MAJ
“In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.”
-T. S. Eliot/THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK
“Are you going to eat that?” Sara smiled, eyeing her older brother’s untouched ear of fire-roasted corn on the cob.
“You’ll get fat!” Leya, Sara’s older sister intercepted.
“Don’t listen to her.” Arturo transferred the ear of corn from his paper plate to his baby sister’s plate.
“You didn’t eat anything.” Arturo’s mom interjected.
“He’s still love sick for Zita, that...”
“Watch your language, missy!” Ernie, their father, reminded her of the ground rules. “This is a family tradition. Every 4th of July we spend the day at the beach and then watch the fireworks from the pier.”
“It’s not MY tradition.” Arturo mumbled to himself.
“I heard that!” Lilybeth slapped the back of her son’s head. “Don’t you disrespect your father just because now you are Mr. High School Graduate. This may be our last 4th of July together.”
“I’m going to college, mom, I’m not leaving the planet.”
“We hardly see you since you started your rock and roll band. Once you start college you’ll be busy all the time.” Lilybeth sighed and kissed her son on the forehead. Arturo blushed and looked around to see if any of his friends had seen the kiss. Several of the guys he’d gone to school with were at nearby concrete tables hammering away at tasty crabs with rented wooden hammers. A few made a point of smiling and waving.
“Oh God!” Arturo sank lower on his bench, looked up at the starless sky and at the boats bobbing in the marina. He hoped the cool ocean breeze would remove the blush from his face.
“Stop tormenting your mother!” Arturo’s father commanded. “You are going to have fun tonight whether you like it or not!”
“Lilybeth! Come to pa-pa! They are playing our song! Come dance with me like the night we met!” Ernie held his hand out to help his wife rise from the table.
“You are getting Alzheimer’s! That is not our song!”
“It will be.” Ernie winked. He salsa-danced Lilybeth towards the roaming mariachi band, slipped them a few dollars and a request for the song, “UNCHAINED MELODY”.
Arturo sank even lower in his bench. His parents were the only couple dancing on the patio. They were graceful dancers but he was still embarrassed. Suddenly a thick fog began to fly into the harbor like a swarm of locusts. None of them had seen a fog appear so quickly.
“It will ruin the fireworks show!” Someone looked up from their dinner and commented.
“It might make it better.” Another stranger suggested.
“Maybe they will have to cancel it?” Another person threw into the conjecturing. “Let’s ask.”
Arturo was grateful for the curtain of fog and low visibility. Suddenly his cell phone rang and he felt even more relief when he saw it was Zita calling. Before he could answer, Leya snatched the phone from his hands and took little Sara for a wild piggy-back ride into the arcade.
Arturo was hot on her heels but not fast enough. Leya and Sara already had tickets for the Tilt-A-Whirl ride and sat in their seats with the safety bar down, ready to go. Arturo had to stand in line to buy a ticket. He got on the ride in a car next to theirs and demanded that Leya toss him the cell phone.
“I will, AFTER I finish telling her off. She called me the “B” word!” Leya and Sara started screaming because the ride started and spun them around faster and faster. Everyone started to scream except Arturo. He seemed to deflate and disappear into his car, quiet like a coat of paint.
“I can’t believe you called me the “B” word!” Leya shouted into the cell phone. “You made my brother pay for your prom dress, then you dump him and go to the prom with that rich creep, Eddy Dexter! Now you want him back! It ain’t gonna happen. He don’t want you anymore!”
The aggressive fog even began to enter the arcade. No one had ever seen a fog as determined as this one. This fog meant to blanket every corner of the night. It moved fast like last-minute shoppers madly in love on Valentine’s Day at closing time in the only store still open.
“Leya! Throw me the phone or I’ll give your Barbie Doll collection to the Goodwill, I swear it!” Arturo shouted over the screaming Tilt-A-Whirl riders.
It took some skill, considering that the carts they were riding in were spinning, but Leya loved her Barbie dolls and she became the Tiger Woods of cell phone tossers. Arturo caught the phone but found he had lost the connection and had to dial Zita’s number.
“What is all that screaming?” Zita sounded impatient.
“I’m on the arcade ride with my sisters.” Arturo explained.
“Leya is RUDE!” Zita complained in a pouting voice that she always used when she wanted something.
“She thinks she is my manager. I tried to fire her but she won’t leave. Hang on a minute. The ride is ending. THANK GOD!” Arturo jumped out of his seat, ran out of the arcade, found a quiet spot where the only sound was the ocean waves, the buoy and the sailboat halyards tinkling in the wind.
“I can’t believe you broke our 4th of July tradition. I’m wearing the underwear you gave me for Christmas.” Zita purred into the phone.
“You went to the prom with Eddy, Zita.” Arturo said with a broken heart.
“Because I thought you didn’t love me anymore.” Zita played it to the hilt.
“I told you I couldn’t buy you the Tahitian pearl to go with your gown because we had to pay the drummer or he was going to quit, Zita, you knew that.” Arturo pleaded his case. He was blind with love and happy to hear her voice again, even if she was giving him the usual chastisement.
“He quit after you paid him.” Zita poured salt in the wound.
“I know. Drummers are crazy. I said I was sorry. How many times can I say I’m sorry, Zita, before you believe me?” He begged her.
“You KNOW what would make me believe you. The pearl shop is still open. Daddy is holding the plane for you. We’ll party in the hotel at Catalina like last year, if you know what I mean.” Zita used all her powers as a seductress.
“You mean Eddy didn’t buy it for you already?” Arturo was still hurt and felt defensive.
“Eddy! Spaghetti! You know I just wanted to know if you really love me, Artie. I wanted you to fight for me. I’m the one with the doubts. You know I love you. You know it, Artie, don’t you?” Zita pulled out all the stops. Arturo melted on cue.
“You know I love you baby. There is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you. I’d give my life for you, you know it.” Tears rolled down his cheeks. Zita’s charm had broken him in two.
“Then you better get a move on. The pearl shop closes in 15 minutes and daddy said he’ll only hold the plane another 45 minutes. You have an hour to get your buns here, if you really love me.”
“I’ll be there, Zita. Wait for me. I’ll never let you down again.” She hung up without saying goodbye. He sobbed but pulled himself together when he ran around the corner where his family could see him.
“Where’s the fire?!” Arturo’s father called out.
“Business, dad! I gotta go now. I’ll explain later!”
“Stay!” Arturo’s mother cried out. “Stay baby! My baby!” Before Lilybeth got the words out her son was out of sight.
“He has to learn for himself.” Ernie comforted his grief stricken wife. “What is the matter with you anyway? You act like this has never happened before. He spent the last 4th of July with her too. What’s the matter?”
“I don’t know. I just want my baby by my side. What is wrong with that? I have a bad feeling. I can’t tell you why.” Arturo’s mom fretted.
“Look. It’s alright. The rest of our children are here and they need your love too. Artie is going to be fine. He’s in love. You know how it is. He’s ok. I thought I was going to die when I first saw you, but look at me, I’m still standing. Love is strange but it always finds a way. Enjoy the night. Look. You happen to be with the most handsome man in the entire world. You are a fortunate lady in case you do not realize it.” Ernie grinned at his wife. She could not help but grin back. But it was hard to enjoy the night. The fireworks display did not go well. The fog was so thick that the fireworks exploded above it and only filled the night with eerie, unearthly strobes of red lightning instead of the usual beautiful patterns.
“God save my baby.” Lilybeth prayed out loud without realizing it as they stood on the pier watching the fog-muted fireworks show.
“What?” Ernie asked her.
“Nothing.” Lilybeth said. “I was just thinking about Artie.”
“He’s ok.” Ernie said. “You know what, pretty ma-ma?”
“What?”
“Let the kids watch the fireworks.”
“Leya, Sara, stay put, your mom and I will be back before the show is over.” Ernie told his daughters.
“Let’s go in the nightclub. I want to buy you a drink. I want to dance with you. Do you want to dance with me?” Ernie asked his wife for a date.
“Give me a minute to think about it, mister.” She teased her husband. “I just met you.”
“You gave me three obnoxious babies, what do you mean you just met me, woman?”
“One dance. No wandering hands.”
“On my life! I will be the gentleman you have been praying for. Pray no more. Here I am, at your disposal!”
* * *
Arturo left the pearl shop on the pier and the owner turned the sign around so it read, “Closed”. Arturo ran up the stairs near the pier police station where he always parked his motorcycle. On the way he noticed something odd. A little girl was trying to drag a large amplifier up a flight of stairs a few yards away from his motorbike.
He was pressed for time but could not stand to see the little girl struggle.
“Let me help you with that, little girl.” Arturo offered.
“My name is Maj. I have really big muscles, for a girl.”
“I’m sure you do. I just don’t want you to fall down these steps.” Arturo was diplomatic.
“Besides, my daddy will be here soon.”
“I thought this place was closed. This is building 125, right? Used to be XINHDOI GLOBAL FUSION FOOD?”
“Yep. It’s a nightclub now. My daddy put it on the map.”
“I must have had my head in the sand for a long time!” Arturo marveled at how he could have missed such a thing.
“You sure you’re at the right address?” he questioned the little girl.
“Oh yeah. It’s my birthday. Tonight my daddy is going to sing Happy Birthday like Elvis and my mom is going to sing it like Marilyn Monroe. You have to stay. They are very funny. They come back here every year because this is where they met. I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t met here.”
“There’s nobody here, little girl.” Arturo was surprised when the door to building 125 opened. He peered inside. It was decorated for a grand birthday celebration.
“Maj.” The little girl corrected him.
Arturo put the amp down near the stage and turned to the little girl.
“Look, Maj, I’ll go next door and get a police officer to stay with you until your parents show up. You shouldn’t be here alone.”
“You stay with me.”
“I can’t. I have to go see my girlfriend. She’s waiting for me.”
“Stay just a few minutes.”
“Just a few minutes.” Arturo squinted at a guitar that gave him the chills. It was just like the one he was going to buy if he hadn’t bought the Tahitian pearl for Zita.
“You can play it. Dad won’t mind.” The little girl said as if she was reading his thoughts. “Can you play the song, “THE FLAME” like Cheap Trick?” Maj dared Arturo.
“My specialty. I can play anything I’ve ever heard.”
“Wow. That’s what my daddy says all the time! Can you play like my daddy? My daddy plays really good. He’s famous all over the world.”
Arturo got lost in the music. The instrument was so fine. He played, “THE FLAME” with all his heart and soul.
“You play like my dad.”
“Thanks. I think. Look. I gotta go now. Let’s go to the police station so you will be safe until your dad gets here, ok?”
“One more song!”
“What?”
“LA BAMBA!”
“You’re kiddin’?!”
“Grandma and Grandpa love it! Can you play it?”
“There is no ‘can’, only ‘will’”.
“WILL you play it?”
“OK. But this is the last one.” Arturo closed his eyes and went deep inside himself to remember all the notes. When he opened his eyes a base player, drummer, keyboard player and rhythm guitar players were playing with him and the dance floor was crammed with happy people dancing their hearts out. One old couple reminded him of his mom and pop. They danced with the grace and fire of Flamingo dancers. He gave them something to dance to and played as if his life depended upon it. His fingertips began to bleed but he could feel no pain. The crowd screamed with delight.
No sooner than he finished “LA BAMBA”, the band began to play another song. Arturo was perplexed.
“Don’t just stand there! Play it! It’s the number one song in the world. Everybody knows it! Let it out!” The base player commanded.
Arturo went with the flow and played along. The crowd screamed for joy. Arturo wasn’t sure how he did it, but somehow he kept up with the rest of the band.
* * *
“I really have to go now.” Arturo whispered to Maj after the song was over. “I’m late and my girlfriend is not exactly the understanding type.”
“My daddy is going to be coming up the steps any minute. Please give these to him.” Maj handed Arturo a scarf and a letter.
Arturo walked halfway down the steps only to see his sister Sara pointing at him.
“Look! Artie is still here!”
“Artie, thank God!” his mother cried out.
“I thought you’d be in Catalina with your high rolling girlfriend by now!” his father chimed in.
“Something came up.” Arturo pointed towards the steps of building number 125.
“What?” his sister Leya protested.
“That place has been boarded shut for YEARS.” Arturo’s dad agreed with his daughter. “There’s nobody there. Have you been drinking, son?”
“Put the bike in the back of the truck and come home.” his mother insisted.
Arturo checked his voice mail. There was a very short message from Zita.
“Loser! Forget you!” Zita hissed.
* * *
The next morning Lilybeth woke up Arturo to tell him that there had been a terrible accident. Zita’s plane had crashed in the ocean due to the heavy fog. Zita, her father, mother and Eddy had all perished in the crash.
Several days later when Arturo felt strong enough to travel again, he went back to the King Harbor Pier to return the Tahitian Pearl. On the way back to his bike he stopped by building 125. Indeed, it was boarded up. And yet he still had the scarf and the letter at home in his chest of drawers. He didn’t know what to make of it. He was looking out over the Pacific Ocean when a beautiful young lady asked him what he was looking at.
“Nothing.” he said. “It’s just hard to believe it is so clear now when it was so foggy just a few days ago. What are you doing here?”
“My daddy just rented this place!” She stood tall and proud on the steps of building 125. “It’s going to be the hottest night club in the South Bay
“You mean besides my own? “You have a band?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, if you’re any good my dad might book you. He hates bad bands. He’d rather play the juke box than book a bad band. What’s your name?”
“Arturo”
“Hi. I’m June. I was born in December but ma-ma and daddy called me June. Go figure.”
Arturo played it close to the vest and did not speak the first words that came to his mind. Long after they were married he confessed to her how he figured they called her June because she was hotter than any summer night, that the winter snows probably melted the moment she was born, that his frozen heart sure did. He had been so convinced that he could never love again and she proved him wrong.
* * *
Several years later when Arturo’s band was famous round the world, they still kept the 4th of July tradition of the family reunion on King Harbor Pier. After the fireworks show and a crab dinner, Arturo’s band would play a set at June’s father’s nightclub for old time’s sake. The song he thought he learned so many years ago with the phantom band that didn’t really exist, never left him. The melody haunted him and his agent assured him it did not exist anywhere except in Arturo’s head, so Arturo’s band recorded the song on their first CD and named it after the apparition that inspired it and it became an overnight international success. The whole world was humming the tune. June became pregnant and insisted they name their first born after the song that saved her father’s nightclub from folding and put them all on the map.
At this 4th of July reunion, Arturo had an eerie feeling of déjà vu. For the sheer heck of it he sang “Happy Birthday” to his daughter, Maj, with an Elvis twang. He was shocked when his wife appeared on the stage in a white beaded gown and platinum wig singing “Happy Birthday” like Marilyn Monroe. He had a strange feeling the entire evening. Maj had run up to the stage and given him a present. When he got home, after she was tucked in bed, he opened it. It was a scarf with a card that simply read, “I love you daddy”.
June asked Arturo what was the matter with him, why was he up most of the night digging in boxes in the attic.
He found what he was looking for, that scarf from 2005 and the letter he had never delivered or opened. He opened it.
All it said was, “I love you, daddy.” It was the same handwriting. It was the same scarf.
“I’m comin’ to bed now!” Arturo shouted down to June. “I was looking at some old stuff and remembering how lucky we are to have each other.”
Arturo kissed his sleeping daughter on the forehead and went to his wife.
“You’re crying! Why are you crying?” June worried.
“It’s a family tradition from my mother’s side. We always cry on the 4th of July. Ask my mom if you don’t believe me.” He dried his eyes and winked at his wife. “Hey pretty lady, have I told you lately that you mean the world to me?”
“The feeling is mutual, Artie.” June winked back.
- the end -
No comments:
Post a Comment