Page 39 of Exquisite Things
Archie squints in confusion. “Is that meant to mean something?”
Lily kicks Archie in the shin. “I told you Bram had a friend in Boston.”
“Oh.” Archie stands a little straighter. “You’re the friend . I thought perhaps you were merely a figment of Bram’s imagination.”
Lily grabs a wooden spoon and stirs the stew. “Bram, you need to stir the food so it heats evenly.”
“Yes, Mommie Dearest.”
Oliver laughs at that.
Lily turns to Oliver again. “You’re a little late. We were expecting you days ago.”
Oliver nods. “Yes.”
Archie stands up. Puts a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “Better late than never. You’re here now.” Archie backs away in shock.
“Your eyes. They glow just like Bram’s.”
This is our time to try out our story. See if anyone believes it. I start the lie. “It’s part of how we met, actually. We
were in a library.”
Oliver steps in. “We both reached for the same book.”
We tell our elaborate fake tale. Lily and Archie don’t question it. They seem charmed. Two teenage boys meeting in a library
while reaching for Oscar Wilde. What could be more romantic? Of course it’s a lie. But Wilde himself said secrecy is the one
thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. And I do feel delighted as I watch my beloved mother and her best friend welcoming my love into our life.
Oliver leans toward Lily. “Bram gave me a tour. I love the Donna Summer shrine.”
Lily’s eyes light up. “You like her?”
“I don’t think like is sufficient to describe how I feel about a woman who revolutionized music. There’s music before ‘I Feel Love’ and music after ‘I Feel Love.’?”
“Exactly!” Lily turns to Archie. “Haven’t I said the exact same thing?”
“You have.” Archie looks at Oliver. “She has.”
Oliver keeps going: “What they did with the electronics in that song... The delay on the bass line. The way they manipulated
the Moog to sound percussive. It’s the first drum machine click track ever released, as far as I know. It’s all so precise
and yet so free. It’s like the musical equivalent of a moving train. It just travels , you know.”
Lily smiles. “I do know, even though I’m not sure I understand music like you do.”
I don’t dare interrupt them. But I do think of how much I love the song. And also how much I love riding the Tube. Its speed.
The rattling motion that makes me feel like I’m going somewhere. That’s all I want. To keep moving forward and farther forward.
Headfirst. Always accelerating. Who wouldn’t love a song that gives them that sensation?
Lily asks: “Do you know why the song was written in the first place?”
Oliver shakes his head. “I don’t.”
Lily smiles. She’s excited by the conversation. “Donna was working with Giorgio Moroder on an album that was a tour of music
through the decades. They decided if they were going to chart the history of music, they also needed a song to represent the
future.”
“Wow.” Oliver closes his eyes. Moves his body.
He seems to be playing the song in his imagination.
“And they were right, weren’t they? They created the sound of the future.
But then, what makes the song so powerful is the way she delivers the melody in her head voice.
So angelic. So human. So incongruous with the electronic world of the song. ”
“She’s a church girl at heart. She knows how to channel God when she sings.”
“My mother always said music is our way of communicating with God.”
“Said?”
Oliver bites his lip. “Oh. Uh... She passed.” I can tell Oliver regrets bringing her up. He says he doesn’t want to talk
about his mother. And yet she’s still the person most on his mind.
Lily reaches for Oliver’s hand. Squeezes it. “I’m sorry.” They clutch each other. Their hands are over my heart. I’ve never
felt happier. Lily adds: “Perhaps all creativity is our way of letting God communicate through us.”
I can tell Oliver loves Lily already.
Lily smiles. “And Donna really was in love when she wrote and recorded it. You can fake a lot of things. But not love.”
Oliver’s gaze catches mine when Lily says this.
Archie leans on the kitchen counter. “Music can be a revolution.”
Lily nods. “Music should be a revolution.”
“When I saw Queen in Hyde Park—”
“Archie, this story again!” Lily throws Archie a playful gaze.
“Well, the boys haven’t heard it, have they?” Archie turns his gaze to me and Oliver: the boys . “The crowds were massive, but somehow Freddie had every one of them in the palm of his hand. I felt pride watching him.
As he strutted across that stage in his tight-fitting white leotard, cock bulging—”
“Archiekins, no need to be so graphic!”
“Well, it was.” Archie laughs. “It felt to me, in that moment, that life is limitless. All the rules and boundaries of society felt so weak in the face of a power like Freddie Mercury. When the main set ended, we all cheered for an encore that never came. Two hundred thousand people, cheering and shouting and begging. What we didn’t know at the time is that the bobbies had forced the band into the back of a police van and threatened them with arrest.”
I didn’t know this story. I hear myself respond in shock. “Wait. Seriously?”
Archie nods. “They said it was because the concert was becoming unruly. But let’s be real. They were afraid that one more
song from that magical creature might have tipped the scales of power forever in our favor. That’s the power of one song,
one person, one moment. Remember that, won’t you?”
Before any of us can respond, Maud gets home. “I’m proper famished.” Maud opens the refrigerator without even glancing at
Oliver. “Aw, come on. Where’s the beef stew? I had my heart set on it.”
“Here.” Oliver pushes his plate toward her. Offers her his fork.
She takes out her own fork and stands next to him. “Wait, it’s you. From the bookshop. White boy who knows his Langston Hughes.”
“And now my Claude McKay, thanks to you.”
Maud sits next to Oliver. They eat side by side. She’s no doubt had a long night at some shebeen or another. The Blitz isn’t
for her. The Brixton shebeens are where she finds her necessary doses of freedom and abandon. “Wait, so what are you doing
here?” She speaks with a mouth full of stew.
“He is Oliver. Bram’s friend from Boston.” Lily pronounces friend with just the right amount of emphasis. Maud immediately understands he’s more. “He’ll be staying with us for a little while.”
I smile. My heart feels full. My mind has one question. How long can this little while last? Forever, I hope.
Nothing less than forever will do.