When I stopped into the Novellas County General Store to pick up some rosin for my ondes martinot I heard some seriously melodious blues strains coming from the back room. There I noticed a most curious gentleman who was strumming quietly while a very strange lady asked him questions. Hey, I thought, to myself – this is an interview thing going on – I may as well get in on the act. So when she left to go to the ladies room, I did:

EH: Hello, there sir, may I ask you a few questions while your friend is powdering her nose?

Bcc: Surely, dear, but I think she's going to the bathroom. She spends a lot of time in there, you know.

EH: No, I don't know – who is she, anyway? And for that matter, who are you?

Bcc: She's Tonya Judy, editor of a zine called Flush Fiction Magazine. She seems to have a fixation on fixtures if you get my drift. And I'm Blind Carbon Copy. You can call me Blind.

EH: Blind! That's a strange name – surely not your real one.

Bcc: Oh, it's real enough, but I been called plenty things over the years. Been around a long time, you see. People, other people, they come and go. They calls me different things – doesn't really matter, but I always been blind, so Blind is just fine. My close friends call me Blind Baby, B.B. or jest B.

EH: Well, what do you do Blind? I see you play the guitar – that sounded like a blues riff, but it had a laughing quality. Strange, but nice.

Bcc: Thanks. Is nice, ain't it? I call it my Happy Blues.

EH: Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron?

Bcc: I suppose it could qualify, but happiness and melancholia, while somewhat incongruous or contradictory when linked together, are not that far apart on the spectrum.

EH: Blind Baby! Are you pulling my leg with this simple language of yours? What are you, some kind of Phd or something.

Bcc: Phd. That's like BS only piled higher and deeper, right? No, like I said, Miss – sorry, I didn't get your name.

EH: Electra. Electra Hemingray.

Bcc: Like I said, Miss H. I been around a long time. I got my education just being alive and travelling. I've met some of the most interesting people you could imagine. Just now, I'm getting a lot a gigs with this blues thing – people expect a certain presentation from a blues man. I give em what they want.

EH: Cool. So what about this Tonya Judy person? How did you happen to meet her?

Bcc: Ah, Teejay. I met her through a mutual friend, Carrie Berry. Teejay started this web zine, see, which was originally based on flash fiction. As a sort of zine warming gift I wrote "Flash in the Pan Blues" for her. Like to hear it?

EH: Sure, you can play it for me later. But she'll be back soon, let's just talk now. Do you write anything else?

Bcc: Oh, I like to tell stories. My grandmother used to read to me before she died. I never learned how to read or write so I rely on other people. Sometimes I make up my own stories from all the things I remember. That's one of the reasons they call me Copy.

EH: Most interesting. So why is this Judy person interviewing you now?

Bcc: Teejay. Don't let her hear you call her Judy. Well, she asked her zine contributors to write about Darwin, of all things, for her December issue. Whether he was a scientist or a philosopher. I said he wasn't nothing but a smartass kid. So she got interested.

EH: A smartass kid? Darwin? He's been dead for more than a hundred years.

Bcc: Yeah, I guess so. Only 73, he was then, but a smartass till the end. I miss him, though.

EH: Oh, come on, now. You're pulling my leg – you didn't know Darwin. Just how old are you?

Bcc: Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway. Here comes Teejay.

EH: I don't see her. How do you know she's coming?

Bcc: I can smell her – she has a nice smell, like honey. You smell nice, too – like cinnamon and coffee.

tj: Hey, Blind. Two-timing me while I'm gone, I see. Introduce me to your friend.

Bcc: This is Electra Hemingray. We've just been having a little chat. Electra, this is Teejay.

EH: Nice to meet you Miss, er Teejay. Blind has been kind of enough to answer a few questions for me. I'm a reporter for the Novellas County Gazette.

tj: Electra Hemingway, huh? Related to Ernie?

EH: Christ, it's HemingRAY, with an R. Ernie Hemingway is the editor.

Bcc: Junior? How did he turn out? I remember how proud Papa was when he heard he was born.

tj: Well, I don't want to seem rude, Electra, but I'm on a tight schedule and Blind and I still need to finish this interview. You can read it in the December issue of Flush Fiction. Maybe you can give it a mention in the Gazette – a fine rag, btw.

EH: Thanks, Teejay. And thank you Blind. I hope to see you again real soon.

Later that evening, I stopped by Blind's apartment for some pizza and a personal performance of "Flash in the Pan Blues". And he told me some things you would never believe. Never.

© Electra Hemingray/Carrie Berry 2001

This interview first appeared in the Blues edition of the Gator Springs Gazette.

[ fandango virtual | morpheus arms | bcc | fv books ]