Somebody's Mitchie
Happy December, folks! I happen to be writing this from next to a Christmas tree, so I felt like writing something for the season. It's not too involved though, so you could make it some 'non-Christmas gift giving day', as my roommate whose family doesn't celebrate it put his and his sister's substitute. Some of this is based on his actual love story so far, and an idea I got as soon as I saw the video for this song. It's by Reba McEntire, and the title is 'Somebody's Chelsea', I just made a few changes. Hope you enjoy it. :)
Disclaimer: That's one word: disclaimer. I'm not from some strange place with an accent that would turn 'Dis claimer' into 'this claimer', it just means I don't own any of this stuff that's been previously copyrighted.
Michigan in December was usually just loaded with white stuff. Most years they ended up with a white Thanksgiving, nearly a month before Christmas, and it lasted well into April. This year, all they'd gotten was cold wind and rain. Horrible weather, especially if you were traveling through it. Of course for young rock stars on cross-country winter tours, that's about all they were doing. And it was obvious, at least in 22-year-old Mikayla's mind, that the weather was horrible simply because she was there. It seemed to be following her across the land.
The weather wasn't the only thing following her though, there was also her manager, the one who was currently calling her for the third time in the past half-hour, again successfully distracting her from dragging her luggage out of the hotel.
"Yes, Joan?" She breathed, holding the phone with her shoulder to keep moving to the waiting cab outside.
"Are you on the way yet? You're going to miss your flight!"
The younger girl sighed exasperatedly. "I'm heading to the cab now. I'd be getting there faster if I didn't have to keep stopping to dig my phone out of my pockets." She finished, speaking through her teeth.
"Oh, right. Well, good work then. Don't be late. Bye!" Mikayla shook her head, shoving her bags into the trunk and the phone back through the fluff of her huge purple coat.
She made the flight in time easily, despite Joan's worries. She ended up actually waiting a while for everyone else to find their seats as she relaxed into hers, figuring out the always troublesome seat belt and making sure she got her beloved window seat. Mikayla Marshall had never been comfortable getting constantly bumped in the aisle seat, even with the extra room in first class, since they'd eliminated the middle row of seats.
"Excuse me, young lady," she turned to see an older, probably mid-eighties age woman waiting in the aisle, "is this row 34?" She squinted at the numbers, seeming to have some trouble reading them.
"Yes ma'am." Mikayla smiled, relieved her row-mate didn't appear to be some overly-excited fan or certifiably insane.
"Ah, thank you. This is my stop. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other for a while." The older woman chuckled gently, pushing her small bag into the overhead compartment. She studied Mikayla for a moment. "My, if you aren't the spittin' image of me not fifty years ago...And there's no need for such formality dear, you can call me Alex. What's your name?"
"Mikayla. Mikayla Marshall."
"Oh. I wonder, are you that Mikayla Mikayla Marshall? The famous singer my grand-nephew's always listening to?"
"Well, I sure hope so. And I think they have rules on more than one of us famous people having the same name. Gets too confusing."
"Indeed it does." Alex looked around, somewhat confused. "Do they always let you travel alone? Isn't there supposed to be some secret police force keeping watch on your safety or something?"
"Oh yes," Mikayla nodded, looking around quickly, "can't have me getting beaten down by nice old ladies." They stared at each other for a moment, before breaking out into laughter. "What about you? Do you always travel alone?"
The jovial mood quickly sobered, Alex getting a wistful look in her eyes, turning away to stare into space, lost in memories. Mikayla felt uncomfortable, but was stopped when she tried taking her question back.
"No, no, it's fine. Just catches me off guard every once in a while." Alex started rummaging in the pocket of her coat, pulling out a picture of the most beautiful brunette Mikayla had ever seen. "We were married for sixty years. Sometimes it even feels like she's still here..." She trailed off.
Mikayla was still staring at the photograph. "She's beautiful. You were a very lucky woman." She breathed.
"I feel like I still am." Her eyes started slightly tearing up. "Her name was Mitchie. Best friend I ever had, and more."
Mikayla felt her own eyes get a little watery. "I wanna be somebody's Mitchie." She said, continuing when Alex looked over to her. "I think every woman wants to be somebody's world like that. Part of a love story that never ends."
The older woman smiled again. "I'd have to agree with you there. Ain't nobody who wouldn't wish to be happy for that long. You'd think we would've seen it sooner ourselves." She laughed, then explained after getting a confused look from the other woman.
"We didn't meet until seventh grade. She'd been home-schooled until then. Mitchie actually got into our group of friends later, she went to a school dance and ended up hanging out with Nate, one of our guy friends. She thought he was this other boy from our class, Anthony, but she accidentally helped Nate over his recent breakup... with me." Alex paused, chuckling warmly again, and it eventually drew Mikayla in too. Until they were shushed by the people behind them, anyway. They quieted down and continued their story.
"It wasn't until our junior year of high school, a whole three years later, that we finally got together. I'd been trying to get her to notice me for months. Finally I just kinda snapped and asked her. Turns out she was just really shy around most girls she liked, couldn't talk to them at all. Once in our sophomore year, this girl Tessa that she really liked asked to play chess against her, she told her it wouldn't be enough of a challenge." Mikayla's eyes widened. "Yeah. Tessa held a grudge for almost a year after that. I just thought it was funny."
"So what did you guys do when you finally went out?" Mikayla questioned, getting drawn into the story.
"Well, that one wasn't too much of a real date. It was another dance, the first prom we got to go to. Just a night of dancing with our friends." She shook her head, smiling fondly at the image in her mind. "At one point, she and a couple guys put on this big air band performance of 'Don't Stop Believing'. They had all the instruments covered, even an 'air bass' player. He just stood there and strummed his arms every so often."
"Sounds like a lot of fun." Mikayla commented wistfully, thinking of her own childhood, a mix of commercials and movie studios.
"Oh, it was dear. We didn't get our 'storybook' kiss though. Her mom was there to pick her up. Such a strict lady. They would've kicked her out of her church when they found out about me, you know. She told me it coulda been ugly if she hadn't left on her own, but then she'd always go on about how she'd never regretted it. And that was the big beginning of our story. After that, as they say, it's all history." She smiled to her memories again. "She took my breath away til the day she died."
The young singer's eyes were closed. "God, I so hope I find someone like that someday." It seemed she was about to say more, but the pilot interrupted her, telling them they were about to start the landing process.
As they were gathering their things to leave the aircraft, Mikayla turned to Alex again. "Thank you," She said, hugging the older woman, "I'll never forget how you showed me what love means."
"My pleasure, dear. I hope you find it someday." With that, she was gone. Mikayla finished grabbing her things and also made her way into the airport, meeting her manager, who'd made all her arrangements for a room.
About a week later was the show she'd flown in for. The fans were all ablaze with excitement as she finished her biggest hit. Then the band slowed it down, playing softly in the background as she spoke.
"Alright everybody, this next song I wanna play for you is a new one I just wrote a few days ago." They all cheered even louder, she laughed. "Thanks, I hope you're that excited after you hear it too. Anyway, I wrote this one after meeting this older lady named Alex on the plane out here, and hearing her story. So if you ever hear this, Alex, this is for you. It's called 'Somebody's Mitchie', and it goes a little somethin' like this...
Met an old woman yesterday
Next to me on a westbound plane
She said "I was married sixty years
I swear it feels like she's still here."
Then she took out a picture
Staring at that black and white
The tears filled up in her eyes
I said "You were a lucky woman."
She said "I feel like I still am."
When she told me her name
I heard myself say...
I wanna be Somebody's Mitchie
Somebody's world
Somebody's day and night
One and only girl
A part of a love story
That never has an end
You know that's what every woman wants to be
Somebody's Mitchie
She made me laugh when he talked about
Their first date and her mother's doubts
She said "Even as her hair turned gray,
She still took my breath away."
And that it never changed with time
That's when I closed my eyes
I wanna be Somebody's Mitchie
Somebody's world
Somebody's day and night
One and only girl
A part of a love story
That never has an end
You know that's what every woman wants to be
Somebody's Mitchie
And when we finally said goodbye
I hugged her and said "I'll never forget
How you showed me what it means..."
To be Somebody's Mitchie
Somebody's world
Somebody's day and night
One and only girl
A part of a love story
That never has an end
You know that's what every woman wants to be
And I wanna be
Somebody's Mitchie
Somebody's Mitchie
Somebody's Mitchie
Somebody's Mitchie
After the concert was a meet and greet with the fans who'd won a contest and gotten backstage passes. More than a little tired from the performance, Mikayla admittedly was having a hard time concentrating on the fans.
"Excuse me, Mikayla?" Someone asked from behind her. She sighed, turning around slowly, then gasped, regaining the air. She could swear the girl in front of her was the one from Alex's picture.
"Wh-what's name your? Err... Your name?" She spluttered.
"Sonny Monroe. Big fan." The girl's smile grew unbelievably bigger.
Mikayla let out a breath. At least she wasn't seeing ghosts now. But she hadn't lied about Mitchie's beauty. And since Sonny seemed to be her long lost twin...
"Would you like to get something to eat after this?"
Readers, look at your significant other. Now look at this story. Now back at them. You probably don't have a story like this story, but your story could seem like this story, if you review. I'm on a camel. ~SGM