Chapter 46: Here We Go Again

Danielle took another long pull on her Irish Death and sat there watching all the children playing around.

“How many children?” Danielle asked me.

“All together as of a few days ago, twenty-one. Erin and Lynn just had another set of twins each. Most have been multiple births, twins. One set of triplets to Erin. One single to Blossom. Erin wants to keep going.”

“I think she’s nuts,” Lynn said.

“You have two, right?” I asked Danielle.

She nodded as she looked around the yard.

“Twenty-one,” Danielle said quietly to Brandon in amazement.

“It’s not as crazy as it sounds,” I said.

“Yes it is, Lover,” Lynn said seriously.

“Paul! I think Margaret is at the front gate!” Erin called from the yard.

Her phone was tuned to the gate bell. I got up and excusing myself, took off through the house and to the front door. I answered the intercom.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Paul. It’s Margaret Williams.”

“Hello! Let me open the gate.”

I pushed the button to open the front gate and opened the front door to wait for her car to park in the drive. She pulled up and when she got out she looked at the cars.

“I’m sorry. Are you having a party?”

“Yeah we are. For you!”

“What?”

“It’s a going away BBQ for you. And it’s a surprise. Lynn called you to come over right?”

“Yes.”

“Well don’t stand there or you’re going to be retired before you get to the party. Come on in.”

I waved my arm ala a matador and she walked into the house. I took her hand and led her through the house and out onto the back deck. The children immediately went nuts and came running to her, giving the older lady gentle hugs. When that was done, Erin came over and brought her to the grown-ups table. I yelled out and had all the guests and the family gather around.

“Everyone, I’d like to introduce the other reason for today’s BBQ. This is Margaret Williams, the head of the Department of Family Services here in Boise. If not for Margaret, we would have lost our children after Taylor Erin was murdered and after Lynn’s assailant was killed and after any number of incidents that have happened to our crazy family over the past almost eight years.

“So please welcome Margaret as well as our new friends, and my old friends, from Kansas City, Danielle Nicole, Brandon Miller, and Go-Go- Ray. Known collectively as The Danielle Nicole Band.”

Margaret was introduced individually to Danielle, Brandon and Go-Go and accepted a glass of wine from Lynn. The smells of the smoker were filling the yard.

“Is everyone ready to eat?” Blossom yelled.

A resounding “Yes!” came from the children and they all lined up at the table they’d set up. It had plates and napkins and forks and huge covered bowls of beans and potato salad. There was also a big bowl of BBQ sauce. Blossom outdid herself with a touch of honey in this batch of BBQ sauce. I’d found out that one of the secret ingredients in her sauce was root beer. The honey added to the root beer and it made this particular batch of the sauce thick.

The thick sauce on the ribs, brisket, and chicken made our guests almost have to scrape the sauce off their fingers and faces with a butter knife. It mixed well with the iced tea, both sweetened and unsweetened. And duly impressed our friends.

“This is the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever tasted and that’s saying something seeing as how I grew up in Kansas City. We are kind of known for great BBQ and sauces.”

“I know. Paul told me all about it and we went to BB’s on one of our trips and got their recipe. I kept making different batches until mine tasted better.”

Margaret Williams had been begging and pleading with Blossom for the recipe for years and finally, as a gift to our dear friend, Blossom gave her the recipe written down on a couple of sheets of paper.

“Blossom, this is a lot of stuff,” Margaret exclaimed.

“Yup. Actually, I have a basic core recipe and then I add other ingredients depending on the weather, the occasion, the type of meat, or the diners preferences. So I gave you the core and the one for today and a couple of my other favorites.”

“Oh my. Thank you so much, Blossom. This is more than I’d hoped for. I promise to not give it to anyone else.”

“Oh, I don’t mind if you do. Some people think it makes the sauce more wanted if the cook hides the ingredients. Not me.”

“Could I get a copy too?” Danielle asked.

“I don’t know. Those KC sauces are so awesome,” Blossom teased.

“Please! I’ll never tell anyone where I got it from.”

“No you don’t! I want you to spread the word like Charlie Daniels and the rest of our friends have done. It’s one of the reasons some of them come and visit us. Geddy Lee still sends people here for the BBQ to take back to Canada.”

“Geddy Lee?” Margaret asked.

“Mr. Lee is the singer and bass player for Rush, Margaret,” Margaret Erin said walking up behind us to hug Margaret Williams. “He has a funny voice but he is a great musician.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that band,” Margaret Williams admitted.

“Well you’ll hear some of their music today,” I informed her.

Everyone had their fill of BBQ and after sitting around and digesting for a bit, everyone was getting antsy. I got up and announced, “Jam time. Everyone into the ballroom!”

The Savannah Band got up and were followed into the house by the children, Danielle and crew, Margaret Williams, Bill and Gwen Martinez, Tim Manly, Bosco and Teri, and finally Marcus and Geoffrey. The musicians unpacked their tools and Go-Go was surprised to see a second drum kit set up like his set up.

“Go-Go it wasn’t worth hauling all of your stuff out here and then packing it up and getting it to the airport. We always have a kit set up here, so I brought one of my extras.”

The two clasped hands and shared a man hug before Go-Go noticed his kit bag resting on the snare drum.

“I wasn’t going to share MY sticks!” Boomer said with a big smile.

Go-Go sat at the second kit and made some adjustments to the cymbals heights and angle as well and the heights and angles of the various tom-toms. When he thought he had everything set, he did a quick run around the set and smiled to find the drums were tuned in the right tonal increments.

He began a quick da-dot-dada rhythm in the high-hat cymbal and Boomer matched it. Then Go-Go did a quick solo and Boomer matched it. The drum battle was on and soon the band was playing a tight blues riff between solos. The children who could were all up dancing with the other guests. I won’t try to describe the shear uniqueness of Bosco’s dancing style, but Teri whipped out her cell phone and started to record it, “For our kids later enjoyment,” she said.

After the long jam we broke out of the song and I looked at Danielle, Carla, and Ronnie.

“Hey do you guys want to give Margaret Williams a taste of Rush?”

The three spoke quickly and broke into “Spirit of the Radio” with Ronnie and Brandon matching the opening riffs on keyboard and guitar. When Danielle and Carla jumped in on bass the whole ballroom seemed to lift up in the air.

The horns came in the portion that was synthesizer on the recording and the whole thing took on a different aspect. I came in on vocals but an octave lower because I’m no Geddy Lee. I’ve always been amazed at the lyrics that Neil Peart wrote for Rush. Sometimes that didn’t rhyme but they always fit.

We played for a few hours with musicians dropping out to get something to drink or go to the bathroom. At one point I looked over at Genevieve Lynn and she was singing along with Margaret Erin and during a break I asked the girls if they wanted to sing. They both nodded and I brought them to the mics and asked, “What would you like to do?”

I was expecting something they’d sung before with our previous friends, maybe “Great Gig In The Sky” but I was surprised when both girls chose “Dancing Queen” by Abba. The band played and the girls sang and Danielle was stunned. Afterwards she praised the two.

“You girls keep singing and someday you are going to be famous.”

“We’re already famous, Danielle. Everyone at the club knows us and all of the Brothers and Geddy and Mr. Charlie before he died.”

“Charlie?”

“Yeah, Danielle. Charlie Daniels. They loved him and he them. The first time the girls sang with someone other than the Savannah Band was with Charlie, then ZZ Top and others.”

“So,” Margaret Erin continued, “we’re already famous.”

“I guess you are. If you’re ever in KC and we aren’t on the road, you’ll have to come up and sing with us. OK?”

“No, ma’am,” Genevieve Lynn said emphatically.

“Why not?”

“You have the best voice. We can’t sing like that.”

“I bet you can. Listen to the words without the music sometimes and I think that once you hear the words as a message or story, you’ll be able to feel the emotions that good lyrics can make people feel. Brandon! “I’d Rather Go Blind”.”

Brandon immediately began to play the opening riff to one of Etta James best and saddest blues songs. Her voice was so strong I swear she could have cracked the concrete walls of the ballroom. Part way through the song, Danielle turned the bass work over to Carla and she took Margaret Erin off to the side. They sat and talked for a bit and I could see Margaret Erin nodding and wiping her eyes.

I was about to go over there when the two got up and went to Danielle’s carry on. She pulled out a three-ring binder and opened it up and placed it on one of our music stands. Then she set a mic stand down at Margaret Erin’s height and placed it next to the music stand.

“Ready?”

Margaret Erin nodded and when Danielle pointed at her, Margaret Erin sang out loudly, “Something told me ... It was over ... When I saw you and her talkin’.”

Now the song itself is a deeply soulful song and when done right brings tears to my eyes every time. When Danielle sings it, I cry. Because her voice make me connect to the several losses I’ve had in my life. And here was my daughter singing the song with all the soul her short little life could muster. I’ve always thought that to truly sing the blues you had to have some losses in your life.

Margaret Erin had the loss of her sister but not too much else of that magnitude. Yet she found a way to touch that emotion as best she could and I was proud of her. When she finished the first verse, Danielle picked up the rest and conveyed all the emotions she had. Margaret Erin stood by and watched and listened until the song was done.

Danielle and Margaret Erin hugged and we moved on to happier peppier music. We did “Shaky Ground” by Delbert McClinton and “Walkin’ The Dog” by Rufus Thomas. We did some big band swing stuff that Danielle remembered from her days as a little girl listening to her father, a great musician. The children danced and they even got Margaret Wells out on the floor.

Overall it was a fine time and when it was done I got everyone together in a big circle, the children on the inside, the adults around them.

“I want to thank Margaret Williams for her years of friendship and oversite of her Department. I want to thank Danielle, Brandon, and Go-Go for a most enjoyable weekend and sharing their gift with my family. I want to thank our The Brothers for their continued friendship and support, I want to thank the children’s grandmother and grandfather for their unwavering love and devotion, I want to thank my children for making me proud to be a father every day, and I want to thank my wives for making me proud to be their husband and for being my best friends. It’s been a great day but now it’s time to go home. God bless you all.”