I wasn’t jealous of Patty, and I actually kind of liked Toby. I mean, he didn’t have to search me out and thank me for turning down first chair. He could have simply pretended that he didn’t know. The boy had dignity… and he seemed to really like Patty.
I hoped that Patty had been able to get the message to Kristen to meet me at 3:45. I had something planned, and was getting everything down to the last minute. I had maybe ten minutes of leeway, and if things started to go wrong, I’d have to wait another day. I didn’t want to wait.
School finally let out, and I met Mr. Proilet and asked if I could use the music room for a practice. He didn’t seem to mind.
My friends from junior high all started to wander into the music room. They were gossiping and chatting among themselves, talking about their first day of school.
All of them were doing me a favor by staying after school, and after about fifteen minutes, I had about ten guys from last year’s chorus, as well as five or six members of the band, all milling about the music room.
I started handing out the music. I had waited until after school when I was alone in the music room to actually put the title of the song on the music sheets.
Everybody knew the song, and the chorus knew their part without needing music sheets, but I wanted everything perfect.
I had borrowed Patty’s new friend, Toby, to play trumpet. There was another guy named Lou playing baritone sax. One of the members of the chorus, Sam, was also in the string section of the concert orchestra, and noticed that I hadn’t written a bass part.
"I don’t know any bass players, or where I could get an electric bass on short notice."
"I have a string bass in the orchestra room," Sam replied, smiling. "If you have the chord sheets, I could improvise a bass line." He left quickly to get his instrument.
I didn’t have a recording engineer, so I opted instead to use a binaural mike setup above where my music focus would be. I figured if I could move the string bass closer to the mike, it might be heard amid the sounds of the other instruments.
The musicians were practicing their parts. It was a simple arrangement of a simple song, really.
Gerry, a senior that I knew only by reputation, walked in with an electric guitar. We shook hands, and I showed him the music. He grinned when he saw the title, and said that he already played this song with his band… in the same key.
I watched Gerry connecting his amp and guitar, and I had remembered something. "Gerry? Do you know Wendy Jones?"
Gerry looked up at me, surprised. "Yeah. I called her a few days ago. Why?"
"Wendy’s a friend of mine. I remember her telling me about a boy that played guitar. I had thought it was you."
"You hang out with Wendy?" Gerry asked, impressed. "She’s a really nice babe."
"Yeah. I hang out with all her friends."
"She’s friends with Kristen now," Gerry said.
"I know. Kristen’s our guest of honor for this show, actually."
Gerry looked thoughtful. "Is it true that Kristen’s changed? I mean, she doesn’t hang out with her old crowd anymore. And do you know Dale? I heard her bad mouthing Kristen this morning. The two of them used to be tight."
"Yeah. Kristen’s changed. For the better, I hope."
Gerry started tuning his guitar, and I left him alone.
I grinned and hoped for the best. It was 3:20, and I only had time for one full rehearsal before the real thing.
I turned on the recorder, and then walked to the front. I found Mr. Proilet’s conductor’s stick, and I started the chorus chanting.
The song only took about three or four minutes, and it worked without a hitch. The weakest part was Toby on trumpet, but he was doing his level best to make this work. After the song ended, I turned off the recorder and looked at the V.U. meters. We had a few peaks that were a bit in the red zone, so I moved the recording gain down about two decibels.
I gave everybody the thumb’s up, and told them to take five.
My lead singer, Roy, came over to me. "You have a pleasant voice, Jim. The timbre’s of our voices match nicely."
I nodded. "I don’t have any fancy recording engineers, and I wanted to double-track the vocals. The best way to do that with this setup is to have you and I both be lead singers. It’s a good thing for me that the range on this song is simple."
Roy shook his head. "Your voice is better than you think," he said. "Most people just don’t like hearing their voices on a recording. But you get used to it. Continue doing it. As I said, you have a nice voice, and I’m one to know."
I thanked Roy, and Toby came up to me. "I think I got the part nailed now. I was a bit shaky at the instrumental part."
"Don’t worry, Toby," I assured the trumpet player. "You’re doing really fine. We’re not recording for the radio!"
Toby grinned. "Patty and I have a date next Saturday."
I smiled. "That’s great. She’s a really nice person, and so are you. I think the two of you will be great together."
"Think so?" Toby asked. He looked just a bit uncertain. "She’s… um… different than most girls I know."
I shrugged. "All girls are different in their own way. Patty will be here, you know. In about five minutes, in fact."
Toby beamed. "Really?"
"Yup. So make it sound great for her!"
"You betcha!"
The musicians formed up, and I noticed that the chorus had roughly doubled in size since the rehearsal. Apparently, the word went out and people were begging to be a part of the session. I hoped that neither Patty nor Kristen had gotten word of it.
I explained everything to the newcomers, while keeping my eye on the clock. The girls were due any minute…
I saw Toby’s eyes light up, and I turned around to see my two best friends walk into the music room uncertainly. "Jim?" Patty said, not understanding why so many boys were in one place after school.
"Patty, Kristen," I said, "Sit on those two chairs." I pointed to the two chairs directly underneath the binaural mike.
The two girls got themselves comfortable. I signaled to Roy, the lead singer, to start the recording. He nodded, turned on the recorder and went back to his mike.
I waved my baton, mouthing "1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4…"
The Chorus started chanting: "Ouga Chaka… Ouga, Ouga… Ouga Chaka… Ouga, Ouga…"
I closed my eyes, conducting from memory. I started singing into the mike: "I can’t stop this feeling, Deep inside of me… Girl you just don’t realize What you do to me…"
I continued to sing, my eyes closed and conducting my impromptu orchestra blindly (they were hit perfectly). I really put everything I had into the song.
The instrumental sounded great… even Toby’s trumpet.
I drove on, eager to see this song to its conclusion. Finally, I managed to get to the end of the song… "I’m high on believing, That you’re in love with me! Yeah, I’m hooked on a feeling!"
The music stopped, and I kept my eyes closed. It seemed to go all right, but I really hadn’t been listening to the entire mix, just trying to get my part done. How had it actually gone? I had thought that lost my nervousness about stepping on stage when I was in sixth grade, but right now I really felt nervous, like a kid doing his first recital.
I opened my eyes, and Roy was standing by the recorder, giving me the thumb’s up signal. I felt a little better. But what did my audience think?
With trepidation, I turned around, and saw Kristen smiling at me, tears in her eyes.
Was I that bad? Roy had said I had a pleasant voice, but maybe he was just being nice…
"That was so sweet!" Kristen said, rushing up to me.