That thought made me feel a little bad, but just for a moment. The only thing I wanted on my mind was Tru Harmony. And how me and my boys were finally on our way.
Chapter 15
When the bell rang, I dashed to the door and swung it open. “Why didn’t you use your key?” I asked my sister.
Skye looked around before she stepped inside the house. “I don’t have a key,” she said. “You must’ve forgotten that Daddy made me give mine back.”
I had forgotten that, but I hadn’t forgotten that it had been forever since Skye had been home. Even now, I couldn’t believe that she had really shown up. It had taken a bit of convincing, but this was why I loved my big sister–she always came through for me.
“You’re sure they’re not going to show up anytime soon?” Skye asked as she took slow steps from the foyer into the living room.
“I’m sure,” I said, following her inside. “That’s why I’m here. Mom asked me to wait for the plumber to come because she had a Ladies Auxiliary planning meeting and Daddy had to go to Macon.” I had already told Skye this, but I knew she needed to hear it again.
My sister stood in the middle of the living room, like she was trying to decide if she should stay or make a quick getaway. I took a deep breath, and said a little prayer. When she dumped her bag onto the sofa, I exhaled.
Slowly, she glanced around the living room. “Wow.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I haven’t been here in a minute.”
“I know,” I said, thinking that it had been over three years– before she graduated from college–since Skye had been home. “But nothing’s changed.” I plopped down onto the couch and waited for her to join me.
“That’s the point; not a thing has changed.” Skye strolled in front of the fireplace, taking in all the photos. “Everything’s the same, yet so much is different.” There were dozens of pictures on the mantel, chronicling our lives from childhood to where we were now. Skye stood still, staring at the photos as if she was remembering. “I’m surprised Daddy didn’t burn every piece of paper that had my face on it.”
“He wouldn’t do that.”
Finally, she sat next to me. “He might as well have. It’s not as if he considers me a Davenport anymore.”
I frowned. Her voice was so low, so sad, like she was really hurt by what had gone down between her and our dad. All of this time, I thought Skye wasn’t fazed by it at all. She always acted so strong, as if all that mattered was what she wanted to do. In spite of our father, she’d pursued her dream and made herself a success, even without our parent’s approval. I didn’t think she needed anybody’s support, not with how she’d left and never looked back. But the way she sounded today made me wonder. I guessed, like our dad, she was hurt too.
“Why don’t you try to talk to Daddy?” I asked. “I mean, it’s been years. Enough time has passed.”
She shook her head. “I’m not about to have him hang up on me or throw me out of his house.” Her strong, stubborn voice was back.
I nodded. When Skye first moved to New York, she had called over and over again. But our dad just kept telling her that he didn’t want to talk to her. That she’d made her decision and now he’d made his. It seemed so childish to me, but I was not going to be the one to tell the great Reverend Davenport that he wasn’t acting age appropriate. Honestly, I thought my mom would tell him to start acting like the adult, but I guess she didn’t want to be the one to correct him either.
“Anyway, I don’t want to stay here too long,” Skye said, glancing over her shoulder at the front door. “So, what’s up? What’s this big news that you just had to tell me in person?”
After I had left Jaylen, I had planned to tell Skye the moment I got to my dorm. But when I got home and thought about it, I knew this news was too big to tell over the telephone. So, I’d called Skye and asked to meet her. It killed me to have to wait three days, but this was the first time that Skye could get away.
I had this big plan to drag out the news, and make Skye beg me to tell her. But it was just busting out of me. I scooted closer to her on the couch. “I got a recording contract!”
“What?”
“A recording contract. I’m gonna be a singer for real.”
“Oh my God!” Skye hugged me. Then she sat back as I told her all the details. “Wow!” she said, when I finished filling her in on everything Jaylen had shared with me. “This is wonderful.”
“You really think so?”
She nodded. “Yeah, of course. How could it be anything but wonderful?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t know what you would think of Tru Harmony since it isn’t really a company; I mean, not a big company.”
She waved her hand in the air like that didn’t matter. “Unless you have the chance to work with Clive Davis, this kind of situation is off the chain.”
“Really?” That’s what I felt, but it was great to have my big sister saying exactly what I was thinking.
She nodded. “Because people like Jaylen and his boys are hungry. They’re gonna make it happen for you because if you’re successful, then they are too. Simone, I am so happy for you!” She wrapped her arms around me again.
Having my sister’s approval took my excitement level up one hundred notches. Not able to sit down any longer, I jumped from the couch and paced in front of her. Part of my energy was from my exhilaration, but, now, the anxiety was settling in.
“Okay,” I began, still filled with too much energy to stop walking. “How do I tell Daddy?”
That wiped the smile right off her face. “Are you sure you want to tell him?”
“How can I not? It’s not like I can keep this a secret. I mean if I do this, I may not be able to take the job with Ernst & Young.”
Skye moaned. “If you don’t take that job, Daddy’s gonna kick you out of his life for sure.”
“But I’ll have a contract,” I whined.
Skye sat back and crossed her legs like she was totally calm. But while she was cool and collected, my blood pressure was rising off the charts.
“Yeah, you’ll have a contract . . . just like I had a job,” she said. “But that won’t matter to Daddy. If you’re not doing exactly what he wants you to do, if he’s not in control of your life, then he won’t want to have anything to do with you.”
I shook my head, not really wanting to believe her. “But this might be different,” I said. “I mean, Daddy’s known that I wanted to be a singer all my life.”
“And he knew that I wanted to be a designer. What does what you want to do have to do with anything? Trust and know, he will kick you out of his life.”
I fell back onto the couch, all of my excitement and energy gone.
“This is never going to happen for me, is it?” It was a question, but I didn’t expect an answer. “I’m never going to be a singer. Daddy’s not going to let me do this.”
“It’s not up to him.”
“But you just said . . .”
“This is your life.”
Yeah, that was the truth, but it didn’t really mean anything. It wasn’t like I could do what Skye had done. I couldn’t just walk away knowing that my father would be so disappointed. I couldn’t walk away knowing that my father would feel like both of his daughters had deserted him.
I wasn’t strong like Skye. Disappointing my father would kill me as much as it would kill him.
“People don’t get chances like this,” Skye said as if she knew that I needed to be reminded of that. “You’ve wanted to do this your whole life, and you may never get this chance again.”
I nodded; but how was I going to work this out? Maybe I could convince my father that God had brought this opportunity to me because, truly, that was the way I felt.
“I’ve got to get going.” Skye stood up and hoisted her purse onto her shoulder. I didn’t really think she had anywhere to go, since she’d told me that she’d taken off the whole morning. She had probably just stayed in o
ur parentshouse for as long as she could.
Skye hugged me. “You’ve got to go after this, Monnie,” she said. It had been years since Skye had called me by the name she’d made up for me when we were kids. She hardly ever called me that now, and hearing her say it made me want to cry.
“Call me later,” she said before she walked out of the door, leaving me with thoughts of how I wished I could be more like her. Because if I were, this would be a no-brainer. This would be all about me, and my dad would just have to find a way to handle it.
But I wasn’t anything like Skye, I was just Simone. Still, I was gonna find a way to work this out. I just had to.
Chapter 16
Today was the day. A week exactly to the day when I’d told Simone that I was gonna make her a star. Finally, we were taking the first steps to making her dream, and mine, come true.
For the last seven days we had worked our butts off, spending every free hour we had together. It was amazing the way we flowed, as if we had always been friends. I would start saying something and Simone would finish my sentence. Simone would be thinking something and I would say it out loud. It was like she was the other half of me, knowing exactly where I was going all the time. And what I loved was that she didn’t have a diva complex; this wasn’t just about her. Simone cared about Tru Harmony as much as I did, talking to and encouraging me all the time about the direction of the company.
“I want us to stand out,” I told Simone. “Every single one of our singers is going to have something special. That’s why I’m so glad you’re the first.”
“I’m the one who’s honored,” she said to me. “I have no doubt that with you at the head, Tru Harmony is going to be one of the biggest labels in the country!”
My head got big sometimes with the things she said. But our talks weren’t just about me and Tru Harmony. I was just as interested in Simone’s life. That’s why I’d told her to take the job with that accounting firm when she graduated.
“It’ll just be for a little while; that’ll be your cushion, ’cause we’re not gonna be able to pay you any kind of advance. But we’ll make up for it with higher royalties, and, within a year, you’ll be rollin’ in it, baby!”
Without hesitation, Simone had agreed with me. It was just like that with us–easy. We could talk about anything and laugh about everything. Though there was one subject where there was little talking and definitely no laughing: Reverend Davenport. I’d tried to tap into what was happening on the home front between Simone and her father, but that was one place where she wouldn’t let me in. I didn’t even know if the two of them had ever talked about Simone and Tru Harmony, but after a while I decided that I really didn’t need to know. Once we got Simone going, no one–not even her father–would want to stand in the way of success.
I had so many thoughts going on inside my head that I didn’t hear the doorbell ring.
“Yo, J! You got company,” Miles yelled just before Simone came down the stairs.
I saw her first, and then I saw the female with her. But even though I wondered about her partner (because Simone had never brought anyone with her before), I put those thoughts aside for a minute, ’cause my girl was looking fine. There was no doubt that a lot of guys might consider Simone a big girl, but what they were missing was an appreciation of a woman with curves, something that gave me great pleasure. Because nobody, I mean, nobody, could rock boobs and booty like a black woman. And Simone was rocking it all the way in her white shirt and skinny jeans.
I took my mind out of the gutter and said, “What’s up?” to Simone just before I kissed her cheek.
The other female raised one eyebrow and, as soon as she did that, I knew this was Skye, Simone’s sister. I didn’t understand why I didn’t see that right away. I mean, the two looked like twins, really, from the maple hue of their skin, to their bushy eyebrows and heart-shaped lips. The only real difference was that Skye was smaller than Simone; the big sister didn’t have the same banging body as the little sister.
I’d met Simone’s best friends, Chyanne and Devin, a couple of times, but I’d never caught up with Skye, even though Simone talked about her sister all the time. Holding out my hand, I said, “It’s nice to meet you, Skye. Finally.”
Skye grinned. “Nice to meet you too.”
Simone said, “How did you know this was my sister?”
“Are you kidding me?” I laughed. Turning to Skye, I added, “I’m glad you came.”
Simone said, “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Nah, nah,” I said, making a final adjustment on the console. “It’s cool. I want you to have all the support you need. So, Skye,” I began. I didn’t know why I felt the need to impress Simone’s sister, but I really wanted her to like me. “What do you think of all of this?”
“What? About my sister becoming a superstar?” Her grin showed just how proud she was of Simone. “It’s fantastic,” she said, and then motioned toward the big chair that we had pushed into the corner.
I nodded, but said, “You can sit there, or you can join me here.”
She shook her head as she looked at the stool that was next to me. “No, this is fine. I don’t want to be in the way.”
I wasn’t going to argue, since I was trying to make a good impression and everything. When I turned to Simone, she smiled, and my heart kinda took an extra beat. I wasn’t sure where that came from. It was probably just my nerves. I mean, this was huge. This was the beginning of everything that we’d both dreamed of.
Taking an extra breath, I said, “Okay, let’s get this party started.” I turned all of my attention to my protégé–at least, that’s what I liked to call her. “You ready to do this?”
The way Simone nodded and then turned toward the booth let me know that she was definitely ready. But, though she acted all confident, I would’ve bet that she’d been up half the night, anxious, exactly the way I’d been.
For a week we’d written lyrics, debated melodies, adjusted tempos. We had worked until we couldn’t work anymore. Worked until we had the perfect song.
So, both of us were ready.
Even though Simone had never done this before, I didn’t have to tell her much. She was a natural, the way she walked into the booth and slipped the headphones over her ears. When she nodded at me through the glass, I sat down at the console, forgetting all about Skye. It was just me and my girl.
“Ready, kiddo?” I spoke to her through the mic.
She nodded.
I turned on the track, and, after the first few bars of the verse, Simone began to sing.
“I’m the dream maker. Like a genie in a bottle, three wishes, boy, you got it. I’m the dream maker. I’ll do anything for you, I can make all your dreams come true.”
I didn’t know what Simone was doing, but this sounded better than any of the one hundred times we’d rehearsed.
It took everything in me to focus on the controls, because all I wanted to do was sit back and listen. This was really happening!
“What the.”
I held up my hand as Miles trotted down the stairs. Even though he was home, I hadn’t told him that we were recording. I worked in the basement studio all the time without Miles or Quintin coming down. My hope that they would both stay away today. I was sure that Quintin would, he was never home on Saturdays. But I knew there was a chance that Miles would hear us. Not that it mattered–with the way Simone sounded, I knew my frat would be on board all the way now.
Miles stood behind me, staring through the glass, as mesmerized by Simone as I was. I had planned to take this song bar by bar, verse by verse, stopping and starting until it was just right. But I wasn’t about to stop, not with the way Simone was nailing it. Was this even possible? Could we have the perfect single with only one try?
When Simone threw back her head, closed her eyes, and hit that last note, holding it far longer than the track, all I could do was sit there. I wasn’t the only one captivated; neither Miles nor Skye moved either.
> Finally, Simone stood straight and opened her eyes. It was like it took a moment for her to come back to earth, and, when she did, she frowned, staring back at the three of us who were staring at her. Tossing off her headphones, she said, “What’s wrong?”
Wrong? It was obvious that babygirl couldn’t hear herself, because if she could, there was no way the word “wrong” would have come out of her mouth.
I turned on the mic. “Nothing. It’s all good.”
She shrugged a little. “I’m gonna do that again, okay? I know I can do better.”
“Better?” Miles whispered. “It can’t possibly get any better than that.”
Miles was right; Simone had stepped straight into it, all the way, the first time out. But I nodded anyway. I wanted–no, I needed–to again hear her sing those words that we’d written together.
“Okay,” Simone said. She stood in the booth with a wide stance, like she was buckling down, ready to give it her all, as if she hadn’t already done that.
Then Simone started again. And just like she promised, it was better. No way that was possible, but I was listening with my own ears. The words slipped through her lips like silk and glided around us, massaging our ears. Somehow, she’d turned the song into a dream, and she pulled us into her trance. This was amazing to watch and even more astonishing to listen to. I’d heard many sing–Whitney, Janet, Mariah–but there was something about Simone, a depth that resonated inside my soul. It was as if she’d taken the best from each of the greats. She had Whitney’s grit and Janet’s sweetness and Mariah’s range all in one voice.
“Who the heck is that?”
If I hadn’t been so captivated, I would have been upset by hearing Quintin. But I didn’t have to worry anymore about what he would think. Because now that he heard Simone, there wouldn’t be a damn thing he would say. Quintin was a lot of things, but he was no dummy. It was clear that Simone was going to be a star.
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