Gazing with his mouth wide open towards a sullen evening sky dotted with jet black clouds
Geoff Wild sobs.
He was on his knees on this grass-strewn, unkempt graveyard.
Two years later and her memory still lingers.
The sudden passing of his loved one had left this middle-aged man gaunt, ashen faced and skeletal. Wild’s troubled expression had become a haunted house of uncanny notions and strange secrets waiting to flow from his water-logged eyes. Those circumstances surrounding Violet’s death were never explained.
Velvet Heart was Geoff’s courtship name for Violet.
Was it a death wish or an accidental fall from their elegant townhouse?
Death through misadventure was the colourful term used.
“Cherish all those wonderful experiences we had. Whichever one of us dies first.”
Violet actually said.
Almost as if she had some premonition, advanced warning.
This was six months before she passed away.
An endless see-saw of creepy dawning’s convulsed him.
Yet Wild fondly recalled when they first met at the Skyline Ballroom.
The Skyline was a battered tumbledown barn whose allure was its availability.
The chipped hardwood floor and the dusty pale cream walls with paint flakes that peeled off only confirmed its tenement status. It was known locally as the “Creaking Beam”” due to its ghostly acoustics and flickering lights. Here in this spooky venue Geoff and Violet had their earliest encounter. Wild remembered her radiant smiles.
The ripples of long dark hair, her apple blossom cheeks and of course her angelic aura..
On that night she wore a polka dot ruche dress, amethyst ear pendants, whilst sporting satin moccasins.
“Have I the gumption? The courage.
A faint heart etc.” Geoff could hear his heart flutter as he did his tightrope walk toward her.
“May I dance with you?” Geoff asked.
Velvet heart’s hands formed a lazy arch and her dainty fingers curled inwards.
“Of course. I would be delighted.” Violet spoke in that pear drop tone which beguiled everybody.
Geoff, the local journalist and writer was in seventh heaven.
They never forgot that enchanting song they first danced to, “Ballroom In The Sky.”
The song was performed by Valerie And The Blue Skies.
They weren’t very big but had a cult following and that was that.
Geoff could see how similar Violet and Valerie were in so many aspects.
They were mirror images of each other.
Even in speech and humour.
Valerie was based in a remote enigmatic area.
She used to refer to songs as role plays.
“You feel as though you are a member of the audience.” Valerie remarked.
Violet did admit to meeting Valerie casually and for autograph purposes but not otherwise or so it seemed.
It was amazing how “ Ballroom In The Sky” with its airy ascending rock chords and jaunty jazz lines could draw Violet, Valerie and Geoff into a peculiar triangle.
The sudden moody breaks, abrupt silences built a momentary cocoon.
Valerie’s top sideman....well, he was known as Silent Sam.
He had a track record of sorts.
Sam’s blue attire was appropriate.
He wore a large trilby hat tipped over his forehead sheltering his pointed face and pencil slim physique.
He, Sam, was short-sighted when it suited and eccentric.
Practical jokes were his forte and the impish grin.
“Yep ..Yup....or Sure.“
These were the only asides from this oddball sidemen for the most part.
He was accident prone.
Valerie had to indicate where things were. Theirs was a sign language of its own complete with slanted facial squirms.
One wondered if there was a deeper relationship between them.
Those Blue Skies airs were fillers without Sam.
Every time “Ballroom In The Sky” was played Valerie, Violet and Geoff were sharing unwittingly a secret.
The startled looks were part of this outlandish ritual.
Wild recalled now.
“Valerie could croon in a real hypnotic fashion. Everyone in the dancehall was enthralled. People would sway like ice skaters one moment, waltz in a swan-like manner the next and just as often rave in the isles like end of term teenagers.”
Geoff whispers in the graveyard.
“JUST A PASSING DREAM...........STILL SO VIVID.......DANCING IN HEAVEN...... KISSES ALL AROUND....MAGIC HAND........A LITTLE BIT BLIND, and of course “BALLROOM IN THE SKY.”
Geoff and Violet would swing religiously to those fantasy songs every Sunday as their courtship blossomed.
“Ballroom In The Sky “ was always the highpoint.
This constellation of events occurred in a scenic nineteen seventies spot.
Despite its haunting vistas and backdrop of panoramic hills it resembled a ghost town. Openings were few against an infinite spiral of closing factories, bookstores with half-empty shelves and shopkeepers peering out of doors.
Ten years earlier it was a beacon. “I shudder to think…...A jigsaw puzzle.”
Geoff surveying the cemetery.
Such memories could have been taken directly from some movie script. “Yes .. it was a hub that Skyline. Like homeless drifters, the folk who attended.”
Geoff once more.
They were fugitives in every sense.
Escapees from that heavy-handed dole queue void.
Suddenly something happened.
“What the heavens is? Snap….a branch.” Momentary jitters engulfing Wild.
He shook in concert with the overarching colonnade of brown edge green leaf trees.
An eerie rustling dewdrop tiptoe now caressing Geoff’s ears.
”Up there somewhere Velvet Heart?
Dancing in the heavens?”
Nervous laughter now relief road to that traffic jam of sentiment about to speed off.
Glued to the spot that macabre sixth sense of Violet hovering above evaporates due to an illusory late evening sun shaft.
Wild could no longer hide from Valerie and Velvet Heart’s identities.
“Oh those comic jibes and piercing glances. Some ethereal intrigues were passing through the air.”
Geoff recalls with forensic clarity.
Poor Silent Sam would do his usual u-turn into the shadow.
Two months before Geoff's and Violet’s parting, an incident occurred.
Memory is a lodger which steadfastly refuses to surrender its keys.
Valerie and the Blue Skies were in flying form as the tunes morphed into each other.
Valerie and Velvet Heart were magnets for men.
Violet caught Geoff off guard.
“Guilty conscience, there Geoff?”
Having fantasies about Valerie.
Focus on me.
As for that eternity ring remember?”
Those penetrating peepers of Violet knew how to vet a body in a flash.
“Oh no .....not at all.” Geoff with a looping
smirk.
“Just those mystical melodies working their spell.” He said.
“You came into my life like.... a new dawn.” Wild poetically.
“You honey tongue you. Geoff our song. Ballroom.” Violet mutters.
Valerie nodded towards Sam.
Her expression was a hard to decipher veil and deep code command.
“Get those fingers flying, Sam.”
In a tone almost identical to Velvet Heart.
Sam didn’t always act immediately.
“Yep.. Yup ...Sure.” Sam’s stock retort.
“Ballroom In The Sky” now strong as ever cast its bewitching spell throughout the venue.
A medley was included tonight.
“SOMEONE FOR EVERYONE” ( Sam looked at Valerie), “A LITTLE BIT BLIND” ( Sam staring vacantly at both Valerie and Violet), “MIND YOUR STEP( Sam winking at Geoff while scrunching the mouth at Violet).
Violet edged toward the stage.
A dim-lit silence ensued.
Ballroom started again. Valerie and Violet now singing this tune. An eerie vacuum filled this dancehall.
A triangular crush of people occurred near the stage with Geoff in toe.
Valerie handed Violet a letter.
Sam was now talking tersely to Valerie.
A misted over photo gallery memory blur in place.
“Pst...Pst. Your Velvet Heart is back to haunt you.“ Violet’s lofty twang.
“What in the name….I can't phantom…..fathom.” Geoff shudders.
Violet’s voice a wet whisper stretching over twigs that simultaneously tap against windows.
She pulled back an orchard pattern duvet covering Geoff.
“Fell asleep at your favourite film, The Passing Of A Velvet Heart. All those graveyard scenes shot in our small town remember?
We know Silent Sam wrote the soundtrack for the film along with Ballroom. He sings on that one.” Violet recounts.
“Incredibly you chose Velvet Heart as your courtship name for me based on the film.
The film was never a huge success but did get our area limited publicity.
Sam earned extra royalties from the soundtrack.
Valerie and Sam tying the knot next Sunday of all days.
As for that love letter you mumbled about.
It’s an invite to their secret wedding.
Very private. As Sam is.
What a time and place he chose for the invitation.
During that ethereal love song which brought us together.” Violet observes.
“Poor Sam’s a little bit blind a
on occasions or is he?
I was upstairs on the flat roof today.
Six months ago I fell off it.
You’ve never liked me being up there since.”
Violet continuing.
“Guilty secret must confess. I used to be onstage instead of Valerie.
Well, sometimes.
She was dating you pretending to be me if that makes sense.
We never knew each other that well but it was a dare worked out between us.“
Geoff shouted. “Hoodwinked.”
An incredulous look ripples over Wild’s pale face.
Violet’s eyes now ablaze.
“You never noticed did you? Deep down.”
The tease in Violet surfacing..
Geoff was thunderstruck.
Violet strolled towards their CD player on the mahogany table.
“Think you’ll like this one. Our song.”
Violet stated.
“May I dance with you?”
Geoff smiled. “Of course. I would be delighted.
And relieved!”
Silent Sam’s voice weaves in his own inimitable shy way a song usually sung by Valerie, his wife to be.
And sometimes Violet, or Velvet Heart.
A number that united three people in the most curious and otherworldly manner!
“Yep….Yup ….Sure.”
As Sam was in the habit of saying