...I will always love you. ♫
And that was The Cure with Lovesong, their newest single from this year's Disintegration, for one of our listeners, Bridget. A little bit about The Cure for those of you cool cats who don't know. About ten years ago, in 1978, they formed...
...The Cure are currently on a 24-city tour across the US, hitting Baton Rouge, Houston, and Montgomery down here in the south. And Bridget, you lucky girl, you called the right place at the right time, 'cause I'm sending you two tickets to the Houston show, right here in Texas. Christmas came early. I've been Jungle Julia, and you've been listening to Jungle Julia's Jams.
Noah pattered her fingers along the rubber steering wheel of her dad's 1974 El Camino, half-lidded eyes focused on the unlit road ahead. These desert roads were unforgiving: Despite it only being 5 p.m., this time of year, technically the south's "winter," the sun was nowhere to be found. Had already been absent for a good half hour already, when she first picked up Blair by the gas station. Her father would scold her for doing such a thing: You're already doing one reckless thing driving around to all these stupid horror movie auditions. Now I'm finding out you're picking up hitchhikers in my own Betsy? How dare you!
Betsy was cherry red and beautiful inside and out, but practically old enough to drink now. Just as Noah was. And her time was running out: the older she got, the less chance she'd have gracing the silver screen as the next budding scream queen. How old was Jamie Lee Curtis when she debuted as Laurie Strode over a decade ago now at this point? Noah was already in her mid-20s, running out of time as far as she knew. Besides, the horror movies were just that—horror movies. The chances of picking up a Leatherface wannabe were quite low. (After all, a chainsaw is kind of an obvious murder weapon...)
"Hey, don't mention it," Noah said, shaking her head. She looked over at him and flashed a smile; he seemed harmless enough. "It's dark, it's gonna rain later. We're headed in the same direction. Call it... saving the planet? Causing less emissions? Being a good person? Whatever—it just makes sense."
She took a deep breath and fixed her eyes back on the path ahead of them, illuminated just enough by her clouded headlights. Phil Collins' Thru These Walls started playing on the radio.
...I can hear through these walls
I can hear it when they're foolin' around
I can hear through these walls
And I hear every sign, every sound
I can hear through these walls
In the dark with the shades pulled down. ♫
As the song flitted into its chorus, Noah laughed at Blair's words. "Yeah, my dad would probably kill me if he found out," she said. "I'm not as paranoid as him."
But she should have been.
A quick click and shing! caught Noah's attention, and before she knew it, she felt something sharp pressing up against her throat. Petrified, she kept her foot on the gas and her arms, once relaxed, now stiff as she held the steering wheel. She swallowed, but her throat was dry; and that very gesture pushed the knife ever deeper on the surface of her skin.
She didn't say she understood. She let out her attempt at a casual laugh, laced with nervousness. "Hey, this—you don't have to do this, you know," she said, trying to remain calm despite the pressure on her leg. "You can take the car, if that's what you want. And I won't tell anyone anything." // @someotherdog
