WIP: DYNAMIC DUO OF THE OZARKS

CHAPTER 8

When the boys departed the elevator, the girls were waiting for them in the lobby. Carlene and Silvy got off the other elevator and were walking right behind them. Kathy greet them, “Glad all if you could make it! I think this will be fun!”

Sherry stood smiling at Mykel. He walked over to her and she threw her arms around him. “I’m glad you could come.”

“Where are Dennis and Tommy?” Grace asked. “I thought we asked them and they said they would come with us.”

Debbie pointed to the stairwell door and said with excitement, “There they are!”

Dennis and Tommy walked up to the group. Dennis was unwrapping a pack of Marlboro cigarettes and Tommy was drinking a bottle of Frosty root beer. “Sorry we are late. I was out of smokes and stopped off at the cigarette machine in the stairwell.”

“Did you invite Owen?” Mykel asked, concern that Owen might get left out.

Kathy explained, “I went to his room, but his mother come and got him for supper. Apparently, he invited his roommate to come too and she said she didn’t want him to come to their house. It kind of upset his roommate. We said he could come with us, but he said he would pass. He appreciated us asking though.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Mykel declared. “I was only around his parents a few minutes yesterday, in the elevator, and it was longer than I need to ever be around them again. Ask Silvy, they began insulting me for no reason.”

“I think I know why they were rude to you,” Silvy answered. “You let me and my auntie on the elevator. You know, they nagged him the whole time about living in the dorm. I felt sorry for him, but I was so glad he had such a good time with us last night.”

“He is kind of pitiful,” Clint added. “Mykel had to show him how to fix Maypo in the cafeteria this morning.”

“Boys, you will be happy to know Alice isn’t coming either,” Sherry informed him with a sly, twinkle in her eye. In a mock condescending, nasal voice, Sherry said, “She detest folk music.”

“That’s okay, we detest her,” Slick spoke up. The boys laughed and he quickly added, “Let’s tell her there were clowns, giving away balloons, at the Cafe What and she will never go in there.”

Kathy announced, “If everyone is here, let’s head for the Student Union.” The group of young people began moving out the double, glass, front doors of the Chester Ambrose Bonner Residence Hall.

Once they were outside, Sherry saddled up to Mykel’s side and leaned her five foot four body against his five foot one body. “I want to walk with you, if you don’t mind,” she cooed in his hear. Mykel was dumbfounded that she was cuddling up to him. He cautiously put his arm around her and they began walking toward the Student Union. Between bitter cold of the night and Sherry’s close contact, Mykel was finding his walking slightly hindered by a rather stiff object in his blue jeans.

Grace and Debbie began running ahead of the group, “Hurry up! It’s cold out here!” Debbie shouted. Grace’s feet flew out from under her and she landed on her rear.

Clint ran over to help her up. “You okay, Grace?” He then started to slip, but managed to stay on his feet. He yelled back at the others, “Y’all be careful! There is ice or frost right here and it is slick. Might ought to walk around it.” He helped Grace up and the group continued on.

Kathy laughed, “And, of course, Grace found it!” Kathy asked her suite mate if she was okay and Grace said yes. Kathy wrinkled up her nose and asked, “What is that smell? Smells like something burnt.”

“I can tell you what it is,” Slick answered. “It is what’s left of George Washington Carver Hall. I noticed that today on the way to class. The wind shifts and you can smell the cinders and ashes.”

“I’m surprised there is anything left of it,” Silvy added. “It was a really old building. My auntie said it had been used to quarantine people during the Spanish Flu outbreak.”

“So, we were sleeping and eating in an old building, where they put sick people, during an flu epidemic,” Carlene ranted. “Then, some fool goes and burns the place down! I don’t think Spring Valley wants us here.”

The steel and glass Student Union building was brightly lit in the foggy, purple evening. The group made their way to the ground floor, where the snack bar area was transformed at night into a makeshift replica of a big city coffeehouse, dubbed Cafe What. There were orange poster boards, with the words, Cafe What, painted in large, lime green letters. There was a stage with some curtains along the back wall. Above the heads of everyone, hung a thick, gray cloud of cigarette smoke and the scent of coffee.

On the stage, a boy wearing a chambray shirt, Levis, Red Wing boots, hickory-striped railroad cap and a bandanna around his neck, with a Martin acoustic guitar, sat in front of a microphone crooning a Leadbelly song in a baritone, “My girl, my girl, where did you sleep last night? In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines.”

The group meandered around, looking for a place they could all sit together. Kathy spied the perfect place; a large, circular couch with a long, coffee table in front of it. On the coffee table was a coffee can filled with sand and extinguished cigarettes, in the center was a king sized Coca Cola bottle with a candle inserted in the top, held in place by melted wax.

Mykel and Sherry sat together on the couch, cuddled in blissful cuteness. Mykel’s other new found friend, Jamie, spotted the group and walked over with a some mimeographed sheets of paper, listing the beverages available. Jamie was not wearing the Spring Valley State employee shirt, he was wearing earlier in the day, when Mykel had talked to him, but an over-sized sweatshirt and a black beret.

“Hey gang, this is Jamie, I found out he is from Lemming Pond too,” Mykel announced. “He was ahead of me in school by a few years.” Mykel found something else that was different about Jamie, an awkward looking soul patch, so he had to ask, “Did you have that beard this morning?”

Jamie rolled his eyes, “No, it’s fake – crepe fur. Barbie Jo wants me to wear it.”

“You mean Barbie Jo Whitcomb? I think she is with Zeta Tau Alpha,” Kathy asked.

“Yes, and Student Activities Council,” Jamie answered. “She runs the show here and sings quite a bit. The Zetas made frosted ginger snaps, chocolate chip cookies and Rice Krispy treats. You get four in a bag for a nickle.”

“A nickle is pretty cheap,” Sherry observed. “They must not be worried about raising too much money. I’m a Tri Sigma girl and we would have charged at least at quarter.”

“That is what I thought, but Barbie Jo’s brother told her that, at the big city coffeehouses, people buy stuff in nickle bags,” Jamie explained, which caused Slick and Carlene to get tickled. They were the only ones of the group, who seemed to know what would be in a nickle bag at a coffeehouse.

“I have classes with her in the music department,” Silvy spoke up. “She plays the guitar and piano.”

Jamie took everyone in the group’s orders and then went to fetch them. The boy on stage said, “This is an old Irish air, called ‘Down By the Sally Gardens,’ and I sing this for a girl, I knew in high school, name Betty, who married another man, because I failed to ask her for her hand.” The boy began playing the sad song of lost love from the previous century.

“So, how did everyone’s first day back at classes go?” Kathy asked.

“I think I’ve got some hard classes already,” Henry answered. “I should only take one mathematics class a semester.”

“I’m already worried too,” Clint said. “More and more I’m thinking I wasn’t cut out for college.”

“Mykel, have you started reading the novel for Lit class,” Grace asked.

“Yes and I fell asleep while I was reading it,” Mykel chuckled. “Why does Anderson call everyone grotesque? Maybe it will make sense later.”

“Could be worse?” Slick said. “Last semester I had to read Farewell to Arms.

Hemingway writes the shortest sentences in the world. It gets tedious after a while.”

“Mykel and I have American History together,” Sherry beamed with excitement as she told the others. Jamie returned with coffee for everyone and sat the tray on the table.

“Jamie, tell them what you said, this morning, about how Professor Plowright talks,” Mykel coaxed.

“He sounds like Lyndon Johnson at Everette Dirksen speed.”

Dennis and Tommy laughed, then Dennis took part of Jamie’s statement to task, “Actually, Plowright makes Dirksen sound like Walter Winchell.” Dennis then imitated the professor, “Judge…Crater…disappeared…and…was…never… seen…a-gin.”

Silvy, then exclaimed, “There is Barbie Jo on the stage!” The boy, who had been singing, walked off the stage and a nerdy, but rather attractive girl with strawberry blonde hair and cats eye glasses, sat down on the stool, in front of the microphone, vacated by the boy. She adjusted her skirt, as to not give the audience an unexpected show, and picked up a small Gibson Western guitar.

“Lets thank William for his beautiful singing, by snapping our fingers or clapping,” she encouraged the audience, which obliged. “Now, I’m going to sing a song, that I found on an Odetta album entitled ‘Looky Yonder.’ It is a Leadbelly composition and has two parts. One called ‘Looky Yonder’ and the second part called ‘The Ballad of Black Betty.’ I hope you enjoy it.”

Jamie told the group, “Enjoy your coffees! I’ll be back around later to see if you would like more. Something tells me this may get ugly.” The group wasn’t sure what Jamie meant.

Barbie Jo sang in a syrupy, sweet, high voice that was perfect for an elementary school, music teacher, however her choice of material at that moment was awkward. She strummed the guitar with a harsh, threatening chord of doom. “Looky looky yonder! Looky looky yonder! Looky looky yonder! The sun’s going down.”

Clint opened a bag of the sorority girl’s cookies, “Anyone want a cookie?” after taking one for himself. Mykel took a cookie for himself and one for Sherry.

Kathy had bought a bag of the Rice Krispy treats and she took a bite of one. She frowned and remarked, “These are kind of hard.”

Sherry said, “Rice Krispy treats tend to get hard after they set awhile.”

“Dunk it in your coffee,” Clint suggested. “That should soften it up.”

Barbie Jo switched from the bluesy dirge to an upbeat, peppy strumming and she began singing in her cute, chirpy voice the second part of the song, “OH Black Betty, bam-ba-lam! Oh Black Betty Bam-ba-lam!”

Dennis pushed the butt of a Marboro into the sand in the coffee can in the center of the table and then proceed to light up another one, “I had to pay ten bucks for a brand new Geography book thanks to the Soviet Union taking over half of Europe.” He and everyone in Cafe What stopped talking and became silent, as they listened to Barbie Jo singing the more lurid lyrics of the song. The espresso and cappuccino drinker’s face were filled with dismay, others snickered and giggled, as Barbie Jo seemed to enjoy singing of illegitimacy, birth defects, postpartum depression, peppered with the word “damn.”

“Black Betty had a baby, bam-ba-lam! Damn woman gone crazy, bam-ba-lam! That baby ain’t mine, bam-ba-lam! Damn thing’s gone blind!” Barbie Jo became aware of the disapproving faces of the audience and stopped singing. After a moment of awkward embarrassment, she quickly recouped and announced to the audience, “That may have been slightly inappropriate. Let’s try something that everyone likes.” With that, Barbie Jo began displaying exemplary prowess pick and singing the song “Wild Wood Flower” so beautiful, that Mother Maybelle Carter would have been proud.

When she finished that song, the audience clapped and snapped their fingers. Barbie Jo then announced, “Now, we are going to enjoy Frick and Frack!” Two boys, in matching suits, with straw cowboy hats and ribbon ties, came on stage. One boy held a fiddle and the other boy had a banjo.

“I can tell by the way they are dressed,” Clint told his friends. “They are bluegrass guys.”

The boy with the fiddle said, “I’m Frick!”

The boy with the banjo said, “I’m Frack! We were here last semester.”

“And now we’re back!” said the boy with the fiddle. They then launched into picking and fiddling away at “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”

Barbie Jo exited the stage, got a cup of coffee from Jamie and then, walked over to the group on the couches. “Silvy! I’m glad to see you!”

“It’s good to see you too! Did you have a good Christmas break?” Silvy chatted.

“Oh yes, but it is nice to get back to classes,” Barbie Jo gushed with enthusiasm. “Hey, why don’t you sing something for us?”

“Oh, I don’t think I could tonight,” Silvy quickly tried to get out of performing in front on stage. “What would I sing?”

“What about something you have known since you were a child? Maybe one you sang in elementary school or at camp or church,” Barbie Jo suggested. “I think people would love to hear you.”

“What about ‘This Little Light of Mine’, Silvy?” Carlene said. “You sing that around the dorm all the time. Go on!” The others join in encouraging Silvy.

“I can play that on the guitar!” Barbie Jo exclaimed. “I’ll accompany you.” Everyone in the group was cheering her on.

“Okay, I’ll give it a try,” Silvy agreed to singing a song.

“Frick and Frack will sing another song and then we can go on,” Barbie Jo explained.

Silvy stood up and said to her friends, “Wish me luck.” She and Barbie Jo made their way toward the stage, while the audience applauded for Frick and Frack, who then told those present that they would be doing ‘Arkansas Traveler’ next.

“This is going to be good, y’all,” Carlene told the others. “She sings so beautiful, you will think there is an angel in the room!”

Frick and Frack had chosen to do the version of ‘Arkansas Traveler’ that included humorous dialogue. The boys would play the bluegrass instrumental, then stop and do their bit. Frack would say, “Hello, Farmer!” and Frick would say, “Hello, Stranger!”

“Say Farmer, does this road go past Little Rock?” Frack said. Frick replied “Don’t know about Little Rock, but there is a whopper of a rock at the bottom of the hill.” They went back to playing the instrumental, in a fast and frantic style, then stop and attempt some more comedy.

“Hello, Farmer!”

“Hello Stranger!”

“Have you lived here all your life, Farmer?”

“No, I ain’t died yet.” They went back to picking and fiddling.

Clint turned to his friends and, with a smile said, “Hey everybody, watch those guys mouths when they play their instruments. They wag their tongues, back and forth with the music, while they play, like little pups or something.” The group began watching to see if they could spot what Clint was talking about and, sure enough, they noticed it too.

“Oh my gosh! They are moving their tongues with the music!” Kathy laughed. “That is hilarious!”

“My little brother does that when he colors in a coloring book,” Debbie giggled.

Frick and Frack stopped playing, “Say Farmer, did ya know yer corn has turn yeller?” Frack said.

“Yep, that means it is ready to pick,” Frick answered and went back to sawing on the fiddle, while Frack went to picking the banjo, both keeping time with their tongues.

“Mykel, can you do that with your tongue?” Sherry asked with a little wink. The girls began laughing very loud and giggling. Mykel was bewildered by that question.

“I just wish someone would get out one of those big hooks and pull those two dorks off stage,” Slick said shaking his head. “I want to hear Silvy sing.”

Frick and Frack finally finished and Barbie Jo walked back on stage, to the microphone and announced, “We now have a treat. A fellow music major is going to sing for us. She is from Arkansas and she made the highest score on the S.A.T in all of Arkansas. Please welcome, my friend, Silvy Ford.”

Barbie Jo hoped up on the stool with her guitar as Silvy eased herself up to the mike. She was trembling, as she gave a little wave to the audience. Barbie Jo began cording the guitar and Silvy began to sing in a soubrette voice that was like a tiny bell, ringing through the room, to get the attention of the coffee drinking crowd. They stopped talking and laughing, but unlike Barbie Jo’s faux pas, which caused stares and jaws to drop, they listened and smiled at Silvy. When she finished they snapped their fingers and clapped.

“Hey,” Barbie Jo motioned to Silvy to come over to her perch on her stool, with a perky smile on her face as the audience applauded. “Do you know ‘Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho’? We could do it next.”

“Sure!” Silvy answered. “But, would it be okay if I clapped while I sing it. That is how I was taught to sing it in Sunday school. You can still play guitar, though.”

“Oh that would be perfect!” Barbie Jo squealed with excitement. “You start clapping, to get their attention and then I’ll start playing.” Silvy walked back to the microphone and said in a voice, just above a whisper that they were going to sing “Joshua.” She then began to slap her hands together and sing the old spiritual. The audience then began to clap along and Silvy smiled. She then looked around at Barbie Jo, who was also smiling with pride and giving an encouraging nod. When they finished, the audience erupted with enthusiastic applause.

“Thank you!” Silvy spoke lightly into the microphone, then, not knowing what to say next, she said, “I’m going to sit down now.” She took a little bow and walked off stage.

“Let’s have Sweet William sing another song,” Barbie Jo told the audience, as the young man, who had been singing earlier returned to the stage.

He moved the stool over to the microphone and said, “This is the song, from which I took my stage name.” With that, he began singing “Barbara Allen.”

Silvy returned to her new friends, who were all giving her a standing ovation. The girls all gave her hugs. “Girl, that was beautiful!” Carlene shouted. “I wish you Auntie Charlotte could have heard you, it would have brought tears to her eyes!”

Slick picked Silvy up and hugged her. She let out a squeal of laughter. “I knew you could do it, little sister!”

Jamie had walked over to see if anyone wanted more coffee, but before he did he admonished Silvy, “You have a lovely voice! You need to sing here again!”

Barbie Jo walked up behind Jamie. “Jamie, get me and Silvy a large coffee. I’ll pay for it.”

Silvy then spoke up, “Oh no, I shouldn’t drink anymore coffee tonight. It’ll keep me awake, but thank you for the kind offer.”

Jamie then interjected, “How about a hot cocoa?” he then gave Silvy a goofy smile and offered, “I’ll put some Reddi Whip and big marshmallows in it for you.”

“That would be nice,” Silvy answered. “I’d like that.”

Barbie Jo pulled up a chair, “Silvy, that was so good! Jamie is right, you need to sing here more often!”

“What would I sing?” Silvy asked.

“We will think of something,” Barbie Jo said with the barrel full of enthusiasm, that she always seemed exude. “Are you going to be in Mixed Chorale 2, tomorrow?” Silvy acknowledged that she would be in that class, as Jamie brought her a large cup of hot chocolate with a large dollop of whipped cream, floating on the top. “We can talk about it then or have lunch together.”

Sweet William finished all twelve verses of “Barbara Allen,” and Jamie walked on stage to announce that he would be closing down the coffee bar and soda fountain in a few minutes. Then, like relapse of stomach flu, Frick and Frack returned to the stage.

“I’m Frick!” “I’m Frack! “We took a break.” “And now we’re back.” They then began singing and playing “Shady Grove.”

“NOT THOSE TWO AGAIN!” Slick gripped. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Wait! I’ve not finished my hot chocolate,” Silvy said.

“They aren’t bad,” Kathy said.

“You’re are right, they are actually pretty good,” Clint agreed.

“Are they singing about going to Harlem?” Slick asked.

“No, Harlan,” Clint explained. “It’s a county in Kentucky, where bluegrass music was born.”

“I was going to say that if those two goofy, white boys went to Harlem, they would get the crap beat out of them,” Slick chuckled.

“I went down to Shady Grove, she asked me in fer supper, stubbed my toe on the table leg and stuck my nose in the butter,” Frick and Frack sang.

“Sounds like me on a date,” Mykel quipped.

Sherry giggled at his comment and then said, “If you come to my house, you can stick your nose in my butter. I won’t mind.”

Debbie, Grace and Kathy heard Sherry’s suggestive comment to Mykel. “Sherry! You’re being kind of forward, aren’t you?” Grace laughed, then she knocked over the rest of her coffee on the table. “Where’s a napkin?” she said frantically, which Henry handed her two for clean up.

“I don’t think my ears should hear anymore of this conversation,” Debbie said with a childlike smile on her face.

A man in his late twenties, with a pile of messy hair and a beard, walked over to where the group was and began addressing Silvy. “My name is Lanford Fenwick and I wanted to compliment you on your singing. You have a very beautiful and powerful voice. I want to add that even though I am an atheist, but I commend you choice of songs, because they were traditional songs. Some of these people, try to pass off the current trendy music as folk, when it is not. They sing songs by P. F Sloan, who used to write surfing songs for teenyboppers. I used to like Bob Dylan then he started using electric instruments. Those boys, Frick and Frack, when they are not trying to be funny, stick to traditional stuff, because they borrow from Pete Seeger and Flatt and Scruggs, but ever so often, someone request that they sing that Flatt and Scruggs song from that television show about the hillbillies that stuck oil. Ugh! Anyway, I hope you sing here again sometime.”

“Thank you! I appreciate the compliment,” Silvy replied. The older student walked away. Barbie Jo came over.

“Oh wow! You were complimented by Lanford Finwick!” Barbie Jo said. “He seems to hate everything. He is a purist.”

When Frick and Frack finished, Jamie announced that the Cafe What would be closing for the night and everyone went back to Bonner House to go to bed, although it took them awhile to get to sleep thanks to the espresso.