The Charcoal Troubadour

FIVE - About a Girl

     "You're not one of those turned nose city types are you? We're a slow kind of gentle here. No fancy skyscraper entitlement."

     I thought I should probably be offended but I was too nervous to care.

     I pulled a chair out from one of the tables and I sat, guitar in my lap. "I'm just a girl looking for a job," I said.

     "Let's see what you've got then."

     I adjusted the guitar, pulled in a deep breath, and hit my palm against the hollow body to set the rhythm.

     "Wait wait wait," he said.

     I died for the second time that day.

     "You don't have any strings on that guitar. How in the world—?"

     "I spent my money on a bus ticket," I said. "I thought I could buy strings after I get the job."

     He eyed me sideways. "Confident thing, aren't you?"

     "No," I said. "I just don't have a Plan B."

     Idiot!

     He waved his hand like a conductor. "All right, all right. Let's hear it then. I haven't got all day. There's a whole string of people who think they've got what it takes to impress me out there."

     A new rush of nerves flowed over me. I closed my eyes and thought of my mother's Girl Power cassette. "And if you should fall, remember you almost had it all..."

Shut up, Melissa Manchester! This baby can't be broken!

...Light up the world...LIGHT. UP. THE. WORLD!

     "Well?" Taylor prompted. Annoyance dripped from him like stale sweat. He didn't believe in me. Santa didn't believe in the poor girl with a wish list.

     I laid down my rhythm, keeping my eyes closed, setting the stage for the inspiration that came to me while sitting outside talking to the Fedora Douche.

      There's a beautiful thing that happens when you let the music take control of your mind. Just release and you will find...It was like discovering the piece of me that had always been missing. As I weaved the smoky poetry of Leonard Cohen together with Cold Play lyrics I felt more true to myself than I'd ever been.

     When they smash my heart into smithereens

     Be a bright red rose come bursting the concrete

     Who by fire, who by water...

     Oh, I was caught up in it. Fully absorbed. A sponge so saturated that I became the ocean. I was wandering downtown where the lost boys meet and I had never been more at home.

     The whole universe called to me; staring at me while I sat there absorbed behind my own eyelids; watching me feel the world as I beat the body of my guitar with the same beat the first man made as he sat around the first flame.

     I know who I am!

     I was crying less than half way through. It wasn't a disruptive kind of crying. It was just my soul leaking down my face, screaming at the world to recognize the fact that it finally had a complete body to be a part of.

     Who by brave assent, who by accident

     I took what they offered me

     To set me free

     And who shall I say is calling?

     I didn't open my eyes until the last note had left my lips and fluttered across the room like a fresh flung fledgling.

     "Well..." said Taylor.

     I wiped my eyes and placed my guitar back in its case.

     "That was..."

     I saw his discomfort. It was written all over his rosy face.

     "That was...not what I was expecting."

     "Oh, get off it, Taylor!"

     The voice startled me and I turned to see Diner Luke sticking his head around a curtain on the wall where a window had obviously once stood.

     "Luke, we have a strict agreement about that window! This is none of your concern and your head is on my property against my will."

     "Different is what this town needs and you know it!" Luke said. "She just killed that audition! And it was you who broke the window, Taylor! What's a billiards table doing in an ice-cream parlour anyway?!"

     I couldn't help the grin that took over my face.

     "This is highly inappropriate, Luke. Talking about a candidate as if they aren't standing right here in front of us. Remove your arrogant head from my soda shop!"

     I snorted trying to keep in my laughter. I couldn't help it.

     "Well, Miss Flynn," Taylor said. "You seem to have one fan anyway. But you know, I have a whole row of people to audition."

     "Yes," I said, clicking my case closed.

     "She'll start Monday, Taylor," Luke said, the curtain rustling as he pulled his head back into his diner on the other side.

     "Highly irregular," Taylor muttered. "This is your cell number I assume?"

     "Yes."

     "I will be in touch."

     The bell over the door jingled as Luke pushed his way into the shop. He took the guitar case from me and held the door open, guiding me out. "She'll start Monday," he said again.

     "Luke Danes! I never..." Taylor marched out after us and stopped short. The line was gone.

     "I sent them all home," Luke said. "You've found our new Troubadour!"

     Every ounce of fear that had held me back earlier lifted and drifted away over the town square.

     Nobody's leaving my dreams among the litter anymore!