July  1969

Georgia had arrived in Greenwich Village fully intent on living the life of a free and independent spirit. When she wasn’t working at the Café Strange she had kept herself busy with attending peace rallies and visiting other clubs with her roommate Jasmine. While she had disagreed with the war in Vietnam, she never let herself get too carried away while those around her entered into heated debate over the moral ambiguity and waste of lives. She enjoyed the energy of the moment; meeting people from all over the country who, like her, were trying to make sense of a world seemingly gone crazy. She smoked pot along with most of her friends, even dropped acid a couple of times. But where the modern day gurus like Timothy Leary were encouraging young people to tune in and drop out, she had only ended up feeling as if she just maybe she was trying a little too hard to be someone she could never really be.

Dominic had been the only person she had met since arriving in the Village who had asked her for her real name. That one simple request had left a lasting impression and without realizing what was happening she found herself opening up to him in a way that she never had with anyone else. And the most remarkable thing of all was that he listened. His interest in who she really was and what she wanted from life prompted her to let down her guard and take an equal interest in learning his own hopes and dreams. Their first evening together melded into another and by their fourth evening, something had happened that neither had really been expecting but it might just have been inevitable; they had fallen in love.

Georgia had to laugh at herself. So much for being a free spirit! But loving Dominic Maloney had been easy; he was adorably handsome and knew how to kiss her in a way that drove all coherent thought from her mind. His body seemed to fit so perfectly with hers; he had this way of watching her when they made love; his eyes gazing deep into hers each time right before she came, holding her to him as he moved slow and deep inside her. He made her smile and laugh and by their fourth evening he completely stole her heart away forever when he picked up an old guitar that had been sitting in a corner of her apartment. 

They had just come back to her place after the end of her shift at the Café Strange; she left Dominic in the living room while she headed into the kitchen to fix a late night snack. Pouring a box of crackers onto a plate, she was chopping up slices of cheese when she heard him tuning the old guitar that one of Jasmine’s friends had left behind after a party three weeks ago. She smiled, listening as he strummed the opening notes of a strangely familiar song, but the sound of his sweet baritone as he started to sing gripped at her heart.

Georgia, Georgia,
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

I'm say Georgia
Georgia
A song of you
Comes as sweet and clear
As moonlight through the pines

Other arms reach out to me
Other eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you

I said Georgia,
Ooh Georgia, no peace I find
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

Other arms reach out to me
Other eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you

She stood transfixed, her eyes welling with tears as she listened. Dominic’s own eyes were dark and intense as he sang the final refrain.

Georgia,
Georgia,
No peace, no peace I find
Just this old, sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

I said just an old sweet song,
Keeps Georgia on my mind  

“Oh Dom, that was beautiful.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

He smiled as he sat the guitar down, leaning it back against the sofa as he went over to join her. The sight of her tears touched his heart; she was so lovely!

“I used to sing at mass. Some of my mates and I would get together and try to put a rock and roll spin on those old stodgy hymns and we had a pretty good following. The nuns used to say that we were responsible for the increase in attendance.”

There it was, the mention once again of how involved he had been with his church. Georgia slipped her arms around his neck and smiled when he pulled her in closer. “Dom, if you’d like to go to mass while you’re here, I’d love to go with you.” She meant it. She’d never given much thought to attending church at all over the past ten years, but there was a sense of spirituality in Dominic that intrigued her. She was interested in seeing God through his eyes.

She felt him stiffen at her suggestion; she didn’t understand, but gave him a quick and easy out. “But you don’t have to if you’d really rather not.”

He held her tighter. “I haven’t been to mass in a long time.”

Georgia braved her question gently. “What happened to make you stop going? The war?”

He hadn’t intended on delving into this particular subject and had gone to great extremes to avoid discussing the matter with anyone. But as he pulled away just slightly to look into Georgia’s incredible brown eyes, something urged him on. Perhaps it was time to try and explain it to someone else as well as himself.

“I guess I’m just not sure where or how God and I fit together any more.”

There. He’d said it. He was surprised at how simple it all sounded. He let Georgia go and she grabbed the plate of crackers she’d prepared from off the kitchen counter and led him back towards her bedroom. The night was warm and her windows were open, and the full moon illuminated their bodies with a soft golden glow. Jasmine and Swanie had taken off somewhere together earlier in the evening and the apartment was quiet, save for the sounds of an occasional car driving past on the streets down below. Dominic sat back on the bed and Georgia snuggled in next to him, taking his hand in hers as she placed the plate down carefully on the mattress beside them.

“When you pray, what do you ask for?”

Her question caught him off guard. No one had ever asked him that before and he considered his answer for a moment before responding. “When I was younger I used to ask for forgiveness a lot.” He laughed as he remembered a few instances in particular, but then he suddenly thought of Rosemary and he sobered. “I guess I still ask for forgiveness, and the chance to sleep through an entire night without a nightmare.”

Georgia handed a few crackers to him. “Have you ever gotten an answer?”

“Well, I haven’t had a nightmare over the past few evenings; maybe that’s because of you. As for being forgiven, well, I think the jury’s still out.”

She remembered, Dominic had told her about how he had been forced to kill and struggled to find something helpful to say that didn’t sound trite or stupid. “Maybe it’s more a matter of forgiving yourself for not being perfect. Did you really have another choice available to you at the time, aside from being killed yourself if you didn’t fight back? I don’t understand a lot about religion Dom, but I do seem to recall that the Catholic Church was very supportive of the war.”

Dom gave a bitter laugh. “Yeah, well those old farts weren’t the ones doing the fighting.”

“My point exactly. You did what you had to do. I mean, did you even consider not going?”

“The thought never crossed my mind. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Disappear into the Outback?”

“Then you did the right thing at the time.”

He shifted his position so he could look directly at her. “I’d never been anywhere before that, Georgia. I grew up in a town where everyone knows everybody’s business and I just wanted to get out. I actually thought that by going to Vietnam that I’d at least get a chance to see the world. I ended up in Hell, instead” He gave a bitter sounding laugh and sighed. “Unless you grew up Catholic and went through it all from day one it’s hard for me to explain. God is everywhere, always watching you. I’d never spent time with anyone outside my own religion until I went through basic training. I met this bloke there by the name of Arthur Goldstein, from Sydney, originally. He was Jewish; I’d never really spent a lot of time talking to of anyone outside of my religion before. And you know what? He was just as normal as anyone I’d ever met back home.”

Georgia took another cracker and fed it to him, smiling softly as he playfully nibbled her finger. “I’ll bet that was quite a culture shock for you. So what inspired you to come to New York then, of all places?”

“Swani’s invitation, mostly. And I guess I just needed to get away from home for a while and try to figure some things out.”

“So okay, you’ve been here a couple of days now. What have you discovered so far?”

He tried to think of an answer, but Georgia had slipped her hand between his legs and began to gently caress the hardening bulge at his crotch. “Um… er …that New York girls who go around calling themselves Moonbeam know how to show a guy from out of town a good time?”

“Gee thanks, you make it sound like I make a habit of doing this!” Her tone was playful as she quickly turned away from him, making a huffing sound, trying to appear offended. Dom’s cock ached for her touch again and he spooned up behind her.

“I hope not; I’ve been feeling rather special ever since I met you. Do you often kiss blokes that you don’t know?”

She squirmed and turned around to face him, her eyes shining in the moonlight, full of truth and emotion. “Only blokes from Australia named Dominic Maloney.” 

He kissed her. He tasted like cheese and crackers but it just made the moment seem all that more intimate. She sucked on his tongue, feeling her whole body responding as he pressed his weight down on her.

“When do you have to go back home?” She managed to ask between kisses, knowing that her heart would break if his answer indicated anytime soon.

Her question brought him back to reality and he rolled over onto his back with a groan. “Swani’s invitation was open ended and he mentioned that I might be able to get a job at the garage where he works, but until now I really wasn’t sure how long I’d end up staying.” The thought of going home wasn’t at all appealing, especially now that he had met Georgia. True, a few nights ago he had asked her rather prematurely if she’d consider visiting him in Oz, but right now she was here and so was he; Oz was the last place in the world that he wanted to be.

Georgia smoothed her fingers through his hair as an idea came to her. “You’re welcome to stay here if you’d like. I know it’s awfully sudden with us just meeting and all, but I feel as if I’ve known you for a very long time. Isn’t that strange?”

To Dominic it didn’t sound strange. In fact, it sounded bloody wonderful, because he’d been feeling the same way and wasn’t sure how to bring up the subject. Georgia had just given him permission to say what he’d been feeling in his heart.

“I reckon that maybe this is just where we’re both supposed to be right now. All of this; I mean, I hadn’t heard from Swani since Vietnam, but his letter came just when I needed it. I felt like an outsider back home. You know what that’s like?”

“Do I ever.”  Georgia returned her hand back to where it had been on Dominic’s crotch and he smiled like a naughty schoolboy. “I guess maybe that’s why I’ve been trying to turn myself into this hippie chick named Moonbeam.”

“So I’ve actually been making love to a real hippie chick all this time?”

“Don’t I look like a real hippie chick?”

Dominic gave a soft chuckle that turned into a low moan of pleasure as Georgia worked at unzipping his jeans. “You look beautiful to me.” His hands tangled in her hair as she rolled over on top of him, straddling his hips while she pulled her peasant blouse over her head, giving him unhampered access to her full glorious breasts. His hands quickly claimed the soft firm flesh, her nipples hardening against his palms. She leaned in to kiss him again.

“If you plan on staying a while, then maybe we can all go to this big concert that’s happening in a few weeks up in upstate New York, at a farm in Bethel … you, me, Jasmine and Swani. Hendrix is going to be performing, Janis Joplin, Creedence, Santana and a bunch of other guys; it’s gonna last all weekend starting on the fifteenth. Everyone I know is going, but I don’t wanna go unless you can come along too.”

His mind had been set on removing the rest of Georgia’s clothing, but when she mentioned Hendrix, his thoughts shifted just long enough to consider her offer. But there was only one problem. “I don’t think Swani’s car can make it. But don’t tell him I told you that.”

Georgia began work at unbuttoning his shirt. “We can take my car.”

“You have a car?” This information surprised Dominic. “And here we’ve been walking everywhere all this time or taking the subway!”

“Well, it’s a temperamental Volkswagen bus, but there’s plenty of room for everyone. And now that I know this really sexy mechanic whose super good with his hands and just happens to have a best friend who’s also a mechanic, I think we’re covered.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your car sooner?” Just yesterday they had spent over an hour each way on the subway when Georgia took him to see the Empire State Building. They’d actually almost gotten mugged!

“You didn’t ask. Besides, I don’t recall you complaining when you kissed me at the top of the Empire State Building yesterday afternoon.”

True, he had been caught up in exhilaration of the moment, but Georgia had also flashed her breasts at him when no one else had been looking. Really now, what bloke’s mind wouldn’t have been distracted?

August fifteenth. It really wasn’t that far away and since Georgia had invited him to stay with her and his plans to return home remained open, he saw no reason why he shouldn’t go. It would be nice to be able to tell folks back home that he’d actually seen Hendrix play, and if Jasmine was also planning on going, then Swani would most definitely come along as well.

“You say the concert’s gonna be on a farm?”

Georgia succeeded with unbuttoning the last button on his shirt and leaned forward, grazing his chest enticingly with her nipples. “Yeah, in Bethel. It’s gonna be so cool.”