Spiral

demographic.”
    I thought back to something else he’d said. Or at least had started to. ”The demographic include Kalil Biggs?” Cautious now. ”They used to go to school together.” ‘Veronica and Kalil?”
    ”Yeah,” said Queen.
    ”I haven’t met him yet, but somehow I had the feeling Kalil was older.”
    ”About fifteen, I think, but his stutter—or ‘stammer,’ I don’t know if they’re the same thing—kept him back a couple grades at some point.”
    ”So they were in classes together, too?”
    ”Until Spi started grooming Very for the comeback.”
    I could ask both of the Biggs about that. ”Ricky, what made you want to be part of this comeback?”
    ”Me?”
    ”Yeah.”
    A little defensive now. ”I told you, dude. The demographics.” He ran a hand through his hair. ”That neomodern, surfer boy look.”
    ”That explains why Mitch Eisen and Spi Held might want you in the band. Why did you decide to accept?” Queen turned thoughtful. ”Buford said they could use me”
    ”Biggs was the one who asked you?”
    ”Not directly. When Spi decided to try a comeback, he wanted all the original members, except they couldn’t get this Tommy O’Dell, of course.”
    I nodded.
    Queen blew out another breath. ”So, they needed a new drummer, and Buford told them I was good.”
    ”You and Biggs had played together before?”
    ”Some.” A hesitation. ”Back when I was getting started—five, six years ago? Buford got me a couple gigs with local bands he was part of in some of the clubs down here.” Another hesitation. ”Places that might not have hired somebody who was gay.”
    ‘You felt you owed Biggs something?”
    ”That wasn’t the only reason I said I’d come in.”
    ”But you’re—what, half the age of the rest of the guys?” ‘You see it all the time in jazz or blues bands, dude.”
    ”And in rock bands?”
    A shrug. ”No, not so often. In fact, sometimes it’s like I’m that young chick in The Big Chill.”
    ”Sorry?”
    ”The movie about you ‘baby boomers’ grown up. Sometimes I feel like the chick in that flick, sitting around the boomers, not getting most of what they’re talking about because she was too young to remember it herself.”
    ”And that doesn’t bother you?”
    ”Most people my age are into alternative music, not the classic-rock stuff. But that’s what gets the airtime.”
    ”The classic rock.”
    ”Yeah. Oh, you have some of the alternative stations getting more important for the college kids. Every kind of music filters down eventually, becomes ‘traditional.’ But I grew up hearing classic rock. And besides, Spiral looked like a nice springboard for me.”
    ”How?”
    ”Hey, dude, I try putting together my own group, or hook up with one’s just starting out, who am I? But, if I did a CD and national tour with Spiral, then I’m the drummer in the videos and the news clips, maybe even get my photo on the CD jacket itself.”
    ”And will all that still happen?”
    Queen stopped. ”You mean with Very dead?”
    ”That’s what I mean.”
    ”It’ll be tough, dude. I mean, outside of some TV stuff in Miami, she didn’t really do that much performing yet. Just a couple of the local clubs, and because she was underage, they had to do some kind of juke-and-jive to keep their liquor licenses.”
    ”I can understand the license problem, but I don’t get your point.”
    ”There wasn’t really a 'Very cult’ yet, with fan clubs and T-shirts, its own Website. You know?”
    ”I still don’t follow.”
    Queen began speaking more slowly. ”John, because she wasn’t really big yet, I don’t know if Mitch and Spi can put over her death as something to rally fans around. Like a Serena kind of thing.”
    Another version of Eisen’s ”spin” speech. ”So with Veronica no longer in the band as a new star, Spiral might not have any comeback at all.”
    ”That’s what I been trying to tell you, dude.”
    I thought about it. ”Would anybody benefit from that?”
    ”Not us guys in the band,” said Ricky Queen. ”Though I’m guessing someone wouldn’t be sorry to see her grand-daddy stop throwing good money after bad.”

NINE

    Walking down the corridor from Spiral’s studio, I could hear dishes clattering in the Helds’ kitchen, followed by the whispery sound of a sliding glass door opening. The voice of Delgis Reyes said, ”Kalil, you hungry?”
    I didn’t hear any reply.
    When I reached the kitchen doorway, I saw Buford Biggs