Moira cried when I gave it to her as a wedding present and told her the history. Nobody, not even me, was allowed to drive it. If she was going anywhere alone it was her favorite transportation.
Life flowed smoothly. We were working on the next Faerie album and one night I noticed Jenny was looking down. Moira had to get Aaron and take him home, and the others drifted off. I asked her what was bothering her.
“Today would have been my fifth wedding anniversary.”
I didn’t know she had been married. She was about twenty five, and I really didn’t have much contact with her after her guitar lessons.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked her gently.
“Not much to tell. We got married right out of high school. We couldn’t find good jobs so Gerry got this idea we should both enlist. We could do our hitch and come back with a skill and some college money.”
“The plan went to pieces when he couldn’t pass his physical. Heart murmur. We had gone to different recruiters, so I didn’t know until after I had signed the papers. I ended up in the military and he didn’t.”
“After basic I was assigned to a motor brigade and and shipped out. We cried our eyes out, him, me, and my best friend. I made her promise to watch over him because of his heart condition.”
“I was a rear echelon driver, shuttling officers and VIPs around. At first the emails and letters came almost every day. Then they slowed, and then she stopped communicating with me completely. I started getting a bad feeling, but what could I do? I might have as well been a million miles away. When I got home from the first tour they met me. She was eight months pregnant. It was his.”
Tears flowed freely now. I sat beside her and held her, feeling outrage at her betrayal.
“I loved him so much. Her too, we were closer than sisters. I sucked it up, did another tour, went home and finished my enlistment. But it still hurts, even after all this time.”
We stayed together for a little while and she thanked me for being there, then went home.
I sat there alone in the studio, thinking about the unfairness of life, when it hit me.
I was above average as a songwriter. I even had a few articles written about me in several music magazines. ‘I Got A Plan’ ‘Erins’ Song’ and ‘My Truck Got Drunk Last Night’, and a few more were successful. But every writer hopes there is a Monster in him somewhere. A song so strong that even if they never knew who wrote it, they would always remember it. Jenny gave me my monster.
I never went home. Moira called me about eleven and told me to get my ass home. I told her I was onto something. She knew how I wrote so she told me not to stay up all night.
Some songs take time. A lyric here, six months later one there, until one day it’s finished.
Some songs are like mining for gold or jewels, you hope it’s buried in there somewhere so you keep digging. And some just flow out of you like water from a spring.
‘A million Miles Away’ flew from me like a burst dam.
I woke Moira up about seven thirty the next morning. When the sleep cleared her eyes she looked at me.
“Jesus, Wiley. Did you come to bed last night?”
I was still on a writing high.
“Just got home. Here.”
I gave her a printout of the lyrics and chord progressions.
“Tweak this, but not much. I’m taking a shower and sleeping for awhile. Wake me about noon.”
I looked at her sleep tousled hair, her right breast partially exposed because of the way her gown was bunched, just her general beauty.
I gave her a deep, soul touching kiss.
When we came up for air her eyes were sparkling and her nipples were erect.
“What was that for?”
“For never being a million miles away.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind.”
I resumed kissing her and was tugging her gown over her head when Aaron woke up crying.
She slid her gown back down.
“Sorry love, but somebody wants breakfast.”
I picked her up off the bed and twirled her around before setting her down and handing her her robe.
“This will continue without interruption very soon.”
I swatted her on her bottom and went off to shower and sleep.
…………………….
She let me sleep until three, then did the same thing I did, except she was naked.
“Aaron is with your mom, time for you to prove up on your morning promises.”
We didn’t leave the bed until five.
After we finally got up and got something to eat Moira started.
“It’s powerful stuff, Wiley. Maybe the best thing you’ve ever written. I was almost in tears working through it. Where did it come from?”
“Jenny. It’s basically her story.”
I told her the story. It made her angry.
“Damn them! She didn’t deserve that!”
“Nobody does, honey. But it happens, a lot. If it didn’t a lot of country writers would be out of business.”
We got Jenny to the side and asked her to stay after everyone left.
Moira played it for her. She burst into tears and ran from the studio. Ten minutes later, just when we were going to look for her, she came back.
Jenny hugged me for about five minutes before reaching for Moira and hugging us both. Finally she stepped back.
“God Wiley, that’s my life story. You came up with this last night?”
“Well, it took all night, actually. Took me that long to get it right. Even dreamed up the video for it while I slept. Enough about that. I want you to sing it, Jenny. Not as part of Faerie or Freddies band, but as Jenny Green solo. Can you handle that?”
Moira looked surprised, I think she wanted to sing it, but she told me later she couldn’t have done the job Jenny did.
‘A Million Miles Away’ was a crossover hit. It went to number one on the pop charts, number one on the country charts, and was number one on the British charts at the same time.
The video was amazing.
The first scene was of Jenny, her husband and her friend saying goodbye when she shipped out. Then it went to a split screen for awhile, showing Jenny in Iraq on one side and her husband and friend on the other. It gradually showed the friend and husband getting together while Jenny was getting shot at.
Then it dissolved into one screen, whit her friend and husband in bed while she stood at the foot in her uniform with sand swirling around her, singing.
If you’re gonna stray/ there’s nothing I can say/ that would matter anyway/cause I’m a million miles away.
It dissolved into another scene where the best friend is sitting up in bed while the husband sleeps singing.
I know that it was wrong/when he started coming on/but I’m just not that strong/and we just keep on going on
The next scene shows her coming home, to be met by her husband and her very pregnant best friend.
The husband looks at her and sings.
There’s nothing I could say/ that could take the pain away/ now I’ll see you every day/ wish I was a million miles away.
The final scene shows Jenny sitting on her bunk in a green tee shirt and fatigues, picking out the notes on an acoustic guitar with tears in her eyes. She looks up and sees a poster hanging on the wall that shows three soldiers in full full combat gear with the logo “Army Strong”.