Chapter 10: First Night Performance
"Mel?" a voice sounded from her far right. She groaned and turned to her left, wanting to ignore the voice and get back to her dozing. It had been at least an hour since the excursion downstairs and she wanted some quiet time. Someone sat down next to her and put a hand on her arm, meaning for her to wake up.
"What is it?" her eyes opened up and she saw an almost ethereal light glinting off the seawater. Turning to her right, she beheld the same vision that Buster himself had described to her earlier that morning.
"Captain Rostron?" he was in his full navy regalia now, outfitted in his dress uniform and had gold braid draping on his left shoulder. "I must be dreaming."
"If it pleases you, you may think that," he answered amusingly in a little singsong voice. Melody studied his blue eyes and stern looking face. "I am here as a warning to you."
"Are you?" Melody sat up in her chair. "What foreboding messages have you to give me?"
"I want you to know that there are nasty spirits on board-not downright malicious, but they are spiteful and they already have their eyes on you."
The engineer knew to take his warning seriously. "What sort of danger are talking about?" the sea ominously started to turn dark around them as Rostron stepped closer to her. Unfazed, she stood as tall as she could make herself.
Rostron nodded like he'd been gauging her reaction. With his eyes sparkling, radiating good humor like his colleagues had always spoken of, he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. Melody touched his hand briefly, staring up at him openly. He was one of her heroes, going along, doing the job without complaint, and when the occasion called for it, going to people in need.
"There are a few spirits here, one is of a person who drowned in the first class pool in the thirties, and there's another one who was murdered in the first class dining room. Both are very nasty and will not hesitate to cause you or the young man harm."
"What sort of harm are we talking about, Commodore?"
"Straight to the point, aren't you?" he commented.
"I like to get all the information relevant and go back to what I was doing before." she replied as nicely as possible, unwilling to arouse the commodore's ire.
"Standard run-of-the-mill type things, knock you about a bit, that sort of thing. I understand one spirit entered or passed through you earlier and that is why you are so tired now."
"Is there anything I can do to speed up the time that I need to recover from that?"
"I'm afraid not," he said sympathetically. "only time can heal it. There will be no aftereffects as far as I know. You will be good as new. I would caution you to be more careful, as you are not as young as you used to be."
"Sir, my age is not a relevant topic really. I go out and do things people half my age wouldn't dream of."
The commodore's grin grew wider. "Your attitude is refreshing, especially in this day and age where people whine and moan, not to mention act like little children."
"Telling me! Anyway sir, I do have to get back to my fiance."
"Congratulations." Rostron backed off and began to fade out into the background as Melody began to wake up.
The engineer found herself on the deck chair like she was previously, wide awake and looking about to see if anyone was missing her yet. None of the band nor Alan or Buster had come wandering or calling her, so she took a moment to stand up and stretch before glancing at her cell phone for the time.
"Lunchtime!" Melody ambled off towards the first class dining room, hoping she wouldn't get lost along the way.
At the same time, Tom, Lou, and Murph were walking up to the first class dining room as well, gossiping among themselves when they came to the end of a corridor. Tom stopped them suddenly, narrowing his eyes as he peered down the next hallway.
"What is it?" Lou started to step forward again but Tom held him back.
"Look down there for a moment."
"I don't see anything there."
"Hang on a moment," Tom walked forward and into what looked like a white mist gathering at the exit door. "interesting." he felt a bit chilled but did not see anything out of the ordinary aside from the mist. "do you guys see it now?"
"I see something," Murph squinted. "a kind of whiteness."
"Right. This is the kind of thing I think that Melody and Buster are into. We'll ask them about that at lunchtime."
The three musicians marched towards the exit again as the white mist dissipated. Murph's eyes wandered around the corridor, seeing the dark wood paneling and old wallpaper. The mustiness was evident to all 3 of them, proof that the rooms were seldom inhabited. He touched a doorknob, his finger came away with a light dust film. It was not time for tourist season yet and the rooms had yet to be cleaned for all the tourists that would come to visit the former majestic ocean liner.
Murph had always been a stickler for details, he'd be the band's spokesperson when Elwood wasn't able to, Murph ran interference for them, explaining away Elwood or Mack's absences, volunteering Melody when he knew she would perform a useful service on repairing electronics, etc. He pulled out the itinerary from his back pocket and double checked when the first performance would be.
"First show's tonight," he announced as they opened up the doors to the dining room, seeing Melody, Buster, and Elwood already there. "rehearsal and sound check this afternoon to make sure we sound good."
"All right. We meet at 2, run through the show, then we do call time at 7," Elwood proclaimed as Murph put the sheet of paper down on the table, pulling out a pen and marking it down. "everyone has to get that."
"The rest of them should be here soon for lunch, El. This is the only place that's open on the ship." Mack had just entered the dining room, followed by Willie.
"If they're hungry enough, they'll find it." Willie sat down on one side of Lou and brought his hands together in a clap. "What's for eats? I'm starvin'!"
Melody's laughter could be heard throughout the dining room as Alan and Duck emerged from one of the side doors with Steve in tow.
Throughout lunch, Alan's eyes kept getting drawn to the ring on Melody's left ring finger where the ring was displayed, glinting in the sunlight that streamed in through the windows. The sapphire was the main reason he'd bought it, knowing that she loved the color blue and thought sapphires were beautiful. She was so easily pleased sometimes, taking a sapphire over a diamond so the cost was less, something else he was happy about as well.
"Well!" Alan watched Melody fling herself onto the king size bed in their room. She got on her knees and pulled up a corner of her shirt provocatively. "What do you want to do now?"
"I can think of a few things," he got onto the bed next to her and began to slide his hands under her shirt, working them up. "the first one needs some leeway, so this is going to have to come off."
"Um hmmm," she teased, putting her fingers in his hair to card through it. Melody had a fondness for his black hair back when it was black. "I love your hair."
"I love yours too." When he had met her, Melody's hair had been dirty blonde, but now she had gone full gray, but she dyed her hair frequently to hide her age. Alan didn't mind, especially since she got her dye jobs done at a salon, sparing the trumpet player the smells of the process.
"So we're going to need to take this off, it'll just get in the way, trust me." Alan stripped off her shirt as she sneaked her hands around to slide them into the back pockets of his jeans. Liking the fact that Melody was all pressed up against him, he took his eyes off of her face and zeroed in on her full bra. She had been wearing a black and white lacy bra with a small white bow in the center. "This will just be in the way too." he unsnapped it.
"Oh, this will definitely be in the way," Melody unbuttoned his pants, teasing him by unzipping his fly slowly. "well, I think I've made my point clear, don't you?"
The trumpet player responded with a feral growl, getting ready for action.
Elwood and Mack decided to head down to the first class swimming pool to take a look around. The bartender had borrowed Buster's book on the paranormal happenings on the Queen Mary, browsed through it, and decided that the drowning at the pool would be the most interesting to him.
"So let's take a look down there, shall we?" the singer buttoned up his jacket and turned to his friend. The bartender gave an indifferent shrug, following Elwood as he opened up a gangway door, clattering down the stairs. At the former first class reception area where a big gaudy staircase dominated the room, they went around back and operated one of the old but still working perfectly elevators. They plugged in the number for the appropriate floor, waited a few minutes, then parted the decorative golden grilles.
"What are we exactly hoping to see down here, Mack?" they walked into the vast space, their footsteps tinny sounding to their own ears.
"Anything unusual," Mack did watch some Ghost Hunter episodes with Buster when they both had time. "temperature spikes, weird shadows, etcetera."
"All right. Should we split up?"
"Sure. You take the locker rooms."
"Right." Elwood went to the back of the room, passing by the diving board and stairs. He wandered around the male locker room for a long moment, searching with his eyes for anything that looked out of place.
Mack went down into the pool itself, the water having been drained out decades ago. Putting his hands in his pockets, he walked around, not really seeing anything in particular. His thoughts wandered to Buster, knowing the teenager was growing up and it wouldn't be long before he was out on his own. The bartender felt a bit sad already, but knew Buster had to grow up eventually and find his own way. A year ago, Buster had a part time job tending horses in a stable for a nearby horse farm, and last summer he'd taken a job for Willie, bussing tables and doing general cleanup.
Something seemed to flit just past his field of vision. When it happened again, he just barely caught it out of the corner of his eye.
"The hell?" coming out of the swimming pool, Mack turned around, trying to track down the elusive shadow. "Elwood, did you see that?"
"See what?" emerging from the women's locker room, Elwood went over to his friend and looked upwards. "I don't see anything, Mack."
"It was right there!" Mack pointed. "I saw a dark shadow run across the wall and disappear."
"Did it look like anything or was it just a blob?"
"It was almost human-shaped." the aforementioned blob raced across the exit door, making Mack jump in fright. "There it went again!"
"Come on," Elwood took him by the arm and checked his watch. "we're due in at rehearsal."
"All right. I hope Mel and Buster will like that I saw something."
At the rehearsal, Alan was doing warmups, Willie was just sitting down when Elwood and Mack came in. A few minutes later the guitar section came in, followed by Murph and Tom. Lou, Buster, and Melody came in ten minutes later, all gossiping and giggling over a joke the sax player had told them.
"We, Mack and I, went down to the pool area where a person drowned and Mack saw something, I don't know what it was, he couldn't really say either."
Buster came forward as Melody set her microphone stand beside Lou's. Mack eyed his surrogate son with a wry smile as the young man said, "Congrats, Mack! You've seen your first ghost!"
Elwood shook his head with a slight grin. Mack had told Buster he could call him Dad when he was first adopted, but it didn't feel right to the teenager. Besides, it was a team effort to keep Buster on the right track and the two adults were both fathers to him. Calling both of them Dad would be confusing, so the teen kept right on calling them Mack and Elwood.
"Do I win a prize?"
"Not yet. I would think your prize is that you didn't get harmed." Alan and Tom paused in their conversation, looking over at the teen.
"Come again?"
"Every time Melody's been around ghosts, she gets attacked," Buster clarified. "be glad you were not."
"Every time?" Alan remembered Buster and Melody had gone down to check out a ghost sighting earlier that day. "Mel, did you get hurt today as well?" he gave her a stern look.
She sighed and gave him a look back that was part exasperation and part fondness. "I'm absolutely fine!"
"Really? How do I know for sure?"
She leaned in closer to him and lowered her voice considerably so the others couldn't hear. "You checked me out earlier, remember?" he snorted and gave her a kiss. Tom smiled and looked away from them, catching a glance from Duck.
"All right, are we ready to practice?" Elwood's voice boomed out as he took the microphone in one hand.
One hour of practice later, two of the promoters of the event walked in. One was a short and rotund lady with a head full of curly brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a pair of jeans, a sleeveless white top, and flip flops. The other was a man who was as tall as Elwood, had dark blonde hair, brown eyes, and was muscular. He wore a blue shirt with white pinstripes, tan chinos and sneakers.
"Well, you guys are just the band we needed for this event!" the lady bubbled in enthusiasm as Elwood called a break. She went over and shook Elwood's hand, then Mack's. "I'm Charlene Timmons, I belong to the promoting group of this event."
"Pleasure."
Melody looked up as she stepped down from the stage, followed by Alan and Tom. She saw the man and as soon as she had moved aside to let Alan and Tom descend, she froze.
"Mel, what is it?" Tom put a hand on her shoulder. The engineer had turned pale as the man talked to Elwood and Mack. Alan saw the look on her face as well, took her arm, then dragged her aside to talk to her. He managed to break her eye contact with the man by forcing her to move so that her back was to him.
"What is it, Mel?" Alan demanded. "Are you sick again?" she had turned even paler in the last few moments.
"See that man?" she managed.
"What about him?" he glanced at him.
"That's my brother."
"You do look a bit like him... which one is he?" it had been many years since he had met Melody's brothers and his recollections were dim.
"That's Jesse. He's ex military and lives out here in Long Beach. I didn't know that he would be part of the promoter group."
"Why are you so worked up?" Alan led her backstage where they found a few armchairs to sit in. Melody bit her lip and sighed.
"I haven't seen him in 30 years, Alan. Wouldn't you be nervous? He doesn't call, we're not close, I don't think he even knows that I exist anymore!"
At a loss, Alan couldn't think of a thing to say to her. He was an only child and therefore did not have to deal with estranged brothers. The trumpet player did understand her frame of mind, how to react when a family member suddenly shows up after years of silence. Melody fidgeted, cluelessly wondering about what to do next.
"So why don't we just stay away from him for now?" was all Alan could suggest. "I'll talk to Elwood and Mack later on to see if your brother mentions you. If he doesn't, then you don't have anything to worry about."
"What if he does?"
"Well, social conventions dictate you would at least say hi to him. After that, you can pretend he doesn't exist anymore." he reasoned, taking her hand. "In 3 days, we'll be married and heading back to Calumet City."
"Yes indeed. So let's get hustling." Melody stood up, color regained, and took Alan's arm. Together they went out onto the boat deck until the rehearsal resumed.
"That was interesting," Elwood commented at suppertime. "that guy promoter, Jesse, you notice he looks a bit like you, Mel?"
Alan squeezed her hand under the table. Elwood was not very good at keeping secrets. If she told him Jesse was her brother, he would broadcast it around for all the band to hear. Mack and the entire band knew this, so each told him very little about their own personal lives.
"Just a coincidence, El," she airily brushed him off. "so what's the set list for tonight? Anyone got a list?"
"Right here." Duck handed her over a copy.
Buster took a gulp of his drink, belching loudly. Elwood began to scold him as Mack chortled and the other bandmembers sniggered. To try to top him, Melody hauled off of her beer and let out a monstrous eructation that seemed to rattle the windows.
"Belch off!" in a moment of grade school humor and behavior, everyone inhaled their drinks and came out with various noises of pitch and frequency.
"All right, all right," Mack stood up as the noises died down. "time to get ready to perform."
"All right." Alan echoed, giving Melody a look she knew all too well. She sniggered, took his hand, then led him backstage into an empty dressing room. "This is a bit bigger from what we're used to." their first preshow sex romp had been in an old janitor's closet several years ago. They'd done it several times in equally small areas, but the dressing room was the most spacious place yet.
"Talk about moving up." Melody joked, sliding her hands down Alan's legs, trying to stimulate a certain reflex.
"On my way." he grunted, locking lips with her and shifting over to the couch.
The performance that night was a huge hit. There had been a few snags with the audio, but nothing major, as Willie had been able to fix it. Buster brought down the house with the James Blunt song, Elwood had two encore songs which caused the audience to roar for more. For a treat, Elwood and Mack allowed the horn and guitar sections to jam, producing fun instrumentals for the audience to dance to.
Jesse had not been at the performance. Elwood had said nothing about the guy who looked a bit like Melody at all, making her think that Jesse hadn't known she was there.
"Well, you can put that thought out of your head," Alan remarked. "no problems, right?" they walked out of the ballroom and went towards their hotel room after the audience had cleared out. Melody still felt unsettled but she put it out of her head and tried to smile at Alan. He opened up the door to their room and ushered her in.
The trumpet player was oblivious to her discomfort, happily getting ready for bed as Melody stood in front of the mirror on the wall and combed her hair slowly. Alan turned out the light and fell asleep quickly as she put down the comb, turned out the light, and opened up the window to let some air in. She went to bed but had a hard time falling asleep.
Near 2 AM, Melody woke up and could not get back to sleep. She glanced over at Alan, who was still soundly asleep, then got up and left the room, drawing her robe around her. Outside she felt a bit better with the sea breeze lightly caressing her face.
Confused by her emotions, Melody was truly glad that Jesse had not mentioned her to Elwood. One word and Elwood would have spread it all over the ship. He was not known for keeping secrets, many a time he had blurted out someone's thoughts that they had spoken in confidence. Melody clenched the taffrail involuntarily, feeling her eyes well up.
On the other hand, she and Jesse had been in the same room and he had never even looked in her direction. Did he really not recognize her after all those years? Was he angry at her that he didn't say anything? Why did he not try to keep in contact with her at all? She missed her brothers from time to time but now that she'd seen Jesse, it dawned on her how much she really did miss her brother.
It wasn't up to her to fathom her brother's emotions, but she understood hers completely. Some people said that one did not miss something until they were gone, yet Melody believed she didn't miss something or someone until it showed up again and reminded her of how much it was missed at all.
Her face grew wet with tears as she stared out on the horizon for a long time until she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Mel?" a sleepy Alan questioned. "What are you doing up at this hour?"
"Um," her voice cracked as she inwardly swore at herself for not keeping it steady. "I'll be OK."
"You're not OK. What's the matter?"
"Jesse!" she said vehemently, facing Alan. "How could he not recognize me, Alan? How in the hell could he not recognize his own sister?! Do you know how that feels? To be completely unrecognizable and ignored by a brother?"
There was no answer that he could give that would make her feel better. So instead hoping his gesture would supplement the words he couldn't seem to find, Alan wrapped her in an embrace. He allowed her the emotional release she needed, though he still seemed too tongue-tied to say anything at all. Melody was usually very restrained in her emotions, as she was not usually quick to anger. When something cut her deeply like her brother not recognizing her, she tended to express her grief and sorrow behind closed doors so nobody really knew.
It took Alan awhile to get used to that part of her. At first he figured she just wanted to be left alone, but he came to realize that she just needed his comforting words or gestures. The wind shifted and Alan caught a whiff of Melody's scent. She liked lavender a lot and whenever he smelled lavender he would immediately think of her.
When she had regained composure of herself, Alan guided her to bed without a word and snuggled up, letting her know nonverbally that he was there for her no matter what.