All Summer Long
Part Two -- August
Page One
(August 2) "It's so hot today," Mari moaned, fanning herself half-heartedly.
"You guys need air conditioning," Daniela agreed.
"This is the only time of year I actually want to go to work."
"I wish I could work somewhere air conditioned."
"Dani?"
"Yeah?"
"Please stop saying the words 'air conditioned'. It's not helping."
"Sorry."
They sat in sweaty silence for a few minutes. Occasionally, a fly thumped onto the table or floor, overcome with heat exhaustion. The annual Layla:)n heat wave was a particularly bad one this year. Luckily, it was only supposed to last a few more days, according to the KLPS-TV weatherman, Bob "Rainman" Reynard.
"Know what would be nice?" Dani asked.
"If you say those words again..."
"No! I was going to say, a trip to Sphere Archipelago." Dani nodded at the muted television, which was now showing live footage of people frolicking on the shores of Great Sphere Island, the largest isle in the archipelago.
"Is it really that much cooler on the shore?"
"Not just on the shore. Out in the ocean," Dani sighed. "With cool breezes from every direction."
"Yeah, but the ferry costs ten bucks, not to mention the fifteen to park the car at the docks all day."
"We could take the bus to the docks."
"Oh, no, with all those other sweaty people?"
"Right. Better to just stay here. In the hot, hot city."
"Hot town, summer in the city. Back of my neck gettin' dirty and gritty," Mari sang. A clinking noise came from the kitchen. "Ooh! New ice!" she said happily. She took the iced tea pitcher for a refill.
"You know," Mari called from the kitchen, "the band needs some original songs. Other than that love song Blaine wrote a million months ago. I'm starting to feel kind of cheesy, singing other peoples' songs all the time."
"So? Tell Blaine to write more songs."
"Why? I can write songs."
Dani started laughing. Mari chucked an ice cube at her as she came back into the living room, but Dani just snagged it and started running it along her neck. "Ahh, coldness..."
"I can write songs," Mari repeated. "I just haven't yet. Seriously, how hard can it be? I know piano and guitar reasonably well. I sing. I took theory last year. I know how to write songs. I just need lyrics."
"So write about what's going on now-- this damn heat wave."
"Um, that one's already been written. Wasn't that the Supremes?"
"Something like that," Dani nodded.
"However, there are no songs about... Sphere Archipelago."
"No, I suppose there aren't," Dani said warily. She wasn't sure where this was going.
"I have an idea," Mari grinned. "Warm up your vocal chords."
"I seriously don't think they could get any warmer today without spontaneously combusting."
"Come on, let's go to Sphere Archipelago," Mari muttered as she looked for paper and a pencil.
"Where you'll have a ball," Dani chimed in.
"Oh, that's terrible," Mari laughed. "A ball. Sphere. Dani, that's bad."
"Yeah, I know. Hey, you're not going to use that!" Dani looked on in horror as Mari scribbled the words.
"What else is in this town? Name some beaches."
"Calypso Bay, Jellyfish Beach in Newshregsburg, umm..."
"Soul Surfin' Point," Mari added. "And I can always throw in Foret des Reves. Come on, come on, let's go," she hummed, "to the Sphere Archipelago."
"That's pretty good," Dani said.
"Thank ya verra much. That's the place, I'm sure you know, where we'll have a ball. So, what else do we do in this town? Surfing..."
"Star-gazing."
Mari glanced at Dani curiously.
"Um... yeah, I've been doing that lately. Tchadde and I usually head up to Calypso Point to look at constellations and stuff. There's an empty lot up there that's just perfect for sitting around--"
"We'll watch the stars at Calypso Point, or go surfing at... Sphere Bay," Mari sang. She kept scribbling. "La la la la," she filled in, "Just as long as we get away-ay."
"Cool. It needs a bridge, though."
Mari grabbed the guitar and started filling in chords, ignoring Daniela till the muse could be satisfied. A few minutes later...
"Okay. Now, sing with me," Mari commanded.
***
Come on, come on, let's go
To the Sphere Archipelago
That's the place, I'm sure you know
Where we'll have a ball
We'll watch the stars at Calypso Point
Or go surfing at Sphere Bay
The Surf Strip has a cool juke joint
Just so long as we get away
Come on, come on, let's go...
There's a beach up in Newshregsburg
Where the jellyfish like to sting
And just in case you haven't heard
Soul Surfin' Point's where the seagulls sing
Come on, come on, let's go...
In the Foret des Reves
We could climb a tree
But it really doesn't matter
'long as you're with me
Come on, come on, let's go...
***
"I wrote a song," Mari informed Blaine while he was eating dinner that night.
"Hmm," was all he said. Of course, at the time he had a mouthful of chicken and rice.
"I knew you'd be thrilled. Daniela was over today and she helped me make a demo."
Mari bounced over to the counter and switched on the little four-track. "Sphere Archipelago" came blasting out.
"What on earth," Blaine muttered, then laughed as he listened to the lyrics. By the time the sparse guitar-and-two-girls demo was finished, he was tapping his feet and humming along.
"That is so cool," he admitted. "Kinda short, though."
"Just under three minutes," Mari nodded. "But in concert, Chris can throw in a solo, and we can repeat the 'Come on, come on' part at the end a lot more times."
"Once people learn the words, it'll be a great sing-a-long."
Mari watched as Blaine's mind worked.
"And you know what else?" he said. "We should get this down on tape for real."
"You mean, in a real studio? Not just your four-track?"
"That's right. I think I'll call my dad."
***
(August 4) "I wrote another song!" Mari giggled, emerging from the bathroom. Her hair was sopping wet, she still had a towel wrapped around her, and a trail of water marked her path through the living room.
"How did you write a song?" Blaine asked, eyeing the puddles forming on the floor.
"I was humming in the shower, and this song just came spilling out of me. The fifth one this week!"
"The last three were old songs with new lyrics."
"Yes, but this one is new, I swear," she said, grabbing Blaine's pen out of his hand and stealing a sheet of notebook paper.
"Hey, I was doing homework there, girly."
"Yeah, yeah..."
"Star Drive? Have you been watching Star Trek again?"
"That is totally beside the point. Here, play the chords," Mari said, shoving the paper at Blaine. "I'll sing."
Resigned to wet, unfinished homework, Blaine picked up his nearby guitar and started playing. True to her word, Mari's new song really was new this time.
"Star Drive, the road to L.A. baby... I've got my everything wrapped up in just this one dream..."
***
(August 6) Mari gazed around the studio in awe. Consoles and monitors gleamed in the dim lighting. A vaguely metallic scent permeated the cool, dry air-- the tang of ozone from burnt circuits. It was all very mystical and awesome. Mari sighed happily.
Then her eyes lit upon a blinking green LED. "Why's that blinking? What's it for?" she asked her father-in-law. Then she smiled. "What do ALL of them do? Tell me everything!"
Mr. B, who was going to be their producer, looked thrilled that she was interested. But he somehow suppressed that to say, "After we do the recording. Then I'll show you."
"Okay," Mari chirped, then led the way into the room with the padded walls and the nice shiny microphones.
"Look, Mari," Daniela said. "Padded walls. Just right for you."
Mari reached out an arm and shoved Dani. She hit the wall and bounced off. "Nah. Not satisfying," Mari sniffed. She picked up a mic and inspected it. "Ooh, this one's got a heart on it! Can I use this one?"
Mr. B sighed. Maybe this wouldn't be as fun as it originally sounded.
Blaine, seeing the look on his father's face, went over and disentangled Mari's fingers from the mic cord. "How's about we not touch anything," he suggested, "until Dad says it's okay. Explicitly."
"Oh." Mari smiled guiltily at Mr. B. "Sorry, Dad."
"It's okay. But we do have limited time. So if everyone could..." He gestured at the assorted instruments. "We'll try to do it in one pass, live, so no goofing off. And no showing off, either. It'll be tough to fix anything once it's on tape."
Davy was already back in the drum booth, spinning his sticks. Chris and Blaine were tuning.
Mari looked at Dani. They'd never been much for warming up. "Yeah, no showing off," Mari snarked. Dani leapt back in surprise.
"Mare, are you snarking over there?" Blaine said, looking up, disapprovingly.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "This is sister business," she replied.
"How 'bout you don't show off," Dani snarked back.
Mari shivered-- Daniela was a much better snarker than she was.
Mr. B had been in the control room, talking to the engineer, but now he stepped in to join the band in the padded room. "It's getting much too snarky in here," he frowned. "Let's get you all situated. Mari, you'll be at this mic, over here--" at the front of the room-- "and the boys and Daniela will be around this other mic. Now, we're plugging the boys directly in, so if you want to hear anything, you'll need to wear the headphones."
Mari looked at the headphones warily. To her left, Dani was whining about the 'phones messing up her hair.
Chris, who was usually quiet and good-natured, snarled. "We're in a closed studio. Who, exactly, is going to see you and care what your hair looks like?"
Mari had been about to complain herself, but instead she plunked on her headset and rounded on Daniela. "Put them on or not, your choice. But if you miss a cue, you're toast."
Dani put on the headphones.
"Okay, so we'll warm up with 'I Can Hear Music'," Mari directed. Blaine opened his mouth to object but Mari sent him a quelling glance. He fumed silently.
Mr. B finished talking to Davy in the drum booth and headed back to man the console. "Okay, kids, whenever you're ready." He closed the door and signaled to the engineer to start rolling tape.
The Family Act quickly ran through an angelic "I Can Hear Music," shortly followed by "Sphere Archipelago" and Blaine's "Love Song".
Mari found herself getting teary-eyed at the last, as her voice and Blaine's wove around each other. She couldn't help but think of the nights they'd been spending lately, on opposite sides of their big bed, huddled into their own thoughts...
As the song ended, Mari ripped off her headphones and stepped around Blaine, who'd moved up next to her for the dual lead vocal. "Excuse me. I need the ladies room."
She tore out of the studio and down the narrow hallway, not stopping till she'd locked herself in a lavatory stall and could cry freely. She was snuffling in misery when the outer door creaked open and a pair of glittery platform sandals crept in.
"What's wrong with you?" Daniela demanded, her question echoing off the tiled walls.
"Nothing," Mari snapped. "I'm fine. Can't a girl pee in peace?"
"Except you aren't peeing, you're crying. So what's wrong?"
"I said, nothing is wrong." Mari pulled a length of toilet paper from the dispenser, mopped her eyes, blew her nose, and flushed the soggy mess down the toilet. She emerged from the stall and looked Dani in the eye. "Now, help me get the red puffiness out of my eyes."
***
The rest of the afternoon went by quickly. Blaine's latest song, "Babe" was vetoed in favor of Mari's "Star Drive." Mari set up an appointment with Mr. B and the engineer to learn a little recording technique. Davy and Chris took off in their respective vehicles, and the "production staff" holed up for the mixing and mastering.
Mari and Dani sat together in the back of Blaine's Chevy while he drove to the DeSkas' house, planning what to wear to their next gig. The matching outfit thing had been going over well, but it was tough to find clothes that both of them liked.
"I got a turtleneck sweater last week-- the sleeveless kind, I mean," Dani said. "And of course I got it in five different colors. So you could just borrow one."
"Um, or not," Mari said.
"Why not?"
"You know I don't like anything that covers my neck." Mari shuddered. "Feels like I'm suffocating."
"Oh. Right." Dani sighed. "Well, we could wear those horrid t-shirts that Mom and Dad brought back from Atlantis."
Mari just rolled her eyes.
"I'm running out of ideas! You think of something." Daniela blew a puff of air that lifted her bangs.
"We could always... design our own?" Mari said tentatively.
"Yeah!" Dani grinned. "And that way, we could include the guys, too!"
Blaine swerved as Dani clapped him on the shoulder. "What?!"
"Like the Brady Bunch-- color-coded," Mari added. "I claim pink."
"And I'll take blue. Or yellow," Dani said. "Chris strikes me as a green."
"Wait, are we talking bell-bottomed pantsuits?" Blaine asked desperately as he downshifted.
"No," Mari giggled. "I'm thinking striped bottoms and solid tops."
"Ooh," Dani said, obviously in agreement.
"I'll wear capris, and Dani'll have a skirt, and the boys can wear nice flat-front pants."
"And I'll have a button-down shirt tied up," Dani said, getting into the swing of things.
Blaine gulped.
***
(August 10) The next week, after Mari and Dani both realized that the band had limited wardrobe funds (especially if everyone wanted to continue eating), they had settled on matching striped tops for everyone. Mari wore her pink-striped Oxford open over a black bandeau, with capri jeans.
Dani's yellow-striped shirt was tied across her ribs, as promised, and she wore a denim skirt.
Blaine and Chris wore their (respectively) blue and green-striped shirts buttoned and tucked neatly into their jeans, so nothing would get in the way of their playing. But Davy wore his black-and-white shirt open over a white tee, with cut-offs that frayed madly. With his longish, sun-bleached hair and deep surfer tan, Davy was everything a girl could want.
Unless she was already irrevocably in love with his brother.
Mari shook her head, hoping to clear the extraneous emotion, and forced herself to think instead about marketing Davy to the giggling masses.
Daniela shook a tambourine in her face.
"Hey! Stop that!"
"Earth to Mari-- we're on!"
Mari laughed at herself. In only three weeks, to go from stage-frightened to oblivious! She put on her performance smile and bounded out after Dani. The audience was packed. On their feet. Screaming. A surge of electricity-- power-- flowed through Mari. This was where she belonged. Adored by throngs of young adults. Capable of controlling them, controlling their emotions.
It was almost enough to give her a big head.
"Hi!" she greeted the crowd. They yelled even louder, inasmuch as that was possible.
They started with a song that Mari had heard on the radio a few days before, called "Peaches".
"Peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man!" Mari sang.
Before they knew it, the Family Act had breezed through their forty-five minute set. As they disappeared stage left, they heard the crowd clamoring for more.
"But we didn't prepare an encore," Blaine said, looking startled.
"Aw, we'll just do... Louie Louie," Mari decided. "That's good, right? Everyone knows it?"
"I don't know the words," Dani fretted.
"Nobody does," Mari confided. "Just play the tambourine and I'll take care of the singing."
The band rushed back out to the stage.
"Mare, that song is about a guy wanting to get back to his girl," Blaine whispered.
"Um, duh. It's not that hard to reverse it," she scoffed. "Besides, nobody'll know the difference if I slur it." She turned to the audience and grabbed her mic. "Okay, we're back!" she yelled.
She smiled back at Davy, who counted off four.
***
Page Two