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by Donna Lamb
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Jo pulled Bugs aside before Lemon started the Too Drunk Boogie; Arnie covered the short break with a recorded piece. Jo disappeared again. Richard looked at Bugs who only whuffled into his mustache. Then the three guitars got together in the middle of the stage for some serious get-down, get-funky boogie rhythm.
Sounds like ZZ Top doing a concert from South Central, thought Richard. He drummed hard and steady, not much else being required; this being a nearly pure guitar number, at least to start.
Lemon danced with his guitar, a drunken stumbling rush from one side of the stage to another. A synthesized rhythm guitar took over while Kylie switched to trumpet. Richard looked for Jo but the twin keyboards in the other corner of the stage were still vacant. Is Arnie playing that in the booth?
Kylie wailed and growled on the trumpet, sounding like two horned animals quarreling. A phantom mandolin came in with a new melody line. Bugs multiplied his guitar, playing lead and rhythm both at once. Lemon switched to a driving bass beat and began to sing:
Got too drunk last night!
Got too drunk last night!
Me and my baby had a fight!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Still drunk this mornin'!
Still drunk this mornin'!
One of us gonna be leavin'!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Got drunk again t'very next night!
Got drunk again t'very next night!
Decided I needed another fight!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Had a fight wif mah bes' frien'
Too drunk boogie!
Had a fight wif mah bes' frien'
Too drunk boogie!
And one of us dead when it end!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Haul my ass to the city jail!
Haul my ass to the city jail!
My dead frien' can't make my bail!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!
The trumpet wailed and the mandolin died. Bugs and Lemon stood in a vee and watched each other's faces while their guitars exploded and screamed with sound.
Holy Shit! thought Richard. Gogie Luft's sticks beat a rhythm Richard could never have dreamed of.
Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!The judge he asked how'd you do it!
The judge he asked how'd you do it!
Tole him weren't nothing to it!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Hit him with a lef' and then a right!
Too drunk boogie!
Another lef' and another right!
Too drunk boogie!
Hit him wif' a chair and put out his light!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!The jury called it murder one
The jury called it murder one
Twenty-five to life is how that's done!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!My frien' is dead, what do I care?
My frien' is dead, what do I care?
They lock me up for sixteen year!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Find me a bridge and take my life!
Find me a bridge and take my life!
Or mebbe with a gun or mebbe a knife!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!But they let me out on my parole
Too drunk boogie!
And singin' this song has saved my soul!
Too drunk boogie!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!If you get drunk, don't you fight wit' yo baby!
Too drunk boogie!
That's the road to hell, I don't mean maybe.
Too drunk boogie!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!
The crowd danced. Some of them howled the chorus. Lemon switched to his baritone sax and replayed the whole story as a duel between horns. Richard's forearms ached. Jo had come back and he hadn't noticed. She played hot piano on the white keyboard with one hand and faked a bass violin on the black keyboard with the other hand.
Bugs, Lemon and Kylie stopped suddenly. Richard and Jo kept playing while the others sang the chorus over and over. the crowd joined in, singing, dancing or just jumping up and down in place.
Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!
Arnie cut the sound and lights on the stage and announced. "Five minute break, folks."
No one heard him but the band got off stage while the crowd kept shouting, jumping and dancing for more than a minute. The building rattled with the noise.
Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!Too drunk boogie!
Too drunk boogie!
Down in the green room, Lemon almost choked on his ice tea when Richard said, "I'm glad we don't have to follow those guys!"
Even Bugs laughed, which is what that whuffling into his mustache was, Richard noticed.
Jo came over to Richard. "Can I sit in your lap and you hold m-me? Just for a m-minute?" She looks so shy, a bit of Joel showing through, Richard though, a little amused.
"Sure," said Richard. He made a place and put his arms around her waist. "You're trembling!"
She lay her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I wrote another song I want to do."
"Is that why you're shaking?" he asked. Oh, that's where she's been disappearing to.
She shook her head.
He rubbed her arms then hugged her. Nothing of Joel now, just a frightened girl.
Jo hugged him back. "I think somebody w-walked across m-m-my grave."
The spooky thing is, Richard reflected, Joel is in a grave somewhere.
Where's her comfort zone?
Jo instinctively turns to Richard for comfort when she's upset and scared; and Richard immediately responds to calm her. If they survive this (They WILL survive, won't they Donna?), these two will be inseperable for the rest of their lives.
You're killing us with this, Donna! Hurry up and let the slimeball's wife catch him trying to make a move on a resisting Jo, deal with the last wish, and let's get to the happily ever afters.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way."
College Girl - poetheather
In the zone
Not that many left to go. And I wrote the last episode this morning or a version of it. Just have to fill in the blanks. ::smile::
Donna Lamb, flack
Donna Lamb, flack
I've been thinking
What will be that last wish, I wonder? The one made at "that time when the fruit is golden...."
Maybe a wish that would make Joel just a memory for both Richard and Jo? Don't scream at me yet - just think about it. What is the biggest potential stumbling block for their future happiness - besides the DiD? If Jo makes that sweetest of all wishes that Gmunro spoke of, Sophie will be out of their lives. But there will still be one thing they have both struggled with as their feelings have grown, and that one thing is Joel. So maybe that perfect wish has to be one that lets Jo be who she is now, without carrying her past life as Joel. Something to think about...
That said, I knew you'd pull something like this Donna! You set us up for a big *BOOM* and now we gotta wait at least until the next chapter. It is fun though. :)
I wonder - did Jo already bump into Barry back stage? Is that why she's trembling? We'll have to wait and see...
Sincerely,
Scott
Calvin: You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
Hobbes: What mood is that?
Calvin: Last-minute panic.
Sincerely,
Scott
Calvin: You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
Hobbes: What mood is that?
Calvin: Last-minute panic.
A Wish Like a Ripe Peach
Sophie's direct powers over the kids end at midnight, local time. The stage show is scheduled to last till 12:45 and often goes later with a good and willing band.
So what happens is probably going to happen in the middle of the show. Probably. ::grin::
I know what the wish is, I've written some of the ending already. There are probably at least 4 but not more than 14 segments to go. Hang on.
Donna Lamb, flack
Donna Lamb, flack
I don't know
They know each other almost too well yet it looks like that won't be a roadblock to their eventual romance. The shared memories are what tie them, bind them, a memory wipe or false memories however sweet would make them other than they are.
Barry and the DiD are the big risk to them.
Maybe "I wish Barry you could know what it its like to be just a plaything, the trophy wife to be at the mercy of a unfaithful spouce." Nah to cruel to the current wife. Maybe an unselfish wish, "i wish Barry you could be content and happy with your wife instead of chasing other conquests."
Please, Melody Jo, do not sing, "Oh I wish I was an Oscar Mayer weiner."
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Oh oh oh! Is a line in Melody Jo's new song, maybe the last line the wish made at the golden moment?
But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine)
Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)
But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine) Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)
Trophies
Barry is slime but not worth spending a wish on. :smile:
Donna Lamb, flack
Donna Lamb, flack
I'm sad
This story will be ending soon and we won't have Jo and Richard to visit almost every day. I feel like I know them, Jo's courage, Richard's decency. Even the minor characters have qualities I will miss.
Ultimately, good TG fiction, like all good fiction and maybe especially good fantasy, is about what it means to be human in the real world -- a world not designed by humans. A world that sometimes seems inimical to the very existence of humans. The world is too big, in the end, we all know it will win.
But that's what fiction does for us, it shows us how to struggle against the world. How to be brave like Jo, kind like Richard, and it hints that there can be rewards for such behavior.
The world within fiction, or fantasy, is only a cartoon of the real world. Some aspects are distorted and much is left out and maybe some things like wishes, or starships, or poetry are added. All these are done to illuminate fiction's purpose -- to show us how to be more human.
But when this story's plot is unwound and the brave and the kind have the reward they deserve for their struggles -- I'll still miss visiting my friends.
Thank you, Donna, and thanks to all the other commenters on this story who have added so much enjoyment.
Hugs,
Erin
Yikes!
Can you write my bookjackets? ::pleading eyes::
Donna Lamb, flack
Donna Lamb, flack
Cartoons? We get cartoons?
Oh, 'a cartoon of the real world.'
Darn, I like cartoons, maybe a Bugs Bunny or two?
This story will be missed but then maybe Donna can finish her incomplete stories.
The body swap by wishes between the model with the pushy stage mom and her laywer? -- it's been some time -- showed promise.
Or she can always create another whacky story like Flickernet.
John in Wauwatosa
But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine)
Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)
But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine) Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)
Next?
A long rest. ::smile::
Donna Lamb, flack
Donna Lamb, flack