Jazz Funeral

someone she knew and been chased. She couldn’t sing with the band anymore because people knew what she looked like now; Flip would spread the word. And she couldn’t stay with them because it was too sad, now that Chris had someone else. They probably wouldn’t let her anyway, if she wasn’t going to sing.
    She could go to the bar on Decatur Street, the one where the runaways and punks hung out, and try to meet someone to stay with, but she was afraid to. She’d had enough of the kindness of strangers for a while. She wanted to see Joel.
    He’d be practicing right now with Doug, practicing like crazy because he was going to play when the Boucrees performed tomorrow. She made a decision. It wasn’t rational, it was crazy, it was probably even stupid, but her brain wasn’t working, only her heart was. Or whatever lonely, longing part of her desperately wanted to be with someone she cared about.
    She took the bus to Metairie, walked to the garage, and simply sat down in the yard behind it, where no one ever went at this time of day, and waited till the music stopped; until Doug left. If they had come out together, she’d have had to scrap the plan, but Doug always left first. Joel liked to stick around and work by himself.
    “Hey, Joel.”
    “Huh?” He looked at her in surprise, as if she were a stranger.
    Her hand went to her blond and purple hair. “Hey, it’s me. Melody.”
    “Holy shit. That’s the ugliest hairdo I’ve ever seen on a woman who wasn’t my mama.”
    “I know you mean that in the kindest possible way.”
    He stood up and walked up to her, smiling now. She could tell he was glad to see her. “Hey, Mel, give me a hug.”
    She hadn’t expected that. The only time Joel had ever hugged her was when they won the Battle of the Bands at Valencia. She didn’t need to be asked twice. She gave him a lot more of a hug than he probably wanted, and when it wasn’t enough, she said, “Hold me tighter, Joel,” and proceeded nearly to squeeze the breath out of him.
    “Sit down,” he said finally.
    She did, smiling at him, unable to take her eyes off him; she felt she’d come home.
    “Melody, you had us all scared. Real scared.”
    “Really?” She couldn’t believe Joel had actually been worried about her. She didn’t know why, she just hadn’t thought about it.
    “You moron. The whole town’s worried about you.”
    She didn’t say anything. She had thought he meant he was.
    “I guess you had a good reason for splitting, huh?”
    She nodded. “I can’t talk about it.” Mortified, she realized her voice was going south on her. “Really. I can’t. Joel, you’re the only one I can trust. I came here because I knew you wouldn’t turn me in. I can’t go home, Joel. I just can’t.”
    “You can’t go home? Melody, listen, what are you saying? Where the hell else are you going to go, girl?”
    “Well, I have to figure that out.”
    “You’re sixteen and the whole city’s looking for you.”
    “Yeah, but you didn’t recognize me, did you? Listen, I’ve already had a gig. No kidding, Joel. Tuesday, the day I ran away, I joined a street band. It was easy—I just sang for ‘em, and then next thing you knew I was singing with ‘em.”
    “You got a voice and a half, Mel. I always thought that.” What she loved about him was his generosity; that and his talent.
    “I know it’s nothing to you. You’ve been playing professionally all your life. But it was …” She struggled with the enormity of what it had been. “It was a beginning for me. It was the start of my career.”
    “So is that your plan? To keep singing in the Quarter? Somebody’s going to find you, Mel. You’d last three days max.”
    “There’s lots of kids there. I could make friends.”
    “Yeah, but you couldn’t go out in public.”
    “Well, I could—”
    “What? Dance on Bourbon Street? That’s still public.”
    She knew what she had to do. She had to leave town. But she couldn’t do it without money. She didn’t know how she was going to get the money, she didn’t know where to go, and she didn’t want to talk about it, even with Joel.
    She said, “Oh, Joel, I can’t go back. Not yet anyway. I need to be safe for a few days—with no adults around.”
    “I hear that,” he said, and leaned back in his chair, thinking about it. Melody liked that about him too—that he thought about things. “You want me to help you?” he said finally.
    “Is there anything you can