Chapter 2

Jenny woke rested and feeling good, for a few minutes she just lay in bed. The music from last night still running through her head, it felt fantastic to be playing again. She reached out her hand to the cold empty space where Pat used to lie. Sadness filled her heart and she could feel the sharp sting of tears in her eyes. Lying in bed Jenny bawled her eyed out, the mournful cry of the albatross filling her soul.

Eventually she pulled herself out of bed and made for the shower. Standing under the hot jets of water Jenny decided to do a little stock take on her life. At twenty six she was pretty much alone in life. Pat had gone the same way as her only previous long-term boyfriend, hang around for two or three years and then get caught fucking someone else. She had no family, her mother had died giving birth to Jenny so she had no recollection of the woman save from a few faded photographs. Her father had been her whole world all of the years she had been growing up, his solid strength had been her support through all of the problems a teenaged girl had to face. He had dealt with even the most personal things a girl would usually talk to her mother about in his calm strong way. When Jenny was eighteen Stan, her father, was diagnosed with bowel cancer. For two years she watched the quiet strength of her father drain away until all that was left was a feeble shell of the man. Through her father’s illness Jenny worked hard on her degree. Her father had managed to attend her graduation ceremony, Jenny’s heart had almost burst with pride at the look in her fathers eyes that day.

But what use had it been, she had a degree in Music & Music Theory and she worked at the checkout of a supermarket.

Jack had been Jenny’s first serious boyfriend, he had moved in two months after her father’s death. A year later he moved out in a hurry when she caught him fucking some teenager on the living room sofa.

Then came Pat, again he moved in quickly, and nearly three years later he moved out just as quickly.

Jenny wondered if she had just been trying to replace her father. She didn’t enjoy the sex with either guy very much, it was okay but she never came and always had to finish herself off with her fingers.

“Fucking hell girl,” she told herself, “You’re twenty six years old, daddy’s gone, now Pat’s gone. You just have got to deal with it and move on.”

She knew moving physically on wouldn’t be too difficult, she knew she was a pretty girl. Slim with large breasts for her frame, Jenny was aware of the attraction they held for guys. Her face was flawless, even though she rarely did anything to it and almost never wore makeup. Her dark brown hair was long and glossy. She looked good and she knew it, but did she want to just move another guy in to repeat everything the last two had done? If she was truly honest with herself she really didn’t have any real emotional connection with either of her boyfriends, they were just better than being alone.

Drying herself after her shower Jenny pulled on an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and went down for some breakfast.

An hour later she was rummaging around in the back bedroom to get her guitars out. She found the black case of her P Bass easily but struggled to find the larger case of her six. Eventually she decided to move everything out of the room.

By lunchtime the only thing left in the room were the two guitar cases and Boris.

Boris was a huge amp built for her by her friend Josh. It was ugly it had to be said. The middle of the five foot tall case held two 18” Cats sitting above the 36 inch SubCat. Perched on top of the speaker housing were twin 600 Watt valve amps. Josh had built everything from the cases, the Amps and even the crossovers. She fondly remembered Josh. The gay Music Electronics student had been her best friend for years until he had fallen out with Pat. Poor old Josh had developed a crush on Pat, when Pat had found out he went ballistic and threatened Josh with all sorts of violent ends. Six months later Josh had phoned her to say he was in London, he had secured a job with a top studio and was going to live his dreams, Jenny had been happy for him but she still missed him terribly.

Jenny plugged in the leads and powered up Boris. Taking the guitars out off their cases Jenny looked at the strings doubtfully. They would need restringing before tonight. Tuning up the P Bass was easy and Jenny plugged it in and played a few notes. Boris didn’t make a sound.

“Looks like we’ve lost some valves, now where were the spares?” Jenny found the box for the spare valves, and found it was empty.

“Ok, shopping time, lets go and see Paul.”

Jenny drove into town and went to the small music shop where she had always bought her strings, there was a young girl at the counter serving a customer. She looked somehow familiar but Jenny couldn’t place seeing her before.

“Oh hi, the crying Bassist.” Jenny was surprised at being recognised and flushed.

“Uh, yeah sorry about that. Um is Paul about.”

“Paul? Oh you mean the guy that used to own the shop, nah he sold it to my dad last year. Can I help you?”

“Um, ok, can I have a pack of heavy Bass strings for a four, and a pack for a six please?”

“Yeah sure we got both. Anything else?” She asked picking a couple of packets off of a rack behind her.

“I’m not sure, do you still sell amp valves?” Jenny asked, if the new owners didn’t stock them it would be a pain getting Boris up and running.

“Yeah we stock some, they don’t sell that well but dad reckons you can’t get a decent sound from solid state or micro. He can be a bit stuffy on some things.” The girl almost sniffed as she said that.

“Well stuffy or not he’s got a point. I prefer the sound from a valve amp.”

“Which ones do you want.”

“Uh, if you’ve got them I’ll take a dozen each of KT66, ECC81, and ECC83.”

“Fucking hell, oops sorry, dad’ll kill me if he hears me talking like that in the shop. What the hell are you powering?”

“Well most are for spares, Boris has got twin 600’s” Jenny said with pride.

“Boris?”

“Yeah well the tech guy that built it for me named it and it stuck.”

“Cool. If you just wait here I’ll see what we got.”

A few minutes later the girl was back.

“We’ve got the dozen KT66 but only six each of the others. I can order them for you, they will probably be in by the middle of the week.”

“That’s fine I’ll take what you’ve got and call back say Wednesday. Will that be ok?”

“Yeah sure.”

Jenny paid for her parts, which took all of the money Julie had given her last night plus some of her own cash. And saying goodbye to the girl she headed home.

It took her until two to replace all the strings, tune the guitars and fix Boris. She loaded the guitar cases into her car and took down the two head amps. But there was no way she would be able to handle getting the two enclosures down the stairs.

“Hi Sue, is Terry about, I could do with a hand?” Jenny asked as her neighbour answered the door.

“Hi Jenny yeah no problem, come in a minute and I’ll get him.”

Sue went to the kitchen door and called to her husband who was gardening. Coming back to the hall she gave Jenny an appraising glance, they had been neighbours for years, Jenny had done some babysitting for them back when she was at school and Uni. They had spent quite a bit of time together over the years. Sue had raised her two sons and still had time to be like a mother to Jenny.

“Did I hear Pat storming out last night?”

“Yeah, I found out he had been sleeping around.” She smiled wryly, “Just like the last one.”

“Oh dear, was it some of his stuff you needed a hand with?” Sue looked concerned, she couldn’t believe that Jenny looked so cheerful considering.

“No, I got invited to play with some people, I can’t get my amp down the stairs.” she grinned at Sue, “It was Terry that hauled it up there in the first place so he should be able to get it back down. At least I hope he can or I’m stuck.”

A moment later Terry arrived, the big builder was quick to agree to help his young neighbour and they soon had the speakers loaded into Jenny’s car.

“Take care then girl, if you need us you’ve got Sue’s mobile number yes?” Terry gave her a hug before she got in the car and then watched her drive off. Both he and his wife liked the young girl, she had it rough growing up with no mum, then loosing her dad like she did. They both had a lot of admiration for Jenny and how she had handled her problems.

Jenny found the club without too many problems. Silk’s was a large nondescript building just before you got onto the industrial estate, you wouldn’t notice it unless you were actually looking for it. At the front of the building there was just a fire door with the word Silk’s painted in three inch red letters beside of the door. The entrance she eventually found to be down a covered alley at the side of the building. There Jenny found a pair of smoked glass doors with Silk’s on each one in a pink flowing script.