Ridiculust Ch. 13

"Now that I have your attention," she said dryly, getting some chuckles, "the reason that I'm here today is because the grove of trees in the park is in danger." There were some gasps and murmurs. "Last night, I helped to save the willow by the river bank. It had rotted out in the middle with something called heart rot. The town arborist said that the other trees may be infected with it as well, and they're all so huge that the three of us don't have enough power to cure them all. We have to get as many people as possible down to the park tonight so that we can get all our love together to blow out the rot and save them." She saw that she was glowing with her fervor.

"Is anything else going to get blown out afterwards?" asked a female voice. "Like what happened Friday night?" The note of hope in her voice got everyone laughing.

"We think that the total is greater than the sum of the parts," Sarah replied when it got quiet. "It means that if lots of people show up, there will be lots of love left over, and it will have to go somewhere." She waggled her eyebrows and there were hoots, whistles, and cheers. "I'm hungry. Let's eat!" This was a popular suggestion, and everyone went back into the restaurant and resumed brunching. The six windows were all wide open to let in the fresh summer breezes, and Sarah's table in the corner had their full benefit. About five minutes after she had been seated and was drinking a large glass of ginger ale, the seven members of the Purple Chimps trooped into the already crowded restaurant. The din of people trying to be heard over each other quickly died away, to be replaced by enthusiastic applause and cheers, and the musicians stood there looking a little awkward and embarrassed.

"You made it!" said Sarah, putting down her glass and getting up once the noise had died down.

"Debbie told me that you wanted us to 'headline a show' at the park tonight, as she put it," said Ellen Dawes, who, along with Pat Marshak, the male vocalist, knew Debbie through the town's choir. "She said that she and Roger are about ten minutes out, but we can get started without them." Ellen was five-foot-nine with short blonde hair and blue eyes, and built like the farm girl she was, with large, strong hands, a sturdy, muscular body, and a no-nonsense attitude that had endeared her to Sarah as a student. She'd also been captain of the school's women's wrestling team and had won or placed in the County Fair's annual hog-calling contests for the past ten years. Her clear, powerful contralto voice lent itself well to the town choir and the band, where it harmonized very well with Pat's. She and Sarah embraced, just as Marcie delivered a large BLT sandwich.

"Thanks, Marcie!" said Sarah warmly. "And thank you all so much for coming!" The band members gathered around her table, which was in the corner and had some extra room around it. "I'm spreading the word that the big grove of trees in the park is in trouble and we need to get as many people from the town there tonight as we can so that we can generate enough magic to heal them." She paused as they looked at each other. "It does sound a little strange, but after what happened Friday night, and last night with the willow tree, we think we can do it."

"Something magical did happen on Friday night, didn't it?" said Luisa Ortega, the keyboardist. She was carrying what was clearly her keyboard and its stand in a long black case that she wore on her back like a backpack. She was five-foot-four, had beautiful glossy black hair down past her shoulders, dark brown eyes, an olive complexion, and a wide, bright smile under a somewhat beak-like nose. "You and Roger really made an impression, and were those actual ghosts who were dancing with you?"

"Yes, they were," Sarah replied, looking a little sad. The room was quiet, listening to her. "They were my late husband John, the teacher who died at the school." There was a quiet murmur of surprise. "Also, Roger's late wife Jeannie. And they've told us that there are others out there too, people who died suddenly and for whatever reason were not able to cross over."

"How could you see them and talk to them?" someone asked from the back.

"It was the magic of love that did it, wasn't it?" asked Sadie Corcoran, the bass player, with her gentle Island lilt. "The night of Lughnasadh is not well-known for magic, but it happens." She was five-foot-ten, with a willowy but well-muscled build and the natural grace of one well-versed in the martial arts, in which she trained with Anna Lam the drummer and Sarah. She had a café-au-lait complexion, dark brown eyes that could glow with an intimidating intensity, a large poof of black hair in an afro, but a wide, easy smile that could light up a room. Sarah nodded mutely, suddenly caught up in memories.

"They were the ones in the park last night who saved the willow tree," said Anna, "she and Roger and Debbie. The three of them gave a real meaning to the Power of Love."

"Yes, it was us," Sarah replied with a smile. "Guilty as charged. We had no idea we could do that sort of thing. It took a lot of power, and we were just able to do it, but the other trees apparently also could be sick with the heart rot. We will need all the help that we can get."

"There is real magic in the grove," said Pat. "We could feel it yesterday." Anna gave him a smoldering look that made the others snicker. He looked wide-eyed and innocent and quickly moved to help move a table a bit to make room for Louisa who was setting up her keyboard near a power plug.

"There always has been," mused Arthur Weller, the lead guitarist, backup singer and occasional lyricist. "I was walking in the grove a couple of days ago and suddenly came up with the idea for a new song - Purple Panty People." He was tall, close to six feet, and lean, with sandy brown hair and light brown eyes. "What?" he asked in response to their skeptical stares. "I may have had a bit of that damned 'Oompa Loompa Love' on the brain, but this will be a good song. I already have about half of it, and most of that popped into my head while I was in the park."

"I'll be interested in hearing it," said Brian Boyle with a straight face under his mop of straight red hair and blue eyes, courtesy of his Irish heritage. "But don't be shy, or it will be a pan-tease."

"That would be worthy of Roger," Sarah said over the chorus of groans, which were quickly followed by a burst of startled laughter as Brian suddenly found himself wearing a pair of size large purple panties on his head.

"Damn it!" he said, pulling them off with difficulty and seeing from the price tag that they were from a nearby lingerie store. "Serves me right, I suppose," he muttered darkly, stuffing the garment into a jeans pocket.

"Purple just doesn't go with that hair of yours," snickered Arthur, ignoring the death glare. "Fashion police will get you." In the distance, Sarah saw Minnie scooting across the foyer, stop, flick her tail, and carry on. Roger and Debbie were intercepted by Emma, who directed them towards the restaurant. Sarah waved at them and Debbie waved back.

"Here they are!" said Sarah to Julia, who was over behind the bar, fiddling with the sound system. Roger tried to dodge out of Debbie's grip, only to come face-to-face with Emma, who was looking really good in a yellow top with powder blue shorts. The long pause before Roger was turned around and propelled towards the restaurant caught Sarah's attention, but she was distracted when Julia finally got the system working. "OK, hit it!" The opening chords of 'Oompa Loompa Love' started up as the folks in the rather crowded restaurant started clapping and cheering. Roger rolled his eyes and waved rather shyly to her and to the Purple Chimps.

"Am I ever going to be free from that song?" he demanded, shaking his head, as he found himself in Sarah's embrace and her body molded itself to his, getting some whistles. "Now you can see why I neglected to tell you about that when we first met. As for you lot," he addressed the Purple Chimps for the benefit of the others in the room, "when you start getting hits, and I know that you will, be sure that they're songs that you can live with, because you'll be performing them over and over again, and they'll follow you wherever you go."

"Hmm, maybe I should just shelve Purple Panty People," said Arthur, to general laughter. "I don't think that we need a horde of fans with them on their heads. Brian was bad enough!" He dodged a smack that Roger had to dodge as well.

"Items sold in lingerie stores are under-wares," Roger quipped with a smirk as everyone groaned, and then started laughing in surprise. "Dammit! Where did this come from?" He was now wearing purple panties on his head. Brian checked his pocket and found it empty.

"That's mine," he said, helping Roger yank the offending garment from his noggin. "I made a panty pun," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Welcome to my world," said Roger dryly. "It's not too late to get back on the no-pun road."

"It is dark, dull, and lonely," Brian replied, offering and receiving a fist-bump. Louisa and Sarah made annoyed snorts. Roger thought that he heard Jeannie's all-too-familiar snort as well.

"Santa Claus' underwear brand is St Nickers," Debbie chimed in, getting her groans, and sure enough she was wearing the panties on her head. "Purple is a good colour on me. I think I'll take them," she said, removing the garment and putting it in her purse. "I'll go buy them later. It will be less awkward that way."

"Now that we've gotten the clowning out of the way," said Ellen, her hog-calling voice cutting through the din of silliness. "I think that we need a dress rehearsal for this love-summoning idea. Nothing comes without practice." The other Purple Chimps groaned half-heartedly while the others in the audience, about 30 including Roger, Sarah, Debbie, Emma, and Julia, laughed expectantly. "To summon love, we should sing love songs. We know a few, don't we?" They nodded.

"Perhaps we could warm them up with 'Stand by Me' and use 'The Rose' for the magic?" suggested Sadie, looking at Roger.

There was an awkward pause until Roger realized that he was supposed to answer. "That sounds like a great choice," he said, projecting his voice so that everyone could hear. "'Stand by Me' is a simple song that is often played at weddings because of its simple message: that you and your new partner will be stronger if you ... if you stand together." He'd had a brief flashback to his wedding night, when that song had been played while he and Jeannie danced slowly together seeing only each other. "You were so beautiful that night," he whispered. His voice was only audible to those who were nearby, but his expression screamed pain and loss, and everyone could feel the force of it.

"You were the only man for me," he heard her whisper in his ear. "I knew as soon as I saw you."

"And 'The Rose'," Debbie stepped in, "will have the force to summon the love that we all can spin into magic." Roger's reaction had also brought back memories of her and Joe and their wedding night.

"You were always my rose," she heard Joe's whisper in her ear. "The thorns sometimes, but mostly the flower." She had to fight to keep a grip on herself, but her expression was telling.

"Don't mind me," said Roger, recovering quickly. "You guys are the pros, so you all get started. I won't even be singing."

"Why not? I thought that everyone liked to sing," said Pat, looking confused.

"To you, it's natural. Your voice is amazing," Roger replied. "For me, well, a secret recording of the one and only public singing performance that I did wound up in Iran, where it was played over a prison's PA system to demoralize the prisoners. They had to stop when the guards protested that it was too inhumane." That got a good laugh. "They had me playing a tambourine in the 'Oompa Loompa Love' music video because I can't even play a triangle on key."

"I'm not much better," Sarah admitted. "Though crows seem to appreciate my talent." She ate the last bite of her sandwich for emphasis. Anna had brought in a laptop and a small projector, which she'd been setting up at a different table from where Louisa had set up her keyboard. During the chaos of the preceding few minutes, she had set them up, turned them on, and found an expanse of blank wall next to the kitchen doors on which to project the image of a popular karaoke website. She quickly called up the lyrics for Stand by Me, the classic by Ben E. King, then opened another tab on her browser and pulled up a rendition on YouTube that she played so that everyone could remember what the song sounded like.

"Roger and Sarah, I want you to humour me and sing the first two lines," she said. "I listened to your voices as you were speaking, and I've got a feeling about this. Sing together, not separately," she added hastily. "Otherwise we'll have Lost that Lovin' Feeling." There were some chuckles from the audience, but also some apprehension, especially from those who had heard Sarah singing drunkenly as Mandy. The room grew quiet.

"Well, if you insist," said Roger dubiously, looking at Sarah, who shrugged. "Hit it, Anna." Anna started the karaoke video, which had the lyrics and background music, with the words highlighted as they were supposed to be sung.

"When the night has come, and the land is dark and the moon is the only light we'll see," they belted out. Much to everyone's surprise, instead of the expected painful cacophony, Roger's baritone and Sarah's alto meshed together into one strong voice. Debbie joined them for the next lines and her soprano soared over their voices like an eagle over a field, leaving the rest of them, including Anna, staring at them in astonishment. "Think of your love and join us!" A little raggedly at first, everyone else in the room joined in the song with its simple melody. As had been hoped, the song helped the people in the room focus and think about love, and they could all feel something stirring within them, something that was larger than themselves. Sarah noticed that Matt had joined Julia behind the bar and that Bill, who must have come in at some point, and Emma were all wrapped up in each other. Then they fell down out of sight behind the bar, and she elevated her eyebrows.

"That was nicely done," said Roger once the song was finished. "I could feel a little magic in the air, but I don't think we're quite ready for 'The Rose' yet. May I suggest Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time'? I think that it has the right tone and should get us ready for the next step." There were murmurs of approval and no opposition, so Anna brought it up on the karaoke web page and played a version on YouTube, as before, to act as a refresher.

"Is everyone ready?" asked Louisa, poised to accompany the karaoke on her keyboard. The murmurs had a different tone to them, as the song had clearly drawn out memories from the people in the room. Several people, including Roger, Sarah, Debbie, and Louisa, were glowing slightly. Sarah noticed that Emma was standing up again, looking rather flushed and disordered and glowing green, blue, and brown, while there was no sign of Bill. She snickered to herself. "Think of the ones you love."

"Think of when you first met them, when you first felt the spark that said you're the one," said Brian, also glowing, looking meaningfully at Arthur. Anna clicked on Start and Louisa started the keyboard portion of the melody. Roger, Sarah, and Debbie stood in a triangle and held hands with each other, looking into each other's eyes, while the Purple Chimps arranged themselves in a quarter circle around the corner in which they all stood, all humming the intro, while Anna absently tapped out the drum part on her table. The others in the room were watching the wall on which the lyrics were projected, holding their partners and gently swaying back and forth. All were oblivious to the five people who were standing outside the corner window that faced the street, who'd been attracted by the sounds of Stand by Me. Two of them were Wan Kee and her partner from the Chinese food wagon, who had a good view of Sarah, Debbie, and Roger, whose glows were bright enough to be seen in the daylight and getting brighter.

"Lying in my bed, I hear the clock tick," the people in the restaurant began, right on cue. All five of them felt a sudden shift of forces within them, generating a feeling of calm and well-being.

"Remarkable!" said the first woman, a big-boned and big chested woman who was clearly African in descent. "I can already feel the power building, and they've only just started." She was five-foot eleven with her half-grey hair cut in a short afro and dressed in a casual but expensive-looking white outfit, including shoes, purse, and sun hat, and her voice was rich and mellow.

"That is her, The Warrior," Wan Kee whispered, pointing at Sarah, whose back was to them.

"The man with her must be The Healer," said the man, whose wavy blond hair was cut long under a baseball cap that was incongruous to the pale blue rugby-style shirt, pale brown pants, and Italian loafers. The excitement that radiated from him was in sharp contrast to the emotions coming from the restaurant. He was only five-foot six and was always conscious of his height, or lack thereof, but he was being swept up with the experience. "He's the one who just came to town a couple of days ago."

"Glowing Cock Man," said the second woman dryly. Like the man, she was white, but with shoulder-length brown hair that was liberally streaked with grey and she stood a good three inches taller than him. Her tasteful peach blouse and pale blue slacks covered a slim frame with small breasts, and her pink hat shaded an attractive face with startlingly green eyes. "I feel healthier just looking at him."

"The other woman is probably The Engineer. Those three have often worked together in the past," said Wan Kee's partner, whose name was Ming Lu. They both were five foot eight, with long black hair liberally shot with gray, and dressed in colourful flowery blouses, white shorts and white flat sneakers, which were comfortable for standing for long periods behind the counter of their food truck.

"If you're lost, you can look and you'll find me, time after time," everyone was singing, putting all their hearts into it. The five voyeurs, now spread to two windows, were finding themselves being drawn into the magic, despite their best efforts to resist. They were joined by two other passers-by, who had heard the music and singing from the open windows and were drawn like moths to a light.

"That young woman at the keyboard, I think that she's The Musician!" said the African woman with a clearly unusual degree of excitement, judging by the raised eyebrows of the others.

"The Administrator is in there too, though I can't see him," said the small man. "So many Archetypes in one place at the same time! Something truly extraordinary must be coming!"

"Look at those three!" said Ming, indicating Debbie, Roger, and Sarah. "See how their auras have merged. No wonder there's so much power." They were glowing brighter than the others in the room, though Louisa and even the other band members were not far behind, and their glows had indeed merged into a swirling mass of green, yellow, turquoise, blue, red, and orange.

"Look at us!" whispered Debbie during the quiet section of the song following the time after time chorus. "Why are our colours blending together like this? It's beautiful."

"It's love," Sarah whispered back.

"We've all bonded to each other," said Roger. "The three of us are one." As they started belting out the second chorus, there were disturbances in their patterns, which swirled and mixed and then took the familiar forms of Joe, Jeannie, and John. "Time after time, you guys show up," he added, showing no surprise that they were there and singing along. But this time, they weren't the only ghosts to be given form. By the end of the song, fifteen others had been revealed, making the room even more crowded and causing a descent into a noisy chaos of screaming and, once they were recognized, crying.