5. Noree Marcell #2
Ginger followed his lead, singing, “Is he the one for me…”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding along to the beat. “Let’s rock out to this one.”
The engineer restarted the beat from the top, and everybody in the room got quiet.
It was smooth, one of those real old-school R&B type of vibes. The kind of beat that made you wanna close your eyes and lean back. Nothing too fast, nothing too slow. Just enough bass to feel it in your chest.
I started swaying in my seat and snapping my fingers. I was really feeling it.
Ozy stood in front of the microphone with one side of his headphones pushed behind his ear while Ginger stood beside him. He listened to the first few seconds, nodded to himself, then came in.
“Is she the one for me?
The one I been waiting on?
The one who makes this empty house
Finally feel like home?”
His voice sounded even better in person.
It was deep but smooth. Ozy stopped after the fourth line and looked through the glass at the engineer.
“Punch me in after ‘waiting on.’ I wanna switch the way I came in on that last part.”
The engineer nodded, then ran it back.
Every now and then, she leaned toward the microphone and threw in an ad-lib or repeated the end of one of his lines.
I liked her vibe. She had a nice voice, but because she was a pop star, I couldn’t get the thought of her only being able to sing pop out of my mind.
I sat up a little straighter. I felt like I was watching a movie. All I was missing was some popcorn, for real.
I started moving my foot to the beat and Char leaned closer to me.
“That man singing directly to me,” she whispered.
I looked over at her. “Yeah, maybe.”
I went along with her delusions.
She turned back toward the booth, and I covered my mouth to keep from laughing too loud. This woman might as well have been a comedian, even though she kept me laughing without even trying.
Ozy and Ginger kept going, stopping every few lines to change words, move things around, or try different melodies.
It reminded me of my own sessions. The ones I missed but couldn’t bring myself to go back to. I missed it more than I wanted to admit.
“Run the hook again,” Ozy said.
The engineer restarted it.
Ozy leaned toward the microphone.
“Is she the one for me?
The one who sees past the fame?
If I gave her all of me,
Would she love me the same?”
Ginger came in after him.
“Is he the one for me?
Or just another mistake?
If I give him all of me,
Will he give or will he take?”
They both stopped.
“Okay, that’s cuuute,” one of the women on the couch said. Her name tag read Ashley.
“It’s giving wedding song,” Veronica added.
Ginger smiled through the glass. “Exactly.”
Then she did that little finger motion people used when they wanted to say clock it.
Ozy didn’t say anything. He looked down at the notepad in his hand, scratched something out, then stared at it.
The beat played again, and without even thinking about it, I quietly sang along. I wasn’t singing loud. At least, I didn’t think I was.
I was just trying to remember the melody they had used, while looking down at my hands.
Then the room got quiet.
I looked up, and everybody was staring at me.
My stomach dropped.
“What?” I asked, looking from face to face. “Why are y’all looking at me?”
Char’s mouth was hanging open.
One of the camera guys had turned the camera directly toward me, and even the engineer had spun around in his chair, his mouth hanging open wide enough for flies to get in.
Ozy stood behind the glass with his eyebrows raised.
Ginger looked confused too, but not in the same way I was. Her face looked more like she was trying to figure out why everybody had suddenly stopped paying attention to her.
Ozy pushed the booth door open and stepped out.
“That was you?” he asked.
I pointed at myself. “Uh… yeah.”
“You sing?”
“I mean… kinda.”
“Kinda?” Ozy laughed. “Nah, love. You can blow. You got that raspy, sultry shit this song is missing.”
“Oh, wow. Well… thank you.”
I didn’t know what else to say. I felt a little bad because I wasn’t trying to steal anybody’s shine.
“You sound good as hell,” he added.
Ginger came out of the booth behind him and pulled her headphones off. “What happened?”
“She can sing,” Ozy said, still looking at me.
Ginger glanced around. “Who?”
He licked his lips, never taking his eyes off me.
“Noree.”
Ozy turned toward the engineer. “Play the hook one more time.”
The music started again.
“Sing it for me, love,” he said.
My brows rose. “You sure?”
He nodded. “I’m very sure.”
He turned back toward the booth while the beat kept playing, mouthing the words to himself as I quietly sang them out loud.
When it ended, he frowned a little.
“Something still missing,” he said.
Ginger crossed her arms. “What’s missing? It sounds fine.”
“I don’t want fine,” Ozy countered.
He went back over the lines, singing them quietly to himself.
I pressed my lips together.
Mind your business, Noree. This is not your session. Don’t do it…
But the line came to me so fast that I couldn’t stop it.
“What if you say, ‘Will he hold me when I’m whole, not just love me when I break?’”
Ozy turned around, and even the engineer stopped moving.
Ginger looked over at me again.
I swallowed. “Or not. I was just trying to—”
“Sing it,” Ozy said.
“What?”
“Sing what you just said.”
I stared at him for a second before softly singing it to the melody.
“Will he hold me when I’m whole,
Not just love me when I break?”
The room went quiet again and Ozy’s entire face changed.
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s it.”
He pointed toward me. “Come here.”
My eyes widened. “Come where?”
“To the booth.”
Ginger looked at him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m bringing her in the booth.”
“For what?” She frowned.
One of the camera operators moved closer, and Ginger looked directly at him.
“No. Stop the cameras,” she said angrily. Nobody moved, not even me. “I said stop the cameras.” She waved her hand toward them. “This is getting weird now. She’s supposed to be here for the experience, not trying to get put on a song.”