Part 27 (2/2)
”Yeah. I'm sure the three of us would get along famously. Did you know I used to sing a lot of Dylan's songs?”
Therm suddenly stopped smiling. He frowned. ”That's not funny.”
”I didn't mean it to be funny. I used to be able to cord a guitar pretty d.a.m.n well.”
”You never told me that!”
”Yes, I did.””You did not! You sang protest songs?”
”I didn't consider them protest songs. I just liked them.”
”That's incredible!”
”No, it isn't. Where is your guitar?”
”You wait right there. Don't move. I'll get it. This I have to hear personally.”
300.
”Fine. I'll be right here.” He hurried off.
”I'm leaving,” Cooper said.
Jersey lifted her M-16. ”If I gotta hear this, so do you. Sit down, Coop.”
Coop sat.
”You two are hurting my feelings,” Ben told them.
”Has anybody got any ear-plugs?” Jersey said.
Therm returned with a Martin guitar and handed it to Ben. Ben flexed the fingers of his left hand a few times. ”You have to realize that I haven't played in years. The tips of my fingers are going to get very sore, very quickly.”
”Just a few chords and a few lines will convince me that you're not bulls.h.i.+tting me,” Therm replied.
”Oh, ye of little faith,” Ben said.
”I'll believe it when I hear it,” Therm said.
Ben selected a big triangle pick from the case, hit a few practice chords, cleared his throat a couple of times, and then launched into Dylan's ”Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
Ben's voice was deep and husky, but he could carry a true tune and his singing wasn't all that bad. He did a few lines and then went into ”It's All Over Now, Baby Blue,” and did a respectable job of it.
The look on Therm's face was priceless.
Ben sang a few lines of a dozen songs from the protest days, hitting all the right chords. Then the tips of his fingers started hurting. Ben smiled and handed the guitar back to Therm. ”Nice axe, Therm.”
Thermopolis said, ”Well, I'll be G.o.dd.a.m.ned! You really can pick.”
Ben smiled. ”Yeah. Thanks. That was fun. Took me back years.”
301.
Therm's eyes narrowed and he was thoughtful. ”Yeah. Probably back to when you worked for the d.a.m.ned CIA and infiltrated student dissident groups. I'll make a bet that's why you know all those songs.””You never heard me say that, Therm.”
”Oh, well,” Therm said with a shrug of his shoulders. ”At least you're continuing your habit of constantly amazing me.”
”Ike and Dr. Chase are on the way here,” Corrie informed them.
”Why?” Ben asked.
”They didn't say.”
”ETA?”.
”One hour.”
Ben looked at Therm. ”Did the good Dr. Sessions get over his huff at me?”
”Not really,” Therm leveled with him. ”But I told him if he wanted to practice medicine, and have drugs available to him, that's the way it had to be.”
”And he didn't like that very much, did he?”
”Not at all.”
”His wife of like mind?”
”Absolutely.”
”You're going to have trouble with them, Therm. I sense it and I'm pretty good at picking out troublemakers. But that's your worry. I'm sure they're both good people. But they've got to be made to understand about the time and place and the hundreds of thousands of people out there who would like to destroy this movement. If you can't get through to them, then whether they stay or go is a judgement call you're going to have to make. And you'll make the right one.”
Therm shook his head. ”Just think. A few years ago I 302.
was a contented hippie, living as one with the land, in my own little commune, and enjoying life.”
”And singing protest songs about me,” Ben said with a smile.
Therm's eyes twinkled. ”You do get right to the truth, don't you, Ben?”
303.
Chapter Thirteen.Dr. Chase took an immediate dislike to both Dr. Sessions and his wife.
He said to Ben: ”You would think, after more than a decade of this world being turned upside down, the idealistic views of those two would have been knocked out of them.”
”Perhaps that is precisely why they still cling to those views, Lamar,”
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