We all went home for two weeks. Moira and Dottie made and remade wedding plans. When the smoke cleared, it was to be an outdoor wedding, in the little state park I was so fond of. You could rent an area for group events that included a large pavilion. We tried to keep it small.
I invited my shrink and her wife, my lawyer and a few more of my old college friends. Moira had a few close friends she used as bridesmaids, and the balance of attendees were somehow music related. I did invite my favorite nurse and a few more from the hospital.
Jimmy was my best man. Freddie, Al, Frank, and the rest of the men in our band were ushers. Beside her old friends, Sarah, Amber, Jenny, and Nikki were also bridesmaids. Dottie was matron of honor, testament to how quickly they bonded, and my dad gave her away. Her mother was ill and they couldn’t make the flight, but we promised part of our honeymoon would be spent in Ireland with them.
People were amazed we were getting married so quickly. The truth of the matter was Moira got pregnant the first night we made love.
She hadn’t been with a man in a long time so she went off the pill. We were both so excited protection never entered our mind.
It was kind of funny. The first serious discussion we had after getting engaged was about children. I was almost thirty two, and she was almost thirty five. We knew the older we were the more dangerous it was for her to get pregnant, and we both were hesitant. I wanted kids, and Moira said she was ready to be a mom again. We agreed that after our first year we would seriously look at adoption, at least two. Looked like the first one was going to be homemade.
The whole band played for us before the regular wedding band we hired played. Love songs, sung by Freddie and Jenny. Because Freddie was getting so popular we even had a few reporters show up. They were polite, though, and even attended the reception.
We ended up in a few fan magazines, background to Freddie being interviewed, and we got some really nice additional wedding photos out of it.
……………………
We spent two weeks in Ireland with her folks. It was a blast. Her parents were nice, and the small town they lived in treated us like celebrities.
That was probably due to her mother bragging about the country music star Moira was becoming.
It seems American country music had a big following, and the video of ‘How Could You Love Me’ was very popular. A local TV morning show even had us on, introducing us as “The up and coming music star and home town girl Moira Patterson, and her husband.” It embarrassed Moira to death but it was all I could do to keep from laughing as they gushed over her. We even went to the local pub a few times with her folks and played with the house band.
…………………….
When we got back home we had to go right to work.
With Freddie, I had picked out the songs for his western swing tribute album. Three Bob Wills tunes, a couple from Milton Brown, a great Mexican polka ‘Jessie’ from the Texas Wanderers, and two more from lesser known groups. Freddie wanted an original, and by then he was convinced I could write anything on demand.
I came up with ‘Moonlight In Tennessee’, a slow waltz. Freddie actually helped, along with Moira, and of course she did the arranging.
Most of the band had gone back home while Freddie did personal appearances and the talk show circuit, so we laid most of the instrumental tracks down at my little studio. I took some of my songwriting money and expanded it.
Finally, we went back to Tennessee to add the vocals and polish it up. We spent most afternoons rehearsing to get the live sound tight, and many of the evenings on the record. I was very protective of Moira, but she would laugh and say she was fine, she wasn’t far enough along to worry about anything but morning sickness. I still kept a close eye on her.
Finally it was done, and we took a short vacation before starting the tour.
……………………
When we first came back to Tennessee I was pleased to hear from an old friend. It was the nurse I had grown close to while Kara was dying.
“Wiley honey, how are you? Dottie gave me your number, I hope you don’t mind. I hear you finally got married, congratulations. Yes, we’re all fine, thanks for asking. We live here now, my husband and I work at St. Judes’.”
“Remember how you used to come and sing for the kids? We get all kinds of entertainers here, but most are just here for a photo op. What I wouldn’t give to see you come through the door with your guitar.”
She rambled on for awhile, and after inviting us out to their house hung up.
We did go to see them. Her kids were all grown, two were nurses, one was a doctor. It was a pleasant evening, and as we drove home Moira was pensive. I asked her and she said she hoped we would be as in love when we got their age. I kissed her and told her to ask me that again in about forty years.
A few days later she asked me, out of the blue, if I missed going to the hospital to play for the kids.
“Yes I do. It was a big part of my life for a long time, you know. What we’re doing, what we’ve become, it’s very satisfying. But it wouldn’t make the least bit of difference to those kids if Elvis himself came to see them if he could make them smile for a few minutes, and give them a bright spot to remember in their normally gray lives.”
I didn’t think anymore about it until three days later when she handed me a package.
“What’s this?”
“It’s your minstrel suit, I got your Mom to ship it up. I talked to Cora[the nurse], and she said come anytime. So, when are we going?”
Damn, I wish I could love this woman even more.
We set it up for a Thursday, simply because it was my favorite day of the week. I surprised Moira by handing her a package.
“What’s this?”
“It’s your costume. You don’t think I’m going around in tights while you wear jeans, it would spoil the effect.”
It was a dress, green satin. The skirt was layered to look like leaves, while the top was form fitting and had one shoulder bare. There were matching tights, and silver slippers with little bells. Even with her three and a half month bump, she was so beautiful it made my eyes water.
“What am I?”
“Silly girl, you’re a genuine fairy, come all the way from Ireland to spread cheer and give comfort.”
She twirled before the mirror. With her red hair, green eyes, and slightly pointed ears, she looked like she had just stepped off the pages of a story book.
We got off the elevator and Cora was standing there with a huge smile.
“Come on! I promised these people a treat.”
She showed us a lounge we could change in, chattering the whole way.
“Wiley, remember when you were fourteen and I told you some day I would be listening to your songs on the radio? This is one time in my life when I can take great joy in saying I told you so.”
We changed. I looked at her and realized that for the rest of my life I would be standing in the shadow of her beauty. And I was more than okay with that.
We carried our gear to the ward day room. Heads turned as we passed.
The kids stopped chattering when we came in. They
didn’t know quite what to make of us. Cora made the introductions.
“Kids, remember the minstrel we read about in the storybook yesterday? Well, this a real live, genuine minstrel, and he brought a special friend all the way from Ireland. This is Moira, queen of the fairies.”
Wow, now she was royalty.
We played the simple songs, the silly songs, the songs they liked. They liked me, but they flocked to her, touching shyly, almost in awe. she patted hands and hugged everyone. Occasionally I would see tears in her eyes and knew she was thinking of Erin.
One little girl, maybe three or four, sat quietly in a corner. She would smile occasionally, but never joined in. We took a short break and Moira asked Cora about her. We knew from experience the bald head was a bad sign.
“That’s April. She’s here all alone. Her father is a single parent and has two more at home. Because he has to support the other two and there is no other relatives, he has to leave her alone for extended periods of time. It’s killing both of them.”
She asked what the father’s name was, and told me to get my mandolin.
She walked up to the little girl.
“April, you know I’m a fairy, right? The Queen, actually.”
She nodded her head, shyly.
“One of the advantages of being the queen of the fairies is the ability to read thoughts from a long distance. I’ve been getting a message from your father, Tim.”
Her eyes got wide at the mention of his name.
She reached down and stood her up.
“You have to stand for this message. Now, hold your arms out.”
Moira held her arms out wide and April did the same.
“Your dad says to tell you he misses you terribly, and he loves you this much.”
She held her arms out even wider.
I knew instantly where this was going, so when she started singing I was right there with the mandolin.
“I love you this much/my heart melts at your touch/and I’ll be strong enough, ’cause I love you this much.”
She had modified the lyrics a little to fit the occasion, but it sounded just as good.
It was our lullaby, we used to sing it to each other almost every night we were on tour.
She took her hand and put it in the boy standing beside her and almost hypnotically he reached for the child beside him. Soon everyone in the room, kids, doctors, parents, were holding each others’ hands as widely as they could.
By the time she had done all five verses, most had tears in their eyes, one, a doctor in his late fifties, was crying openly. He said later he was thinking of his wife, who had just passed.
Moira had been twirling slowly, as as the last chords lingered she knelt and picked up April, who was crying, well, like the baby she was.
“Your Daddy loves you April, be strong for him.”
She nodded, and then buried her head in her shoulder and tried to hug her harder.
…………………….
The spell was broken by a voice at the door.
“What’s all this? I didn’t know there was another act here. Does this mean I don’t have to do this, Bob?”
It was Freddie’s producer, along with one of his other clients, a young woman with a minor hit who he was thinking about producing. He was there as a favor to her manager.
She seemed indifferent, and a little stoned. I could tell from the look on Bobs’ face her chances of working with him were getting slimmer.
He told her to go on home, and one of the agents’ asssistants stayed to try doing damage control.
He followed us as we said our goodbyes. It took awhile, seems everyone wanted to thank us, hug us, I even got a kiss or two. Cora made us promise on pain of death to return soon.
As soon as we got changed Bob charged into the room.
“I suppose that was one of yours?”
I only nodded.
“I’ve got the perfect singer, she’s—”
“No, the only one who gets to sing this is Moira. No one else, don’t bother. If she wants to record it she will, otherwise it stays a private lullaby.”
Both looked at me with stunned faces.
Bob tried to bluster.
“We agreed, I get first choice, remember?”
“No, you offered me a retainer but I didn’t take it.”
“Most songs it won’t matter, but some are special to me, and I’ll choose who sings it. No discussion.”
And that’s how Faerie was born.