Chapter Seventeen
Pitiful Peaches
Song: Dance with Me—Orleans
11:30 PM
Jesse ran to the airstream to get paper and a pen.When he returned, he had me write the lyrics in his notebook.
Darren wanted me to write it because his handwriting was ineligible.
Even though he wanted me to, I was worried the band would associate me with the song and not Darren.
Jesse let me sing it by myself for the first time so he would understand how the tune sounded.It was difficult to get started and sing the first word.My voice quivered a lot as I sang.
Jesse simply nodded along, memorizing the words.
The second time, Darren played the drums while Keith watched him.My high-pitched, uneasy voice and Jesse’s gravel voice sounded good.Our voices were so different that they complimented each other.
Keith was admiring Darren’s drum solo.The sheet music, combined with Darren’s creativity, was less than forty seconds long, but it had something to it.It could be a catchy commercial song or jingle for selling peaches.
Jesse saw something else for its future.He started pacing while chewing on the end of the pen he held in his hand.He mumbled the lyrics under his breath like he was analyzing a poem in English class.
“What is he doing?”I whispered to Keith.
“It looks like you all are lucky.You got to see the real Jesse Young, and now you get to see how he writes songs.”
Darren and I watched as he started scribbling and crossing out words.
“This might take a while,” Tonya admitted as she lay on the wet grass, pulling her skirt down before it peaked up.
“How long is it going to take?”Betsy probed.
“I don’t know.Depends on how inspired he gets,” Mason said.
Jesse had a fascinating writing process.He would walk back and forth, humming the tune repeatedly, adding lines when he came up with something.I couldn’t imagine what he was adding to Darren’s song and how he would feel about it.I motioned for Darren to sit in the grass with me again.“What do you think he’s doing to your song?”
