Chapter 48: Good Woman, Good Man

Ronnie and Carla were the first to arrive and I decided that going after them for getting there after me was petty. I held my soda bottle up in a toast and leaned back and looked at the ceiling. It struck me that we had no record in the Club-Club of our friends’ attendance.

I was thinking that I should have our friends take a thick marker and sign the walls or ceiling. I wondered what it would take to get Geddy and the guys and Charlie and Ted and the others to stop in sometime and autograph the room.

My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket to see that it was a text from Lynn.

“Our friend has landed. Will be on our way as soon as we get luggage. LuvU”

I responded with an emoji. I had just learned what they were and how to send them in a text. Soon a smiley-heart was flying through the ether to my first wife. The door opened and five little cowgirls ran into the room.

“What is this?” I asked with my hands on top of my head and a big smile on my face.

“Daddy! We’re cowgirls!” Margaret Erin announced as she did a spin around to show off, followed by her sisters.

They were all wearing gingham skirts and flowered blouses that matched their hair color. Their boots were all shiny and made them all about two inches taller. The door opened again and Erin and Blossom walked in dressed the same, except for their big pregnant bellies. Erin was over six feet tall thanks to her boots, add to that her huge breasts and her full and flowing blonde hair and she made my little Latina look like a miniature human being.

Blossom had her long black hair pulled back in a very long braid with a matching gingham ribbon on the end holding it all together. Both the moms did a pirouette like their daughters, giving me a hint that this was rehearsed. I stood and kissed each wife and gave loving pats on both bellies and butts.

“Erin, what brought this on?” I asked as I took my seat and Margaret jumped onto the couch next to me.

“We did this to honor our new friend.” Erin said.

“Um, if it is who I have been guessing it is, I’m not sure the cowgirl look is gonna work. I mean it looks wonderful and all my little loves look fantastic and you two are awesome, but I hope it works out.”

“Lynn is dressed the same way, and she knows who it is, so I’m assuming that she wouldn’t pull such a rotten trick on us.” Erin surmised.

“Doesn’t matter! I love getting to dress cowgirly. It makes me feel like a Texan again and you know how Texas girls are in bed.” Blossom bent over the side of the couch and leaned in to give me a kiss, but at the last instant the beautiful little Latina licked my neck and ear, sending shivers down my side.

“Paul, ready for the sound check?” Ronnie asked, entering the room.

“Yeah, Ronnie. Erin, where are the rest of the kids?” I looked my big beautiful wife straight in the tits as I spoke.

“Well they’re not down there!” She put her hand on my face and shook me. “They are in the kids’ room next door with Bill, Gwen, Dara and Trent.”

“Everyone showed up!? This must be a heck of a friend.”

“Yup! Lynn said it was. See you after the first set. Come on girls!” Erin kissed me and then she herded the Herd out, taking Blossom by the hand as they left the room.

I walked down onto the stage to find everyone there and playing a general blues riff. As each person soloed the sound guy dialed in their instrument. He did two settings for each instrument and mic. One was for general play and the other was for when the player soloed and we wanted to up their sound a bit.

I stepped to the mic and began to hum and sing the way I would when I was in the background, then I got the high sign and I belted out a few lines. When we were done, I looked down to see Erin on the floor checking with the servers and bartenders and security guys. She looked awesome and everyone who worked there loved her. She looked up and blew me a kiss. I caught it and put my hand on my crotch. Erin made an overly dramatic shocked expression and then smiled and gave me a thumbs up to let me know the floor was ready.

“Ok gang, let’s play the doors open and set the mood. Ready? 1-2-1-2-3-4.”

The band went off on the Black Crowes’ “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” and the security guys opened the doors, allowing the early arrivers to rush for their favorite tables and get the first round of food and drink orders taken. The regulars all waved at us at various times and we waved back. The buzz began to grow as the sign behind the band changed from “The Savannah Band with Paul O’Dell” to “The Savannah Band with Paul O’Dell and Friends!”

That signaled that tonight was going to be special and the cell phones came out as the news was quickly spread by word of mouth. We broke our song in the middle by changing over to T-Rex “Bang-A-Gong” and several dozen patrons began to dance around their tables since both songs had a nice dance beat. When we finished the song, we slid right back into the last verse of “Hands To Yourself” and rocked it out. When we got done the crowd applauded and I waved my arm back, presenting the band.

“Hey! Welcome to The Club-Club!” I turned to point to the sign behind us. “It looks like we will have a friend with us tonight. I have no idea who it is, but my wife Lynn is on her way here and they should be here in time for the second set. Let’s go over the general rules. Rule #3, Watch out for each other. If you see someone that needs help, let security know. Rule #2, If you drink, don’t drive. We will lock your car in our secured lot and get you a ride home if you need one. And last and most important. You know what it is. Rule #1, all together now!”

The entire crowd recited Rule #1 with me.

“DON’T BE A DICK!”

“That’s right! Ronnie! Hit it!”

Ronnie took off with a wild piano solo and led us into the next song. I looked up to the kids’ room above the sound booth and the girls were all dancing with the grandparents and the place seemed to be building a great vibe. As I scanned the room, while Wendy was ripping a sax solo I saw John Firth, the guy that had hit all three of my wives before I dove off the stage to head butt him.

John walked over to Erin and spoke to her, it seemed to be very polite, and soon Blossom was there as well and John spoke to her as well. I was getting ready to signal security, but my head guy was watching and was looking back and forth between the wives and me. As I finished the song I yelled out loudly, “Is everyone doing good?”

Erin looked up at me and gave me a thumbs up, Blossom did the same and I gave one back as I made eye contact with John and gave him an OK sign and he smiled. Erin laughed and she shook John’s hand, followed by Blossom. I felt better and looked at my security guy and he smiled and nodded. We finished our set and the sound guy began to play some music.

I followed the gang upstairs to the green room and took a nice cold water out of the refrigerator. We began to dissect the set and everyone seemed happy with some of the impromptu riffs and solos and when we finished that part of our postmortem the door opened and Lynn walked in followed by a short woman with thick wavy red hair that had a slight streak of silver in it. I stood and the band all gathered around as we welcomed Bonnie Raitt to the green room.

“Welcome to the Club-Club, Ms Raitt. I’m Paul O’Dell.” I held out my hand and she shook it.

“Hi Lover! Well we got here. Bonnie is hungry so I’m going to get some food for her.” Lynn said and then she disappeared out the door and picked up the wall phone we had installed to talk to the kitchen during shows.

“Ms. Raitt, we are so happy to have you.”

“First, please call me Bonnie. Second, what is the plan?”

“Well, Bonnie, we just finished the first set. For the second set we will do some more original stuff. Most of the set is dance blues and dance country. You are welcome to sit in at any time. Don’t feel that you need to sit in at all. You haven’t heard us play yet and you might not like the way Ronnie plays piano.”

“Hey! Don’t be picking on my husband like that! We all know that Rodney is the one who messes up the most.” Carla spoke loudly.

“What!? Where did that come from?” Rodney Strong, our guitar player, and the quietest guy in the band seemed amazed.

“Well Rodney, no one ever picks on you and I didn’t want you to be left out!” Carla said.

I looked at Bonnie and she seemed to be worried about what she got herself into.

“Hey, gang. You’re scaring Bonnie. Bonnie we are pulling each others legs. I think that as you sit here and eat and listen, you will be very happy to join us. Normally Lynn would be the one who would would rein in our craziness. Trust me that we are really a tight knit bunch.”

“If you say so. Lynn warned me on the way over that you all were nuts.”

“She said we were nuts?” Carla asked.

“Actually she said bat shit crazy.”

“Ok. That’s better.” Carla said, sounding almost relieved.

Bonnie opened her eyes wide and then rolled them as she realized that Lynn was right.

“Show time.” The sound guys voice came over the intercom.

“Ok, Bonnie, Lynn should be back with your food shortly. There is cold water, tea and soda in the fridge. We don’t drink alcohol when we play.”

“That’s good considering how nuts you are sober!” She laughed at that.

“As I said, feel free to strap in and join us when you’re ready. Hit the intercom button and the sound guy will tune in your wireless rig and then dial you in when you begin to play. He is really good.”

“Ok.”

“Come on gang let’s show the nice lady that we aren’t as bad as she thinks.”

I led the band onto the stage and the crowd greeted us as we opened with some instrumental doodling before breaking into “Oh Well” our trademark jam. We tore it up pretty good and then broke into one of our original songs. Ronnie, Carla and Wendy had composed it and it was a rocking dance tune. The crowd was up and shaking their butts.

We got to the solos and when it was Rodney Strong’s turn on guitar he played a lick and suddenly the lick was echoed back to him. He played some more and the riff was repeated but with more slide to the notes. He ripped out another riff and as he finished Bonnie Raitt walked out of the door to the green room and walked next to Rodney.

They proceeded to wow the crowd for several minutes and when we finished the song I stepped up to the mic.