"Maybe we should wait," Jackie called in. "He'll probably want to take pictures of us while Lulu's interviewing us. We don't know how long he's going to take anyway and we might be halfway through by the time he comes back-"
Abruptly and magically, the door was opened and there was Clyde, showing me that he managed to get his vintage camera back.
"Saved by Clyde," Jermaine chuckled, leaning over to poke Jackie's arm. Jackie frowned, rolling his eyes and proceeding to greet Clyde who I remembered already knew the Jackson 5.
"Right on man, right on," Tito nodded his head, quickly using his fist in a routine with Jermaine's. I guessed that seeing Jackie was the oldest, he was the wisest and made the right decisions. And that must've gotten on the brothers' nerves once in a while. I liked how he took responsibility. It portrayed him more as a man and father figure than I ever thought of him to be.
Subsequent to Clyde discussing and catching up with them, he took his place by the window and adjusted his camera, letting me know that I could start with the interview. Nervously, I rested on one foot at a time, embarassed at the eyes that were on me, expecting me to start.
"Would you like to take a seat?" Marlon asked, raising up from the chair.
"No, thank you for asking. I'm fine standing," I smiled, loving his politeness. But I knew that I wouldn't be fine standing up. I'd probably buckle and trip, falling onto one of them. That was a nightmare and a horror story rolled into one.
"Girl, sit," Marlon instructed softly, moving away from the chair. He placed a hand on my waist, gently pushing me down onto the seat. I knew my cheeks were scorching-I endeavoured not to look up from the brass button on my bag. Crossing my legs, I smoothed down springy baby strands from the front of my hair. Shyly, I gave him my thanks and with shaking fingers, I took out my notebook.
"Marlon I see you with that. Don't be trying to act older than your age," Jermaine jokingly sang, strumming a simple tune on the guitar. Anyone could tell that he really loved playing the string instrument.
"Just tryna treat the lady with respect," Marlon raised his hands in surrender, sitting behind Tito. I pretended to be oblivious from their dialogue and flicked through blank pages so I wouldn't end up making a fool of myself.
"And ain't you doing well," Tito barged in, violently patting Marlon's back resulting him quietly yelping in pain.
"Are we going to start now? Or are you gonna keep troubling her?" Clyde enquired, causing the laughter and speech to slowly die down. It felt quite weird to know that the boys I admired were in the same room with me, involved in a convo that I was primarily the topic of. Somehow, a little humiliation ran through me. I didn't know why they were acting this way-I thought of it rather kind but it was peculiar. Were they this friendly and outgoing with others?Immediately, I remembered that I was told to be myself and they were just normal people like me. My intuition (but I had ignored it then) believed that they would act differently because of a fame status.
They were exactly like me.
"Alright man, let's start then," Jermaine smirked, his eyes glancing over at me. I took out my pen and came across a new page that came after the list of questions, ready to write down a story which would soon appear in the news.
"What do you do about schooling?" I questioned in a slightly shaky tone, removing the lid.
Jermaine answered this question, somewhat coolly. "We have a tutor. She's called Rose. It's alright-we have three, four hours of it. It is a change but we've kind of gotten used to it." I nodded, scribbling down his reply. My heart jumped, I was relieved that it wasn't my body, at the sound of the camera clicking; I made sure that I was comfortable and had a nice appearance in my seat-these pictures were going to be in magazines and newspapers, I couldn't afford to mess up.
"Do you ever find time to watch your cartoon shows? I watch it all the time and they're exactly like you-it's amazing," I sheepishly told them, wondering if I was becoming too needy and desperate.
Jackie laughed a little. "I'm happy that you like them. Yeah, we do," he pointed at all of his brothers, "we all do."
"What do you like about singing in general?"
"You get to go to places," Jackie answered again; another click went off but this time I didn't react. I was more at ease, knowing that this interview was flowing without any errors in sight.
"And meet people like you," Jermaine added, giving me a wry smile.
"It's fun. You get to discover things that you've never heard of or ever been to. It's wonderful to get in touch with the outer world and beyond," Marlon exclaimed, clasping his hands.
"We all dig it-travelling, you name it. It's incredible where singing and playing instruments can lead you to. Meeting the fans is pretty sweet too-it's nice to hear that thousands of people appreciate our music," Tito nodded, playing with the rings that were slid on his index and middle finger.
"Being able to share emotions in depth with all sorts of people. I feel like people can connect with us through music if they can't through verbal dialogue. I guess it's the sensation of being on top of the world when you sing and making others feel the same way too," Michael chimed quietly, his sparkling eyes slowly watching me as I looked into his and then down, scribing his answer down onto the smooth paper. It was as if I were connecting with the boys on a ultimate level and getting even more closer to them than just hugging a poster or magazine.
Although I had millions of questions to ask them I had just one that I seriously needed to ask right at this moment of after hearing Michael's deep answer. "I know this is what you feel but what do you feel has changed for you ever since you've entered the music industry?"
"Practically everything," Jackie briefly responded, receiving murmurs of agreement from his brothers.
Judging by the look of curiosity that was written all over my face and the slow tapping of my pen, Jackie let out a little exhale and decided to be more specific by extending his two words into a proper explanation.
"Our schedule is no longer the same as before. Our lifestyles are always shifting around and revolve around rehearsals, interviews, conferences and concerts. We don't receive as much time for education as we usually did before and that results in us having to catch up quite a lot. We can't just walk down the street happily without getting bombarded with violent people that refuse to let go of you. We're always moving and this has taught us to be strong as we're away from our mother and our sisters quite often. We barely see our friends too. I mean...you wouldn't expect five boys from Gary Indiana to make it this far would you? You're always put down as the person who will live there for eternity with the most boring job in the world. You're not going to be who you truly want to be. This makes you not think further than being worthless. It's weird to come to think of it. "
"One minute you're a person who no-one pays attention to; then abruptly, you're labelled as unstoppable and suddenly...you're all over the world."
