Page 103 of August Lane
“How?”
“I chatted with a few of those assholes I mentioned earlier. Luke is out. You’re in. Same deal we offered him, a duet with Jojo during the show. I’ll try to work in more, but they’re focused on leveraging the controversy of ‘Another Love Song.’ You’d perform it publicly for the first time. Reclaim your words in front of the world.”
August couldn’t speak. There was a strange stillness inside her. She was so used to wrestling with the different parts of herself, trying to parse through what she should and shouldn’t feel, that the sudden quiet confused her. But then a ripple of something new trembled low in her chest and spread until it danced along her skin. Joy. It’d been so long since she’d felt it. David just offered her every dream she’d ever had, including one she hadn’t shared with anyone: singing with her mother.
But the second she named it, the feeling slipped away as the reality of what he was saying sank in. She was a replacement. Damage control. The stripped recording was good, but it wasn’t the best she could do. They’d only heard her searching for the voice she’d lost. They hadn’t heard her find it with Luke.
August scanned the room, searching. Luke’s set had ended a while ago, and she’d assumed he’d join the crowd. “I need to talk to him.”
“About that,” David said. “Give the songwriting a rest for now. They want you focused on performing.”
He didn’t say the rest, but she knew what he meant. Luke or Jojo. Cling to the past or embrace the future. It was an obvious choice, wasn’t it?
She should have seen it coming.
This Is Our Country: Podcast Transcript
Episode 12—“Jojo Lane”
August 21, 2024
[cont.]
Jojo:
Birdie got saved when I was twelve and I hated her for it for a long time.
Emma:
Saved as in…
Jojo:
Became a born-again Christian. It felt like I’d been tricked into believing that the person who raised me was who she would always be. Kids like patterns and routines. That’s what love is to them. Something invisible that makes them feel safe. If they can see the effort, they can see all the ways it can be taken away.My mother started reading the Bible after my father died. Really reading it, not just flipping to the scripture when a pastor told her to. I’d been doing pageants and shows for a while and something in those pages convinced her it put my soul in jeopardy. I mean, I wasn’t driving myself to these things. I wasn’t buying the costumes.
Emma:
Did she stop taking you?
