by Debra Oswald
‘I guess you’re playing a bit of slide with your band,’ said Ben.
‘Only on a couple of numbers so far,’ Ash explained. ‘Do you want to check out our MySpace page?’
They went back to the lounge-room computer and Ash brought up the Blue Noise page. Ben really focused on it, listened to the tracks, looked at the photos and read all the comments posted on the site. Even though blues wasn’t Ben’s main thing, he knew enough about Jimmy Nicholls to be majorly impressed by Jimmy’s post.
Ben made a huge fuss about the band. ‘You guys are amazing! I mean it, really. Classy. Tight. Cool.’
‘You should come down to a practice session and have a jam with the band,’ said Ash.
‘Well, I might do that.’
‘Well, you really should,’ Ash insisted. ‘Come and have a jam with us.’
‘Okay, I will … you sneaky little guitar maggot,’ said Ben.
Seeing how intense and positive his brother was about the music, Ash couldn’t help feeling hopeful. He imagined Ben dropping by to meet everyone in the band, getting to know Charlie, enjoying a jam. Maybe all Ben needed was a bit of inspiration, a bit of a push, and he’d find his way back to music. That’d be a good thing for Ben.
Chapter Twenty-one
Erin never stopped being amazed by Charlie Novak. The guy had such humungous energy and passion for music. And he had such a thick skin. Rejection, teasing and repeated knock-backs didn’t seem to bother him. He just kept popping up with a grin on his face like one of those inflatable clowns that bounce upright again after you punch them down.
Charlie was always sussing out ways to promote Blue Noise. He bombarded every radio station with the music and entered the band in festivals and competitions, even when they weren’t eligible or had no real chance.
‘We might not be ready for this stuff yet but we will be soon,’ Charlie would say. ‘It’s all about getting the name of the band out there. Building awareness of the music.’
He was always trying to score the band proper gigs and he’d arranged with Year 12 to play at their end-of-year formal.
‘Any chance to play in front of an audience – it’s crucial,’ he would say. ‘It’s the only way Blue Noise will develop as a band.’
Meanwhile, Charlie was doing a media blitz, inviting television producers, big city newspapers and local newspapers to send journalists to cover a Blue Noise gig. He was sending out press releases – Erin could not believe it – pushing the idea that the band was bringing blues music to the young people of Sydney. According to Charlie, several media outlets had ‘expressed interest’.
Everyone in the band was totally into it and working hard. Everyone except Lily.
Lily Opara had always been slack about rehearsal, turning up late and sometimes not turning up at all. Charlie – because of his desperate drooling crush on The Goddess – had always defended her, made excuses, found ways to rehearse stuff without her. But the rest of them were sick of having a lead singer who was so unreliable. Joel and Ash were both starting to snap at Lily, cranky and impatient. Not that Lily cared one scrap if she annoyed them.
Erin always pictured Lily’s ‘commitment’ to the band as a flimsy, see-through silk scarf Lily wound loosely around one of her long golden fingers, ready to drop at any point. Lily believed she was so gorgeous and such a brilliant singer that she could get away with anything. She considered herself too fabulous to bother with basic decent behaviour towards other people. It annoyed the hell out of Erin, not that she ever said anything. How pathetic would it look if ordinary, dumpy Erin dared to criticise a goddess like Lily Opara?
The set list for the Year 12 formal was another touchy issue. There’d always been discussion and sometimes tension about what material the band should play. But the disagreements were becoming more intense.
Joel wanted to do more of the jazzy stuff and he was pushing the idea hard.
‘I think we should do at least a couple,’ said Joel with an insistent edge in his voice. ‘I mean, this is important. I’m not just going to cave in.’
Erin suspected it was partly an ego thing: Joel was sick of always being overruled by Charlie.
‘We should do some original material,’ said Ash. ‘We can’t just do covers.’
‘I agree,’ said Charlie. ‘The original songs are what make Blue Noise special.’
‘I don’t know if that’s right,’ argued Erin. ‘I think we should stick to classic blues numbers – songs people might recognise.’
‘Shouldn’t we do some danceable stuff?’ asked Lester.
‘Yeah, it is meant to be a party,’ Erin added.
‘Come on, we can’t present ourselves as a dance band,’ said Joel.
‘No one’s saying that, Joel,’ said Charlie.
A few times, when the arguments about song choice became seriously testy, Erin felt a flush of panic. She feared the bonds that held the band together were straining, like rubber bands stretched out thin and frayed.
Maybe it always went this way in bands. Maybe they inevitably hit a wall and bits fell off, with people arguing about commitment, about song choice, about which direction to take. Erin didn’t have much idea about the typical politics of bands.
All Erin knew for sure was that she didn’t want Blue Noise to fall apart. They all had to calm down and take their egos out of it. But that was hard to do when people felt passionately about something.
Ash and Erin were in the same science class that year. When they were put into different lab groups, Erin was disappointed at first. Then she realised it was probably just as well. In fact, it was a safety issue. If she had been in the same group as Ash, standing close beside him, she would have been distracted and her hands would have been shaking all the time. Not so good when you’re handling dangerous chemicals and Bunsen burners. There might have been a terrible accident involving permanent scarring. In a different lab group, Erin could concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing with the chemicals, without endangering herself or others.
One Friday afternoon, during a double period of science, they were doing an experiment on neutralising acids. Charlie was usually in Ash’s lab group but there was no sign of him. He hadn’t been at school the day before either, plus he’d been quieter than usual all week – quiet for Charlie Novak, that is. Maybe he had come down with a nasty bug. The band had a big practice session scheduled that afternoon at Lester’s place. They couldn’t afford for Charlie to be away sick. He was their leader, the guy with the vision, the engine that ran Blue Noise.
Erin sidled around to the side of the science bench so she could whisper at Ash.
‘What’s up with Charlie? Is he sick?’
‘No,’ said Ash. ‘He texted me. Family stuff.’
‘How come he’s not answering emails?’ asked Erin.
‘Oh, their internet connection stuffs up all the time. Whenever it rains a lot or if Boy goes mental and unplugs things.’
‘Is he coming to practice this arvo?’
Ash nodded. ‘He said he’d be there.’
‘Oh, okay.’
Erin went back round the bench so she could pretend she was involved in the experiment. Science was her least favourite subject. She usually just waved beakers around and let the others in the group do the actual sciencey bits.
That Friday, Erin was in such a dreamy mood she didn’t even remember to do basic beaker holding. She was lost in her own head, writing song lyrics. She was jolted out of her daydreams by a loud thwap against the window of the lab door. The whole class looked up.
There was Lester’s face, bright red and shiny, the way it went when he was revved up about something. He was signalling frantically to Ash and Erin.
The science teacher, Mr Axelsen, gestured to Lester to be quiet and scoot away. But Lester couldn’t control himself. He barged into the lab, breathless with excitement.
‘Hey, fair go, Lester,’ said Mr Axelsen. ‘We’re in the middle of something. This’ll have to wait until the class
is over.’
Luckily, Mr Axelsen was the teacher who liked blues music, so he would put up with stuff from Lester.
‘But Mr Axelsen,’ protested Lester, ‘you are the one guy – out of all the teachers in – you know – I mean, this is – oh …’
Lester was too overexcited to get the words out properly. He tried again. ‘Mr Axelsen, this is – this can’t wait – it’s so – you know.’
‘Is there an emergency?’ asked the science teacher.
‘No. No. No emergency. Oh – unless you count – can you have a good emergency? I don’t – I have to – thing is, I have to tell Ash and Erin,’ stammered Lester.
‘Don’t push your luck with me, Lester,’ said Mr Axelsen, getting irritated. ‘I think you’d better disappear and –’
But Lester was too excited to do what he was told and blurted out, ‘Blue Noise has been picked for Ignition!’
Mr Axelsen wasn’t cranky anymore. ‘Yeah? You just found out?’
‘The people – people from the radio station – I don’t know – all I know is they rang the music teachers.’
Mr Axelsen applauded. ‘Well done, guys. Ignition – that’s great.’
Ignition was a competition run by a radio station, YES-FM, designed to showcase young bands. Groups submitted two tracks to the judges and then eight bands were chosen to each play a thirty-minute slot on the stage at the Glebe Big Free Concert. The gig was going to be recorded and broadcast on the radio. It was a big deal for any young band.
Ignition was mostly for rock, metal and indie bands, so a blues band would never be in the running. Blue Noise didn’t stand a chance. But it turned out that Charlie had secretly entered two of their tracks for Ignition anyway. He hadn’t even mentioned it to Ash – Lester’s breathless explanation was the first he’d heard about it.
No one – including Charlie – could have expected them to be serious contenders. And now, unbelievably, they’d been chosen for the showcase. Blue Noise was going to be one of the eight Ignition bands.
Mr Axelsen gave Erin and Ash permission to leave science class early. Lester was already galloping out the door to find Lily and Joel. Erin and Ash ran to catch up with him and the three of them roared around the corridors of Mulvaney High.
Ash and Lester started doing the wolf-howling thing. Erin laughed, then threw her head back and howled along with them. This news was too amazing; she couldn’t keep quiet about it.
Erin wondered if Charlie already knew. She figured he probably did. She imagined Charlie Novak’s brain spinning inside his skull with the thrill of it.
‘Can I borrow your phone for a sec?’ Ash asked her. He couldn’t afford to get credit on his mobile because he had used up every dollar to buy the Fender.
Ash was desperate to talk to Charlie but there was no answer. He didn’t want to leave a message on Charlie’s voicemail about something so momentous.
‘You should go round there and tell the mad blues pixie in person,’ suggested Erin.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Lester. ‘See you at my place later.’
They were meeting up at Lester’s back shed for band practice in an hour. The plan was to rehearse for a good slab of time, order pizzas and keep working until they got through a stack of new songs.
Ash grinned, bolted across the quadrangle and headed towards Charlie’s house.
When Erin went to her locker to fetch her backpack, she realised her skin was tingling and her heart was racing. Was she having some kind of heart attack? Probably not, given she was only sixteen with no family history of heart disease. She figured her symptoms were a reaction to the Ignition news fizzing through her body.
Ignition was going to bring a massive amount of pressure crashing down on their heads. They had a bit over two weeks to get ready for the Glebe gig. There were two hundred decisions to make, so much preparation, a risk they would fail miserably in front of a huge number of people. A lot of pressure.
Erin had always thought of herself as someone who didn’t handle pressure very well. But lately – and this had kind of snuck up on her – she discovered she was handling things better. There were even moments when the pressure felt roller-coaster exhilarating, almost enjoyable. Maybe hanging around with a madly optimistic wind-up toy like Charlie Novak had affected her.
Erin was about to walk out of the main school building when Mrs Vallentine waved to her across the sea of kids’ heads.
‘Can I see you for a minute, Erin?’
She dodged across the stream of kids coming towards her. Mrs Vallentine probably wanted to congratulate the band about the good news.
‘Isn’t it fantastic about Ignition?’ said Erin.
‘Absolutely fantastic,’ Mrs Vallentine said fervently. Then she pressed her lips tightly together, very serious. ‘Just being chosen is a terrific achievement, even if – anyway, we’re so proud of all of you. But I’m not sure if you all know about –’
‘Yes, we all know except Charlie. I’m just racing around to his place now,’ said Erin.
‘I hope you catch him.’
Erin was still smiling but a little confused now. ‘Sorry?’
‘Charlie might’ve already gone,’ explained Mrs Vallentine. ‘His family’s moving.’
That morning, Vic Novak had called the Mulvaney High School office to explain the situation. He’d especially asked to speak to Mrs Vallentine, keen to thank her for the support the music department had shown Charlie.
Erin didn’t know how to process this information. All she could think about was the fact that Ash was on his way to Charlie’s place. Erin needed to get there fast, too. She calculated that if she ran up to the main road and caught the bus, she would reach Charlie’s house about ten minutes after Ash.
Chapter Twenty-two
Turning the corner into the Novaks’ street, Erin saw two trucks in front of their house. One had ‘Worldwide Relocations’ on the side and two sweaty men were stowing packing crates into it. Parked behind the removal truck was a Salvation Army one. Erin watched the Novaks’ shabby, comfy lounge-room furniture disappear inside the Salvos vehicle.
Erin tried to spot Charlie or Ash. The front yard of the Novaks’ house was a chaotic scene, like a battlefield strewn with the carcasses of furniture and household objects. There were people flying in and out of the front door, hauling boxes, shaking out floor rugs, flinging stuff into piles on the lawn. It made Erin think of a circus packing up to go to the next town.
The Novaks were moving. Not just leaving this house but leaving Sydney, leaving the country, leaving the hemisphere. That was the reason Charlie hadn’t been at school for two days – he was busy packing and getting vaccination shots. Charlie’s mum had accepted a job running a tropical diseases hospital in Guatemala. The whole thing was a big hurry, an emergency; some doctor had fallen sick and they needed Joanne to start immediately. In fact, she had flown to Guatemala two days before. Now the family was packing up the house to join her there.
Erin saw Vic Novak trying to wrestle a roll of packing tape off Boy, who was busy winding tape around every object he could reach. Poor Vic looked so flustered, Erin thought she’d leave him be for now.
The Novak twins came flying at Erin from either side and squeezed her around the belly, squealing. Erin felt her intestines being squashed into a tangled ball by the powerful grip of the two little girls.
‘We’re going to live in Guacamole!’ said Billie.
‘Not Guacamole,’ snorted Nina. ‘That’s avocado dip. We aren’t going to live in avocado dip.’
Both twins erupted into giggles.
‘We’re going to Guatemala,’ Nina explained, inspiring the twins to squeal and giggle more.
This move was just one more adventure for Billie and Nina. They’d lived in several different countries already and they were used to moving. Maybe it was easier for them to leave friends behind, because wherever they ended up, the twins always had each other. It had to be a lot harder for Charlie, Erin suspected.
Th
e move to Guatemala had always been on the cards. Erin now understood why she’d seen all those boxes in their house, stacked in the hallway for months without being unpacked. The Novaks lived their whole lives ready to pick up and move on short notice. Joanne went where she was needed and Vic could always find photography projects any place he landed. The Novak kids just had to tag along.
The removal truck was filling up with crates of CDs, musical instruments, computers, books, toys and clothes. The rest of their belongings – furniture, kitchen stuff – they were giving away to neighbours or to charity.
Erin ventured down the side path to the backyard; that’s when she saw Charlie and Ash. Charlie was crouched on the back porch, rifling through a green supermarket bag full of CDs and old vinyl records. He was yabbering nonstop, explaining the collection of music he was leaving behind for Ash.
‘This album you will love. Wait till you hear the lush percussion on it,’ blathered Charlie. ‘This is the plan: I’ve burned copies of CDs you need to hear, so I can take the originals. Didn’t get as many done as I wanted to – didn’t get a lot of notice about the move, I must confess.’
From where Erin stood at the corner of the house, she couldn’t see Ash’s face. He was standing very still, shoulders slumped, and didn’t seem to be speaking or responding in any way to Charlie’s motormouth spiel.
‘No need to fret, however,’ Charlie continued. ‘I can always email you sound files. The world is a small place, ain’t that the truth?’
Ash just stared at the paving bricks without responding. Charlie’s voice was becoming increasingly high-pitched and desperate. Erin wasn’t sure if she should rush over there and interrupt. She wanted to ask Charlie a million questions. She wanted to make sure Ash was okay. But then again, maybe these two guys should be left alone to talk in peace.
Before Erin had a chance to decide what to do, someone she didn’t recognise appeared at the back door and called Charlie inside. They needed him to nominate which stuff from his room he wanted to take or chuck away.