Read Online Tell Them I'll Be There by Gerard Mac - Free Book Online Page B

else Michael hadn’t mentioned, ‘And have you got somewhere to stay?’
    â€˜Well.’ Michael looked at Nathan as if to say: help me out here. ‘Nathan’s living in this place in Greenwich Village.’
    â€˜It’s not much,’ Nathan said. ‘But it’s OK ’til we get somewhere. This guy from the boat, he has this room an’ he says we can stay for a while. As long as the landlord doesn’t find out.’
    Dan smiled. He didn’t want to ridicule their plans but he had to say, ‘And what if he does?’
    â€˜We’ll take that when it comes,’ Michael said. ‘But we want to get in the music business, Dan. This is just a start.’
    â€˜You’re going to have to sell a lot of sheets,’ Dan said.
    â€˜Well, we reckon we can do this in the day,’ Nathan said, ‘and we can work in the bars and clubs at night.’
    â€˜Bartending?’
    â€˜No,’ Michael said. ‘If we work here we can get our act together. We can be first with all the latest songs.’
    A short, bald man with his spectacles pushed up to his forehead came to the shop doorway. ‘I don’t hear no piano.’
    â€˜Yeah,’ Nathan said. ‘Sorry, Mr Levi. This is my friend Mike. The singer I was telling you about.’
    Mr Levi looked Michael up and down. ‘Can he read?’
    Michael looked worried. ‘He can read a bit,’ Nathan said. ‘But I can teach him more. Reading music ain’t that tough, Mr Levi.’
    â€˜Nah,’ Mr Levi said. ‘I mean can he read ? Words . Last guy was here couldn’t read.’
    Michael relaxed and Nathan laughed. ‘Oh sure, Mr Levi.’
    Mr Levi stared hard at Michael with his dark penetrating eyes. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘So sing.’ And with that he went back in the shop.
    Dan stood aside, arms folded. It was not exactly a job but it was clearly what Michael wanted. ‘OK,’ he said with a grin. ‘So sing.’
    Totally unselfconscious, Michael struck up a pose. ‘ Give my regards to Broadway …’ he sang and Nathan picked up the tune.
    People passing by began smiling and glancing as they passed and a small boy stopped and gazed at Michael with his mouth open. Mr Levi came out again, still frowning. ‘Hey!’ he said. ‘We ain’t sellin’ that. Sing somethin’ we got in stock. Here.’
    He thrust a piece of sheet music at Michael, went back inside, came out with a little pile of copies and stacked them on top of the piano. ‘Sing that,’ he said, and again he went inside.
    Michael looked at the flimsy paper with a line drawing of a young man looking down at an old man in a rocking chair. ‘Hey, Nathan!’ he said with a laugh. ‘Listen to this. Daddy, you’ve been a mother to me .’
    Mr Levi was back in the doorway. ‘Sing it,’ he said.
    Nathan played it through once, then he played it again and Michael hummed along until he had it and when he sang it he thought it was the corniest song he had ever heard. But a young woman stopped and picked up a copy, looked at it briefly and dropped a dime in Nathan’s jam jar. ‘Our first sale!’ Nathan cried. ‘Hey, Mikey, we’re on our way!’
    Dan watched, bemused. He was pleased for his brother if this was what he wanted. But whether he and Nathan could make a living at this kind of thing he had his doubts.
    The dynamic duo, as Dan took to calling them, sold eight sheets in half an hour, less than a dime each. But it was a start. ‘I’ll bring your things over from Mrs O’s tomorrow,’ he told Michael when Nathan went indoors to find another song. ‘Give me the address of this place you’ll be at.’
    â€˜Er … no,’ Michael said. ‘Better not. You might run into this guy’s landlord. There isn’t much anyway, couple of shirts and stuff. I can come over and pick