8th Installment
warning...adult content
The club was soon filled with hungry and excited kids. Food orders were kept coming and the drinks and sandwiches were disappearing fast. Kids milled around, listening to the jukebox, playing pool and video games, and reading the wall. Some looked confused at the strange new writing Ghost had put on there earlier that morning. It was scribbled and unfinished, just as they'd left it.
"Wow, that seems like so long ago," Kinsey thought. It had been a long day.
Steve and Ghost slowly made their way to the stage, greeting the kids along the way. This is what the kids had been waiting for. Lost Souls? were back in town, and they were ready for the music to start.
Steve got his guitar, and Ghost got his microphone. Terry and R.J. were sitting in tonight, too, on drums and bass. They did so occasionally, and this was one night they didn't want to miss out on. Steve strummed the strings and nodded to the guys in back. As he played the first notes of the first song, he nodded at Ghost and smiled. Ghost grinned and began singing.
Tonight's set was going to be mostly covers of southern rock songs, with a couple of their own originals thrown in the mix. They always included their "World"* song and "We Are Not Afraid". The crowd stood transfixed as the golden, gravelly voice of Ghost began the first song...a cover of the Eagles, "One Of These Nights".* When Ghost sang, he was the song, and he brought everyone along with him. From the first to last note, from the first to last song, Ghost was who he was meant to be.
Kinsey watched the magic happen. With a new-found knowledge of how Steve and Ghost meshed together, he could see that every song was chosen very carefully, whether anyone knew or not, to be a meaningful, loving tribute to each other. That gave the show, the songs, the looks Steve and Ghost gave each other on stage, and even the smiles, the movements, and the banter to the crowd a whole, new fuller, more special dimension.
Kinsey felt his eyes begin to sting at the love he felt between those two. "Damn, I'm a silly old fool, getting all choked up at a couple of employees," he thought, "but they are more than that," he knew. They were more like family, in a way. He continued to watch as the show progressed through a foot stomping cover of Pure Prairie League's, "Amie."*
Everyone was having a great time. As the songs neared the finale, they sang "Serenade",* by the Steve Miller Band, which was always an eerie kind of song, but fit so well with Steve and Ghost and the club kids they played for. Without a pause, it segued into the anthem they always ended the show with, "Hole in the World"*, by the Eagles. Those were the very first words of the very first song Ghost had written on the wall.
Steve and Ghost stood back to back, as if they would always be together and have each other's back, no matter what...and if you're not alone, if you have that special someone, you will not be afraid of anything. Blond shining hair and ebony curls mingled together as they sang and played their last song of the night. The crowd drew closer, mesmerized by the words and the rhythmic beats all around them.
By the time the last vibrations of the guitar had echoed off the walls, Steve and Ghost both were in tears. Tears of sadness, tears of love, tears of hope...that their lives would mean something...that there was a reason they were here at this time and this place.
The crowd was holding on to each other as they swayed together, shedding their own tears for humanity and the future. Kinsey was moved to tears of his own this night, for reasons he knew, and something else he felt in the air, in the electricity, in the essence of everyone here, but especially for Ghost and Steve. Something very unsettling to him...but, he knew not what it was.
*"One of These Nights" by the Eagles (Don Henley/Glenn Frey; Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.)
*"Amie" by Pure Prarie League (Craig Lee Fuller; Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.)
*"Serenade" by The Steve Miller Band (Sailor Records/Capitol Records, Inc.)
*"Hole in the World" by the Eagles (Don Henley/Glenn Frey; Universal Music Publishing Group)
Next installment coming soon!
Peace, Love, Writing
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