The day has finally arrived. We were behind the stage of the Hollywood bowl. I was on this couch with Isom while the rest were busy with their own thing. Secretly, I was keeping an eye on him. He wasn’t as jumpy as usual, which was weird. I think everyone else noticed his weird behavior, but no one wanted to bother him. His pale face told everyone that he wasn’t in a good mood, but I think it’s not just that. He barely said a word and his eyes looked hollow. Something is wrong with Isom Innis and I’m worried. “Isom, are you sure you’re okay?” I finally asked,
“I am.” He murmured,
“You don’t look okay to me.”
He rolled his eyes, “Don’t worry about me, God.”
“Okay, I was just wondering.” I said in my defense.
“I’m sorry.” He sighed,
“No, it’s fine.” I replied,
“I-”
“I’m just worried about you, denim man.”
He smiled, “What are you worried about, kid?”
“I don’t even know, I’m just worried.”
“Worry about yourself, there’s nothing wrong with me.”
“There’s a whole lot of things to be worried about more than yourself.” I stated,
“I know.” He sighed,
“Why do you sigh so much?”
“I’m just tired, that’s all. I’ve been feeling tired lately.”
“Cheer up, you’re about to make people happy.”
“Thanks.” He smiled timidly, patting me on the knee.
“You’re going to do great.” I stood up,
He pulled my by the pants, “Wait!”
I stumbled, “What?”
“If you’re bored, you can talk to Dave.”
“Dave?”
“The security, he’s a nice guy behind all those muscles.”
“Okay, thanks for the heads up!” I patted him. I then went to go look for Pontius, “Hey, Andrew! Have you seen Pontius?”
“I’m looking for him too.” He replied,
“You go that way and I go the other way.”
“Good idea.” He agreed. I went around the back of the stage. What made me nervously amazed was how loud the place was. I could feel my ears ringing, and I won’t be surprised if I go deaf later on. After five minutes of looking for Pontius, I finally found him sitting near the stage entrance.
He turned and smiled, “Hey.”
“Hey.” I replied, “Are you nervous?”
“What do you think?”
“You look like you’re about to piss yourself.”
“Keen observation, kiddo.” He rolled his eyes, “Look at all the people out there.”
“I know, there must bet thousands of them.”
“Argh, I’m so nervous! I can’t even hear myself think!”
“You’re going to make it!” I nudged his side, “If you could survive me then you could survive this.”
“You’re probably right.”
“You’re going to do great.”
“Thanks.”
“Blow people’s mind.” I patted his back,
“I’ll try.”
“Pontius- hey, Ally!”
“Hey, Dylan.”
“Great to see you!”
“You too!”
“How are you?”
“Fine, thanks. You?”
“I’m great.”
“Dylan, what did you want to say to me?” Pontius interjected,
“You’re on in a minute, ready?”
Pontius nodded, “Ready.”
“Impress me.” I said to him,
“Okay.”
I kissed his cheek, “Good luck.”
“God bless my soul.” He exhaled nervously.
“By the way, can you do something for me?”
“Are you serious? You want me to do something at a time like this? When I’m about to piss myself?”
“Yup.” I nodded, “For me.”
“Okay, what do you want me to do?”
“Have you noticed something different about Isom?”
“Yea, what’s wrong with him?”
Don’t tell him, because you don’t want to freak him out. I pondered, “I don’t know, but I have my worries.”
“I’m worried about him too.”
“Keep an eye on him for me, incase anything happens.”
“Sure, I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“Thanks.”
“Pontius!” Dylan called, “Get your butt behind the drums right now! We’re about to start!”
“I guess that’s my cue.”
“Good luck, Ponsi!”
“Don’t call me Ponsi!”
“Okay.” I apologized, “Good luck, Mark Pontius.”
He kissed my cheek, “Thanks.”
“Mark, Cubbie, Sean, Isom!” Dylan boomed, “Get your butts down here!”
“Bless!” Pontius smacked Mark’s chest,
“Bless!” Mark replied, doing the same thing.
I am now witnessing their pre-concert ritual. This is amazing. I internally screamed inside,
“Jeez, guys, not so hard!” Isom cried when they did it to him,
“Make me proud!” I said to them,
“Will do!”
“Don’t mess up!” I smacked Pontius’s back,
“Don’t remind me!” He snuck behind the drums,
I gave him his drumsticks and smacked his shoulder, “Have fun.”
He winked back at me. God, that’s hot.
While they were on stage doing their thing, I stuck to Isom’s advice. I looked for a guy named Dave. All the security knew who I was and they were treating me with humble. They were treating me like we have known each other for a long time. They’d be like, ‘hey!’ and then I’ll be like, ‘hey!’ and so on and so forth. I eventually found Dave on the front row, keeping an eye on the chaotic audience. I snuck next to him and tapped his shoulder, “Isom said to go and look for you if I’m bored.”
He turned and smiled, “Isom said that?” He had thinning brown hair and a goatee.
I nodded, “I’m bored.”
“Well, so am I but I gotta keep my eyes open.”
“I understand.” I nodded, “You can’t predict these people.”
He snorted and rolled his eyes, “I know right!”
“I think it’s cool… Uh, this thing you’re doing right now.”
“Thanks.” He paused, “How did you meet those guys?”
“How did I meet them?” I asked to make sure and he nodded in response, “It’s actually a funny story.”
“How funny?” For a tough guy like him, he seems to smile a lot. Interesting.
“It was an accident.” I explained, “I was only fourteen and- you know how kids are.”
“Yup, got one myself.” He beamed,
“Wow, who’s the lucky kid?” I chuckled,
“She’s a few years younger than you, and she’s a music junkie.”
“Well, Dave.” I patted his broad shoulders, “She’s lucky to have a dad with a job like this.”
“She’s smart enough to take it as an advantage!” He shook his head,
“I knew it.” I smirked, “I think your daughter and I have the same way of thinking.”
“She once snuck behind stage and Earl caught her.”
“Bummer.”
“He came to me with her on his shoulders.”
“Ouch.”
He shrugged, “But hey, that’s the kind of things you do when you’re young.”
“Way to keep the spirit, Dave!” I fist pumped. By the time we ran out of topics, the audience somehow got louder. All the securities were on their feet as they were bracing themselves. I have never been in this situation before, it was chaotic.
“You might want to watch out.” Dave warned. Right on cue, the front row started to push against the barricade and it started to rattle. I watched with wide eyes of alarm. They had their hands extended like they could reach the stage and they were shouting something I couldn’t figure out. Then I turned towards the stage and knew why the audience became so wild. Mark was about to hop off stage and crowd surf. Rock and Roll.
Uh oh, here comes trouble. I rolled my eyes at Mark and his ridiculousness. He hopped off stage and walked around, avoiding the clawing hands of wild screaming girls. I am deaf, seriously, some loud shit we got here. Mark was in safe distance, giving some of them high fives and fist bumps while the others shove their phones at his face to get a decent picture. I guess it was worth the try because I saw someone’s phone fell to the ground and the next thing I now, it was gone. He stopped by me, “Hey!”
“Hey!” His voice was filled with exhaustion and at the same time, perkiness.
“You’re sweating, like, a lot. I mean, don’t stand too close to me.”
“Ouch.” He grimaced,
I nodded, “Just so you know.”
“WILL YOU JUST ADOPT HER ALREADY?” A random fan yelled on top of her lungs,
Mark turned, “Yea, if you could get the papers for me, that’d be great. Thanks.”
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY MAN!” I heard someone else yell,
“I’m hers.” Mark jerked his thumb at me,
I smacked his back, “You did not just say that!”
“Well, I just did.” He shrugged,
“You’re going to get me killed!”
“Are you okay?” He ignored me, “We got one more song left.”
“Had your fun?”
“I had a blast tonight.” He grinned,
“You did great.”
“You should probably head to the back and go get some drinks or something, you’ve stayed here for two hours.”
“More than that, actually.”
“My point exactly.”
“What point?”
“I know that you’re chronic asthmatic and I’m not letting you stay here any longer. I also know that you hate being around too many people, especially the pushy ones. So I’m sending you back.”
“You do know me.” I smirked,
“Of course I do.” He smiled, “Dave, bring her backstage, she’s being stubborn.”
“I wasn’t being stubborn!” I protested,
“You’re right, you have the same way of thinking with my little girl.” Dave said to me before picking me up like a sack and brought me backstage,
“DAVE! PUT ME DOWN!”
He cackled, “Okay, calm down.”
I slid off him, “Thanks, but that wasn’t necessary.”
“You could sit with Joe and Larry if you want.” He notified,
“Joe and Larry?”
“The audio and the lighting guy. It’s a great view from over there.” He explained briefly, “They’ll let you press the buttons if you want.”
“I can?” I was getting excited. I have always liked seeing the technical work behind the scenes of a successful concert.
“You can.” He chuckled, “They’re behind there.” He pointed,
“Thanks, Dave!”
“Don’t mention it! Now, go on!” He shooed,
“Okay, thanks.” I turned towards the direction where he told me to go. I snuck around and ended up next stage where Joe and Larry were. They were like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum with a black T-shirt that said ‘CREW’ and they looked so cute. Tweedle Dum turned as I hovered behind them for a few minutes,
“Well, hello there!” He waved,
I waved back, “Hello!”
“I’m Joe.” He extended his hand,
I took it, “Ally.”
“Ah, the Foster Kid.”
“The Foster Kid?”
“That’s what the crew calls you. Dylan and Andrew came up with it.” He explained, “Oh, and this is Larry!”
“Hi!”
“Hi, Larry.” I smiled, “So, who does who in here?”
“I’m responsible for the audio systems and Joe’s responsible for the lightings.”
I looked around, studying the new environment. The view was amazing; you could see the whole stage and the front row of the audience. I could see everything crystal clear in high definition. I could see that Mark was being pulled into different directions, as he got too close to the audience. Everything looked great, as if nothing was wrong but the concert wasn’t over yet. “You could see everything from here!”
“I know right!” Joe agreed,
“The best seat in the house.” Larry added,
“Do you want to do the honors of twisting this knob right here?” Joe asked, pointing at a gigantic knob.
“What does it do?”’
“Magic!” He whispered dramatically,
I rolled my eyes, “Come on, I’m not six here.”
“Okay, it controls the master spotlight.” He explained, “If you twist it, the whole place will light up.”
“Well, I’m honored.” I smiled sheepishly,
“Go on.” He motioned,
I shakily placed my hand on the knob and turned it toward the direction desired, “How’s that?”
“Watch.” He pointed,
I watched, “God, that’s beautiful.” I murmured. The whole place lit up beautifully and the audience got louder with excited adrenaline. Best thing I have ever done, ever, in my whole life, seriously.
“Do you want to make Mark’s keys sound louder?”
“How loud?”
“Loud enough so the people across the world can hear it.” He wiggled his eyebrows,
I shrugged, “Why not?”
“Right here, if you please.” He pointed at one of the switches,
I pushed it upwards the time when Mark started to hit the keys, “I feel like a kid in a toy store!”
“You’re not bad for a beginner.”
“Wasn’t that easy?” Larry chuckled,
“It wasn’t bad.” I shrugged. And thus, the dawn of the most epic concert that this planet has ever seen. You are welcome.