127:A

He pressed my lips with his and I tasted mint, and lemon and excitement and frenzy. It would have been enough, but he looked hard into my eyes and then buried his hands in my hair and kissed me again and again.

Then he pulled my ear close so he could say something. "I thought it would make you happy. Dylan left today. Levi is our new drummer and Jeremy is playing keys tonight, but we'll work with him later on guitars."

"No way!"

He was nodding, this big grin in place. "I knew that would make you happy."

I nodded, relieved, and excited for Jeremy and Levi. "Hey, knock 'em dead out there!" I pushed him toward the stage, and his bright energy flared once more like a brand, a flame in my hands.

He wore his leather jacket over a gray t-shirt, and black jeans with holes in them, black shoes. And when he came on stage the crowd, already loud, went wild. The guys were already out there, but behind me someone tapped my shoulder and started fixing me up with an EIM--- ear monitor and mini-mic. I slapped their hands away and they laughed.

"Rafe insists that you wear this, to reduce stage noise, and so he can talk to you."

I held still and then followed this young half man half woman person to a place side stage where I couldn't see very well, but I could see the TV monitors, and the sound equipment and lighting technicians and what they were doing. Suddenly this became very, very interesting to me.

"This is being filmed?"

"Yes. And tomorrow in Guadalajara. The venue seats thirty-three thousand. It's the third largest show we're doing."

"You're making like-- a show video?"

"Professional, to sell."

"I can't see."

The person tapped the screens in front of them. "Watch from here tonight."

I could hear just fine. Rafe had started the beat and they were off. I knew it would be about seven songs until they came up for air and he introduced the band, and thanked the audience profusely for coming. The screaming was non-stop. I could see why he had to wear the ear plugs to filter out the crowd noise and the terrible pressure of the stage speakers. Rockers and other musicians had had damage to their hearing from being on stage during loud concerts. Rafe always wore his ear piece in when he played guitar, and took it out when he encouraged the audience to sing along. Which was like almost every song--- since their songs were so well known and popular.

I watched this way--- the making of a music video, or a concert video. I'd never seen anything so complicated or amazing, and I was suddenly fascinated by the amount of technical experience these guys were putting together.

The concert went so fast. I was still sitting there watching after the last encore, there was movement all around me, but I was barely aware, so interested was I in their lighting and sound mixing. It wasn't a wrap yet. There were still backstage cameras on the guys and would be a little longer, as they greeted people with passes, hugged and gathered and drank their waters, and howled. I saw and heard Rafe howl right close by, and I looked up and he was howling at me!

I jumped up, throwing myself into his arms exuberantly, totally captivated by his stage presence and the technical camera induced way he'd been exploited and changed. It was hard to believe I had grown up with an even more famous mother, and sisters, and others and had no clue what they went through. I guess there weren't enough mother daughter days at work for me to really get it.

Rafe's hands under my backside holding me to him were firm and secure. He twirled and then sank backwards until I thought we'd fall over, but he was pumped, completely in control and completely wired. Holding him was like holding a live wire.

He let me down, and held my face to his as he kissed me roughly, far more enthusiastically than might have been common under these circumstances. "You did amazing!" I yelled above the roar of people and music.

"Thanks! You liked it?"

"I always like it, but tonight I loved it!" He was leading me even further back stage to an area I'd never been, and he kept our hands twined, even when Ben came up and put his arm around me, hugging me like a little sister.

There was a lot of exuberant moving around, and talking and hugging and people partying, handing us drinks and stuff--- I didn't even know what. Every time someone handed me something I just turned and handed it back to Jake. I don't know what he did with it. It seemed like a happy forever till we were back in the dressing rooms. And then it was like--- okay, time to go.

We packed our little bags, and hurried out the doors to the buses. It seemed like only moments till we were rolling.

There was an after concert buzz going around.

Everybody was high. Everybody was laughing and happy. It didn't even settle down right away as it had before. I was just as excited, and talking about my discoveries with the cameras and the audio and the lightning.

"I don't know who you were with, but baby, the sound and lightning crew are all down house front." Mutt said with his beer in his hand.

I looked askance at Rafe who said I was with the video crew set up just for these two nights, here and in Guadalajara.

"What are you guys doing tomorrow? I see you added Jeremy and Levi to our roster. Dylan's going home huh?"

"Yeah, he packed his bags, and moved to a hotel. Said he can't stand the Mormon atmosphere, now that I'm here." I stated, lifting my bottled water and clinking it with Jeff's.

"Now that you're here?" Jeff laughed.

"You know... back in the 70's touring bands got a rough rep. Drugs and women and more drugs and more women. The groupies, man, and the drugs and shit." Mutt looked at me. "Oh, shit." And he shook his head and stuffed two fives in my velvet bag.

"But there's no way to make any money in the studio anymore. If we want to make any money, we have to tour." Rafe took a swig of his water. "And we have to be good, and not demanding, and not destructicons."

"Decepticons." Ben corrected, "But I get what you're saying."

"No drugs. Drugs are so passé, so blindly idiotic."

"People still drink." Mutt lifted his beer.

"I'm not sure that's considered drinking." Rafe said and then turned to look at me. "Okay, it is."

"Well, you make money on concerts, and sales of concert souvenirs. That's really about it." Mutt swigged his can anyway, kicking off his stinky shoes.

"Now I want to watch Transformers." Ben said, thumbing through his little canvas folder of movies. "Pretty sure I brought it."

"It's a good night for it." Rafe said. "We have to get to bed early, because some of us have an early morning."

The bus slowed and finally stopped and I looked out the window to see if we were at a truck stop getting fuel or what. Instead the bus in front of us had stopped also, and I saw lights blinking.

"What's going on?" Rafe went forward to see if anyone knew why we'd stopped.

There was a knock at the door and then Holli opened it and Jeremy and Levi were there, Jeremy sporting a black eye and a cut on his lip, and Levi looking red in the face and almost crying. "What's up?" Rafe was to them before Holli could say a word.

"Conger moved into our bus, and Ray and Monty are going home. They say we busted up the band playing for you guys and saying we'd keep playing now that Dylan's gone."

Rafe took Jeremy's bag and pulled him back to the sleeping area. He moved some stuff off an unused bunk and thrust it into the corner cabinets to the side of each bunk. Ben got up and helped, while I got out my first aid kit and told Jeremy to come back into the light where I could see his injuries. He looked almost as bad as I did.

"What happened?" I asked as the bus drivers started filling out paper work on who was riding in what bus. And who was no longer riding at all. In the end money spoke the universal travel language.

"Ray freaked out. Plus, he was really pissed that we had to be in Guadalajara so early, and that me and Levi were planning to go to the temple walk with you guys. He is sick of all the excursions and feels like we should be taking the time to work on songs and stuff. But I don't feel any creative energy coming off him. I feel more like creating after I've been out with you guys. I think everybody feels that way. Even if we're not working on writing or singing after we've been out it feels like there's more to write and sing about when we get home. I just write down my impressions. What you guys are doing is ten times more stimulating than sitting in the bus. Even if we are tired."

I cleaned up the heavily bruised area, there were no cuts-- and checked his mouth. It was a neat, but not heavy sucker punch. Kind of like what I'd received. Not really damaging except to the surface layers.

When we came out of the bathroom, Rafe and Jeff had pulled up their sleeves and were comparing tattoos. Ben was getting ready to pull his up also. Nice views of well defined shoulders were appealing to my eye, and I asked what in the world they were doing.

"We got matching tattoos when we were kids." Rafe pulled his t-shirt back all the way practically to his neck. There were two birds twined together with some circular flowers and a sword right through the center. Ben and Jeff had them too. Rafe's was darker than the others. This was of supreme interest.

Ben slipped Transformers into the DVD player and the guys settled down to watch. Levi sat on the floor, he pulled out his beer and popped the top casually. "Sorry to barge in on you guys."

"Don't be sorry man, good riddance to them all."

"We'll have to wait here till Manuel and Lavon get back from town. They got to take them to the motel." Jeremy said.

"They ain't taking your gear, right?"

"Nah, they said they want out. We have to buy them out. I called my bank already."

"Did you talk to Rich Wilson? He's our lawyer. He'll get you on contract for the tour with us." Rafe said. "By the way, that reminds me I wanted to talk to you guys about something. Come into my office." Which meant he wanted Jeff, Mutt and Ben to come into the hallway between lounges.

"So, what will happen to Gunn?" I asked Levi.

"They're backing out of the tour. Sucks. But Conger and King Ruff agreed already to play our sets. We didn't play every night. It was kind of expensive for us to be out here opening for Axis, and not playing every night anyway. King Ruff was saying they could only do half the tour that way, but now they might stay—do every other gig."

Mutt, Jeff and Ben came out of the hallway after a few seconds, asking what they'd missed on the show, and we backed it up. Ben was on his phone. I looked down the hall and Rafe was also on his phone. I figured it was close to – or past midnight.

"I'm gonna go to bed, guys." I got up and said good night to them all. There were some protests, but I reminded them that we – some of us—had to be up really early.

I changed into pajamas, and brushed my teeth, then Rafe joined me in the bunk.

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