After Bob saw I wasn’t giving the song to anyone else, he begged to produce it.
“This one is bigger than anything else you’ve written. When did you come up with this one?”
Moira was laughing.
“When he was twelve.”
“What? You’ve been writing songs of this quality since you were twelve? Please tell me you’ve got a twenty year stockpile just like it.”
By now I was grinning.
“Oh, I may have one or two lying around.”
He went into full business mode.
“Have you got enough to fill an album? Are you gonna do it as a duo or is it just gonna be Moira?
When can we start?”
“Yes, I don’t know, and it depends. She’s going to be almost eight months along before Freddies’ tour ends. I WILL NOT put too much strain on her.
We’ll talk it over and let you know. We would love for you to produce it, but I want Mel to engineer it. He did the instrumental tracks for his album and I trust him.”
After he left I asked Moira what she thought.
“I don’t know. We’re having fun just being in the band. I don’t know how far this will go, I’m sure it’ll be a hit. Do you want to be a star?”
“Oh no. If we do this, you’ll be the star. You’ll be singing it, you’re beautiful, and the spotlight will be on you. Are you up for it?”
She absently rubbed her tummy.
“I think so. It’s like a teenage fantasy come true. As long as we don’t endanger our son, I’d like to give it a try.”
Yes, it was as boy.
I was secretly pleased that she would get a chance to shine. I was already reviewing songs in my head.
We recorded “Erins’ Song’ over the next week. I changed the title because I didn’t want any allegations for copyright infringement from the book, though I did acknowledge as partial inspiration for the song.
It wasn’t a duo. It was Moira, me, Jimmy, Al, and Jenny. The name was chosen by me, and I thought the old English spelling suited it better.
We got the genius who did Freddies’ videos to work with us on ours. He heard Bob describe the scene at the hospital, and ran with it.
We filmed it at St. Judes’, with permission, and it started out in the day room where we first sang it. Moira was in her fairy outfit, I was dressed as a minstrel. She picked up April as she sang and had her open her arms. Soon all the children were joined by the doctors, nurses, orderlies, and parents in the room. She went out in the hall, where more hands were joined. By the end of the video she had gone down the stairs, out onto the sidewalk, and down the street. She went all the way round the building and back inside, eventually ending up back in the day room. I”m not sure how many volunteer extras he used. We ended the song with Moira holding April, giving a plea to help support the hospital.
He also did the CD cover. We hadn’t really thought about it, but one Saturday he was driving by one of those little county courthouses so common in the South. It was on a slight rise and the lawn sloped away. It was freshly mown, and had rained several days before. Mushrooms usually pop up a few days afterwards.
It was almost a perfect circle of crisp white mushrooms. A fairy circle. Folklore had it you would find treasure at the center. When he called us almost screaming to get her outfit and get over there before he lost the perfect light. we did.
He had already called his crew to set up the cameras and reflectors. When we got there he had measured and put Moira right in the center, with her knees drawn up like she was in deep thought. He got about fifteen shots in before the cops asked us to leave. He had to go back the next week to get retroactive permission for the shoot.
I looked at the photos and decided there was a treasure in the center. We named that CD ‘Circle’.
We didn’t finish the project until after we had the baby. Aaron James Patterson. It was a disappointment to me he didn’t have red hair, but other wise he was just perfect. And his auburn hair had red highlights in the summertime.
……………………
Fred had decided to retire the Chance Blaze persona and start using his real name. Freddie Johnson and the Smyrna Playboys[and Girls} got rave reviews. Western Swing was having a resurgence, and we were very popular.
The CD sold well. Not epic proportions, but that style of music didn’t appeal to everyone.
We got tired of wearing those western suits pretty fast, so we would play the first half of a show as a Western Swing band, then take a fifteen minute intermission and come back in regular clothes and finish the show doing his hits. He started closing the show with ‘Twisting The Night Away’. It put everyone in a good mood for the trip home.
As her tummy grew, Moira moved less, and in the end she sat on a stool through most of the songs.
At one time I almost made her leave the tour and go home. She was taking her vitamins and getting her rest, and insisted she was fine. The other girls, in fact all of us, watched her like a hawk. She was a little snappy from time to time, said she was tired of being smothered.
I would let her vent on me mostly, then hug and rock her, whispering silly nothings in her ear until she started giggling.
This probably sounds glamorous and exciting, and it was, to a point. But mostly it was just hard, repetitive work. Before the show I would work on songs for Faerie, as well as songs for Freddies’ next album, sometimes putting sixteen hour days in. Moira would fuss and I would stop for awhile, but as soon as she was asleep I would start again.
The hardest thing about touring is the boredom.
Fly here, do a show. Drive there, do a show. The normal routines of life were so disrupted sometimes you didn’t even know what day it was or even where you were at. Some of us would hit the gym, go to movies, museums, or read. Freddie, Sarah, and Barry, one of the horn players, were golfers and would try to play as often as they could.
Sarah, Jenny, and Nikki were single, as well as half the guys, so romantic entanglements were inevitable. It was none of my business, but I gave them all fair warning. Keep it away from the band. If trouble or jealousies developed, home they went. I did have a serious talk with one of the horn players who was paying to much attention to Amber. Her husband Frank hadn’t noticed it yet, but sooner or later he would, so I gave him an option. Stop or leave the band. He stopped.
After what seemed like forever it was time for the last show. We were in Atlanta, and the last five shows we did were sold out. The show was on Friday, and management talked us into doing one more on Saturday afternoon. It sold out in five hours.
I liked to read newspapers and had a habit of picking one up wherever we were. It soothed me to read about people who didn’t have to be five hundred miles away tomorrow or on the opposite coast the next. I always read the classifieds, my habit of looking for guitars had never died.
There was an ad for a community yard sale in a small park, and one of the items listed was old guitars. I told Moira, who like everyone else was craving normalcy, and we decided to go. Freddie wanted to go, and so did Sarah, so we rented a car and went.
It was great. For a little while we were just two average couples out for a morning of leisurely fun.
The yard sale was a lot bigger than I thought. Spread throughout the park, it easily covered two acres. We stayed together for awhile, but soon Freddie and Sarah wandered away, holding hands. I nudged Moira and she just smiled.
“How long?”
“Since Chicago. They look good together, don’t they?”
They did, but road romances rarely lasted. I wished them the best.
I found the guitars. Two cheap Japanese models, but one old electric Kay. I bought it, not even arguing the price. They agreed to hold it while we looked, so we slowly rambled, holding hands.
Occasionally someone would congratulate us, Moira was pretty big by now. She just glowed, as least to me.
We came to a table with a big banner: Babycakes Cupcakes, help me see Freddie Johnson. We couldn’t help it, we went over.
There was a girl, twelve or thirteen maybe, and her mom. I have to admit, the cupcakes did look good. The woman said hi, the girl was busy with a customer, but just as soon as she was done, she came over.
She looked at Moira hard.