Life At Islands Estates Ch. 23

"Careful, Pal, you could be in for a wild ride with those two," Dennis declared, watching the retreating girls.

"You can only guess," I said, and we headed into the house.

Everyone in the house was glad to see Denny. It had been over a year since he was home. We chatted about his music and how it was going in Nashville. He had been working in one of the clubs in Branson Missouri for a long time and was enjoying himself immensely. We were all happy he had found his nitch and was making the music pay off. He was a great singer and guitar player.

The girls bounded into the den and positioned themselves one on each side of my friend and proceeded to run him absolutely crazy rubbing up against him. We drank a few beers and talked about old times and he asked if I was still playing.

"Marie and I have collaborated on over sixty songs and have forty two of them being played by top artists. I can still kick your butt on lead, though," I said.

"I have no doubt, Amigo," he asserted. "You have the gift only a few rare people possess."

"Marie's still hot, too," I said. "She picks up on everything you hear on the radio."

Marie was sixty-three years old now. Her hair was turning silver and her body had softened but she was as exotic and vibrant as a teenager. She'd still throw a fuckin' on you that you could wear for days. We tried to stay regular at that. I was sure she and Dennis would be climbing the bedposts tonight.

"Got a deal for you, Slim," he said.

"I can't wait," I said.

"Here's the scoop: It seems there's this kid up country someplace, Ohio or thereabouts, was going to take this chick to the high school prom. For some reason the chick has some kind of an accident and can't do the prom so the guy wants to take her mother instead." He began the story. "So he goes to the committee and tells them what's up and the principal of the school nixes the whole deal, saying it was incestuous, or some other crap. Well, they show up to the dance anyway and the powers that be won't let the kid or the mother into the dance. The kid gets pissed and creates a scene and somehow, the newspapers get involved and it seems there was quite a flap over the whole deal."

"Was the mother any good looking?" I asked, out of morbid curiosity.

Rita punches me on the shoulder and says, "You are such a slut!"

Everybody in the room gets a chuckle as Denny continues, "Anyways, it goes out on the wire service and this disk jockey up in Jacksonville, at one of the rock stations, picks up on it and has this brainstorm for a big promotional deal. What the radio station is doing is sponsoring a huge dance called "Son Of Prom" at the new Omni Hotel, in Jax. They're giving tickets for two to the dance away over the air to lucky callers who call in when they hear the announcement and answer a question about why they couldn't go to their high school prom. The whole scam is, it's for all those people who didn't get to go to the prom when they were in school. Cool, huh? And, they're bringing the kid and the mother down here to be the king and queen of the prom!"

"Sounds marvelous," I said. "So tell me the deal you have in mind, Einstein, I'm all ears."

"You remember that bass player we had from up there, years ago? Jeff, and the drummer Ronny?" he asked.

"Sure do," I answered. "They were good."

"Well, they have this gig put together to play this prom dance thing and want us to sit in on the gig," he explained. "Jeff called me and wondered if I could get you and Marie to un-retire for a night and join us for this job. He's got horns, strings, back up vocals, congas, you name it. They also have a professional sound production outfit coming in to stage the lights and sound. They call themselves, "Not Tonight, I've Got The Blues." What do ya say?"

I looked at Marie and her eyes were as big as saucers. I could feel the wheels turning inside her head. Her head was moving up and down slowly.

"What kind of music?" I asked, knowing full well it wouldn't matter a lick.

"You pick," he said. "As long as it's rock and roll."

"Sure, what the hell, we'll do it. It might be a hoot," I said.

Everybody in the room started talking at once. The excitement of the idea had caught on with all of us.

"Here's what I was thinking," he said. "The gig is a week from Saturday night. We'll go set up on Friday afternoon and if you want, they'll all be available to rehearse for a couple of hours. We can rehearse again Saturday afternoon if necessary and we'll play from 8:00 until 1:30. Ronny says they're giving a thousand pairs of tickets away. It oughtta be a real bash!"

"Can we come too, Daddy?" Bobby Sue asked, excitedly. "We've never heard you play with a whole band."

I looked at Dennis and he assured me he would have as many tickets as we needed for the dance. It sounded like a great idea.

Jan and Rita broke out a pile of steaks and we had a big cook out on the patio. Life is good at Islands Estates!