“It’s kindaSaturday Night Fever,”Goldie replied.
“No, honey. It’s Friday,” Peter corrected.
“I know it’s Friday!” she answered.
“You have a fever?” Ed asked.
“No.No!The expression comes from a song that’s in a movie. It’s right at the beginnin’ of the film when John Travolta is walkin’ down the sidewalk and this great Bee Gees song is playin’…” her voice trailed off when she saw that Peter and Ed were a little concerned about her intensity.
She took a pause and a breath to calm down, then continued, “Ed—just tell me—please!Wheredo you know that saying from?Whendid you first hear it?”
The round-faced man thought for a couple of moments.
“Huh, I don’t honestly know. I just remember thinking to myself when I heard it: ‘That’s cute. I gotta remember that.’”
“Okay,” Goldie nodded reluctantly, taking a sip from her drink. “Fine.”
“Well, I gotta go,” Ed smiled a little nervously. “See you two later.”
“See you later, Ed,” Peter smiled.
“Hope your fever’s better, Goldie,” he said, moving on.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a freakin’ fever,” she mumbled, totally frustrated.
“What was allthatabout?” Peter asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said defeatedly. She picked up her glass and finished her drink with a long gulp.
“Do you, eh, maybe want to get out of here?” he suggested. “You never have seen my place.”
He made the offer at a moment when Goldie was feeling moved by what he had written, frustrated about all the things she didn’t understand, and lonely since it was the Christmas season and everyone around her seemed to be with loved ones.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Let’s get out of here.”
Peter likewise finished his drink, then they rose and headed for the coat check. As they went, Charles Banyan, Tully, and Crosby had now huddled in another corner of the center and were talking.
“She went to the school to visit an old friend named Diana Ross,” Charles explained.
“So, no need to break into the school Sunday night?” Tully asked.
The mayor considered for a moment.
“No, go ahead with the plan,” he decided. “Let’s confirm it. Get a copy of the staff list.”
Within a few seconds of Peter and Goldie leaving the dance, the band struck up the romantic Hoagy Carmichael number, “The Nearness Of You,” a slow dance tune. As they did, Eli was just coming out of the men’s bathroom and went over to his table where his mother, father, sister Dinah, and her boyfriend, an army soldier in uniform, were seated. Upon his arrival, Dinah, a twenty-two-year-old blonde-haired beauty, rose.
“C’mon, Eli, I want a dance with my big brother.”
“Sorry, sweetie,” he said. “I’m taken for this one. But the next slow dance is all yours.”
His sister turned to her boyfriend, who rose, getting the cue that she wanted to dance. Eli’s parents did the same. As his family moved toward the dance floor, he limped past table after table, scouting the place for Goldie with a smile of anticipation. But after nearly two minutes of the three-minute song, the smile withered.
While the female vocalist sang:
“I need no soft light to enchant me
If you’ll only grant me
