deadly nightshade | fever in, fever out

chapter 28: the dog days of summer

"Thank you again, Joey," Sam said to him once he bounded into that rear parking lot like a race car driver. Another hour had passed and he had gotten her there in the nick of time, right when she was supposed to be there to help out with set up and for another night of oversight. The sun begun to hang low in the sky, such that those lush trees made her think of the sky high trees from her dream. She slid out of the front seat with still wet hair and yet the feeling was never more euphoric for her. She hoisted her purse over her shoulder once again, and she turned her attention back to him.
"Do you wanna come in and join us?" she offered him, to which he shrugged at her. "I mean, you did say you were going to be here."
"I just might show up at another gig again," he vowed to her, once more with a wink. "Last thing I wanna do is have a drink before I gotta drive back home. I will wait for you down by the water again, though. I did say I was gonna be here for you." Without another word, he nudged the sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose and showed her a thoughtful little smile. Sam patted the roof of the car and then she doubled back to the door of the bar.
The place reminded her of L'Amour in how it was so cozy and warm lit with its heavy golden floor boards but the small, ramshackle stage had been crammed into the far corner of the room. The other difference was that not a lot of people could go in there. Sam ran her fingers through her wet hair, which squeaked down at the roots. Nice and clean.
She glanced across the floor and she recognized that head of dark curls at the far end of the bar. She also recognized that guy with the smooth black hair.
"Chuck!" she called out as she hurried over to the other side of the bar. He turned his head and he peered over his shoulder, and Eric pointed towards her.
"Chuck!" Sam called out and he nodded his head at her.
Given he was out in better lighting, the blackness of his hair gave way to a soft dark brown. Eric nodded at her and raised his glass to her.
"The art student on tour!" he proclaimed with his arm extended out for her, and she leaned in closer to him. He looked up at her and gave his black hair a flick back of his head. "You smell good."
"Joey took me over to his parents' house for a shower," she replied. "I just couldn't take it anymore."
"That happened to me when I was in my first band," said Chuck as he held onto the base of his glass with two hands. "We just went all over California and by the penultimate date, I was like 'Jesus Christ, this is horrible! My hair feels like it just dunked itself into mud!'"
"What're you guys doing here?" she asked the two of them as she stood in between them.
"Just hanging out," Eric replied, "Louie got a job—guess he got tired of Zelda paying his rent all the time and he was getting bored—Alex is still in school so he's back home in the Bay Area, and—no idea what Greg is doing."
"Yeah, nobody knows what Greg is doing," Chuck added as he brought the glass to his dark lips. Like a lighter version of Joey.
"It's like someone does something like 'Greg behind the scenes' or something," Sam suggested in a single breath, and that brought a laugh out of Eric.
"Greg Christian behind the scenes," he declared with his fingers pinched together and a chuckle.
"And Alex is the baby out of all five of you," Sam recalled.
"Yeah, he's the little man," said Eric with a nod of his head. "I've only known him for a few months but it's amazing how hard he works, though. He's a young boy who just happens to be a little work horse. Just puts his horns down and—goes." He stuck out his hand when he said that.
"That's what I've heard, too," Chuck added as he brought his glass back down to the bar's surface. "I only met him just the other day and he was going home so I couldn't sit and chat with him to get to know him better."
"I hope we can record something soon," Eric pointed out.
"It's the whole waiting game and everything," Sam recalled what Cliff had said to her.
"Exactly! As Louie will tell you." Eric looked across the room and Zelda strode into the room with her black hair pushed back from her face.
"Louie's gettin' bored, isn't he?" he followed up to her.
"Yeah, pretty much," she replied; once she came in closer to them, Sam made sight of the sheen on the crown of her head.
"D'you put grease in your hair?" Sam asked her.
"Nah, just stuck my head under a faucet," Zelda replied as she tucked a stray lock of hair over her forehead atop her head. "Just like you, I—I couldn't take it anymore. It's better than doing that than going over to the lake and doing that."
"Yeah, you don't wanna do that," Chuck told her. "I haven't really been here before but even I can tell you that."
"Zelda the little punk chick even has her limits," Eric declared.
"Of course," she insisted with her hands pressed to her hips. "Capricorn is all about limits, you know. At least that's what I'm told."
"Fellow Cap," said Sam.
"Ooh, when's your birthday?" Zelda raised her eyebrows at her.
"January twenty first."
"That's Aquarius," she replied. "Like, right at the very start of it. I was born the day before New Year's, December thirtieth."
"Scott's birthday is New Year's Eve," Eric pointed out.
"Look at all the goats!" said Zelda with a grin on her face.
"I'm a couple days after the summer solstice," Chuck chimed in.
"And I'm right smack in the middle of May," Eric added.
"Just all over the zodiac," Sam laughed.
"Forget when Alex's birthday is, though," he confessed. "It's—some time in September, that's all I know."
"And there's Marla," Zelda declared, and the three of them turned around and Marla ambled over to them with a glass of dark beer in either hand and a piece of her violet hair pushed back over the crown of her head.
"Where's Scott at?" she asked them.
"He's outside with Billy and Charlie," Zelda replied. "You look like a burlesque waitress."
"Yeah, you need like one of those tied crop tops and your hair dolled up on top of your head," Chuck added with a gesture up to his head.
"And some heels, too, I presume?" Marla teased him.
"A pair of some big ol' red stilettos, yes!" And the five of them laughed at that. Marla pressed on to the other side of the room and the front door.
"I gotta put something else into my hair," Zelda spoke out of the blue. "Something else sleek and smells good."
"Why?" Eric laughed at that.
"You know."
"I don't."
"I put my hair under a fauct. It just makes sense."
"Well, why."
"Because."
"Why," he repeated, "why, why, why, why, why."
"Because I can?"
"Why." He stretched out the word a bit.
"'Cause she wants to smell good," Sam joined in.
"But I think ol' Eric here wants to see more of li'l Zelda," Chuck pointed out with a wink, and Sam wondered if he was a little bit tipsy right then, even after one glass of stout.
Indeed, Zelda made her way over to the ladies' room in search of something to make her wet hair smell good. Sam let Chuck and Eric finish their drinks as she assisted Scott and Charlie in setting up the drum kit and the two small amps, both of which stood on either side of the stage.
Once again, she and Zelda stood off to the side, and Zelda had found a vase of flowers and rubbed a little bit of the water into her hair, but that time, they funneled into the tiny nook between the edge of the stage and the wall. A single pair of ear plugs proved to be just enough to block out the abrasive distortion from Scott's guitar and the thunder from Dan's bass, but not enough to block out Charlie's power. The two girls stood right next to each other in silence. No sound was to break through that barrier.
That sound barrier brought on by the Stormtroopers of Death.
Speak Spanish or get the hell out! In fact, Sam saw Dan mouth that at one point and she laughed as loud as she could, even though he couldn't hear her.
Motorhead followed suit and they were even louder. Sam had no idea if pieces of the ceiling was about to fall down from the thumping power of Lemmy's bass. Wendy joined him again for the "Stand By Your Man" cover, and Cliff burst into Sam's mind right then. He was into country music, but she had yet to watch him perform it for her, Marla, Aurora, and Zelda. But even against the wall of noise, she pictured him right next to her and Zelda, complete with that big black cowboy hat and those pointed two boots under those bell bottoms. She made a mental reminder to call him once she got home from the tour.
Once Motorhead left the stage, Sam was quick to head back out to the night. Even though the town had fallen quiet in the wake of the show, she peered in either direction and she darted across the pavement, back to the trees. Her hair still felt wet down at the roots even though night had fallen and the full moon rose up over the horizon.
A soft breeze made its way through the trees before her and she knew he was there.
She skidded down the grass and, through the soft moonlight, she made out the sight of his slender silhouette down by the water. She slowed a bit, but she had no idea if he could see her. She paused for a second: the only sound came from the lake waters as they lapped against the shore's edge.
"Hey, Joey," she greeted him.
"Hi," he said, and in the soft moonlight, she could see the beaming smile on his face: indeed, the darkness of the night made him appear as dark as the night itself. Her eyes adjusted and the light of the moon washed a soft glow over the crown of black curls atop his head.
"You got a light or sump'n?" he asked her.
"I don't, no. Just the light of the moon and the light from the bar back there."
"Damn. Well, I got something for you, though."
"Oh, yeah?"
Cellophane crinkled and dirt shuffled underneath his feet. In the soft light of the moon, she could see him walking towards her.
"Where's your hand?" he asked her.
"Here." She stuck out her hand for him.
"Where here?"
"Here here."
His hand fondled over her own: the callused fingers caressed over her palm and then she felt him put something there.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"Candy. It was all I could think of when I came back into town. And—I don't really know what you like so I got ya a jaw breaker. I think one of the Pennsylvania dates is in Hershey."
"Oh, boy!" she said, and she brought the jaw breaker close to her chest. It was about the size of a bocci ball and as firm as hard candy should feel. "But thank you, though. I'll cherish every part of this and relish it."
"It's blueberry flavored, too," he added, "it was either that or plain. So, I picked that for ya."
"I kinda want to get you something now," she admitted.
"Like what?"
"Not sure yet. I'll surprise you."
"Also, Sam?"
"Yes?"
Silence, and then he stepped forward. She could feel his arms around her. He held her close to his slender little body, slender in spite of the toned muscles on his chest and his stomach. Even in the darkness, she could see the size of his heart right in front of her. She rested the side of her head against his chest. So warm and welcoming, even in the warm summer night around them.
She rested her hands upon his back, including the hand that held the jaw breaker, and he swayed a little bit even though there was no music playing right then.
Joey bowed his head and some of his thick black curls dangled down onto her own, as if he protected her from the darkness around them.
"Are you going to be in Syracuse?" she asked him in a muffled voice, and he lifted his head from her own.
"I'm afraid not," he confessed, and he fetched up a sigh. "It's kinda out of my way, if I'm honest, but I'll try to catch you before you go back home and start school again."
"Okay." She caressed the middle of his back a bit with her free hand and she relished it a little longer.
"Sam?" Marla's voice sailed over to them from across the street.
"She's over here, Marla!" Joey shouted. He lowered his voice for Sam herself. "That's your cue, now."
"Okay." She gazed up at his face, shrouded in dark shadow for another few seconds longer, and then a pair of car headlights shone over his face. He snapped his eyes shut from the sudden change.
"I'll catch you on the other side," he vowed to her, and he gave her another quick hug before he ducked away from there and back towards his own car. Sam turned towards the car and she used the bright lights as her guide back to her bed for the night.