My fingers feel like they’re falling down the neck of my bass as I play the extended final run of our second-to-last song for the night. Cameron is playing a line above mine, diverging into a fuguelike counterpoint. Jenna, our drummer, plays a rollicking drumbeat beneath. Her pale arms arc over her kit as she lands on a downbeat. Mason, rhythm guitar and vocals, has stepped into the shadows behind her. The stage lights catch his Afro sideways, creating a bronze halo as he bows his head over his instrument. This part of the song is all instrumental. Cameron and I wrote it over the summer by emailing each other tracks while I was in D.C.
The song ends with a call-and-response between Jenna’s drums and our melodic bass-and-guitar harmony. When we strike the final note together, the audience goes a little nuts, but Jenna doesn’t let the beat drop. She keeps tapping her bass drum pedal, transitioning smoothly into our final song. I have a few seconds, so I grab my water bottle off my amp and take a long swig. On the other side of the stage, Cameron’s focused on his guitar pedals, checking the tuning of his instrument.
Mason and Jenna are vamping through the opening rhythm as Mason says, “Thank you so much for coming out to the Rowdy tonight. You’ve been a wonderful audience.” More applause. “Before we start our last song, I want to introduce the members of the band. On lead guitar, Cameron Zamani.” Cameron plays a funky run up the neck of his instrument. “Behind me on drums, Jenna Thomas.” Jenna adds a complicated fill on top of the still-driving bass drum-beat.
That’s when I see him, standing on the far side of the room with a girl who isn’t Darcy. I have no idea how long they’ve been there. They’re keeping to the shadows, which makes it difficult for me to know whether he wanted me to see him or wanted to remain invisible. He leans toward the girl he’s with, brushing hair back behind her ear before he leans down to kiss her. I look away.
“On bass, Nora Wakelin!”
After I slap my bar of solo, Mason says, “And I’m Mason Benick.”
Our new band name comes from something Cameron texted me over the summer, when we were trying to figure out how to find a drummer and vocalist/rhythm guitar player to replace Flynn and Daniel. He wrote, They’ve obviously got to be kick-ass musicians. But I also just want to find some good people.
CAMERON: I think we could work with someone who still needs to grow as a musician, but not someone who still needs to grow a whole lot as a human being.
As soon as I saw the words, I knew they were perfect. I quickly wrote, That’s it!
CAMERON: What’s it?
ME: Our new band name!
CAMERON: As a Human Being? I don’t know. Kind of wordy.
ME: No, before that!
CAMERON: Kick-Ass Musicians? We’d be setting expectations pretty high . . .
ME: GOOD PEOPLE!
There was a pause during which I knew he’d be sitting in his bedroom in California, saying, “We are Good People!” to an imaginary audience. Eventually, he wrote back, I like it!
Now, Mason leans in to the microphone and says, “We are Good People! Have a beautiful night, Huntington Beach, and get home safely.” Then he steps away from the mic as he shouts to us, “Let’s go!”
That’s Cameron’s and my cue to come in on the rest of the intro. As I play the first notes, I glance back at the spot where I saw Daniel, but he and his date have ducked out. I wonder what he told her about us. That he used to be in the band? That he and the bassist once had an ill-advised fling? More likely, he said nothing.
The music, as always, pulls me back. I step toward Jenna, locking my rhythm with hers. Cameron sways toward us. Mason doesn’t play on this section, so he pulls his microphone out of its stand and steps backward, completing our pulsing circle. I feel myself let go of my awareness of the place Daniel vacated; it doesn’t matter anymore. It isn’t important. In my final blip of consciousness before I dissolve into the music, I understand that he was one brief note in the symphony of my life, which will be composed of melodies I can’t yet imagine, melodies sweeter than anything I’ve heard or played before.