Anne Bonny's Wake by Elam Dick;

Author:Elam, Dick; [Dick Elam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 6038008
Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Strum . . . strummn . . . strum.

The guitarist moved through the wide fold-open door onto the dockside veranda. His voice was mellow:

“The answer is blowing in the wind . . .”

At our table, he lingered by Maggie, strummed chords, and asked, “Do you have a request? Any music you want me to play?”

“Oh, yes. Do you know any sea chanteys?”

“Quite a few, plus a few tunes from H.M.S. Pinafore.”

Now the entertainer strummed my strings. I perform a lusty, shower-stall rendition of “We’re sober men and true, and attentive to our duty . . . We sail the ocean blue, in our saucy ship, a beauty.” I was pleased that Maggie had perked up at the mention of H.M.S. Pinafore.

Maggie asked, “Do you know ‘I’m Called Little Buttercup’? I once sang that in a school production.”

“If you can sing it, I think I can chord it.” He grinned.

“Oh, no. I don’t want to sing ‘Buttercup.’ Just comparing. I used to play that opera over and over, memorized the lines. An English recording by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.”

The young man nodded. “I know that recording.” The guitarist deftly picked “when the balls whistle free o’er the bright blue sea.”

“You do? With all the lines from the book as well as the music?” Maggie asked.

“Yes, that’s the record I have.” The young troubadour stopped strumming and sipped from his tabled wine glass.

Maggie beamed. “Great. But I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt the singing. Let’s pick a funny chant that we all can sing. Do you know ‘Eddystone Light’?”

“Oh, yes. The lighthouse keeper who marries a mermaid. That’s a good one,” our troubadour said.

I preferred Gilbert and Sullivan’s “We Sail the Ocean Blue.” I had practiced H.M.S. Pinafore in both baritone and bass—I move easily from one to the other without detecting any discordance.

The guitarist struck a series of chords, and Maggie nodded recognition.

“You know all the words, all the verses?”

“Why, yes, I sure do,” Maggie answered.

“What’s your name, ma’am?”

“Call me Addie,” Maggie replied. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Eddie.” In his louder stage voice, Eddie announced, “The old ‘Eddystone Light’ chantey, folks. And follow Miss Addie, here. She knows the words. Come on, folks; sing along with Eddie and Addie.” He strummed a chord and we began.

“Folks” included the sing-along drinkers inside the tavern and a half dozen on the waterfront porch. Lockwood and his partner from the Freedom 40 sat across from us. Two teenage girls sat near them.

The diminutive photographer took a seat to our left, moved forward so he could better see “Addie.”

The photographer’s eyes drooped. He reminded me of a sheep dog peeking between hairs. The photographer epitomized “laid-back”—the euphoria so prized by the younger generation, now represented by the two teenage girls and three high school–age boys who harmonized on the chorus:

“We poor sailors are skipping at the top, while the landlubbers lie down below . . .”

Second time around the chorus, I performed “below, below, below” in my bass voice imitation. Lucky for everyone else, the teenagers drowned me out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.