Tombs of Endearments Read Online Free PDF Page B

could blow him away. As for Vinnie…

    I shifted my gaze and took a closer look at the dark-haired guy who sat at the outside of the picture. His hair was as long as Damon’s, but on Vinnie, the style was more grungy than appealing. He wore a tattered T-shirt, beat-up jeans, and a wide smile.

    “I’ve got to tell you, I’m not a big fan.” Sarah said this in hushed tones. Like she couldn’t afford to let anyone at the Hall know it, but she didn’t want me to get the wrong impression. “I mean, their stuff, it’s pretty hokey, isn’t it? I guess a lot of people like it, though. You know, old people. Somebody told me that Vinnie writes all the band’s music. But then, you probably know that. Not that I think you’re old or anything,” she added, before I even had a chance to get offended. “I just figured everyone knows that!”

    “Everyone in this world and beyond,” I told her.

    She thought I was kidding. “They’re going to set up the stage right out there.” She pointed toward the plaza out in front of the building. “We figure there will be tens of thousands of people here. They say it’s going to be the biggest thing to happen in Cleveland since I don’t know when.”

    I remembered the last biggest social event to happen in Cleveland and how I’d attended it so that I could investigate. That investigation led to the debunking of one of the biggest icons in the literary world. It was a little intimidating to think that if Damon had his way, I would have the same effect on the music industry.

    Speaking of investigating, this struck me as a good time to start. “Has Vinnie always written the band’s music?” I asked Sarah.

    Sarah got big points for honesty. She shrugged.

    “I guess. Vinnie Pal—that’s what they call him, not Vinnie Pallucci, just Vinnie Pal—I’ve heard people around here say that he’s a genius. You know, that his songs are brilliant.”

    “His songs are shit.”

    Since the songs in question were allegedly Damon’s songs, this comment from him surprised me. I knew better than to question him within earshot of Sarah, so I excused myself, hurried into the gift shop, and ducked behind a rack of Rock Hall lunch bags.

    “I’m getting confused,” I told Damon. “I thought the songs were your songs.”

    “They are my songs. Or at least they’re versions of my songs.”

    I didn’t bother with the huh this time. My expression said it all.

    “It’s like this,” Damon explained. “Vinnie channels me, and whether I want to or not, I gotta go. Wherever he is. When I get there, I slip into his body, and he makes me write songs for him. But when he does…hell…” His mouth thinned with disgust. “Inside my head, every single one of my songs is damned near perfect. But when they come out of me and pass through Vinnie, somehow they get all watered down. It’s a bummer, man, and it’s just plain embarrassing.”

    “You’re dead, you can’t be embarrassed!”

    A mom and her little boy were just about to check out the lunch bags. She put a hand on her son’s shoulder and ushered him away.

    Damon hardly spared them a look. “I can be sick and tired of the whole thing. And I am. I want you to go and talk to Vinnie. I want you to tell himto stop. Maybe if he does…” Damon looked away.

    I guess I was getting good at reading between the lines. Case in point. I sensed that there was more going on than Damon was willing to talk about.

    Being the polite person that I am, I knew to leave well enough alone and allow Damon his privacy. But it would take more than civility to get me in on this case. Honesty, for one thing. And a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T for another.

    If Damon wasn’t telling me the whole truth and nothing but, then I wasn’t getting either.

    “Maybe if he does…” I jumped back into the sentence, hoping Damon would finish it for me, and when he didn’t, I narrowed my eyes and pinned him with a look. “You’re leaving something out, and you