Page 174 of Only After We Met
“Was it that girl of yours? Ginger?”
“Nah. We hardly call each other.”
“Did you piss her off again?”
“No, Dad.” I laughed. “We normally email each other at night. Don’t look at me like that. It’s comfortable, and I have more time to think about what I really want to say…”
“Yeah, us Bakers, our mouths get us into trouble.”
My mother came in just then to see how we were.
“Why don’t you grab a chair and stick around?” Dad said. She nodded, seeing his pleading eyes. “We’re going to need help if we have any hope of ever finishing. Rhys bought aneasyone,” he said sarcastically.
That was far from the truth, and I laughed again, noticing his frustration.
“I didn’t want you to just breeze through it.”
“I’ll get my revenge.”
112
Ginger
I’d had a hard day at work, had just given Leon his bath, and was making dinner when I remembered that Rhys’s new song came out today. I put aside the blender and wiped my hands with a rag as I ran to get my phone. I cursed myself for forgetting what he’d told me the day before. When I opened my music app, it was already in the top hundred. I held my breath when I saw the title. I recognized it. Years before, for my birthday, he had given me a song with the same name: “Ginger.” I could feel my hands tremble as I hit Play. And I heard that familiar melody, the one I’d listened to thousands of times as I went to sleep curled up in bed, thinking of him, wondering what he was doing now…
But this time, there was something more, something different. His voice cracking, hoarse, in a bass tone that didn’t change even during the chorus. A voice talking about anchors, roses on solitary asteroids, Peter Pan, shared moons, a complicated girl, and a guy who wound up under a pile of rubble while she freed herself and turned into a butterfly.
I looked at the cover of the new album. It was calledGinger,just like the song. The name was surrounded by winding vines of flowers, which also enveloped the drawing underneath of a human heart, a real one, full of scars, some closed, some fresh, and the flowers had thorns next to the petals that were prettiest and shined brightest.
I listened to it again, in tears. It was perfect.
Leon pounded on the tray of his high chair.
“You like it? It’s Rhys…”
He gurgled something incomprehensible, but kept smiling while the music played in the house I’d rented some time back. I bent over, kissed his forehead, and went to find my laptop.
113
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: You’re crazy
I can’t believe it, Rhys. Really. It was… I don’t know. When I saw the song title, my heart almost stopped, and hearing you sing…it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard. Maybe I’m not being objective, but who cares? It was so beautiful… I don’t even know what to say. You’ve left me speechless.
Leon loved it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: RE: You’re crazy
If I left you speechless, then it was worth it.