Jem…Chapter 172

*Before…

He looks lost and he shakes it off and then looks at us. “So you girls might have to testify you know that.”

We’re nodding and I say. “I know, hopefully though it’ll be all in one go.”

He nods. “So are you girls still going to play your gig tonight?”

The last town cruiser is pulling away with Randy in the back and he’s upright again and has his face pressed angrily to the window and he glares at Brooklyn and Mike and all of us and he’s staring at me long and hard as they’re pulling away with him.

I give him the finger. “Yeah, Hell yeah we’re still going to play.”

I don’t even have to look to feel the others nodding and I can even just sort of feel all of them giving him the finger too.

*And Now…

We still end up milling together for a few minutes and Rayne’s leaning on me and I’m leaning on her and her posture shifts and then I’m kind of gently pushed against Dad’s truck and I look at Rayne who’s staring at me and she’s got this huge smile on her face and she’s crying too.

“Rayne?”

“You came.”

“You were late.”

“You came, nobody comes for me, no one ever has.”

I slip my hands to her waist and sort of sink my fingers up under her work shirt warming them on her skin.

We looking at each other and we’re falling into each other’s eyes and people around us are doing things but at the same time they’re sort of fading away and her hand slides up to cradle my face in her touch and she kisses me.

It’s long and sweet and she’s still crying and yet it’s a good cry I think one of those kinds of kisses that’s like a really good song…It’s like being kisses by a Tracy Chapman song, like being kissed by *Sing for you.*

I can feel her shiver in my arms and as she’s pressed up to me and she breaks the kiss.

“I love you.” She says with a sniffle-smile.

I’m blushing and I’m getting wet eyed myself because the emotions are so strong right now.

“I love you too.”

“You came for me, you came for me and you fought for me.”

I smile at her and pull her tighter to me by her waist. “Well there was a lot more than just me.”

“No…well yeah but that guy was really trying to hurt me and you can in and you stopped him…you fought him…then you saved me from that car that night when we were first getting started.”

Okay what do you say to that?

I mean I was there sure and I want to be there but it’s…I’m comfortable on stage not on a pedestal.

So yeah I’m blushing.

“I…Uhm…”

Rayne kisses me again this time she’s slipping inside between my lips and she does that thing with her tongue that makes my brain go all smooshy in good ways.

And she’s pressed close to me and I’m really not feeling all those little aches and pains right now.

And we do that until we’re getting coughed at by Dad and Kimmie because Mike and Brooklynn and Molly and Carmen were doing the same things as Rayne and I were.

Kimmie gives all a pouty look. “No fairs.”

And Dad supports her with. “If you’re going to make the Pine Tree then you should get a start now and everything.”

We get into the vehicles and we start to drive back going Rayne’s usual route and she’s driving and it doesn’t take too long before we’re pulling into the house.

Billy and Davey aren’t there so I’m going to assume it’s to do with them taking off with the other bikers that we seen them with.

I’m sore and so are the others I can tell now after we had the drive home to sort of cool down from all of the adrenaline and the intense stuff that we’ve just been through and we get out of the vehicles and we head inside and we all sort of make for the showers while Molly and Kimmie are heating supper up that we missed.

Rayne and I shower together and I can see where there’s going to be bruises on her and I know I’ll be bruised up pretty badly too and it’s been awhile but at the same time I’m sadly used to it.

You get used to being bruised and sort of beat up when bullying is your everyday sort of thing.

But the showering helps and so does the touching.

Intimate and gentle washing of each other while we’re shaking some and even crying and it’s both of us.

Home, safe, alone together and the heat from the shower well it’s all just loosening things inside of us and we’re crying it out.

Together which is amazing.

I mean it happened and all so it’s not that amazing considering that it’s pretty damned horrible and it was intense and it’s scary.

But I’ve never had someone right there, not like this and neither has Rayne.

So there’s no holding it back there’s no need to muffle my soul when it’s feeling abused and effed up by everything that’s happened.

And Rayne too.

I know that it’s a big thing; it’d been a huge thing if anyone ever came for me when trouble was stalking me.

I know what’s it’s like to not have that, so I can imagine that.

I’m still just in that place where I have no idea what to do with it but just hold her and kiss with her and cry with her.

And hitting that moment together in the shower wet, vulnerable, the hot water and steam working like we are with each other to help get past what’s likely shock.

Yeah as we went through the shakes there was definitely shock going on.

We made love through some of it though, Rayne starting with me and the hot soapy suds and her hands pressed to me, gliding up and down at the sensitive under-parts and the rub off and all the everything and her other hand kneading and soapilly gliding over my small but really, really sensitive breasts…Then me with her…my fingers finding her folds two slipping inside, using my pads of my fingers, the back of my knuckles the…flex…of my wrist as she pops her pelvis forward seeking more and more.

If it wasn’t my fret hand it’d have cramped long before it did.

And it still did.

And we weren’t quiet.

Actually I don’t think we were noticed past Dad and Uncle Mitch and Kimmie.

Okay the supper is different than the stuff I made.

And it fits right in with the whole comfort thing.

Kimmie I think made it and it is a big pot of chicken stew. It’s sort of soup like and It’s just some chunked up chicken breasts I think we had in the house and frozen veggies and some of those big broad egg noodles and I think some actual canned soups like cream of celery and cream of chicken.

It’s kind of like chicken pot pie filling with noodles….and we have a lot of bread cut and sliced and we’re all sort of hunkering together while we’re eating it and someone turned the furnace on higher which helps a lot too.

And looking around Mike, Brooklyn, Molly and Carmen have that look too.

And the smiles and the blushes and stuff we’re all sharing seem to help too.

Though we do have my cinnamon rolls and the fall harvest pumpkin ones thought I still keep that second batch and have it in the big Tupperware container.

Then we do some practice going over what we want to play and the set order and the mood of things tonight.

And then it’s getting into our basics for hair and make-up as Mike and Uncle Mitch and Dad help pack us all up.

It’s a mood builder too as we talk getting ready, sort of talking about the action and the play by play because we sort of have to. It’s all still in our nervous systems and Tuesday is a banging show or it’s supposed to be at least when we start and then play into some dancing stuff.

So it’s bad shirts and I’m rocking my inserts but a nice bra that I’m shoulder showing in that off one shoulder 80’s and 90’s sort of way. Red shirt and navel showing and pink jeans, yeah pink jeans and my sneakers as well as some odds and ends of jewelry like bangles and stuff and things that Carmen gives me.

One of my faves is a button made into a necklace from the girls comic Lumberjanes and it says “What in the Joan Jet.”

We drive to The Pine Tree and there’s a decent sized crowd actually out there again which is really cool given how much we’ve played here and it’s a Tuesday night.

But then again I grew up here and for like the last decade plus there’s been really few options for going out for things here. The mall and the movies being the main two things and the occasional thing at the old playhouse theater downtown which is cool and I’ve been there like twice in my life but it’s still really expensive.

And folks are apparently really glad that we’re doing this, that other bands and places are doing this.

We get set up fast and Roxy-Moogle is already drumming away with some practice beats before we’re set out and she’s doing some of the drum work from the drummer from Queens of The Stone Age.

Heavy, hard with this good rhythm going and vibration that you can feel going through the building as we’re all setting up and the staff are taking their places and lining things up and it’s a little cool seeing some of them even moving with the music a little and outside…outside…when Kimmie stops we can hear them outside.

“Roxy! Roxy!”

Then the doors get opened and there’s a rush for the front of house staff as we’re starting our own warm ups and There’s like always mostly girls and young women here and about a third are folks with dates and there’s a lot of regulars here in the crowd and then there’s more that I don’t recognize here but they seem very enthusiastic to be here too.

There’s the little bites of food being offered up almost like shots at the bar and then there’s the shots and cocktails and even cocktail shots at the bar which has too bartenders now which is new.

What’s a cocktail shot? Well from the menu tonight it’s Horchada with Malibu which is coconut rum or an Apple-Pie shooter which is baked apple syrup with bourbon and then The Matador which is gazpacho with hot peppers and madeira for flavor and vodka.

And I’ve never heard of those things but with all of the bites offered and decently priced other drinks the place is busy and people are doing shots and eating and doing shots and eating and then getting a drink and heading to dance.

As soon as there’s the first dozen or so bodies on the dance floor we open up with *Skater Boy.* By Avril Lavigne.

He was a boy, she was a girl
Can I make it anymore obvious?

He was a punk,she did ballet
What more can I say?

He wanted her, she'd never tell
secretly she wanted him as well.

But all of her friends stuck up there nose
they had a problem with his baggy clothes.

He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy
he wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face, but her head was up in space
she needed to come back down to earth.

five years from now, she sits at home
feeding the baby
she's all alone

she turns on tv
guess who she sees
skater boy rockin' up MTV.

she calls up her friends,they already know
and they've all got tickets to see his show

she tags along and stands in the crowd
looks up at the man that she turned down.

He was a skater boy,she said see ya later boy
he wasn't good enough for her
now he's a super star
slamin' on his guitar
does your pretty face see what he's worth?

sorry girl but you missed out
well tuff luck that boys mine now

we are more than just good friends
this is how the story ends

too bad that you couldn't see
see that man that boy could be

there is more that meets the eye
I see the soul that is inside

He's just a boy, and I’m just a girl
can I make it anymore obvious?

we are in love, haven't you heard
how we rock each others world

I'm with the skater boy, I said see ya later boy
i'll be back stage after the show
I’ll be at a studio
singing the song we wrote
about a girl you used to know

It’s a great girl rock song because it’s one of those generational hub songs. Girls still listen to it, college women still listen to it, the whole millennial bunch of us and whatever we all have listened to it.

So they’re dancing and they’re grooving and singing along with us as we’re getting them pumped up.

Then we go into another fan favorite and that’s *Price Tag* by Jessie J.

I love this song because when I go “Everybody look to the left…Everybody look to the right…” The crowd sort of dance slides a little each way and they definitely like this one too.

And the part with the guy that’s singing?

That’s actually coming from Roxy as she’s both drumming and doing that sort of hip hop singing both at the same time and she’s getting them really worked up as she’s doing it with this whole group of girls that seem really into her and yelling and whistling for her.

And now we’re getting charged up and we do *Don’t Wanna* By Starlight Butterfly and that gets them bouncing and we follow that Up with *Who’d Ever Think* By Starlight Butterfly.

And then we go into another cover we love doing and the fans love with *Soul Sister* By Train.

People are dancing and having a good time and there’s a revolving shifting crowd to the bar and the shots and I grin as we slip into a song that we haven’t played for a while and it’s a really good upbeat tune and really made for drinking.

I love it because it’s like really lyrically challenging to do as a cover song because it’s got such large lyrics but it has such amazing flow.

*Raise your glass* By Pink.

Right right, turn off the lights,
We gonna lose our minds tonight,
What's the dealio?

I love when it's all too much,
Five a.m. turn the radio up
Where's the rock and roll?

Party crasher,
Panty snatcher,
Call me up if you want a gangsta
Don't be fancy, just get dancy
Why so serious?

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be, anything but loud
And nitty gritty dirty little freaks
Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass

Slam slam, oh hot damn
What part of party don't you understand,
Wish you'd just freak out (freak out already)
Can't stop, comin' in hot,
I should be locked up right on the spot
It's so on right now (so fuckin' on right now)

Party…
Party crasher,
Panty snatcher,
Call me up if you want a gangsta
Don't be fancy, just get dancy
Why so serious?

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be, anything but loud
"Maybe gritty dirty little freaks"

Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass
Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass

So if you're too school for cool,
And you're treated like a fool,
(Treated like a fool)
You can choose to let it go
We can always, we can always,
Party on our own

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be, anything but loud
Maybe nitty gritty dirty little freaks

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be, anything but loud
Maybe gritty dirty little freaks

Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass

Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass (for me)
Just come on and come on and raise your glass (for me)

And we go from that song into doing *Because I’m Awesome* By The Dollyrots.

And that is a really good song for us to jump into *Love Shack* By The B-52’s and that’s such a fun song and silly that we let it take us into *Magical Power Panties* By Starlight Butterfly.

And that’s our line up to do *I Want Candy* By Bow Wow Wow…. You ever notice how great the drums are on that and that opening guitar? It’s why this song lasts, it’s good on a whole lot of levels and it’s really fun too.

And that is perfect for dancing too especially with the drums and I’m spazz dancing and we go right from that into one of our best cover songs especially for a girl crowd.

*Walk like an Egyptian.* By The Bangles.

And I have the tambourine and I’m dancing trying to do the stuff Carmen has shown me and roll and shift my hips and pelvis and to keep it all like in a flow so it’s not too spazzy looking but like I actually have rhythm and can actually dance a little.

It’s really cool as the crowd whistles and cheers as some of them join in.

And they yell sing along with the “oh wey oh...”

And it’s beyond cool when the whistling part comes and there must be at least at least like thirty or forty people doing that right along with me.

And we end the first half of the show with us doing *Everything* By Starlight Butterfly.

“Hey Harper’s point! Are you having a good time tonight!?”

There’s a whole lot of cheering going on from the crowd.

“We’re so glad that you all came out tonight and we’re really like just totally impressed that we keep seeing some of the best and like dedicated fans each week here that we’re playing. And there’s new faces here tonight too and that’s freaking awesome. I mean we’re really happy you’re all here and that you came to listen to us but like more, you here in Harper’s Point and that means a heck of a lot to a lot of us that you all came all that way and you’re taking like all that time.”

“Well we’re hitting our break and that’ll give us a chance to try all of the really cool looking stuff here on the menu. Y’know it’s like a seriously cool labor of love the folks here do, they make it all and heck they invent half of the stuff and like all the staff chip in to make this The Absolute best place to hang and dance and party in the city.”

As I’m talking one of the servers comes up like magic to the stage with a basket of fries that smell absolutely amazing for us and some other goodies and the idea is really smart as the smells waft through the crowd.

Rayne takes the basket and we head out back with a lot of applause and cheering.

It’s the usual deal at first getting out back and that’s drinking some of our frozen OJ and then grabbing a bottle of water and then the bathroom and a sweat wipe down and make-up off for a little while at least.

The fries are great and really crispy and there’s this seasoning on them that tastes very green in a good way. Like salt and pepper and celery seed ground up and that’s all together with this hint of rosemary like they put a whole bunch of sprigs into the deep fryer with the fries just like enough to add that hint and then there’s the dipping sauce with mayo and sour cream together but lots of lemon and capers.

Mini-garlic toasts with cheese, hushpuppies or like falafel but made with edamame and something else that’s really tasty and rolled in panko and there’s smoke pickerel fillets in panko but butter fried and with this sherry vinegar mayo and this see through thin slice of lemon on over the mayo.

It’s all amazing and Mr. Walker comes out back with another gentleman and with the Brewers. I get up and wipe my mouth off with a napkin.

Mr. Walker introduces us all to Mr. Stevenson who I recognize now as the head of the local Chamber of commerce and I’m the last one introduced.

“Ms. Benton it’s a genuine pleasure to meet you I’ve seen your proposal and I think it’s definite a great idea. More than that young lady you really do come with enough business partners and references I think the city will be actually in good company of Starlight Entertainment and Music joins the Chamber of Commerce.”

I’m grinning because this is very cool and it’s really good news. “Thank you sir. I have really wanted to make an appointment and to pitch the ideas I have even more with you and others.”

“Well we will be looking forward to interacting with you but tonight I’m here to present you with your admission papers as a new member.”

He holds out a set of papers and it’s official and yet it’s local and that actually does have a few benefits like it does for the Canadian Association which I’m filling out forms for as well since he brought us those as well. For here locally it’s a voice and getting information about things in town like taxes but also things like the trends and the local town policies in town council and all these other things too that goes from getting cheaper ad space in the local paper.

It’s literally like joining this value club that makes doing business easier in the town and there are dues and we can pay them online and I actually turn that over to Molly who literally comes over and she does it on one of her Tablets as Mr. Stevenson is watching and he’s very impressed and gets another introduction to Molly who’s our head web designer.

We’re getting more and more official and we do some more shaking of hands and Mr. Stevenson leaves with Mr. Walker and The Brewers are still there.

Jan looks at me and she’s sipping a cocktail well it looks more like a regular drink, drink but she says. “I keep hearing just how impressive you are from some of the others in town.”

“We’re pretty lucky actually.”

“We? I’ve heard mostly things about you Angel.”

“Well I’m managing the band but we’re all a part of it and in getting things done and doing things for the band and our company.”

Kim Brewer says. “And that’s the thing you’re what not even eighteen and you have a company and you’re doing pretty good for yourselves.”

I shrug. “We have a lot of support and the community has been way more than kind to us including all of our venues.”

Jan says. “Speaking of that I hear you double booked Halloween.”

I nod. “Sort of, it’s a stacked booking. We’re doing an early show here for Halloween and we’re going to straight from here to The Cat.”

“You can swing that?”

I nod. “We can, you’re going to have a lot of the set up done and ready and we don’t have to go on first in fact we’d like taking the last set of the night actually if we could.”

“Kisses and Thorns wants that space as do a few other acts for Blackjack records.”

I nod. “So do they have the space though?”

Jan and Kim look at each other. “No, we’re pretty sure that we’ll be giving that space to you girls. Marshal has a reputation with women and it’s not a good one and well Summer is Summer so we can weather her tantrum if she throws one.”

We shake on it and they both talk with Molly a little who comes over and she looks at me. “They want me to do some work for them…like site design and things.”

“Go for it.” I tell her and she blinks.

“But I’m working for you?”

“And you’re still doing that and you’re doing it all like above and beyond but you did go to school for this and you did want to like make a living at doing this stuff and really Molly it’s The Brewers, you really can’t buy better lesbian community cred than references from them.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Absolutely not.”

We hug and the other girls joined in and hug her too and then it’s just enough time for my bottle of water and me and a quick slip by the kitchens for another basket of fries and I head out through the crowd to get to our swag table to sign some of our things and to share out the food and to talk to folks.

I wanna do this, I want that to be a thing for us to go out and talk to our fans and shake hands and take pictures and selfies and sign stuff. And Brook’s out here with me this time because she needs to do some of this too and to have some more exposure to doing this stuff since she kind of doesn’t she’s a sort of hangs back person sometimes a little too much.

She does get going with Dad and she makes this claim that she’s the Floyd in our Electric Mayhem.

Some folks get that and some folks didn’t until they get told about the band that animal plays in from The Muppets.

We talk to a few of the new folks and we have some tourists that are up here and we have some exchange kids from the local colleges and not like in town but like close enough they heard of us and made the hour to hour and a half drive here from places like North Bay and Sudbury and Kitchener with smaller campuses but it’s still people coming here and taking a trip and taking a break.

And they love our music and I might have geeked out a little bit about how bands used to be like way back in the seventies and eighties and how bars and clubs and touring was a thing and how I’m sort of hoping for like a new age revival of all of that because it’s all changing online now and I was still kind of going when Brooklyn excuses us and heads us backstage to get ready and I leave the rest of the fries with three girls from Owen’s. That’s Owen’s Sound but the girls called it like just Owen’s for short.

It’s use the bathroom and then getting our make-up back on and we head out and there’s cheering and people are definitely in that great combination of buzzed and fed and after all the fast and fun dancing they’re more mellow and ready.

“Hey thanks you all for the break and for the chance to get to meet you. I’d like to toss out as just a friendly reminder to folks that the Fall Fair starts next week and it’s going to be a lot of fun there too and those of you that’ll be into going will get to see us and a bunch of other bands playing and we’re going to have a booth of our own in there as well. So please stop by or come back to the town to see us and maybe make it a thing.”

I take a drink from my water bottle as the other start to play and there’s a burst of cheers and applause as they recognize the song and it being our signature cover start for the second half of the show.

“Drove downtown in the rain………..”
“Nine thirty on a Tuesday night….”
“Just to check out…the late night…”

And I mic the crowd and the place booms in unison. “RECORD SHOPS!”

From that we go into playing *Keep the Faith* By Starlight Butterfly and then *Heaven* By Bryan Adams which is a really good song and it’s really decent to dance too and then we switch out singers and Rayne comes up to the mic and I switch to keyboard as she starts to sing *Kiss from A Rose.* By Seal only her version is better it’s this slightly husky girl soft really amazing rendition which has this almost Amy Winehouse quality to it.

She takes it from like rock love anthem type of song to this rock meets slow jazz kind of a thing and as a singer and as a writer that pictures who’s going to be singing things that I write or arrange she’s just blowing me away.

And that voice, that sultry deep trail out lets her go from that into herself swaying as she does a cover of *Black Velvet* By Alannah Myles.

Then she does. *Please don’t go* By Starlight Butterfly and that leads to *Forever and Always* By Starlight Butterfly and then she ends her switch with *When the Stars go Blue.* By The Corrs and we switch back to me.

I start my guitar playing first and go into it pretty soft and slow as I play. *Just a matter of Time.* By John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band.

And that’s a great lead into *Carousel* By Starlight Butterfly and I go from that into *Destiny* By Starlight Butterfly and by the time we do those too Rayne and I are switching off again and she looks at me she start to sing *One and Only* By Adele to me.

And that lets her go into singing *Billy Holiday* and then she’s singing *Oncology* Both By Starlight Butterfly.

“And that takes us to our last break and when we come back we’ll be playing our requests so pass those along to our staff and we’ll play what is the most requested stuff of the night.”

We head back and again it’s the getting cleaned up and de-sweatified and then I’m having my tea with Rayne and just relaxing and resting my voice. No it’s not a sick thing it’s something I’ve read a lot about and it’s as much a self-care thing as it is instrument care.

And it’s just good to sit and do nothing from the slowly ever increasing amount of sore that Rayne and I are both building up.

I rest my head on her shoulder. “When we get home it’s definitely going to be a bath with the salts thingy.”

“Epsoms I think Chere and we’ll have to buy some, I don’t think we have any or any of that sort of thing.”

I chuckle then just sort of lightly groan. “Randy needs to be a hundred pounds lighter.”

And that’s when Rayne starts in on kissing my neck and nibbling on it and I know she’s going to give me hickies but I really don’t care. Well actually I kind of want them, they mean stuff to me.

She nods. “He’s a big son of a beetch, I was scared, I get Brook more though than I did. I couldn’t even think of growing up with the two of them plus Henri he was just as big.”

“I never met him but Mike said that her mom was no prize either.”

I take a look at Brooklyn who’s with Mike right now and she’s being extra affectionate with him since the whole thing that went down this afternoon and well the good stuff between her and him that followed after we all got home.

She’s got a great smile albeit a shy one.

It’s a Julia Roberts smile…okay I know, I know not everyone likes her or thinks she’s like amazing but when she smiles or laughs on camera it’s big and toothy but not like a plastered on smile that makes her look weird.

Brooklyn’s like that when she smiles it’s big and genuine, I think it’s because it’s been such a rare thing for her in her life.

I happy sigh and lean into her some more.

“Hopefully this will be the end of stuff, I mean I’m still going to be me but I’m really hoping this will lead to the bikers getting out and Adam getting what’s his and us all being safe.”

Rayne’s nodding. “Me too, I want to be done with this and with looking over our shoulders.”

We just sort of stay like that just chilling and drinking tea and watching the others and talking over the things that we’re going to try and do for Fall Fair and for the show at The Cat and what we should do for here considering the Halloween gig here is more of a supper with concert thing.

The chamber of commerce stuff and getting all of those ideas sort of going too and what we can do and how we can get more involved in things.

Oh there was so much more to talk about too but we run out of time here and have to get a little touch up make-up on and head back out to the stage where they’re already giving us applause.

I collect the list from Molly on what we’re going to play for requests and I show it to the girls and we open up with.

*True Colors* By Cyndi Lauper a great tune and by what’s become tradition we’re letting Roxy sing it while backing her up as she just does such light drumming. I’m on my keyboard and I can see the look as she hears some of them singing back.

It’s a hard song not to sing to really, I’d be doing it if I was out in the crowd.

Then we’re going from that into *Open Arms* By Journey That’s another great song and definitely one for the dancing couples out there and it’s always just good.

Then we’re getting into our stuff pretty heavily which is always great for the request part of things and we’re playing a slowed down version of *Keep the Faith* By Starlight Butterfly and from that into *Forever and Always* By Starlight Butterfly those we switch it up some with it becoming a duet between Rayne and myself and then we’re doing *Everything* By Starlight Butterfly and ending that little burst of our stuff with *Destiny.*

Then it’s *Drops of Jupiter* By Train and *Angel Eyes* By Jeff Healey which Rayne sings and she shifts the words around again for her to sing to me and she gets backed up by the girls and it’s a really awesome thing and I sort of hug myself and the mic and rock with the music and let myself get romantically carried away with all of the feelings…and doing that, letting that happens they folks get involved too.

Then when it’s over she was so close that we took a second to actually kiss on stage. We’re an out couple as far as most folks know and some of them really just don’t care.

Which is actually just pretty cool.

And really it is a reflection of our audience and the times because there’s lots of girl with girl couples tonight and they’re dancing and they’re not catching hell from a lot of folks here that might normally.

I take the mic after our kiss and let Rayne and Brooklyn do the guitar thing and I serenade her to *Wonderful tonight* By Eric Clapton which I haven’t done for quite a while and I’m really enjoying singing it to her and for the crowd.

And we go into that right into the guitar that has everyone cheering and taking the lighters out as we start doing *More than Words.* By Extreme.

And we’re all doing this sort of harmony and I’m hitting all those long soft high notes and there’s a whole room full of sway dancing.

Then there’s murmurs as we finish as people are talking as our music is playing us into the opening of *Invisible* By Starlight Butterfly.

Once they know what’s playing there’s people shouting and people holding up lighters and phones and it’s really still just sort of stunning and humbling just how much this song seems to get out there with people.

And there’s a lot of applause after that and we slip from doing that into a long intro keyboard piano version of *Oncology.* By Starlight Butterfly.

And it’s the same as it always seems to be.

No one…nobody hasn’t lost a loved one to cancer.

Even me…I had it and I know that there’s kids that I was in the cancer ward with that I knew pretty well back then that were friends that aren’t here anymore.

And I might lose people yet.

I lean into the mic. “One more song? We’re pretty much come to the end of the show tonight so how about one more song?”

There’s a lot of whistles and shouts calling out names of songs and there’s a lot of calls out for *I Believe.* By Starlight Butterfly.

It’s my Whitney song my big sort of build-up song and I don’t do it all too often as it’s sort of one of those right place and right time sort of songs but it feels good to have people want to hear it and it does pretty good for sales online.

It gets a lot of light from the crowd and there’s lots of sway too and the applause is pretty great from the crowd and we go right from that into our finisher of *One for the Money, Two for the show* By Trooper and that even has some people still there in the crowd lingering and singing along with it.

And then we’re done.

Done and setting our stuff down and going downstage into the main room and mingling and talking to folks at the swag table and having conversations as I see some of the fans out along with Mr. Walker and the hostess tonight.

Mr. Stevenson is one of the last to get out with his niece and her friends who showed up to see us and we end the night shaking hands and promising to talk soon and we’re giving each other our e-mails and other info.

I look at Mr. Walker and smile at him. “Thanks for all of the help with Mr. Stevenson and in getting things going through faster I, we the band really appreciate it.”

He nods as clean up and end of the night starts to happen. “It’s a pleasure Angel, you young ladies are doing a lot of great things in such a short time it’s a pleasure to help and to see it. Plus I’m a big fan of some of these ideas especially if you’re right and we can make Harper’s point more of a destination for shows and well in my case for food.”

“Your tapas nights here are definitely drawing a crowd Sir. I’ve read some reviews that really make this a stand out place here in town and there’s no one doing this around other towns I don’t think.”

He’s actually grinning. “No and I’ve checked there are no tapas menus around here outside of Toronto right now and I’m hoping that we’ll get more and more known for this kind of thing before other places pick it up.”

I smile. “Well in the spirit of food I will be right back.”

And I head out to get the Tupperware dishes full of my pumpkin harvest rolls. And I slip into the kitchen and get them warmed up as staff is getting things squared away and I start to share them out to people who take them.

It’s awesome to see the reactions of kitchen staff as they try them and getting thanked is really cool because when you work in a kitchen professionally apparently you don’t get cooked for a lot.

I bring some out to the others and one for myself and Mr. Walker with coffee as we start doing the books and the money.

I sip some coffee and watch him eating it and he’s taking his time and tearing it apart to see what’s in the swirls and layers like a professional dissecting the dish and then he’s eating it with pleasure.

He has a swallow of coffee before talking. “You made these?”

“Yes sir.”

“Can I buy the recipe?”

“Of course, I wasn’t planning on selling it but of course.”

“Well I am expanding again. We’re getting more calls to do some catering lately and we’re looking to sell a lot of our baked desserts so we’re going to be opening a front of house bake shop with a catering kitchen in the back.”

“I think that’s a great idea, downtown could use something down here that’s not a chain place like Starbucks or Tims.”

He’s nodding. “I was thinking the same thing any ideas?”

I eat some of my roll. “Student cards, give them a discount since there’s the computer college and the community college downtown here and have it like a no tax thing. It’ll bring them in plus be open fairly late, everything else closes down here pretty early and you will likely be running the place to make food and bake anyways so just have someone in front of house.”

He’s nodding. “And…?”

“Business memberships so you can do take out lunches and coffee/food service for meetings and give them discounts for so many orders of just a percentage off. You could add delivery with that too for some of the places that call in like lunch orders.”

He’s actually taking notes and smiling and I’m blushing a little and then we’re getting back to the counts and I’m writing out the recipe for the harvest pumpkin rolls.

He cuts the cheques for the performance and we’re sharing out the tips and then there’s the bonus cheque from the recipe and we sign off on the commercial rights for the recipe and then there’s another cheque with that for me Starlight Music & Entertainment for my consulting fees.

I take it and thank him. I’m not even going to fight it either since food is entertainment sort of when you call it entertaining folks and frankly we need the money even if we’re still doing well.

Since we’re going to be expanding ourselves I think with things at home with the whole office deal.

The tips were really decent too and again we divvy it all up fairly and while not as big as some nights have been we still did well. It’s still the better part of a shift of fast food work right up front for all of us.

And we parse that down into an even fifty for each of us and we break the money up into the fund for the us hosting the fans thing that is still a maybe and building and then there’s some we actually will be sending to the shelter too.

It’s always cool to see Molly getting paid and her reaction to that and the tips and Carmen too in a whole different way of having money she earned that didn’t come from Mr. Douchbag’s credit card thing.

It’s gratifying to see freedom setting in with both financial stuff with Molly and clean stuff with Carmen and we talk with the staff for a little while longer before we leave and we head off for home.

We do a stop at the bank and deposit our cheques and I move some money around while I’m there to some of the other accounts and Mike’s there with me after a few minutes and he talks as he transfers some money to me. “You’ve set up a whole lot of things here Ange.”

“I want to have money ready for stuff, like us doing things and well….for the girls.”

“They know?”

“Nope, I’ve been putting a little aside in some saving accounts for the girls from some of my money just a little at a time.”

That’s when he transferred over the money to my account. “I’ve got enough too Angel, let me help.”

I just nodded and put the money in equally. “I want them to have stuff Mike, I want them to have a shot at things none of them actually thought that they could have and that’s stuff like college or whatever or books for college or clothes even.”

He’s nodding. “Me too, I’m good, I do like half my classes and stuff online and the part time student thing is just for like doing things here with Adam for now.”

We leave and head out to the vehicles. “So what’s your plan?”

“Actually I’m looking at going to community college for a communications degree and maybe do a little stuff with you girls with like videos. I mean I got into this all with the stuff from before and here with the surveillance stuff and all but I like working with this all and everything. I might want to go further with that and then there’s my P.I. license.”

I nod. “Is that going to be hard to get?”

“Actually not really not with the stuff I know there’s a lot that you can’t do here in Canada compared to other places but I know this stuff pretty good. The courses are pretty short really and then there’s a written and getting bonded which won’t be a big deal anyways.”

“Is there a lot of work for investigators?”

“Oh yeah I mean even if you’re not working like TV cases there’s always stuff like working plain clothes with security in malls. It’ll pay the bills while I decide what to do with my communications degree.”

He’s looking at me. “So you’re going to…?”

“Get my GED I’m serious, even with stuff getting clear at school in a post Adam world he’s left his mark there and I’m definitely not looking to go back into all of those memories and then it’s to community college for my degree in business and after that it will all depend on stuff with the band and the business. I’d like to keep this going as long as we can but I can see the company itself in time maybe being a promoter company? I’d like to take some serious music course too in time but that’s sort of waaay out there in the sometime maybe kind of thing.”

We get in our vehicles and we head to the mall to Wall Mart store since it’s 24/7 and we get a few things and Rayne and I are getting Epsom salts and Advil and some of that muscle and ache gel stuff and we’re actually stocking up on some of the other things that we need and so are the other girls getting groceries and stuff for the house as well as things that they just sort of want and then we’re off to home.

We’re at the lights just getting out of the mall area when we’re passed by police, RCMP and the Sheriff and even some OPP cruisers all headed one way followed by the fire department’s rescue van and an ambulance. They just flashed their lights to clear the road to get past the red lights then the stopped flashing. But they all went by pretty fast and in a decent sized group of them and I see Mike ducking in his car to look up and holy cheese there’s a chopper going overhead.

Something is definitely going down.