Johnny Cool
Short Story
Alberto Baston
Copyright 2012 by Alberto Baston
Johnny Cool
Short Story by Alberto Baston
It was 1959. The city of San Pedro was a small town. There was a teenage boy named Johnny Cool. It was his nickname. His real name was Johnny Carrey. He was a cool and popular guy at his high school. He was an average guy not concerned with achieving high grades. He loved to wear a white shirt, jeans, black leather jacket and black shoes. He had a few friends. Their names were Adam, Jeff, Sneaky and Fireball. Sneaky and Fireball were twin boys and had weird nicknames. He met them during middle school. Sneaky loved to tease people and had a small problem controlling his farting! Fireball loved to listen to rock and roll music, fast cars and playing on the pinball machine. Sneaky’s real name was Jack. Fireball’s was Dave. Adam was his closest friend from middle school. Jeff had been a friend since high school. They all loved rock and roll music and watched street car racing on the weekends. Johnny loved his 1959 Black Chevrolet Corvette car the most, he was so happy to be able to drive it around.
After a street car race, Johnny went to a party that was going on that night. He went alone. The party was private. There wasn’t any security at the party and people were dancing outside the million dollar mansion in Santa Monica. The mansion was so much larger than a regular house. It had a pool, a beautiful view of the ocean, a private dance floor and stage. Johnny loved the music coming from the stage. He was standing and slightly leaning against a column enjoying the melody. A beautiful woman walked slowly over to Johnny. She had black raven hair, brown eyes and a beautiful smile. She asked, “Do I know you?” “No.” Said Johnny, “I love this music!” She laughed. He said, “I’m Johnny.” She smiled, “I’m Sandra.” She wanted him to dance. He was a little shy about dancing with her. She took his hands and walked with him to the dance floor. He shouted over the music, “I’m not good at this.” She replied, “It's ok. I’ll teach you.” He learned to dance that night with the girl with raven hair.
The music changed to a slow tempo love song. Sandra took his hands and put them on her waist and danced slowly with Johnny. “How old are you?” She asked. “I’m almost 18” he replied. “You?”, “17” she answered. They were still dancing and swaying to the music. “Can I see you again?” He asked. “Only on Saturdays unfortunately.” Her parents had been divorced since 1956. She was living in Corona with her mother and in Santa Monica with her millionaire father on weekends only. She had a tough life with her parents and wanted be a dancer on the American Bandstand show. Her father told her that she was too young and he did not want her on the dance show. Johnny like her white shirt with a red bow, and her red skirt shimmered from the moonlight. It was getting late. Johnny said, “It’s getting late. See you next Saturday.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug. He smiled and left the party.
Midweek, at school, a guy recognized Johnny from the party. He walked over to Johnny and said, “Hi. You were a good dancer at the party on Saturday night.” He was so embarrassed. “Thanks,” he mumbled. The guy walked away. Johnny thought it odd. He didn’t remember seeing him at the party. Friday after school, Johnny was hanging out with his friend. The same guy from the party came back and handed him a note. The note said there would be street car racing show on Saturday night. The guy left before Johnny could find out anything else. His friends agreed to take him to the street car race except Adam. Adam was afraid of losing his best friend. He was scared because the street car race was very dangerous and there was an extremely steep cliff where the race was going to take place.
On Saturday afternoon, the weather was beautiful with a crystal clear blue sky. Johnny left his house as he walked outside he picked up a daisy flower from his garden. He turned on his Chevrolet Corvette car and went to Sandra’s father's mansion. He saw her standing on the porch waiting. Sandra walked out to the sidewalk. He walked towards her and handed her the daisy from his garden. She smiled and took his hand. They ran to the beach. They talked about Sandra’s life and Johnny’s life. They felt as if they had known each other for a long time. There were so many similarities in their lives. They had such strong feelings about each other. It made them feel instantly in love. There seemed like no one else mattered to them. A stranger approached them and gave two roses and a note for Johnny. The note said, “Be careful tonight.” The stranger left while he was reading the note. He hid the note in his pocket, he didn’t want to upset Sandra. They walked to Sandra’s house. Johnny did not want to say goodbye but he knew he should head for home. It was getting late in the day.
On Saturday night, Johnny picked up all of his friends, except Adam. He did not feel well and wanted to stay home. Johnny couldn’t help but think of the feeling his friend had warned him about. They went to the street car races. The race was between two cars, both hungry for the finish line. There would only be one winner. Everybody was excited and listened to the cars revving their engines. The exhaust smelled terrible coming from the cars, but Johnny and his friends enjoyed every minute of it. Johnny saw the stranger from school again. “I’ll be back shortly,” He said to his friends. He started to follow the stranger and that’s when the fog began to roll in. He lost track of him in the fog. Johnny tried to walk back to his friends but didn’t make it!
What happened to him next he was never really able to explain. A car began to chase him! He ran away uphill and he fell down almost at the end near the cliff. The stranger came out of his car and began walking ominously towards him. Johnny asked, “Why are you doing this to me?!” The stranger growled said, “Sandra is mine, you need to stay away from her, or else you will never see her again!” “No!” Johnny tried to hit him. The stranger pushed him down the cliff. He felt like he was falling into a never ending vortex. He closed his eyes.