Chapter 4: The Very Thought of You...

Charlie woke as they were back in L.A. on the 101, driving West, going past the 405 and towards the San Fernando Valley. He realized that Sid had fallen asleep leaning on his shoulder, beneath his outstretched arm. She seemed so peaceful that he kept still, not wanting to wake here before he needed to. He looked at her face as she slept.

Of course, even though he tried not to wake her, just the small movements he made, and the change in his breathing, did wake her.

She lifted her head and looked up at him.

“Sorry — I must have fallen asleep. I hope I didn’t bother you,” she said, and then smiled.

“Not at all,” Charlie said, thinking to himself how nice it had been to be cuddled up with an attractive woman, and how long it had been since he’d wanted to be that close to a member of the opposite sex.

“We’ll drop you by your place first,” he told her.

“Oh, good. You can come in and meet the others in the band!”

Charlie almost frowned at the idea. Then he got a smile back on his face.

“Sure. Okay. But just for a little while. I have been away from home for quite a while, and I really have to get back there.”

Sid nodded in agreement and didn’t push the issue.

The driver pulled up to a modest place in a neighborhood off Topanga Canyon Boulevard, on the west side, the way towards the beach. Before the driver could open the door, Charlie and Sid were out, so the driver went to the back to open the trunk.

Charlie grabbed Sid’s bag from the back, while she took the gown, hanging from the hanger inside the car, and they walked together up to the house.

Sid opened the door and called out, “Is everybody decent in there?”

There was a group response, “Yeah, come on in.” Sid looked back at Charlie, smiled and walked in while he followed.

Sitting in the living room of the bungalow with the TV on, were the four members of Sid’s band.

“Girls! This is Charlie Turner, who is helping us get our songs ready for the long-promised album!

“Charlie, this is Linda James, our bass player,” Linda smiled and waved at Charlie.

“Sitting next to her, is Heather Meirlie, our keyboard player.”

“Hiya, Charlie. Look forward to working with you,” Heather said.

“And that rather strange woman, with the orange hair and tattoos all over, is Cat Stevens, our drummer. Her real name is Katherine, but since her last name was ‘Stevens’, somehow, mysteriously, she ended up with the nickname ‘Cat’. But despite her many quirks, she is a great drummer!”

‘Cat’, who had a pair of sticks in her hands, suddenly began a drum roll on the table in front of her, ending with her saying, a la the “Tonight Show”, “And here’s Charlie! Good to meet you.”

“Sitting in the big chair, kind of slouching all over it, is Leslie Hornby, our lead guitar.”

“Great to meet all of you, at last,” came Charlie’s pleasant reply.

“Ladies,” Sid said, “Charlie has already done a couple of things for us. Charlie, why don’t you explain.”

“Sure, but I’ll be quick about it.

“Even before we had a contract signed, I got a copy of some of the audio files that you made of “See you in Heaven.” I used that as an example of what I do — not overwhelming the music, but enhancing the existing music, with some changes, and doing a few tricks to make the music ‘pop’. Sid has a copy of that. But I also did a rough, first cut, at “The First Flower in my Garden.”

“There are two slightly different versions of the song on the flash drive. The first is a rough outline of how I would orchestrate it for your album, if you like it. It still needs a lot of work, but the bones are there. There is also a version that would be very similar, but would only need three to five additional regular players, and a small string section that you could even hire locally, to get most of the sound when you are on the road.

“Now, if you forgive me, I’m going home to my place. I haven’t been there for weeks. And this way you can listen to the music I prepared and discuss it among yourselves without me there.”

As Charlie headed back towards the car, Sid went along with him.

“Thanks for stopping in Charlie. When will we get together to start working on the rest of the album?”

“Hmmm ... Not for a day or two. I really do need to catch up on things around the house. But I’ll give you a call tomorrow and we can set a time.”

Sid once again snuck up on Charlie while he was thinking about schedules and stood up on her toes, and stole a kiss, this time on the edge of his mouth.

“Thank you, Charlie!” she said, over her shoulder as she walked back to the house.

She didn’t quite catch him gently touching the place she had kissed, all the while thinking, “She is client. I don’t do relationships with clients. Remember why you don’t get too close to clients.”

Sid re-entered the house and walked into the den of lionesses!

“Well? What happened? Tell us! Did you sleep with him?

“You mean did she have sex with him, don’t you.”

They all laughed, including Sid.

“No, I did not sleep with him, or have sex with him. I’m not a slut like you Linda!”

“Okay, then. Give us all the details.”

“Well,” she said before breaking into song, “I could have danced all night...”

They all cracked up.

“Yuck! Another one of your oldie songs ‘that your mom likes’.”

Linda looked indignant, “Hey, wait a minute, I like ‘My Fair Lady’ too.”

After that, Sid told them about her day and the special, magical night that she had with Charlie.

It was about an hour after the women stopped their detailed questioning of Sid, who was still aglow and they were worried about her ‘teenage crush’ on a man she had only met the day before (although they admitted it was not every man they met who could get them into a premier performance by a music legend, and then to the party after the show!)