BAE BOY

2-24

Halley was speechless. She just froze. And then she put her hands on her cheeks and said, "I'm sorry. I just...I can't even."

Yoshi and I went on over and he gave her the bow and the little intro he always does--I have a feeling Halley didn't hear any of it, though. It took her a good ten minutes to recover from just seeing her idol in the doorway. In the flesh.

Dylan and the gang weren't so shy, though. I'd told them where to meet us, and they came running right up and tried out some of their Japanese greetings on him.

He listened politely, bowed to each one and said, "Konichiwa! Dozo yoroshiku," which I'd learned meant something like, "Good afternoon. Happy to meet you?" (You can also just say, "Hashimashte.")

The girls just giggled and glowed. I think one of them asked him about his jacket--another one of his crazy ones. I kind of forget which, though, because I was still in such a weird state of mind. But once they'd gushed and groveled a while, Halley finally said, "You guys, we have some things to talk about, okay? So, let's wrap it up for now."

And they groaned and hit me with a few questions right quick about about some stuff they'd read somewhere. People who'd been to Tucson to talk to us about different projects.

I found myself able to think clearly enough to answer. And I also remembered that I had some gifts for them in the car. So we made a quick run, and they oooed and aaahed over the t shirts, CDs and stuff. We were getting big boxes of PR stuff from different artists and labels and whatnot. More than any of us would ever get through.

And they made my tokidokis so happy I don't think they suspected anything weird was going on with me. Such hugs and kisses. That healed me, too. All that love.

When I got back, Halley said, "Friends for life, you've got there."

"I hope so. They're some fierce little women."

"But they are not like the others," Yoshi said.

"Yeah, you know, they're sort of the outliers here," I said. "But they hold their own."

"Well, let's get this show on the road, guys," Halley said. "Not much to see, though."

We gave him a tour of the Media Arts building. Or Halley did, while I sort of zombie walked behind them. I kept going in and out of the fog. Sort of ping ponging between their world and the one I'd left Kendall in.

I knew Kendall was going to grill me about everything later, mostly just to see if I'd been "in it" as she called it. Being really "in it" was being totally focused on what you're doing, in her lingo.

If you weren't "in it" with her, she'd ask you who you'd run off with. "Who took you away from me?" she asked me once. And I didn't know what to say. But after a while, I got the idea.

So I kept forcing myself to come back to where we were. The moment at hand. And one time, I came back just in time to hear something really cool that Yoshi said when Halley was showing him some of the outdated equipment she cannibalized to keep things running.

"To know how to do these things the old way, the steps to where it is now, that is like the way you sometimes have to do exercise before you can dance," he told her. "Or how you must practice the scales before you play or sing. The ones who have worked up from there, who have a solid foundation, they have a deeper appreciation and far more skill. They can grow and adapt. Also, if there is a problem, they can call upon this knowledge. They are not helpless, if something doesn't work the way it should. They know what to do."