Jem...Chapter 209

*Before…

We’re pretty good at the love songs.

So we line it up with *Carousel*, *Who’d Ever Think* and *Billy Holiday* before we add in *Follow Me* By Uncle Kracker.

That’s a really good song and it’s way more romantic than people give it credit for.

And then we go into *Tingle* and *Destiny* both by Starlight Butterfly.

And we’re getting flagged to wrap it up since it’s just about ten PM and I look out at the crowd and smile.

“Goodnight everyone, we’re getting the signal to wrap it up so we’re going to play out as we always do.”

Brooklyn steps up and she starts playing lead into *One For The Money, Two for The Show.* By Trooper and some folks linger to finish dancing and others are filing out and I’m smiling and leaning on Raven as we’re singing the last bits of the song.

This was fun, more than fun it was amazing.

*And Now....

Normally we’d be done but this is it.

The end of the Fair and the show so we take a vote and we stay.

I send out e-mails saying that we won’t be playing again while we recover and get back into things until Friday night at The Amsterdam to Lucky’s and The Pine Tree and both of them understand and had the rest of the week with nothing planned anyways given everything that they were doing for their aftermath from the fair.

I get the girls to send in e-mails to the school excusing the for tomorrow.

And then we get to it.

Just helping pack things up, with things for the stage and cleaning up all the trash to other booths and lending helping hands there with all the stuff from the community.

It’s fun too.

I mean it’s a lot of hard work and there’s a lot of kids here that look like and are people that Molly knows helping here and there in rearing down.

Apparently that’s a thing.

Fair will hire townies to set-up and tear-down the rides and the games for spare cash. Runaways and homeless kids are there too and pretty much considered townies too and it’s all under the table stuff.

Dad apparently and Uncle Mitch did this when they were kids and Dad hires like four of them to like do a whole bunch of things because he’s doing all the maintenance for Danny and Kate now so there’s a lot of tools here for doing that and then there’s all the stuff that Dad wants back at the shop.

I order stuff from Go-Goes and even if it’s late they’re sort of there at least online because while the shop is closed they’re doing stuff for tomorrow and things for orders. So I order some more doughnuts and sweets on SLB for everyone and ask if they can bag up all of their day olds for some of the people here.

Which they are more than willing to do and And I pay them through the phone and they send us the receipt and when they show up it’s right in time for like this big sort of staff and crew feast which is Danny and Kate emptying out the freezers for the fry trucks with all of the stuff that they can’t use that’s opened or like pre-cut like the fries and things that won’t last in their big walk ins.

I get Molly to help them get an invoice and we will claim it all under business expense and lunch. Which is true he’s feeding me and we have some of the fire department guys here and others with booths in town helping us out and vice versa.

But before we eat, before the rides go down we all get to ride them a few more times for free.

Which is cool for the kids here to work since most of them couldn’t afford to go on the rides.

And the tunes are blasting from their sound systems louder and which just adds to everything and we’re all going on the rides again as a group and as couples. Mike and Brooklyn, Molly and Carmen and Kimmie with Max and of course Rayne and I.

There’s a lot to be said about being on The Scrambler with it cranked faster with a sugar buzz and your girlfriend as Queen’s *Stone Cold Crazy* is blasting.

It’s my second fave ride for two people.

Ferris wheel will always be my first.

But the pirate ship is great fun for all of us as a group, us going back and forth screaming and shouting like we’re at a party and all of us together.

We ride then we eat and then get to work.

Mostly we’re pulling pins as other do the heavy lifting.

It’s weird because as Jason I’d be trying to do all of that stuff.

Instead I’m working with the other girls and that’s still working when you’re gathering hoses and cables and power cords and rolling them up properly then taping them with masking tape so we can write what is for what ride and what generator.

And there’s still the trash.

Sigh...wow as clean as they tried to be people tossed stuff wherever they could fling it.

Rayne and I are bagging trash together and I tell her.

“I ran into Adam Senior Senior today at the auction.”

“You okay?”

“I’m fine but we talked and he admitted to having me investigated.”

“Whoa...shit.”

I nod. “I called Uncle Bobby.”

“Good, what did he say?”

“He said my cover’s good but Adam Senior Senior had a reputable firm check me out.”

“Why?”

“According to Senior himself it’s something he does a lot.”

“That’s creepy.”

“Yeah seriously. Uncle Bobby said Adam the leastmost is looking at other charges as he stabbed someone in jail.”

Rayne nods. “Not that shocked he seems the type to think he could.”

I nod. “So there’s that and then there’s the court stuff and when we might testify.”

“Good, we can get this all over with.”

“Yeah likely in the new years if we’re lucky, there’s this whole thing about court like business years and like how it matches with tax time.”

Rayne nods. “Makes sense anything with budgets has to sort of follow stuff like that even the courts.”

I nod. “That’s my take too but until then I’m still under cover so….”

She looks at me. “Soooo…?”

“He offered me surgery, THE surgery.”

“Oh...wow...and?”

“I said yes.”

Rayne steps up and kisses me. “You want this?”

I kiss her back. “Yeah a lot I want to start my life.”

She hugs me slipping her arms around my waist. “Any idea when?”

“After the Halloween gig likely in November.”

“Ouch that’ll be hard for gigs.”

I nod. “I think I’ll sit and sing or something plus there’s something I want to do for Remembrance Day.”

“Oh?”

“We should look up some old tunes and do a dance for the troops at The Legion.”

She looks at me. “Not really our speed.”

“I know but no one does stuff for them, for that generation or the other vets either. And it gets our names into other heads and hearts. I want us to have cred in other parts of things and that way when we push our projects we’ll have that behind us.”

“Other projects?”

She hugs me tighter walk cuddling with me. “What’s going on in that head of yours babe?”

“Sawyer’s Funrides or part of it downtown with the shopping at Christmas if we can get town on board. Or like a concert for town’s Winter carnival.”

“Winter carnival do we have one?”

I nod. “Barely, but we should have stuff to do, stuff to draw people in.”

She nods and slips around and takes my hand holding it as we both grab a bag to take to the dumpsters. “What else?”

“A Canada Day big concert with lots of bands for the long weekend maybe even a battle of the bands even?”

She beams at me. “You’re really full of ideas aren’t you?”

I love the way she’s looking at me.

Head tilted to see me better past her slightly mussed hair and a smile that lights up all the way to her eyes and this power...care...energy there aimed right on me.

I’m blushing really hard. “I want to make music, but I want to make stuff better even if a little bit here.”

We toss the garbage bags into the dumpsters and then she’s up close with me and doing that thing where she’s tilting my chin back to kiss me deeply.

You know you’re in love when kissing by a dumpster is romantic.

Rayne breaks the kiss. “That’s what I love about you Angel, you care and not just about you or us but others too. I’ve never had that before.”

“Well before was well Summer.”

She kisses me again taking my hand. “No, not just Summer the others too it’s why some of the dates never panned out. Even home was like that.”

“Really?”

She shrugged. “If you were a girl yeah, it was the guys first, their sports first and their jobs and if I was lucky I might have gotten student loans and went to like nursing school or something or more than likely hairdressing.”

“Hey those are cool jobs.”

“Sure and there’s like others that are cool too but home was you had to be straight then have a guy and then get married and pop out a bunch of kids.”

I squeeze her hand and kiss her this time.

“Our family, our friends, our lives Rayne.”

She kisses me back even deeper and we head back to the group holding hands and getting looks and smiles and then went back to work.

We must have spread because there’s other doing open gay or lesbian or in between PDA’s and I’m getting why the stuff at The Cat is really, really important.

Heck the kids here are talking about it.

I slide over to Danny when we’re nearly done.

“Hey can I suggest something?”

“Sure?”

“The kids here the walk ins for tear down how about we hire them for set up at The Cat.”

“You think they’ll be around for that?”

“I think we should offer, goodwill is goodwill Danny.”

He’s grinning. “Okay definitely.”

It feels good when we’re finishing seeing some of the happy and excited looks that some of the kids have on their faces and it’s a great way to end the night.

We head out with everyone else in a literal convoy making a stop at Dad’s shop to unload things that need to be fixed and repaired and painted and of course doing the bathroom stop and then we head out to Danny & Kate’s place over in Bennet Station which was pretty close by and used to be part of the old railways passenger line hence the station.

We’ve been there before because Dad has gone out there for jobs and it’s mostly gone now except for a few old Railway houses that people still live in and a few farms.

We’re in a good mood as we drive to Danny and Kate’s place but it does strike me as just another pocket of places that dried up when the steel and the car industry dried up and the railways followed.

There’s something sort of sad about it and I get why the older generations are all up in arms and stuff with wanting their country back.

Wanting the old days back.

Only that’s never going to happen and when things get better it won’t be the way that they want it.

Some of us have closets that we never want to be in again.

Some of us don’t want to see the bad old days back for a lot of people.

But we should try to make things better.

So that’s what I want to try.

And there’s something out here that I want to take a look at.

Bennet Station is right next to Bennet Hill.

Which when I was little was this really big hill that was big enough to be our local ski hill.

We get to Danny and Kate’s place and it’s a nice place but it’s a compound with several old hangar styled garages and a lot of chain link fence for the trucks and to park the rides and they have a really big old house that looks like it was one of the CNR buildings and there’s a couple of mini-home trailers there also fixed up and as we’re pulling in we’re sort of swarmed by dogs.

We’re really careful and all of SLB parks out on the road and we walk in and some teenaged girl comes out to sort of handle the dogs and she stops when she sees us.

“Oh...oh...of no way...You girls are Starlight Butterfly!”

She turns and looks at Danny. “Uncle Danny I thought you were joking about working with Starlight Butterfly!”

He laughs and was kneeling and getting dog mobbed by his animals who were really happy that he was home and Kate was home and were super excited for both of them.

“Susie this is Starlight Butterfly, Starlight Butterfly this is Susie.”

She’s blushing and checking out her lack of outfit and she’s blushing and apologizing. “Ohmygawdilookawful...UncleDannyshouldhave told me!”

Rayne takes her hands. “You look great and we’ve been helping so honestly we don’t look much better.”

Susie is staring at Rayne. “You’re Raven…..”

Her voice is full of awe.

She’s staring enough that it’s making Rayne blush a little. “You’re so beautiful…”

Which definitely makes Rayne blush.

But it leaves me with the opening to say. “I can’t help but to agree.”

Susie’s head whips to me so fast that I was afraid she’d get whiplash and she stares and then pulls her hands to her face. “Holy fuck, holy fuck you’re Jem!”

Kate yells. “Susie language!”

She didn’t even hear it.

She’s looking at me instead and she’s crying. “You...you wrote Invisible...that song, that song is like me.”

Oh there’s a bigger story there and I can’t leave it at that so I go over and I hug her.

I was expecting the hug back but not the sobbing.

(Sniffle-sob.) “You’re here, you’re here and you’re really real and you’re here and you’re hugging me.”

I squeeze her harder. “Yeah we’re all here and call me Angel.”

Susie’s voice goes into high squeak range. “Really!?”

“Really go ahead it’s easy.”

She does it again. “Really, Really?”

Kimmie comes over. “Yaaaa….like rilly!”

Susie stops looking at me and she stares at Kimmie and she squees at a really high pitch and grags Kimmie’s hands and she bounces up and down and kimmie of course in jumping up and down squeeing with her.

They get it well up into the shriek range and the dogs start barking and howling.

And then Susie is yelling “Magical Power Panties! Magical Power Panties!”

And well of course so is Kimmie.

And Max is staring at Kimmie like he’s never seen this manic side of her.

Kimmie slows down and covers her face because she’s laughing and blushing so hard.

Susie asks her after swivel heading between Kimmie and Max. “Boyfriend?”

Kimmie nods.

Susie looks Max up and down. “Wow he’s hot!”

Max blushes with the cutest rush of blood to his head.

Susie looks at Kimmie. “I thought you were all in lesbians with Brooklyn.”

Kimmie shakes her head. “Tried that, didn’t work she tastes like a potato.”

Brooklyn squeaks and girls her the finger. “I don’t taste like a potato! Right Mike?”

We’re all laughing and looking at Mike.

He raises his hands. “Brooklyn tastes divine, I’m very lucky.”

Susie looks at Brooklyn with awe too.

“You need to sing more, I love it when you sing I’ve all the times like saved. You’re like the best girl guitarist I’ve ever seen but you need to sing more.”

Brooklyn is blushing. “There’s a lot of good female guitarists out there.”

Susie looks her in the eyes. “Not around here, there’s literally no one as good as you and any girl that comes close is already in your band and learning from you.”

Rayne and I both say at the same time. “She’s right y’know.”

And that makes Brooklyn blush hard. “You girls.”

Kate looks at us. “We’ll be awhile so Susie how about you show them your trailer?”

Susie looks at us. “Really?”

We nod and she runs ahead of us talking up a storm.

“I like have my own trailer because I’m like really into music and stuff plus I never had my own space home like at all.”

Molly asks. “This isn’t home?”

“Nope, Uncle Danny took me in. he’s my Dad’s brother but Dad was a complete asshole and like super churchy and stuff. I wasn’t even allowed to go to school.”

Molly nods. “Same here, super conservative very religious fundamental home life until I took off.”

They share this look.

It got longer and longer.

Susie sniffled and hugged Molly who hugged her back.

Susie sniffles. “Who are you?”

“I’m Molly.”

Rayne says. “She’s our web page designer and video editor and our office mage.”

Molly blushes. “You girls….”

I add in. “Molly is a serious part of the band just like Carmen.”

Susie looks at Carmen. (Sniffle.) “Sorry I don’t know you either.”

Molly says. “She’s my girlfriend.”

Susie looks at Carmen and Molly. “Wow that’s hot.”

We all laugh and Carmen blushes.

Molly says. “She definitely is but Carmen is the bands fashion designer and consultant and she even does choreography.”

Susie’s eyes are wide. “Oh my god you all have hair and make-up and choreography you guys are like super professionals!”

Carmen smiles at her. “Maybe later we can give you a SLB look.”

She looks at Carmen like she just hung the moon.

Then she shifts gears and she’s inviting us into her mini-home trailer and it’s a small one for sure but it’s like a massive girls room and the living room. Her living room is an art studio.

And what’s not art is posters and paintings and all sorts of things and I think I’m getting it.

Danny and Kate are giving her space but not just space but some freedom too and that they’re using this to help her.

We get the tour which isn’t much her trailer is older and smaller with that galley kitchen and the dining nook and there’s a bathroom and the room next to that is her own laundry space and she has the big bedroom to herself.

The difference is her back door for the trailer looks like they built a deck on it that connects to the other mini-home.

Susie points. “That’s Grandma and Grandpa’s place they help look after me and I do the same since they’re like old and stuff.”

It’s actually a nice set up with a gas grill outside between the two sections on one side and a little nook for eating on the other end.

We hang out a little bit with Susie while the others are talking and getting everything unpacked from the Fair.

Molly’s great with her, they have stuff in common and while Susie is a hands of painter on canvas sort of artist Molly is showing her the digital stuff that she’s done.

There’s some really nice pieces here and there as I’m looking through some of them and Molly is pointing out that she has some great rocker portraits in like action scenes.

Susie says. “You Tube is awesome for that. I like find concerts and stuff that I like or videos and songs and when I see a scene that looks right I’ll pause it and save it then I’ll like paint it.”

I look at her. “You want to sell any of these?”

“Really?”

“Yeah Really, these are good I think that you could do pretty well. And it never hurts to build your portfolio.”

“I thought that was fancy adult stuff that happened once you got discovered or like dead.”

“No that’s the way that it used to go. Think it over and see if you want us to help you sell any of these.”

“Help?”

“Help, We’re not really looking to make money off of you Susie it wouldn’t be right. What would be cool is to help you build your name up so it’ll help you get into a better art school.”

“Art school I don’t think we can afford that.”

“If things go well you might though you could actually save up that money.”

“I’ll have to ask Uncle Danny and Aunt Kate first.”

“Definitely.”

She runs out from her place to the main house yelling. “Come on you guys!”

We follow all amauxed and Dad’s talking with Danny and Kate while having coffee and she goes off and is explaining things at a hundred miles a minute and Danny looks at me.

“You’d do that, you’d rep her?”

“Sure we can lend our name and webpage to getting her stuff sold.”

Kate says. “For commission.”

I shake my head no. “I was thinking she could put most of that towards art school.”

Kate shakes her head no. “Nope, I want Susie to get what it really takes even if she starts early. That you have to pay to get representation and do stuff for partners.”

We hold eyes for a minute. “Okay if we do that it’s the same deal as we have with you in terms of profit. We don’t make money if you don’t make money or she doesn’t make money.”

Kate nods. “Molly can you draw that up?”

“I can we can likely do that tomorrow.”

I nod. “I want to come out here anyways so that’ll fit in good.”

Danny shakes his head though he’s smiling. “You guys don’t stop do you?”

I shrug. “It’s life most of us have to grind.”

He nods. “Well so far this has been a really good thing. We’re not used to having another job lined up this late in the season.”

“We’ll we got lucky with that honestly and hopefully if that goes well and The Brewsters like the effect then we might be able to make that a regular scheduled thing for the future.”

Danny’s nodding and we shake hands and hugs. “Well we won’t hold you girls up and it’s really late.”

I hug Dad who’s staying to help things more and he cuts Max loose so he can go home and there some more hugs and handshakes and we pile in our vehicles and we all take off and while talking on our phones and stuff as we’re driving we decide to all head to McDonalds for breakfast as the sun dawn is coming and we actually drive back to Trudeau Park and we get out with our food and coffees and all of us just sit on the hoods and stuff together while we watch the sun come up and the mist rising off the lake.

Yeah we’ll be tired and crash hard after but we’re here, together and the future is looking really good right now.

I take several drinks of my coffee in a row and I stand up and walk in front of everyone and take a deep breath.

“Everyone..We have to talk...I’m...I’m going in for an operation soon and I need to tell you all why.”