Aaron Connor (13 page)

“
Before now,
you blokes were strangers” I said calmly, “and I went with yah. The
truth is, me and Lizzie are on a mission, to help as many people as
we can. We’ve got no qualifications, there are no jobs for people
like us and no way to make a living”

“
So, we
thought that we’d make the best of the time we have” said Lizzie,
“and…even though we really enjoyed your company, we’ve been given
the opportunity to help someone else. Everyone in this country is
so frigid, so a person asking for help doesn’t come often. When the
chance comes, we’ve got to take it”

The boys sadly nodded to say
that they understood. Stewie looked like he might cry. Nick was
pulling a rather strange expression. I wasn’t sure if he was sad or
mad. He stared at me for a few moments, shook his head and went
back to clearing up the equipment. The fun atmosphere from before
had dropped dramatically.

I felt quite bad then, so I got
up and started to help them pack up. Lizzie followed suit and
helped Zo to put the drum kit back into the various cases. No one
spoke. It was completely silent for the time that we started
packing up, to when we were loading the stuff into the back of the
lad’s van. Then Nick turned to me, with that funny old smile of his
and said:

“
Thanks guys,
the world could do with some more people like you.”

“
Thanks Nick”
I said,

“
No” said
Nick, “thank you Aaron”

We closed the doors of the van,
strapped the bass back into the sidecar and went back off down the
street. Within the hour we were back at the hotel. I took all of
the straps from the side car and placed them on the roof of the
van. This was so that the lads could carry the bass around after I
left. I was originally going to suggest that, when we were all at
that service station, but I knew that that wouldn’t lead to
anything interesting. I wanted to go with them, so I went forward
with plan B. I crossed the straps like in the sidecar so that the
bass wouldn’t fall off. It just meant that the sidecar no longer
had any safety straps. No one could ride in that now, it was purely
going to be for carrying stuff.

With the new straps attached to
the van roof, we all went inside the hotel. We all went to our
rooms in silence. Later in the evening Ritchie came around all the
rooms and gave everyone their share of the money, during our
conversation with Joe he had collected the money from the club’s
owner. We all knew that he was drunk at the time, so we all checked
the money first, it was all cool though. Ritchie finally came into
our room, he gave Nick his money and gave me and Lizzie £10 each in
£5 notes.

“
Mate!” I
shouted, calling him back as he headed for the door, “I thought we
said that we’d do it for a fiver?”

“
I know” said
Ritchie simply, “I know. But you deserved more”

Ritchie then left the room
without another word. Nick looked at us two and smiled. As he went
past us to go for a shower, he patted by shoulder and said; “He’s
right mate”

The sound of the shower could
be heard muffled through the wall and closed door. Lizzie and I
were left in the room together. We were both sitting on our bed and
feeling quite low. She shuffled up behind me on the bed and gave me
a hug around the waist. I could feel her head resting on her
shoulder.

“
Did you think
it was the wrong thing to do?” I asked her,

“
No, it was
right” she answered while snuggling up with me, “doesn’t
necessarily mean we wanted to. I want you to know that I would have
stuck by you even if you choose to stay. I trust you Aaron Connor,
You’re a good guy”

“
Thanks” I
said, “but you can make your own decisions too you know. You can
pack up and go back when you get fed up of me”

“
When I get
fed up of you?” she repeated, “I’m not going to! Why would I? If I
didn’t want to be here I would have gone ages ago. I want to be
here. I’ve gone along with you because I agreed with your ideas and
plans. If I didn’t I would have said so. I trust you. I love
you”

I had not expected that. It’s
just assumed that he was going along because she felt obliged to do
so. I never thought that she actually wanted to be with me. I felt
all silly then. I didn’t know how to react. I just smiled at her
and held her hand tightly. It was a nice moment. I found myself
laughing for no real reason. She started laughing too. It was that
kind of laughter that comes not from finding something funny, but
from being so overwhelmed with happiness that there is nothing else
to do.

She took my head in her hand,
brought my head to face hers and kissed me. I know that I’ve said
this a dozen times before, but I was so lucky to have her. I was
lucky to have someone who truly loved me, someone who would go to
the end of the world with me, someone who would forever be by my
side and someone who will be my soul mate for life. I was so lucky.
Even now I don’t think I fully appreciate how lucky I really am.
She’s my star, my angel, my light and my life. I know it sounds
corny but sometimes life is corny. Corny is good. Corny means that
you’re so genuinely happy, that you don’t care that you’re being so
corny.

Each of us had a shower, one
after the other. There was a late night comedy show on that we
watched together. It was one of those shows which showcased lots of
the UK’s top comedians. Comedians in this day and age have become
almost like rock stars. They pack out stadiums and areas, go on
huge worldwide tours and are at the top end of British celebrities.
We all laughed our heads off at this one Welsh comedian, he had us
in stitches.

For a few moments, Nick had
completely forgotten that we were leaving in the morning. For a few
moments we were all problem free and at our highest. I hadn’t seen
Lizzie smile like that in a long time. If she was pretty when she
was sad, blimey was she stunning when she was happy. That smile lit
up her entire face and created little wrinkles in the corners of
her eyes. I was so lucky. I was so lucky.

After the show finished we
turned off the television, got changed into our pyjamas (underwear)
and got into bed. Before we turned off the light, Nick had
something he wanted to say first.

“
I’ve only
known you guys for two days” he began, “but you’ve made more of an
impression on me then anyone I’ve ever known. What you guys are
trying to do is proper beautiful. I and the boys are rooting for
you both. I promise yah that one of these days, we’ll write a song
about you. Just you wait and see”

“
I’ll look
forward to it” said Lizzie, “make sure it gets to number
one!”

Nick laughed at that. I did as
well. There were a few moments silence before we turned off the
lights and went to sleep. I couldn’t sleep for ages. I couldn’t get
the thought out of my mind of what the next task might hold.
Edinburgh, that’s in Scotland. I was going to go to Scotland. Even
though I was saddened by the ending of this chapter, I was excited
by the possibilities that might come in the next one. I couldn’t
wait. Then, finally, I fell asleep.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The next morning I found me and
Lizzie in the room alone. I could hear the voices of the band from
the open door going out into the corridor. When we heard this, I
and Lizzie got dressed as fast as we could and headed out into the
corridor.

In the corridor stood the band
all chatting among themselves. Once we came into the corridor all
of them fell silent. All of them looked quite saddened but strong.
Many of their faces were expressionless, like when you’re trying to
suppress the way you actually feel. Each of them shook our hands in
turn, like how the Queen shakes hands with all of the performers
after the Royal Variety Performance.

“
You lot
ready?” asked Ritchie, who was talking to the owner of the next
venue on his phone,

“
Yah, we’re
ready” replied Nick,

“
Right then”
said Ritchie, “let’s make a move”

We all started to make our way
down through the corridor and out into the foyer. We arrived at the
desk where he all handed in our keys and officially checked out.
Lizzie and I took one last look at the lovely hotel before heading
back out into the car park.

It was a calm and quiet
morning. It was as if the world knew that there was going to be a
parting of the ways taking place. There was a light wind blowing
which made the trees lining the car park sway. The sky was grey and
the early morning was still considerably dark. Birds were in the
trees singing their little hearts out and pigeons were wondering
around the pavement looking for fallen food.

The boys arrived at the van and
opened the doors. Ritchie climbed in first and sat in his seat,
still talking away enthusiastically on his phone. The others piled
in the back seats and put on their safety belts. Lizzie climbed
onto the Moped. I walked up to the open doorway of the black van.
Nick was sitting there and he looked down at me with sad eyes. He
put a fist out to me to express his respect for me. I put out my
own fist and we both bumped out fists together in a blokish
fashion. He nodded his head and a moment later closed the door.

I backed away as the engine
revved up, ready to go. The van pulled away with a loud bang from
the exhaust pipe. The smoke from the pipe, once again, made a large
cloud develop behind the vehicle. As the van pulled out of the car
park and onto the road, I could see all of the band members giving
us peace signs with their fingers. Both I and Lizzie returned the
gesture by giving them peace with our fingers as well. Very soon
the van had pulled out onto the road and was gone, leaving a trail
out smoke behind it.

I looked at the spot where they
just left for a few moments. I took a deep breath before going to
the moped to join Lizzie. I climbed on the bike behind her as she
was already in the position to drive the bike. She told me later
that she wanted to drive because she didn’t think I’d be in the
mood for it. She was right, that girl can read me like a book.

Lizzie kicked the ignition and
started up the engine with a loud roar. Lizzie had already taken
the two helmets from the sidecar’s boot. She had her helmet and she
passed me mine. I put it on and tightened the straps accordingly.
She looked behind to check that there were no obstructions. Using
her feet she shuffled the bike back, as motorbikes and mopeds can’t
reverse, until the bike was positioned towards the opening that led
onto the road. She twisted the accelerator on the moped’s handles,
which made the bike zoom off across the car park and onto the
road.

Joe said that the School with
the drama studio was to the left of the Speakeasy bar. So the
sensible decision was to go to the Speakeasy bar first and then go
from there. Lizzie drove the yellow bike with the rusty old sidecar
through the Essex town. We passed all of the same shops and sights
that we passed on the journey to the bar the night before. We
arrived at the bar from the right so kept on driving past it.

We kept on driving down the
road until, as Joe said, we came to the large sign which said;
“Epping Secondary School”. The building was lined by a tall brick
wall and the only entrance was an open green iron gate. We rode on
through the gates into the school’s car park. At the entrance, just
by a large square building, was Joe wearing the same dirty shirt as
the day before. He was talking to an older woman with bleach blonde
hair when we approached him on the bike. When he saw us, he
completely ignored the woman’s next comment and waved to us with a
massive and toothy smile across his wide face.

“
Hello!” he
called to us, “Thank god you’ve come. You two are seriously going
to be a great help”

We parked the Moped into one of
the spaces. We climbed off the bike, removed our helmets, placed
them into the boot of the sidecar, closed the boot and then walked
over to Joe. Joe looked extremely excited by our arrival, while his
female companion looked at us as if we were something she’d just
stepped in.

She was a nasty looking woman,
the kind of person whose face is permanently stuck in an expression
of disapproval. These were the kind of sour women that you find on
village and town councils. These are the kind of people who think
they know the score and are somewhat royalty, when in fact they’re
just bigoted fools. We’ve all come across these people at one time
or another.

I like to call these people
“The Marvellous People”, as all they do is tell everyone how
marvellous they are. They are convinced that their farts smell of
strawberries. They walk around with their bottoms sticking up in
the air while they criticise everyone and everything except
themselves. “The Marvellous People” come in all forms of men and
women from all ages. This woman was, by far, the worst “Marvellous
Person” I’d ever come across.

“
Fantastic!”
Joe was saying, as he shook our hands in turn, “So glad you’re
here. This here is Laura Mish our costume and make up designer,
Laura these are our new lighting and sound operators”

“
My arse they
are!” she cried, “They’re just chavs!”

“
Don’t judge a
book by its cover” said Joe, looking rather disgusted by what Laura
had just said, “I saw these chaps at work last night at the bar in
Town. They were working with a band you see. They were wonderful,
perfect in fact. These are the people we need and I think that
they’re going to do a great job, personally”

“
Well,
personally I think you’ve made a huge mistake” said Laura, flicking
away some of the burnt ash from the cigarette she was smoking,
“They’ll probably nick everything or set something on fire or start
a riot or….something!”