"And we never got to play for Nikki and Helen. They'd have appreciated it," Annabelle said forlornly as they watched their friend's car diminish in size as it headed down the highway, Helen valiantly trying to turn round and wave at them. They blew kisses and waved back at their friends as long as the small shape of their existence was in sight. Finally, they turned round a corner taking them inland and were gone. Goodbyes came hard on them both.
"Too busy talking. There was so much to say and to listen to. Besides, we'd dropped our guitars into the music shop," replied Simone, verbalizing a stream of thoughts in no particular order which reflected her own confusion. They stood next to their car looking out into the distance. The morning sun was fresh and warming with just a hint of breeze on the air and the view should have been inspiring. Inside, they felt flat and empty with no will to start onto their next project, however minor. They stared out into the far off distance barely conscious of their surroundings, certainly not the faint soporific humming of distant traffic. They were so far gone into themselves that they didn't even notice the growing sound of one particular car approaching them. Only when the honking of a car horn jumped into their consciousness and they vaguely noticed flailing arms and two grinning faces were they forced back into the here and now.
"You guys must be really hot and eager to get to the music shop. You've got your car keys?," Erin exclaimed, her enthusiasm spilling over on such a sunny good news day.
"Er no,we've forgotten them,"Simone answered in a curiously abstracted fashion which made Diane do a double take while her more ebullient partner breezed right ahead.
"Well, that's good as I need the restroom and a coffee so we'll head on down to your place."
They clattered down the path, Erin and Diane setting the pace. In her strong but casual style, Erin followed closely after Simone and strolled into their house followed by Diane's quiet entrance while Annabelle trailed in behind. After they'd attended to immediate needs, both women finally tuned into their friends' down mood so Erin promptly reacted to it.
"Hey you guys, what's with the blues? I can feel it all around us."
"Nothing to do with either of you. Nikki and Helen spent the day, and the night, over here and it's a shame to see them leave. They'll be back in England soon so we'd better get on with our lives," Simone replied in a stoical tone of voice.
Diane maintained a serious expression on her face as she offered her soft sympathy."I know what you mean. I really liked them a lot. No one likes friends moving away."
"They're not like some Hollywood wannabees you come across hung up on their egos," agreed Erin briskly before continuing with unexpected gentleness."I guess you're both sad to see them go."
Simone and Annabelle nodded, unable to speak. Erin felt compelled to not leave it there and had to wing it even if she risked falling flat on her face.
"We're really sorry for you both as this place can be very impermanent, people coming and going but it's not as if you've lost their friendship. That is really terminal. They're still your friends and there's ways of keeping in touch. What the hell, that's what the internet, e mail and cellphone are all about. You're better off than lonely single women reaching out to each other who're really not suited. At least you've got each other and you've got us."
"Honey, we're here for you," Diane added putting an arm round each shoulder.
Erin's straight talking and Diane's tenderness did the trick. The other two women felt a little foolish for overreacting and each gave their friends a grateful hug and a kiss. Simone began to realise that she and Annabelle were part of the same shifting collective and it felt good.
"You really want us to get back down to the music shop and hook up to all that electricity," Annabelle quipped, the glow restored to her cheeks. Come to think of it, reaching beyond the limits of her acoustic guitar was attractive and their friends' similar desires were perceptible. .
Seeing that it was down to her, Simone reached for her car keys as a cue for all of them to get moving. Once they were out of the front door, chattering like excited schoolgirls, she and Annabelle realised they'd missed being separated from their guitars. This feeling drove home to them how wedded they were to their destiny as the vision of greater musical expression for their ensemble drew them like a magnet. She propelled their car ever onwards, her eyesight fixed upon Erin and Diane's car as they whizzed along the freeway towards their destination.
The shop was a pleasantly down-home establishment where, at the back of the counter, amplifiers and brand new instruments of every shape and size proliferated and, in a recess at the side, there was space for would be musicians to practice their instruments, to test whether reality matched their musical desires. Simone and Annabelle cast hungry looks in that direction.
Simone and Annabelle had more of a chance to take in the guy who greeted them, having stumbled in and out of the shop in a fit of nervousness to hand in their guitars. This time, the guy wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, untidy long blond hair underneath a leather hat with weather beaten slightly wrinkled features and blue eyes definitely looked like a leftover from the psychedelic 1960s turning his hand to a second career. On their first meeting with Erin, he had immediately locked in mentally to her obvious strength of purpose which was just like the guys he'd grown up with. These kids who now hung around his store might have been the offspring of long ago nights of passion with the groupies who had once hung around the scene. He had to take care of business and couldn't act like a drugged out teenager any more but shades of the people he'd known, the experiences he'd been through still haunted his daylight vision so that this female foursome were some solid manifestation of these visions. Consequently, he felt soft and kind-hearted towards them and was more than willing to help them out.
"Erin, my man, the guitars for your group are ready and waiting for your friends. As you can see," he said in his raspy yet mellow voice derived from years of smoking substances of various derivations. These four girls were definite eye candy but hell, Erin was a friend. "The amplifier lead plugs into the bottom of your guitar and volume controls for bass and treble will be on your amp. You can still play unplugged if you want but you can get a sound out of it that'll work in average gigs. Just don't expect to sound like Jimmy Page, that's all."
"We want to pick out amplifiers as well. We've been really looking forward to this moment," Annabelle said, looking like the excited kid she could still become when she let herself go..
This brought back memories for Rick of the eager kid he'd been with a headful of dreams. He graciously pointed out the sturdy dependable amplifier about the same size as the one he remember selling Erin who had spent a memorable lunchtime running down her collection of bass riffs which neatly advertised his wares. To the four younger women, he was like an amiable uncle, the interestingly eccentric kind they should have grown up with.
"You go first Annabelle. You've got more experience than me,"Simone said shyly, hanging back. The younger woman carried her guitar by its neck and sat on a stool while Rick grabbed a handy amplifier lead to plug her in. A contrary impulse rose inside Simone to mentally strain forward with intense interest.
The dark haired woman swept her locks back over her shoulders and practiced her finger picking style but conjured up unexpected resonance and power which made her feel she was hijacking such power. She slipped into some chord riffing that acoustic playing would not have inspired.
"What's that song? Sounds good." Erin asked, intrigued by this unexpected departure.
"I don't know," came the honest, slightly dazed reply after she jammed around for a little while. She hadn't thought of it as a basis for a song till someone else told her it was."I just made it up."
"It's Simone's turn to get hooked up to ready electricity," Rick said with a twinkle in his eye. He knew that these weren't spoilt high school kids who were trying out rock star like it was the latest fashion. These were serious musicians he was helping out. The woman he was now helping out was a bit older than the rest but needed more encouragement to do her thing. Something in her manner told him she would make it. She was gazing awestruck at the amplifier, not believing in the power that the purposeful look it conjured up.
"I'll help you out. Just make yourself comfortable and leave the rest to me."
That might have been one of the chat up lines he used to deploy way back when , Rick thought to himself but this time, he was being sincere. He really wanted to reassure this woman. He adjusted the amplifier so it wouldn't scare this woman as she started playing. As he calmly set to work, Simone rested her guitar on her knee looking wide eyed at everything all around her. It was only when she looked at her friends that she took heart.
"You'll be fine darling," Annabelle said tenderly, feeling her lover's fears at this pivotal moment of commitment.
"Go for it sister," called out Erin in her most cheerful tones, echoing Rick's thoughts.
"We've got faith in you," Diane said softly.
It dawned upon Simone that for the first time in her life, she was finally licenced to make a lot of noise. All her upbringing had militated against this perfectly reasonable human need, starting with her mother's admonitions and carrying on with the way she had quietly trod the corridors of St Theresa's. She decided against pretty constructions in C major and decided to go for the gutroot feelings of A major chords. This idea might shake up the persistent ghosts who wavered impotently at the edges of her consciousness and the reality of a sequence of hammered out chords with volume turned up did the trick. While she grinned unashamedly as the fading echoes of her rackety playing faded in the wind, everyone laughed and applauded her expression of feelings.
In a similar ebullient mood, they bought another amplifier with a mike stand so they could sing harmonies. Simone made the payment from money they had saved up and they were out of the shop.
"Our place," Diane exclaimed in the midst of the teenage high school whooping and celebrations outside the music store as they packed away their purchases. Rick smiled on indulgently as these kids were definitely replaying his past. "We've got bass and drums at home and we've gotta rock,"shouted Erin joyfully. The two vehicles tore up the main street in a burning hurry and Erin finally screeched to a halt outside their tiny apartment closely followed by Annabelle. They manhandled their new acquisitions through the front door and Erin gave a sideways nod to the back door while grabbing her bass. Once into the overgrown backyard, Diane turned the key in the lock of the peeling varnished doors of what had once been a garage. They swung open invitingly.
"My God," Simone exclaimed. Right before them was a full drum kit, amplifiers and coiled leads and all the pleasantly dishevelled feel of a teenage hangout that she was effortlessly revisiting. She put down the amplifier she was carrying and with no discernible effort, Erin and Diane set up the new equipment into the fantasy made reality of what a rock group felt like. She found herself standing opposite Annabelle, the microphone between them and a definite hum of pent up electricity, just waiting to be released. Diane sat back in her drum seat, shook her blond hair past her shoulders and exchanged a few words with Erin. The only light came from the corner of the garage and created long shadows, conveying them into another world.
"We'll try that song we played the other day only we'll do it a bit louder this time. I'll count us in and watch for the first four bars of Diane's drum riff. She never misses," Erin grinned in a conspiratorial tone of voice. It dared them to jump that bar that was edged just a little higher. Simone and Annabelle, guitars slung round their necks felt a strange confidence inside them. As Diane started to pound away those rhythms, it pulled them right and together, they played their guitars in unison and feeling Erin's much more powerful pulse in the centres of their beings, they launched into their song and the feelings of flying were more ecstatic than they ever could have imagined..