Page 183 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

He tuned his guitar to the piano and plugged into his amplifier. Lenny said: "Do you know 'Mess of Blues'?"

Dave did, and he felt relieved. It was a rock-steady number in the key of C, led by a rolling piano part, easy to accompany on the guitar. He strummed along with it effortlessly, and found a special kick in playing with others that he had never experienced on his own.

Lenny sang well, Dave thought. Buzz and Lew made a solid rhythm section, very steady. Geoff had some fancy licks on lead guitar. The group was competent, if a bit unimaginative.

At the end of the song, Lenny said: "The chords round out the sound of the group nicely, but can you play more rhythmically?"

Dave was surprised to be criticized. He thought he had done well. "Okay," he said.

The next number was "Shake, Rattle and Roll," a Jerry Lee Lewis hit that was also piano-led. Geoffrey sang in unison with Lenny on the chorus. Dave played choppy chords on the offbeat, and Lenny seemed to like that better.

Lenny announced "Johnny B. Goode," and without being asked Dave enthusiastically played the Chuck Berry introduction. When he got to the fifth bar he expected the group to join in, as on the record, but the Guardsmen remained silent. Dave stopped, and Lenny said: "I usually play the intro on the piano."

"Sorry," Dave said, and Lenny restarted the number.

Dave felt dispirited. He was not doing well.

The next number was "Wake Up, Little Susie." To Dave's surprise, Geoffrey did not sing the Everly Brothers harmony. After the first verse, Dave moved to Geoffrey's microphone and began to sing with Lenny. A minute later, two young waitresses who were putting ashtrays out on the tables stopped their work to listen. At the end of the song they clapped. Dave grinned with pleasure. It was the first time he had been applauded by anyone outside his family.

One of the girls said to Dave: "What's your group called?"

Dave pointed at Lenny. "It's his group, and they're called the Guardsmen."

"Oh." She seemed mildly disappointed.

Lenny's last choice was "Take Good Care of My Baby," and again Dave sang the harmony. The waitresses danced along the aisles between the rows of tables.

Afterward, Lenny got up from the piano. "Well, you're not much of a guitarist," he said to Dave. "But you sing nicely, and those girls really went for it."

"So am I in, or out?"

"Can you play tonight?"

"Tonight!" Dave was pleased, but he had not expected to start immediately. He was looking forward to seeing Linda Robertson later.

"You got something better to do?" Lenny looked a bit offended that Dave had not accepted instantly.

"Well, I was going to see a girl, but she'll just have to wait. What time will we be through?"

"This is a workingmen's club. They don't stay up late. We come offstage at half past ten."

Dave calculated that he could be at the Jump Club by eleven. "That's okay," he said.

"Good," said Lenny. "Welcome to the group."

*

Jasper Murray still could not afford to go to America. At St. Julian's College, London, there was a group called the North America Club that chartered flights and sold cheap tickets. Late one afternoon he went to their little office in the student union and inquired about prices. He learned that he could go to New York for ninety pounds. It was too much, and he left disconsolate.

He spotted Sam Cakebread in the coffee bar. For several days he had been looking for a chance to speak to Sam outside the office of the student newspaper, St. Julian's News. Sam was the paper's editor, Jasper its news editor.

With Sam was his younger sister, Valerie, also a student at St. Julian's, wearing a tweed cap and a minidress. She wrote articles about fashion for the paper. She was attractive: in other circumstances Jasper would have flirted with her, but today he had other matters on his mind. He would have preferred to talk to Sam on his own, but he decided that Valerie's presence was no real problem.

He carried his coffee to Sam's table. "I want your advice," he said. He wanted information, not advice, but people were sometimes reluctant to share information, whereas they were always flattered to be asked for advice.

Sam was wearing a herringbone jacket with a tie and smoking a pipe: perhaps he wanted to look older. "Take a seat," he said, folding the paper he had been reading.

Jasper sat down. His relationship with Sam was awkward. They had been rivals for the post of editor, and Sam had won. Jasper had concealed his resentment, and Sam had made him news editor. They had become colleagues, but not friends. "I want to be next year's editor," Jasper said. He hoped that Sam would help him, either because he was the right man for the job--which he was--or out of guilt.

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