Chapter 8: A Summer To Remember

On Friday morning, I got a call from Fran at the feed mill.

"Guess what?" she bubbled. "I found Olivia. I mean, she found me. Can you believe it? Isn't that great?"

I could hear the excitement in her voice. "It's wonderful, Fran. I'm happy for you. Is she here in Spokane?"

"Yes. She has an apartment not too far from where Dad is living. She's a pharmacist now. Actually she's doing her one year residency. She went to school at Montana U. in Missoula. That's why I couldn't find her."

"Are you going to get together?" I asked.

"Yes, as soon as both of us can find the time. Maybe later this weekend ... probably Sunday. Oh, Ed, I'm so excited."

I chuckled at her enthusiasm. "Yeah ... I can tell. How did she find you?"

"She saw us at the July 4^th concert. She got hold of the fair office and asked how to get in touch with Street Find and got Doreen's number. Doreen called her back last night. Olivia explained we were old high school friends in Harmon and she wanted to make contact with me. I guess Doreen was a bit reluctant to give out personal numbers, but Olivia must have sounded sincere and so she was given my work number."

"I'm very glad, Fran. I hope this is what you've been waiting for."

"I do too, Ed. She sounded really happy that she'd found me and she was anxious that we get together. Maybe there's something still there for us."

"Wouldn't that be great?" I said.

"Yeah ... that would be really great," she echoed.

We had a two week gap before our next outdoor concert and I took advantage of it to visit my grandparents on Sunday. I hadn't seen them for almost three months, and although I talked to them on the phone once a week, I still felt guilty that I was forgetting about them. I debated taking Gina with me, but decided I would defer that for my next visit. I was still having a hard time believing that she was in love with me and that we had a future. Not too brave of me, I know, but I was still pinching myself each morning when I woke up beside her.

"Oh, Ed, it's so good to see you again," Grandma said, hugging me and kissing my cheek. "We've missed you. How are you?"

"I'm great, Grandma ... Grampa. Our band is doing really well and now we're booked at the big fair in September. We'll be playing at the big bandstand all ten days of the fair. It's our biggest date so far."

"That's wonderful, Ed. We're so proud of you. Are you happy?" Grampa asked.

"Very happy, Grampa. There's a new lady in my life. Her name is Georgina Cryder, but everyone calls her Gina. She's one of our singers, along with her sister, Frances."

"Well why didn't you bring her out here to meet us?" Grandma asked.

"I thought I'd bring her out next time, and I promise, it won't be three months before you meet her," I chuckled.

"It better not be, young man," Grandma announced. "I hope this is a nicer girl than that last one you were going with."

I smiled. "No comparison, Grandma. Gina is something very special and I feel very lucky that she feels close to me."

Grampa looked at me carefully. "What does 'close' mean?" he asked with a sly grin.

I hemmed and hawed before I spoke. "We're in love. I think she's the one."

"Oh, Ed, that's lovely," Grandma said. "Now I know we have to meet her."

"Yeah ... I should have brought her with me today. I'll see if she will come with me next Sunday. Will that be okay?"

"You know it will," Grandma said immediately. "You'll be staying for dinner, of course."

"I wouldn't miss it," I grinned.

"We have a dinner invitation next Sunday at my grandparents' home," I announced to Gina.

"Great. I want to meet the people who shaped the man that I'm in love with. Why didn't you take me with you yesterday?"

"I don't know. Maybe I wanted to let them know about you in advance."

"Oh ... you were going to warn them about me, were you?" she said with a stern look.

"No ... I just wanted to let them know that I had found the love of my life and ... and..."

"What's the matter, Ed? Run out of excuses?" she said with a raised eyebrow and a hand on her hip.

"I guess," I said, shamefaced.

"Well, next week I'll get to know a lot more about my Ed, won't I?" she smirked, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a loving kiss.

"I'm sure I'll be totally embarrassed."

I was right, of course. Gina and my grandparents hit it off almost from the introductions. Grandma took Gina off to the kitchen while Grampa and I sat in the living room enjoying a beer.

"You struck gold with that girl, Ed. She's not just beautiful on the outside, I like the way she acts. There's no doubt that girl is in love with you."

"I'm having a hard time believing it, Grampa. She's so lovely and talented; I keep thinking she can do better."

"Now you get that thought out of your head, Ed. You're a good man. You've always been a good person. She sees that and that's what makes you attractive to her."

"She and her sister had a rough time in the past few years and they've both come through it pretty well. I think they needed to trust someone of their own age group. Her father has reconciled with the girls, but the mother is lost to them, I'm afraid."

"Her sister is that girl you rescued last January, isn't she? Is she still living in your apartment?"

I nodded. "They both are. It's hard to separate them when they sing together in our band. I'm the odd man out."

Grampa looked at me with a disbelieving stare. "Somehow, I doubt that. But Ed, I'm glad you're happy. You're doing what you want to do and enjoying it. Now you've got a fine young lady to keep you company. That's about all any man could ask for."

"You're absolutely right, Grampa. I couldn't ask for more," I agreed with a smile.

"I can see how much they love you, Ed," Gina said as we drove home that evening. "They were very nice to me and said I was welcome in their home any time."

"That's them, alright. If I'm anything, they shaped me into who I am."

"And they did a damn fine job ... something I told both of them, by the way."

"Thank you," I said. "I'm sure they appreciated your comments. I know they were impressed with you, too."

The summer slipped by as we worked the fair circuit as well as our now irregular weekends at The Palomar. The weather had generally held for us, more or less a typical summer in eastern Washington. We didn't have a lot of time to work on new material until mid-August. Between our day jobs and our hit-and-miss rehearsals, we put off changing or adding to our inventory until three weeks before our Spokane Fair date, just before Labor Day. With ten straight days of performing, we had chosen not to book The Palomar for the two weekends preceding the fair.

Finding a reliable way to vary our program each evening for ten straight days was going to be a challenge. Everyone pitched in during the three-a-week meetings and rehearsals to work on the play lists. We could shuffle the order of play, but we needed alternate material on each night and, if possible, add fresh material. Fran and Gina were in charge of finding the music and they worked tirelessly to come up with new songs. Almost all of them were accepted by the group, a testament to their judgment and knowledge of our abilities.

We chose a nice mix of country and rock, always wanting to give the audience a good, rocking start and a big finish. It was pretty hot that August, and the weatherman indicated it would remain so for the first half of September. We had to take that into account as well. But we were diligent and stuck with our task, rehearsing steadily to make sure we sounded as good as we possibly could. Over the summer, we had more than a few comments about how professional and tight we sounded. I put that down to rehearsal and discipline.

We used a large cooler that we parked on stage with cold water and some energy drinks if someone wanted a boost. Most of the time, water was enough, but for a very hot day, the energy drinks were helpful. Doreen had bought a bunch of discount towels at Walmart that we used to wipe off the sweat when it was really hot. She was a very thoughtful woman and although there wasn't anything she could do for us in the club scene, she was almost essential for the outdoor sessions.

It was the week before the big Labor Day fair in Spokane when disaster struck. We were moving some of our amplifiers to the stage, bringing them in from Stan's van. I didn't see how it happened, but Stan tripped over a cable and fell. He tried to protect the amplifier and as a result, it landed on his left wrist. There was no doubt it was broken. The swelling appeared almost immediately.

Doreen gathered him up and we walked him to their van. She was taking him to the hospital while we hung around the warehouse, wondering what we were going to do without our leader and drummer.

"Do you think he'll be alright by Saturday?" Fran asked.

I shook my head. "No. It's broken, I'm sure. He's going to be gone for a while. We're going to have to find another drummer."

"Where?" Gina asked.

"I don't know. But Doreen might. What do you think, Bud."

"I think Doreen will be able to help," Bud said, not looking terribly worried, considering.

"Has this kind of thing happened before?" I asked.

Bud shook his head. "Not that I can recall. We've had cases of the flu, but nothing like this."

I pulled a water bottle out of our ever present cooler and sat in a chair, waiting for Doreen and Stan to return from the hospital. It would be a while, I realized, so I called the group together and suggested we work on some things that we would be using in the fair concerts. Thad volunteered to use Stan's drum set to keep a beat for us and that would help.

We must have practiced for an hour before Doreen returned with Stan sporting a plastic cast. We gathered around, wanting to know what the situation was. Doreen took over at that point.

"Stan has a simple fracture of two small bones in his wrist. I can't recall the names, but they are quite painful and he's going to be out of commission for five to six weeks."

I heard the collective groan from the group. I looked at Stan and for some strange reason, he didn't seem very unhappy at all. Maybe they'd given him some pain killers and they were affecting him.

"Stan, do you know anyone who can fill in for you," Gina asked. "You're our leader and a great drummer. We can't have just anybody beating on the drums."

"Don't worry, boys and girls, we've got the best damn drummer in the country to take over for me," Stan said.

I looked at him, thinking those meds must be really messing with his mind. "Who?" I asked.

"Doreen," Stan grinned.

"Doreen?" three or four of exclaimed in unison.

"Doreen," Stan repeated. "She's better than me. Why do you think I married her?"

I looked at Doreen and saw her smiling too.

"You can do this?" I asked.

"I can ... and ... I will. I retired a few years ago, but I haven't forgotten how. That drum kit in our basement is mine. But I'll work with Stan's set."

"Well I'll be damned," Al said. "How's that for a stroke of luck?"

"Amazing," Gina agreed.

Bud just stood there grinning. He knew all along.

We didn't bother with any more rehearsal that evening. Doreen wanted to get Stan home and make him comfortable. The wrist was going to be pretty sore for a few days and he was going to need help to do some basic things like feeding himself and tying his shoelaces.

The next evening, we gathered at the warehouse and watched as Doreen went over the positioning of the kit, making sure things were where she wanted them. I was feeling a lot better watching that. It gave me confidence that she really did know what she was doing. We set up the play list for our session and began to run through it. Within seconds, we knew that Doreen was going to be fine. I think that was the point when I went back to breathing. As the evening progressed, I could tell that we weren't going to be sacrificing anything to have Doreen on the drums. She was better than good. She was great.

Doreen was in her early forties, a slim, attractive brunette with long curly hair well down her back. Usually it was in a ponytail, but Stan told me later that when she played professionally she let her hair down and it flew all over the place when she was playing. That was one of the things that attracted Stan to her and it was her trademark. Eventually, they met, dated, and married. Doreen gradually gave up the drums in favor of Stan taking over for her. Stan claimed Doreen was always better than he was, but she had a head for business, and that had been her role for some years. Now, with his injury, she was coming out of retirement and rescuing us at a critical moment. She was still a fine looking woman and, along with my two ladies, would enhance the appearance of the band.

"Gina, Ed, I wanted to talk to you about something," Fran began one evening.

"Sure," I said. "What's up?"

"It's about Olivia and me. We're back together. I mean ... like ... together together."

I was about to say something congratulatory when Gina jumped up and landed on Fran, hugging and kissing her.

"Oh, Fran, I'm so happy for you," she said tearfully.

I went to the tangled pair and we finally managed a group hug and mutual congratulations.

"Are you going to live together?" Gina asked. She was a couple of steps ahead of my similar questions.

"Yes, we want to. Olivia has her own apartment. There's no roommate, so we don't have to worry about privacy. I'll catch a ride with you guys or someone to rehearsal and the concerts. Olivia has a car, so I can probably get a ride with her. I hope that's okay with you guys."

"Of course it is," Gina said, looking at me. "I know Ed wants to meet her. I'd like to see her again, too."

"Gina's right, Fran. This is your decision to make and we are both happy for you. And I do want to meet her."

That brought about another round of hugs and a few tears from the girls. I truly was happy for Fran. She had suffered a bit seeing how Gina and I were behaving right in front of her. She didn't have the opportunity to feel the same love that we did until Olivia arrived back on the scene.

"There's something else I wanted to talk to you about," Fran said. "Olivia used to write poetry when we were in school. It wasn't kid's stuff either. It was really good and she got really good marks for it. After she went to college, she kept writing and even had a small book of her poems published. We've been talking about an idea we both had. We were wondering if we could write some songs. We've been talking about how the band doesn't have any original music and this would be a chance to have some. Naturally, all the band would have to agree that they liked the music, but we'd like to try."