Music in My Heart: My Journey with Melody

Climbing into the Mustang’s backseat, I notice it smells brand new, with red leather seats and a red steering wheel. Melody says it’s a 1964 Ford Mustang, and Daddy calls it the most popular car of the year. She tells Dwayne to turn on the radio.

Dwayne starts the engine and reaches for the radio. As soon as the music flows from the speakers, Melody recognizes the song. It’s The Temptations. Dwayne rolls down his window halfway and says that pretty soon, Melody will hear a lot more of him on the radio too. He looks proud as a peacock. Melody teases that people will soon be running his errands, and I add they’ll treat him like a king, since pop stars are sometimes more famous than kings and queens. I once saw Zoey Gatz walking down a red carpet at an awards show.

Dwayne chuckles and says that’s about right, except for the king part. No Black musician gets treated like a king on the road, especially in the South, whether it’s The Temptations or Smokey Robinson himself. Melody nods solemnly and tells me that when Dwayne toured down south, Black musicians couldn’t stay in the same hotels as White people and had to use clubs’ back doors instead of the front.

I’m astonished. Zoey Gatz is Black too, but I can’t imagine a hotel ever turning her away. Suddenly, a siren swells behind us, and red and blue lights flash through the back window.

I ask if it’s a fire truck, but Melody says it’s the police, her eyes wide. Dwayne pulls the car to the side of the street. His eyes in the rearview mirror look scared, but his mouth sets in a hard line. I wonder if he did something wrong.

A police officer taps on the window next to Dwayne, and another appears on my side of the car. Dwayne rolls down his window, and the officer glances into the backseat at me and Melody. My stomach tightens and I look away. The officer asks if it’s Dwayne’s car. The other officer says there’s no way a boy like him could drive a car like this. I wonder what he means by “a boy like him.” Does he think Dwayne is too young to drive?

The first officer orders Dwayne to answer, and I realize by his voice that he thinks Dwayne stole the car.

Dwayne politely says he’s borrowing the car from a friend, but the officer doesn’t believe him and threatens to take Dwayne down to the station unless he gives a name. Melody’s hand finds mine, trembling. Dwayne’s voice stays steady as he says the car belongs to Mr. James Hartman down at Hitsville, a producer.

The officer stares hard at Dwayne for what feels like an eternity, then says he’ll need Dwayne to step out of the car. I freeze, unable to breathe. Is Dwayne going to be arrested?