After the Dance: My Life With Marvin Gaye Read Online Free Page B

raced through my mind. I remembered how, only a week before meeting Marvin, I had encountered Don Cornelius of Soul Train fame. I had gone to a Lakers game at the Forum with my friend Destiny, and a couple of the players had invited us to an after-party at the Continental Hyatt House on the Sunset Strip. In a crowded room filled with people who—at least to our impressionable minds—appeared super sophisticated, we tried to be cool. When someone offered me a line, I presumed it was cocaine. Cocaine was hardly anything new to me, and I ingested it quickly. Within minutes, though, I felt sick. I heard someone say that the white powder was heroin, not cocaine. The next thing I knew I was in the bathroom, my head in the toilet, regurgitating like a child with the flu. But being young and healthy, I recovered quickly. I cleaned up and rejoined the party.
    Destiny and I were hardly loose girls. We simply wanted to stepout on the edge and see what a real after-party was all about. After becoming sick, though, the fascination ended and we decided to call it a night.
    On the street in front of the hotel, we were looking to hail a cab, but none were available. That’s when Don Cornelius pulled up in a big sedan.
    “Be happy to give you ladies a ride,” he offered.
    Recognizing him immediately, we figured it would be safe. Don was the perfect gentleman.
    On the night I had met Marvin, he too had been the perfect gentleman. That was well and good, but had he forgotten me?
    The call came the next day. Mom picked up the receiver.
    “Hi, Ed,” she said. “What’s happening?”
    I ran over and tried to hear what Ed Townsend was telling my mom. I couldn’t make out his words, but I didn’t have to. Mom’s smile said everything.
    When the call was over, Mom said, “Marvin wants to see you again.”
    “When?”
    “Tonight.”
    “Wow.”
    “And without me.”
    My first reaction was that I wanted my mother to come along. I wanted the security of her company. My second reaction, though, was that I didn’t want her there. I was thrilled by the thought that Marvin wanted to see me alone.
    “Is it okay for me to go alone?” I asked.
    “Ed’s coming by to pick you up tonight. Ed will be there the whole time. It’s perfectly fine.”
    During lunch, I asked a buddy of Bryant’s to sell me weed.
    “I need a lid,” I said, “but a lid of your best stuff.”
    Handing me a package wrapped in tinfoil, he assured me that thesmoke was top grade. Showing up at the studio with my own dope would show Marvin that I was not a naïve schoolgirl. I was a sophisticated woman.
    After school, I hurried home. I took a long time picking out my outfit. The last time I’d started off wearing braids. No braids tonight. Tonight I was letting my hair down.
    “Don’t forget that Marvin’s a married man,” said Mom, a half hour before Ed arrived.
    “Please, Mom. Am I supposed to believe that you never dated a married man? Besides, Ed told us that Marvin and his wife are separated.”
    “I’m just looking out for you, sweetheart. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
    I ignored my mother’s words and waited by the window. The minute Ed pulled up, I was out the door and in his car.
    As soon as we walked through the doors of the studio, I felt myself safely and blissfully back in Marvin’s world. That world was about sound and beauty. He was making beautiful sounds with his voice, singing a chillingly pleading song in which he begged his baby to stay. Without you in bed beside me , he implored, sleep will never come.
    As he sang, his eyes were closed. When he opened them, he looked directly at me, seated on a leather couch in the control room. Marvin was standing on the other side of the glass. His eyes were smiling. He sang for another twenty minutes; I didn’t move. It was just me, Ed, the engineer, and Marvin. Unlike last night, there were no other guests, no other mothers or young chicks looking to get next to Marvin.
    When he finally took