Nancy with her guitar.
12:32 (Washington Time)
Friday, October 08, 1993 ‘C’
Cafeteria of the Northern Virginia International High School
9431 Silver King Court, Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.A.
The teenage blonde hesitated for a moment before approaching the cafeteria table where four male students were finishing their lunch. Those students were known to be amateur musicians and they had posted ads on the school’s news billboard asking for students who played the drum kit. Well, Erika Lang considered herself to be an excellent drum kit player and also a good guitar player and she really wanted to join a band.
‘’Uh, excuse me, guys. I saw your ad about you looking for a drum and percussion player and I would be interested to join your band.’’
The four teenage boys looked up at her, eyeing her athletic built, small chest and wide shoulders. The leader of the band, a tall but thin teenager with a bit of an arrogant expression, replied to Erika with what she thought was derision in his tone.
‘’Sorry, but we don’t take girls in our band, unless they just accompany us. Then, we choose real girls, not tomboys like you.’’
The three other boys laughed at those last words, making anger flash into Erika: she had too often met this kind of boys, who treated girls like they were simply part of their harem. His allusion at her strong physique for a girl also insulted her. She was about to shoot back a remark when a hand from behind her patted her left shoulder.
‘’Forget those losers, friend. I have a better idea for you.’’
The band leader was about to tell the newcomer to mind her own business when his words strangled in his throat as he recognized her. That was ‘Supergirl’ in person! His three band members also recognized Nancy Dows and clamed up as Erika followed Nancy away from their table.
Erika Lang, who had also recognized who Nancy was, felt a bit of trepidation as she followed her to another table where three other girls were sitting. The stories concerning Nancy Dows were so fantastic, yet were too numerous to be mere fabrications. She also had proven during her previous year at the International High School to be an extremely talented musician, singer and dancer, on top of being of haunting beauty. Erika remembered as well one of the girls sitting at the table, a very pretty Asian teenager with long silky black hair, who was known to be a top violin player. This indeed promised to be a good opportunity.
‘’Are you in need of a drum and percussion player?’’
‘’We are indeed, friend. I am Nancy Dows and my friends here are my sister by adoption, Lucy, plus Sarah Weissman and Carmen Estrada. We had been tinkering with the idea of forming an all-girl amateur band but we were missing a drum and percussion partner to form a proper band. A word of caution, though: we play what I would call soft music, like classical music, soft pop, ballads and historical music. We are not into the loud, screaming stuff like Metallica, hard rock or, God forbid, what passes as singing, like Rap and Hip Hop. But please, sit down with us and let’s discuss for the few minutes before we have to return to our classes.’’
They then both sat down, with Erika facing Nancy, Sarah and Lucy, with Carmen to her left. Erika quickly looked around at the four other girls before speaking.
‘’First, thank you for considering me for your band. My name is Erika Lang. I am best with a drum kit but I can also play well the guitar and have a fair voice. So, what instruments do you play, girls?’’
‘’I play a number of ancient instruments, like the Persian qanon, the lute, the goblet drum, the flute and the bardic harp, but I have started playing a couple of years ago the electronic synthesizer and the electric guitar. ‘’ said Nancy. ‘’I also sing and dance.’’
‘’I mostly play violin but I can also play the piano and the bass.’’ answered in turn Lucy, followed by Sarah.
‘’I master the piano and also play the violin. I recently started to play the harpsichord and the synthesizer.’’
Carmen Estrada, a beautiful Latino girl, was last to answer.
‘’I play the guitar, the Andean flute and the maracas, but I concentrate mostly on singing and dancing.’’
‘’My! You play a really wide range of instruments. Your choice of music is also quite unconventional for a teenage group. These days, it seems that boy bands mostly know only two instruments: the guitar and the drum kit. I suppose that you play music and songs from known artists?’’
‘’Uh, not really, Erika.’’ replied Nancy. ‘’My mother happens to possess an extensive musical library from the future that she inherited from her own adopted mother, who was Nancy Laplante, the famous time traveler. Up to now we play quite a few songs from that future repertoire but always give the credit due to those future artists when we perform their songs. We also play historical pieces from the past. However, I have written a couple of songs and musical pieces of my own and we are currently practicing and rehearsing them, with the idea of playing them at the incoming school show in December.’’
‘’That sounds fascinating!’’ exclaimed Erika. ‘’I would be truly honored to join your band. By the way, what is the name of your band?’’
There was a bit of an awkward silence then before Nancy answered her.
‘’Uh, we still haven’t decided on a band name yet, as we had been playing rather informally up to now. We also wanted to wait until our band was complete, with a drum and percussion player added to our group.’’
‘’Then, let’s choose a band name now!’’
‘’Now, with only twelve minutes left before the classes resume?’’ objected Sarah Weissman. ‘’We should take the proper time to think of a good name, no?’’
‘’You are right, Sarah.’’ said Nancy. ‘’Let’s wait until the end of the classes today and we will then reassemble to see what names popped up in our heads in the meantime. By the way, how do you get back home after classes, Erika?’’
‘’I take the school bus number 25 to the Aurora Hills District.
‘’Great! I live in Aurora Hills myself, on South Grove Street. We could all go to my home after classes and have a good discussion there before I could bring you back home, Erika.’’
‘’That won’t be necessary, Nancy.’’ said a smiling Erika. My family’s home is only two streets away from South Grove Street: I can easily walk back home after our reunion.’’
‘’Then, we have a deal. Let’s see tonight if some good ideas for a band name will have come to us during this afternoon.’’
16:37 (Washington Time)
The Dows residence, 326 South Grove Street
Aurora Hills, Arlington
Erika detailed with interest Nancy’s home, a two-story bungalow with garage, as their air bike was landing in the courtyard.
‘’It does look like a nice, fairly large home, Nancy. However, it is a bit of an old-style one.’’
‘’It was actually built in 1949 and my mother bought it in 1956, when she came back from her first series of overseas tours with my older sister Hien, who was then eight-years-old. It is a bit old now but it is in very good condition and is a comfortable house. I actually love living in it, especially since my mother had a good part of the attic rebuilt as a sound-proofed musical practice room. I guess that the neighbors were getting tired of my drum playing.’’
Both Erika and Lucy giggled at that before stepping out of the air bike. They then waited until Nancy had rolled her air bike inside its dedicated mini-garage and had locked its door before following her inside, using the back door of the house. Once inside, Nancy smiled to Erika.
‘’Would you like a quick tour of my house, Erika?’’
‘’I would, Nancy. I am particularly anxious to see your attic’s musical practice room.’’
‘’That will be last.’’ Promised Nancy before starting to lead Erika around the house, while Lucy went immediately up to her room to have a shower and change. Erika was particularly surprised and struck by the large number of ancient weapons and pieces of armor on display around the front entrance lobby area.
‘’Your mother seems to be a collector of old weapons, Nancy. That is rather rare in a woman. However, those pieces are quite fascinating. Are they authentic historical pieces or are they replicas?’’
‘’They are authentic historical pieces, Erika. My mother and I have a high interest in history, thanks to our ability to remember our past incarnations. Her incarnations go back by 7,000 years, while my incarnations go back a mere 2,000 years.’’
‘’A mere 2,000 years…’’ said softly Erika, taking some time to digest that. ‘’And what do you remember exactly from your past incarnations?’’
‘’Everything! That includes my past skills, the languages I spoke, the people I knew and met, my actions and what my past lives were like as either a man or a woman. However, those past souvenirs are only that: souvenirs. They don’t control my present personality.’’
Erika’s ears caught on the ‘man or a woman’ part and she gave a sharp look at Nancy.
‘’You were a man during one of your past incarnations?’’
‘’Oh, I was a man during eleven of my past twenty incarnations, Erika. My mother also was a man during about half of her past incarnations. If you could remember your own past incarnations, then you would probably find out that you also had been a man about half of the time. Your past lives would as well vary in terms of how high or low you were in the social scale of your time and would certainly vary widely in terms of your past skills and occupations. I myself owe much of my present musical abilities to my past lives, in which I was among other things an Iranian professional musician from the 19th Century, a well-educated Polish aristocratic woman from the 13th Century and a 1st Century Indian dancing girl. However, I did learn a lot more about music in recent years and have learned to appreciate and play new, modern instruments, like the electric guitar and the synthesizer.’’
‘’But…if you remember your past lives as a man, you then remember the women you loved, no?’’ asked hesitantly Erika. Nancy smiled at her question and took a couple of steps, getting very close to her.
‘’I effectively do, Erika. I hope that this will not make you uncomfortable when close to me? If so, tell me and I will keep my distances.’’
Erika, who had felt attraction towards Nancy from the start, shook her head as a wave of emotions went over her.
‘’That doesn’t disturb me at all, Nancy, on the contrary.’’
‘’Good! We will now go visit the upper floor, where we have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a private study used by my mother. After that, we will visit the attic, where my musical practice room is.’’
‘’Alright! Lead the way.’’
Climbing the main staircase to the upper floor, Nancy showed to Erika her own bedroom and those of Lucy and Leo, but didn’t open the door of Ingrid’s bedroom.
‘’We will pass on visiting my mother’s bedroom, bathroom and private study: without her prior consent, that would not be appropriate. We will now go to the attic.’’
Going to a set of wooden stairs at the end of the central hallway, Nancy climbed it and pushed open a floor trap covering it before stepping into a vast attic space formed by the inclined roof of the house and switching on a set of overhead lights. Also stepping into the attic, Erika saw that the space, contrary to many attics she had seen before, was fully finished and clean, with internal walls and ceiling panels covering the thermal insulation of the roof. The part of the attic she was in now had two dormer windows facing the street outside and had been furnished with six beds, night tables and chests of drawers, while a thick carpet covered the floor. Nancy swept one arm around as she spoke.
‘’This installation dates back from the time when my older sister Hien was still a small kid. Ingrid renovated this space for her to use for slumber parties and as an internal playing ground in Winter. More recently, my mother uses it to accommodate extra temporary guests, as all the bedrooms of the upper floor are now used by her, me, Leo and Lucy.’’
Erika grinned while looking around the vast, clean space.
‘’This place is great! I wish I had that kind of place at home when I was young. Hell, I wish I had that even today!’’
‘’Wait till you see the other half of the attic space, Erika.’’ replied Nancy before leading her to a door at one end. Opening it and entering, she then invited Erika to follow her in. The latter had her jaw drop as she looked around, embracing the details of the room she was now in. The double-sloped roof provided over three meters of free height clearance along the house’s centerline, while there still was a clearance of more than one meter along the side walls. Those side walls and both end walls, which looked quite thick, were covered with acoustic tiles and there were even acoustic insulation panels mounted on hinges that could cover the openings of the two dormer windows of this part of the attic. Even the floor was covered by a thick plastic foam mat that absorbed sounds. Positioned around the room in a ‘U’-shaped formation were various musical instruments and chairs, including a complete drum kit set, while various sound amplification and speaker systems were stored in one of the far corners.
‘’This…this place is fantastic!’’ exclaimed Erika while slowing walking towards the drum kit set, where she sat down behind the drums and cymbals. She then looked back at Nancy, envy visible on her face.
‘’You lucky you! This would be a dream place for any amateur musician. Does your band practice often here?’’
Nancy smiled as she both answered and corrected Erika.
‘’Yes, OUR band often assembles here to practice together. Since we don’t use sound amplification when playing here and with the thick sound insulation of the room, we are able to practice at any time without disturbing others, like my mother and our neighbors. That is even truer when I practice with my synthesizer, as I can then plug in a headset and play without any sound coming out except in my headset. Now, about our band: do you have an idea for a band name?’’
‘’I mentally went through quite a few today until I selected one: ‘The Capital Girls’.’’
‘’Hum, not bad but a bit dry: it sounds like we are a group of Washington female lobbyists.’’
‘’And you, Nancy, what do you propose as a band name?’’
‘’I also went through quite a few possibilities but I have settled on ‘The DC Five’. It would describe us well as a group of five musicians from Washington.’’
‘’The DC Five… That sounds fine with me, Nancy: it isn’t strange, pretentious or vulgar the way many boys’ bands are named. It is also an easy name to remember and pronounce. Let’s see what the others have to propose once they are all here.’’
‘’Agreed! If you want to practice a bit while we wait for them, feel free to do so. I will accompany you on the synthesizer.’’
They actually had a good ten minutes available to practice together before Lucy, Sarah and Carmen showed up in the practice room, accompanied by a curious Leonardo.
‘’Aah, you’re here! Come in as well, brother: we will need a second opinion after we choose a band name between the five of us girls.’’
‘’Uh, okay!’’
Nancy then looked at Lucy, who had changed into a relaxed internal outfit after her shower.
‘’What are you proposing as a band name, Lucy?’’
‘’I propose ‘The Minstrel Girls’, Nancy.’’
‘’Okay! And you, Sarah and Carmen?’’
‘’How about ‘The Sunshine Girls’?’’ said Sarah, with Carmen following up after her.
‘’I would say ‘The Five Chicks Band’. What about you, Nancy?’’
‘’I settled on ‘The DC Five’.’’
‘’And I chose ‘The Capital Girls’.’’ added Erika. The five of them then stayed silent for a moment, mentally debating the choice of names they were facing. A short discussion followed, with one name finally winning over the others. Nancy then grinned to Leonardo.
‘’Well, Leo, what do you think of our choice as a band name?’’
‘’Well, ‘The DC Five’ sounds fine with me, Nancy. For one thing, it doesn’t discriminate your group right away as a female band. It also sounds good to the ear and is not pretentious. I like it!’’
Nancy, pleased, then looked around her, smiling at her band members.
‘’Excellent! We are thus from now on ‘The DC Five’. Give me five, girls!’’
All five teenage girls then slapped their hands together in a ‘high five’, joined in by Leonardo.