consisting of five young girls, and they wanted me to be one of those girls, because they had seen my performance with my father. One day in 1970, my parents even took me out together to ask me about this. I had no idea what it could be about, since my parents hardly ever had seen each other since their divorce. But finally, Dad started talking. - Well, Lynnie, theyâ??re thinking of making a band of young girls, and they want you to be one of these girls! - Really, I asked. - It seems so, Mum said. But I donâ??t want you to get into the show business yet... Youâ??re still too young to cope with that business! Itâ??s too harsh for a twelve-year-old! - Am I too young, I asked Dad. - Maybe you are, Dad said. Youâ??re not excactly too old to enter the show business. But I still think, that it would be wrong of us, if we denied you this opportunity. - So am I allowed to join the band or not, I asked. - Do you want to join the band, Mum asked. - Sure, I answered. Why wouldnâ??t I want to join it? - Your mother and I decided to let you make the final decision yourself, Dad said. Youâ??re still hardly more than a child, Lynnie, but we still think, that you could handle the responsibility of making this decision yourself. - Then I decide to join the band, I answered. - Of course you do, Mum said. But you must remember, that itâ??s a tough business, especially for someone at your tender age! You might not be able to go to school or do anything other girls do every day anymore! Did you think about that, Lynnie? - No, I admitted. But so what, Mum? I wanna do it! Mum looked at me with worry, while Dad smiled at me. They knew, that their daughter might become a star soon. Not long after that day, I was actually taken to a studio, where I would meet some people from a record company. They had found four other young girls, who also would join the band. We really represented the whole country. Carole Henderson was all black, Luna Squarr also had some Asian origins, while Susy Tino, Laura Barnes and I all were white. But Susy was a blonde, Laura was a red-head, and I was a brunette, so we didnâ??t look alike either. It was strange, that such a mix between races in a band consisting of young girls was accepted back in the 70s, but somehow, we didnâ??t have to hear much about that. Carole, Luna and Laura were born in 1957, while Susy and I were born in 1958. This means, that we were only twelve and thirteen year olds, when all this happened. We were probably still too young to be brought into all this spotlight, all this fame, but then, no one seemed to be bothered by our incredible youth, and we soon hit it big. When the band had to have a real name, it was decided, that we now would be called â??The five singing nymphsâ?, and we soon got famous and successful under that name. And among the five nymphs, I was soon considered the most talented and the prettiest, and I was given more solo songs and screen time than any of the other girls. But at that time, I was of course still known as Lynne Leisure. My four friends werenâ??t talentless either, they so werenâ??t, but Our Lord must have given me even more talent. And if that wouldnâ??t have been enough already with all this success, it was also around this time, that I met Him. And yes, I really do mean â??Himâ? with the capital H here. Well, sure, I had known about him before. I had seen him on pictures and on TV before, and I wasnâ??t the only girl in the world to have a crush on him back then in 1971. And already back when I only could see him on pictures or on TV, I found him cute enough to not care about the fact that he was a black boy and that I was a white girl. But seeing him in real life... I can hardly describe what I felt that day with words! Well, it was like I was knocked down to the ground by just having a wee peek at the guy! That is the best way I can describe it for you! We knew, that we would meet the Solero Five that day, and I sure had thought about how it would feel to meet him before, but still, I still was just a little girl, and I had never been able to imagine the feeling, that I got, when I met him. And when I suddenly saw, that he actually was looking back at me, as if he actually felt the same way for me, this moment actually became even more powerful than what it would have been if he hadnâ??t looked back at me. We were no more than thirteen years old that time either, and even though you donâ??t think youâ??re a child anymore at that age, we still hardly were more than children then, and yet, we already couldnâ??t take our eyes of each other. Michael Solero, the embodiment of loveliness... He was standing there, looking at me as if I also was that lovely, looking at me with those lovely eyes of his... Oh, I swear, only his eyes were enough to make my heart beat faster! If he hadnâ??t looked at me like that, I just might have been able to forget about it, but now, it would be impossible! This meeting was to be forever burned into my memory. There has always been something special about Michael, and that something was there already then, when he only was thirteen years old. And I immediately noticed it too! God, did I notice it! I couldnâ??t think about anything else! I was so deeply captured by Michael, that I couldnâ??t even notice, that Michaelâ??s four older brothers were there too. They were most uninteresting next to their little brother. But my friends Carole and Luna noticed at least one of the other others, because they were both looking at his brother Marlon. But for me, it was Michael all the way!!! I just couldnâ??t stop looking at him and smiling at him! And while this meeting hardly meant anything to Susy and Laura, this first meeting with the Solero Five would become really crucial for me and for Carole and Luna. As you might have understood, Michael was my destiny. But Carole and Luna both seemed to prefer his brother Marlon Solero, and Luna would no more than two years later indure a great tragedy because of their awful father. But on that day back in 1971, nothing bad existed to me. But then, I couldnâ??t think about anything but Michael, and I could only get good feelings from him. But that was how I first met Michael Solero. He was the youngest in the Solero Five, but really, he was also the most talented and (in my opinion) the cutest of them all. His name would also become the loveliest name in the world to me. Even before I had met him, I had thought, that I could taste how lovely his name was by saying it, and I thought so even more after Iâ??d met him in real life. â??Michaelâ? is one of those really lovely biblical names, but I have mostly called my Michael â??Mikeâ?, because I would soon find out, that his family called him â??Mikeâ?. Michael and I immediately liked hangig out together, and we also had the chance to meet each other a great lot during those early teenage years because I and the other nymphs shared some studios with the Solero Five and even tutors with Michael and Marlon. But as much as I was attracted by Michael, Carole and Luna were both attracted to his brother Marlon. And when Marlon soon chose Carole, Luna couldnâ??t take it and became jealous. She could hardly work with Carole anymore after that. But worse things were coming up for our group than that, far worse things than what we ever could expect... §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ Chapter 4: Things start happening... Michael and I were â??buddiesâ? for a rather long time before it really got serious. Thinking back at that time now more than three decades later, it seems weird to me, that it took us two years to finally become a real love couple. But we sure were young then, hardly more than children, so it maybe wasnâ??t so strange. It didnâ??t help either, that Michael was so shy even around me back then in the 70s, that it would always take him ages to get ready to take another step in our relationship. He was supposed to know me better than what he knew anybody else outside his family, but I always felt how he both wanted to be with me and was this shy around me. But did he really have to be shy around me? Didnâ??t we know each other? Was there really need for this shyness? But really, I couldnâ??t complain. After all, I couldnâ??t help finding his shyness cute, and if he was shy around me, what could that be but a true sign of his feelings for me? And I was still too young, unexperienced and awkward enough myself to demand anything more than this yet. But still, I couldnâ??t help wondering why he had to be so shy around me? He didnâ??t have to be! He really didnâ??t! But I also knew, that one day, some time in the future, it would be more than this. This wasnâ??t where it would end! One day, I would sure get more out of Michael than this! Siggy, Tito and Jermaine, that is, the three oldest Solero brothers and members of the Solero Five, belonged to a totally different age group than what Michael and I did, and even though they could hang out with their siblings, they had no interest in me, a white girl in my early teens, so I didnâ??t get know them too well back then. The oldest sister Rebbie, whoâ??s also the oldest of these nine siblings, wasnâ??t a member of the Solero Five, and she already had little children of her own back then, who she had to take care of, so of course, I didnâ??t get to know her yet either. And even though I got to meet their awful father Joseph, it would also take a couple of years before I finally met their mother Katherine. However, I knew Marlon well. Heâ??s only one year older than us, and he also had a lot of classes with us. You could tell, that Michael and Marlon were brothers, but they also were different personalities. Michael was shy and sensitive, while Marlon was more self-confident and outgoing. Well, that doesnâ??t say much, since Michael was so shy and sensitive, but I think you get what I mean. I also met the middle sister Latoya and the youngest brother Randy and the youngest sister Janet. Latoya is two years older than us, so she was was sixteen years old, when I met her, and I was fourteen years old. I never really got along with her, when we were younger, and really, she has never been my favorite sister-in-law. Latoya seemed to think I was weird, since I could stand watching cartoons and some other movies and TV shows, which she thought was â??childishâ? or â??stupidâ?, with her younger siblings, and especially, as the years passed by, with Michael, of course, and the youngest of them, Janet. Latoya was somewhat stuck-up, actually, and she always wanted to seem grown-up and adult. Spending more time than absolutely necessary with her younger siblings was so not anything, that she found even remotely interesting, so when I did it instead of her, I would seem weird to her. Randy is three years younger than us, which would make him around ten years old, when I first met him. He was still too young to join his brothers in the group back then. He would have to wait a few more years before it finally was time for him to really work with his older brothers. Janet is eight years younger than us, which would make her hardly more than a mere toddler, when I first met her. Janet has six older brothers, out of whome at least the younger ones cared about her, while her only two sisters didnâ??t pay her enough attention, so she was tomboyish. Actually, I felt like I was the first girl to care about her, and when she got older, I would also end up having a lot of â??girl talkâ? with her, as no one else was there for her. That was the Soleros as I knew them before 1973... Already by a few years into the 1970s, it was obvious, that Marlon and Carole had become a couple. It was also terribly obvious, that Luna was really jealous at Carole and wanted Marlon too. The tension between them grew, and it became harder and harder for them to cooperate. They actually managed to hide it enough to not make the manager and other crew members notice what happened. But Susy, Laura and I all noticed the difference between how Carole and Luna had acted towards each other now and how they had acted towards each other earlier on. We were worried about this. If this only had gotten one little bit worse, we nymphs might have had to split up, and we didnâ??t want that, since we usually were almost as close to each other as the brothers in Solero Five were. But other things would break our group up that than this jealousy fight between Luna and Susy, far worse things... As a young girl, I was still too young to even understand, that such things even could happen, and still, they would happen right in front of my eyes. Us watching Marlon and Carole, who are no more than one year older than us, becoming more and more serious, made the feelings between me and Michael, who already were growing stronger and stronger over these two years, harder and harder to hide. And really, we shouldnâ??t have had to hide our feelings either, but one thing made it all very difficult for us: That I was white and he was black! It might seem strange now more than thirty years later, but back then in the 1970s, interracial love was still a controversial issue. A lot of people wanted to allow this by then, but also, there still were lots of people back then, who still wouldnâ??t allow any interaction between races. But now, Michael and I had years of growing affection, and Marlon and Carole were no more than one year older than us, and THEY were a couple, so we couldnâ??t really be too young to become a real couple anymore either... And it started happening for real in the very end of 1973, when Michael and I were fifteen years old. It happened around Christmas time, and we discovered, that a really beautiful Christmas tree had been placed in our studio. Michael and I often walked around together and talked, for even though he was shy, he could still talk to me. We werenâ??t a love couple yet then, but we were good friends, and as Iâ??ve said earlier, our feelings for each other were growing. And then, we saw that beautiful Christmas tree, and we sat down together on the floor in front of the tree. And then, Michael started singing this song, that he had recorded that year, â??Little Christmas treeâ?. And there just was something so magical about that particular moment, me sitting with Michael under that â??little Christmas treeâ? listening to him singing that song. I felt like I just melted into his arms, only to realise that I really was in his arms! And then, I suddenly felt how he put one arm around me, and with his other hand, he started to play with my hair. Oh, Michael has always loved touching my hair like that! And it was there, next to that little Christmas tree, that we kissed each other for the very first time! For some reason, that Iâ??ve never understood, though I wondered about it, that part of the studio was empty at that precise moment, so no one came there and disturbed us. But from that day, I knew more than ever before, that I would never give up on Michael, and I knew, that we were a couple now. But it was also around this time, that Michael came to the very difficult part of his life, when he was changing from a little child star boy into a gorgeous grown-up star man. But unfortunately, he totally missed the gorgeous part in those changes he went through back then. But ironically, I saw them as much as he missed them, and as it seemed back then, I really saw them and he really missed them. Michael started feeling like no one could think that he was cute anymore, and it didnâ??t help either, that people came and looked for the little Michael Solero, and they couldnâ??t be content with the teenager, that he was now, and that his own father said, that he was ugly. But really, I just couldnâ??t help seeing him as the cutest in the world. The more grown up he became, or rather really, the more grown up we both became, because I was changing too at the time, the faster my heart throbed each time I saw him, heard him or even thought about him. I always thought, that Michael is really handsome, but still, heâ??s been sen-sitive about his appearance ever since his adolescence. Later on in our life together, we ended up having many arguements about plastic surgery. Changing his features practically became a drug for my poor husband, while I couldnâ??t feel anything but that he ruined the pretty face, that God gave him, and that letting a surgeon cut into a perfectly good face is an awful thing to do for anybody, and even more so for someone as gorgeous as my Mike! I should have seen it coming though. Oh, I should have! He became very sensitive about his looks as a teenager, and though he appreciated my telling him how he didnâ??t need to worry, how heâ??s just as handsome as God can make a human being, heâ??s always hated his appearance. If his nose was a bit big, he saw it as huge. If he had one little pimple, he saw his whole face as pimply. He always exaggerated like that. When we were younger, I would often have to hug him for minutes after he had looked at himself in a mirror, thatâ??s how much he hated his looks. Heâ??s a little better about that now, but not much. Poor shy and sensitive Michael was also almost affraid of the deliberately seductive girls, who were brought to him and his brothers to hang out with them, flirt with them, make out with them and, yes, even have sex with them. But two of his older brothers, Siggy and Jermaine, that is, loved using these girls without any limitations. This kind of girls, who are called â??groupiesâ?, filled me and Michael with nothing but disgust and comtempt with their ways. They werenâ??t only promiscuous, but they even slept with Siggy and Jermaine, when they really were married men. And a lot of girls were alsono older than me in the early 70s and even younger than me in the mid-70s, and really, that means fourteen-fifteen-year-olds. And to make this ancient scandal even worse, we also knew, that Joseph, the father of Michael, his five brothers and three sisters, was as bad as his two very promiscuous sons. He usually ended up with older women than what his sons Siggy and Jermaine did though, but one evening in January of 1974, when we were at a hotel, something disgusting happened. I suddenly heard this shrill scream coming from Josephâ??s hotel room and ran out to see who had screamed like that. Then I saw Luna Squarr running out of Joseph Soleroâ??s hotel room crying. §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ Chapter 5: His parents and my father. It was in the beginning of 1974, that Michael and I started introducing each other to each otherâ??s parents. Or really, I was introduced to his mother, and he was introduced to my father. Unfortuneately, I had already known Michaelâ??s terrible father for a few years by then. He had never known me as anything but as â??that tiresome white Leisure girl, who always will hang out with Mikeâ?, but really, I also didnâ??t know Joseph Solero as anything except this: â??That awful man, who somehow managed to be the father of the sweetest guy in the entire universeâ?. How Michael can be that manâ??s son has been a mystery to me for more than thirty years now. I just canâ??t get it. Even after living thirty years in that family, even after giving Joseph grandchildren and seeing my own children giving him great-grandchildren, it still is an enigma to me. As much as it seemed like my love for Michael always would grow stronger and stronger, it also seemed like my loathe for his father would grow stronger along with it. Even though I managed to forget about the terrible night, when Luna screamed so shrilly and came running out of Josephâ??s hotel room crying, my feelings for Michael and his father already were nothing but complete opposites. And since I really couldnâ??t understand how my Michael could be that awfulâ??s manâ??s son, I could only presume, that he had gotten all of his good sides from his mother. After all, Michael could tell me the most horrible stories about how his father could tease him for how he looked, telling him he was ugly, and how he used to beat him up, while he never would say one bad word about his mother, who seemed to be a sweet woman from what I had heard about her. So when Michael finally introduced me to his mother Katherine, Iâ??d wanted to meet her for a long time. It also felt like it was about time, that I would meet his mother too, when I had known his father for two years. And we also both knew, that we had become a real love couple now, and both our families had to find out about that some time, so why not tell them about it ourselves? It was in February of 1974, not long after that terrible thing had happened to Luna Squarr, and Katherine Solero had finally followed her husband to the studios one day, and that was the first time, that I met my mother-in-law. Joseph had already me met of course, so he didnâ??t care much about me then, but Katherine had to really check me out. We didnâ??t say anything about our relationship, though we had agreed, that we should tell them about it, and somehow, I really doubt, that Michael would have told his parents about it. He wouldnâ??t have been like him to talk with his parents about something that emotional. But still, it was like my parents-in-law both read us as if we were an open book, since they obviously understood, that we two were a young couple against the racial laws. But the fact that the usually so shy Michael couldnâ??t stop holding a girl as close to him as possible didnâ??t make it harder for them to understand the truth either, of course. Katherine didnâ??t seem to be as repulsive as Joseph was, but still, she didnâ??t look as if she could be really pleased with me becoming her second youngest sonâ??s girlfriend. Later on, I would understand excactly how she thought. Her oldest son Siggy was married to Enid, who had some asian origins, just like my unlucky friend Luna Squarr, and her second oldest son, Tito, was married to Dolores, a hispanic woman. Her oldest daughter Rebbie and her third son Jermaine had made all black marriages though, and Marlon was dating my friend Carole, who was black. Katherine wasnâ??t happy about either Enid and Dolores, even though it would get better before they both divorced their husbands in the 1980s, but it had made her happy, that her somewhat younger sons Jermaine and Marlon kept themselves within their race when it came to girls. But now, Michael was bringing another non-black girl into her life, and on top of everything, I was a white girl! And back then, black people could get married to asian people and hispanic people, but not to any white people! The law wouldnâ??t allow white people to marry outside their race yet back then in 1974, and my devout Jehovaâ??s wittness mother-in-law couldnâ??t stand the thought of her usually pious second youngest son living in sin with me. And according to her incredibly strict views of the world, any sex at all before marriage would sure be living in sin, even for couples like us, who couldnâ??t marry because of the racial laws still not making any marriage between a black person and a white person legal. The fact that we were only fifteen years old then made no difference to her either. We were old enough to sin with each other, and she was worried about how far we could go. But I donâ??t know what Joseph really thought about me that day, what he really could think about one of his sons actually getting Elvis Leisureâ??s daughter as his girlfriend. He must have known who was my father, and Katherine must have known it too. They canâ??t have been ignorant about that, when everybody talked about it all the time. Maybe they simply were surprised over the fact, that the shyest and most sensitive of their sons was the one to get a â??forbiddenâ? girl, even if he also was their golden child, the one whose talents where bigger than those of all their other children combined. It must have been strange espe-cially to Joseph, if he really thought Michael was ugly, even if I canâ??t for my life understand how anyone could find him ugly. I felt like I was in Heaven at that moment, just because he held his arms around me, as if he wanted to show his parents what he felt for me without saying it, thatâ??s how lovely I thought he was. But no matter what Michaelâ??s parents thought about me, my father had nothing bad to say about Michael, when I finally first brought him to Graceland only a week later. But Michael couldnâ??t bear to look into my fatherâ??s face, when they first met, thatâ??s how nervous and shy he was. Not only was this the first time, that heâ??d meet this man, who already back then was considered a musical legend, but this was also the first time, that heâ??d meet my father! And Iâ??m actually affraid, that my poor Michael thought, that he had to impress my father both as a performer and as a son-in-law at the same time, so itâ??s really no wonder, that Michael couldnâ??t help being shy and nervous then. And the poor guy probably was disappointed at himself too for not being able to show his future father-in-law more than this incredible case of shyness and nervousy. And oh, I felt so extremly bad for him, who had to be so uncomfortable at Graceland, which always has been the place in the entire world, that I love the most. - Mr Leisure, Michael started, but he couldnâ??t bear to say anything more than that. He just looked down at his own feet and looked uneasy. But really, my father was no more ignorant about our feelings for each other than what his parents had been. Dad felt, that Michael was my love, and not just a friend. So Michael still made a strong first impression on him, and as Dad sure couldnâ??t see any harm in him, he said: - Nice guy youâ??ve got there, Lynnie! And then, Michael simply blushed, and I had to hold him, so that he would feel better. Dad laughed and said: - Oh, donâ??t be alarmed, my boy! Youâ??re always welcome here at Graceland! But Michael could only hope, that my father was telling the truth, and he could only look down at his feet again, since he still was way too shy and nervous to feel really comfortable at Graceland. - You can relax now, I whispered to Michael, when we had managed to be alone for a while. You donâ??t have to worry anymore, Mike! Dad likes you! - Really, Michael wondered doubtfully. He looked as if he really was disappointed at himself, that he had seemed so awkward, and he couldnâ??t believe, that my father could like him after that first impression. But I knew, that my father hadnâ??t lied to us in anything, that he had told us that day. - But sure, I said. I can tell, that he likes you! And really, my father is a nice man! You donâ??t have to fear him! - I hope so, Michael said. Because if heâ??s not a nice man, he will hate me! - He sure wonâ??t hate you, I said. Who can hate you? - Many people hate me, he said. And I sure hate myself right now too... How would your father be able to like me after me acting like that? - But donâ??t I like you then, I asked him. And havenâ??t you acted just like that around me? Even long after we were supposed to know each other? - Yes, he agreed. But then, I have never really understood you either, Lynnie... Iâ??m just glad, that you like me! - Like you, I said. No, Mike! I love you! Michael just starred at me after I made that confession, but he could only reply to that in one way: - I love you too, Lynnie! And somehow, Michael soon started feeling more at ease with my father and Lucy. Michael had already met my half-brother Charlie, and they obviously liked each other. But now I knew, that my half-sister Lucy liked him too. Her mother Priscilla didnâ??t care. I donâ??t think she wanted to meet her husbandâ??s daughter from his first marriage, and she had even less interest in meeting my boyfriend. Priscilla just let Dad have Lucy on his own that day, yes, I even think she might have gone out while we were there at Graceland, so I just let her and Michael get acquainted. Later the same day, Dad wanted to have a talk with me about Michael. - Heâ??s a sweet boy, that one. But tell me... How can he be a performer, when heâ??s so shy? - That is strange, I agreed. But you see, itâ??s like Mike has two personalities... One for standing on stage, and one for his private life. - I see, Dad said. But tell me then, gal... Which one of his personalities do you like the best? Now, I was the one to blush! I really still only was a little girl after all. But I could only answer with the truth: - I like them both, Dad... - I thought so, Dad said with a smile. But really, I like him too! And Dad would never have anything against Michael as long as he lived. Unfortuneately, my father wouldnâ??t get to live too many years after he got to know Michael. §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ Chapter 6 Why I had to leave my mother. Michaelâ??s parents would finally accept me with a little grudge, and my own father never had any problems with Michael, while his wife Priscilla couldnâ??t care less about what I was doing with my life. My mother, my brother Charlie and even my stepsister Bridget had already known Michael for years by then, and neither of those three had any problems about him. Even my motherâ??s parents met him once in early 1974, but Grandpa Russo would only be able to meet him once. My grandfather had gotten worse and worse over the last few years, and it wasnâ??t excactly fun to visit them at all, even though Mum and I felt we had to go there anyway. But this one time, Michael still actually followed me to visit them, and at least one thing was fun about this visit, except the simple fact that Michael followed me there. Neither one of my motherâ??s parents had English as their mother tongue, and Mum, I and Charlie often spoke with them in their both native languages, Italian and Swedish. Neither my Italian grandfather not my Swedish grand-mother was good as pronouncing some English names, and they wouldnâ??t pronounce â??Michaelâ? the â??rightâ? way. Grandpa Russo used to called him â??Micheleâ?, which is the Italian form for â??Michaelâ?. And my grandmother was also keen on pronouncing his name in the Swedish way, which of course would be something like â??Meek-ah-elâ?. At first, poor Michael couldnâ??t understand why he was called either â??Micheleâ? or â??Meek-ah-elâ?. - What are they calling me, he finally asked me. Why are they calling me such weird names? And I almost laughed my head off. It was so clear to me, what my grandparents said, that it hadnâ??t occured to me, that Michael wouldnâ??t get it. Finally, I had to say: - Oh, baby, itâ??s not that weird, really! Theyâ??re just trying to say your name, hun! â??Micheleâ? is â??Michaelâ? in Italian, and â??Meek-ah-elâ? is â??Michaelâ? in Swedish! Michael was never as extremely shy and nervous around any other family member of mine, as he had been around my father, but well, he still has that kind of personality, and now, I could see, that he was really embarrassed. - Donâ??t worry about it, I said. You couldnâ??t know! You donâ??t speak neither Italian nor Swedish! And after I said that, Michael seemed to be able to relax, and the rest of our visit to my grandparents went by fine. But my grandparents never pronounced Michaelâ??s name in the English way. It would always be â??Micheleâ? from Grandpa Russo and â??Meek-ah-elâ? from Grandma Russo. But at least, Michael learned, that it was his name. I donâ??t know if my motherâ??s parents really looked down at black people, like most people in their generation did, but they sure wouldnâ??t socialize with anybody non-white. And there had been very few black people over in Europe back when they left their home countries, so it had been a big novelty for them to see all people of different races, which they saw over in America, when they came here. So when I brought this black boy over to their apartment, they hardly knew what to say about it or how to behave. They hadnâ??t expected their very white granddaughter to have a black boyfriend. However, they didnâ??t have to see more of Michael, than what they did on that single day, before they knew, that they couldnâ??t say anything bad about him either. Everyone in my family liked Michael, if they only got to know him. But my stepfather Winston would never want to know him. Luckily, it took years, before he even saw my Michael. I actually even wonder, if he even knew, that Michael existed, before he saw him. Even though both of my parents, and then, Iâ??ll of course include my mother, his wife, had been or were pop stars, he didnâ??t know much about pop music, and he probably knew even less about black stars than about white stars. But when he finally would find out, that he really existed, and that he even had come over his treshold, that a black boy had dared to walk into his house, to his white family, it would lead to one disaster after another for us. After Mum had gotten married to Winston, she just sold our apartment, where we didnâ??t end up living for more than a couple of months, and we moved into Winstonâ??s house instead. I lived there for years with Mum, Winston, Bridget and the little Charlie. Bridget was born in 1955, so she already had turned eighteen years old, when it was getting more and more serious between me and Michael. She was still living with us in her fatherâ??s house in March of 1974, but fortuneately, she had already met the guy, who she would marry as soon as in the summer of 1974. Bridgetâ??s husbandâ??s real name is Frederick John Atwood, but we have always called him Freddy. I never went to ordinary schools after I became a star as twelve-year-old, since I had to be private tutored in the studios instead. There were many reasons why I couldnâ??t go to ordinary school after I became a star. First of all, I used to do all these concerts and performances with the other nymphs, and when we did those, we couldnâ??t think about school. We couldnâ??t both do all these tours and recordings and go to all the classes in an ordinary school like other kids. And we were also too famous to be around other kids like we were just like them. Oh no, it just wouldnâ??t work out! And Michael and his brothers had to do the same thing after they became famous. But Bridget always went to ordinary public schools all the way from Kindergarten to her High School graduation, and it was in High School, that she met her Freddy. He and Bridget had already been going out for years by then, and I had met Freddie many times over the years, and Bridget had also met Michael a couple of times, but suddenly, we realised, that Freddy and Michael had never managed to meet each other yet. So in the beginning of 1974, we invited them both to our house one evening, when we knew very well, that Mum and Winston had plans to go out. We were supposed to take care of little three-year-old Charlie while my mother and her father were out, but of course, we didnâ??t tell our parents about our planning to have our boys coming over, when we were only supposed to care of our little brother, and they werenâ??t supposed to ever find out about it either. At first, everything went well too. Charlie actually knew both Michael and Freddy since before, though this was the first time, when he could meet them simultaneously. And really, Michael and Freddy got along pretty well too. Freddy has always loved taking a lot of photos, we were actually surprised, that he didnâ??t become a photographer, and he managed to take a photo of me, Michael, Bridget, himself and Charlie. I still have that photograph among my other photos from that era, and some times, I can do nothing but smile, when I look at that photo. Charlie was hardly more than a baby back then, and the rest of usâ?¦ We were only teenagers! And Michael actually had an afro in that photo, which he used to have back in the 70s. And even Freddie had a 70s hairstyle, that the white boys used to have back then. And of course, we all had typical 70s clothes, which makes us look nothing but ridiculous! My kids have always liked to look at that photo, since we donâ??t have any other picture with a teenage me, Michael, Bridget and Freddy, that also has a toddler Charlie in it. Itâ??s also one of those pictures, which make my kids ask: - But how could people look like that, Mum? You looked like clowns, or even scarecrows! And decades after that fashion died, I canâ??t do anything but agree with them, and then, we all laugh at it together, but only for a while, because we canâ??t let their father see photos of himself as a teenager, or he will get depressed. Yes, my poor Michael really thinks he was that butt ugly! But that particular picture has also always filled me with sorrow because of what happened after Freddy took it, when my mother and Bridgetâ??s father came home. Just hours after that photo was taken, our parents came home earlier than expected only to find these two teenage boys just sitting in their living room with their daughters. Well, Mum knew both Michael and Freddy since before, but Winston only knew Freddy, and he looked as if he was having a fit, when he had his first look at Michael. - Whoâ??s that nigger, he bellowed. And whatâ??s he doing in my house? We were all surprised by this sudden outburst of anger, and it had been so easy for me to introduce Michael to my own relatives, that I never had expected anything like this from my stepfather either. â??Niggerâ? had also already back then become a word, that was considered offensive, at least among younger people like us. Mum could only stare at her husband and say: - But Winston, please! But Winston couldnâ??t think about pleasing my mum now. He could actually only think about picking up a crawbar made of steel and aiming a blow with it towards Michael. That would only end well because Michael managed to throw himself backwards into a couch in the nick of time, and because Mum suddenly threw herself at her husband and yelled: - What are you doing, Winston? Have you gone mad? And when Winston understood, that his wife wouldnâ??t let him treat Michael the way he wanted to, he first looked at her with fury, and then, he looked at Michael. - Youâ??re leaving my house right now, he yelled. Do you hear me? RIGHT NOW! - Fine, Michael said. I know when Iâ??m not welcome! And when Michael walked out through the door, I just started crying with both sorrow and anger. I was really aggrivated by the way Michael was treated and yelled: - If he has to leave, then Iâ??m leaving with him! Winston gave me look of uppermost contempt and anger and bellowed: - Fine! Leave! What do I care? Youâ??re not my daughter, are you? But heâ??s not coming into this house again! - Then Iâ??m not coming into this house again either, I said with tears of anger in my voice. I can live with my dad at Graceland instead! I donâ??t have to live here with you! - What are you talking about, Mum cried. You shall live here with me! - It doesnâ??t seem so anymore, I told her. Iâ??m moving in with Dad as soon as possible, because I know for sure, that he wonâ??t forbid me to see Mike! Dad has said, that I can bring him to Graceland as much as I want! And well, Iâ??ll have to take him there instead, when I canâ??t take him here anymore! - So you actually brought the nigger here into my house, Winston said. What did you do that for? - Because heâ??s her boyfriend, Bridget said. And the terrible silence, that came after she had said that, was nothing but uncanny. She understood, that she made a big mistake, and she just started crying. - Get out of my house, Winston bellowed at me. If youâ??re with such filth, you canâ??t live here anymore! - Winston, Mum cried, but she couldnâ??t say anything else because she cried now too. - Fine, I yelled. Iâ??m leaving too! Bye! I only took the time to put my jacket and my shoes on, and then, I just ran out into the night. And then, suddenly, I saw someone sitting down on the grass on the other side of the street. And I just ran over the street towards him, when I understood, that it was Michael! He hadnâ??t come any longer away from our house yet! When he saw me, he got up from the ground and walked towards me. - Lynnie, he whispered. Is that you? I just had to hug him and kiss him and say: - Yes, Mike! Of course itâ??s me! - What just happened in there, he asked. Who was that crazy man anyway? - It was my stepfather, I said. But donâ??t worry about him anymore now! Youâ??ll never have to see him again! - How can you be sure about that, he asked. - Because Iâ??m never seeing him again, I said. Iâ??m moving to Graceland. - But what about your mother, he asked. And Bridget and little Charlie? Will you never see them again either? - I hope I will, I said. But I wonâ??t see him again... - I really do hope I wonâ??t see him again anyway, Michael said. He might succeed with hurting me the next time! I had to spend one more night in my stepfatherâ??s house, but I started moving out the next morning. A week later, we had managed to move my things over to Graceland. And my father and his father were only glad to have me live with them at Graceland permanently. Mum hadnâ??t allowed Dad to have any custody of me for nine years. She had always made sure, that she was my guardian. Mum must have wanted to punish my dad for how he had treated her while they were married. But now, my mother had to face the facts, that Winston and I just couldnâ??t live in the same house anymore. We loathed each other now. He wouldnâ??t let me have a black boyfriend, and I wasnâ??t going to give up on my Michael just because of his race. There was nothing else for Mum to do than to finally let me live with Dad again. - Itâ??s only for the best, Mum said. And really, Elvis is a better father than husband, so I donâ??t worry about him mistreating you either... And as much as Winston hated Michael just because of his African origins, Dad and Grandpa couldnâ??t see any harm in him. He often came and visited me at Graceland. I totally loved living with my father and his father again, especially now since my other grandfather, Luigi Russo, had died no more than two months after I took Michael there to meet my grandparents. After that terrible night, when Winston almost hit Michael with that steel crawbar, I loved being able to let Michael visit me at my home. And on top of it all, Dadâ??s second wife Priscilla had just left him, and not only my father either, but even my only six-year-old half-sister Lucy was left without a mother, so I had take care of her a lot for several years after I moved there. But I missed my mother, Grandma Russo, Bridget and Charlie, though I would meet them as much as I could. But of course, I didnâ??t miss Winston one bit.
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