It's Got a Beat, Mr. Jones

You Never Had Much Trouble Conforming

Mary was laying on her stomach on the hotel bed. Bobby wasn't in the room. He was getting breakfast. Odette was asleep in a bed that Bobby and Mary had made from a basket with blankets and small pillows. Mary was still slightly angry with Bobby for the day before.
The door opened and Bobby walked in. He had a bagel in his hand. "I thought you might be hungry," He said.
Mary looked over at him. "I'm not," She said.
"You still angry?" He asked sitting down on the foot of the bed. He had placed the bagel down on the dresser.
Mary nodded.
Bobby sighed. "I wish I hadn't done it..." He said. "It was a stupid thing to do."
"It really was," Mary said looking over at him again.
Bobby crawled over to her and kissed her neck. "Please forgive me," He whispered into her ear.
"Leave me alone," Mary said into the pillow.
Bobby kissed her ear. "Please..." He whispered.
"Leave me alone," Mary repeated.
Odette began to cry. Mary rolled over and pushed Bobby off of her. She picked up Odette from the basket and began to rock her to calm her down. Bobby was sitting on the bed crisscrossed. He stared at Mary as she rocked her baby.
Bobby started to hum quietly. Mary tried to ignore him. Odette needed her diaper changed. Mary glared at Bobby. "Go take a drive or something," She said.
Bobby sighed and stood up. "Fine, but I'm not coming back until a lot later," He said as he walked towards the door.
"Good," Mary shot after him.
Bobby smiled back at her. "I hope you have a nice day, love," He said stepping out the door and closing it in front of him. Mary rolled her eyes and took Odette to the bathroom.
Bobby walked down the steps of the hotel towards the lobby. He remembered checking in at this hotel somewhere around fifteen years ago. He walked out of the hotel and walked towards the small general store.
Bobby opened the door of the general store. There was a man behind the counter. His back was turned to Bobby and he looked like he was pushing something.
"Can I buy a pack of cigarettes?" Bobby asked.
"Oh, yeah, give me a moment."
The man turned. He pushed his dark hair back. Bobby's eyes widened in surprise.
"Jeff?!" Bobby exclaimed.
Jeff's brow furrowed. "Yeah, who're you?"
"It's me, Bobby," Bobby said touching his chest.
Jeff's eyes widened. "No way," He said. He smiled. "How long has it been?"
"Oh, I don't know," Bobby said running his fingers through his hair. "Ten years?"
"So, what have you been up to?" Jeff asked.
"Um... Not much really," Bobby said. "I got married and I have a little daughter."
"That's great, what's your wife and daughter's name?" Jeff asked.
"Funny thing, I married Mary," Bobby said slowly.
"Mary, the girl I was dating when we were traveling?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah," Bobby said.
Jeff was silent for a little while. Bobby stood there awkwardly. "Oh, those cigarettes," Jeff said remembering.
"My daughter's name is Odette," Bobby said as Jeff leaned down to get the cigarettes from under the counter.
"That's a pretty name," Jeff said standing up.
"She's a really pretty baby," Bobby said.
Jeff silent for awhile. He put the cigarettes on the counter. "Twenty-five cents," He said after a few minutes of them sitting in silence.
Bobby set down a quarter on the counter. "Is Mary doing well?" Jeff asked.
Bobby smiled. "Yeah, she's a little angry at me right now," He said.
"What for?" Jeff asked.
"I got stoned before I met her mother," Bobby said scratching his neck.
"You got stoned?" Jeff said in obvious surprise and disgust.
"It isn't a big deal," Bobby said trying to ignore Jeff's reaction. "I spent a good five years stoned on and off. Not the highlight of my life, but I wouldn't say it was a low point either."
Jeff stared at him. He was trying to decide whether he really was disgusted with Bobby. Jeff found him oddly curious in what had happened to his old friend. Why had Bobby changed so much? When Jeff had first met Bobby, Bobby would have never done drugs of any kind.
Jeff frowned. "How was that not a low point in your life?" Jeff asked.
"The lowest point in my life was when you broke up the band," Bobby said slowly with some amount of disgust in his voice. "I didn't have anything after that. I had to play in two-bit clubs and I had to work hard on things I didn't love. I thought of killing myself more than once."
Jeff stared. He didn't know what to say. Bobby was looking at Jeff's hair. "You never had much trouble conforming," Bobby said. "What happened to the rebellious teenager I knew?"
Jeff's hair touched his hair. It was short and well groomed. "I grew up, Bobby," He said.
"You've become a square," Bobby said.
Bobby and Jeff stared at each other in silence. Bobby turned and walked out the door. "Thanks for the cigarettes," He said.
Jeff looked down at his hands. For some reason he felt like all of Bobby's problems were his fault, and he didn't know how to fix them.
Bobby was walking to the diner. There were teenagers in and out of the diner. There was a young man with two bongo drums. Bobby stopped to watch him play the drums and make up lyrics to a poem about freedom and happiness. Beatniks, Bobby thought as he walked into the diner. It wasn't an angry thought, in fact, the beatnik was rather comforting. This entire town wasn't full of people that conformed to what the squares wanted.
Bobby walked to a booth at the diner. The jukebox was playing music from the decade before. Kids were dancing to it and laughing. Some Beatles hits from a few years before would play and recent Herman's Hermit's songs would play. A young waitress walked to Bobby's booth.
"You want anything?" She asked yawning slightly.
"I'll have a coke," Bobby replied.
The waitress gave him a look. "Why's your hair so long?" She asked.
Bobby touched his hair. "Why's your hair so long?" He asked quickly.
The waitress gave him another weird look. She turned and walked away. A young man walked up to the jukebox. He was saying something about how he wanted to listen to a real American artist. A girl shouted something about Gary Lewis from across the room. The boy shot her an annoyed look.
"No, someone that's really cool," He said.
"What about The Monkees?" A girl asked. She was standing close to him.
He rolled his eyes. "I want to listen to something really edgy," He said.
"Elvis!" A young man shouted.
"I said edgy," The first boy said.
"Hurry up, you're the one with the nickel!" The other boy shouted.
"What about Jeff Riley? He works right at the general store," The girl standing close to him said.
The first boy smiled. "Yeah, he's groovy," He said and put a nickel in the jukebox.
Bobby looked over at the group of kids around the jukebox. Bobby heard a familiar beginning then the familiar sound of Jeff's voice. Bobby heard the bass. It had been him playing all those years before. He still remember how terrible it had been that day in the studio. The producer had been rushing Jeff and the rest of the band, Eddie had had three or four cups of coffee and was running up the walls, and John had been late to show up at all. It was a crazy day...
Bobby remembered all the words to the song. He could hear himself in the background harmonizing with Jeff. He had done it as a joke, but the producer had like it and left it in. This song had been their first big hit.
The kids around the jukebox were laughing again. One of the boys was doing impressions of Elvis. Bobby sighed. He looked down at his watch.
It was nine twenty.