A Ballad For Beulah

It was a sunny Saturday on the 19th of May in 1990 when Beulah celebrated her 10th birthday. Twenty-three year old Elliot was off from work and was insistent on throwing his baby sister a great party for her having made it to being two digits now, but she didn't have that many close friends from school or on base because she mostly hung out around the house with her brothers, watching MTV or riding their bikes to the nearby park. Though she did have a few girlfriends she chummed along with on occasion, so they were invited to come over to their small three-bedroom base house where Beulah and Nick shared a room.

By the time five in the evening rolled around, the cake had been cut and the presents had been opened. The small party's excitement dwindled down and the few amount of friends were picked up by their moms and dads.

And as the final friend left, Beulah stood at the end of the driving, watching as her friend Jessica drove off down the road with her mom in their station wagon.

She just stood there, staring. Completely unmoving in her stance until her 17-year-old brother, Tom, walked down the driveway and touched his hand to her shoulder.

Turning her face up to his, she smiled a little smile.

"D'you have a good party?" he asked.

Beulah nodded. "Yeah. I really like the Polly Pockets I got. And the New Kids On The Block sleeping bag is so totally rad," she replied, muttering the slang of the era.

"I know the party's over and the gifts have been all opened, but what if I took you out for some ice cream and took you to Berkeley."

"To Berkeley for what?" she asked, wide-eyed.

"Well, I made friends with this guy named Mike Pritchard who has this band and they're playing a show. It's an all ages show which means I can smuggle you in if you want," he winked. "Just don't tell Elliot I'm taking you to see a band in Berkeley or he'll kick my ass."

Grinning happily, Beulah nodded. "Oh, I promise. It'll be a secret," she responded as they began walking up the driveway together until they were underneath the red carport by the door. "Should I wear something dressy?"

Tom shook his head. "Nah, just a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. It's not that kinda of club."

"Can I wear some make-up?"

Wincing, Tom shrugged. "Maybe some lipstick. Light pink. Nothing else," he advised. "You're still only ten."

Beulah smiled. "That's okay," she assured as she scurried into the house, turned left down the hall and ran into her bedroom to rifle through her clothes.

* * *

Picking at her fingertips, nervously, Beulah walked closely beside her big brother as they snaked through the crowd in the club at 924 Gilman Street. She was dressed in a pair of stonewashed denim jeans and a white T-shirt that had the Pepsi logo over her left, nonexistent breast and then a bigger logo on the back. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail with a bright green scrunchie and, like Tom said she could, she wore a light coating of pink lipstick.

The band that was playing was jumping around the stage, playing their instruments while the lead singer sang about, 'I was there...' She couldn't see them from where she was, aside from the tops of their heads when they jumped because she was much shorter than everyone else in the club.

Tom pulled her over to the side and bought her a Coke, which was kinda ironic, given the shirt she wore. Then, he bent at the knees, crouching down, and lifted her up on his shoulders so that she could see the band playing.

"What's the name of that band?" she asked, looking down at the top of Tom's head, holding onto her Coke very carefully.

"Green Day," he answered. "They used to call themselves Sweet Children not that long ago." Tom lifted his right hand and pointed to the bass player who was standing on the right side of the stage with long, light brown hair down passed his shoulders. "That's my friend Mike I told you about," he added.

Beulah looked at the guy her brother was pointing to. This 'Mike' guy was jumping up with his bass, his hair flopping from side to side as he swayed to what he and his band were playing.

But he wasn't the one who held her attention.

It was the guitarist and lead singer who had wavy, dark brown hair that laid just on his shoulders while he gyrated to the new song they were playing that started with, 'Here we go again, infatuation...' -- all the while being completely shirtless.

Beulah couldn't explain the butterflies in her stomach and why her face felt warm as she watched him performing, but she knew that he was really cute.

When she wasn't sipping her Coke, she was biting her bottom lip to keep from smiling like a dork as the crowd around them moshed around to the music. When Green Day finished their set, Mike put his bass away and jumped off the side of the stage and pushed through the crowd to walk up to Tom.

"Hey, asshole. I see you made it," Mike greeted with a smirk, his blue eyes rising to look at Beulah. "Who's the girl?"

"My sister, fuckhole," Tom replied. "And don't swear like that in front of her. She just turned ten today."

"Oh, but you can call me 'fuckhole?' That's a whole hell of a lot worse than asshole," Mike snickered as he looked back at Beulah, lifting his hand to shake hers. "Hey, there," he nodded to her. "I'm Mike."

Shyly, she shook his hand. "I'm Beulah."

"Beulah..." Mike repeated. "Oh, yeah. Tom's mentioned you before. And, uh, happy birthday." He shoved his hands in his pockets and then pulled out a simple yellow guitar pick and handed it to her. "Here's a little gift."

Hesitating, Beulah finally reached out and took the pick from him and studied it. "Thanks," she muttered.

"You're welcome," he smiled, just as her eyes seemed to light up as the guitarist walked over with his blue guitar in hand.

"Hey Tom," the guitarist said, his green eyes curiously going up to the young girl on the 17-year-old's shoulders. "Should I even ask?"

"Billie Joe, this is my sister, Beulah," Tom introduced.

"Today's her tenth birthday," Mike added, nudging his bandmate.

"Really?" Billie Joe questioned, raising his eyebrow to Beulah as he gave her a charming smile which she returned, and nodded. "Damn. Ten's an important year, y'know? No more single digits." Leaning his guitar against the wall, he raised his hand and shook Beulah's. "Well, birthday girl, I'm Billie Joe. D'you like the music?"

Beulah nodded again. "Yeah. I, um...I liked that first one I heard."

"Which one was that?"

"You were singing about being somewhere, like...'I was there...'"

Billie Joe smirked. "That's what it's called. 'I Was There.'"

"Oh," she replied limply. "Well, it was really good."

Mike patted Tom on the shoulder as he excused himself to talk to some girl not that far away from where they were standing, leaving Billie Joe with the Mason siblings.

"So, what's on the agenda for tonight?" Tom wondered.

"Well, Sweet Baby Jesus is gonna play soon but we weren't plannin' on sticking around for their show tonight. Probably gonna go out and get something to eat at McDonalds or something. Why? Wanna come? Or are you on, you know...babysitting duty?"

"I don't need a babysitter," Beulah piped up suddenly, not meaning to sound so defiant.

"Sorry," he laughed a little.

"No, Beulah can come, too. She's cool like that," Tom insisted.

Billie Joe shrugged. "Alright. Let me go put Blue away and then I'll let Mike and John know what we're doin', 'kay?"

Tom nodded as the 18-year-old high school dropout walked off with his guitar, and then bent at his knees to put Beulah back down on the ground. "You wanna come to McDonalds with them? If not we can go home."

Beulah shook her head vigorously. "No," she answered a little too quickly.

Tom smirked knowingly as he spoke into his little sister's ear. "You wanna skip the Happy Meal and get a regular meal this time?"

Smiling faintly, Beulah nodded her head appreciatively. The last thing she wanted was for her brother to rub in the fact that she was only ten. And a Happy Meal would do that...even though she still wanted the toy. McDonalds had Barbie toys in the Happy Meals for girls.

But if sacrificing a Happy Meal toy meant appearing as cooler to the dreamy Billie Joe, then so be it.

All's fair in love and war, so to speak.

* * *

At McDonalds, the three members from Green Day, the two Mason siblings and the girl Mike had been talking to all sat, cramped, in a booth.

Trying to act cool and mature, Beulah refrained from shoveling a handful of French fries into her mouth like she usually did. Instead, she ate one at a time, quite delicately, trying to mirror the way Mike's apparent girlfriend ate.

When they were all done eating, Billie Joe leaned across the table and grabbed up Beulah's garbage, crumpled it up and placed it on his tray while flashing her a smile.

"You want an ice cream?" he asked her.

"Uh...okay," she responded, after a moment's hesitation.

"Okay, well...come on." He made a hand gesture for her to get out of the booth and join him at the counter and she felt like her heart had stopped.

Billie Joe, her brother's cute friend, wanted to buy her an ice cream! And he wasn't gonna just buy it and bring it to her, but he wanted her to come with him to pick it out!

Yeah, she really felt like her heart had stopped.

John and Tom slipped out of one side of the booth so that Beulah could slide out and join the guitarist. As she walked side by side with him, she fiddled with her fingers, unaware that the others were talking about her.

"I think your sister's jonesin' on Billie," John remarked.

Tom quirked an eyebrow and gave the drummer a look as they sat back in the booth. "What the hell makes you think that?"

"She blushes every time he looks at her or speaks to her, for one," Mike added, with a smile, taking a sip of his Sprite. "Don't worry, dude. Nothing wrong with baby sis havin' a crush, is there?"

"No...it's just...weird. I mean, I can still remember holding her for the first time when she was born. Granted I was, like, only seven years old...but I've watched her growing up so much since our parents died...and she was such a little girl, y'know? To think she's growing up and is gonna be a teenager in three years is fuckin' freaky."

"Can't say I know the feeling," Mike shrugged. "I'm the baby."

As soon as it was their turn in line, Billie Joe leaned on the counter and turned his face to Beulah.

"Okay, what kind do you want and what size?"

Beulah shrugged. "Uh, vanilla. Small's fine."

"Ah, shit. It's your birthday," he spoke adamantly as he turned to the cashier. "She'll have a large vanilla." Turning back to Beulah, he smiled. "You like sprinkles?" She nodded. "Chocolate or rainbow?"

"Rainbow."

"Put a lot of rainbow sprinkles on top while you're at it, thanks."

Beulah couldn't help it. She began to smile like a fool as she twisted her mood ring around her finger, which was as blue as her eyes.

"What?" Billie Joe asked with a small grin. "What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing," she replied, shaking head, but still smiling.

Billie Joe gave her a friendly nudge with his arm as the cashier came over with a large vanilla ice cream top with what looked like a million rainbow sprinkles.

"Anything else?" the cashier asked as Billie Joe handed over a five dollar bill.

"Yeah, I'll have what she's having," he added. He took the cone from the cashier and handed it to Beulah, who took it appreciatively.

"Thank you," she told him.

Billie Joe smiled. "You're welcome, Bee."

"What'd you say?"

"Bee. It's what I think I'm gonna call you. Like a little nickname," he replied. "That okay?"

Shyly, Beulah nodded her head. "Yeah. It's cool."

Inwardly, she was jumping up and down and gushing insanely. The Totally Awesome And Super Cute Billie Joe Who Was Also Really Nice had nicknamed her!

Her birthday couldn't have been any better.