The Apartment Ch. 4

***

It was well after ten o'clock on the Saturday before Halloween and the clubhouse ballroom was hot and jumping.

"I don't know about you, but I think we'd better watch out," David warned.

"Why?" Holly asked, wondering.

"Because I think that Ronald Reagan is trying to put the make on Tinkerbell," he said, gesturing toward his old friend Jeff MacFarland who was trying his best to put a smile on the face of one of Holly's cuter girlfriends.

"I don't think we have much to worry about," Holly laughed. "She can easily handle the best he's got to offer."

As they stood together surveying the scene, a smile came across both faces. The clubhouse ballroom looked terrific decked out in a haunted house theme, with plenty of skeletons and cobwebs and scary sound effects. The band had warmed up quickly in their first set and got almost everybody up and dancing by the third tune. And there was such a mix of people, from Holly's workplace and school, from David's workplace, and of course so many of their friends. And they were surprised at how well every one seemed to get along. Perhaps it was because everyone was in costume, but there seemed to be much more mixing between the different groups, which made them both happy.

"So who's costume do you like the best?" David asked.

"There's some good ones. I like the girl from your office who came as the massacred Girl Scout. And the guy in the toilet is pretty wild," Holly laughed.

"Oh, Greg's Turd In A Toilet costume?" David laughed. "He's done that before a few years ago. Just watch out for the stink bombs he brought along. I'm kind of partial to Mark's tube of Preparation H costume, although your girl friends in the French Maid and Morticia Addams costumes are right up there." Holly smacked at him good naturedly, but he could see that she was giving him a look, a special look. "But the best one by far, is yours," he said, looping his arm around her waist and pulling her close. "You are the prettiest vampire victim I have ever seen in my life!"

And she did look gorgeous in a horror movie way, the filmy black flowing gown, cinched at the waist with a sash made from a black velvet ribbon, contrasting with her pale white makeup and the bite mark and dried blood on her neck. Of course, dressed as a vampire in an old tuxedo with Holly's special makeup design, his hair slicked back and his complexion pale and drawn, David was feeling pretty dapper in a gothic yet romantic sort of way. And when they had ended their first dance together earlier he couldn't resist the urge of dipping her back down low and faking a bite on her neck appropriately.

"So are you guys really going to play tonight?" asked Chuck, one of David's old friends, coming up behind them. "Donny said you guys were gonna jam."

"Yeah, I think so," David answered. "Maybe just a few tunes. We haven't played together in years." He thought about just how long it had been since they had done a gig. Too many years perhaps, but all the guys were here and his good buddy John had no problem with them taking over for a while.

"That will be great," Chuck said. "Looking forward to it."

"So am I, since Holly hasn't heard me play except on CD," David said, giving her waist a little squeeze. They watched together as Chuck wandered off.

"Well, we should be mingling, Honey," Holly reminded him. "Do you want to check at the bar and make sure that he's all set?"

"No problem, Baby," David said, pulling her to him for a quick little kiss. "See you around in a bit for the costume contest?"

Holly smiled and quickly joined some friends while David checked on the bartender. He spent the better part of an hour going around the room greeting and talking with friends, eventually hooking up with a couple of his buddies from work. He looked over and caught sight of Holly chatting with a group of her friends. She turned toward him and smiled warmly. Even as they partied at opposite ends of the hall, they were never far from each other's sight, and the looks they exchanged told anyone there how they felt about being together. As he stood and listened to his friends tell some favorite new jokes, the band hit up a great tune and he felt a hand reach out from nowhere and grab him.

"I wanna dance to this," Holly said, pulling him toward the dance floor. David smiled when he noticed that several of his friends were dancing with her friends. He checked out the band as John hammered his piano and the guitarist Rich cranked out a great rhythm. But when Holly pulled him up and took his hands to dance, he forgot all about the others and filled his eyes with the look of her. It was a fast but easily danceable tune and he loved seeing the joy in her face as they began to move together. The way she moved her arms and shifted her body drew his attention. But the way she laughed as they moved and spun around warmed him deeply. The other guests must have been inspired as well and the dance floor was soon crowded. After another tune or two, she pulled him close and kissed him on the cheek.

"Now this is what I call a party," she laughed.

They took a breather and grabbed a cold drink and a shared few minutes together arm in arm. But soon they were separated and David found himself cornered with some of his old buddies. All of them agreed that it was a great party and how glad they were about coming. They had asked him about which of her girlfriends were available and he pointed them out.

"So how'd you meet her, Davey?" asked George. "She is gorgeous, too much for the likes of you!"

"Don't be jealous, man," chided Greg. "Our old friend is as deserving of her attentions as the next guy. And since I'm the next guy in line, I can't wait."

"So tell, me man, what is it like with her?" asked Ritchie.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, what's it like to have a hot twenty-year-old college girl?"

"Oh, come on! I'm not going to tell you that," David protested. "Don't you remember college?"

"Yeah, but I was the nerd, remember? But really, you can tell us," Ritchie persisted. "We're buddies right? It's got to be wild to be hanging with a hot young babe like that. So what's she like, you know, in the sack?"

"Come on guys, nothing personal, but that's not something I want to talk about," David remarked. "I never asked you about what it's like to be with Helen, did I?"

"But it's been years since Helen looked like that or could fuck like that one must be able to," Ritchie said.

"Hey, watch it, man," Greg said. "Our brother here is in love with the real thing. We should be supporting him."

"Yeah and handing him some Viagra too!" George chimed in. "But all joking aside, it must be a challenge to be with a girl like her twenty-four-seven."

"Bring on the challenges," David said. "But it can really be hard sometimes, because she is so young. She thinks that she's so hip and with-it, when she's really so naïve about many things. We all remember what it was like to be twenty-two. You think you know everything, you have the opportunity to do everything, and the world is full of unlimited promises. But you've only scratched the surface. There is so much that I could teach her but she doesn't want to hear a word of it. You guys know like I do, we've been through it all and we know what life is like. But that doesn't mean anything to her. It's like she has to go through it herself before she knows what it's really like. She's young and foolish, but when she's through, I'll be there for her. God, I sure as hell hope so."

"So is that what you think of me?" Holly said, her voice coming from behind him and sounding chilly.

David turned around, startled by the sound of her voice, unaware that she had been standing behind him while he talked with his friends. Shit! What did I say that was so bad? He asked himself. "Well, maybe what you thought you heard wasn't what I was saying," he said, trying to explain, but she had turned her back to him.

"You think that I'm just some little child or something? Like one of your kids?" she said looking him straight in the eye. Her friend Nikki glared at him.

"No! Wait a minute, Holly! Let me explain!" he said as the two girls began to move away quickly. "That isn't what I meant at all. Come on, Baby!"

Holly paused for a moment and looked back at him. "Just because you're so much older than me, doesn't mean that you're so smart, and that everything you say is so wise, you know," she said slowly.

David was sure that it was just a misunderstanding, and that she hadn't heard exactly what he had said or meant to say. But as she and Nikki turned away and disappeared into the crowd, David looked back to his buddies and shrugged.

"Hey, pallie! You coulda stayed married and been talked to like that!" Ritchie laughed.

"She'll be all right," David said. "Once she cools off, we'll talk and everything will be all right. At least I hope so." But for all the confidence of his words, he felt queasy inside and mulled over what he might say to her later on and how he would say it. Just then he felt a tug on his jacket and turned to see Donny, his old bass player, pointing toward the bandstand.

"It's time to do it," Donny said loudly. "Come on, man. Let's get this on!"

David looked over and saw Holly and Nikki step outside onto the deck. He was torn between the desire to go talk to her and explain, and the urges of his friends to join them on the bandstand. With part of himself still walking out the door onto the deck he joined his old band mates and slung Rich's Gibson around his neck. Strumming an E chord a few times, he found it in perfect tune. His fingers glided up and down the neck a few times in a bluesy scale, bending the final couple of notes until they rang out with a touch of feedback. David then stepped toward the mike.

"Hey, we haven't played together for something like twenty years, so I hope we sound okay," he said.

Danny pounded the drums, working the kinks out of several years of layoff, but not sounding like his chops were missing all that much. David recognized Danny's favorite roll and fill with a great cymbal crash that he snuffed out quickly.

"Yeah, that's it man!" David shouted into the mike.

Donny had strapped on the bass and began to bump his way through a couple of rudimentary bass lines. He glanced over at David as if to say that he only needed a few moments to warm up. Some of their old friends began to call out the names of their tunes. "Monks On The Run!" shouted Speen Dog. "Tina My Dreams! Whoo!" yelled Greg. "It Ain't Fancy!" called out Ritchie.

"All right! All right!" David shouted into the mike in a couple of minutes after his re-united band mates gave him the high sign. "We're gonna start with one first done by The Kinks." He glanced over at John manning the keyboard. "Key of E," he said. John nodded.

David stroked the first three chords solo and shook the guitar until the feedback from the final chord wound through the entire room. Bashing the guitar with a crashing chord, he leaned forward to the mike, and sang out.

"Baby, I feel good! From the moment I rise. Feels good from morning through Till the end of the day. Till the end of the day."

Danny and Donny had joined in on the musical riff that followed, the unmistakable sound of the IT Band, as if it had been twenty days, and not twenty years since they had last played together. He smiled at the sound of the backup vocals from the others harmonizing in the background. John followed along and improvised little organ or keyboard fills. By this time, the gathered crowd, including all of Holly's friends had jumped up and filled the dance floor. As they thumped through the rest of the song and added an additional refrain so that the folks on the dance floor could enjoy the energy and feeling of the music a little more, the guys grew tighter and it felt as if the last couple of decades were only imaginary. Yet David's eyes kept sweeping through the room and he didn't see any sign of Holly or Nikki.

They played through nearly a dozen of their old songs, mostly the originals that they had played the hell out of so much so many years before. After a few tunes, it felt as if they hadn't broken up. And it was great to see from the bandstand as the two generations melded, members of one dancing with someone from the other. It was all about energy and feeling and everyone was bopping. It felt as if the temperature in the room had been raised twenty degrees. After nearly forty minutes of this impromptu reunion, David finally stepped to the mike and announced their last tune.

"Since this is an election year, here is a tune that has particular relevance," he said, still somewhat out of breath. "It's called Who Do You Trust!"

With a slapping of four sticks, Danny cued them up, and they bashed into the tune. The dance floor was jumping and the guys were cranking up to and through the chorus.

"Tell me Baby and this is a must! It's not a matter of Love or Lust! Tell me baby 'fore your diamonds rust, tell me Baby! Who do you trust? Who do you trust?"

Out of the corner of his eye, David saw Holly and Nikki reenter the room and sit together as far away from the bandstand as possible. It was hard to tell in the lighting and with her makeup, but it looked like Holly had been crying and Lord knows he had been inside for the last hour. During the instrument refrain, David poured everything he could remember into his solo, his weary out-of-practice fingers bent sharply into the notes and he rang out every bit of feedback he could muster from the guitar, nearly falling to his knees at one point before jumping back up to the mike.

"Who do you tru-ah-ust? Who do you trust? You gotta tell me baby, Who do you tru-ah-ust? Who do you trust?"

The boys in the band held the last note while those on the dance floor still hopped to the beat. When they realized the tune was over, they all jumped and applauded loudly. Donny slipped out of the old Fender bass and Danny stood up from the drum kit. David set down the guitar and started down from the bandstand, but paused when his eyes caught sight of Holly still sitting in the back of the room with Nikki.

He leaned over to John, who had started to get up from behind the massive Roland keyboard. John listened to what he was saying and nodded. John sat down and noodled on the keyboard for a few moments.

"We're going to do one more, just John and me if you don't mind," David announced. "What do you want to do?" David asked John through the mike. John shrugged. "How about something sad, 'cause I feel that way right now."

For some reason, those on the dance floor hung on while John swung through a couple of bridges. Like a pitcher shaking off the catcher, David shook his head at the first couple of tunes. Finally, when John began to play "The September Song" David nodded. "Yeah, that's the right one for right now," he said.

John began with a slow, sad intro to the verse. David slipped the mike from the stand, walked to the center of the bandstand, and when the tune came around, he began to sing slowly and softly and with great expression.

"When I was a young man courting the girls I played me a waiting game. If a maid refused me with tossing curls I'd let the old Earth make a couple of whirls, And as time came around she came my way, as time came around, she came."

By this time everyone had settled back into their seats to listen and indulge these two in their spur of the moment cabaret fantasy. Yet John's playing was superb and David was acting out the lyric and making it his own as he sang, since he had been there, living those words so many years before. The piano like sound of the Roland faded away and David was left at the mike to count out the rest. He began slowly and softly, but by the fourth word John picked up the accompaniment and they played on.

"Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December But the days grow short when you reach September."

David's voice began to crack on the last line, but it didn't matter to his friends who knew that he wasn't just singing the words, but was singing the song to a certain someone. He looked out through the small hall directly at the table in back and saw that Holly's eyes were on him. He longed to see the sparkle in them again, and he hoped that somehow these words would reach out to her.

"When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame One hasn't got time for the waiting game."

John played a brief instrumental interlude that lead to the next refrain.

"Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few, September, November."

David drew out the middle syllables of the last two words, a sad, omniscient tone to his voice, the sound of age and wisdom that has come to understand the meaning of the passing of everyday. The sound of the piano faded into silence as David lowered the mike from his lips. When the room had fallen silent, he began to sing again and John followed along.

"And these few precious days ..."

His voiced cracked with emotion when he sang the word "precious" and everyone close to the bandstand could see the tears forming in his eyes and the first one roll down his cheek. In the back of the room there was a stirring as Holly shifted in her seat and began to rise to her feet, and as David continued to sing to her, she began to walk slowly toward the bandstand.

" ... I'll spend with you. These precious days I'll spend with you."

David and John repeated the last refrain and by the time he was singing the last few words, his voice was filled with emotion and Holly was standing before him at the bandstand. As his voice faded away with his exhausted breath on the last word, he let his hand that was holding the mike fall down to his side, and bowed his head down. Holly stepped up to him, put her hand under his chin, raised his face up and kissed him, a long warm, wet loving kiss that brought a tear to every female eye in the crowd, and to a few of the male eyes as well. And a microphone wasn't needed to hear David's voice saying softly, "I love you, Baby!"

"Oh, god, I love you too!" she replied.

And they kissed again as the sound of John's piano faded. Danny and his wife began to applaud. Then so did Justin and Donny, and Greg and George and the rest of those sitting around, as Holly and David slipped their arms around each other's shoulders and walked back to their table that had sat empty for the last couple of hours.

And just like that, the evening turned back around, the talk and laughter became infectious, and when the band began to play again, everyone seemed to find the dance floor appealing. They eventually held the best costume contest and it wasn't till well after two in the morning that the last guests left. A few friends had stayed late to help them clean up so that all that remained were the largest decorations, which they planned on taking down the next day anyway. Closing the door and locking it, David took Holly's arm and they walked the short path back to their apartment.

"I'm sorry if I said something to upset you," David apologized. "You know that I love you so much and wouldn't ever do anything to hurt you."

"I know, sweetie," Holly said softly, her voice a tender quiet and soothing. "I love you."

"And I love you," David answered.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, their arms hooked around each other's waist. Once inside David made some hot tea while Holly went to wash off her makeup. He set it on a tray and put some ice in a short glass and carried it to the living room and set it down on the coffee table. He doused the lights, lit some candles and poured some scotch into the glass. Holly came into the room, still wearing the gown from her costume, but looking much less like a victim and more like herself. She curled up on the couch and sipped her tea.

"Hey, beautiful," David said, leaning over to give her a kiss. "I'll be right back."