A Ballad For Beulah

A month later, Tom graduated from high school and would be attending Cal Berkeley in the fall, majoring in Mass Communications. And while he still remained friends with the guys of Green Day, the four lost touch for about a month or so when the punk trio took to the road the day after Mike graduated.

In the days that had followed from her birthday, Beulah had found herself daydreaming about the green eyed guitarist almost every chance she had. Whether it be in school, in play, at home when she ate dinner, and when she went to sleep each night. She just couldn't get him out of her mind, and she was ashamed to admit to herself that she did, in fact, have a big crush on him.

She was smitten.

In her diary, she wrote about how she felt and what she thought of him. How he was such a cool guy and how nice he was to her each time Tom took her to Berkeley each weekend. And when she found out the threesome would be gone for the majority of the summer, she wasn't necessarily devastated, but she was considerably bummed.

She'd begun looking forward to however amount of time she spent with Tom when he was hanging with the guys as well, allowing her to tag along. And at this point, she was convinced her summer would seriously blow chunks.

However, she had her best friend and brother, Nick, to cling to, as she'd always done. They road their bikes to the closest park on base, racing each other constantly, swinging upside down from the monkey bars and trying to put together some money they got from Elliot for doing chores and then going out to buy themselves ice cream from the cream truck that came around.

As the summer dragged on, and still Billie Joe and his band was touring the country, Beulah began to doubt they'd ever come back and that perhaps the time away would put a wedge between their friendship with her brother and then all hope of ever seeing him again would be out the window.

But, then, one incredibly humid day in early August, ten-year-old Beulah was laying on pavement of the driveway; wearing her purple and pink, striped bathing suit with a beach towel underneath her and the sun beating down on her. On the side of the house, 11-year-old Nick and 13-year-old Larry were busy drenching themselves with the garden hose which Beulah was drying out from having participated in moments before.

Under the carport, the boom box was plugged in and Beulah's New Kids On The Block cassette was blaring, 'Hangin' Tough.'

And Beulah was trying to sing along.

"Oh, oh, oh oh oh / Oh, oh, oh, oh oh..." she crooned, tapping the flats of her feet on her towel with her legs bent up at the knees. "Listen up everybody if you wanna take a chance / Just get on the floor and do the New Kids' dance / Don't worry about nothin' 'cause it won't take long / We're gonna put you in a trance with a funky song, 'cause you gotta be / Hangin' Tough...Hangin' Tough...Hangin' Tough / We're rough!"

And as she continued, she was so caught up with the melodic voices of her favorite band of the moment, that she didn't hear the car pulling up until Tom's voice rang out.

"Beulah! Get out of the driveway!"

Taking her arm off her eyes to keep the sun from beating too harshly through her closed lids, Beulah sat up and stared straight at the grill of her brother's car that was trying to pull in.

Scrambling to her feet, she pulled the towel and her flip flops over to the grass of the front lawn and stood there, not able to see who else was in the car because she was trying to let her eyes to focus.

When the car stopped and was turned off, Tom stepped out and the pushed the driver's seat up so that whoever was sitting in the back of the two-door vehicle could climb out.

Her eyes going wide, she looked upon Mike first, his hair now shorter and almost platinum blonde. He looked over at her and smiled as he waved.

"Sunbathing?" he questioned.

Biting her lip, she smiled shyly. "Yeah..."

"Ugh! What the fuck?" came another familiar voice as it growled with contempt. "Who's playing this shit?"

Hopping out of the passenger's side, Billie Joe shut the door and placed his hands on the top of the car, his eyes loitering over in Beulah's direction.

"Hey, Bee," he acknowledged. "This your shitty music?" he inquired with an impish grin and a faux disgusted look all at the same time

"Yeah," she replied nervously.

"Oh...well, in that case I guess it ain't completely horrible."

Her spirits picked up almost instantly. "How was touring?" she asked, brightly, finding her nerves again.

"Great and terrible."

Beulah look confused as Mike laughed at his best friend's comment. "The terrible part is that John was acting like a jerkwad the entire time and as soon as we got home, like, last week, we find out from another friend that he quit the band."

"Fucking retard," Billie Joe grumbled.

"Dude," Tom muttered to his guitarist friend, gesturing to his sister and his two younger brothers who were keeping to themselves...and the hose. "Young ears, man."

"Sorry."

"What are you gonna do without John?" Beulah asked, wrapping her beach towel around her waist.

Mike snickered as he turned his head back to the ten-year-old blonde who was genuinely interested in hearing how things went. "We have another friend who we asked to join as our new drummer, but he says he's not sure we asked the right guy," the bassist shrugged.

"Why'd John quit?" Beulah asked.

"He was tired of touring, I guess, and wanted out. Claims he wants to go to college now. Somewhere out of state or something. Who knows."

"What was great about the tour?" she continued, biting her lips, subconsciously.

"Billie Joe met the girl of his dreams," Mike laughed.

And at that moment, Beulah's little heart broke. It's not like she expected she'd have a chance with the cute guitarist in the future, but hearing there was a girl in his life, ruined the fantasy.

"Oh," she mumbled.

"Adrienne Nesser from Minneapolis. The brown-haired, brown eyed beauty with a cherubic face and has Billie Joe on Cloud 9, writing songs about her. Real sappy shit," Mike laughed some more, poking fun at his friend.

"Shut up," Billie Joe bit out, but not denying the claims.

Beulah slipped her feet into her flip flops and began to walk along the side of the car, by Mike and toward her boom box, turning it off. She listened as the three guys began talking back and forth, turning their conversation in another direction. She unplugged the boom box, and lifted it up, carrying her things into the house and heading toward her bedroom.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, she looked at her short and undeveloped figure. She wasn't even in a training bra yet, had no curves, didn't even have pimples. Not that she wanted those. She remembered her sister, Claire, having to deal with that stuff when they lived in New Jersey and in Ohio. But, despite that, Beulah wished she were a few years older. Like fifteen or sixteen. 'Cause then, at least, Billie Joe might take notice of her and it'd be okay and not weird because she was only ten and he was 18.

And when she did the math, Beulah deducted that when she turned eighteen -- of legal age -- Billie Joe would be twenty-six.

Frowning, she mentally smacked herself for even bothering to fantasize. It was a hopeless dream, and now Billie Joe was apparently dating some girl named Adrienne from Minneapolis.

Beulah had to face the facts and stop being so childish.

* * *

As the summer came to an end, Tom began to pack up all his belongings because he was moving into a dorm at Cal Berkeley. It was a single room, and from time to time, Beulah was aware that her brother was letting Billie Joe and Mike squat in the dorm as well when they needed a place to stay.

The East Bay punk group had lost the friend who was sort of their interim drummer, but had since welcomed the final member to their lineup who used to play in a group called The Lookouts.

He was a seventeen-year-old named Frank Wright III, but was affectionately known to those who knew him as Tre Cool.

And while that transition was taking place, the oldest brother after Tom -- which was Steve -- started his sophomore year of high school, Larry started the eighth grade, Nick started sixth, and Beulah started fifth.

Even though the new school year had just begun, Beulah knew her whole school career would take forever to get through. After fifth grade, she would have seven more years to go.

Seven long years.

Grief over having to return to school aside, Beulah found things to look forward to, like school pictures and Halloween. And even though she had told herself she would get over her crush on Billie Joe, it proved an impossible task when Tom would come home on the weekends and bring her and Nick to Berkeley for a day or even overnight.

They'd end up hanging out with the new threesome of Green Day, and Billie Joe being cute was undeniable, so Beulah truly couldn't help herself from smiling at everything he said, and even drawing her name with his in little hearts in her diary. Even writing her name as 'Beulah Rochelle Armstrong,' 'Beulah Rochelle Mason-Armstrong,' or 'Mrs. Beulah Armstrong.'

Then, by Halloween, Billie Joe had cut his hair a bit so that it came to just above his ears, but his good looks didn't falter in Beulah's blue eyes. As a costume, she was dressed like Wednesday Addams, sans the black pigtailed wig, but only because she hadn't put it on yet.
Right before she went out Trick-or-Treating with Nick and Larry, who were all being escorted by Steve, there was a knock on the front door and Beulah thought it was just some Trick-or-Treaters. Opening the door she was met by four hooded figures that wore skeleton masks over their faces.

"D'you want some candy?" she asked, a little unsure. After all, these Trick-or-Treaters were pretty tall for regular kids.

"No," the figure in the front growled like a demon as he reached out and grabbed Beulah up in his arms, pinning her back to his chest. The other three began to advance on her, and she screamed bloody murder.

"Elliot! Aaahh!"

Like a flash of lightening, Elliot was at the door, anger and fear in his eyes.

"Hey! Let her go!"

Then, laughing began to follow as one of the advancing figures took off their mask, revealing Tom. And if Tom wasn't the one who was holding Beulah and there were three with him...who was it?

"Tom, you jerk off, why are you gonna go scare Beulah like that?" the eldest Mason asked.

"Sorry, dude," came a childlike voice as Tre Cool was revealed to be one of the other figures. "It was kinda my idea."

When Beulah noticed Tre, her hopes began to soar, realizing the other two had to be Billie Joe and Mike...and...

Oh god! she thought, smiling inwardly. Billie Joe's holding me, isn't he?

The one who held her set her gently back onto the ground, but as she looked up at his skeleton mask, the masked guy beside them revealed his identity.

It was Billie Joe.

So that meant it was Mike that was holding her.

Damn.

Taking his mask off last, Mike smiled down at Beulah and then pulled out a cherry-flavored Charms Blow Pop, handing it to her, almost as a peace offering. "Sorry for scarin' the shit out of you," he apologized.

"Thanks," she muttered, taking the sucker.

"Welcome."

"Nice costume," came Billie Joe's compliment. "What are you supposed to be?"

"Wednesday Addams," she replied, looking back at Elliot. "It's okay, El. I'm okay. They were just playing a Halloween prank."

"See. She knows we were messin' around. Don't have a hernia, dad," Tom snickered jokingly.

Elliot's face soured as he grabbed Tom by the collar of his costume. "I'm not Dad. Alright?"

Tom jerked back, pushing his big brother away. "It was a joke, man. Chill."

Without another word, Elliot walked back into the house just as Steve, Larry and Nick came out; the latter two being the only one's dressed.

"What crawled up Elliot's ass and died?" Steve asked Tom.

"Who the hell cares," the college student muttered. His own blue eyes darkened as he looked to his younger brothers, his sister and his friends. "How about we all go Trick-or-Treating together?"

Everyone seemed to find that a pretty cool suggestion, especially Beulah, who was happy to be near Billie Joe no matter for what reason.