Doreen the Singer

Doreen the Singer ©

By

Michael Casey

Doreen was a Singer, she sang in a Pentecostal Choir and was always singing and moving, it was in her blood. She was good friends to Mrs Douglas and all her 9 children and to Mrs Casey and all her six children. So Doreen was always happy. She and the choir even sung for the Old Forge and Singing Anvil Children’s Home, she always smiled at the memory because Postman Pat tried to hide amongst the choir but the kids tracked him down. Young Tracy was now a Police Sergeant, so good were here tracking skills, her and her dog Bullet, so named not because he ran so fast, but because his pooh always looked like bullets.

Doreen sung like and angel and danced like a devil, she was perfect. Though there was a fly in the ointment, there always is, girls. You see Doreen couldn’t get a job, even though she had a Masters in Communications, which she got after a double first in English from York. However back home in Birmingham she struggled to get anything to match her skills. So she took a temporary job in a Care Home looking after old people. She loved the people and they loved her, so she stayed until the first death 18 months after she started. As much as she loved the job she could not bear it. Old Mrs Noonan died and it was Doreen who found the body in the morning as she breezed into her bedroom singing Morning has Broken. But it was Doreen who was broken, her friend and they did feel like friends, she was a friend a daughter to all of them, was dead in her bed.

Doreen just had to leave, it was a double blow, losing Mrs Noonan and her job too. But as one door closes another opens, so Doreen went to work for a Special Needs Home, you might say she was overqualified and these kinds of jobs were beneath her, but it was all God’s Plan was what Doreen said. She just loved the people she cared for and hopefully nobody would die, so it was a perfect fit for her.

Doreen would breeze in singing and moving, like the reed that bends, as opposed to Oliver Reed on a bender. There was Sunshine in her voice and in her smile. Hard to reach to residents opened up like flowers in the Springtime for Doreen. Her voice, her love, her hope was on just the right frequency for the residents and for the staff. You must all know somebody like Doreen, a dose of magic when she is around. Paul thought so too, he was the handyman who came to fix things and do work around the Home. He lit up when Doreen passed by, so soon the staff and the residents said she should go out with him. Doreen was a bit shy despite being such a bubbly girl, so she tried to avoid going out with him, a workmate was fine, but a boyfriend was bit too fast.

Doreen decided on the Elizabeth Taylor option, Elizabeth Taylor asked for a million dollars hoping to get rid of the film offer. Elizabeth Taylor then starred in Anthony and Cleopatra, so Doreen said if he can duet with me, and sing well only then will I go out with him. So Doreen started singing Ebony and Ivory, Paul looked downcast then looking around the staff and residents who had gathered he started to sing, badly ever so badly. So sadly I cannot go out with you, but we’ll be friends forever, Doreen started to improvise on Friends Forever. Paul started to walk away dejectedly, but there was a bounce in his walk, then he spun around like Wolverine, and opened his mouth to duet back with her. This time he sung like a Master, she was worth it, and now he was singing for his supper, and his very own Elizabeth Taylor, Doreen.

Uproar, Paul started to sing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, the Elton John and Kiki Dee song, Doreen started to cry and joined in. All together they sung for 90 minutes. At the end Doreen knew he was the One, the only one, yes he had big rough hands and had forgotten when he last read a book. But she had hand cream, that’d make his hands softer and Mr Casey used washing powder when he came home from the Steel Works, and Mrs Casey said he had soft hands to match his heart.

Somebody at the back videoed it on their phone, and that would lead somewhere else. So Doreen and Paul started singing at the home every day and dating every night. It was perfect, they were Burton and Taylor, but without the million dollars. Everything was great, soon they’d be engaged and so on. But there is always a fly in the ointment, don’t you know it girls. You see the Council didn’t have enough money to keep all the staff on, there had to be cuts. The Council had built a fancy new library, but could not afford to keep it open, they had in fact built a Prison for Books, not a place where books could be read. So to afford staff to keep the new fancy library open cuts would be made in other areas and money shuffled. This meant Doreen and Paul would lose their jobs.

What can we do? We could be strolling Minstrels suggested Paul who’d seen it on BBC4 the night before. So they sat on a bench outside the new fancy library, Doreen started to cry, Paul sung to console her, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. They sung more and more, Doreen stopped crying. They were about to move on but a few people had gathered so they carried on singing for each other. Taylor Burton had landed on a Birmingham street, the singing version.

More and more people gathered. Now next to where they sung was a 5 star hotel, so their voiced drifted upwards. It was a day off for JT and his crew while on a concert tour, but the sound of their voices was too much for them. A few dancers slipped out of the hotel and moved in time to Doreen and Paul’s singing. And still the songs drifted into the air, people started to film. On a Birmingham street. This had only happened once before when Anton Bollockoff danced the Ballet, when Birmingham is Ballet happened. But now, but now Doreen’s singing demanded attention. A few backing singers slipped out and arranged themselves behind Doreen and Paul, then followed her lead. Now Musicians Flock like Birds, so soon a band had formed behind Doreen.

Upstairs JT smiled and filmed putting it on his Twitter feed, Birmingham Rocks. But as you know JT has twisty feet, his singers, his dancers and his band were all on the street. So he grabbed a mac and a hat, he had to dance in the street. Doreen guested from his attire what song to sing, so on a Birmingham city centre street JT was singing and dancing Dancing in the Street.

JT followed her lead and was just the 3^rd Man and the Vienna Patisserie right behind him so he spun and smiled, him his mac and hat and the Vienna Patisserie. This went on for 30 mins, being broadcast live on JT Twitter feed. Then the manager whistled and they went back to the hotel carrying great cakes, they had their cake and they would eat it. Doreen and Paul waved goodbye but were dance frog marched inside the 5 star hotel with them.

To cut a story short, JT left a link to raise funds for the care home, so Doreen and Paul could keep their jobs. That would have been the happy ending but JT was troubled, she should share her talent with the world. So they became pen friends, and when he discovered she also wrote songs he spun and danced and almost pranced like a ballet dancer in Birmingham had done before. So in the end Doreen became a singer/songwriter and backing singer. She kept her job at the care home too. Paul was a hausfrau when the children came along, they called their kids: Peter, Paul and Mary.