We’re playing one-on-one in the driveway and my friend says he knows me and I must have had a reason to want the Believe In Music — 22 Original Hits Original Stars album I got last week for my 10th birthday.
There has to be a song on it I like. Which one is it he says.
I dribble the basketball between my legs and say It isn’t one song.
He says I know you. Which song is it.
He guesses “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” because he knows me and I say No and I’m lying and I’m not lying.
I like the guitar and the sad part when Brandy used to watch his eyes. I like “Brandy.” So I’m lying about that.
What I’m not lying about is when Miss Kappelhoff played the album in music class and “Brandy” came on and three girls lit up like the world at night when they sang the part about Brandy watching those eyes. They looked so happy.
I can’t sing like that and I can’t look happy like that and I love them for it and I love “Brandy” and I’m not lying about that because I don’t know how.
Pat Foran can’t feel the ocean fall and rise, but can hear the song the ocean’s crazy quilt sings to zooplankton on long, lonely nights. His work has appeared in Truffle, Tahoma Literary Review, The Wondrous Real Magazine and elsewhere.