“Mi nombre es Kathy Ann Potter. And I’m warning you now, don’t call me Pothead,” she said with a face bracing for a fight. Then she smiled again. “So, who is your friend?”
“Friend?”
“Who are you and your sister living with?”
“Oh. Cory Lewis.”
“The vampire? That’s what my stepmother calls him because he’s out all night and sleeps all day.”
“Musicians usually do,” I said, “and so do singers. My sister is a singer in his band, or will be.”
“Peachy keen,” she quipped. “Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Just for a walk.”
“Forget it. There’s no place to go around here. You’ve got to get into the city. You wanna go to Stumpin‘ Jumpin’ with me and my friend Charlotte Lily tonight?”
“What’s that?”
“A dance club. You got to be twenty-one, but we can get in. Lots of college boys go there.”
“Twenty-one? How are we going to pass for that?”
“Charlotte Lily’s sister’s boyfriend is one of the security guards. Lots of kids under twenty-one get in.” She glanced at her watch.
“Can you meet me here in about an hour? We’ll take the bus and meet my best friend, Charlotte Lily, downtown by the Tennessee Fox Trot.”
I smiled in amazement. Talk about someone making friends fast, I thought. For all she could know, I was a serial killer.
“Well?”
“An hour?”
“You need more time to dress?” she asked. “You’re not going out in just a pair of jeans and a shirt like that with sneakers, are you?”
“Oh, no. What do you wear to this, what did you call it, Somethin‘ Jumpin’?”
“Stumpin‘ Jumpin’.” She smiled. “Something sexier,” she replied. “It’s very hot.”
“What’s the other place? What did you call it, Tennessee Fox Trot?”
“Oh, the carousel at Riverfront Park.” She tilted her head with suspicion. “For people coming here to be in music, you sound like you don’t know anything about Nashville.”
“I don’t,” I said. “Except it’s the home of the Grand Ole Opry, where my sister intends to sing.”
“Oh, sure, her and about two million others,” Kathy Ann said.
“She might make it,” I muttered. Funnily enough, I could be critical and skeptical about Mother darling’s chances of becoming successful, but I didn’t like anyone else being that way.
“I hope she does,” she said without much emotion. “Well, you going or not? I have to call Charlotte Lily and let her know, make sure it’s all right with her, too.”
“What kind of a place is this?”
“Fun with a capital F,” she replied. “Are you afraid of fun?”
“Terrified,” I said dryly. “Okay, I’ll see you in an hour.”
I went back up to the apartment. Mother darling was dressed in one of her outfits and was picking on her guitar. The bathroom door was closed with Cory obviously in there.