Jem… Chapter 157

*Before…

I take the mic and some water and drink then say to the crowd.

“We’ll be back every one after another break and we’ll take things down nice and slow so we can get some of the sweet hearts out there and some of these first time dates a chance to dance.”

I put the mic back and turn to have Raven take my hands and she gives me a nuzzle and then a kiss right there on stage in front of everyone all soft and sweet and it’s one of those over and over kisses.

And there’s a whole light show of camera and phone flashes as she’s dancing with me without any music in the background for one…two…the…times around the stage before she leads us backstage with her hands up to my face and she’s kissing me over and over and I’m walking backwards.

Oh wow…oh yay…Simply Outrageous.

*And Now…

Rayne’s kissing me with both her hands touching my face and she’s walking me backwards off stage and the crowd’s whistling and they’re cheering and there’s lots of applause at that and while I’m not sure just what some of the older crowd here’s feeling or what they’ve been expecting out of us.

I’m pretty sure that I don’t care.

Over and over French kissing don’t care.

My whole skin feels alive in a thousand ways like I’m one of those sparklers that you get at The Dollar Store.

And we’re still kissing all the way to where Rayne’s got me pinned against the railing for the stairs that lead off of the stage and into the back.

Kiss, kiss, butt-slide side steps down.

Somehow I make my Dex saves with this. (That’s a geek joke.)

There’s clapping too backstage by Brooklyn, Kimmie and Carmen and we break the kissing and I stare at Rayne in a kind of still panting breathless and giddy sort of way.

“Wow… what was that for?”

“Saving us, digging us out of that slump that we could’ve been in tonight…” she kisses me softly again. “For a thousand other things.”

I can hear my heart going thump, thump, thump in my chest and the vibrations from that are singing their own little tune through my body.

And Kimmie’s going off shouting. “How do I love you? Let me count the ways! One onethousand, two onethousand!”

Okay I crack up because that’s cute and it’s funny and I get the joke and apparently I’m the only one that does.

Rayne’s looking at her and I nuzzle her. “It’s from Who framed Roger Rabbit.”

“Oh, I’ve never seen it.”

Brooklyn facepalms.

Carmen eyerolls. “Wow geekness.”

I smile. “That’s right, absolutely.” I nuzzle Rayne again. “We’re so going to watch that sometime.”

She gives me the eyebrow. “I’m doomed aren’t I, geekette movies and culture and all that.”

“Yep and the gig on Sunday too.”

“Oh yeah the comic place, that I don’t mind or I think I won’t mind just as long as we’re not going to be the only girls there in a sea of geek boys getting drooled on.”

“Nope I don’t think so since Molly’s really into it and she’s been talking it up online and Gary has a girlfriend or at least a few female friends that he’s brought to some of our Pine tree gigs.”

“Okay that’s good.”

“Good he’s usually closed and he’s running an all-day thing there that’s like a micro-con.”

The looks I’m getting it might as well me there speaking Klingon to them.

No I don’t speak Klingon.

“Okay look a day convention can turn into a weekender after a while and a weekender might get big enough to make a serious venue shift if it needs more room. Vendors will come, cosplayers, collectors and just the fans will come and that’s like all the spinoff from concerts with places to stay getting filled and people eating places and other stuff.”

Rayne’s nodding. “All a part of the plan?”

I nod. “Sort of, look there’s stuff that just happens in bigger towns and cities and it’s Ontario so honestly there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t even happen in them…just Toronto.”

Brooklyn… “So if we have more things here then more people will think about coming here because there’s stuff going on here.”

I nod. “And the more stuff that we’ll be able to attract too. It’s one of the things that I really, really hope comes out of the town’s music scene.”

The girls are looking at me and I smile. “The more the act’s in town step up and the better press we get and the more people hear about places like The Pine Tree, Lucky’s, The WildCat and The Amsterdam, even Adam’s label being in town will hopefully put us on the touring maps for the bands still doing that and we’ll get bigger and better names in and that’ll put us in a really cool spot where people might actually come to Harper’s point to do things, see things and that’s cool.”

Carmen smiles as she’s doing touch up on Brooklyn. “That’s like the review where someone said there might be greener grass right here in town for a change.”

Jake’s there with mugs of root beer for us all in those big heavy glass ones for beer. “Here I’m expecting either a make-out session or you girls to be trying to rest up and you’re talking about business for the town.”

I grin and take an offered root beer and drink it and sigh. It’s ice cold literally there’s a skim of ice in the frothy top that just sends it into another realm. It’s not a float either just something that’s really, really cold and tastes amazing.

“Signature root beer?”

“Yep, on tap here only and it’s something rick our head bartender came up with and it’s selling like crazy along with the frosted Dr. Pepper.”

“Oh next time I’ll have one of those.” I love Dr. Pepper.

He nods. “Actually you’re right about stuff opening up and all more I heard that there’s a good chance of a classic car show coming next year and I heard that The Fall Fair is looking for bands this year to play at the exhibition.”

“I’d honestly like to get in on that some too.”

Fall Fair here in Harper’s point is the week before Halloween so like the 24th until The 31rst so there’s always the fair to go to instead of trick or treating for the parents, adults and older kids. It’s also the local exhibition which is arts and crafts and it’s animal stuff and horses and a whole lot of farm stuff along with a whole lot of other things but it’s gone downhill some too and yet it’s also something that if I remember stuff right is full of the business crowds in some of the stalls and games that they do for things like The Lion’s club or The Rotary club or things like The Boys and Girls clubs of Canada.

Jake nods. “I’m already posting cash in on the concert stuff along with Josie and some others.”

“So we’re in?”

“I’ll get the forms from the committee.”

“Get some forms for booths too okay if we can have a booth.”

“There should be lots of room but it’s best to actually get your name in early for a good booth.”

I’m grinning and Rayne looks at me. “You’re sure you want a booth and to have us play?”

“Definitely, we can sell our stuff at the booth and we can play and we can talk to the other people there and get Starlight Music and Entertainment known to other members of the Chamber of commerce who helps put on these shows.”

Kimmie’s like… “Aaargh more business and adulating!”

I look at her. “When we’re not playing you can teach drumming for people for cash money as an attraction, we all can do lessons, heck even Carmen can so SLB styled make-up makeovers.”

Brooklyn says. “And junk food.”

And Rayne says. “And rides.”

I hit lower. “And we can invite Max and his family and his mom can see you being all responsible and stuff.”

Rayne adds in. “Rides with Max.”

She’s looking starry eyed now and sort of off into space with a goofy grin as she opens a box of strawberry pocky and eats one. “Yeah…okay yeah.”

I look at Rayne and she shrugs. “It’ll be good exposure for us again and you’re right it’ll put us in good standing with The Chamber of Commerce and town council if we want to do a concert or something else.”

I nod. “The better of a record and a reputation we have the more sway we’ll have when we want to do something pretty cool like the music festival.”

And Kimmie’s looking at me. “Okay and that stuff’s important why?”

I look at her. “Reputation in the industry and in the community and having both all of the experience and chops so when we go and do stuff like after college or even getting into college we actually get looked at with respect. I want us to have fun sure but this is what we want to do right? Music?”

“Yeah, I mean definitely.”

“Then after all of this stuff the name Roxy-Moogle’s going to have people wanting you to teach them or be that drummer or help with a festival or even like manage.”

She’s looking at me and then she comes over and she hugs me. “You like totally think we can do all of that don’t you?”

I hug her back. “Yeah.” I turn but still hang onto her and look at the others.

“We’re Starlight Butterfly, we have each one of our stage members having papers in the Ontario and the national associations of musicians, we’re all part of The Singer’s and Songwriter’s Guild of Canada and we’re getting dues paid on more accreditation. Every one of the stage members has singing and songwriting credits legally and formally listed and that’s just the four of us. Molly’s got her work portfolio building and she built our site which we have and it’s doing really well and we have online goods that are selling and ITunes selling and Facebook and Instagram and Youtube and Twitter…Carmen’s getting our look down and she’ll be building her portfolio as a make-up artist and cosmetician. We have our own company label….We have all that already.”

I look around at all of them. “Right now, we have all of this right now. We’re working five gigs a week plus extras we’re full time girls…we’re not name in lights and tens of thousands coming to see us but we’re here…actually working professionals…and we’re really, honestly just getting started.”

They’re looking at me and I’m looking at them and there’s those …yeah, yeah… nods and there’s smiles starting big ones and Kimmie gets into the make-up chair and Rayne slips in behind me and she wraps her arms around me and presses her breasts into my back and holds me closely.

“Have I told you that I’m so very much falling in love with you?” She softly whispers into my ear with a little nibble.

“Yes, you have but I’m all for you telling me more.” I lean into her doing the doings that she’s doing like a cat seeking scritches.

We nuzzle and then we end up sitting and waiting our turn and necking while we’re waiting to get our make-up redone for the last part of the show tonight and there’s even a little petting to and that has my new hormones racing and working overtime and I feel sooo hot, like in a bad but good way I want out of my clothes oh my gawd I’m in love way.

Even my brain’s doing that racing rush.

I never got that, seriously my puberty was kinda of sort of there…it kinda sort of happened and things did like work or I though they worked like they were supposed to work.

It’s not even remotely close.

I’m in teenaged estrogen-redbull puberty now.

And that’s just getting started too.

We get our make-up done and then a quick trip to the bathroom after the super frosted root beers we’re back out on stage and the crowd is clapping and cheering and I see that Jake’s take a page from Mr. Walker’s book and had some of the free tables and stuff moved so there’s much more dance floor.

I wonder if people seeing more dance floor being cleared makes them want to dance more?

I step up to the mic and I smile and wave at everyone as I get my acoustic settled and I start to play a few chords and then say. “Maybe something new to start.”

That gets a whole lot of cheers and whistles and phones are flashing and they’re staying up.

I lean to the mic after a bit more playing but I look at Raven. “This song’s called Destiny.”

*Destiny* By Angel Benton of Starlight Butterfly.

We started off in different places…
As far apart as could be…
You were lost and alone girl.
Me, I was running to be free….!

You were looking for a safe place…
I was looking to escape…
You’ve been hurt and been done wrong baby…
I’ve been alone all my life…

I never once thought that I’d ever meet you!

(Chorus.) “You’re my Destiny!”
“My sweetest never, ever, should have been….!”
“You’re that kiss when all want to do is scream…”
“You’re…My…Des..tin…ny…!”

We were both lost in daydreams…
Looking for something that we lost.
Never thinking it was some…one…
Because we were always told we weren’t enough…

Oh…whoa…oh…oh!

(Chorus)

They say we shouldn’t be together.
That a love like ours isn’t right.
That what we feel isn’t real…girl.
And that’s we’re going to fall apart…

But that’s not what I see love.
It’s never been in those eyes….
And all I feel when I kiss you…
Is everything I ever wanted….

OH! You’re everything I forever wanted!

(Chorus X2)

By the second chorus Raven’s mic’ing the crowd and I made the lyrics pretty simple so that people could sing along if they wanted but it’s also made to be acoustically centered too so it’s actually pretty easy to dance to.

And there are people dancing with this song too which is an awesome feeling, it’s all and awesome feeling honestly. There’s a very heart in your hands sort of thing when you write a song and perform, it’s there when you perform anyways but when it’s your own stuff well that just adds another flavor of nerves.

So when you hit it, you really feel great.

There’s a lot of cheers as I finish and I step back and raven takes my spot as I sit down at the keyboard and I start and she starts into *One and Only* By Adele.

And that is actually a really great lead into my doing *Drops of Jupiter* By Train.

And I stay where I am but the lights shift to me and I go from the fade out of the last song to one of my favorite songs. *If You Don’t Know Me By Now.* By Simply Red.

Honestly one of the most underrated bands that there is out there, was ever out there, just really, really great vocals, good music, just really good music.

The lights switch for a second to Brooklyn who is doing this high note chord riff to replace the pipes that are at the start of *When You Love Someone.* and the lights go from her to Raven as the song starts and her deeper power voice plays so well with her covering Bryan Adams.

And then we slip into *Never Enough* By Starlight Butterfly.

Which is a good lead into *Everything* By Starlight Butterfly.

And we break that up between covers and originals with Mike keying into Roxy’s mic to boost its volume as she’s drumming and we play for her as she sings. *Time After Time* By Cyndi Lauper.

She really gets into it and she sings it with her all tonight which is awesome, it’s like she got a boost from out back and it’s really, really cool to look at her and see thing short skinny Japanese Canadian girl that is dressed between punk and cute with her hair all sweat damp but this look of total into-it-ness singing her head tilted up to the drop mic.

Yeah I’m one of Kimmie’s biggest fans.

After that the lights cue to me and I start up again of the keyboard and start going into *Carousel* By Starlight Butterfly and that’s one of my favorite songs and it leads really well into us covering *Just a Matter of Time.* By John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band.

That’s another band that is tremendously underrated.

Seriously, look them up.

And we surprise the crowd I thing by having Brooklyn actually front and center on that one and she too can sort of pull of this sort of Sheryl Crow sound as she covers the song and we’re her back up.

And then we pull out another great show bit with Raven and I doing a duet with us covering. *Thank You for Loving Me.* By Bon Jovi.

And then I do. *Right Here Waiting for You.* By Richard Marx. That’s actually another really good dance tune if you want to do that date dancing and it works well for me on the keyboard.

And we go from there into Raven singing *Billy Holiday* which is another favorite of the crowd and it’s so amazing to play and just watch Raven doing her thing and crooning out her song all soulfully and she looks so amazing and so beautiful doing that her whole self just pouring into performing.

I really did mean all the stuff in Destiny, raven’s so much like me but so entirely different. But that same stuff, the singing, the songwriting, falling in love the way that we are it’s like it comes from this place that’s sort of out there but inside in this kind of beyond connection way.

I’m up next because alternating works really well for this part of the show and I stay on the keyboards as I go into *Open Arms* By Journey. I love this song and I’m really, really into this song as I hit the hit long notes and just really fall into it and that’s when I get one of those moments where I’m right there in that perfect moment on stage and Raven’s playing bass and she’s watching me.

And she starts singing with that amazingly sultry and powerful voice as I play and we slip into doing. *Unchained Melody.* By The Righteous Brothers.

That’s a perfect romantic snuggle close and dance tune that actually has been covered a whole lot but at the same time I really don’t know too many modern bands that are actually doing this song as a cover.

And that’s fifteen songs which takes us right up to the well past midnight and Mike shifts the lights to us in a soft lit up way and the crowd’s slowing down from dancing and they’re looking up at us.

“Well it’s getting to that last bit of the gig folks and we partied hard, we danced tight and slow, we ate and drank and kissed and held folks close.”

There’s lighters and whistles and phones being held up and I smile at them all.

“We’re going to open the last bit up for requests from you all and we’ll do our best to play whatever you want us to play. But as it’s the last bit of the show and the last bit of the night you all might want to place a few orders….I mean they do, do awesome take out here and what’d be better than after partying tonight than actually having some well-earned late night stuff from The Amsterdam, especially for you all that came in for the show from out of town.”

Someone reporterly sounding calls out from way back off the dance floor. “Do you shill for all the places that hire you!?”

“Have you had the food tonight!? Absolutely. Why? Because Venue is crew!”

I grab my water bottle.

And the regulars are joining in with me knowing where I’m going with this.

I toast the whole bar. “It’s our neutral country!”
“It’s our home away from home.”
“It’s beers!”
“And wings!”
“Smiles and Drinks!”
“AND IT’S ABOUT THE ROCK AND ROLL!”
“Raise your voices!”
“Raise your drinks!”

“The Amsterdam!”
“The Amsterdam!”
“The Amsterdam!”

I take a drink of my water and toss the bottle to Mike and lean into the mic stand. “Now what would you all like us to play?”

*Destiny* By SLB is the first thing that they want to hear again and that’s honestly pretty cool and right after that we get a request for *I Believe* and that’s actually fits my mood too and I hit that whole Christina Aguilera vocal zone where I’m belting out the notes in that inspired by Whitney Houston kind of way.

Then it’s *Me and Bobby McGee.* Yes… By Kris Kristofferson I got a serious amount of online comments with the online showing of me covering that song and I love the song too. But I really love the way that Pink sings it.

I cut in with. “Not that we did this in a show but we did a little thing down at Freebird Jams and I’d love to share that with you now.”

Someone yell screamed “Freebird!”

I give the girls the basics and I actually use the acoustic that I used for Bobby McGee and I start into *Queen of Hearts.* by Juice Newton.

Oh that went over really well with the older bar patrons and there’s a good twenty or thirty folks dancing in that old back forth skating in one place sort of seventies dancing but there’s lots of clapping along too.

Then it’s *Black Velvet* By Alana Myles and Raven handles that one and Brooklyn does this steel-guitar like but not steel guitar for it and she really nails that really well.

And we get a request for *Nothing but a Child* By Steve Earle.

Then we get a lot of people requesting it, it’s been coming up but this time there was a whole lot of our younger fans calling the song out over and over.

“Invisible!...Invisible!…Please!”

I nod to them and we kill the lights down to what we call light drift were the light is above and sort of behind us so it looks like the light is actually falling on us.

Then I go into *Invisible* By Starlight Butterfly.

And there’s the phones up and the lighters and then there’s this whole wave of the fans of the song singing it along with us.

We have a really, really strong fan base with this one.

I’m good with that but it’s kind of just sort of odd having a kind of sort of goth-emo sort of song as one of our powerhouse mainstays.

But I see Molly in Carmen’s arms and their watching and they’re both doing that dance-spoon thing and they’re actually really into it.

Which makes sense honestly but it actually kind of means a whole lot of you have a song or songs that just sort of hits spaces and spots in the lives of your band.

I finish and I do an improve with us going into doing. *As Long as I Can See the Light* By CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival) while we have the lights just right and we have the mood too.

Then there’s some call outs and requests for *Oncology* By SLB and Rayne steps up for that one while I play keyboards and just sort of watch and listen with my heart in my throat. She wrote that for me and that was such a whole big moment for us, that was our first real time together as us.

The lump in my throat gets bigger as there’s people in the crowd that are singing along with her and there’s definitely people that have been so touched by cancer, everyone knows someone, lost someone, had it, fought through it.

It just…there’s people all over the bar swaying to it and there’s that whole moment where people are all sort of together.

And that’s by the clock brings us up to legal shut down, closing time’s starting after an hour of requests.

That’s a lot of tunes and a lot of playing.

Mike takes my signal and he brings up the lights and I lean into the mic over the keyboard.

“Looks like the clock got us tonight everyone but don’t you worry we’re going to be here tomorrow night too and we’ll have really, really good time.”

“And if you still didn’t get enough of a Starlight Butterfly fix we’re going to be playing a gig over at Ace’s comics as he’s having a gaming day there so come on over and check out all the really cool stuff he’s got over there and catch us playing a whole tailored up playlist as well as a whole new and really fun song.”

There’s a lot of whistles and yells and camera flashes and Brooklyn starts us into our signature end song of Trooper’s *One for The Money, Two for the show.*

I head down off the stage once we’re done and there’s still lots of folks that are here in this whole getting their orders and waiting to talk a little to us and the girls and I head right into the crowd and we talk and shake hands as we make our way to the bar and we get some of those big mugs of root beer and I get one that’s Doctor Pepper.

Okay, I don’t know if it’s what I said about the food but there’s a steady stream of people with white plastic take out bags and they have Amsterdam logos on them and stuff from those old leaflets and headlines and the main cash is steady and busy and so are the two other ones.

The pop helps and so does the layer of frozen frostiness that’s about an inch thick over the pop itself and I make my way slowly to our sale’s table and Dad and Josie are like really busy and I grab some of the folding chairs behind where they’re sitting and I sit and I talk to people and so do the girls and we’re all signing stuff.

And when I remember a face and a name I use it and I really keep an eye out for that and there’s handshakes with some and mini hugs with others and we sign stuff until we run out of stuff.

And Josie’s laughing when we’re out of everything….again and we’re taking orders for the online store and giving out cards for Graffiti Inc. and her shop and like with the fancy night at The Pine Tree I get up and go with Jake and talk and see people out to the door.

He looks at me and he’s smiling and he is shaking his head. “Wow…what a night, with all that buzz from the charity stuff and the double show you girls did and then the whole helping us sell extra orders and just…”

He takes my hand he gives me this really serious handshake, one of those really big deal handshakes and while I’m not a guy they’re not all that mysterious to me. Women and girls appreciate the respect too.

“Above and beyond Angel seriously.”

I blush a little at the praise and shake his hand. “I’m just going with things that I believe in Jake, seriously I want to be thirty or forty and be able to come down here and maybe screw around on the stage or just come here and take in a rock show on the weekends.”

He blushes this time and at the same time he looks a little mortified. “Gawd I’ll be like seventy.”

“And your kids and grandkids will be running the bar and stuff and the rest will be perfect.”

“Perfect?”

“Yeah, you’ll be retired so you can do a little craft brewing and when you’re not doing that then you’ll be doing most of the music scouting for acts to play here.”

He smiles. “Okay, okay I could actually do that.”

I give him a one-armed hug as we walk back to the others to help with things and I see some new people here now for cleaning up. I look at him and we’re heading to the office with the tills this time and our stuff. “We’re doing really good Angel, like good enough to hire some part time cleaners to come in and do everything and do it better and faster than if staff had to do it after working all night.”

Kimmie’s like… “Really that’s actually pretty cool.”

He nods. “And possibly cool enough we’re looking to open in the day.”

I look at him. “It’ll be a trial thing but Josie mentioned us doing a bar styled breakfast which might work.”

I nod. “Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays would be perfect because you’ll need to prep cook for the nights anyways and then there’s the fact that people get paid on those days.”

Josie hugs me before we all sit down. “Thatta girl, I still gotta to agree with Walker you need to go and get your degree and stuff.”

“I’m registered to start my GED classes at HPCC (Harpers Point Community College.) on the fifth of January and I’ll be doing that until just before March break.”

Dad looks at me. “Really!?”

I nod. “Then it’ll be all summer to get enough cash for tuition.”

There’s this loud. “Paid!” From Dad, Uncle Mitch, Josie and Jake all at once.

I’m just staring at them.

“You guys…”

Molly says. “Seriously guys with the impression she made at school she’ll likely get a scholarship.”

Dad looks at all of us. “Trade school, Community college, University…whatever you girl’s need I’ll help.”

Okay that has all of the girls staring at him and we all end up hugging him and he’s hugging us back. And it takes a while before we’re calm enough to get back to work which actually last long enough for us to count the big plastic water cooler jug that we had set up for The Chapel Street shelter which amounted to just over five hundred bucks!

Seriously people gave a lot…I think that they came here for the chance to give a lot tonight as well as party.

Then there’s the band sales stuff which paid for itself and there’s a lot of tip money from that too and I hand the entire lot over to Josie. “All of it?”

“We’re working the Fall Fair we’re going to need stuff for that and we need more for tomorrow and Sunday too.”

She’s nodding. “Well tomorrow night’s is done and I have four new hires working right now doing stuff so I can add these into all of that too.”

Jake cuts her an order check too for more things that he wants for The Amsterdam and she’s smiling a lot since she likely has over a thousand dollars in hand right now and that’s not counting the online stuff she’ll be doing.

“Lots of new hires going on. “ Mike says.

Dad nods. “I’m even looking at it, business has picked up with the garage being online and we’re getting some traffic from the kids in town. I’m going to need someone in the garage while I’m doing other stuff and someone for the office, especially that knows computer stuff more than I do or Mitch does.”

I’m so not going to say it’s the band but it’s the whole idea. I mean this spin off’s happening close to us because we’re starting to get the ball rolling but it’s already starting to see some results.

It’s going to get bigger and better and when folks have work they’ll spend money which means they’ll likely spend most of it in town and that makes people busier with work and stuff.

Okay…I’m really getting that happy place buzz going on.

Tips…Oh my goddess, the tips were amazing and not a whole huge amount for our band tips but it’s still really decent but with all of the drinks and the dancing and all of the food orders had tips to them plus the wait staff and the tips at the bar and once we tally it all up and then divide it all out.

Eighty six dollars and some change for all of us.

The change and eleven dollars goes to from all of us into the change bottle for The Chapel Street Shelter and that’s from all of the staff too which almost adds another hundred and fifty to that and Jake’s going to deliver that since it’s from his place but we do record it and him and the staff to put all of it online.

And that actually leaves us with seventy five dollars in just the tips each plus we’re getting paid too.

Jake’s writing another check and he passes it to me and I look at him. “For the bar poem and the advertising and all the other things you girls do.”

I nod and take the cheque and it’s for five hundred dollars and it goes in with the rest but I look at him. “Just to be clear we’re taking it because we actually need the money right now but none of the stuff that we do is for money it’s because you’re good people and you deserve it.”

Jake nods. “Fair enough though I did write it out for advertising and consultation so for me it’s a legit business expense and it’s made out to Starlight Music and Entertainment.”

We pay out the tips and there’s hugs and handshakes from the crew and they’re taking off for the night and then Jake and I go over the registration forms for Fall Fair and it’s thirty dollars a day for a booth space payable to the town and I send it in for the full week.

Rayne looks at me. “How are we going to do that and our gigs?”

“I figure that we hire someone to be at the booth while we’re doing the gig’s so to sell our stuff and we can maybe set up a screen or something to actually livestream the feeds?”

Molly nods. “I can do that, the park has Wi-Fi we just need a screen big enough to use for it but we can definitely handle it.”

Brooklyn says. “I think Kim and I can get some of the girls from school to do it, like the ones that live in town like us.”

Molly says. “I’m pretty sure that we can get Jessy to come in and cover things during the daytime too if we need to and she’ll just do it to help out.”

I grin. “Let’s to all of that.”

I look at Rayne and the girls and they’re grinning at me and we’re all nodding and laughing and I look at Josie. “You might want to get all our stuff triple printed for that week.”

Rick says. “Are you girls going to be playing?”

I look at him. “How do we sign up?”

He goes and get the papers he was given for signing up people to play and there’s a fall fair website with a schedule that you have to ask to get a slot in to play for an hour and then get it confirmed by the people running the fall fair and Molly checks it out on her tablet and K & T are on there a lot and they have the last show of the night.

“Adam must have them coming right from Lucky’s and the other places to do their set so they’re likely all set up.”

There’s a lot of other acts and Rayne says. “Let’s see who we can have for booth and work the rest around our jobs and school and gigs before we get slots.”

Kim says. “And we go small like with me and just a few drums and we do like a sort of light and easy deal where we can just keep stuff for the shows we do play in the cars or ready to grab it y’know.”

Rayne says to all of us. “That’s like zero time off that week you know that right?”

I nod. “We do Ace’s and then we’ll have Monday sort of off and our regular week and then this.”

Rayne’s…. “And then Halloween which is on a Saturday night and that means it’s up against us playing here.”

We look at Jake. “What’s going on for Halloween then?”

I blush. “The Brewster’s are holding a big party over at The Wild Cat and they asked us to play and we weren’t thinking when we said we would. We can cancel.”

Jake raises his hands. “I was going to call you and tell you we might be closing for Halloween anyways. People have kids and will have other stuff to do and all the younger crowd that can drink will still likely be at The Wild Cat. I think that we can actually take the night off for that.”

I look at him. “Are you sure, we can change plans I mean we are working for you first The Amsterdam has priority.”

He shakes his head. “We’re good, I think if Josie’s good with it we might just hang out and watch movies together and feed the trick or treaters.”

We shake hands again. “Thanks Jake that’s above and beyond.”

He grins. “Hey, Stage staff’s still staff and you have to look after your staff.”

We hug and him and Josie lead us out to our cars and Dad and Uncle Mitch and Mike have us all packed away.

It takes a few minutes of us talking before we end up deciding that we’re going home to Starlight house tonight.

It’s a stop off though first at the bank and to deposit our cheques and then to Dad’s to pick up the rest of our stuff and then we head for home.

It’s dark but not with the streetlights and our outdoor light and we can see that people and maybe the cops have been all over the lawn and it just looks messy and then there’s the paint which is that neon hunters orange paint that they use in the lumber industry here or to spray buoys and net floats which is easy enough to get ahold of in Harper’s Point.

The cops have always been really hard on that kind of tagging though with the damned stuff being the stolen spray paint of choice from places in town because it’s really hard to get off too.

Brooklyn’s staring at it again.

I look at her. “It will come off Brook, and we can do it tomorrow.”

She sighs and she looks at me and the rest of us. “Just…just sorry everyone, it’s my shit coming down on us.”

Rayne hugs her and leads her inside. “It’s just your turn is all; we’ve been living in my break up for how long?”

Okay that has us chuckling and we all head inside and set our stuff down and settle in and I turn up the furnace since it’s down low and then we’re doing all of our end of the night and end of our gig things.

We’re getting better at this, it’s not as late as it usually is and I even have the time to slip into the kitchen and whip together a few things for tomorrow morning like some bread dough that can sit and do its thing overnight or sit in the fridge and eggs for scramble and do their thing there and prep the coffee maker and make a fresh pitcher of frozen OJ so it can be ready for the morning.

Rayne meets me in the hall and she kisses me. “You smell like you were doing too much hon.”

I kiss her back. “Just getting things ready for breakfast and tomorrow it only took a few minutes.”

“Or an hour at mortal speeds.”

I kiss her again. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to whip eggs and make OJ or any of those things.”

“You still don’t have to.”

She takes my hand and she leads me to our room and we grab our things for the bath or rather she does and I actually take the few minutes to actually change the sheets and then we undress and head to the bathroom and drop off the show clothes in the hamper.

“Carmen’s taking over house laundry.”

Rayne smiles. “Good actually, less stuff for you.”

“I know, I know and that’s why I’m good with it. And she offered so she would actually be the only one handling stuff so it’s easier for her and our work stuff and your work stuff.”

We get the bathroom after everyone else is done and we get our make-up off and then we run a bath to share. Okay that was awesome and Rayne brought music and it went well beyond washing too as we finally released all of those pent up sexual feelings that we had going on all night. It was sexy and soapy and gentle and earnest and there’s just this entirely amazing thing that happens when I see Rayne wet and accented with bubbles and is the light from the scented candles in the bath. And I love the way she makes me feel both sexually more and more as I’m changing and everything is just so alive and sensitive and in my heart as she stares at me with this look that’s just…well it makes me feel safe, loved, and so very much like I’m…Angel.

I mean when someone you love looks at you and shuts down those naggy little dysphoric bits in your head that’s amazing.

There’s something that’s just kind of amazing to with being in that whole glowy after lovemaking place and having someone wash your hair.

And it’s still dark too when we make our way back to our room and to bed. We can tackle the other stuff tomorrow…later tomorrow. Right now I just want to enjoy slipping into the fresh sheets and snuggling and nuzzling up to Rayne.