A lone man slowly walked into the smoke-filled club. He heard the sound of applause as he came inside. The man was in his late twenties and had darkish brown hair and penetrating hazel eyes.
Feeling bored, he had given his assistants a rare night off and he decided to leave the confines of his laboratory as well. Sitting down at an empty table by the side wall, he ordered a scotch on the rocks and turned his attention to the stage, where a young woman stood at the microphone. Behind her was a piano player. She had short reddish-brown hair, green eyes and was wearing a long orange gown and dark eye liner. Instantly the man was smitten with her.
Ignoring his drink, he simply stared at the woman as she started to sing an up tempo song:
"Don't you hear the music?" She sang, "Don't it feel good?"
"Let me get to ya, try to let go."
"You don't have to worry about a thing."
Just come on up,
Come on up now,
Come on up baby, and have a good time."
The young woman, for her part, felt his stare from afar. As she sang, she looked around the club and finally located the source.
They stared at each other and the man nodded to her.
"She's going to be mine." He said to himself. "She will be my woman."
The woman's set ended and she and her pianist took a bow and went backstage. The man got up from his table and did the same. He found her, still wearing her orange gown, waiting for him as soon as he went through the side curtain.
"I knew you'd come back here." She said softly.
The man took her hand and kissed it.
"My name is Brian Auger." He said, "What is yours?"
"Julie." She said, smiling a little, "Julie Driscoll."
"You sing very well, Julie." Brian said, looking into her eyes. "I can tell you are English like I am."
"Yes, I've been in America about a year." Julie replied.
"Would like to spend some time with me tonight?"
"Yes I would." She replied, staring back at him.
Anything else she would've said was interrupted by four young men wearing matching blue eight-button shirts rushing past.
"Excuse us!" A short man also sporting an English accent said as he and his band mates pushed past them to get onto the stage. He was followed by a blond-haired man with a guitar in his hand and then a tall dark haired man holding a guitar as well.
Bringing up the rear was a curly-haired man who glanced over at Julie, turned away, then snapped his head back and stopped dead in his tracks.
"Hi, babe!" He said with a big smile. "Doing anything tonight?"
"She's with me." Brian said coldly.
"Ooh, sorry." The curly-haired man said quickly.
"C'mon, Micky! We're on now!" The dark haired man yelled back to him.
"Coming, Mike." Micky called back. He gave Julie a wink and ran off.
Julie watched Micky depart with a small smile on her face. Brian brought her attention back to him.
"Who are they?" He asked, a frown on his face.
"Oh, they're a rock group called the Monkees." Julie replied, "Tonight's their first night," She paused. "And my last."
"Your last?" Brian asked.
Julie nodded. "My contract is up and the club owner refused to extend it, plus my pianist has to go back home and visit his sick mum."
"What a shame." Brian said, but inside he was smiling. This made things a lot easier for him. "Let's go out, perhaps see a movie."
"Sounds great." Julie replied, "Let me change and I'll meet you here."
Julie went back to her dressing room and changed out of her gown.
As Brian waited for her, he could hear the sounds of the Monkees coming from the stage.
"Hey, hey, we're the Monkees, and people say we monkey around, we're too busy singing to put anybody down." They sang as their opening number, then after the applause, they started on another song.
"Take the last train to Clarksville and I'll meet you at the station..." Someone was singing.
Brian listened to the music while he waited for Julie. He wasn't too enamored of it, but realized Rock and Roll was a powerful force to be reckoned with. Being a scientist, he began to wonder?.
Julie came over to Brian again. She was now wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Julie took his proffered arm and the two left the club.
When the movie was over, the two walked along the street back to the club. He took her hand again.
"What will you do now, Julie?" He asked.
"Well, I'll have to start looking for another job." Julie replied.
"Why don't you stay with me while you do that?" Brian asked. "I have a large house."
"What do you do for a living?" Julie said, avoiding the question.
"I'm a scientist." Brian said proudly. "I have my own laboratory in the basement."
"Are you working on anything now?" Julie asked.
"Yes, a few things," Brian answered. "Thought control, matter- transmitting and time travel."
Julie stopped in her tracks and looked at Brian. "Thought control?"
"Yes, Julie." Brian answered with a smile. "But you didn't answer my question. Will you stay at my house for awhile?"
Julie looked into Brian's eyes for a long moment, his hazel eyes penetrating deep into her green ones.
"Yes I will, Brian." Julie answered.
Brian took Julie into his arms and they kissed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So the next morning, Julie moved her few belongings into a room in Brian's house. He had a large house on a quiet street not far from where Julie had performed. Brian showed her around and introduced his three assistants, Clive, Gary and John. They were about her age and wore the usual psychedelic clothes of the times. Brian took Julie down to the basement and showed him his lab. It took up the entire basement! It was brightly lit, with a high ceiling and there were the standard tables filled with test tubes and such, but what caught Julie's attention was something that looked like an organ. It was all painted in psychedelic colors, and seemed out of place in the lab. She walked over to it.
"What's this, Brian?" She asked.
"Just what it appears to be." He replied. "When I need a break, I play a few tunes."
Julie nodded and her gaze went up to the ceiling. Hanging from it appeared to be four large glass tubes, open at the bottom. Brian noticed where she was looking.
"That my dear is part of my matter-transmitter machine." He said proudly.
"They each look large enough to hold a person." Julie remarked.
Brian simply shrugged and directed her attention to a black box in the corner, about the size of a walk-in freezer.
"That box, if all goes well, will be my time machine."
Julie thought that time travel was absurd, but said nothing. Brian flicked a switch and opened the box for her and let her look inside. It was bare, with just four different colored lights in each of the corners. Julie looked at Brian.
"This is all very interesting." She told him, not knowing what else to say.
"Thank you, Julie." Brian said with a smile, "But just you wait. Things will become even more interesting!" With that Brian and his assistants laughed, but Julie had no idea about what.
She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out.