comfortably numb

Justin felt good about himself again as he drove home from Dusty’s nightclub. It was after 2:00am and the traffic was very light on the interstate, but it was Sunday morning after-all. His singing gig had been well-received by the crowd of over 200 people. Justin loved to sing and play his guitar, but he was having a very hard time catching a break in the music industry. At the age of 26, he knew that if he didn’t make it by 30, he probably never would. Because he couldn’t make his living yet by doing what he loved, Justin was stuck working at a low-paying, dead end job. At least he didn’t have to go back to work until Monday.

Sunday was Justin’s day to bowl. (The only thing he loved more than bowling was music.) When he was a teenager, Justin was one of the top-rated teen bowlers in the state, and averaged over 215. But then, after high school graduation, he did what was expected of him to do, and that was to head off to college, where he didn’t have the time or extra money to bowl, and his game suffered. College wasn’t really something that he wanted, and after 2 years he had dropped out and moved back to his home town, where he spent his time working on his music, hanging out with his buddies, bowling and going from one crappy job to another, just trying to pay his bills.

Driving over to Payne’s Lanes, he parked under the old maple tree, popped his trunk, and grabbed his bowling bag. Inside was his favorite ball, the Nano, and his size 14 Dexter’s. Justin always used a house ball for spares; he didn’t really make enough money to purchase any more bowling equipment. Walking inside, several of the employees there greeted Justin by name. He was well known at Payne’s for the thousands of hours he had bowled there and for his music, having played dozens of times for parties and events at the bowling center.

As Justin was putting on his bowling shoes, a young lady sitting at the lane next to him was also putting her shoes on. Justin had never seen her here before, and they made eye contact with each other. She smiled at him, and Justin smiled back. They each got ready to bowl, and through eight frames Justin was working on a 300 game. The young lady bowling next to him started to take notice, but politely didn’t interrupt his concentration as he proceeded with another three strikes. On his last throw Justin slipped just as he was releasing the Nano, and he just missed the pocket to the left, leaving him with a 297 game, his best since before college.

“Wow, that was a great game you bowled; I thought I was going to see my first 300 game” the young lady bowling next to Justin said to him. They started talking, and he found out that her name was Lexy, she was in town visiting her parents and that she had bowled in college. Justin invited her to have lunch with him at Mario’s across the street, and she agreed.

As they sat across the table from each other at Mario’s, waiting for their lasagna, Justin shared with Lexy that he was a singer and that he loved music more than anything in the world. Lexy smiled and said “I know someone that may be able to help you” and handed Justin a business card. It read “Lawrence J. Simmons: Agent to Musicians”. He was Lexy’s Uncle, and he was an agent for musicians who were looking to get into the music industry. Justin had heard of him before, because Simmons was extremely successful and had jumped-started more than a few careers toward super-stardom in several different musical genres.

They had a great time together and Lexy gave Justin her cell phone number as they were walking to their vehicles in the parking lot. Justin thanked her for her Uncle’s business card and they parted ways. On his drive home, he took the business card out of his shirt pocket and glanced at it, and saw that Simmons cell phone was listed. Why not, Justin thought as he dialed the number on a whim that Simmons would answer on a Sunday afternoon. At best, Justin thought he could leave him a voice mail, and he was surprised when Simmons himself answered the phone.

Justin quickly explained how he got Simmons phone number and his meeting up with Lexy. Simmons asked him what kind of music he sang, and asked Justin to send him a demo CD to the address on his card. Justin thanked him just as he was pulling into his parking spot outside his apartment. He figured that sending a tape wouldn’t hurt, but that he probably would never hear back from Simmons. At least he had met Lexy and had enjoyed her company. He knew they’d get together again.

The next few weeks were routine for Justin; working, hanging out with his buds, bowling and even another date with Lexy. When he got him from work on Thursday, the apartment manager came to his door and said a FED-EX package had arrived for him at the front desk, and he handed it to Justin. Inside he found a CD and a letter, and it was from Lawrence Simmons!! He played the CD while reading the letter. Simmons had loved his voice and guitar-playing, and on the CD he had incorporated one of Justin’s songs with an instrumental background, with at least 10 different instruments. At the end of the CD, Simmons voice was heard, telling Justin that he had the perfect genre of music for Justin to be successful...Christian music!! Justin was shocked. He hadn’t sung any gospel music since he was a kid in church years ago. The letter went on to say that Simmons thought Justin’s voice and song-writing would make a big splash on Christian radio, explaining that now-days this music had a huge following and that many artists were making outstanding money and selling a lot of CD’s. At the bottom of the package Justin found a plane ticket to Miami. Simmons wanted him to fly down in two days and spend a week with him in his sound studio.

Justin was overcome with emotion. Could this be the break he needed? He couldn’t wait to find out!

TO BE CONTINUED......