The club was in the basement of a building which was home to a forty-five room hotel, The Blitz. They were welcomed by a tall Hispanic man at the door who directed them to the non-smoking area. The room with its candlelit tables and antique chandeliers was small and cozy giving it a bit of an intimate feel. One could almost tell that most of the people there were regulars.
The quartet, Jamie (guitar and vocals), Jerome (alto sax), Austin (piano) and the new drummer were about to begin the show.
Chelsea and Amy found a table in the middle of the room about ten yards from the stage. A group of middle-aged white men occupied the table on their left side, each with a glass full of beer. A young black couple on their right smiled at them.
Amy felt a bit self-conscious by the intimacy of it all. She whispered, “Why are people staring at us?”
“Maybe we don’t look classy enough,” replied a giggling Chelsea quietly, then she gave Jamie a gentle smile as he started to talk.
“Our first song tonight was written by a man I admire very much, the late Robert E. Benson. It was he who said and I quote, ‘Life is like jazz, all that it requires is the courage to follow your heart.’ This song however was inspired by his feelings for a beautiful French photographer whom he had fallen in love with but she only wanted their relationship to be a physical one.” He paused, looking into the eyes of the audience and continued, “If you no what I mean. Anyway, we hope you enjoy the show, this one is called ‘Dreams of Forever.’”
The band burst into a rhythmic sound and played for two minutes before Jamie started to sing the lyrics of the song.
You say you want me only for today
To give me all of you, there is no way
But baby when I think of you
oh oh oh oh
Baby when I dream of you
I dream of forever
oh oh oh
I feel like I'm dreaming
Please, tell me you feel the same
Tell me I'm not alone in this feeling
Oh baby when I think of you
oh oh oh oh
When I dream of you.
I dream of forever
oh oh oh
I don't want nothing less
My mind is in a mess
Because I can't have you
You make me think
You make feel
You make me dream
When I dream of you
I dream of forever.
By the end of the song, everyone in the entire room was on their feet clapping, whistling and cheering. Jamie’s rousing interpretation of the song and vocal performance reached into the insides of the soul. Not only did the singing come from the depth of his heart, but it connected with the hearts of every single person in that room.
“Wasn’t that awesome?” Amy shouted over the unrelenting noise that had eaten up the room.
“Wow...that was more than I imagined,” Chelsea said clapping excitedly. She’d seen Jamie sing many times but this was totally different. That man on stage was something special. It was as if he transformed into a totally different person. She smiled and winked at him as their eyes met again.
The quartet serenaded the audience with a mixture of blues, contemporary jazz, Afro-Cuban music and some bossa nova. Even the older people enjoyed Jamie’s freestyle rap and he had mastered the perfect moments to throw it in without compromising the essence of jazz music.
“Where’s John?” Amy asked.
“He should have been here ages ago.” Chelsea looked around the room, checked her phone and that was when she saw his missed calls and texts. She forgot to text him the address or the name of the nightclub.
-Baby, I’m so sorry. The address is 234 Anderson Av. Can you still make it?
-I don’t know...I’ll try.
“I forgot to give John the address, I think he’s mad at me,” she said to Amy.
“Is he coming though? I need to know if I’ll have to drop you back at home. We’ll have to leave soon if I have to.”
“Oh no no no, don’t worry about me. I’ll go home with Jamie if John’s not able to make it down here, I think his friend has a car, and if not we’ll just take the bus. He’s getting home somehow that’s for sure.”
Amy waited for about half an hour and then left. Still there was no sign of John. After the show ended, Jamie walked up to Chelsea and gave her a hug. The rest of the band began to put away their instruments in big black cases.
“I’ve never seen you in a red dress,” Jamie said.
“You like it? It was a gift from my dad,” Chelsea said turning around just for amusement.
“You look lovely,” Jamie said. “I guess Amy couldn’t wait till the end. I hope we weren’t too boring for her.”
“No way. She loved it. We both did. What are you talking about? Jamie you were awesome. Right now, to be honest with you, I don’t even see you doing anything else. This is completely and totally you. You were born to do this,” she said and saw him beam with smiles. She didn’t realize that was the first time anyone acknowledged the fact that this was what he was born to do. Her words, as simple as they were, struck a chord within him.
“Where’s John? I was hoping he’d be here to see the performance. Just to give him an idea of what we can do.”
“Snap, that reminds me, I have to call him. He couldn’t make it. I mean, I forgot to text him the address on time, by the time I did, it was too late.” She retrieved her phone from her purse.
“Oh, OK. Sorry about that. Next time, I guess,” he said, trying hard to hide the fact that he was pleased.
Chelsea spoke to John on the phone for about five minutes, apologising for her mistake. He sounded sleepy so she said bye then Jamie took her over to meet Jerome.
“I have heard so much about you. I can see why this man here is so fond of you,” Jerome said. “Who doesn’t like a beautiful woman?”
“Umm...I’m not so sure that’s a compliment but I’ll take it,” Chelsea said accepting his offered handshake. “A lot of modern women won’t be happy with your conviction that all they have to offer is their looks.”
“Oh no, please, I meant no such thing. Forgive me,” Jerome said looking distraught.
Jamie put his hand over his mouth, stopping himself from laughing–he knew Chelsea was just being a tease.
“Relax Jerome I was only kidding.” They all laughed. “Great show by the way.”
“Thank you. We try to make it fun. Most of the ideas are Jamie’s anyway,” Jerome said as if trying to sell Jamie.
“That’s not true, everybody chips in,” Jamie said.
Jerome cast a squinted look at Jamie. “Yeah right. By chip in, he means we contribute like five percent. He does almost all the song arrangements. Anyways, it was nice meeting you Chelsea, I gotta get outta here soon.”
“It was nice meeting you too Jerome.”
“Alright buddy, see you later. And remember, lay off the drugs.”
“I stopped that lifestyle since you stopped selling coke.”
“You guys are impossible,” Chelsea said.
Most of the seats in the nightclub were empty except for at the bar where the barman waited on three customers. People didn’t stay past midnight except on Fridays and Saturdays. As Jamie and Chelsea stepped out into the night, Chelsea quickly produced a scarf from her bag and wrapped it around herself to protect her shoulders from the chill.
“It’s getting a little colder than that, you know.”
“I know. I didn’t bring a sweater because I thought I’d be going home in John’s car.”
“Do you want us to take a taxi?” Jamie asked.
“No it’s OK I’m fine. I miss riding on the bus anyway. Which one goes to Carter Street?”
“Bus 215. Do you wanna take a walk around first?”
“Oh yes, definitely, I haven’t been downtown in years.”
They talked as they strolled along Anderson Avenue where all the theaters were now closing after an evening of concerts, m
usicals and plays. Most tourists from Allen City and New York City frequented this part of town in droves because of the cheap tickets. Then they walked through Garden Square enjoying the aroma of the flowers and the Rosa Parks fountain in the middle.
After a while they knew there was not much more to see so they began walking towards the bus station. Three drunken ladies walked past them, laughing and holding each other and a man in a dark suit stood by the edge of the walkway, waiting to cross the road. Most of the restaurants and bars were now closing for the night. They crossed to the side of the jazz nightclub and then Chelsea remembered what she wanted to ask him.
“So jazz...this is what you really, really wanna do, eh?”
“Yes, it feels like the right thing for me,” he said placing his hand near his heart. Then he removed his jacket noticing she was getting cold. “And I don’t think it’s a rash decision. I did a lot of soul searching and I’m still on it. You know what, umm...here, take my jacket. I wanna show you something before we get on the bus. Come, we still have thirty minutes.” He helped her into his jacket, took her hand and led her quickly past a couple of buildings, and turned into a very small, almost invisible pathway. Then they got to a quiet, eerie looking dead end.
“Can you still climb?” he asked, suddenly climbing over a chain link fence that went around an abandoned warehouse. She hesitated. “Come on. You haven’t lost your sense of adventure have you?” he asked smiling from the other side.
“I haven’t done something like this in a long time. Where exactly are you taking me?” she asked.
“Trust me. Give me your shoes.”
She removed her shoes and threw it over the fence. She put her fingers through the fence’s holes, held tightly and looked left and right, making sure no one could see them, it was as dark as a coal mine. She climbed over and landed loudly on her feet.
There were two buildings in the compound, each looking like no one had been there for ages.
Jamie walked to the taller building, opened a door that creaked loudly and then used his phone to light up the stairs which they took all the way to the second floor.
“Look,” he whispered as he opened a window that peered down onto one of the weirdest things Chelsea had ever seen in her life. Middle age men performing hiphop dance battles, wearing bandanas, baggy jeans, hoods, screaming like teenagers. Her mouth remained wide open.
“What in the world are these men doing?” she whispered.
Some of the men in the crowd were in suits and some in work uniforms, all of them cheering behind the dance groups. In a corner of the room, a man sat behind a counter receiving cash and handing out what looked like betting tickets. It looked like something one only saw in movies.
“OK that’s enough, let’s go before someone notices us,” Jamie said as he gently closed the window. A gobsmacked Chelsea followed him down the stairs, out of the building and over the fence.
“OK I know what you’re thinking and I’ll explain.”
Jamie then told her how he accidentally found out about Elmtown’s underground dogfighting. He found the building one day when he was taking one of his aimless walks (he always did that to clear his mind, a sort of quiet time.) He liked the quietness and sense of danger so he kept going back there, walking around the abandoned warehouse until one day when he heard the barking of dogs. He immediately called the police, tipped them off and left before they arrived. Weeks later he came back to the building and found out it had been turned into another underground society. What surprised him the most was that a lot of them were policemen. As he kept coming back, he saw how the group grew, attracting men in their forties and from all works of life.
“Wait so dogfighting places really exist?”
“Well, you’ve just seen where one existed before, but here is the point–some of those men dancing down there look like corporate executives. Men with lots of money. Some of them are policemen. Some of them maybe plumbers, mechanics and carpenters. That day when I saw them, it told me something. A lot of men are looking for something that takes them outside their normal boring routine, something fun and adventurous. That’s why they do this. It’s not for the money they can make from the betting. They are simply bored with with life. It just made me think, what’s the point of living if I don’t do the very thing that I love the most? You know what I mean?”
“Yes I do,” Chelsea said. She was still surprised by what she had just witnessed. Although there was nothing violent about it, it looked like a sort of Fight-Club-type secret society.
“You’re not gonna tell anyone are you?” he asked as they walked back to the bus station. “I don’t want any trouble. What if they are some kind of mafia? I’m just kidding. I think I’d just hate to ruin anybody’s life by taking possibly the only exciting thing in their lives away from them.”
“No I won’t tell anyone. I actually feel sorry for them. I wonder if…” she said thinking about her father. Maybe he was like those men, bored with his life and his marriage.
They hopped on the bus and she could not stop thinking how different Jamie was from everyone else she knew. She not only always had fun with him but she liked who she was anytime she was with him. He didn’t seem like someone she could ever ever get tired of spending time with. He didn’t talk much but he was adventurous at heart, quietly fiery. She couldn’t say the same about anyone else she knew. Jamie was different in the way he viewed life and she admired that.
9
Teresa stood by the window in her bedroom, watching the quiet street. The two houses opposite had gone through significant changes in the years she had been away in England. She was invited by the Roswells and the Hathaways and taken around both homes. She would do the same if she ever had that much work done on her house. What was the point of doing a renovation without showing off a little bit? There was always a gentle home improvement rivalry going on there and with those new patio covers, stucco walls, swimming pools, gazebos and redone driveways, she could see how both houses were easily the best on the street.
Her thoughts swayed back to why she couldn’t sleep in the first place. Tyler started doing badly in school again. He wasn’t turning in assignments, missed a few classes and had gotten into a fight with an older kid. How do you get suspended in your first month at school? she thought and felt a headache throbbing away at the side of her head.
There was no other explanation except that his father was not with them anymore. The last time this happened Cameron had been away in the Netherlands for three months so she didn’t think it was a coincidence. Why should my fourteen-year-old son be so attached to his father? Aren’t teenagers supposed to crave independence? Aren’t they supposed to not need anyone? So what would happen if eventually we never got back together? What would he do then?
She remembered how she was fine when her mother left her father for a rich lawyer. She missed her father but she wasn’t devastated and she was only twelve. Tyler is fourteen. When she moved away from home at eighteen, she didn’t need anyone anymore. She went to NYU through a swimming scholarship and met her husband there.
“Kids now don’t have any heart,” she said to herself.
She saw two familiar images moving closer to her house but couldn’t make out who they were because of the tall trees. As they got closer, she recognised Chelsea but still couldn’t figure out who was walking beside her. It sure wasn’t John; John wasn’t that tall and wouldn’t bring her daughter home this late without a car.
When Jamie and Chelsea stepped under the outside light, Teresa clenched her teeth. Her eyes narrowed and twitched. What is he doing with my daughter at this time of the night? she wondered. Didn’t Chelsea say she was going out with John and Amy tonight? She considered having a word with either Helen, Jamie himself, or possibly even both of them. She thought this couldn’t be healthy for her daughter’s relationship with John and it had to stop immediately. To her, he seemed like a boy from the other side of life trying to prey on her daughter. This is how he wants
to repay my kindness to them?
She went downstairs and quickly sat in the living room, picked up a newspaper and stretched her leg over the ottoman. She heard Chelsea open the door a minute later.
“Hey hun, how was your night out?” she asked with her widest of smiles.
“Hi Mom, it was beautiful, we had so much fun. I thought you’d be in bed already.”
“I was a little busy this evening. Just relaxing here before going to bed. Did John enjoy it too?”
“Oh...he couldn’t make it down. I completely forgot to give him the address.”
“So how did you get back home?”
“We just took the bus.”
“We?” Teresa asked as if she hadn’t seen them.
“Me and Jamie.”
Teresa sighed. “Listen Chelsea I don’t want you taking the bus around this time of the night. The bus stop is too far from here. It’s just too dangerous walking around at this time of the night, please.” What she really meant was, “I don’t want you hanging out with that boy Jamie.”
“It wasn’t that bad to be honest but yeah I know what you mean. I’ll take a taxi next time.”
“So the music was good?”
“It was awesome. Jamie performs there every Thursday night. Mom, he is really good on stage. It was good to see him for the first time doing his thing.”
“I see,” Teresa said and turned the page of the newspaper.
“You have to go see him sometime Mom. Like, you’d be surprised how good he is and this is what he wants to do for a living.”
Teresa closed the newspaper, placed it on her lap and said, “Music career? Last time I spoke with his mom, she said he was going to work in finance with his math degree.”
“I know but like this is really what’s in his heart. Don’t you get it? This is what will make him happy. I think the finance thing should just be his fallback plan,” Chelsea said as she lifted Teresa’s legs, sat beside her and placed both legs on her lap.
An Autumn to Remember: A Novel (Elmtown Series Book 1) Page 7
