The Gift (2 page)

The next morning they woke up to find several inches of
snow which surprised them because they didn’t think it snowed down south. It
was treacherous driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. They drove by a semi-truck
that had jackknifed and was hanging off the side of the road in a precarious
position. Fortunately someone had stopped to help the driver get out of his
cab, so they drove on.

By the time they made Mississippi, the snow storm had
become an ice storm, which was actually worse. The southern drivers didn’t seem
to understand that they needed to slow down when driving on icy roads. They would
continue to go eighty miles an hour until they skidded off the road into a
field.

It was a long, harrowing drive to Greenville and the
band was extremely relieved to get to their destination. It turned out that
they were being put up at somebody’s grandmother’s house and they had the place
to themselves. It was freezing cold though, there was no heat and no insulation
in the house.

The band discovered that they were exciting
entertainment to the two teenage girls who lived next door. The guys in the band
had long, flowing hair and they looked like rock stars. They drove those little
Southern girls wild. Every time the guys went in and out of the house, the
girls would come out and giggle and plead with them to “say hi”. It was their
first experience with groupies and the guys enjoyed the attention quite a lot.
They decided to ignore the girls though, they were too young and some of the
band members’ girlfriends were along on the trip.

The bride was quite the southern belle and came from a
very rich family. Her father was president of the bank in Greenville and was
determined to have the wedding of the decade for his daughter. They had two
receptions. The first reception was sedate and intended for all the family and
business acquaintances of the father. The music for that event was provided by
an elderly Delta blues musician. Maggie and the band played at the second
reception which was meant for the young friends of the bride and groom and was
held at the local country club.

The band showed up dressed in the new clothes that they
had bought for the occasion. They had all gone to Walker’s, a store in Boston that specialized in fancy country western clothes. They had bought matching country
western shirts with snaps and roses embroidered on the front. The shirts were
different colors, but went well together. Maggie’s shirt was black with red
roses. It looked stunning with her long blonde hair.

She had been getting increasingly accustomed to singing
with the band. She still wasn’t really singing leads, but her harmonies stood
out.  She had patterned herself on Donna Godchaux, a woman who sang soulful
harmonies with the Grateful Dead. She must have done a good job that night at
the wedding reception because several male admirers came over to visit with her
during the break.  One of them told her that she sounded just like Emmylou
Harris. She had no idea who Emmylou Harris was at that point, but later she
bought some of her albums and then realized what an incredible compliment that
had been

As it approached midnight, the party started getting
more and more frenzied. Perhaps the band should have played some quieter songs
and brought down the energy level because next thing they knew, there were some
loud popping noises. The band had no idea what it was, it sounded like guns
going off.  But no, apparently the wedding guests had thought it was a good
idea to set off fireworks on the wooden dance floor. That was when the club
manager shut it down. It was too bad, because the band had sounded especially
good that night. Someone recorded them and gave them the cassette later.  It
was the first recording that Maggie had of herself singing with the band.

It was also the first night that Maggie saw people using
cocaine. The wedding guests were hell bent on partying to the extreme and they
wanted to make sure that the band did too. They dragged the band members into
the restrooms during the breaks and made sure that they had a good time, a good
time then was equivalent to taking as many drugs as possible. Maggie tried a
couple of lines with the rest of the band, but didn’t like it that much. She
would smoke pot or have a drink with the other band members to be
companionable, but she usually didn’t enjoy getting high.

The next morning, Maggie and the band were incredibly
hung over, but they had to sober up quickly as they were driving on to New Orleans. Vanessa, Maggie’s roommate from college, lived in New Orleans with her parents
and Maggie was going to stay with her. Vanessa’s father was a cardiologist and
they lived in a beautiful historic home in the city. The family was very
socially connected, Vanessa was a debutante and her father was a member of a
Krewe, one of the groups that sponsors the floats in the parade during Mardi
Gras.

The band dropped Maggie off at Vanessa’s and went on to
find an inexpensive motel outside the city. They all made plans to hit the city
the next night and check out the bars, the music and Preservation Hall. Maggie
was planning to stay with Vanessa for a few days and then fly back to Boston while the band drove back in the van.

Maggie had a great time visiting with Vanessa. The next
day Vanessa took her out to see all the usual tourist sites in New Orleans, like Jackson Square and the Café du Monde. Vanessa’s father had made
reservations for them to have dinner at Antoine’s that night, a restaurant that
was well-known for its excellent French-Creole cuisine. The two women decided
to get dressed up for fun. Maggie put on the long, pink satin dress that she
had worn for the wedding in Mississippi, and Vanessa put on a green gown with a
deep v-neck that matched her eyes. They almost looked like sisters, except that
Vanessa was more petite and delicate. Maggie had inherited her height and bone
structure from her Swedish grandmother who was 5 feet 8 inches tall.

Vanessa’s father dropped them off at Antoine’s around
8:30. They planned to take a cab home after they had dinner. The hostess
escorted the two beautiful women into an opulent dining room with dark paneling
and crystal chandeliers. Before she left for New Orleans, Maggie’s father had
recommended that she try this restaurant and it had been good advice. They
started with the gumbo creole and oysters Rockefeller, moved on to the
crevettes remoulade and truite amandine for entrées, and shared  peche melba
for dessert. They didn’t worry about calories, they just enjoyed the incredible
food and the wine. They split a bottle of chardonnay and were feeling pretty
relaxed by the end of the meal.

As they were about to leave the restaurant, a waiter
graciously opened a door to one of the private dining rooms and ushered them
in. There was a wedding party going on. He must have thought they were guests
because of the way they were dressed. It was dark and the music was good, so
they decided to go with the flow. They sat down at some empty seats at a table
near the band and listened to the music and watched the dancing. The band
played a combination of blues, rock, Cajun and zydeco. The music was excellent
and everyone was dancing. It wasn’t long before they were invited to dance too.
Every so often they would take a break to rest and imbibe the free-flowing
champagne. They started feeling VERY relaxed. Maggie was impressed with the
band, especially the lead guitarist who was several years older than she was.
He mostly played electric guitar, but occasionally he would take breaks on a
National resonator guitar. She hadn’t heard this kind of music too often in Boston, so it really caught her attention. He noticed that she was listening closely to his
playing and so he smiled and nodded at her.

Finally the party came to an end around eleven and the
band stopped playing. Maggie decided to go up to the band and tell them how
much she enjoyed their music. They were packing up their equipment and having a
last drink before going home.  They didn’t seem too anxious to end the evening.
The guitarist and the bass player started chatting with Maggie and Vanessa.
They introduced themselves as Zak Robichaud and Justin Boudreau, and told them
that their band was called the Bayou Blasters. They asked the women their names
and if they were friends of the bride or the groom. Maggie and Vanessa laughed
and explained that a waiter had gotten confused and had accidentally encouraged
them to crash the wedding. Zak and Justin thought that was funny too. Maggie
went on to say that she was visiting from Boston to see Vanessa who had been
her college roommate. Zak and Justin suggested that since Maggie was from out
of town, they should all go and check out the music at some of the clubs in the
French Quarter. Since it wasn’t too late, they said they would be happy to
escort the two women. Maggie and Vanessa were still feeling energetic and
didn’t want to go home yet, so they acquiesced. The two men left briefly to
change out of their gig clothes and load their equipment into their car and
then they all walked out of the restaurant into the French Quarter.

Zak, the lead guitarist, seemed very interested in
Maggie. He asked her a lot of questions about herself, including what she did
for a living. She explained that she sang with a band and that they had come
down from Boston to play at a friend’s wedding in Mississippi. This
precipitated a long conversation about what kind of music she liked, what songs
she sang, and about her mandolin playing.  As it turned out, Zak played
mandolin too although it wasn’t his primary instrument. Zak invited Maggie to
come to his home sometime to jam with him and check out his mandolins.  He had
a couple of vintage Gibsons that he thought she might like to see.

Zak and Maggie were really hitting it off. They had a
lot in common musically, but enough differences to make things interesting.
Maggie found Zak very attractive. He was about six feet tall, lanky, with
shoulder length straight brown hair and warm, brown eyes. His voice was soft
with a slight Southern accent. He kept calling her “sha”, which he explained
was a Cajun endearment derived from the French word chère. She found that
incredibly sexy.

It wasn’t long before Zak was walking with his arm
around Maggie’s shoulder which she appreciated because she was starting to feel
a little unsteady on her feet. She had a lot more to drink that evening than
she was used to and she was tired after traveling for the last four days.
Maggie and Zak and Vanessa and Justin wandered in and out of the bars in the
French Quarter, checking out the music, even pausing in front of a strip joint
on Bourbon Street where they could see the girls from the sidewalk. It was
still cold out, and all of a sudden there were snow flurries. One of the girls
ran out half-naked into the street, delighted to see it snow. The guys smiled
appreciatively.

Zak blamed Maggie for bringing the cold weather down
from Boston and then hugged her even closer to keep her warm. They let Vanessa
and Justin walk ahead of them. Zak pulled Maggie down a little alley to kiss
her. His kiss was long and deep and made her weak in the knees. He must have
enjoyed it too, because he invited her to come home and spend the night with
him. Maggie thought about it briefly, then said yes. She liked Zak and she
didn’t think that Vanessa would mind. Vanessa was friendly to Justin, but they
didn’t seem to have much in common. Justin was handsome, with long, dark blond
hair styled in a layered cut. He was taller than Zak, about 6 feet 3 inches,
and more muscular. Vanessa found him attractive, but ultimately dismissed him
since she assumed that as a musician he didn’t have any substantial financial
prospects.

Finally everybody was ready to go home, so the guys took
Maggie and Vanessa to their car, a battered old Lincoln with peeling paint. Zak
said it was one of the few cars that would hold his band equipment because of
its enormous trunk. Maggie thought one of the car’s better features was the
roomy back seat which she guessed had seen plenty of action.

They drove Vanessa back to her house and Maggie went
inside quickly to change out of the long dress and into a t-shirt and jeans and
an Icelandic sweater. She grabbed her small suitcase and said goodbye to
Vanessa who was already crashed out on a couch. Then she got into the car with
Zak and Justin and they began the drive to Zak’s home and studio which was
several hours north on I-10.

Zak had decided to let Justin drive and he sat in the
back seat with Maggie. They tried to restrain themselves somewhat, but it felt
good to be able to hold each other closely. It was strange how they had known
each other for such a short time but felt completely comfortable with one
another. After a few passionate kisses, well more than a few, Maggie leaned
against Zak and rested her head on his shoulder. She felt at peace as he
wrapped his arms around her and she gradually gave in to an overwhelming
sleepiness.

.

Chapter 3

Next thing she knew, the car had slowed down
considerably and was traveling down a bumpy, gravel road. Zak whispered, “We’re
here” as the car rolled to a stop. The sun was rising over the trees and she
could just make out a white one-story bungalow with a porch. She sat up
sleepily and slowly got out of the car so Zak could lead her into the house.

The inside of the house was surprisingly clean
considering two guys lived there, but it was cluttered with band equipment.
There were amplifiers, some in the process of being repaired, and numerous
guitar cases. She even recognized a few mandolin cases and guessed they held
the old Gibsons that Zak had described.

Maggie looked exhausted so Zak recommended that she lie
down on his bed while he and Justin unloaded their equipment into the studio
that was in the unattached garage. By the time he came back, Maggie was sound
asleep. Zak was a little disappointed, but covered her with a quilt and then
lay down beside her. It had been a long night and he was tired too.