I was curled up asleep in front of the telly when Mom and Dad returned from the cinema. They wanted to know where Tina was. I said I didn't know. They asked about what time she left, and I said early. They asked if I saw anyone and I said no, but I didn't think to mention the car with the two horn blasts outside. Or that she was dressed like a film star.
"Tina came home in the morning. It was Saturday, and Dad was home. I was sent to my bedroom, and I could hear them talking to her. My parents were never ones for making emotional scenes. Very well behaved English middle class, you know. But Tina got emotional. She started yelling and screaming about how dull, crass and unfair they were. Then Dad spoke. Then Mom.
"Tina stayed close to home until the next year. To this day I do not know where she went that night, or with whom, or what she got up to. To this day, I still don't want to know. But somehow, Mom and Dad were able to persuade her to stay home more. She was fifteen when she started going out again. all dolled up of course. But she was careful to be home by ten, and it became a rule that if anyone was going to come and get her, that they would be expected to come in to the house and introduce themselves. So she took the Tube instead, I imagine.
That was when I began my piano lessons. By the time I was nine I was declared a child prodigy. I didn't find any of this out until many years later, but at that time, barely just sixteen, my sister Tina had become a groupie. To British rock stars. To very famous British rock stars. They traded her among themselves, John, Paul, George and Ringo..."
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