Peter came back to the pad just a few minutes before four. The other Monkees were already gathering at the bandstand.
"Hi, Peter!" Mike called over, "Have any luck?"
"Yeah, I got this nice leather bible for Darlene." Peter replied, gently placing it on the kitchen table, "I'd show it to you, but it's wrapped up."
"That's ok, Peter." Davy said, "Let's start rehearsal."
So Peter walked over to the bandstand, as Mike began to pick out a melody on his guitar. Micky recognized it immediately.
"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation..." Micky sang.
"Oh my soul praise Him for he is our help and salvation." The others chimed in.
"I love it when Tess plays that song in church." Davy said.
"You love all the songs she plays." Mike teased, knowing that Davy liked the pretty church organist.
"Well, let's start fellas." Davy said, quickly changing the subject.
Micky smiled, then hit his drumsticks together. Mike started the opening chords to "Last Train to Clarksville."
"Take the last train to Clarksville and I'll meet you at the station." Micky sang, "You can be here by four thirty, cuz I've made your reservation, don't be slow."
"Oh no no no." The other three sang, "Oh no no no!"
After about an hour, Mike called for a break. Each of them went a separate direction. Micky promptly went horizontal on the living room couch, Peter went outside on the back porch, while Davy went into his bedroom. Mike watched Davy go inside his bedroom and wondered about the change of habit in his friend. Usually, Davy spent so much time on the phone, Mike had to enforce a time limit so potential clients could call about gigs. Now, Davy was spending less time on the phone and more time by himself. Mike made a note to talk to Davy about it, but right now something else was on his mind.
Mike walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. He pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and poured two glasses. Putting the pitcher back in the fridge, he picked up the glasses and went outside on the back porch with Peter.
"Want some Lemonade, Peter?" Mike asked, as he closed the porch door with his foot.
"Oh sure thanks, Mike." Peter replied, taking the glass from his friend.
The two sat on the porch rail for a time, sipping their lemonade and watching the surf. Peter looked over at Mike.
"What's on your mind, Mike?" Peter asked with a smile.
"Can't hide anything from you, can I?" Mike chuckled.
"You usually don't come out here unless you're thinking about something." Peter said, "What's the matter?"
"I've been wondering about those three songs we did while we were under Jynger's influence potion." Mike replied, swirling the lemonade in his glass.
"We can't perform them as they are." Peter said, shaking his head.
"True, I was wondering if we should just forget about the songs, or maybe just rewrite the lyrics." Mike added. "I already talked to Micky about `Daily Nightly' and he said to just trash it."
"That whole song sounded kind of weird." Peter agreed, "What about your song `Salesman'?"
"I like its beat." Mike replied, "I want to try and rework the lyrics."
"You know, I was thinking the same thing." Peter smiled, "In fact, I've been working on some new lyrics and they just might fit."
"That's great, Peter." Mike replied, "What about the title?"
"I'd like to call it, `Preacher Man' about our Lord traveling around healing the sick and suffering."
Mike chuckled at that. "I think that would be a great way to turn a song about a traveling drug dealer into one about the mission of our Lord."
"I'll show you what I have later." Peter promised, "So what about `Sunny Girlfriend'?" He asked, referring to the last of the songs, which Mike had also written.
At that question, Mike took a long drink of his lemonade to stall for time. Finally, he looked over at his friend.
"I originally wrote that song about Julia, the girl I met at Jynger's party." Mike told him.
Peter nodded, remembering that Mike had gone outside with Julia...then came back inside much later without his sweater.
"I remember her." He said quietly.
"But the song turned out to be about a witch with a spell book." Mike finished.
"So Julia could be a witch too." Peter replied.
"We don't know that." Mike answered, a little defensively.
"True, but she was at Jynger's party." Peter replied, catching the tone of Mike's voice, "That doesn't speak very well of her character." He looked at the Texan seriously, "You still feel something for Julia, even after Jynger's influence potion has worn off?"
"Yeah I do, Peter." Mike replied quietly.
"Remember what Elizabeth told us, we should avoid sin and even the near occasion of sin." Peter said.
"If we obeyed that to the letter, Peter." Mike replied, "Then we shouldn't go out on gigs because sinful things could be going on in those clubs while we're performing."
"I'm just trying to say..."
"I know Peter." Mike interrupted. He let out a sigh. "I know what you're trying to tell me. We should avoid sinful people and situations like what happened at that party. I'm...just of two minds about this. I know I should forget about Julia, because she's bad news, and move on, but for some reason I can't."
Peter looked at Mike for a long moment before he answered.
"Is it guilt, maybe?" Peter asked, knowing that he too had felt guilty over the sinful things he had done while at Jynger's party.
Mike gave Peter a small smile. "The Lord has given you a discerning heart, Peter." He said, "Yeah, that could be it."
"Then just pray that you can get past the emotions you feel and learn to trust in the Lord." Peter replied, putting a hand on Mike shoulder. "My advice is to forget about Julia and the song you wrote about her. If you don't play it, then you won't think about her."
Mike just nodded. Peter then finished off his lemonade and went inside.
"Easy for you to say, Peter. You don't dream about her almost every night." Mike said to himself. He finished off his lemonade as well and followed his friend back into the pad.
++++
Back at the bookshop, Gwen was kneeling down among the boxes, examining the books around her for the fourth time.
"Have you found it yet?" Synthea's voice behind her demanded.
"No, mistress." Gwen replied, turning to her, "I've examined all the books that were brought in here today."
"Then where could it be?" Synthea snapped, pacing back and forth. "The information I had said it would positively be in that shipment of books!"
"That priest must have done something to it." Gwen replied.
Synthea's eyes were drawn to a damaged box nearby. It was labeled `Bibles' and still had the shipping label attached to its side. The witch examined the label and saw that it had arrived on the dock the night before from China and brought to the bookstore today.
"What about this one?" She asked sharply.
"Oh that one? That's full of bibles, mistress, they wouldn't have put the book in with them." Gwen replied.
"It was part of today's shipment!" Synthea said, "Look in there!" She pointed at the box, not wanting to touch the bibles herself.
"Touch all those bibles?" Gwen replied, shivering.
"You can kill a goat and purify your hands later." Synthea replied, "Now do it! Perhaps that spell book was mixed in with those bibles. Open them all up, see if the book is there."
Gwen obediently opened the box further and looked inside at the wrapped bibles. It looked like one of the bibles was missing. Puzzled, she counted the bibles inside the box and it came up one short than what was on the shipping label.
"There's one bible missing, mistress." Gwen said.
"Then that's it." Synthea replied, her eyes growing red.
"That's what, Mistress?" Gwen asked, not catching on.
"One item is missing from today's shipment of books." Synthea said, "And the spell book is missing..."
"So the spell book was bought by someone thinking it was a bible!" Gwen finished, finally catching on.
"Very good." Synthea said sarcastically, "Do you remember who?" She demanded, "Who bought a bible today?"
Gwen scrunched her face up in thought, "Um, it was a young blond man. He's come in here before. In fact today he was complaining about the Dirty Little Secrets series."
"I don't care about that right now." Synthea replied, "You say he bought a bible?"
"Yes, he did."
"I don't believe this..." Synthea putting her hands to her head, "I was so close."
"Maybe that guy will see that it's the wrong book and return it." Gwen said hopefully.
"Or he may just destroy it too." Synthea retorted. "If he complained about the Dirty Little Secrets Series he's probably one of those goody two shoes Christians."
"What are we going to do, Mistress?" Gwen asked.
"Project an image of the man who bought that book." Synthea demanded.
Gwen concentrated and soon a rough likeness of Peter's face formed on the wall.
"Can you get it any better?"
Gwen concentrated again and Peter's face cleared a bit. Synthea looked at it closely.
"Hmm...he doesn't look familiar." She mused. "Perhaps we'll be lucky and he'll come back with the book tomorrow." Synthea said. "If not...he'll wish he'd never entered this store." With a puff a smoke, she disappeared, leaving a shaking Gwen behind.
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
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