I Let Love In

Chapter XVIII: Sunny Afternoon

It was warmer today. 

Much warmer. Toasty even.

My body still ached but with a painkiller and an allergy pill I managed to drag my arse out of bed to go record shopping. After laying around in our pyjamas for days eating chips and chocolate Maude decided we needed another day out. 

Obviously the record store was first on the agenda. 

Our psyches still slathered in Palace wine and the lips of beautiful men, we could only wear trakkies to the shop. A tinkling bell over the door signalled our presence and the shopkeeper glanced up at us. "Hey, I know you two," she said. 

Her short red hair and brown eyes reminded me of someone....

Bracelets up and down her arms jangled as she organised stacks of vinyls at the front counter. She had to duck to avoid a nearby shelf as she came to where we stood. "You're those girls who came to the studio, aren't you?" 

That's right, Loretta!

"That's us," Maude said offering her hand. Loretta shook it, bracelets ringing. "You're Bon's girl, right?"

"For now," Loretta smiled crossing her arms. "He's a popular guy, ya' know."

We've noticed. I took a quick glance around the shop. Albums on display reached corner to corner. Deep Purple, T-Rex, Earth Wind and Fire, and Robert Johnson were at the front of almost every shelf. Some song I didn't recognise was playing on the turntable. "Hey, I love this band," Maude said. "Talking Heads, right?"

"Yeah, one of my favourites," Loretta said heading back to the counter. "When my boss isn't here I like to play what I want." While Maude asked about the newest upcoming English groups I checked out the rest of the store. 

There was Black Sabbath and Jefferson Airplane. A couple Blondie albums next to a lone ABBA album. A pristine white Velvet Underground copy with a bright yellow banana stood out to me among the rest. One of my absolute favourite albums of all time. I'd have snagged it had I not already owned a copy. 

Now what to buy....

I didn't like to buy albums I hadn't already heard. Usually I preferred knowing exactly what I was getting into before spending money. But since we couldn't spend all day here like I did at home, I made do with inspecting the covers, song titles, and band names. 

Cheap Trick released an album the year before I hadn't heard yet. If I could just find it I'd give it a go. 

Hell of a lot of Supertramp...

Way too many Led Zeppelin....

"Find anything?" Maude asked scaring the shit out of me. I turned around to see her cradling at least ten records in her arms.

"Uh..." I quickly scanned the shelves around me. Standing on my toes I reached up and grabbed "Tommy" by The Who. Words of praise seemed to follow this album wherever it went, it couldn't hurt to try. 

"The Who?" Maude made a face. "If you insist...."

"I do insist," I said pouting. The Who were beasts. Musical beasts who got smacked in the faces with microphones and kept playing like nothing happened. "What'd you get?"

"A bit of Pentangle, bit of Joni Mitchell....oh, and The Sweet!" I marvelled at her newest collection and looked at my pitiful panic pick. 

Where the hell was that Cheap Trick album?

"Hey, the Rolling Stones have some new stuff," Maude said pointing out a shelf dedicated entirely to them. We both took a long look. 

"Meh," we both said and continued on.