NEW YORK SONG

Roger Gemelle

Excerpt New York Song:
    Eddie's Dance

Eddie was swinging me around on the the dark red and green rug covering the suddenly too small living area, too small for the wild dancing Eddie was enthusiastically, and possibly fruitlessly, attempting to teach me to “Heatwave” by Martha and the Vandellas. Eddie was tall and thin, very thin with a brush-cut and a days growth of facial hair seemingly since only last night. He talked with swirling hand motions and excitement, and was wildly entertaining. He smoked constantly and was easily the best dancer I knew.

When he moved it seemed to me he did it effortlessly. It was like watching a marionette suspended, floating as the legs and arms splayed out and in with a free abandon that was impossible for me, he was his own anti-gravity device and I was an earthbound neanderthal in comparison. Yeah, I knew this would not end well for me, but it was a necessary evil in pursuit of the fair damsels I wanted to meet. So I aped Eddie and managed a slightly less incompetent mashed potato over time.

That was another thing … I had no sense of time. I was reading The Sirens of Titan and had been wondering all week how time, one moment becomes another, and I can”t seem to pin it down. I try to feel the shift of “now” becoming then, but its always just “now” when I do. I can't feel the slippage, the scene change, the stagehands are too quick for me. But then, I'm no Einstein.

Billy the main character of Vonnegut's story slips beyween time frames in his life and I wish I had that ability, even if like him it's not controllable. When I try to sync to the pounding beat it's not fluid like it is for Eddie.

Martha's entreating ...“Could it be the Devil in me … Or is this the way loves supposed to be?”

Eddie's swirling, doing weird random things, putting his hand on his hip, reaching both hands out in front of him, where the heck does he get this stuff, it's like watching an Astair routine, and it's increasingly clear to me that this ain't gonna happen for me. Oh well.

Eddie was so effeminate that in later years I would think he must have been gay, but I slept in bed with him and never got the slightest clue of anything like that, so maybe he was just effeminate and that's it.

I told Eddie I couldn't dance when he said he was gonna help me out, and I was a bit shy about it ... but he was having none of that! So here I was clumsily trying to imitate this dervish and having zero success, while he pushes his Mick Jagger lips out and shakes his hips.

I had gone to a party (45's lemonade, popcorn) at a friends house with a girl named Laura and she introduced me to Eddie and a dark haired voluptuous beauty named Darleen. I was instantly, blushingly, interested in this girl, but apparently she was with Eddie and probably his girlfriend. It was difficult not to rudely stare at that kitten face with big dark eyes and I noticed her gold necklace sparkling as Eddie danced with her. She wore a short skirt and a frilly white blouse that she filled out alarmingly. As I said … it was not easy. She would become my girlfriend in time, but it would be Eddie who would change my life.

They played a lot of records and we danced and had a pretty good time, but Eddie finally got tired of setting up the turntable and put on the radio, while he lit up another cigarette.

I was sitting and making nothing conversation with Darleen when I heard a sound I had never heard before and I just went still while it washed over me like the strangest spell …

“Oh Yeah I Tell Ya Something ... and that bridge … I was stunned, “And when I touch You I feel Happy Inside,” Who the hell is this? I've never heard these guys before. Brilliant voices, amazing driving track under! Very evocative, it was.

This was THE pivotal epiphany for me, (and apparently quite a few other would be musicians) and from that moment on, although I did not know it, I was pulled down a path with an exponentially increasing gravity, that was the only one I would ever again be interested in.

As I walked home that cold January evening I pulled my coat collar up around my freezing ears and watched as my breath smoked in the air. A blue cast washed over the streets as the weak sun traveled over the horizon and street lights began to turn on during the long walk down Bell Boulevard.

I was not thinking about Darleen at the moment, because I could not stop thinking about that song and was determined to know more.

Because Laura and I both played a little acoustic guitar we would get together to sing and play a bit, and because she was good friends with Eddie, we hung out quite a lot with him too. I got to like Eddie more and more. He was a very funny guy to be around. He kept us laughing and busy all the time, he was a natural. We'd play and he'd dance.

He and I started to meet after school just to have fun although I always walked the mile and a half to his place rather than he to mine. No biggie though, I liked the walk. From his place we would go out to places we wanted to hang out at or met friends for some party or concert or movie.

It was also around this time that he and Darleen broke up and the funny thing was he didn't seem to really care one way or the other. But it didn't escape my attention!

One night we all walked up to one of the local hangouts and listened as a group of local kids sang Do-Wop on the corner. The high street lights overhead cut through the air and enveloped the singers in a soft golden glow like a concert setting. They were pretty damn good too! Maybe it was Sherry they were singing the Four seasons tune, or maybe it was the Crests Step By Step, but it didn't really matter, it was great either way.

When the group stopped singing I walked with Darleen down the block and noticed she seemed to be intentionally close to me. I reached out and took her hand and her fingers slipped in mine and that was it. When she smiled at me I thought she was the prettiest girl I had met and felt a little dizzy.

She reached up and pulled my head to hers and gave me a soft kiss. The sweetest lips, I thought.

I caught my breath and asked, “Do you think we'll upset Eddie?”

“No, we only went together cause he wanted someone to dance with. I don't think he really cared that much.”

Up the street we could see Eddie and Laura silhouetted under a streetlamp. Eddie was waving his hands around, smoke swirling into the air and Laura was laughing as we started to walk back towards them still holding hands. Darleen squeezed my hand and I looked into those dark beautiful eyes and kissed her again.

I always did seem to have an ear for harmonies and I kind of ached to put something together that would let me arrange voices. I guess I heard all that harmony in the many musicals that my mother loved. We sang that stuff in her little red Volkswagon at the top of our lungs as we drove, and she always said to me, “How do you hear all those different parts?” and I had no answer except that I could always hear them. I'd been in school choirs for the shortest time due to my mother moving us after my dad started drinking heavily, but that was not the kind of vocals I was keen to do anyway.

I wanted to do the Beach Boys and this new band The Beatles and that kind of tight powerful harmony. But I did love that almost barbershop sound of quartets too. Silence is Golden and Be my Little baby, and Dawn and Under The Boardwalk. Human voices weaving a fine tapestry, yeah, that drove me nuts!

But the music underneath ... that was a big challenge and not at all natural for me. Nobody in my family played any instrument with authority or competence. I had zero to go on, it was gonna be a struggle.

The snow crunched under my shoes as I walked up Bell Boulevard under gray threatening skies. A light snow started to drift down and I brushed it from my face and increased my pace. I was meeting Eddie at his place and we were just gonna knock around a bit, but now I was wondering if we would get out in this or just watch tv and stay in, it didn”t seem to be easing.

I didn”t really care, I was just glad to be out of school for the weekend, and I knew Eddie was gonna make something happen, that”s just what he did.

I made the right on seventy third and started down towards the park when I saw a bunch of little ones making a snowman. Their mother was yelling from her doorway, trying to get them to come in, but it wasn”t working. She screamed louder at them, “Come on now, it”s getting too heavy, don”t make me come out there!” They laughed and ignored her as I went past and said, “You guys better get going before you know what!” I jerked a thumb at their mom.

The little girl said, “Oh she's too afraid to come out here.” Her mom put her hands on her hips and shook her head smiling.

I laughed too but I began to think she was right, it really was starting to come down now and the sky was darker. I saw the walk was filling fast and instead of a crunch I was making a softer padded sound as the layers built up. It got colder and the wind was hitting me in the face but I didn't have to much further to go. This had not been mentioned on the weather and as the storm grew I thought someone had screwed up.

I almost missed my left at Springfield Boulevard, but luckily saw the yellow lights on an old ford pickup barely visable in the waning light and made out the street sign.

I got hit by a strong gust and pushed against it as the snow began to drive hard against my face, and I saw people were turning on the lights in their doorways far too early for evening. The bluish cast on the snow packed sidwwalk was being masked now by the blowing white sheets that cut into my eyes and blinded me. I held my hand out to shield my face and could just make out the opening to the garden apartments where Eddie lived. I hurried up the narrow path to his door and pressed the snow covered button.

Eddie opened the door immediately, “Jesus, I thought you weren”t gonna make it! Where the hell did this come from?”

“Yeah man,” I said brushing the snow off my jacket before entering, “I think the weather guy is dead!”

Eddie looked around before closing the door, “Wow! This is nuts! Come on I'll make ya a hot cuppa coffee.”

“Ahh yeah that would be great! It was weird how fast that came on though. I thought it was supposed to be a light dusting.”

“Yeah I guess they screwed up or something shifted direction ... ya know, they never really know do they?”

As we sat on the couch and watched the news I slowly worked on my coffee and Eddie pointed at the screen and yelled, “Idiots! See they screwed up. I knew this was not supposed to hit us when I told you to come over this morning.”

I laughed and said, “Hey it's no biggie. I wanted outta the house either way. Besides I like storms, it always feels more like people huddle together or something and it's kinda fun.”

“You are crazy, you know that? What if the power goes?”

“You think that might happen? That would be way better!”

Eddie shook his head, “You are nuts. I don't like this stuff, I can't play my records or watch TV if we lose power and I hate sitting in the dark, with just a crappy little radio going. That's not my idea of a good time.”

“Well, it probably won't get that bad.”

Sitting in the dark three hours later listening to the crappy little radio with candes going, Eddie had turned maroose and was no longer speaking. I was working to cheer him up but he was really not a happy camper. My saying I liked it had been a mistake, and he was taking this as if I had brought the Jonah with me.

The phone worked though so I called my mom and told her Eddie's mom had invited me to stay the night and not to worry. Then we called Laura, and after that Darleen, and that seemed to help Eddie's mood some. He was not good at being bored and our plans for the night were shot.

We could hear the branches rattling against the window as the wind ocassionally gusted to surprising strength, and the dark outside was complete. I had wits enough not ot say it but, yup, I loved it!

I don't even know why really, it seemed to me like a reprieve from the endless noise and pressure of life to keep moving. Nobody was moving in this, and it made me feel serene somehow. Or maybe hundreds of thousands of years of evolution had buried some kind of primal, cozy cave, instinct that I recognized subconsciously, I don't know.

We ended up playing cards and Eddie eventually came around and started horsing around with his usual offbeat humor. My intentionally dropping a few hands didn't hurt.