Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Aquarius. I do not own any characters real or fictional (in relation to the show.) This is based on real events but all descriptions and conversations are mine. Don't sue me! ;)
Early Spring 1970 Los Angeles
The room was cold and Savana wasn't wearing enough clothes as per usual. It was hot out in the desert, not so much in a police interrogation room. Savana bounced her knee while waiting for the officer to come back in with the lawyer. She'd heard Vincent Bugliosi was a pitbull when it came to his cases, but he was also personable to. She also hoped Jack would come in as well but she figured he didn't quite rank high enough for that. She could probably cry and demand he be present but then they might not want to talk to her at all. Plus she still wasn't sure how much of herself she wanted to expose to him. As they had been growing closer Savana had become more and more afraid of revealing too much of herself, too much of the bad parts she had buried deep inside. She wondered what her cousin Emma was doing (sweet Cherry pie he called her,). Savana betted she was home right now all curled up in her big princess bed forgetting all about this. Savana envied her that she could just go home and move on from this like it was nothing, like it wasn't the greatest and worst times of their lives.
The door opened and two men walked in. Sam Hodiak and Vincent Bugliosi looked serious as they sat down. "Savana Walker seventeen years old, arrested twice for prostitution and once for drug possession." Hodiak read from her file. "Wow you've sure lived an interesting life for someone who isn't even an adult yet." Savana didn't reply. "I've talked with Grace Karn, I know you're her neice, and Emma's your cousin. I also know you've been living at Spann ranch for the past two years, with Charlie Manson's "Family."" Again Savana didn't answer him. "Now I'm sure you know we've arrested Manson along with Susan "Sadie" Atkins, Patricia "Katie" Krenwinkel, Leslie "Lulu" Van Houten, and Charles "Tex" watson, and charged them with the Tate-Labianca murders. And now Mr. Bugliosi needs as much information as he can get about "The Family," and Manson in order to prosecute them for these murders." Hodiak paused and looked at Savana. She was seventeen, only two years younger than Emma and four years younger than his son and she could potentially be the key they needed to put away one of the worst murders Hodiak had ever come in contact with. He hoped she could help and he hoped he wasn't putting all of his hopes into something that might even hurt their case in the end.
Savana looked up at him smiled "I love Charlie, but I will tell you everything if you help me." "Help you how?" "Well for starters I want a clean record." "Maybe, next?" "I want to disappear, move on from this and make a clean start, with my family. Also if I'm going to tell you all of this I want to tell MY entire story, and I'd like officer Jack Schafe present." "Ok We'll see what we can do about the moving you away, and you can tell all of your story. I don't know if officer Schafe will be able to come in." "Well...check." Hodiak stared at her for a long pause then stood up and left the room. Bugliosi said nothing. Minutes later Hodiak returned with Jack Schafe. "Savana!" Jack said clearly surprised at her presence. "What are you doing here? Don't say anything without a lawyer!" Hodiak grabbed Schafe by the shoulder and dragged him out of the room. Savana made no acknowledgement of this. After a few minutes of Hodiak and the younger Scafe arguing they both returned. "Ok now," Hodiak said re-seating himself."Officer Schafe has agreed to be present and to be quiet," Hodiak glared at Schafe. "So if you'll please Miss Walker..."
And so Savana began talking. "I know you want information about Charlie but in order for me to tell you that you need to know my part, why I made the decisions I made and what got me to this moment right here (a pause as she glanced towards Schafe with a cocky smile.) right now.
My story begins before Charlie, before California, before...a lot of things. The beginning of my story begins in Montana, with my family. My parents Henry and Rhea Walker both grew up in the sleepy little town of Black Bear Lake met in school and married just after graduation in the summer of 1950. Henry worked at his father George's hardware store, while Rhea got a job as a secretary at the only local law firm in town. With the help of Henry's father they purchased a small two bedroom house near the middle of town. The spare bedroom came in handy in the fall of 1951 when Rhea gave birth to their first child, my brother Adam. two years later in the spring of '53 I was born. A sweet little baby girl for their rambunctious two year old son to play with and look after. They had the perfect little family but of course they wanted a few more children to be complete, unfortunately (and this I would only come to learn years later,) my parents had difficulty conceiving after Adam, and even more so after me. I was conceived after my mother had already had two miscarriages and it would be another six miscarriages and another eight years before my mother gave birth to their third child a beautiful healthy little miracle they names Marilee. The blessing that was Marilee was followed quickly by tragedy when my father was killed in a car crash coming home from work that same year.
After my father died my mother fell apart. She couldn't provide for her two older children and now new-born baby. So as the bills piled up my mother began to find solace in one of the oldests vices: Alcohol and eventually a wonderfully harmful new drug called Quaaludes.
Then one night in 1962 when I was just nine my mother woke my brother and I dragged us out out to the car where all our things were packed up and Marilee was sleeping in her car seat. "We're going to California!" my mother told us excitedly."What? Mom what are you talking about? We're going on a vacation?" my brother asked. "No darling, we're moving there!" My mother answered clapping her hands. "Moving there?!" my brother demanded, "Mom we can't move there we have a house here!" "We'll have a house there too!" "What about Grandma and Grandpa?" Grandma and Grandpa were my fathers parent George and Claudine Walker. They were strict but they seemed to love us. They brought us to church every Sunday and then back to their house for dinner. I knew Mom and Grandma did not get along. I didn't really understand why but mom never came with us on Sundays. My mother's parents had both passed away but I knew she had a brother and sister in different states.I hoped if we really were leaving we might be going to see one of them.
"I'm sorry Adam but your grandparents won't be able to come with but..." She seemed to be thinking quickly "maybe we can plan a visit soon! Come on it'll be fun! like an adventure just like in those comic books you're always reading." "Will we be coming back to the house?" "No sweetie," my mom answered shaking her head sadly, "the bank owns that now, but we'll have a whole new house in California with your own room." She said smiling at him knowing she had him hooked now. Adam was always complaining about having to share his room with his sisters. "ok." He simply replied and crawled into the front seat while I climbed into the back.
The warm car and the dark night quickly lulled me to sleep and by the time I was finally shaken awake it was morning.
"Savana wake up we're in Idaho!" my mother said joyfully pulling me out of the car. Adam was outside holding Marilee and looking tired and forlorn. "Ma what are we doing here?" Adam asked. "Well we'll be in California soon but before that we should explore new places and find adventures on the way!" Adam looked like he did not like the sound of that. "Where are we anyway?" Adam asked. "Idaho State Park! Isn't it beautiful?!" my mother answered gazing around. I looked around to. We were on a dirt road in the middle of a forest. Trees and rocks surrounded us as the noises of birds and busy small animals filled our ears. "Come on kids we're going for a hike! There's a lookout point ahead and a lake about a half a mile down the trail. I looked at Adam, he seemed ready to protest again, but I shook my head and whispered let's just get this over with.
The lookout point ended up having a spectacular view of the rest of the park. Hills and trees of green lay vast beneath us. The lake ended up being warm enough to swim in so Adam and I waded in up to our thighs and held Marilee as she giggled and kicked and splashed. My mother dove all the way in and swam out to the middle of the lake. She called for us to follow her but neither of us could swim that far especially with a baby in tow. When the sun started to set we climbed back into the car and mother drove us into a small town nearby where there was a diner with homemade pie. We all got cheeseburgers fries and milkshakes with cherry pie for dessert. Next to the diner was a motel and mother checked in in for the night. Exausted we all piled into the queen size bed and fell asleep. I dreamed we were driving in the car running form some unknown presence chasing us never quite catching us but I could feel he was close oh so close. When I woke up the next morning the dream was forgotten.
The next day was terribly boring as we spent the whole day driving. I read my book Pride and Prejudice and got in a fight with Adam who had been picking on me most of the day. In Nevada we stayed at another motel.I liked this one better because it had a pool and Adam was nicer to me after he went swimming and ended up talking to a pretty girl on vacation with her family. Her name was Felicity and they kissed behind the ice machine. The only reason I know this is because I caught them while I was getting ice for mother for her headache she'd suddenly developed. Adam punched me in the stomach (not hard just enough to hurt,) and told me to get lost. Felicity giggled and twirled one of her ginger curls between her fingers. I was going to tell my mother but Felicity's father showed up and hauled her away, She giggled again and waved good bye to Adam. "Write me!" she demanded before turning the corner and was didn't see her the next morning as we left the motel.
By early evening we had reached California. My mother was tired of driving so we parked the car at a rest stop and slept in the back were lucky it was a warm night. The next day was filled again with more driving but by the end of the afternoon we'd reached it San Francisco.
My Aunt Grace lived in a big 1950's brown rambler trimmed with white stone. There was a basketball hoop in the driveway and a huge willow tree with a swing hanging from it. When we pulled up the was a girl with long brown hair and big blue eyes swinging on it. She came to greet us and told us her name was Emma, Grace's daughter and she was 11 years old like Adam. We quickly settled in with the Karns. Grace took my mother to social occasions and parties (I think hoping to help her find a new husband.) Ken meanwhile helped us find a cosy little victorian a few streets away. It was painted bright pink and needed work but it was big enough so Adam could finally have his own room, (he had the entire attic to himself,) so my mother bought it. Emma and I became fast friends staying up all night playing dolls and having tea parties, playing dress up and pranking Adam and Rick Zondervan the boy next door. I think he had a crush on Emma. Emma and I cried when I moved away but we were close enough to ride bicycles back and forth to each others houses so it worked out ok. My mother got a job at Berkeley in the library and seemed to finally be doing better. In September we enrolled in school with Emma and Rick. Things were good for once and life went smoothly but all of the changed in the spring of 1967.
