Different Circles

“Well ... I didn’t say that,” he said.

“What are you going to do then?” she asked. “Try to play it without a sax? In a different key maybe?”

“That is one option,” he said. “There is another though.”

“What’s that?”

“Your last date in Europe is going to be September 25^th in Warsaw, correct?”

“I believe so,” she said. “I don’t have the schedule right in front of me.”

“Me either,” he said, “but I looked into it. The third and final Warsaw date is September 25^th. If you hop on a flight the morning of the 26^th, you can be back home that night. The first show of the TSF is on the 27^th.”

She suddenly understood what he was getting at. “You want me to play the sax for Blur?” she asked.

“I do,” he confirmed. “You’re the one who laid down the track for it on the recording.”

“Jake, there will be no rehearsal time,” she protested. “I haven’t played that piece since you came and joined us on the Bobby Z tour.”

“True,” he said, “but you’re intimately familiar with the piece. And we’ll be able to get in some rehearsal time during the sound check.”

“That’s not enough rehearsal time,” she said.

“It was enough for us when we worked it up that first night on the Z tour, wasn’t it?”

“Well ... yeah,” she said, “but we were not that far downstream from the recording sessions when we did that. I haven’t played the tune in almost three years.”

“But you still hear it on the radio on occasion, right?”

“Well ... yeah,” she admitted.

“And you still remember the notes, right?”

“Of course,” she said, “but...”

“How about this?” he interrupted. “I can get Nerdly to punch you out a copy of the tune without the sax track in it. You can take your soprano with you to Europe and practice your part in your spare time out on the road.”

“Hmmm,” she said thoughtfully. “That might work, assuming you’re going to be performing the tune in the same time signature and key as the recording.”

“That is absolutely what I plan to do,” he said. “In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, I’ll have Nerdly pound out a CD that only has the saxophone track on it as well. That way, when we’re rehearsing for the show, we can play it through the speakers for the other musicians.”

“Oh ... that is a good idea,” she said. “But still ... I’m not accustomed to stepping onto a stage without tons of rehearsal time.”

“The only other option is not to perform Blur,” he said. “And I’d hate to have to do that, and so would the audience.”

She sighed. “All right,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

“That’s my girl,” he said. “I knew you’d have my back.”

“I think you’re exploiting my love for you,” she accused lightly.

“What love?” he asked. “I thought you were just with me for my money,” he said.

“Oh yeah,” she said with a giggle. “I forgot about that.”

He chuckled a little and then asked, “So, how are things out on tour? Everything still running smoothly?”

“For the most part,” she said. “There’s some pretty palpable tension between Suzie and Njord.”

“Worse than normal?” he asked.

“Yeah. Something happened between them a few weeks ago. I don’t know what—no one does—but the tension started to ramp up at that point. They don’t talk to each other anymore at all unless it’s mission related.”

“I wouldn’t want to talk to that asshole either,” Jake opined.

“I’m not saying this is a bad thing,” Laura said. “It just makes things a little uncomfortable on the plane.”

“What about at night when you’re smoking cigars with her? Is she her normal self then?”

“It’s funny you should mention that,” Laura said.

“Cigars?”

“That’s right,” she said. “I haven’t been invited to a cigar session in a few weeks now.”

“Really? Why not? Is Celia or Suzie mad at you about something?”

“No,” she said. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“If I tell you, this stays between us,” she said.

“Of course,” he said.

“I’m pretty sure that Celia and Suzie are still getting together in C’s room every night. And I don’t believe they’re smoking cigars in there.”

Jake was astounded by what she was suggesting. “You mean ... Celia and Suzie are ... are ... getting it on?”

“I believe they are,” she said. “I haven’t actually seen them doing it, of course.”

“Damn,” Jake said, imagining it. “That would be something to watch, wouldn’t it?”

“I know, right?” she said. “Anyway, Celia hasn’t said anything about it either. But when the two of them are in the same room ... well ... you know how it is when two people are involved with each other but aren’t telling anyone about it. There’s a certain way they look at each other, a certain way they talk to each other. They’re both giving off a lot of vibes. When you couple that with the lack of cigar time for me ... well ... it suggests something.”

“Does anyone else suspect anything?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Nobody has verbalized anything anyway.”

“Well ... I guess this is Celia’s way of dealing with the divorce ... assuming that any of this is true.”

“I guess so,” Laura said. “I just hope she’s careful. If the entertainment press gets ahold of this rumor ... I can only imagine the response.”