Thunderbowl - Lesley Choyce [12]
“Yeah, me,” I said. I told her about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. I told her about storming out of the house and my talk with Langford. Just hearing it out loud made me realize how lost and confused I was.
She gave me a long look. “You know, when this recording scout shows up, I bet he’s going to sign you guys up. You’re really good. After that, things won’t seem so bad.”
Her confidence made me feel a bit better. “Are you going to The Dungeon tonight?” I asked her.
“I don’t know,” Suzanne said. “I was thinking about quitting that scene. I’ve spent too much time there, wasting my life. I should do something else with my evenings. Maybe I’ll go back to school.”
“Are you serious?” I said. “Why?”
“Yeah. You’ve been good for me. Made me realize I could be doing more with my life.” She smiled.
“That’s great. That’s just wonderful,” I told her. Honestly, the changes in Suzanne confused me. “But could you just be there tonight? For me?”
“Why?” She looked puzzled.
“I could really use a friend around tonight,” I said. “And I think I’ll go nuts if I have to sit around backstage by myself.”
“Sure. Okay,” she said as she pulled up in front of The Dungeon. “I’ll see you back here at the end of the first set.”
I gave her a quick kiss and climbed out of the car. As she drove off, I began to think that I had missed something about Suzanne before. Because she was older, I had figured she was smarter than me. Now I understood that she was mixed up and struggling to do the right thing, just like me. I was glad she wanted out of The Dungeon. But I knew I didn’t want her out of my life.
That night Al and Drek were really wired for sound. They were pretty pumped about quitting their jobs and the prospect of a scout coming to hear us. They had flown away to rock-and-roll heaven, but I was full of doubts. And I couldn’t get my act together. I was half a beat off at the beginning of every song.
The crowd could tell we weren’t on the money, but something else was wrong as well. Richie and Ike were sitting in the corner, giving us the evil eye.
I tried to concentrate on the music, but I hit a couple of wrong notes.
Richie yelled, “You guys stink!”
Ike took up the cause and shouted, “Throw the bums off the stage!”
Somebody in the crowd told them to shut up, but they didn’t. Instead, they stood up and kept on with the insults. Finally, a guy who looked a lot like a biker grabbed Richie from behind. Richie turned and slugged the guy. Then The Dungeon started to go crazy. Other guys were getting into the fight. Girls were screaming. Some idiot started heaving beer glasses around the room.
“Keep playing!” Stewy yelled at us. “Try to calm them down.” He and the bouncers were trying to break up the worst of it but not having much luck.
I saw a girl take a spill and get cut pretty bad. Then a glass whizzed past Drek’s head and smashed against the wall. He threw what was left of it back into the crowd. It could have hit anyone.
I stopped playing in the middle of the song and went backstage, disgusted.
Suzanne was waiting for me back there. We waited for the noise out front to die down. Only it didn’t. I had a quick look out and saw that Al and Drek had waded in and were now part of the brawl. And somewhere out there in the battle were The Mongrel Dogs.
Suzanne suggested we get out of there before the cops came in the front door. I didn’t have any better ideas. As the screams got louder, we slid out the stage door and got into her car.
Suzanne drove me to Al’s apartment. I had nowhere else to go. We sat out on the back steps and waited for him to show up. At last he came up the sidewalk, and Suzanne got up to go. She gave me a kiss on the forehead.
Al was laughing. “You should have seen what I did to Richie. He never knew what hit him.”
“Spare me the details, Al,” I said. His shirt was torn and he had dried blood at the corner of his mouth. “You mind if I crash here for the night?” I asked.
“No sweat, Germy.” He unlocked the door and let me into a living