Chapter 11

Toby Dumphries said just what Zach knew he would say when Zach called him late that afternoon. “Joe’s not going to like it. Last time you told him that Sunday was the best day for you. Now you’re not coming, after everybody else screwed up their whole weekend just for you?” he asked.

“Toby, I don’t know what to do,” Zach said. “I just don’t. I can’t be in two places at the same time. I got Joe squeezing me from your end, and my coach squeezing me from his end.”

“Yeah, but your coach always gets his way,” Dumphries said. “That makes it hard for us, don’t you think?”

“Man, Toby,” Zach said. “I thought you’d help me out with this.”

“There’s nothing I can do,” Dumphries said. “You have to make a choice between wrestling and the band.”

Zach thought for a second before responding. “You mean for tomorrow, or forever?”

“I just meant for tomorrow,” Dumphries said. “But forever might be a good idea too.”

After hanging up the phone Zach was even more upset than before. If his mom hadn’t left for work an hour earlier he would have unloaded all his troubles on her. He wandered into the living room and flipped through the channels on the TV before he remembered that Beth had told him she’d be at the school that night for a JV basketball game. He had wanted to see her after the match earlier that day but she disappeared. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t remember if she’d said what time the game would be played. A few minutes after grabbing his coat he was walking into the gym lobby. The squeak of sneakers and the steady thump of the ball emanating from the gym made it clear that a basketball game was indeed being played. The fourth quarter had just started, according to the scoreboard. Zach spotted Beth at the scorer’s table as he walked to a section of bleachers and took a seat.

When the game ended he drifted across the gym to the cluster of girls surrounding the home team. It looked as though Beth had seen him coming but then ducked back into the group. He walked past the group, hoping to catch her eye. When he didn’t, he took a seat nearby and waited. He needed to talk to somebody and was willing to wait if he had to.

The scrum of girls broke apart shortly after Zach sat down, and Beth walked over to where he was sitting. Zach stood up as she approached. “Hi Zach,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“You told me you’d be here for the game tonight,” Zach said.

“That’s why you’re here?” she asked.

“Well, yeah,” Zach said.

“I have to help with clean up,” Beth said. “I’ll just move a couple chairs. Can you wait a second?”

“Sure,” Zach said. He thought momentarily about offering to help but decided not to complicate things. “I’ll just be over here.”

Beth hoisted a few chairs before slipping away, just as she said she would. “They’re supposed to clean up after their own game,” she said. “I’m not even supposed to be here. So what’s up?”

“Nothing,” Zach said. “I guess I’m feeling a little bummed about my match today. I guess you saw I got pinned.”

“Can’t win them all, isn’t that what they say?” Beth said.

“That’s what they say,” Zach agreed.

“I waited for you after,” Beth said. “But then your girlfriend was there. I didn’t want to get in her way.”

“My girlfriend?” Zach asked. “You mean Jeanine?”

“The girl that was hanging all over you,” Beth said.

“She’s just a friend,” Zach said. “Man, does that sound lame. But it’s true.”

“Some friend, you two must really be close,” Beth said with a smile.

“She hangs around the band a lot,” Zach said. “She’s kind of a space case. I couldn’t believe she was even here.”

“I still want to come hear your band,” she said.

“You better hurry,” Zach said. “I may be getting kicked out.”

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked.

“No,” Zach said. “Not kidding. They’re not too happy that I spend so much time on wrestling. Now the coach told us just today that we have to go to some wrestling seminar thing tomorrow. I already told the guys that I could do band practice. I don’t know what to do.”

“There’s no way you can do both?” Beth asked.

“They’re both at two o’clock,” Zach said.

“Well, I can understand them being mad,” she said. “If you’re canceling out at the last minute. Can’t you tell your coach you already had something scheduled?”

“I guess so,” Zach said. “Then it’ll be him that’s mad. I just can’t win.”

“I’d go to band practice if I were you,” she said. “You told them you’d be there. The coach has to understand that you have a life. He can’t just throw this out there with no notice, especially on a Sunday.”

Zach nodded but said nothing. He noticed a few girls watching them from across the gym, and Beth noticed him noticing. “They’re kind of waiting for me,” she said. “I really have to go. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Zach said. “Thanks for the advice.”

He still faced the same dilemma as he walked home from the school, but somehow he felt better about it. Maybe that was because he knew what he was going to do. Beth was right. He should honor the commitment he made first. He would skip the wrestling session and go to band practice.

~~~

Zach didn’t wake up on Sunday morning until ten o’clock. That was later than he’d planned because he still had to get his running in before band practice. After dressing quickly he ran out the door. Halfway through the four-mile course he realized that he’d forgotten to call Dumphries to say he’d be coming to practice after all, and to ask for a ride.

For an hour after he finished his run he tried calling Dumphries. Each time he was greeted by the answering machine. By noon he began to panic. The only way he knew to get to band practice was to ride with Dumphries.

He thought of a possible solution after giving up on reaching Dumphries. His mom was at work but that was only five miles away. If he left soon enough he could run there in time to beg her for a ride. It would be a lot of running, especially on top of what he’d already done, but it could work. He changed into dry sweats and added an extra layer for warmth. By one-fifteen, breathing hard and dripping with sweat despite the cold, he reached the restaurant.

“Zach!” his mom said when she saw him waiting at the hostess station. “What are you doing here?”

“Mom, can you give me a ride to practice?” he blurted. “Toby left without me.”

She looked at her watch. “Zach, it’s a really bad time. We’re right in the middle of the lunch rush.” Just then a waiter approached her. “I’ve got an eight-top that wants to add four more late arrivers,” the waiter said. “Can I push a couple tables over for them?”

“What tables?” Zach’s mom asked. Zach stepped back and tuned out the conversation, which was steeped in restaurant lingo that he didn’t understand anyway. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees, still trying to catch his breath.

“Okay Zach,” his mom said to him after solving the seating problem. “Here’s what we’ll do. Gina comes on at two. Usually that means she’s here at quarter ‘til. After she gets here, if everything’s calm, I’ll run you over. It’s in Westville, right?”

“Yeah, thanks Mom,” Zach said. He went to the restroom for some paper towels to mop his face with. He knew he was in for a chilly afternoon. At some point his body would cool down, and the damp sweats he was wearing would keep him cold. Even worse, Fauquier would get mad all over again at practice every time he looked over and saw Zach in his sweats.

By two-fifteen they were in front of Fauquier’s house. “Thanks Mom,” Zach said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. “You saved me. I’ll see you at home.” He pushed the door open and stepped out. After she pulled away he noticed that Jeanine was watching from the top of the steps. She bounded down and walked quickly to meet Zach on the walkway. “Zach, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Band practice,” Zach said.

“They didn’t think you were coming,” she said. “Was that your girlfriend in the car?”

“I changed my mind,” Zach replied, ignoring her question. “Sounds like they’re starting without me,” he said. He trotted up the steps as quickly as Jeanine had come down them.

“Zach,” Jeanine said. “Wait a second.”

He heard her but he kept walking. Something from inside the house suddenly sounded wrong, very wrong. He opened the door and stepped inside. The music coming from the next room was so loud that nobody inside heard the door close. They were starting without him. Even worse, they were playing ‘Fire House’ without him, and somebody was obviously playing the bass. Probably my bass, he thought. He felt a surge of emotion moments later when he heard somebody screaming the lyrics into a microphone. Jeanine had told him a few days earlier that Fauquier was talking about replacing him. Had they found a way to get that done already, without even telling him? He had just talked with Dumphries the night before. He hadn’t said anything about it.

Zach walked into the living room where band practice was always held. Everything looked the way it usually did except that somebody else was holding his bass. The stranger wore round ‘John Lennon’ sunglasses and a headband to hold back his bushy blond hair. His face was covered with thick beard stubble. A burning cigarette was jammed filter-first onto the end of one the thick bass strings, where it protruded beyond the tuning peg. He looked to Zach like he couldn’t decide between Sammy Hagar and Kurt Cobain, and so he tried to look like both of them.

The musicians dropped out of the song one at a time as they realized that Zach was there. Herndon saw him first, and immediately stopped playing chords on his guitar. Dumphries looked up from his drums when he noticed that Herndon had gone quiet, and froze just as suddenly. Fauquier dropped out too, but not before playing a few more measures while looking directly at Zach. The nameless singing bass player was the last to stop. Suddenly the only sounds in the room were Jeanine’s footsteps as she hurried in.

“How about getting that cigarette off my axe?” Zach said, trying hard to control his emotions. “You got about a second before I do it myself, and you won’t like where I put it.”

“Zach, it isn’t like it looks,” Herndon said. “We thought you weren’t coming.”

“Yeah, Zach,” Dumphries said as he dropped his sticks on the snare drum and stood up. “You told me last night you weren’t coming.”

“That makes it even worse,” Zach said. “Why didn’t you tell me you guys were booting me out if I didn’t come today?”

Fauquier unstrapped his guitar and carefully placed it in its stand. “Zach,” he said. “You can’t expect us to keep skipping practices because you’re too busy for us. We got ‘Glimmer’ here to fill in for you so we could keep moving, that’s all. Don’t get all pissy about it.”

“’Glimmer’?” Zach asked. “What’s a ‘Glimmer’?”

The guy holding the bass finally looked at Zach, pointing a finger at him while making a clicking sound with his tongue. When he saw Zach’s eyes go back to the cigarette he quickly removed it from the string and put it in his mouth.

“My dog has fleas, what does he have?” sang Herndon in a southern accent as he plucked the open strings on his guitar from top to bottom.

“I guess you thought it was okay to hand out my equipment out to whoever showed up,” Zach said.

“We didn’t think you‘d mind,” Fauquier said.

“He sounded horrible,” Zach said.

“At least he’s here,” Fauquier answered.

“That’s more than you can say for me,” Zach said. “I’m out of here.” He turned to walk out without waiting for a response. He had to pivot to avoid crashing into Jeanine, who had crept up behind him. He walked through the door, purposely slamming it behind him as hard as he could. Getting there had been difficult, and it had all been for naught. Getting home was going to be all but impossible. There was no way he was staying, though. Two bass players in a rock band was one too many. He walked away from the house as quickly as he could, before anybody had a chance to catch up. But when nobody did he couldn’t help feeling disappointed.