Dancing Queen

“You can dance, you can jive

Having the time of your life

Ooh, see that girl, watch that scene

Digging the dancing queen...”

Aggie Wade lifted her eyes from the physics textbook she was studying and looked at her best friend, Marley Cameron, sighing as she heard the opening bars of ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA from her mother’s bedroom upstairs for about the tenth time today.

“Gimme a break…” she muttered, rolling her eyes heavenward. She understood that the song was her mother’s favorite, and that it brought back memories of better times. Heaven knew that Barbara Wade had few good memories these days. Not many had been made since that day not quite four years ago when a pick-up truck driven by a drunk, and traveling in excess of sixty miles an hour, had run a red light at Coldwater Canyon Boulevard and Ventura Boulevard, and had broad-sided the Toyota Camry being driven by Terry Wade, Aggie’s father. He had been killed instantly, and Barbara, a once sparkling, witty and hip woman of forty-one was instantly turned into a paraplegic. In the space of a few heartbeats, Barbara had lost her beloved husband of twenty-two years, and any hope for future happiness.

At the very young age of seventeen, Aggie had reversed roles with Barbara, becoming her crippled mother’s provider, companion and support. Terry had left an insurance policy worth half a million dollars, and with their home being theirs, free and clear, there were few money worries. However, trying to finish high school while taking care of her invalid mother was no easy task for Aggie. Good fortune, sound advice and help with coping with the myriad details of arranging for her father’s funeral and her mother’s care had come in the form of Maggie Cameron, Barbara’s best friend, and Marley’s mother. The Cameron’s home was next door to the Wade’s on tree lined Radford Avenue in Studio City. Maggie had been a godsend; Aggie would have been lost without her.

Marley turned green eyes on Aggie in sympathy. She knew the history of the song, and though she understood Aggie’s exasperation with continually hearing it, at the same time, she thought that the story that went with it a glamorous and romantic tale.

Terry Wade and Barbara Walker had been high school sweethearts in a small town in Texas. Both had expected that they would graduate from high school, get married and go to work at either of the army ammunition depots that were the main sources of employment in a tiny town with a population of just under fifty thousand souls. Eventually, Barb would quit working to stay home with the family they would raise; a boy who would look like Terry, and a girl who would resemble Barbara.

Fate intervened in the destiny that had been that of so many of their friends in the mid-seventies in the shape of the Disco craze. Terry and Barb had discovered that the flashy dancing style came naturally to them. Weekends became a time to hang out at Sharkey’s, a local pizza parlor that had added a disco studio to cater to the fans of the fad. With all of their friends, they danced the night away to songs like “SOS” and “Mamma Mia” by ABBA, “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate, and “Love to Love You, Baby” by Donna Summer. They saw ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and were inspired by the hip performances of John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney as Tony and Stephanie. Improvising on some of the dance moves of Travolta and Gorney from the movie, Terry and Barb soon became the stars of the dance floor at Sharkey’s.

A chance to escape the fate that would soon overtake many of the friends arrived in the form of a dance contest, a la ‘Saturday Night Fever’, held by Sharkey’s. The winners of the contest would receive an all-expense paid trip to Hollywood to compete on the ‘Stars of Tomorrow’, a popular talent showcase for amateur performers hoping for their big break. Terry and Barb won the contest handily. They agreed that they would put off starting college until they had competed in ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ and discovered if they had what it took to make it in the rough and tumble world of show business.

They only placed second in the show, but they received a few offers for parts in a couple of live stage performances; however, since neither of them had any formal dance training, such offers soon petered out.

Both of them had immediately fallen in love with Hollywood, though, and decided to stay. They were married at West Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and set up housekeeping in a beautiful little guesthouse high in Beachwood Canyon. Terry worked during the day as a security officer while he attended night school to obtain a real estate license. Barb worked at Robinson’s Department Store in downtown Los Angeles during the day, and sold Avon in her spare time.

In early 1979, Barb discovered that she was pregnant, and would bear their first child in early November. Terry was thrilled at the prospect of becoming a father. Barbara quit her job at Robinson’s, and through the real estate agency he was now employed by, they purchased a three-bedroom Spanish-style stucco on Radford Avenue in Studio City. Aggie would grow up in that home.

Their daughter was born a week early, making her entrance into the world on Halloween, instead of on Barb’s original due date of November 7th. Barb and Terry named her Aggie, after Agnetha Faltskog, the blonde bombshell of ABBA, their favorite group.

So now they were just an average Southern California family, but their one moment of glory had never really faded from Barb’s memory. Her fifteen minutes of fame had been captured for posterity in the form of two volumous scrapbooks full of photos, news clippings and print articles about their victory at Sharkey’s, the ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ contest, and every other performance they had given, from sources ranging from their hometown newspaper to the Daily Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter. There were also videos of their performances for any who cared to view them. Barbara even still had the yellow lace and chiffon dress she had worn for ‘Stars of Tomorrow’, along with the shoes and jewelry she’d worn with it. It was almost as if she were in perpetual mourning for that lost dream.

Aggie had always understood that her mother wanted to keep the memory of what had been the high point of her life alive. After all, if it had not been for that one moment of bright triumph, she and Terry would have been just another average married couple living in a backwoods town in Texas, instead of living in this beautiful Southern California home. Sometimes, though, she thought her mother worked at keeping that moment in the past shining at the expense of the current one.

Now that her dad was gone, the memories were all that her mother seemed to have left. Aggie had no doubt that her mother loved her, but sometimes she doubted that it was as much as Barb loved the memory of being the Dancing Queen. Aggie was sad because she had even fewer memories to hold on to. Terry had been a wonderful father, but her time with him had been far too short. She knew that he would not have wanted either Aggie or Barb to stop living because he was gone.

“Aggie!” her mother’s voice drifted down from her bedroom. “Aggie, I need your help…”

“Coming, Mom!” Aggie called. She put her pen down and stood up. “I’ll be back in just a minute.” she told Marley, who nodded.

When she got upstairs, she was amazed to find her mother sitting up in bed, looking better than she had in months. It was a pleasant surprise.

“What is it, Mom?” she asked.

“Where’s my make-up, Aggie?” Barb asked. “I feel like sprucing up a bit. And would you do my hair for me?”

“Sure, Mom. No problem.” She was so pleased that her mother was taking an interest in her appearance that she didn’t mind taking the time out from her studies. “Let me tell Marley that I’ll be back down to finish studying in just a bit.”

After letting Marley know what she was going to be doing, she headed back up stairs to her mother. Barbara was looking at one of her scrapbooks. It was open to a page with a photo of her in the yellow dress she’d worn for ‘Stars of Tomorrow’. She ran her fingers across the photo lovingly.

“Such a beautiful dress…” she murmured. “Your dad always said I was a knock-out that night…”

“You sure were, Mom. Now… how about getting started on that make-over you wanted?”

“Yes… let’s do.” Barb replied.

Twenty minutes later, Aggie had expertly highlighted her mother’s face with just the right touches of makeup, and brushed her gilt-blonde hair into a becoming style.

“You look great, Mom.” Aggie commented. “What’s the occasion?”

Barb’s eyes had a dreamy, far away look to them. “Your dad and I are going dancing tonight.” she murmured.

Aggie’s heart dropped into her stomach. In the three years since Terry’s death, Barb had never shown any of the continuing symptoms of denial that so many grieving wives displayed. After a normal period of disbelief, she had accepted his death, albeit begrudgingly. Now, all of a sudden, she seemed to have slipped right into the middle of a giant pit of disavowal.

She gingerly sat down on the edge of the bed and brushed a stray lock of hair from Barb’s forehead with a gentle touch.

“Mom, Dad’s dead. You know that. He’s been gone for nearly four years now.”

The look on Barb’s face didn’t change. “Do you know that today is the twenty-third anniversary of our appearance on ‘Stars of Tomorrow’?” she asked softly. Aggie looked at the date beneath the photo… June 21, 1978, 8:00 p.m. She hadn’t realized that.

“Gosh, no, Mom, I didn’t. That’s quite a milestone, isn’t it?”

Barbara didn’t seem to hear. “We have to celebrate it, you know.” She said. “My yellow dress… I have to wear my yellow dress. It’s an anniversary, after all.”

Aggie felt tears welling up in her eyes. Maybe her mom was getting worse, instead of better.

“I’m sure daddy would have wanted to celebrate it, too, if things had been different.”

“Of course he wants to celebrate it, honey!” Barb insisted. “Now, can you please get my yellow dress?”

“Mom, that dress has been sealed up in plastic to preserve it for years now. If you took it out and tried to put it on, it would probably fall to pieces.”

“Nonsense, Jessie… I only bought the dress just this week, and I paid a pretty penny for it, too! Why on earth would it be falling apart?”

Another shock ran through Aggie. Not only was her mother experiencing some sort of memory lapse, but Barb had also actually called her by Aggie’s aunt’s name. Jessie, Barb’s oldest sister had passed away ten years earlier.

“Look, Mom, I don’t know why you experiencing this sudden problem with your memory, but you may be getting stressed out. I’ll get your medication for you, and you can lie back down and rest.”

“I don’t need any damned medicine, and I don’t have time to rest, Jessie!” Barbara flared in an uncharacteristic rage. “I need my damned dress! Terry will be here to get me soon, and I need to be ready!”

Aggie was at a loss for what to do. With a sigh, she got up and went to the closet. She took the yellow dress, which was still sheathed in its vacuum-packed plastic and laid it across the back of a chair across the room from Barb’s bed, hoping to shock her mother out of this sudden delusion of hers.

“There’s the dress, Mom.” she said, hating herself for having to resort to such cruelty. ”If you want it, you have to get up and get it yourself! It’s not good for you to pretend to yourself the way you’re doing. Dad’s not coming to take you dancing tonight because Dad is dead! And how can you dance? You can’t even walk any more! Why would you do this to yourself and to me?”

Tears filled her eyes as Barb raised her head and looked at her daughter with a slight, knowing smile on her face.

“I love you, Aggie.” she said softly. “Always remember that, no matter what. And your dad says he loves you, too.”

Unable to bear this sudden change in her mother any longer, Aggie turned and fled the room, her remorse for being so cruel to her mother almost overwhelming.

By the time she reached the kitchen where Marley was still deep in her studies, she had managed to pull herself together and give her friend a brief smile.

“Is everything all right?” Marley asked.

Aggie nodded. “She’s just a bit over-emotional tonight. It’s the anniversary of the night that she and dad appeared on ‘Stars of Tomorrow’.”

“I see.” Marley replied. “So… ready to hit the books again?”

Aggie nodded, and bent back to the task at hand. About ten minutes had passed when Marley suddenly sat straight up in her chair, a bewildered look on her face.

“Did you feel that?” she asked, her face marred by a nervous frown.

“Feel what?”

Marley rubbed the back of her neck. “It was like someone put an ice-cold hand on the back of my neck.”

Aggie shook her head. “Didn’t feel a thing.”

“And the smell!” Marley went on. ”Do you have roses anywhere in the house?”

Again, Aggie shook her head. “No. Roses always upset Mom too much to have them around. Dad gave her a dozen yellow roses to match her dress on the night of the show, and she’s hasn’t been able to bear having them around her since he died.”

“That’s very strange, because the smell is overpowering, almost smothering. I’m surprised that you don’t smell it.”

At that moment, two things happened. A clock in the living room that had belonged to her dad and hadn’t worked in years suddenly chimed eight o’clock; and once again, ‘Dancing Queen’ began playing again upstairs.

Aggie looked at Marley in despair. “Can you come up with me? She really needs to get some rest, and maybe seeing you will help to settle her down.”

With Marley by her side, Aggie ascended the stairs once more and turned into her mother’s bedroom. As she entered, she found herself glued into place with shock, her stomach freezing in both fear and amazement. What she saw would remain with her with the rest of her life.

Her mother, who had been bedridden for nearly four years, who had not taken a single step in as long, lay on her bed, attired in the yellow dress that Aggie had placed on a chair some fifteen feet away. The dress was as perfect as it must have been on the day her mother had bought it. Barb wore the peau de soie pumps that had been dyed specially to match the dress, and the citrine parure of necklace, bracelets and earrings that she’d also bought to match the dress.

Her face was haloed with a bright white light that emphasized the brilliant, ecstatic smile of welcome that caressed her lips. It was plainly apparent that whatever entity that had caused Barbara Wade to be a living, breathing person had departed what was now only the shell it had once inhabited.

Aggie didn’t know what was the more shocking; the sight of the dozen yellow roses that lay across the middle of Barbara’s still body, or the brief glimpse of an image that she saw in the mirror of the dresser next to the bed… that of two people dancing toward a brilliant light in the distance… an eighteen-year-old Barbara and a twenty-year old Terry, both of whom looked back at her through the mirror, giving her dazzling smiles that were a mixture of love and regret as they whirled away from her into the light.

The darkness closed over her, even as she heard Marley’s frightened voice calling her name and thankfully, Aggie knew no more.

About This Page

The graphics on this page were created exclusively for Penney's Place by the webmistress and may not be used without permission.

The music is 'Dancing Queen', of course, by the disco superstar group, ABBA.

The font on the header and buttons is called 'Airstream' and it can be downloaded here.