Top Rankin' by Howard Paar

Author:Howard Paar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2021-04-15T00:13:09+00:00

Chapter 23

The following Friday, a Cadillac stretch limo pulled up at the Pan Am terminal and deposited the four of them curbside, where a pleasant, fresh-faced young publicist who introduced himself as David Millman solicitously got Duncan and Loraine checked in while James and Drea trailed along in their wake. Duncan had spent most of the ride pleading unsuccessfully with Drea to change her mind and let him buy her a ticket.

Nothing further was said until it was time for goodbyes at the gate. “When will I see you again?” said Duncan to Drea.

“Honey. Just come back when you are ready to record some music.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You think I’m going to come back to this fucked-up place or ever record again?” snarled Duncan.

“Baby, I just thought since you and Guy had already written more than enough songs for the next album that you would want to…” she trailed off, stoned, confused, and hurt.

James put his hand gently on the guitarist’s arm. “Mate, maybe this is way too soon to talk about it, but you’re not honoring the dead if you let your dreams end on that sidewalk along with Guy.”

“Fuck, James. You too? Does this town make you numb to everything but success? Guy’s down in the hold of the plane in a fucking box and you two are talking about the next album? You make me sick.”

He grabbed his boarding pass from the now freaked-out publicist and headed to the gate.

They’d ridden to LAX with no music, which was anathema to James, so he quickly remedied that, pushing in the cassette of Roxy Music’s first album as soon as the driver closed the door. He and Drea flopped back into the hermetically sealed darkness.

“I gotta ask you, what made you decide not to go to London?” said James as “Ladytron” cast its reflective melancholy spell of romantic manipulation.

She shrugged and fingered one of the bullets in her cross-shouldered belt absently. “Stuff, I guess. I couldn’t be fucked to put on an act for his parents or Guy’s or anyone else at the funeral, for that matter.”

“Was Duncan expecting you to?”

“He didn’t say it in so many words but I could tell he was nervous about me.”

“Who wouldn’t be?” James laughed.

She grinned. “Fuck you. But actually, you wouldn’t be nervous because you genuinely don’t give a toss what anyone thinks about you or your friends. Maybe that sums up why I’m still here.”

Her eyes closed and stayed that way for so long James wondered whether she’d nodded out. “You awake, girl?”

She opened her eyes. “I was six when I saw my dad die. It was on The Untouchables when Elliot Ness gunned him down. He was away on location for weeks so I didn’t believe my mother when she told me he was alive. He died a lot for the rest of my childhood, on everything from Gunsmoke to Burke’s Law and Mannix. I was just thinking that Guy will probably come back soon.”

“Look, I know I shouldn’t say this, but you sure all this smack is good for you? I mean, look at Darby.

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