Readings from Collected Voices from The Ink Spot
SDWI's Instructor/Student Reading Series

Jocelyn Hughes was one of a dozen or so students who joined instructors Drusilla Campbell and Mark Clements to read at the premiere session of Collected Voices, held at The Ink Spot on Dec. 8, 2009. Following is her story, "Proud Charlie."

Proud Charlie
By Jocelyn Hughes

Charlie’s parents had a hard time explaining their son’s death, but not for the reasons one may think. Their son died quickly and painlessly which they were grateful for, considering the alternative. Of course, they’d prefer him alive, that’s a given. They’d prefer a lot of things, especially the circumstances surrounding Charlie’s early demise.

It was at a Credence Clearwater Revisited Concert that their son met his fate. He wasn’t even a fan. He was calling into his favorite radio station, KOMP, to request a Foo Fighter’s song and ended up being the tenth caller. Three days later, a pair of tickets arrived in the mail and he thought, “Why not?” If he’d asked himself, “Why would I?” things may have turned out differently for Charlie.

He showed up late, having missed the opening band, Cheap Trick. No loss to Charlie, he’d never heard of them anyway. His friend, Dave, accompanied him to the concert. Dave was a fan of Credence Clearwater Revival’s Recollection album and planned to buy a T-shirt.

The two found their seats between a woman holding a tattered jean jacket and a man in his fifties who reeked of weed. Dave and Charlie weren’t used to this type of crowd. Most of the concerts they attended were filled with screaming teenage girls, dudes with skinny jeans, and young couples. One of KOMP’s DJ’s, Crazy Jigsaw, came out on stage to warm up the crowd and plug the station.

“And without further adieu, it’s my honor to introduce the band that invented southern rock, put your hands together for Credence Clearwater Revisited.” The stage lit up and five men came running out, they were old. In fact, they didn’t look like rock stars at all. Accept for maybe the guitarist and the drummer, but the lead singer and the keyboardist looked ancient to Charlie and Dave.

“Dude, what the hell is this?” Charlie asked Dave, knowing he was a fan.

“It’s Credence Clearwater Revival, they’re from the 60’s. What did you expect? Rock stars get old too.” Dave said then put two fingers in his mouth and whistled at the stage.

The man to Charlie’s left lit up a doobie and sucked almost a third of it down with a single inhale. Charlie looked away, intimidated by the man’s super natural ability to smoke a joint.

The woman on Dave’s right started to cry. Holding up the jean jacket high in the air, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “I love you Tom, I love you.” Then wiped her nose on the sleeve.

“This is Tom Foggerty’s jacket. I caught it after the Bayou Country tour in 1969. He wore it for the entire show and right at the end, took it off and swung it into the crowd. I had to fight this red headed bitch for it, she thinking it was hers. Tom looked me straight in the eye when he threw it. He wanted me to have it.”

Dave nodded then fixated his eyes back on the stage, trying to avoid any future conversation.

The boys had great seats, front and center. They could see the whites of Tom’s eyes and noticed he was wearing white converse. The boys thought converse were cool.

Credence played for over an hour and a half and the boy’s were impressed with the band’s stamina considering they were much older than their parents and their parents were old.

Finally, the band thanked the audience for being super great and left the stage. Charlie turned to Dave and told him they should leave, “Beat the crowd to the parking lot,” but Dave didn’t want to go. For the band hadn’t played their signature song, 'Proud Mary,' the only song Dave really knew and he felt gypped if he didn’t hear it.

“Okay,” Charlie said, “but you’re driving then.” If they would have left Charlie might still be alive, but they didn’t.

The audience was screaming out, “Encore. Encore.” and after a long three minutes and twenty-nine seconds, the band returned to the stage and the sweet, melodic chords of Proud Mary started up. The crowd went wild. Jean jacket woman started shaking. Pot head man pitched his head back and stared at the ceiling. The air was thick with sweat, smoke, and rock and roll. Even Charlie felt the magic.

The drummer started to twirl his drumsticks in the air, one after the next. The guitarist threw his pick into the audience and a small group of people scurried in the dark to peal it off the sticky floor. The drummer did the same and darted his drumstick into the ashen air, except it didn’t take flight. Instead, it hit Charlie in his temporal lobe, killing him instantly.

The woman pushed Dave out of the way and lunged for it, grabbing what she thought to be the holy grail of concert souvenirs. Maybe, if the drummer was Doug Clifford from the original band the stick might be worth something, but this drummer, Sam Pits, was a studio performer, who when not touring with Credence, was the lead singer of a Cure cover band. Hardly worth taking an accessory to second degree murder over.

Charlie’s parents were devastated. They lost their one and only son to a drumstick. When people asked them at parties they started lying about it saying that their son died of Kawasaki’s disease or a rare bacterial infection. They switched off depending on their mood. Anything to keep from having to explain the unfortunate and bizarre details of their son’s death. They did this for five years until one day in June, it was said on the local news that Credence Clearwater Revisited would be launching another tour. They planned to call it Credence Clearwater Rebirthed, the Proud Charlie tour. The tour would be named in honor of their son.

Now, they had something to talk about.