I signaled the lead guitarist, who had Kristen standing next to him. The two held acoustic guitars and, at the same time, the two of them strummed the intro.
I didn’t use a keyboard for this song, but simply stood next to Archy, who was phantom-fingering his trumpet to get the notes right. I grabbed the mike stand toward me and sang:
A lot of people laughed at my renaming of the hero in the song. It was actually unintentional on my part… every time I sang that song to myself, I had put myself into the song. The big, mean, S-O-B that would one day turn the tables on my father. That never happened, but the name still came out. I just barely realized in time and sang the correct words in the next line, instead of “mother fuckin’ son of a gun!” which was another of my modifications.
I continued through to the chorus. The members of the group sang along with me at the refrain:
I sang the second verse, and everybody sang along with the refrain again. It was a pretty rousing song. During the repeat, I gave the cue to Kristen and Archy for Archy to take his solo, and Kristen passed that cue on, and Archy played his solo.
I was going to miss having that big lug around this year.
I looked in the audience, and saw that Sherry had a big, pleased smile on her face. She never heard my first live performance in public, but she got to hear this one!
When the song ended, we got lots of cheers. Archy, Kristen, and I took our bows, and then thanked the band members, who announced that they’d start their next set in forty-five minutes.
“You’re a natural behind the microphone,” Mr. Proilet said as I came offstage.
“I feel more comfortable behind the keyboards, though. That guy has something called a Rhodes piano…”
The two of us talked for a bit on the minor performance I just gave, and I found a lot of people were coming over to me to wish me a happy birthday and it took me a while to get over to the picnic tent where they were serving my birthday cake.
“Congratulations, son!”
I turned around at the unexpected voice. It was my step-father, smiling at me. “Huh?”
“I know for a fact that you didn’t have that performance planned. You are really very talented!”
“Um, thanks.”
“I wish Merry would take up an instrument. I think she’s getting too involved with those cheerleaders.”
My mother interrupted. “Don, don’t go complaining about Merry. All of her friends are here, dear.”
“I know, it’s just…”
“You’re proud of her, and you’ll be seeing her first game next week, won’t you?”
I wasn’t sure if this was directed at me or my step-father, but my step-father answered, “Oh, yeah. I’m sorry, Marge.”
I winced. My mother preferred the name Margaret, and my step-father knew that.
My mother looked unperturbed. “Maybe we can all go to that Vaughn’s place afterward.” She looked at Kristen and me. “How about you two? Would you like to go to Vaughn’s afterward?”
Kristen smiled and answered before I could. “The four of us can go. We’ll have Sherry and Lynette with us, and we couldn’t leave them.”
“Table for seven, then!” my mother said, smiling.
Merry had heard the conversation and hadn’t said anything up until now. “Um…”
“What dear?” Mom asked.
I saw Roy right behind Merry, who looked like she was ready to blush. I decided to come to my sister’s rescue.
“Actually, Kris,” I said, interrupting. “I was thinking that we might be taking Roy to the game, too. That would make it an even eight people.”
Both Merry and Roy looked surprised. Kristen smiled at me and gave me a secret look that told me that she was proud of me. “I forgot about Roy,” Kristen said. “I’m sorry, Roy. Think you could come to Vaughn’s after the game next week?”
“Um, yeah,” Roy said, a bit in shock.
“Eight sounds just right,” my step-father said.
My mother didn’t answer me, but looked at me and then at my sister. I knew right then that she knew that something was up—I found it very difficult to keep secrets from her! I hoped she wouldn’t embarrass Merry in front of her father.
“It’s a date, then,” my mother said sweetly.
That simple sentence told me everything I needed to know. If she didn’t know that Merry had a boyfriend before this conversation started, she knew it now.
Later on, members of the band came over to talk with Kristen and me. They were impressed with our performance.
“This isn’t your first time performing in public, is it?”
Kristen answered. “We did a lounge act out at Purdue a couple of weeks ago to help out a friend.” She looked around and found Archy and June talking quietly by a tree. “That guy, over there. He’s our friend and he’s with the Boilermakers this year.”
“He looks like a linebacker!”
“He is,” I said, smiling.
We talked a bit about music, and I discussed various keyboards with the keyboardist. After about ten minutes of intense discussion, I found that the two of us were alone. I decided to take him into the garage to see my studio.
“Hey, man! This is a great setup!”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve been doing a lot of multi-tracking.”
“That’s a great mixer! Where did you get that?”
“I got it today, in fact. It’s Kristen’s birthday present for me.”
“Wow!”
We spend about fifteen minutes in the studio, and I played him one of the Wanderer tapes I made, which he seemed to enjoy.
When we finally came out of the garage, we noticed that the rest of his band had already started to set up for their second act. Before he left, he offered me another chance to perform, but I turned him down. I already performed, and as the local hero at this party, I didn’t want to detract from the group’s performance.
Instead, I listened to the group play a wonderful set, and I talked with a lot of friends and family that had come over and made this day so wonderful for me.
Chapter 42—Personal Advice
On Sunday morning, I woke up in bed, spooned against Lynette. I looked around, but Kristen wasn’t in the room.
My movement alerted Lynette. She whispered, “Kris got up a while ago and went downstairs. She told me to keep you company.”
Lynette and I kept each other company by kissing each other for about five minutes. After that, the two of us showered together. Lynette even allowed me to wash her hair.
As I got dressed, I thought about Lynette.
Lynette and I had, by this time, settled into a comfortable routine. Occasionally, Kristen would include me in her adventures with Lynette, and sometimes the two girls would do things without me. Of course, sometimes Kristen and I would do things together without Lynette.