Chapter 8
brOOKE
The ghosts were all agreed on one thing. Despite Millie’s pleas, the song they’d be performing for Brodie and Callie wouldn’t be by The Beatles.
‘Too many oohs and yeah yeahs,’ said Percy disapprovingly, having recently listened to a handful of Lennon and McCartney penned songs so he could find out what all the fuss was about. ‘Hardly suitable.’
Lucy, who was Millie’s niece and worked at the record shop on the Swinging Sixties Street, had kindly joined them in The Magic Lantern. She’d brought along her mobile phone so that she could play them a selection of potential songs.
The trouble was no one could agree which song to choose. As Lucy couldn’t see any of the other ghosts, being only related by blood to Millie, the ghosts had to trust the teenager to be honest and tell Lucy the truth about their feelings. Unfortunately, Millie was being a bit stubborn.
‘Everyone thinks we should sing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”,’ she told her niece, totally ignoring the shouts of protest from the others. Brooke had to give her credit for trying. She was nothing if not persistent.
‘Really?’ Lucy clearly wasn’t as daft as Millie hoped. ‘I can’t see it somehow.’
‘Honestly, it’s true. We took a vote and that was the winner.’
‘Hmm. I thought a Beatles song would win the day,’ Lucy said knowingly.
‘It hasn’t won the day!’ cried Bill.
‘The very idea!’ wailed Walter.
‘Millie, tell her the truth at once!’ Agnes demanded.
‘What we need,’ said Lucy thoughtfully, ‘is someone who can talk to both me and the ghosts. Hmm. Let me see.’
‘You can’t tell Callie,’ said Millie, clearly panicked. ‘It’s a surprise for her!’
‘Of course it is. But there’s always Lawrie, or Immi.’
‘I’m sure they’re very busy,’ Millie said.
‘Go and get Lawrie!’ Agnes shouted in vain.
‘Luckily,’ said Lucy, ‘I foresaw just this problem and I invited someone along.’ She beckoned to the side of the stage, and the ghosts gave a sigh of relief as Immi walked on to join her.
‘Now we’ll get somewhere,’ said Aubrey, smiling.
‘But can we trust Immi not to tell her mum?’ Isaac mused.
Florrie aimed a sharp kick at his shins. ‘Don’t you go accusing my pal of being a snitch,’ she said. ‘Immi won’t tell no one and that’s a fact.’
‘Florence! If you behave like that again I shall send you straight home and you won’t be able to take part in the song at all,’ Agnes warned her.
‘Quite right,’ Aubrey agreed. ‘Now apologise to Mr Grace immediately.’
Florrie pouted and muttered a sulky, ‘Sorry, Mr Grace.’
Isaac rubbed his shin and nodded. ‘Fair enough, young ’un. I’m sure we can rely on young Immi, as you say.’
‘I won’t tell Mum or Brodie,’ Immi promised solemnly. ‘I think it’s a smashing idea. Can I take part, too?’
‘Well…’ The ghosts shuffled uncertainly.
‘The thing is,’ said Peter, ‘it was supposed to be our gift to the happy couple. We can’t physically buy or make them anything, but this was the one solution we could come up with. And you’re not a ghost, are you? So really…’
‘But think about it,’ Brooke said, seeing Immi’s crestfallen expression. ‘Brodie won’t be able to hear us. Any of us. But if Immi’s singing with us, he’ll be able to hear her and follow the song. That’s something, isn’t it?’
After a brief discussion the ghosts all agreed that it was indeed something, and Immi was permitted to become part of the group, which was as yet unnamed.
‘So,’ Lucy said, giving her a wry smile, ‘is it true that the others want to sing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”?’
There was an immediate cacophony of denials and Immi laughed.
‘Nope. Sorry, Millie,’ she added, as the teenager glared at her. ‘I can’t fib. They don’t want to sing it and they’re very clear about that.’
‘Thought so.’ Lucy shook her head. ‘Honestly, Millie. What am I going to do with you?’
‘It was worth a try,’ Millie said with a shrug. ‘Not my fault these lot are all so old and decrepit that they can’t recognise good music when they hear it.’
‘Oy!’ Danny said indignantly. ‘Technically, you’re older than me!’
‘And me,’ Brooke reminded him. ‘And to us, even The Beatles are old hat.’
‘Well,’ Millie said, looking them up and down with scorn, ‘if the music you listened to in your day made you dress like that you can keep it. At least The Beatles looked smart. You two are a proper sight.’
Brooke opened her mouth to protest, but remembering what she was wearing, she realised Millie had a point. ‘We’re dressed like 1980s pop stars,’ she tried to explain. ‘These clothes aren’t from our era. It was for a fancy dress party.’
‘Who are you talking to?’ Lucy asked her aunt.
‘That girl with the straw hair,’ Millie said, ‘and the daft trousers that are too short for her.’
‘Bananarama girl?’ Lucy asked, with interest.
Brooke bristled. Bananarama girl indeed!
‘You can mock all you like, Millie,’ Lucy said, ‘but Bananarama were one of the most successful female bands in history – they’re actually World Record holders.
And you may think their outfits look odd today but back in the eighties those girls were the height of cool. I love their music, actually.’
Brooke stuck her tongue out at Millie, who scowled in response.
‘Well, we’re not singing any Bananarama songs if we can’t have The Beatles,’ she said sulkily.
‘No indeed,’ murmured a few of the older ghosts who clearly thought that any band with a name like Bananarama should never be taken seriously.
‘So what are we going to sing then?’ Florrie demanded. ‘Cos no one seems able to agree on anything and I’m getting proper fed up.’
‘They all want to know what we are going to sing,’ Millie explained to Lucy.
‘The important thing,’ Lucy said, considering, ‘is to find a song that’s simple enough for you all to manage. Lyrics that are easy to remember. A melody that anyone can sing – no really high or low notes. No difficult harmonies. Something that can be accompanied by the most basic instruments.’
‘Instruments?’ Ronnie perked up. ‘What sort of instruments?’
‘Well, that depends,’ Lucy said, after Millie repeated the question. ‘I mean, my husband, Sam, can play the guitar, so there’s always that.’
‘Lawrie learned the violin when he was a small boy,’ Agnes said fondly. ‘He was rather good at it, you know.’
‘Eventually,’ Aubrey said, wincing slightly at the memory. ‘It took forever for him to reach that stage unfortunately.’
‘We’re not singing any sort of song that needs to be accompanied by a violin,’ Danny said, wrinkling his nose.
‘Oh, I don’t know. We had a laugh dancing to “Come On, Eileen” at the party,’ Brooke reminded him, then wished she hadn’t when he turned away from her.
‘Thinking about what you’ve told me,’ Lucy was saying to Millie, ‘about Callie and Brodie and what they’d been through before they met, I think the song should reflect two people finding and saving each other after they’ve both been through heartache.’
‘Isn’t that just about every love song?’ asked Ray cynically.
‘We don’t want anything too soppy,’ Ronnie warned. ‘That would just be too embarrassing for everyone.’ He nodded approvingly as Millie relayed what he’d said to her niece.
‘Jeez, come on guys!’ Harmony threw up her hands in despair. ‘There are so many great songs. Someone must have a good idea.’
‘Look,’ Lucy promised, ‘I’ll have a think.
I’ll google love songs that talk about those feelings without being overly sentimental and see what it comes up with, and I swear I’ll let you know as soon as possible.
In fact, I’ll just see what it comes up with now before I go.
’ She began to scroll through her phone, while the ghosts continued to discuss possibilities.
‘“Wonderwall” is about someone saving the person who loves them,’ Danny mused. ‘It’s the song I wanted for our wedding dance, but Kirsty wanted “Two Become One” by the Spice Girls.’
Brooke stared at him in amazement. In eighteen years, she had never once heard Danny mention Kirsty.
Not when the shock of dying had worn off anyway.
It was like he couldn’t bear to say her name, and now here he was telling all and sundry about their wedding music choices as if he’d never had a problem with it!
‘I’ve heard those songs,’ Millie said. ‘Lucy likes the Spice Girls, don’t you, Lucy?’
Lucy looked up. ‘Sorry?’
‘And Sam likes that song, “Wonderwall”. He says the group who sings it were inspired by The Beatles. Good taste, but I don’t think they were anywhere near as good, personally. Who won then? What song did you dance to at your wedding?’
‘Take a wild guess,’ muttered Brooke.
‘I didn’t know you were married, Danny,’ said Aubrey, sounding astonished, and a few other ghosts voiced their surprise at the fact, too.
‘Six years,’ Danny said falteringly. ‘I was with her for four years before we got married, though.’
‘And your wife’s name was Kirsty?’ Walter asked. ‘How lovely. When were you wed?’
‘July 2002,’ Danny said. ‘I was twenty-three.’
‘That’s a bit young,’ Millie said.
‘Way too young,’ Brooke said with feeling, earning a sympathetic look from Polly.
‘Well, maybe,’ Danny said with a shrug, ‘but when you know you know.’
‘You sure do,’ Harmony said softly.
Brooke rolled her eyes.
‘I’m sorry, Danny,’ Agnes said kindly. ‘It must have been very hard for you, being separated from your wife at such a young age.’
‘Hey, that means it would have been your silver wedding anniversary next year,’ Millie gasped. ‘My mum and dad had just celebrated their silver wedding anniversary when I fell out of the bathroom window. They seemed really old, though.’
Danny blinked away tears and gazed at the floor. A few of the ghosts shuffled, clearly feeling awkward that he was upset, and Brooke fought the urge to tell them all that it had hardly been the great love story Danny imagined.