Three Day Summer (21 page)

chapter 70

Michael

It's strange to be going to the medical tents and be walking away from Cora instead of to her. She fills my every thought, though: her hair, her skin, the feel of her body. More than that, everything I've learned about her. Everything I have yet to learn.

I have a smile on my face when I think about that and all the time together that lies in our future. The time I'm going to find and make.

It's pretty easy to pick out Evan and the girls now that the crowd has thinned out so much. They're standing by the tents just like we said. Rob must have already split.

Evan gives me a hearty wave. Amanda scowls and looks away and, in a show of solidarity, Catherine and Suzie don't really look at me either. I don't pay much attention to any of it.

As we start to trek to the car, I ask Evan who his favorite act of yesterday was. He starts talking about Country Joe McDonald, when Suzie butts in and asks him how he could possibly say anyone other than Joe Cocker. A friendly argument ensues, one that Amanda can't help but get involved in too, and I'm happy that my question had the intended effect. I'm free to be alone in my romantic haze amid the noise of the conversation.

It takes us over an hour to make it to our car. We have to walk slowly down the emergency lane of Route 17B, partially because it has opened up again and there is traffic going by, and partially because we don't really remember exactly where the car is and have to keep a sharp eye out for it.

Finally we see it, the big purple boat gleaming in the sunlight. All that rain gave it a good car washing. My mom should be pleased.

We let out a collective shout of triumph as we run over to it, even Amanda.

But she refuses to sit in the front, giving Evan that honor.

As I start the car up and get ready to pull out, I think about the day that I can just turn around and come back here. To miraculous, wonderful Bethel.

I think I'll do it right after I sign up for a college course when I get back home. Maybe something to do with journalism. As soon as I do that, I can come back and Cora and I can spend the last weeks of summer together. For now.

But if this weekend has confirmed anything for me, it's how important now is. Now is all we have, really. And we never know when now will be the instant that changes everything.

So here's to keeping an eye out for that moment when some clueless executive mistakes you for Roger Daltrey.

And here's to fucking going with it.

Acknowledgments

Agents don't come any braver or truer than Victoria Marini. Thank you for helping Cora and Michael find the greatest home with the Simon & Schuster BFYR team. I'm especially grateful to Dani Young, for going to bat for a slacker hippie and a budding doctor, and doing so much to help them reach their full potential. Thank you times a million to Zareen Jaffery, for continuing that journey with me and for, quite simply, being a rock star of epic proportions. It's been such a privilege to work with you both. Thank you to Krista Vossen, for designing the cover of my psychedelic dreams, and to Katharine R. Wiencke, for copyediting with the precision of a guitar virtuoso. And thank you to Justin Chanda and the rest of the incredible team at Simon & Schuster BFYR. I have half a mind to organize and dedicate a three-day festival to all of you.

This book was my way to fulfill a lifelong dream and time travel to Woodstock. A huge thank-you to Wade Lawrence, director of the fabulous Woodstock museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, who helped correct my poor grasp of geography and made sure that Cora and Michael inhabited the festival as it really was. (I also can't recommend a trip to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts enough—it's like your very own time machine.) Also thank you to J.P. McGuirk at Catskill Regional Medical Center for answering some important hospital-related questions. Any historical inaccuracies are strictly my own.

I really do get by with
a little
a lot of help from my friends. This is by no means a complete list, but there have been writing-related e-mails, texts, tweets, and even good old-fashioned conversations that deserve my gratitude in print forevermore from: Katie Blackburn, Jenny Goldberg, Lizzie Foley, Chris Whittingham, Valeria Meniconzi, Dan Blackburn, Julie Henehan, Billy Henehan, Bryan Hall, Will Schneider, and Rachel Schneider. An extra-special shout-out to the inimitable Sarah Skilton, who has led by example on how to write fearlessly and stay both unflagging and gracious. Thank you still to the Apocalypsies and the Class of 2k12.

And, finally, a lifetime's worth of gratitude to my favorite Deadhead, my husband, Graig. Thank you for all your enthusiasm, patience, 1960s facts, endlessly explaining the concept of jamming to me, and casually coming up with crucial plot points (like the Roger Daltrey bit). Michael believes in Cora because you believe in me. I love you more than there are music and lyrics in the world.

Photo credit Corinne Ray

Sarvenaz Tash was born in Tehran, Iran, and grew up on Long Island, New York. She received her BFA in Film and Television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. This means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun). She has dabbled in all sorts of writing, including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting. Sarvenaz currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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The text for this book is set in Bembo.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tash, Sarvenaz.

Three day summer / Sarvenaz Tash. — 1st edition.

pages cm

Summary: During the three days of the music festival known as Woodstock,

Michael Michaelson of Somerville, Massachusetts, and Cora Fletcher, a volunteer in the medical tent who lives nearby, share incredible experiences, the greatest of which is meeting each other.

ISBN 978-1-4814-3931-2 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4814-3933-6 (eBook)

[1. Woodstock Festival (1969 : Bethel, N.Y.)—Fiction. 2. Music festivals—Fiction. 3. Love—Fiction. 4. Counterculture—Fiction. 5. Nineteen sixties—Fiction. 6. Woodstock (N.Y.)—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.T2111324Thr 2015

[Fic]—dc23

2014032737