Tennessee: Chapter 2, Part 2

Frei’s little add in: Pfah I haven’t posted in forever. I’ve become consumed in obsessions about my collegiate future. Anyway, here’s the next installment. The story’s pretty bland thus far but it improves. Trust me. Well, try to.

We got out of the car and jogged to the door through the rain. Mom rang the bell and immediately Blue, my grandparents’ shih tzu began barking excitedly. Blue was one of the few non-farm dogs ever to arrive at the shelter he was adopted from. Renée came to open the door, and Blue rushed out to greet me. He bounced up and down around my feet and the white and grey shih tzu finally calmed himself enough to sit up on his hind legs and look at me expectantly. I picked up the gleeful little dog as Renée greeted us.

“Mary! Rose! Oh it’s been so long since I’ve seen you. Rose you’ve grown so much! I swear you were a foot shorter the last time I saw you.”

Who would’ve thought. I’d grown four inches since I started high school and last saw Renée, but still measured in at a whopping 5’ 3’’. I put on a smile, “Yeah it’s been a while hasn’t it.”
“It looks like Mr. Blue remembers you though.”

The dog’s name is Blue, but Renée just has to call him Mr. Blue. It’s very strange in my opinion, and I don’t think she should go around renaming other people’s dogs. “He sure does.” We walked into the living room where Grandma Ana and Grandpa Jim were watching TV.

Mom started, “Oh Mom, Dad! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you both! I’ve missed you so much!”

What a load of crap. My mother couldn’t wait to get back to Silverburg, if getting her flight at 7:35 AM was any indicator; she’d have to leave at 4:30 in the morning. She couldn’t go a day without complaining about having to pay for Renée to take care of her parents. Not like we couldn’t afford it. But sending me away for a while and not having to pay was the perfect solution in her eyes. My mother hugged each of her parents in turn, who had just gotten up from the couch in the living room at the entrance of the house.

“Rose,” Grandma Ana said, “I’m so excited you’re going to be here the whole summer. We hardly get to see you anymore, right Grandpa?”

“Oh yes, Rose,” he said, “It’ll be so nice to spend time with you.”

I wasn’t heartless, I was going to like seeing my grandparents, but the whole summer was a bit excessive. “I’ve missed you both so much.” That was truth. The last time I had seen them was at Christmas two years ago, when Dad thought Mom would like seeing her parents for Christmas and drove them to Silverburg. Mom was surprised alright, but not how Dad intended.
After all of the greetings were finished, we all went to the table for dinner. Renée had made homemade lasagna, which was really quite good. Overall the meal was quite enjoyable, save my mother’s clenching of the table every time she felt her phone vibrate. She wouldn’t ever dare to turn the almighty phone off. She rocketed away from the table as I helped Renée clean up the dishes. Then Renée had to help me bring in my two suitcases as my mother was on the phone for a solid hour. Renée showed me my room, which I vaguely remembered staying in long ago. Over the past few weeks we had started mailing some more clothes and other items here that wouldn’t fit on the plane. The first of the packages was waiting in the room, which was also my most anticipated. I quickly opened it to find my small practice amp, which only had a six inch speaker, along with my distortion pedal, a capo, a guitar stand, and a mass of cables. Of course, I had no strings. Maybe I could go all summer without breaking one, but I tended to break them a lot.

My first priority or course was Gloria, and I removed her from her imprisonment in the case and gently placed her on the stand. Next I started unpacking some of my clothes and began putting them in the drawers of the dresser. As for shoes, I only had the Sperry’s on my feet. I had put several pairs of other shoes in another package which would arrive shortly. In addition, I had included pillows, posters, and any other atmospheric enhancements I could think of in package number three. A final fourth package contained more clothes.

I of course had my other priorities. I sacrificed several shirts in order to nestle my iPod speakers in the suitcase. With my music, I could escape anything. I took my laptop from its case and laid it on the dresser; I’d have to survive without a desk. My next project would have to be moving some of the furniture to make it seem more like home, if anything could be done. I would’ve started right then if Renée hadn’t called me to give me a general guide of all that needed to be done around the house.

Tennessee: Chapter 2, Part 1

“Rose, please, keep up.  We’re going to miss the flight,” said my mother, taking a second out from her phone call.  We were nearly at a run down the airport to the terminal, and quite honestly, if there was an Olympic medal for speed walking in heels, my mother would have to win.  Even in my flats I couldn’t keep up thanks to my backpack, huge suitcase in one hand, and the clumsy shape of my guitar case in the other.  But I had gotten better at maneuvering crowded airport passageways, as the dozen “FRAGILE” stickers suggested on the case suggested.  My guitars certainly had racked up a lot of Frequent Flyer miles over the years, this being Gloria’s third adventure.

I was nearly exhausted by the time we got the luggage check-in, watched as my luggage was flung onto the conveyor belt, and cringed as they were just as careful with Gloria.  Now I was much swifter without Gloria, and managed to keep up with my mother until we boarded the plane.  Once aboard, I drowned out the drone of the attendant’s voice with my iPod, and finally reached a level of serenity as my mother was forced to turn off her cell phone.   She drummed her fingers impatiently on the armrest as I drowned out the world with the sounds of thrashing guitars and drums.  Only then did it hit me that I was going to be gone the entire summer, far away from my friends I loved so much, with nothing to live for but lunch at noon and dinner at six.  Day after day, week after week.  Ally and Ellen would be headed to the beach, even though they didn’t want to go without me. And Jake, although not going anywhere, would spend his summer at the guitar shop, which I would love to do.  But no, I would be completely and totally alone.  Once again I found myself holding back tears as the plane lifted off to leave home.

I must’ve fallen asleep during the flight as it only seemed like it was a few minutes.  Before long I was in a rental car headed even farther south-west .  The heat of the place was overwhelming; even with the air conditioning blasting I was still sweating in the relentless heat.  And to think this was only the beginning of June and the heat would only get worse.

Then something happened that hadn’t since the start of the trip, my mother got off the phone!    She started talking to me, “Rose I know you don’t want to do this but a change of scenery really will be good for you.”

“No.”

“Listen, it’ll be good for you to see your grandparents.  And at the end of the summer when you come back we’ll find a new aid for them.  I’m glad Renée got that job in the hospital in Nashville but it’s going to be a while to find another aid as good as her.”

I sat in silence.  I really wasn’t in the mood to even think about the rest of the summer.

“Really Rose, just try to make the best of it.  Being away from your crazy friends for a bit really would be good for you.” Crazy friends?  It showed that she had never met Ally.   Her phone began ringing, “Oh, I have to get that.”

This is how it always was.  Even when my mother tried to spend time with me or talk to me, she was still prisoner to the almighty phone.  She’d become trained to jump whenever it rang.  It was a reflex.  She never did get off the phone until we entered the tiny, miniscule town of Middleton, where she had grown up and I would waste the next two months.  In the last half hour the sky had grown dark and rain began to fall.  How appropriate .  The humidity was unbearable.  Mom slowed down as we turned onto Main Street.

“Do you see that restaurant, Rose?  La Poca Italia.  Grandma, Grandpa and I would go there to eat all the time when I was a kid.  And look, Rose, there’s a guitar shop.  I’m sure you’ll be in there a lot.”

I looked at the place my mother pointed at.  A blue sign with plain white lettering simply stated the name of the place: Main Street Guitars.  The front window was occupied by an assortment of folk instruments including a steel guitar and several banjos, as well as a standard bass.  Oh wait, there it was.  A single acoustic guitar hid amongst the assortment of redneck novelties.  It looked like no one had changed anything in the front for ten years.  Just then I remembered that I left the extra strings Jake had given me at home on my desk.  Crap.  My thoughts were interrupted by more of mom’s commentary.

“Oh look, Rose.  That  Co-Op has been here since I was a kid.  The bike store is new though.  There’s another guitar store!   You won’t have to worry about not being able to get anything around here.”

I was a bit scared of the taste in music of Middleton when I looked up to the other shop, thinking maybe I could survive around here.  It was similar to Strum and Pick from the outside.  There was no sign above it, but the store was most definitely open, as I judged from the lighting.  I strained to see past the glare on the glass in the front but could make out a few electric guitars and basses in the front and some drums toward the back of the store.  A little farther down the street we passed a diner that looked like it belonged in the fifties, however still looked brand new.

“Now that didn’t used to be here,” my mother started, “They must have replaced the old drugstore.  My friends and I used to go to the soda fountain there all the time.  Everyone from Middleton High seemed to always be there.  Shame to see it gone.”

The final shop we passed was a small café.  I’d probably be in there quite a bit, as I was drawn to the “Wi-Fi Here” sign.    There were a few tables outside and a “Coffee of the Day” sign standing in front of the door next to a large flower pot.  The place, called Sashay I soon saw, was definitely a place I’d be heading to.

My mother’s attitude didn’t have me feeling any better about the little town, and it was hardly a mile past the main shops before we turned onto Grandma Ana and Grandpa Jim’s road, Off Main Street.  How creative.  Another half mile past a few farms and we turned into the driveway of the small ranch.  It didn’t stand out in any way, and was at least fifty years old.  My grandparents used to own the farmland behind them until Mom decided to go to law school.  She didn’t want to be a farmer and the sale of the land paid for it.  A step led up to the narrow covered porch that ran across the house, bordered by a rickety railing.  A few flowers were planted along the porch between it and the short sidewalk.  A large oak that was at least a hundred years old stood in the front yard.  The bland, average appearance of the house was a perfect parallel to my summer.

Tennessee: Chapter 1, Part 2

I gave Kayla one final hug before she left with her horseback riding trainer, Ann, and her horse, General, on their voyage to Vermont.  It would be a long haul with a trailer going all the way to Vermont, and from what Kayla had told me, General did not fare well in new places.  I was a little worried about how he’d handle going north. “Kayla be careful, you know what happened in Kentucky.”

“Well even if he does dump me I’m not going to be at a show at least.”

“Still, be careful.”  I had taken up a bit of a motherly role to Kayla, since our mother was always at work, or on the phone, or somewhere.  Like now.  Mom decided she had to stop in at the office this morning, and Dad went golfing, starting his vacation from the kids early I suppose, so I had to take Kayla to the barn and say the last goodbyes.  All the Be Careful! and Don’t-Forget-To-Call-Me! fell on my shoulders, and because of it, my thirteen-year-old sister and I were incredibly close. “Did you remember everything?”

“Definitely, I checked all my stuff twice.”

“Your phone?”

“Yeah I’ve got it.” She patted her pocket, but nothing was there. “Oh no! Where is it?  Oh my gosh, did I leave it at home?” Kayla never went anywhere without forgetting something.

“Lucky you, I grabbed this off the counter on our way out this morning.  Now you wouldn’t have been the only distraught one if you’d forgotten this.  You know that right?”

“Definitely.  I really hope I didn’t forget anything else major.”

“I don’t think so, but what about everything for General?”

“I went through the trailer yesterday, everything’s there.”

We both paused for a moment.

“We’re going to be so far away from each other, and for so long.  I don’t know if I can take it.” I started.

“I’ll call you whenever I can, you know that.”

I tried to stop myself from tearing up.  After the last few months, I’d had pretty good practice with holding back emotions.  “You need to have fun okay?  And hopefully General will enjoy it too.”

“I’ll try.  I don’t know about him though… Rose, I’ll miss you so much.”

“Me too…”

“Let’s go!” Ann called from the truck, “We’re gonna hit traffic if we don’t leave soon, and General won’t stand in the trailer longer than he needs to.”  She turned the key and the engine roared to life.  I heard a loud whinny from the trailer.

“I’m coming!” Kayla smiled up at me and got into the truck and closed the door.  She began waving from the passenger seat.  I leaned back against my car and waved back.  The truck and trailer slowly made their way down the driveway, and turned right.  Kayla waved again until I couldn’t see her anymore.  I forced a smile as I gave a final wave back.
I got in my car and decided to stop by Strum and Pick on my way home, since it was right on the way.  I made the realization again that this was the last time I’d get to see Jake.  I cringed at the thought.  Ranting about a song over the phone could never match meeting him and having a guitar circle as we would call our impromptu jam sessions.  It wasn’t much of a circle though, just the two of us for a while after school in the band room or at Strum and Pick.

When I got to the store and walked in, I was greeted by the familiar stale smell of new guitar cases and a couple people playing guitars in the background.  Jake stood at the counter restringing an acoustic.  Behind him, the entire wall was covered by two rows of electrics, and on the other side of the store acoustics.  Jake claims that he’s played all of them.  It really makes me wonder how much work he actually does, or if he just spends the whole time playing around on guitars he doesn’t own.  It must be fun getting paid for playing.

I heard Jake curse under his breath as I walked over to the counter, “Oh, hi Rose.  Gah, I hate when this happens.  Almost every time I restring an acoustic, at least one bridge pin breaks and or gets lost.  I’m lucky I still get paid with the damage I’ve done.  Do you see the one I just dropped?”

I picked one of his dreaded pins off the floor, “Is this it?”

“Yeah thanks.” He immediately set it in a dish next to the guitar with the other five pins. “So when are you headed out?”

“Monday, 10:45 AM out of Newark.  Direct flight to hick-town.”

“Don’t disrespect Nashville like that.  I know you hate the entire state, but you could at least give it some respect,”  Jake had family in Knoxville, in east Tennessee.  He was rather fond of the place, which I totally did not understand in the least.  “Actually I’m quite jealous.  So I guess that leaves me stuck… Uh… here. In this place.”

“Nice one, Captain Comeback.  So, did you decide to make me pay for the strings?”

“Oh wait right.  Here they are.” He pulled two sets of strings out from under the counter. “I really don’t know how you play extra lights.  They’re so thin.  Whenever I use them they break.”

“Don’t disrespect my fingers like that.  I can’t help it that yours are twice the size of mine.  And that you tend to get a bit… violent when you play.”

“It’s called expression.  And big fingers are all the better for owning you at Guitar Hero.”

“Fine.  I’ll give you that one. Y’know, I’m gonna miss coming here.  I’m so used to just dropping in whenever I want and getting free stuff.  I might actually have to pay for something.  It’s a scary thought.”

“Well I make you pay for your guitars.”

“Yeah.  Only because you’d have to work a year to afford Gloria.”  Gloria was my beloved green electric  guitar, my favorite ever.  My parents bought her for my sixteenth birthday.  Go figure.  I was much more excited when I found her in a case in the trunk of my Mustang than when I was when I saw the car.

“Well… so?  I can play whatever guitar I want, whenever I want.  I just can’t leave the store with it.”

“Oh whatever.”  I sighed, “I guess I’d better head home and finish packing for my doom trip.”

“Good idea.  Just don’t forget the strings.”

“I won’t.”  I stepped around the counter to give him a final hug.  “Have fun with that acoustic anyway.”

“Of course I will.  It hates me too.  I can just feel it.”

For someone who claims to listen to country, and love the state home to Nashville, Jake was terribly cold to acoustics. I’ll call you as soon as I get in Monday, kay?”

“Just don’t do too much writing without me.  Or find someone else who you’d let listen to a song first.”

“Don’t worry I won’t.  I’ll miss you.”

“Me too.”  Jake smiled.

I headed toward the door, strings in hand.

“Call me whenever you want, Rose.”

“Don’t worry, you know I will.”

It’s Here! Tennessee: Chapter 1, Part 1

The bell finally rang.  Summer.  Everyone else rushed out of the room as fast as they could, leaving me to take my time.  For everyone else, summer meant trips to the beach, time with friends, all of the troubles and toils of school gone.  Not for me.  I was being shipped from my home, Silverburg New Jersey, just outside my beloved NYC, forced to leave behind my heart and soul while my parents kidnap me and take me to Tennessee.

I guess I should start from the beginning.  It started with Jason, my ex.  My story began a few months ago, in April.  I really don’t want to relive the experience, it’s something I’d much rather keep quiet.  We had been dating for about a year, and I totally trusted him with everything.  I never expected he could ever betray me like he did.  I don’t know how he could have completely deceived me, who did the jerk take me for?

The whole ordeal upset me a little, okay a lot.  I began to mope around at home, which drove my parents and little sister, Kayla, completely nuts.  First thing my parents have ever noticed.  They live in a three-person marriage: with each other and their law firm, Selben and Selben.  Kayla, unlike my parents, seems to notice everything.  She’s only thirteen, but she has this incredible ability to sense when something’s wrong.  There’s nothing I’m able to keep from her.

While I was still lost in my thoughts, Ally and Ellen, my two best friends, ran up behind me, nearly scaring me to death.  I’ve been a bit jumpy lately.  Ally spoke up first, “So how do you think you did on that history exam?  It was a killer, eh?”   Ellen, who we call Elle interjected before I could speak, “Oh come on it wasn’t bad.  Maybe if you had actually studied you wouldn’t have had to worry about it.”

“You know I had dance last night.”

“What kind of excuse is that?  We got out at one yesterday.  Maybe next time you should study before dance.”

Ally is the dancer.  She pours every piece of her soul into it, at the expense of her grades.  She is also a talker and can talk her way from D’s to B’s within five minutes.  Her smooth talking also ensures that she always had a gorgeous boyfriend to match her looks: Tall, blonde, and dangerous.

“Nice try.  Not gonna happen though.  So how do you think you did, Rose?”

Augh.  Anything but history.  If I failed anything, that would be it.  I am a singer, a songwriter, a guitarist, with the requirement to lock myself inside the persona of the Selben line of attorneys.  I am an artist who was been laden with the burden of being the captain of Eastman Cross Preparatory High School’s mock trial team.  People would kill for the position that I’d trade in a heartbeat for the spot as the school’s coffeehouse manager.  The coffeehouse is the school’s sole showcase of artistic talent.  My ancestry comes with more curses than blessings.  “You guys know I can’t memorize anything.  If there’s no give or take, I fail.  You should see the stack of flash cards I made for the test.  I swear I went through them fifteen times and I still failed.”

“Oh you did not fail Rose,” Ally started, “You always do well on exams.”

“Funny.  Every time you say that, I fail.  You really need to stop cursing me.”

“Oh come on.  That’s not true.”

“Remember those Rome quizzes?  The four I failed?  You told me I’d do fine.”

“Well… That’s in the past now right?  We just have an awesome summer to look forward to, right?  Even if we don’t get to spend it together?”

“Yeah,” I forced a smile.  My summer would be anything but fun, great, any positive adjective.

Elle started again, “Well as much as I want to go to the environmental engineering school in Alabama, I wish I could be with you guys.”  Elle is a prodigy.  She is also Asian, which partially explains it.  She would be spending a month doing environmental research for college credit.  I’m sure she already got straight fives on her four AP exams, which could add up to fifteen hours of college credit before she would even start senior year.

Ally started again, “And looks like I’m the only one who’ll be here the whole summer, but I have nothing against teaching dance to the little kids, plus I get paid for it.  And Rose, aren’t you at least a little excited to be going south?  A whole new place, some cute guys maybe?”

“Oh, please, meeting guys is the last thing I want to do.  Looks like my days are going to be filled with guitar, and talking to you guys all day.  Every day.  The whole summer.  Nothing new.  So you’d better be there when I call.  Or I’ll go insane.”

Speaking of calls, Ally’s phone went off.  Her mom, of course, “Yeah we’ll be there in a moment, mom…  No I don’t need to go check my locker, I got everything out yesterday…  Okay, okay we’re coming,” She put her phone back in her pocket, “Looks like we have to go already.  Mom doesn’t want to leave my brother home alone long.  Ugh, why can’t she just make him come.  She’s so OCD about that kind of thing. We’d better get going.”  Being a prodigy, Elle had skipped fourth grade and wouldn’t turn sixteen until the end of the summer.  She could more than afford a car, but couldn’t drive yet.  Normally, Ally drives Elle home, but Ally’s parents took her car because she broke curfew last Saturday. By four hours.  Then they both smothered me in a huge hug, and Ally started, “I’ll miss you so much.”

“I can’t believe we won’t see you all summer.”

“You have to call us.  Every day.  Or text.  Anything.”

“Just keep in touch.”

“Well you guys still need to have fun without me.”

A tear came to Ally’s eye, did I mention she was dramatic? “Nothing will be fun without you.”

“Don’t say that!  You’ll still have a good summer.  You can still call me whenever you want.  I have plenty of time, don’t worry about that!”  I gently pried my two best friends off of me, “Seriously, you guys had better get going before you get in trouble.  I really don’t want that to happen again.”

“Oh god, Ellen said, “Don’t remind me of that,” Elle’s mom honked her horn. “Okay, we’d better go.  I’ll miss you so much. Bye Rose!”

A chorus of goodbyes and well-wishing followed them as the two made their way toward the SUV, where Mrs. Elle’s mom was waiting with an impatient expression in her sleek black Escalade.  But I wasn’t going to go home yet, not without finding Jake first.  He was my best guy friend, and he stuck with me as much as Ally and Elle.  Neither of us ever thought of dating; we didn’t want anything to screw up our friendship in the three years we knew each other since the beginning of high school.  Jake Carson was my only friend who knew anything about guitar, or rather, music in its entirety.  Elle and Ally are great, but they would never understand the moment of horror when a shoulder strap slips off an acoustic.  Thank God, my prized acoustic had escaped, miraculously, with only a small dent on the bottom.

I couldn’t find him anywhere in the junior hallway or outside, so I walked down to the band room, and sure enough, there he was retrieving his saxophone.  He spotted me first, “Hey Rose, excited for summer?”

“Why do you even have to ask,” I rethought the response to sound less harsh, “Well, Tennessee should be interesting.”

“Better than sticking around here all summer.”

“I really don’t understand how you find Silverburg boring.”

“It’s just too perfect.  Nothing ever happens.  It’s always the same stuff all the time.  I wish I could be going somewhere else for the entire summer. I want to travel.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to go.  Although if it made you happy, I wish you could go instead of me, but either way, we won’t get to see each other at all.  So are you doing anything interesting this vacation?”

“Nothing new, just working down at Strum and Pick like last year.” Strum and Pick was the local guitar shop, and Jake was always able to get me a discount whenever I needed anything. “You won’t have much of a problem finding a guitar shop down South I don’t think.  Banjo and bass shop, anyway.  And by bass I mean standard.”

“Oh shut up.  You’re not making me feel better.”

“Seriously, don’t worry.  There has to be some place that has strings.  But just in case, bring an extra set.”

“Don’t worry I will.”

“Just drop in the shop before you go and I’ll sneak you a set or two.”

“You do that.”

He smiled and walked over and hugged me, “I’d better get going,” he said, “I’ve got to teach a lesson at two.  So I’ll see you at the shop tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” I said, still hugging him, “Jake I’m gonna miss you so much.”

He released me.

“Well if you have a new song you can always call.  I’d love to hear anything you come up with.”

“And the same for you.  Don’t forget to drop by and get those strings.”

“Don’t worry I won’t.”

“See you around then, Rose, Bye!”

“Bye Jake.  Later!”

Jake walked out of the band room to his car, and I headed toward my Mustang on the other side of the school.  I really wanted a used car, something from the 90s or so, but no, my parents had insisted on a new one.  It really made me wonder if they really had nothing to spend money on, or it was just their guiltiness for never being able to spend any time with me.

I started my car’s engine and pulled out.  Tomorrow Kayla would be leaving for a horse camp in Vermont for eight weeks.  Rather, it was more of a boot camp to prepare her for the winter circuit in January in Florida. The parents really wanted us gone for a while, and it’s a miracle we weren’t shipped off to boarding school during the year.  I had just three precious days left in Silverburg until Monday’s flight of doom to Nashville, and from there a drive to Middleton.  More like Middle of Nowhere.

Tennessee: The Intro

The title isn’t set in stone, but I’m using it for now.

What is Tennessee? It’s a novel about a seventeen year old girl named Rose Selben and her quest for happiness. Rose is shipped by her parents to a small town called Middletown in west Tennessee get some fresh air from her hectic life in Silverburg, New Jersey, and care for her elderly grandparents. She is forced to leave her friends and has no intention of making new ones. However, as fate would have it, she runs into (literally) a few characters that greatly change her drab outlook on life.

If you’re looking for action packed sci-fi or intellectual literature, continue your search. Do not stop here. If you’re looking for a beach book without a lot of substance and a touch of guitar playing and high-school self discovery, keep reading.

In the coming weeks, I’ll post bits and pieces of it about once a week as I edit/write more of them. I’ll start a page on the blog with links to each piece for an easy reading experience.

Coming soon to Frei For All: Chapter 1- Part One