Voice.club - Fiction - The Answer - by Joseph Roland

Описание: https://Voice.club - Four more lines and it’s done. The song that’ll make my fortune.

The answer is like those lines in the sand,
That get washed away by the sea.
The answer is like those lines in the sand,
That are gone for e-terni-ty.

Nailed it.

People will go nuts.

Like they did for Bobby.

I put down my pen. The sounds of Greenwich Village float through the open window of our garret. Traffic. Voices from the sidewalk.

And footsteps in the hall outside.

Dean comes in, all workman’s jeans and boots. Holding something.

‘Bobby’s new record, man. Everyone’s talkin’ ’bout it.’

Bobby.

Rocked up in the Village in ‘61, they say. Started off under the name Bobby V, because it sounded like Bobby Vee and he liked it when people complimented ‘his’ song.

One thing I’m sure of, he’s full of crap. My friend Carl tells me Bobby’s from somewhere in Minnesota. Hibbing, maybe. Hear Bobby sing, though, you’d think he’s the son of Woodie Gutherie. Not sure how Arlo feels about that.

I was at The Gaslight last October, right after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bobby played a set – trads, mainly. Then one of his own. A song about ‘the answer’, blowing, somehow, in the wind. ‘Billowing in the breeze’ would’ve been more poetic.

But people went nuts for it. They thought he had the answer.

Well, I told myself, if Bobby has the answer, so do I. And it’s ‘lines in the sand’.

It’s taken months, but now it’s ready.

Dean puts the record on the turntable.

I study the cover. Bobby’s walking down snow-covered Jones Street, hands in pockets. A girl clutches his arm. I’ve seen her round the Village. Suzie, maybe. Whatever he’s saying, she’s entranced.

My stomach flips. The first song is the one from the Gaslight last October.

Damn. He’s released it already.

Bobby’s nasal voice unravels the song, line after poetic line, verse after poetic verse.

Dean smokes a roll-up. Eyes closed.

I scrunch up my song, my dreams, and curse.

Because the answer’s not ‘lines in the sand’.

It’s blowing in the wind.