Being Henry David - By Cal Armistead Page 0,46

is the female version of Jack. It’s Nessa, smiling in what looks like a high school portrait. I hadn’t realized how much they look alike. Vanessa Lee Zane. She’s barely fifteen.

For a second, I want to call the number listed and report that I’ve seen them, so at least one of these desperate families can know what happened to their kids. Maybe there’s an aunt or somebody who would take them in, get them away from Magpie and off the streets. But then I remember the look on Jack’s face when he said he’d never go back home. Something bad happened with their dad, and I can’t be the one to potentially send them back to it.

Thomas pops in to check on me. “Anything yet?” I decide not to tell him about Jack and Nessa, figuring it would do nobody any good.

I shrug. “Not yet. My neck is starting to cramp up from all this computer stuff.”

“So close it down for now and come help me,” Thomas says. “We’ve got a bunch of shelving to do over in fiction. I could slip you a few bucks if you’ll help me out. Sound good?”

I grin at him. “Money always sounds good.”

The Battle of the Bands is only one week away, but Hailey is able to pull together a couple musicians to play with us. The drummer is this laid-back stocky guy named Sam who plays in the school jazz band, and the bass player is a friend of hers from English lit class, named Ryan. Ryan, a short, thin guy with glasses, has never played with a band before, but she says he’s taking lessons and is ready to play. So we all show up together to rehearse for the first time Monday afternoon on the high school stage. Hailey introduces me to everybody as a new transfer student. I wonder how long I’ll be able to get away with that.

Secrecy, as it turns out, is a big part of the Battle of the Bands event at Thoreau High. The windows on the auditorium doors are covered with black paper so nobody can peek in from the hallway, and only one band at a time rehearses with the stage crew to keep everything a surprise until performance night.

Bands are allowed to play one to three songs. Of course we choose just one, “Blackbird,” hoping we can even pull that off. Sam, Ryan, Hailey, and I set up our gear on the stage and take a few moments to tune up.

“Okay, let’s try it like this,” I suggest. “It’ll start with Hailey and me, guitar and voice, for the first part of the song, nice and easy like a ballad. But as we go into it a second time, you guys join in and we totally rock it out through the end. Want to give it a shot?”

We start the song just like Hailey and I had been practicing in the white room. Guitar and voice, the two of us together. Hailey starts out strong, with that gorgeous voice of hers. But then, she starts to waver. She stops singing, swallows hard. “Can we start over?” she asks me.

“Of course.”

“Need something, Hailey?” Ms. Coleman asks from the auditorium seats. “I brought a few candy bars along just in case.”

Hailey looks embarrassed but shakes her head. “No, I’m fine,” she says. “Just nerves.”

I begin the intro again, cutting her a meaningful look. You can do this, Hailey.

Even though her voice is tentative, she makes it through the song the first time through, and the rest of the band comes crashing in. It’s total chaos. We sound like crap.

“Whoa. Hold on, hold on,” I say, waving my arms to stop them. “You came in too soon. And Ryan, you have that progression wrong. I don’t know what that last note was, but it wasn’t right.”

Ryan’s face turns bright red, but he nods. “You’re right,” he says. “Sorry, just a little nervous. I’ll get it.” I take a deep breath and remind myself this was our first time through. Not a total disaster, not yet. Relax.“Let’s start from where you guys come in, okay?” I count it off, and we sail into the next verse. Sam gets it immediately, adding just the right touches on snare and cymbal. Ryan screws up again, but at least we finish the verse.

“I’ll get it,” Ryan insists.

We take it from the top again, and this time, Hailey sounds stronger. We limp through the part with Ryan, then do it