Casey Barnes Eponymous (29 page)

She wondered what kind of reaction he would have when she told
him, later, whom she now thought about when she played the Alex Deal song.
 
She hoped the reaction wouldn’t be
snappy or sarcastic.
 
He looked at
her again and she relaxed.
 
She had
a feeling it wouldn’t.

She listened to “Chiquitita” by Abba after school and before
talent show.
 
It was her secret
weapon when in need of a good jolt song.
 
She hummed the first few bars as she walked towards Ben.
 
Suddenly, a weird sensation came into
her head.
 
Goddamn.
 
She felt happy.

The word had always bothered her.
 
It was overplayed, such a simple two
beats for something that in reality was so elusive.
 
There was a quick kind of happiness from
people like Alex Deal, pop songs, new shirts and chocolate bars.
 
But that kind of happiness didn’t always
stick around.
 
Then there was
another kind of happiness.

When she reached Ben she stopped. Another song came into her
head.
 
And just like that, she
experienced an epic rock moment.
 
Now more epic rock moments had, perhaps, happened to other epic rockers.
 
But this one was big, and strange
because it had never happened to her before.
 
What happened was this:

She placed a hand on Ben’s arm.
 
He smiled.
 

She realized the song that came into her head was her own.

Many thanks to the following fine people who
contributed to a 2013 Kickstarter campaign to support
Casey Barnes
Eponymous.

Jane Alexander, Dana Austin, Bryan Bilgore,
Jonathan Bloom, Ami Boghani,
Anna
Booth, Cristin Bullen, Scott Byrd, Andy Carpenter, Jennifer Chalfant,
Federico Chiesa, Ian Creighton,
Lana Dai, Paul DeGooyer, Geoff Earle, Tonieh Ellis, Gema De Las Heras, Marjorie
Feinstein, Heather Fell, Erin Forson, Dave Fowler, Amy Freundlich, Mike
Freundlich, Celina Garcia, Mike Goodman, Nick Griffin, Pat Guiney, Anne Hamilton,
Hayli Harper, Tiffany Harris, Annie & Sebastian Kaplan, Meredith Lerner,
Dina Marro, Kelly Masley, Julie McDermott, Jennifer & Nick Meagher, Svend
Mejdal, Emily Mellor, Victoria Moss, Diane Murray, Paige Murray, Sasha Orr,
Simon Orr, Darren Owens, Ann Peck, Hardeep Phull, David Reisen, Jo Rigg, Nick
Rigg, Barney Roper, Michael Russotti, Nina Sander, Elva Shkreli, Bjorn
Schroeder, Carol Skillman, Judy Skillman, Richard & Sally Skillman, Ted Skillman,
Caterina Turroni, Nick Weber