“This is the knife I’m going to use,” Melinda said gleefully as she reached in her purse and pulled out a big old kitchen knife. Hope found a pair of Melinda’s jeans to wear and some shoes to match. Toni picked out a pair of shoes and slipped them on. There was the usual teenage paraphernalia hanging on Melinda’s walls: family photos, stuffed animals in various nets, posters of idols, including a few of Elvis in Jailhouse Rock. They looked over some of her T-shirts, piled neatly in a stack of milk crates, and inspected her collection of tapes, mostly bubblegum music like New Kids On The Block, Paula Abdul, and George Michael. No one else seemed to be home so they made themselves comfortable in Melinda’s bedroom, sorting through her array of shoes and jeans, admiring her closetful of jackets, and eyeballing her purses on the inside door. Hope and Toni asked if they could borrow some of Melinda’s clothes to wear for the night, and the four girls followed each other upstairs. Melinda wore more conventional teen clothes Laurie was a “punker,” usually dressed in solid black clothing. In contrast to Laurie’s hard square jaw, chunky body, and cropped head of bleached hair, sixteen-year-old Melinda had a seductive smile, a perfect figure, and a thick head of flowing light brown curls. Even physically, Melinda was the opposite of Laurie in every way. While Laurie’s demeanor was quiet and mysterious, Melinda was hyper and seemed excited to see them. Melinda was a very different type of person. Anyone who knew her for even a short time knew that Laurie had an attitude problem, that she tried very hard to be different, to be daring, that she desperately wanted to be accepted, and that she wanted her friends to follow her example.

Although she was just seventeen, she seemed to be in control of things. Of the four teenagers, Laurie was the oldest, the only one with a car and a driver’s license. Melinda opened the door, she already had her trench coat on, but the three stepped inside for a few minutes just to warm up. When they pulled up to Melinda’s house on Charlestown Road, everyone was silent. “Tell her what?” Hope asked, playing dumb. “Did you tell her yet?” Laurie asked Hope on the ride down. Soon they’d be crossing the Ohio River and the state line, and they’d be on their way. No one knew they were on their way to Louisville, more than fifty miles away from their quaint Indiana hometown.Īll Toni knew was that they were going to a punk rock concert, but first they had to make a quick stop in New Albany. They left Madison right after school let out that afternoon, and had lied to their parents about their plans for the night. It was a freezing cold day in the dead of January when the three girls got to New Albany.

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