The Wishbones (26 page)

Dave nods. Zelack shrugs.

“You guys sound good up there,” Dave tells him.

Zelack grins. “Not bad for two rehearsals, huh?” He leans closer, speaking in a conspiratorial tone. “Your friend Glenn, man—”

“I know,” says Dave.

“The guy can play.”

As if on cue, Glenn wanders over from the bar with Buzzy's wife JoAnn, who's looking cranky but elegant in a little black dress and fishnet stockings. Both of them have their hands full of drinks, but Glenn stops on his way to the table for a word with Dave.

“Speak of the devil,” says Zelack.

“You're kicking ass,” Dave tells him.

Glenn's face colors with embarrassment.

“Really?” he asks.

“Really,” Dave replies.

“How's it feel?” asks Zelack.

Glenn thinks it over for a few seconds, pondering the triangle
of glasses pressed between his hands, each with a wedge of lime floating on top. Then he looks up, his face breaking into a broad, incredulous smile.

“I had no idea,” he says. “How come nobody told me?”

Dave and Zelack watch as Glenn delivers the drinks to the table, placing one each in front of Walter and Stan, who seem to be locked in a tense discussion, and keeping the third for himself. He takes a long swig, smacks his lips in satisfaction, and surveys the room, grinning at nothing in particular.

“Now there's a happy man,” Zelack observes.

“No kidding,” says Dave. “Wait'll he hears about sex.”

Ian sidles up to him at the bar and explains that the bouquet toss has been rigged in Tammi's favor. He asks Dave to send the garter his way, if it's not too much trouble.

“Don't worry,” Dave tells him. “Just stand in front. Everyone else will run away.”

“I bought her a ring last week,” Ian confides. “As soon as I find a job I'm gonna pop the question.”

“Wow. That was quick.”

“She's the one. There's no sense trying to fight it.”

Dave grins. “Now you tell me.”

“I'm grateful,” Ian says, placing a sincere hand on Dave's shoulder. “I hope this stuff with the band doesn't get in the way of our friendship.”

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Dave says with a shrug. “Don't you miss it?”

Ian looks back at the stage. The guys are cooking now, cranking out a raucous version of “After Midnight.” Buzzy's up there with them, singing background vocals and shaking a tambourine with his good hand. The floor's packed; even Dave's father is out there, doing a strange dance that consists of standing on one leg and
wiggling his raised foot in the air. Dave's hands are itching for a guitar.

“Not really,” Ian tells him.

After the bouquet and garter ritual runs its tedious course, Zelack invites Dave to join the band for a couple of numbers.

“If your lovely wife doesn't mind,” he adds with a smirk.

Dave looks at Julie. Her tiara's gone and her hair is loose. Her shoes came off an hour ago, and her face is flushed from close-to-nonstop-dancing and several glasses of wine. Envelopes full of money litter the table in front of her. She wouldn't object if he said they were moving to Africa.

“Go
ahead,” she tells him. “Have your fun.”

Something changes when Dave gets onstage. The band's been hot all night, but now something clicks and they rise to a whole new level. Everything tightens up at once; the ragged edges disappear. It's as if a puzzle has found its missing piece.

He can feel it as soon as they launch into “I Saw Her Standing There.” Dave understands what's happening: he's a unifying force, the link between the Wishbones’ nucleus of Artie and Stan and the new center of gravity occupied by Zelack and Glenn and Walter. The rest of the guys understand it too, and the knowledge is passed around in a series of surprised smiles and nods. Dave and Glenn trade solos with the telepathy of twin brothers; he and Zelack mesh on the harmonies like they've been singing together for years.

The audience seems to notice something as well. The conga line starts to form midway through the second number—a suitably festive take on “When the Volcano Blows”— and attracts new members like a magnet as it snakes through the room. Julie's leading
the charge, followed by Tammi and Ian and Dave's own mother, who seems intimately familiar with the lyrics, even though Dave knows for a fact that she doesn't own any Jimmy Buffett records. His father's back toward the end of the line, hands around the waist of Buzzy's wife, the only person Dave has ever seen who can look morose on a conga line. Buzzy himself is bringing up the rear, holding onto Dolores Müller with his bad hand and waving a bottle of champagne around with his good one.

Not wanting to lose the momentum, the band segues right into Bob Marley's “Stir It Up.” Dave's never really mastered the reggae rhythm, but Glenn has it down. After a few bars, Dave stops trying to keep up on guitar and concentrates instead on singing the low harmonies. Zelack's voice is so high and pure above his, Dave almost feels like he's levitating on the chorus.

Something's happening. Glenn and Dave and Zelack keep trading these quick glances of amazement and disbelief, the kind of glance that's as much a question as it is a confirmation.
What's this all about?
they seem to be asking one another.
Is this what I think it is?
Dave remembers sharing looks not so different with Gretchen in this very same room not so long ago, experiencing a similar suspicion that his life might be about to change in a very important way.

They've already shifted into “Havin’ a Party” when the conga line stops short in front of the stage, like a train waiting in the station. This unexpected pause wreaks havoc with the back of the line, which begins to collapse in on itself like an accordion. Julie's smiling happily, waving at him to put down his guitar and come join the dancers, but all Dave can do is shake his head. He wants to tell her that something beautiful is happening up here, something he can't let go of, but as is the case with most of life's important matters, neither the time nor the place is right for saying what needs to be said. Julie's smile starts to melt into a more complicated
expression, not quite a pout but something in that neighborhood. Dave doesn't want to upset her, so he makes his way to the edge of the stage, as far as his cord will stretch, and raises one finger in the air.

“One more song,” he tells her, not quite sure if he's making a plea or a promise. “Give me one more song.”

Acknowledgements

 

I'd like to thank John Talbot and Maria Massie for their help in making this book a reality, I'm grateful to Mike Perrotta and all the members of R.S.V.P., one of New Jersey's finest wedding bands, for letting me watch them in action. Special thanks to Mary and Nina for too many gifts to enumerate.

About the Author

 

TOM PERROTTA
is the author of five other works of fiction:
The Abstinence Teacher, Election, Bad Haircut
, and the
New York Times
bestselling
Joe College
and
Little Children. Election
was made into the acclaimed 1999 movie directed by Alexander Payne and starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon.
Little Children
was released as an Oscar-nominated movie directed by Todd Field and starring Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly in 2006. Perrotta lives outside of Boston with his family.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

From the reviews of
The Wishbones
:

‘Perrotta's prose is dignified and earnest, relying on carefully crafted details about Dave, his fellow band members, and the tangential characters on the Jersey wedding-band circuit to tell a wistfully humorous story … Perrotta's characters have an innocence and sturdiness that invite the reader to care wholeheartedly about them’

Time Out

‘Perrotta lays out Dave's difficulties with an expert sense of pacing and revelatory incident, combining moments of unassuming poignancy with an offhand humour that occasionally rises to the hilarious’

New York Times

By the Same Author

 

The Abstinence Teacher
Little Children
Joe College
Election
Bad Haircut