2025

Ben “Sticks” Walters sat waiting for the Grands in his favorite chair – a soft, worn leather recliner with a strafe of claw marks down the right side. To the left of the chair stood an end table with an old pressed-wood fake lantern resting on top. The author of the claw marks, Little Gail Harris, sat curled up in Ben’s lap, sleeping the sleep of Morpheus. At fifteen, she was the same age as her namesake when the soulful-voiced original Little Gail Harris recorded with the Fabulous Wailers at the old Spanish Castle Ballroom over sixty years before. Ben was there that night in 1961, an eighteen-year-old just-graduated high school jazz drummer looking to run into a friend of a friend, the talented guitar player for a local R&B group – The Rocking Kings.

Little Gail awoke, gingerly moving from Ben’s lap to the Turkish carpet, where she stretched out her lithe limbs before daintily picking her way into the kitchen. She had been Ben’s companion and comfort since Ben’s daughter Fiona rescued the tuxedo tabby kitten when Ben became a widower at age sixty-seven. Now eighty-two and slowing down, Ben roused himself out of the chair, creakily picked his way into the kitchen, filled Little Gail’s bowl with dry cat food, and freshened her water dish. The elderly tabby rubbed against Ben’s leg appreciatively.

1961

Ben heard through the grapevine that Jimmy James, The Rocking Kings guitar slinger, would show up for the Wailers show that night. The Tom Cats, an offshoot band with the former Rocking Kings bassist and keyboard player, were looking for a drummer, and a good word from Jimmy James would provide Ben entrée for an audition. Ben scoured the crowded dance floor, searching for the nineteen-year-old axe man, but it was still early in the evening. While scanning the teen dance night crowd, his eyes lit upon a petite vision of loveliness with skin like smooth mahogany, sitting with two other young ladies sipping cokes. Ben’s heart did a paradiddle in his chest, and all thoughts of finding Jimmy James evaporated.

2025

After looking after Little Gail’s needs, Ben saw to his own and took an array of heart pills for his bum ticker. The side effects were wearisome, and he would just as soon stop taking the medications, but Fiona insisted, telling him that she, Mollie, Owen, and Little Gail needed him on two feet and above ground. Just then, Ben heard the front door rattle and open, bringing Fiona and the Grands – fourteen-year-old Mollie and eleven-year-old Owen, into the old family home. “Poppa Sticks!” Owen shouted and ran to his grandpop, hugging Ben around his legs. Mollie, more subdued but no less glad to see him, laced her arms around Ben’s neck and warmly kissed his cheek. “I’ll be back this afternoon, Fiona said; you two behave and make sure your Poppa eats a good lunch.” Ben, eyes twinkling and a smile creasing his worn face, told her not to worry and that they’d see her later, alligator.

1961

The Wailers had a break in their set, and Ben wandered casually over to where the three girls were sitting, hoping to strike up a conversation with the young lady who caused his heart to flutter and soar and forget about the still-missing Jimmy James. The girls watched him approach, all three acting aloof and ignoring his presence as he stood before the table. “How is it that you fine ladies are all by yourselves this evening?” Ben cleverly (so he thought) opened with. They looked at him as if to say – are you for real? And went back to their cokes, pretending he wasn’t still standing there. Before Ben left, the petite girl looked up, gave him a quick smile, and looked down just as quickly.

2025

After Fiona left, the Grands, Ben, and Little Gail Harris settled back into the living room – Ben and Little Gail in the recliner, and the Grands seated on the plush Turkish carpet at Ben’s feet. Owen pointed at the old fake lantern and said excitedly: “Tell us about your magic lantern, Poppa!” Mollie, sitting cross-legged, looked expectantly at her grandfather. Ben sighed and said: “Now, you both have heard the story a hundred times… it’s the same, and it don’t change.” This was the pattern – after hearing their insistent pleas to re-tell the story, Ben would relent and pick up the old decorative piece that once hung on the wall of The Spanish Castle Ballroom.

1961

Their break over, the Wailers started up with a danceable instrumental, and with dogged determination, Ben returned to the girl’s table, where two were now sitting – the petite young lady being one of them. Ben stood straight and tall, looked her in the eyes, and gave this unprepared speech: “Hey, my name is Benjamin Walters, and I think you’re the prettiest girl in the Castle, and I’d like to dance with you.” The two girls looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and the object of Ben’s affection stood up, offered her hand, and said: “I’m Sally Mae Reed, and I’ll dance with you, Benjamin.” Ben smiled a mile wide and led her onto the dance floor.

2025

Ben held the lantern in his gnarled hands with the same faraway look in his eyes he got whenever he related the story of how he met Sally Mae Reed, the grandmama that Mollie and Owen never knew except from the many photos in every room of the old family home and of course, from Ben’s stories. He told them about how he and Sally Mae danced every dance that night, about their meeting at the Castle every weekend that summer, and dancing only with one another. He described Sally Mae’s college years at the local university and how they made it work as Sticks Walters worked odd jobs and played drums in odd bands. He related how she waited for him while he served a two-year tour in the Army and returned from Vietnam unscathed. Ben told his Grands that their Grandmama was an angel come down from heaven.

The Grands sat quietly while their Poppa talked about the last days of The Spanish Castle – how it had stood on the same spot next to the highway since 1931 until it was torn down in 1968. He described how he, Sally Mae, and many others were allowed to collect an artifact inside the Castle one last time before the demolition began. As Ben held the fake, pressed-wood lantern in his hands, a single tear rolled down his weathered cheek as he told his precious grandchildren about his and Sally Mae’s wedding soon after the Castle’s demise, in the small church where Sally Mae sang in the choir and was on staff for years as a licensed counselor.

Ben told them about their grandmama, who had a heart to serve others and always put their needs before hers. How she never complained after she became sick and knew she would be leaving Ben before either of them was ready to part. Ben then looked at his Grands: Owen, small of stature like Sally Mae and just as energetic, and Mollie, a quiet beauty who also sang in the church choir – and could belt em out like Little Gail Harris. He felt a swell of pride each time he told them the story and would keep telling it as long as he had breath.

Jimmy James never made it to the Spanish Castle that night in 1961. Earlier that day, he was inducted into the Army and left for basic training, after which he trained as a paratrooper. But that’s a story for another time.

Ben “Sticks” Walters kept taking his heart pills. He figured he and Little Gail Harris had a few good years left. Besides, he only had to pick up the old magic lantern, which would transport him back to the dancing days at the Spanish Castle, where Ben knew he would see Sally Mae again by and by.