10:8
Kim shifted to look to where Siobhan and Gwen were leaning drunkenly against each other, arms loose around each other’s shoulders to keep themselves upright. She looked at Patti, looked back at the other two women, then once more at Patti before making a sweeping gesture towards the other two to indicate her intentions.
Good as any other place to start. Patti nodded and Kim dashed across the room, singing loudly as she ran. She skidded to a stop a few feet from them, waved her arms wildly, then sang “Get Hype!” before picking up the song from the start, once more singing about the guy who thought he was fly.
Gwen and Siobhan lifted their heads slowly to stare at Kim. She slapped the side of her thighs then did some kind of thing where she held her hands near her sides and made little running steps while staying in place. “Get! Hype!” she sang louder and laid back into the lyrics of No Scrubs. Or No Angels as Patti sang it.
Lower lip trembling Gwen tentatively came in on the “Buster” line. And instantly her expression cleared. Her eyes darted left to right then she squeezed Siobhan’s shoulders with her arm, turned, and sang directly into Siobhan’s ear, “Get! Hype!”
Siobhan flinched from the belt of Gwen’s voice then jerked her attention to Kim and Patti. Kim planted her hands on her hips and swiveled them from side to side. Patti fought to not break her singing as Kim sang loudly once more, “Get! Hype!”
Gwen echoed her. “Get! Hype!”
Then they harmonized on the broke ass line. Siobhan’s mouth curved on a crooked smile and then she joined in as they repeated the line. Her expression melted into one of wonder as her eyes darted around and she pressed a finger to her ear like testing that it was actually working correctly.
Gwen curled her legs under her, pressed her hand to Siobhan’s shoulder, and rose on wobbly legs. Siobhan shot her a look without breaking her singing. Once she was steady on her feet, Gwen fell into some kind of dance involving her arms flailing, her feet kicking, and a lot of shimmying of ribs and shaking of hips.
“Get! Hype!” she sang as she kicked out energetically.
Siobhan shakily gained her feet then joined Gwen in the hype dance, albeit in a more sedate manner, while singing loudly. Kim gyrated next to Patti, vibrating her fists in front of herself before lifting them right then left up to her shoulders then back down with a comical expression somewhere between mean mug and monkey face.
Patti shoved a finger in her ear and grimaced. So loud. But energetic, exciting, and hypnotically compelling. With a smile she joined in with them. With the singing. That dance was all them.
Against the music stand Prairie pushed up on an elbow and squinted across at them. She kept a hand over one ear and her chin planted against her collarbone. Then, scrunched up her nose and twisted her face as she squinted harder. Siobhan, Gwen, and Kim traversed the space between Patti and Prairie, still dancing.
Gwen squatted and bounced next to Prairie, very comically mouthing the words to the song. Prairie focused on Gwen’s face, her gaze intent on Gwen’s mouth. Then she nodded and a look of dawning suffused her features. Grimacing she pulled her chin from her collarbone and began to sing along.
It was obvious when the silence hit her because her gaze darted erratically and then a soft grin curved her mouth. Without breaking her rhythm Gwen pushed up to stand and reached down to Prairie, yanking the smaller woman to her feet when she grabbed Gwen’s hand.
Joining them Siobhan thrashed her fists to either side of her head, closing her eyes as she really got into the song. Her flower wreath tilted to one side and she hit it with her fist to right it, never pausing in her singing or dancing.
The four women looped back to the beginning of No Angels and started dancing across the room towards Dempsey. Patti tracked their movements for a mikro then turned to head for Dan and Abe plopped out on the floor a few feet from the side wall. When they saw her coming Dan rose to shaky legs, then leaned down to pull Abe to their feet. Abe shook their head and bulged out their cheeks like they might be about to vom.
Gwen, Siobhan, Kim, and Prairie danced passed Dan and Abe just as Patti got to them. She halted a few feet from Dan and Abe and wildly swung her hands to catch their eye then sang loudly, “Sing!” then flowed into the Holla repeat with the other women.
Dan frowned at the other women, poking his toothpick with his tongue so it waggled in the corner of his mouth. Then he raised his fists and moved them slowly, like he was trying to join the dancing. But his legs were visibly wobbling and he tilted to the side away from Abe. Abe went tumbling and Dan shot a hand out to snag the back of Abe’s cassock and hold them upright.
“Sing!” Patti sang again.
Dan opened his hand, palm up, and gave her a confused look.
“Sing!”
Dan tried to dance again and ended up stumbling towards the wall. Abe cascaded to the floor with flailing limbs, landing awkwardly on their shoulder and side with their arm crumbled under their ribcage. Patti squatted down to prop Abe up. Abe raised to an elbow, arm shaking from the effort. She tapped Abe’s jaw with one finger, trying to get Abe to look at her as she sang, “Sing!”
Meanwhile Dan’s feet tangled and he fell, smashing into the music stand. He overcorrected and caught himself on a stand holding bar chimes. The stand, being flimsy like they were, was not made to hold a full-size careening Dan upright. It collapsed under his weight. He gave a shout and twisted, falling on his back with the chimes held up over his chest where they dangled and clanged, swaying with the impetus of Dan’s fall.
Dan’s expression went from concern and confusion to one of wonder as he stared at the swaying and ringing chimes. He canted his head to look over at Patti and Abe. The chimes swaying slowed and the ringing faded and then Dan winced and clenched his jaw.
Patti looked at the quiet chimes. Looked at Dan. Looked at the chimes again. Rising to her feet she reached down to Abe who latched onto her hand with a very soft grasp. Patti slid her hand down and locked it around Abe’s wrist and pulled them fully to their feet. Instantly their legs folded and she had to fight to keep them upright. She lowered them to the floor again and gestured at the wood with a finger then held her hand out in a ‘stop’ gesture.
Abe nodded and pressed their hands to their ears. Satisfied enough with Abe’s position for the moment, Patti hustled over to Dan and ran her fingers over the chimes. Their peal rang out and Dan’s expression cleared again.
“Can you hear me?” Patti sang
Dan nodded.
Locking eyes with Dan, Patti played her fingers over the chimes with vigor. It didn’t take him long to catch on. He ran his blunt fingers along the chimes, releasing a peal of sound. With his other hand he gave her a thumbs up then he rose to his feet, continuing to play his fingers along the chimes.
Patti ran her eyes over the percussion instruments on the rack along the wall, settling on a bongo. That was an easy enough instrument that anyone should be able to use it. Grabbing up the instrument she hurried to Abe, still singing along with No Angels. As she reached Abe she started beating the bongo in rhythm to the song.
She squatted down, made a big show of drumming, then stopped and shoved the bongos at Abe. Abe tracked the motion of Patti’s hands then looked up into her eyes. They lowered their right hand from their ear, wincing as the movement opened their ear fully to the screech. Then they tentatively hit the opposite head from the one Patti played. And their expression melted. Like sunrise over the horizon a look of beauty transformed their features. They smiled wide, wide, so wide and rhythmically slapped their hand to the drumhead.
Patti thrust the drums into Abe’s hands. They rose to a full sit then spread their legs to clamp their knees around the bongos. Then with liquid grace they set to beating both heads with their hands. If possible their smile grew wider as Dan walked over to them, playing his fingers over the chimes.
Patti sang at them. Dan lifted a thumb, indicating they were fine and she moved back to the instrument stand. From the corner of her eye she could see Gwen, Siobhan, Kim, and Prairie as they reached Dempsey whose gaze was intent on where Dan and Abe played their percussion instruments. He looked at the women each dancing to their own enthusiasm level near him then back at Dan and Abe then shifted his attention to where Patti stood near the instruments.
He shoved to his feet, using his shield to steady himself then half stumbled and half charged to the instrument stand on the wall closer to him with the hand not holding his shield pressed to his ear. His feet went one way and then the other, ascribing a path reminiscent of a drunk bumblebee but he made it to the wall without falling on his ass.
Despite canting to one side he didn’t immediately take an instrument. His head moved left then right before he grabbed a maraca and began shaking it with his free hand. He turned back to the room, his expression intent as he cast his gaze first to Patti, then over the four women who’d followed him singing and dancing and kicking – Gwen – and thrashing – Kim – and delicately shimmying – Prairie.
A very, very small smile curved up one corner of his mouth as he shook his head at their antics then stepped to the side to look at Patti again. She returned his smile while snatching up a tambourine and triangle then started across the floor towards where Ivan and Ben were planted near the door.
As she drew closer she saw that Ivan was drumming his hand on the wall. It was making some noise. Not a lot. But enough it seemed to cut some of the screech as Ivan was standing, not slumped against the wall or sitting on the floor like Ben. It was possible he also still was affected by Dan’s silence spell. Come to think of it the ones that had seemed to hold the best against the screech, except for Abe, had been muffled by Dan’s spell.
Wonder why it didn’t work for Abe?
No time really to consider it or the actual knowledge of how Dan’s Magick worked to speculate. Patti would leave that to others to contemplate. She had some instruments to deliver.
Singing loudly she approached Ivan and Dan, holding out the instruments. Ivan eyed the instruments then Gwen, Kim, Siobhan, and Prairie. He watched Patti’s lips for a mikro then in a rich baritone he sang about not wanting to give someone his number.
Siobhan, Kim, Prairie, and Gwen came dancing and stomping and swaying and singing over in a group with Dempsey trailing shaking his maracas. Uh, maraca. A single maraca.
Damn, now that image was in Patti’s head. She closed her eyes and begged for brain bleach. Abe and Dan came from the other direction, Abe having wedged the bongos between their ribs and an arm so they could play with their other hand and Dan merrily chiming away in rhythm to No Angels.
Ivan strode over and joined the women, singing and shimmying with elbows planted against his ribs in that shuffle men did in clubs like they wanted to be part of the fun but dignity said keep it small. Not that the women were about to let him go with that.
Gwen grabbed one of his hand and began energetically jerking it up and down in a staccato wave. And Prairie smiled up at him and tapped his upper arm like it was a set of bongos. Ivan looked down at her with a smile and flexed his elbow out, making his bicep bulge. She tipped her head back at him, smiled, and tapped the bicep with her fingertips.
Patti looked away from them and thrust the tambourine at Ben. He gave it a dubious look but then lowered a hand from his ears and gave the instrument a shake. One shake didn’t do it but when he vigorously tried another his features relaxed, indicating the sound was countering the screech. Shifting his gaze around like he was reading the room to see if anyone was witnessing his ching, ching, chinging he rose to his feet.
Once on his feet he stopped shaking the tambourine and it was obvious instantly that the screech came back. Heaving a sigh he set back to jangling it as he looked over at the larger group of their friends making absolute idiots of themselves and seeming to have a freaking great time doing it.
Siobhan beckoned to him. He eyed her a moment, mouth twisted to the side, then shrugged and sauntered over to the group while twisting his wrist to keep the tambourine going. Siobhan’s mouth lifted on a huge smile and she indicated a spot next to her in the churning circle of enthusiasm. Ben slotted himself in next to her and bopped the tambourine against his hip.
Patti, still partially facing the door, was probably the first to see the message appear on the wall above it. In foot high letters that blazed white and sparkled like they were doused in glitter the words “A Perfect Bride entertains by playing or singing beautifully,” scrolled across the space. The P and B were larger and brighter than the rest emphasizing the words Perfect and Bride.
Dan and Abe came up next to Patti. Dan tipped his head back to read the message. He mouthed “beautifully” and slanted Patti a glance that was full of humor. As he did so the door swung open on its own, tapping Patti on the hip.
Luckily it was a very soft swing and was probably not going to leave a mark. Still Patti glowered at it as she grabbed the knob and pulled the door fully open, pressing it against the wall and putting a foot against it in case it decided to close again.
Testing a theory she stopped singing. No screech. Yep. Guess they’d learned their lesson. Or something.
Turning she yelled over her shoulder. “Door’s open. Let’s get out of here!”
The others cut off their singing, dancing, gyrating, and instrument thrashing, their expressions shifting as they registered she wasn’t singing. Some reflected relief while others showed regret. Gwen even pouted before releasing Ivan’s arm. Dempsey and Ben walked to the wall to put their instruments on a stand. Abe took the chimes from Dan and dashed across the floor towards a stand. The chimes jangled and rang in time with Abe’s enthusiastic steps. Abe placed them and the bongos on a stand then turned to look at Patti.
“Well?” She waved her hand at the door. “Let’s go?”
Everyone advanced on the door and stepped through leaving Patti to take up the rear behind Dempsey who made a point of going slower to cover their retreat. Not that they needed it. There was nothing here except silence, blessed silence, instruments and a message above the door that caught everyone’s eye as they exited.
Patti gave the message a long look before pursing her lips and casting a last glance at the room. The instruments and the stands wavered and became insubstantial disappearing to leave only the varnished floor and white walls. As Patti watched the floor also began to waver.
Well, guess it was definitely time to get gone. She turned and stepped over the threshold. Once both of her feet were over it the door swung closed on its own behind her, gently tapping her butt as it clicked shut.
Enter The Woods 