Читать книгу Out of Their Minds - Luis Humberto Crosthwaite - Страница 15
ОглавлениеThe radio is a good companion for Ramón and Cornelio. Music spills out of it and floods through the streets of Tijuana, house by house, knocking on doors like an impudent door-to-door salesman. Kids, maids and unemployed men open the doors of their homes in the morning and allow the music to enter as they start the day.
The city revives itself. From the migrant worker who just arrived in the city—but already has a job, thank God—to the owner of the businesses and apartments who only thinks in numbers and statistics; from the traffic cop who walks towards his beat, to the bank robber who has carefully planned his next heist.
The city wakes up wrapped in a torrent of music.
Without knowing it, Ramón and Cornelio act out the future. Ramón holds up an imaginary instrument while Cornelio uses a bottle like a microphone. They play a song they like, one they heard on the radio, the latest hit from their idol José Alfredo.
I’m Gonna Catch the First Thing Smoking
Ramón and Cornelio lying on the floor. They look at the ceiling, the light bulb, the water stains. Empty bottles of beer scattered here and there. Flies go around and around in circles.
“…”
“Hey, you wanna start a duet?”
“A duet?”
“A band.”
“A band?”
“For music.”
“Music?”
“What, you don’t wanna play an instrument?”
“What for?”
“Just because. Because we like music so much…I don’t know. It’s logical, isn’t it?”
“Logical?”
“I don’t know.”
“You talking about a rock band?”
“You like rock bands?”
“Fuck no.”
“Well, then?”
“You talking about a norteño duet?”
“Yeaaaah.”
“To serenade the ladies?”
“For whatever you want.”
“To play from bar to bar and maybe make a record and maybe get to be as famous as José Alfredo?”
“For whatever you want.”
“…”
“What do you think of the idea?”
“The truth, the honest truth?”
“The truth.”
“I couldn’t be bothered.”
That Was My Greatest Adventure
Luck would have to decide it. They both wanted to play the accordion, but it was impossible. Whoever heard of a norteño duet with two accordions and no bajo sexto?
They flipped a coin.
Cornelio was a quick study and learned to play instruments with ease. Paying careful attention to the lessons in his book—Mel Bay’s Method for Modern Bajo Sexto, Volume 1—he learned his first songs quickly.
The accordion gave Ramón a hard time. It had too many buttons—every one of them gave a different sound when he pressed them. He would pull the accordion open and it would produce one series of notes; he would push it closed and hear different notes, very distinct from the earlier ones. Weird.
Days and nights they rehearsed until their fingers hurt and their eyes closed from exhaustion. Little by little the noises became music, became transformed. Then, way back then, songs started to appear: at first timidly, then with certainty and bravado:
“Wildwood Flower”
“Storms Are on the Ocean”
“The Long Black Veil.”
