Kristen smiled when I mentioned her name.
“I figured Kristen would be there,” Mr. Proilet said, smiling.
“I can’t see myself doing it without her. What do you think?” I asked.
“The band you envision sounds good, but the pay may not be worth it if you have to divide it among so many people.”
“Yeah,” I said. “The money is the difficult part. I’m trying to figure an angle around that.”
Mr. Proilet, Kristen, and Lynette all had the good sense not to recommend that Kristen help bankroll a band for me.
“You’ll work something out, Jim.”
“I wish Archy was here. I could use a good soloist. He was terrific on the horn.”
“Have you considered Megan?” Mr. Proilet.
Megan was going to be a senior and she played flute in the orchestral band. I had heard her accompany Roy on Colour My World during the spring concert a couple of months ago. “I forgot about her. She’d be great.”
Mr. Proilet looked serious. “You’re thinking more of a jazz band than a rock band. Will that fit into Puppy Dawg’s?”
I shrugged. “There are quite a few loose ends, and I need to work them out. Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated.”
After Mr. Proilet left, Kristen, Lynette, and I went upstairs to the apartment. Kristen put on one of her favorite albums, a two record set that her parents had imported from the United Kingdom.
I was familiar with import records. I had a nearly complete collection of U.K. imports of the Beatles at my parents’ house. I played each of those precious albums once and recorded them to cassette, which I would listen to over and over. The earlier Beatle albums were much different in their original version (U.K.) than the ones they released in America. Even some of the songs had subtle differences!
Kristen, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind that she would be putting a diamond needle—the hardest surface known to man—in the groove of a hard to come by vinyl record.
I learned not to say things like that to Kristen. In addition, the performer was Melanie, who had a few hits in the late 1960s.
Anyway, after playing the two records, Kristen flipped them over and played the other sides. Apparently, this was the first time that she had done this with me in the room, because I immediately noticed the first song that played.
“Melanie made a remake of that song?” I asked, listening to a song that was a top forty song for another group.
Kristen looked at me strangely. “Melanie wrote that song, Jim.”
The song was something that I knew that was performed by a group whose name that I had forgotten—the same group that performed “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” for the Coke commercial. I thought the title was Look What They’ve Done To My Song but the actual title was worded differently than the lyrics.
I listened to Melanie’s version of the song, and noticed the singer’s voice, while much more raw than the pop version that I was familiar with, was perfect for the song.
“I always thought of Melanie as… well, trite. You know, stuff like Brand New Key. That song sounds good!”
I knew as soon as the words came out of my mouth that I had said the wrong thing.
Kristen looked at me sadly. “You’re the last person that I thought would peg a performer for a single song.”
I guess I looked sheepish, as Kristen came over and hugged me. “I’m sorry, Love. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
“No problem, Love,” Kristen said, smiling at me. “Melanie is probably just as much a victim of the music labels as anybody ever was.”
This wasn’t the first time I heard disparaging remarks about the music industry. It would also not be the last. I also promised myself that I’d never try to shoehorn another person into a specific genre.
Chapter 35—Unexpected Trip
The next day, June called and told me that she wasn’t going to be visiting for a few days.
“What’s up, Baby?” I asked, knowing that June had no obligations to come over, and realizing that June didn’t just call to say she wasn’t coming over.
“Oh… nothing,” June said unconvincingly.
“Tell Doctor Oogie about it,” I coaxed.
Despite June’s low spirits, I heard a bit of a chuckle from June. However, her voice almost immediately turned serious again. “I got a letter from Tiny.”
Oh, shit. June NEVER called Archy by the nickname that she claimed to hate. “What’s up with Archy?” I asked.
“Oh… nothing.”
I didn’t answer, but decided to allow June to take her time. After a minute or two, June finally continued. “He says that his coach is being hard on him.”
“That’s what coaches are supposed to do,” I pointed out.
“I’m talking about his curriculum,” June said. “Archy wants to use football as a way to get a good education and maybe a good job. He loves animals and was thinking of becoming a veterinarian. His coach, however, is forcing him to take the jock classes… the ones that don’t teach anything and are there just for scholarship students to easily ace so they can continue playing.”
I could see where June was heading with this. From my short friendship with Archy, I knew him to be a very attentive student, even though we shared no classes together.
June continued. “If Archy goes along, the diploma he eventually gets will be essentially worthless. If he doesn’t go along, the coach has threatened his scholarship.”
This wasn’t fair! “That sucks!” I protested.
“Tell me about it!” June agreed.
“What sucks?” Kristen asked, walking out of the bedroom.
I put my hand over the transmitter and gave Kristen a quick summary of my discussion with June.
Immediately, Kristen took the phone out of my hand. “June, this is Kris… I’ll be picking you up at your house in…” She looked at her watch. “Forty-five minutes. I need to make some phone calls.”
Kristen didn’t wait for an answer, and hung up the phone.
“Jim, pack an overnight bag for us. Go downstairs and get a change of clothes for June. Ask Lynette if she wants to come with us. We’ll use her car.”
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“I told you what I want, Jim,” Kristen said, almost snapping at me. She was surprised that I didn’t just follow her directions blindly. “Now, get!”
Dismissed, I went to the bedroom to follow Kristen’s directions. I looked in Kristen’s closet, and didn’t know what kind of outfit that she’d want.
As if Kristen were reading my mind, she called out, “Jim, I need the grey button down shirt and the matching pants. They’re on the right side of the closet near the front. Don’t forget underwear!”
I found the outfit that Kristen wanted and then packed a pair of slacks and one of the collared shirts of mine that the girls seemed to like.
As I left the bedroom, Lynette was already in the living room with a small overnight bag. “I’ve got an outfit for June, Jim,” she said. “What’s going on?”