Dream On (Prolouge)

August 1, 1973

The inside of the apartment was a dull blue haze as the sun rose over the hills in the east. The windows were open and the crisp summer air wafted through with a whistle, causing the blue curtains to dance softly. As the cool air made its way to Jenni's tea cup and saucer, it had heated up some degrees. It carried the smells of freshly grilled fish and a sweet scent Jenni couldn't place.

She sat on the couch quietly, cup and saucer in hand, prepared to take a sip of her morning tea but fearful of burning her lips. She would watch the telle, but she and Bianca hadn't enough money to afford one at this point in their living here. In fact, the living room was sparsely decorated and furnished. They had recently moved here from the slum that was their first home, and life wasn't as easy as they had hoped.

Then again, one couldn't hope much on a photographer's salary. Bianca was the breadwinner, no doubt. She was an associate at Apple Corps., and boy was she proud of it. It was this weird thing about Bianca and music businesses. Jenni recalled her music class she had shared with Bianca in secondary school, when Bianca was both obsessed with her clarinet and the band The Yardbirds. She had claimed to know one of the members, and, upon further inspection of the secondary school's class records, she did.

Bianca was completely unaware that Jenni knew who she had been writing to all these years, and Jenni found it strange. On several accounts, Bianca would spend nights up, just telephoning her friend until all hours of the night. From what Jenni had uncovered, his name was Jimmy. Being a fan of The Yardbirds and any other pop band in general, she concluded that it must be Jimmy Page, the co-lead guitarist. He wasn't anything special, and nothing short of a normal guitarist. He wasn't spectacular, and he surely wasn't handsome.

That is, until the band The New Yardbirds formed from the remains of the old. From there, they became Led Zeppelin, a new hard rock band that undoubtedly triumphed over The Who, that one American fellow Jimi Hendrix, The Stones, and The Beatles. Well, maybe not The Beatles, but the music was solid and catchy.

Jenni studied the Jimmy Page poster left on the ground by Bianca last night. He was very talented, yes, but he was a showman, an exhibitionist, and sham. What Bianca saw in him, she'd never know.

The door to Bianca's room opened and she trudged out, obviously tired. Jenni turned to watch her pretty friend scratch her brown hair. She yawned, cleared her throat, and asked, "What day is it?"

"August first," Jenni replied casually. Bianca went mad; she grabbed her head and paced a bit, all the while talking to herself. "Why? What's wrong?" Jenni asked, now shifting her entire body to face Bianca.

"The dinner! The dinner! I forgot all about the dinner!" she shouted. She began to fret as she paced between the hall and the open kitchen. "My dress will never be done in time! Did he make the reservations? Do I have his number? And my hair! I need to take a shower! Oh Lord, why aren't there more hours in the day..."

"What about supper?" Jenni asked as her friend paced the hall, walking in and out of the open kitchen with an air of anxiety. "Do we not have food? Is that the problem?"

"I have a scheduled dinner date tonight!" she cried before sprinting toward Jenni on the couch. "I'm so nervous. Will you please go with me?"

"On a date? Look, B, I love you, but wouldn't I--"

"Jen, you owe me!" Bianca pointed out desperately. "Please!"

With a long drawn out sigh,  Jenni set her tea on a cardboard box close at hand. "Who is the date with and where?"

"It's at the one brilliant formal restaurant, Beaux's Bar and Grill tonight at 6," Bianca replied with a guilty expression. "You know, that quaint little place round central London that you've always wanted to stop at...."

"But B, who is the date with? Don't avoid the question. Is it that Henry fellow you met at the office?"
"No... no, it's not," she kneaded her hands.

"Well alright, then who is it? Out with it, dear."

With an enormous dramatic sigh, Bianca knelt beside the couch and looked up into Jenni's green eyes with her own brown ones. "His name is Jimmy-- he's in a band. While he's home he said he would take me out. Oh, please Jenni!"

Jenni gave a sigh, too, as she crawled off the couch and over to the poster that had been carelessly strewn about the floor. She took it firmly and turned to face her friend with a scolding expression.

"This Jimmy?" she asked. "Jimmy Page?"

Bianca stood and walked toward the kitchen island. She tapped on the granite counter-top and turned to face Jenni with prominent embarrassment. "Why, yes. That very one."

"Oh, dammit, Bianca!" Jenni whined. "You know I would feel out of place! And if you were to have supper with any one of Led Zeppelin, why in the bloody Hell would it be Jimmy Page? Why not Robert Plant? John Paul Jones? John Bonham? Wait..." An excited thought hit Jenni and she starred at her brunette friend questioningly. "How do you know Jimmy Page? From Apple Corps?"

"No," Bianca signed, hopping up onto a bar stool. She opened up the glass candy jar next to her and pulled out a butterscotch. She unwrapped it slowly, avoiding confrontation, and popped it into her mouth. "No, Led Zeppelin doesn't belong to Apple Corps.-- they have to be the most UnBeatlistic band in London." She shifted the candy in her mouth. "I've known Jimmy since secondary school. You weren't in school when he was. He and I were the best of mates. He dropped out at sixteen to join a band."

"And you supported him?"

"Of course! I wouldn't be a very good person if I hadn't, now would I?" She laughed and sniffed. "Not my place to judge, eh? So you'll go with me? Jimmy says he had big news for me."

After much thought, Jenni replied, "B, I'm going because I want to meet a person in Led Zeppelin-- and because of you."

Bianca hopped off her stool and ran toward Jenni who was sitting on the ground near the poster. She enveloped her friend in a huge hug and thanked her a thousand times over. "Oh thank you, Jen, thank you!" she chanted. When Bianca had released her blonde friend, she held on to Jenni's shoulders and became very serious. "Please do me a favor. When he talks to you, don't make fun of his voice. His voice is very high-pitched and he's had enough laughter about it to last him his life. Can you handle that?"

Jenni hesitated, wondering how bad it could be, but under the gaze of her stern friend, she agreed. And thus began the greatest adventure of her life.