Shout Down the Moon
Excerpt
Chapter One
I know he's coming. His sentence was seven years, but after less than three, he's made parole. Mama sends me the news on one of her yellow stickies: FYI, with the date he's being released - June 3, 1991 - circled several times in thick black pen.
On the phone I remind her of the letter I sent him after Willie was born, explaining I wouldn't be writing anymore, it was over between us. I talk as though I believe the letter convinced him, and change the subject while she's still feeling relieved.
For weeks I expect him to show up at the club. Sometimes I peer out into the blackness of the audience, wondering if his eyes are on me, if he is listening. Once, I'm sure I hear him laughing right before the first set and I screw up one of the verses of our big opening number: a medley of oldies we call "Yesterday Once More." Our keyboard player, Jonathan, frowns and later, grumbles to the other guys that I'm an airhead. He doesn't like me, none of them really do. Before I came along a year ago, they were the Jonathan Brewer Quartet, no chick singer, strictly jazz. They didn't make any money as Fred Larsen, our manager, likes to point o ... read full excerpt from Shout Down the Moon ebook
