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A beautiful morning, the kind that makes you want to hit the park, sit back on a bench, listen to some tunes and relax. And that’s exactly what Danny did one weekend. He had with him his dad’s old boombox, set at a volume that wouldn’t scare the ducks in the pond; and in the deck was an old tape—Jack’s college mix of his favorite Three Dog Night songs. An old tape, yes, but still had plenty of action left in it.
The world is black, the world is white
It turns by day and then by night
A child is black, a child is white
Together they grow to see the light
To see the light
Danny, though well into the music, did not notice his Ghost Sense™ going off. He turned around in his spot on the bench to see Ember floating down the path, whistling a tune of her own.
“Yo!” Danny stood up.
“Hey, Dipstick!” Ember stopped in her tracks and turned to face Danny.
“What brings you out here today?”
“Ah, just out to have some fun.”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “By ‘fun’, do you mean brainwashing people with your music again?”
“Nah, I’ve been around this block enough times to get that memo. No, today, I’m aiming for a nice, quiet weekend.”
“Alright, but…” Danny looked left and right, “Hope you got a better story in case my parents stop by unannounced.”
“You’re cute, you know that?” Ember ruffled his hair.
Then the boombox started playing another song…one that made Ember stop and concentrate.
“Could you turn that up?”
Danny went to his boombox and adjusted the volume.
You swear you've heard it before
As it slowly rambles on
No need in bringing 'em back
'Cause they've never really gone
As Danny took his seat on the bench, Ember sat down next to him.
"I haven't heard that song since I was alive…” she said softly.
“Hmm?”
“They used to play it so many times on the radio, I felt I didn’t need to buy the record!”
“That’s why the song is on the radio,” Danny explained, “To promote its existence so people will want to buy it—and it usually works.”
“Oof! And you thought my brainwashing is bad!”
Just an old fashioned love song
One I'm sure they wrote for you and me
Just an old fashioned love song
Coming down in three part harmony
“Could it be that you’re the one brainwashing me?” Ember asked out of the blue as the song faded out.
Danny looked back at her, quizzingly. Then they looked away again.
“NAH…” they both said.
As another song started, Ember pulled out her phone and dialed a contact.“I know just what this needs! I’ll call one of my guys, he can bring over my stage, we can have a dance-off and get a crowd going!”
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one
They had the beat and they were gonna use it! The dance floor arrived, and right away, it got used ’n’ abused, like any good dance floor. Danny and Ember’s slow dancing drew a crowd, and they all joined in and danced the weekend away. Ember made a mental note to do something like this on her next tour. It was that much fun! Danny, meanwhile, was a bit thankful that Sam wasn’t here, or she’d get the wrong idea and lose it.
It's just no good anymore since you went away
Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday
Meanwhile, on the edge of the park, the Fenton GAV was parked in a two-hour zone. Maddie observed the action through her Fenton Binoculars, with Jack as the driver and Jazz tagging along.
“Anything?” said Jack.
“They’re still going at it,” Maddie observed.
Jack grabbed a weapon from behind his seat and revved it up.
“Let’s pounce after the next song! No ghost is gonna do their special secret ritual dances in my town!”
“Dad?” Jazz, ever the voice of reason, piped up, “Maybe we should wait and see if it’s worth it. They could be just, you know, dancing; a little weekend fun.”
“Yeah,” said Maddie, “It’s not like they can do much with your old, harmless college-era boombox.”
“...my WHAT?!?!?”