Come With Me Lucy
Red Jordan Arobateau
The opening line: ‘It’s been a hard life ever since I can remember. Lesbian life,–and it’s never gonna quit.’ Is part of the private reflections of Mickey, a handsome Italian butch. ‘The black haired butch moved through her apartment. Mickey was age 42. The year, 1983. 25 years, and her male sex drive still hadn’t gone away.’ The reader observes her thoughts & memories which are a testimony to a hard life. Both trials and joys.
Next scene finds that the debonair Mickey is now married to Marsha.– ‘They had come in from a never-never land so fine; her and the blond in the evening dress; pretty; had been to an exclusive restaurant where they were treated well by the waiters & had the best seat in the house…’ Further: ‘Her lady dominated the closet with dresses, a few gowns, pantsuits, and high heels.’ Is the part about a never-never land real? ‘Mickey is sprawled out on the sofa in her black tuxedo pants & jacket.’ And: ‘Marsha, round curves poured into a silk gown, on which a strap fell over one shoulder.’ Marsha shakes her lover awake to the reality of their lives. Their cluttered apartment. Where upon the butch: ‘Glances around her to get her barring, saw the beaten up sofa where she’d collapsed for just a moment, then fallen asleep. Crayon marked walls. The tiny 3 rooms their family shared.’ We see the lives of Marsha & Mickey & their children. Apartment they rent– though they would like own a house. Find out about their jobs, & the savings in their growing bank account and their dreams for a lifetime.
Next scenes begin to reveal Mickey’s angst–sex red hot lust driven to the point of destructiveness which is threatening to undermine the stability of their happy home. Scene after scene of Mickey after work roaming the red light district where she use to live as a bachelor, and lesbian venues –without her beloved wife. Including picking up women at a sex club. Some very erotic descriptions in the true Red Jordan style: ‘The little stage is empty. Amber lights beam down onto scattered one & five dollar bills. The dancer is tired and doesn’t want to work any more. Puts her short leather miniskirt back on & does up her bra and lace lingerie.’ This novel is at least 5 times more graphic then we dare tell in this book review! Mickey’s thinking suddenly delves into ideas and fantasies which reveal a crisis of her sexual identity. Is this new behavior middle-aged angst? –Change of life crisis?
Another new event: ‘Then the news had come from New York. Mary Alice Leonardi had died at the age of 76 from a stroke. The estate was in the hands of the family lawyer. The family home was valued at $220,000. Car worth $5,000 bluebook price; and the accumulated furnishing of generations, antiques passed down from her great great grandmother valued at another $18,000.– All to be sold and the money split 4 ways between Mickey and her 3 brothers. Mickey’s share would be approximately $60,000.’
As in book 1 there are plenty of sex scenes & memories of star filled gay nights.– Memories of her first one true love, 25 years past– Lucy Matusumi. Flash backs with still another of Mickey’s lovers, African-American Linda, ‘Linda was a bisexual prostitute who worked the sex industry in the Tenderloin of downtown San Francisco a few blocks from where Mickey had lived. They had met in the street. The butch & her were together a few months while Mickey got her start in the new city.’ Socialists will delight in glimpses of working class routines of both Mickey and Lucy respectively at their menial survival jobs, and the political analysis Red Jordan makes. Meanwhile Mickey’s aberrant dangerous sex-driven behavior has so hurt Marsha she’s distraught. ‘WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO YOU IF I AM READING THE LOVE LORN ADVICE COLUMN INSTEAD OF SEWING YOUR PANTS MICKEY? I’M THINKING ABOUT LEAVING YOU! I LEFT YOU 2 OTHER TIMES, REMEMBER!’ The upside to this dilemma; is an aside, a few pages later when Master Author Red Jordan Arobateau notes: ‘There is a condition called Lesbian Bed Death among gay women.– Two women get together, they get warm & comfortable with each other, –and 2 years later the sex stops. They live as a couple, cuddling in the same bed; in a partnership,–and have no sex. This idea was foreign to the hot blooded butch. Every night sex drive pounded in her loins.–Her want. Desire came of its natural accord.’ In fact, this book is at least 10 times more graphic then we dare reveal!
Then the plot begins to roll: ‘They were preparing to go East. The flight would take them through Chicago; & planned to stay over 5 days in that Windy City which Mickey, at age 18, had first passed thru on her way to California. Where she had tarried nearly a year with a redhead woman named Lucy –4 years her senior, who she’d met at a trick show, performing a live sex act for money, & who became her love & wife & whom she subsequently left. This reminiscence began to wear on Mickey so that she wanted to see Lucy very very much.– That out of all the girls in all the sexclubs in all the towns across the Cities of The Plain- specifically San Francisco, she’d dwell upon Lucy.–This Lucy.’
The story continues with some flashbacks from the premiere novel LUCY & MICKEY. Plus odd developments to the stated reason for their trip.
‘Mickey came to Chicago with a 28 year old wife in her bed. Traveling East as the seasons moved from Indian Summer into Fall. To see the sights in that town where she’d lived before. Spending half the money they’d taken over 12 years to save,–because of receiving the inheritance. Soon they would be proud home owners. Stood at the window of the hotel room, Legs spread. Trousers, jacket; handsome, hair slicked back.’
We won’t reveal more of this plot, or the fabulous ending to the LUCY & MICKEY trilogy. But that Mickey in her stop over in Chi–town (the Windy City) encounters some familiar faces.
The writer copyrighted this in 1991, in a feverish continuation of LUCY & MICKEY written only a few months before– but both constructed on memories of a `Q-Novel’— FOR WANT OF THE HORSE THE RIDER WAS LOST, which is book 2 in the trilogy. That volume was written closer to the actual point in time of these events, around 1962.
COME WITH ME LUCY is excerpted in 2 anthologies OFF THE RAG, edited by Lee Lynch. And, A MOVEMENT OF EROS, edited by Heather Findlay.
Book Review provided by RED JORDAN PRESS 2005.
Check for it on:
Details
| ISBN | 970516126 |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Copyright Date | 1991 |
| Publication Date | 15-Sep-00 |
| Publisher | Red Jordan Arobateau |
| Format | Trade Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 216 |
| Series | Lucy and Mickey Trilogy |
| # in Series | 3 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| BookID | 2253 |
