Page 131 of August Lane
Our bones
Your pretty words don’t soften these blows
That break
These bones
Two Weeks Later
The crowd was screaming. Camera phones dotted the dark. The cheers grew louder when she walked onstage, but August felt removed from it, like they were shouting at someone else. Then she heard David’s voice in her mind, shutting down her doubts.
Love it.Live.And fuck everything else.
She grabbed the microphone and said, “I’m August Lane.” Her voice flowed from the speakers surrounding the audience. She’d been resistant at first when Mavis suggested they move the showcase to the stage they’d built for Jojo. She thought it was too big. But Mavis was insistent. “You were right all along. We were thinking too small. This is what the festival should have been in the first place.”
Charlotte Turner had introduced the first act wearing a sparkling BI Pride pin. The crowd grew larger with each performance, thanks to her viral videos on social media. Now it was August’s turn. This was her stage. They were all just visiting.
“I’m gonna sing,” she said, and there was more cheering. They thought they knew what was coming, a solo version of their favorite song. “But I have to tell a story first. You all know that, right? Every song has a story?”
The response was muted encouragement, with a tinge of impatience. August strolled across the stage. “I wrote ‘Another Love Song’ to impress a boy.” There was laughter, followed by whoops and whistles. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, “I know. But he wasreallycute. And kind. And played the most beautiful music. So, I wrote him a love song. Because I loved him. And he sang it for years because he loved me, too.”
They were watching. Listening. Recording her with their phones. She let them in, moving to the front of the stage. A few people shouted theirapproval, and she was suddenly tethered to them, her head swimming with dopamine and joy.
This was what Luke meant. This high. She never wanted to come down from this.
“I’ve got a new song for you. But I need to fix the old one first.”
She turned around and extended a hand. Luke walked onstage, dressed in black, with his guitar slung over his shoulder. The reaction was a loud, chaotic roar. Cheers, boos, whistles—it all rolled in their direction in a deafening wave.
Luke kept his eyes on her. He took her hand and his grip was warm and solid in every way she needed. He bowed to her, like he was greeting royalty, then positioned his fingers along his guitar frets.
They locked eyes again. Luke smiled her favorite smile and said, “I love this song,” then leaned hard into the first chord.
The crowd was stunned. They took a collective breath. August let loose a loud, blazing note that lit up the sky. Not another Lane girl. Not a delicate country songbird. But something altogether different.
A sound of her own.
This Is Our Country: Podcast Transcript
Episode 12—“Jojo Lane”
August 21, 2024
[cont.]
Emma:
Did you watch it?
