"Wake up miss. We're landing soon."
I open my eyes but I'm surrounded by darkness. "I'm not on a plane. I'm in a tour bus driving to Montreal."
"That's where you're wrong, dearie. That's where you're wrong." The darkness fades as a cool wind blows through, making me shiver. Now I sea the speaker, an old crone wrapped in black cloaks.
"But that's impossible." We've been planning this tour for weeks and weeks with our manager Jeff. This woman was wrong.
"Nothings impossible if you try." She leans forward, cackling. I want to scream but I can't. She sense that I'm scared and grins, showing yellow teeth. "Time to wake up..."
The darkness is coming back and I'm scared. "Wake up…"
I turn my head and look back, only to see smoky hands grab at me. I open my mouth to yell but the hand covers my face, calling me to it.
"Come…come, yes my pretty, come. Stop fighting the dark…join it."
I have no clue what he's trying to say but it scares me anyway.
"Wake up…" The voices are getting louder and I don't know where they are coming from.
"Wake up Mandy!"
"Huh?" With a jolt I'm back on the tour bus, my band mates staring back at me. "What?"
Becca laughs. "Calm down you silly goose. In a minute I was going to pull out the drums and blast you out of bed."
You did already. "Thanks, I think?"
"Come on! Time to wake up sleepyhead!" I'm the sleeper in our band. I like my rest.
"Yah Mandy. We need our bassist to be ready to rumble and tumble all over the place." Suzy smiles. She knows that she's hit my personal oxymoron. I love to sleep; yet I'm all over the place with back-up singing, bass, and gymnastics. I stick my tongue out at her and Kaylee giggles.
"Common sleepy girl."
"But my beautiful bed…" Okay, so it's not all that beautiful. It's a rock-solid cot that has lumps here and there. But I made most of those by taking it off the frame and placing it on the floor for tumbling practice.
"We're almost there," says Suzy. "We have time for one last rehearsal, if you want to relax. Right Kaylee?"
Kaylee checks her watch, and after a minute of pondering the time zones, she smiles. "Yah. We've got about three or so hours left."
"But…my energy is waning…let me sleep!" They all laugh. Next they'll be threatening me, you'll see.
I knew it. "Get up or kiss BZ bye-bye!" Becca winks and waves my bass in the air. She wouldn't. One look in her eyes makes me reconsider.
"Fine then. Hand me my baby." Becca passes it to me; my beautiful pinky-gray bass guitar warm in my hands. We're all ready to rock, hooked up to the amp and everything. All our gear is set up the best we can in our modified tour bus. It's arranged around the two two-level bunks and the loft bed, the bathroom, the generator, fridge, microwave, stove, phone, and the driver's area. Our luggage is in the upper and lower compartments. Jeff, who is our current driver-seeing as we don't want to pay for one-, reserves a small section just for him known as the 'Driver's Zone.' Lame, but effective.
"Ready?" Becca's at the drums, Suzy's got her pinky-orange sunrise guitar, and Kaylee's set herself up at the mike beside mine.
"As ready as I'll ever be, Bec."
"You sound as if you're going to meet the executioner!"
"Maybe I am."
Suzy cuts in. "A one, a two..."
Don't cry baby
It's not worth the tears
Cuz you're never gonna make it big
Stuck in your garage
You're never gonna make it big
And show the world what you've got
Cuz that's what they all say
That's what they all say!
Kaylee sings her heart out about a girl rock band trying to make it big and rocking the world, despite the people who say they can't. That's our story, the story of the Nervy Bs. When we started last year, in our hometown of Fredericton, no one thought we'd make it, rocking out in Becca's basement-the drum kit took too much effort to move. But here we are now, our single was released last month, we drive all over the place in our wicked tour bus.
Great. Suzy's set herself for another 'I have an idea and I'll think you'll like this one…' rant. But before she can open her mouth, Jeff turns around in his seat behind the wheel.
"Don't start Suzy. We're almost there." Suzy opens her mouth as the light changes to green. Jeff turns back to face the road. "Sorry girls. Green means go."
"Jeff...never mind." She turns to us. "Boys will be boys."
I laugh. Usually Suzy fires up the cannons and practically murders poor Jeff. Instead of replying, I stroke my guitar. I called it BZ for no real reason, really. It just happened. Sort-of like how Becca's drum set is called 'Rio Ka Bam,' Suzy's guitar is 'TjLilly,' Kaylee's mike is 'The Soulster,' and mine is 'S. -up." No clue how my mike got its name, but that's beside the point.
Becca runs her finger over her drumsticks. "I think that I'll call one 'Ting' and the other 'Slam.' "
"Why bother? You won't be able to tell them apart anyway." Suzy leans on Kaylee's shoulder, tugging on her curly wavy hair.
"That's beside the point."
"Do what you want Becca!" Kaylee and I chorus, grinning at each other.
"I think I shall, thank you very much." Becca grins and pulls out a black marker. We write the names that we choose on all our equipment-BZ is on the back of my bass's neck in washable marker; just incase I don't like it in twenty years.
"We'll be there in an hour!" Jeff shouts as we zip down the highway, rocketing towards Montreal.
"Thanks," Kaylee says, starting to pack up our gear.
"Need some help?" I stand up, knees trembling.
"Yah sure."
Pretty soon we're all pitching in, packing up all our gear, shoving it under the bed. In about ten minutes we're all stretched out on the floor.
"Mandy…" Becca calls.
"Yeah?"
"You can sleep now."
"Umm…thanks?"
Great. Now the dream floats back into my head, calling to me. Hard as I try, I can't forget the eerie old lady. What could she want with me?
Hold up, Mandy. It was just a dream. It's not like the lady will be back.
"We're there." Jeff's up and walking over to us.
"Wow. An hour's gone by already?" Kaylee says.
"I budgeted that time in case I got lost, as usual."
We all laugh. Jeff, as nice and as smart as he is, is a complete foreigner to maps. He doesn't understand the concept of lines on a folded up piece of paper. "Wow, Jeff. Ready for your next lesson?" Becca teases.
"No, not really."
Suzy nudges me and hands me my suitcase. "Let's blow this popstand."