The High Notes: A Novel(45)

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When Clay got to the MGM Grand, he found everything in good order. The stage manager was efficient and had everything set up for their rehearsal. They were sold out, which was fantastic, and probably due to her album. It was going to be a big night for her, her first as one of Clay’s performers, her first tour for him, and also her first in a major venue, carrying the whole weight of the show herself. She kept panicking, thinking about it all afternoon. What if she was terrible, if it was a disaster, if the crowd hated her? She could think of a thousand reasons why everything could go wrong.

By the time Clay got back to the hotel, she looked tense and nervous, having scared herself to death, worrying about all the possible disasters she could think of at the performance that night. He could see how anxious she was, and he noticed her father’s photograph lying on the table, and could guess who it was immediately.

“Your father?” She nodded. He picked it up and studied it, looking for a resemblance but didn’t see one, except for the blond hair. He looked hard, and like the kind of man who charmed women, but didn’t necessarily care about them, including his daughter. She had told him all about her father’s visit, once she digested it and it didn’t sting quite so much. His total indifference to her well-being had always hurt her. “Good-looking guy,” Clay commented.

“He was then. He kind of lost his looks from hard living, booze, and maybe from never giving a damn about anyone.” She thought of the missing teeth when she had last seen him. He looked older than he was now. “He used to be able to charm the birds out of the trees, now he just looks sleazy.” She was harsh in her judgments of him, but Clay knew he deserved it. He had been nothing but unkind to her for too long. She wasn’t a child, and he couldn’t con her anymore.

She put the photograph in her suitcase, and ordered a glass of iced tea. Clay went back into his part of the double suite to return some phone calls and check in with his office, and Iris started getting ready for rehearsal. She was going to change and do her makeup at the theater. She planned to leave Rosie at the hotel, so she didn’t get lost or scared in the dressing room. She was sound asleep in her little bag. It had been a big day for her with her first plane trip and new surroundings. She looked like a little sleeping mouse when Iris peeked at her.



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She knocked on Clay’s door when she left, but he didn’t answer. She thought maybe he was asleep or in the shower. She met up with Boy, Star, and the band at the van outside the hotel, and they hopped in, which reminded her of her old tour days in what seemed now like another lifetime.

“What did you do today?” Star asked her. She was sweet and seemed very young to Iris, and Boy was crazy about her. She was a gorgeous girl, and thought he walked on water. “I went shopping,” she added. She was wearing a hot pink sweater and jeans, and was going to change into a black leather miniskirt and halter-top for the performance.

“I went to pick up some stuff where I used to rent a room. I lived here, between tours. And I went to school here before I started touring,” Iris told her.

“That must have been fun,” Star said with a sweet smile. There was an almost childlike innocence about her, which was refreshing in the often seamy world they lived in, in spite of Clay’s protection. The world of music had a dark underside, which hadn’t touched her. Iris could see why Boy loved her, and he had a certain innocence about him too.

“No, actually it wasn’t fun. I grew up in Texas before that.”

“I grew up in Southern California. In San Diego,” Star said, and Iris thought she looked it. She could imagine her on a beach somewhere, with her red hair and freckles.

They chatted on the way to MGM Grand, and Iris could feel the tension mount by several notches when they got there. The moment of truth was coming, if the concert would be a success or not. Clay had poured so much into her and Boy, and had so much faith in them that she didn’t want to disappoint him, and was afraid she would. That would be the worst of it for her, letting him down would be even worse than disappointing herself. He had been so good to them. She could see that Boy was feeling that way too. This was their first really big tour, and she was glad they were there together. There were posters of them all over the lobby, and they hurried into the concert hall so they wouldn’t be seen in their street clothes.

The stage manager was waiting for them, and had everything ready. Boy was going to rehearse first, and after Iris dropped off her things in the dressing room they’d assigned to her, she slipped into a seat in the auditorium. The band was warming up, and Boy was tuning his guitar. The theater was dark, and five minutes later, they were ready to start. They took off at a rapid rate with a lively country song that Boy did brilliantly and always got the audience going every time they played it. He rehearsed some of his hand-clapping, foot-stomping songs that audiences loved and would loosen them up. Then he slowed things down with a couple of familiar hits, he sang three of Iris’s songs, and then he closed with a familiar favorite that everyone knew the words to, and after that he turned the stage over to Iris for her to rehearse. In some ways, he was so good that he set the bar high for her, and she liked that.

She thanked him when he left the stage with Star and told him he was great. She could tell that they were all going to be in high spirits tonight. She started her own rehearsal off with one of her best songs, an old Elvis song that everyone loved, and then she dove into the material at full strength, letting her voice rip and soar, moved into her ballads, and kept going after that. She had had full control of her voice during the entire rehearsal, and left the stage afterward feeling good about how the material worked. It was a strong performance, and she was introducing a new song at the end.