Aaron Connor (8 page)

“
My name is
Stan” he began, “I play lead guitar, the guy with the drumsticks is
Zo and he’s the drummer, this is Stewie and it’s his bass that
you’ll be carrying, that guy on the end with the black shirt is
Ritchie and he’s the tour manager and finally this is Rick, rhythm
guitar and lead singer”

Rick was the one who was still
sipping at his cardboard cup of Coke. Rick looked up through eyes
lined with black make up. He said nothing but simply nodded his
head to acknowledge our existence. These guys all looked so cool!
Rick was all dolled up in leather, scarves, necklaces, rings,
bracelets and had a large white tunnel pierced in his ear. Zo wore
an orange and black Hawaii shirt, was smoking a cigarette through a
short holder, wore large orange aviator sunglasses and overall
looked like Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It
turned out that Zo was a massive fan of Hunter S. Thomson, and the
inspired fashion style was intended. Stan was dressed in a stripy
red and black shirt with a pair of acid grey skinny jeans. Stewie
wore a black leather jacket, the kind with all of the zips like a
sixties rocker, along with a pair of leather trousers, Cuban heel
beatle boots and a t-shirt which featured a photograph of Bill
Hicks and his famous quote: “This is just a ride!”

Those drippy wannabes back at
St Ians were nothing compared to these guys. The difference between
the two was not only their dress sense, but also their presence.
You could tell that these guys really knew the score. They came
across as real musicians who could go far, not a bunch of
talentless dreamers. The way I see it, go for a dream based on your
natural talents. If you can’t sing but you’re really good at
plumbing, don’t be a pleb and go on some TV talent show! Go for the
skill that your best at. You’ll find work so much easier because
you’ll have the natural ability to do plumbing, no sweat. Remember,
behind the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry, it’s
still just a job and a hard job at that.

These guys looked the part,
that’s for sure. At that point I hadn’t heard them play yet, so I
was still to be fully convinced about them. Their look and charisma
alone made me take them a bit more seriously. They could talk the
talk but could they walk the walk. We’ll find that out later.
Anyway, back to the point we were at.

After introducing everyone,
everyone had finished eating and was ready to get moving again. We
waited for a few blokes who wanted to go to the toilet first. I and
Lizzie, thinking that we had no idea where the next rest stop may
be, went to the toilet just for the heck of it. After having a
slash and laughing at some picture on a machine that dispensed
novelty condoms with funny faces, we were ready to hit the
road.

That black guitar case that was
leaning against the table turned out to be the guitar in question.
Blimey, it was HUGE! I could see why the others weren’t happy with
the fact that Stewie had bought the blasted thing. When I saw how
big the guitar was, I then began to wonder how I was to get this
thing on the bike.

We went outside, they made
Stewie carry the heavy black case as punishment for being a
complete twit. The cold air hit us instantly. I looked at the Moped
and knew right then that it wouldn’t work. I darted my eyes around
the car park looking for inspiration.

“
Is that it?!”
said Stewie when he saw the bike, “how the hell are you going to
get the bass on that?”

I wasn’t listening though. I
had spotted something, an opportunity you could say. At the far end
of the car park was a large open back lorry. In the back were piles
of rubbish, probably going to some skip. The driver, who was in
reflective yellow overalls and a black bobble hat, was leaning
against the lorry smoking on a cigarette. What I had spotted was
something poking out of the piles of rubbish. I couldn’t believe
it. It was so convenient that it felt unreal. Poking out of the
garbage was a rusty old sidecar.

The sidecar had two wheels, a
dirty old leather seat and all of the attachment straps intact. The
metal body itself was a dark crumbly black. The patches of lime
green showed what colour it used to be before it went into disuse.
It was perfect. If I could attach that to the Moped, it’d have
something to put the bass in and could store any other stuff we
needed.

I ran over to the bloke having
a fag. The band members and Lizzie looked confused. Then Lizzie
spotted the sidecar, pointed it out to the others and then ran over
the car park to join me. They felt that I might need more people to
convince the bloke that we needed that sidecar. People who work
with rubbish can be a bit funny that way. Some of them won’t let
people have anything, even if the person really needs it, just so
it can lie on a heap of other useless pish. This was a complete
stranger, so we were not sure how easily persuaded he would be.

I arrived and almost instantly
the guy looked up at me. He was a largish guy with a healthy
looking pot belly. He had stubble across his face which was covered
in dirt from loading the rubbish onto the lorry. According to the
name badge on his overalls, his name was Gary.

He gave me a nice smile as I
came up to him. I wasn’t expecting that. Odd isn’t it? Whenever we
go to talk to a stranger, we always assume that they’re going to be
difficult. That’s the case with me anyway, so I found it a bit
unusual when the bloke turned out to be quite nice.

“
Ello’!” said
Gary in a loud voice, “what you lot up to?”

“
Sorry to
bother you” I said as politely as I could, “but is there any chance
we could have that sidecar?”

“
Yah mate” he
replied, “go on, I an’t gonna bloody well use it am I?”

“
Oh” I said,
quite surprised by the easiness of his guy, “thank you”

“
Ere’” said
Gary with a grunt, throwing his fag on the floor and putting it out
with his foot, “I’ll give yah a hand. What you want it
for?”

“
To attach it
to that Moped” said Lizzie, pointing to the bright yellow bike, “we
have something extra to carry that we weren’t expecting before we
started”

“
Fair enough
man” said the lorry driver, “right, let’s get this down
then”

What he did next was
astonishing, especially for a bloke of his size. He climbed up onto
the back of the lorry from the side. He put one large hand on the
side and just lifted himself up like King Kong. He climbed up the
mountain of rubbish. He was causing doll’s heads and tin cans to go
rolling down the hill, as he kicked them aside with his large feet.
He came to the sidecar, grabbed it with both hands, lifted it up
and chucked it aside. Thankfully we all bolted out of the way just
in time for the sidecar to land next to us. It landed perfectly, on
its wheels and without any kind of damage whatsoever. This guy was
obviously a pro!

Gary jumped off, walked
alongside the lorry, leaned up against it, got out another
cigarette and carried on as he did before as if nothing happened.
At first we were so stunned by what we just saw, that we lost the
ability to do anything. Then of course, we remembered our manners
and together rolled the sidecar across the car park. We shouted
back our thank yous. Gary replied with a grunt, a smile with the
fag in his mouth and a thumbs up.

“
Well, that
happened” said Nick with a laugh,

“
Nice chap”
chuckled Zo, “didn’t even charge us for this!”

“
Who are you
by the way?” asked Nick, looking at Lizzie,

“
I’m Lizzie”
she said shyly, “I’m Aaron’s friend”

“
Aaron’s
girlfriend?” asked Zo, brandishing a rather dirty grin,

“
No” replied
Lizzie blushing, “we’re just mates”

“
That’s aright
then” said Zo,

We finally arrived at the
yellow bike. Nick disappeared around the corner to the band’s van.
He returned with an on road tool box to attach the sidecar onto.
Out of the left hand side of the sidecar, were lots of iron bars
with nuts and bolts sticking outwards. When we brought the sidecar
together with the Moped, we could see that there were places on the
bike’s framework that the sidecar’s bars could be attached
onto.

Nick took out some spanners
and, with each one he had, placed them onto the bolts to see which
spanner was the best fit. Once he found the one that wrapped around
the bolt the best, he asked the rest of us to push the sidecar
towards the bike so he could screw it on. I can’t remember how long
we were holding that sidecar in place, but it felt like hours. My
arms started ache real quickly.

Finally Nick had gone through
all of the bolts and made sure they were fastened onto the bike’s
framework perfectly. We wobbled it and it seemed sturdy. Just to
make sure I rode around the car park with the sidecar on, it seemed
fine. It didn’t fall off, the bolts didn’t come loose and it hardly
shook at all. I drove the bike back in, ready to get the bass
guitar inside it.

Once again the boys forced
Stewie to get the bass in, so if it fell off and smashed on the
road it would be his own fault. The boys were still mad at him. I
and Lizzie knew that they’d calm down eventually, right now though
they just wanted to get out some frustration. While we watched him,
Lizzie saddled up to me for a chat.

“
Can I ask you
something?” she asked,

“
Yah sure” I
replied,

“
Next time you
wanna do something like this, run it by me first!”

“
I really
wanted to help and go on the road with these guys. I was afraid
you’d say no”

“
Why would I
say no? It’s not as if we have a time limit to go by. It’s not as
if we knew where we were going. I think it’s a good idea. It’ll be
fun. I like these guys. Next time though, just ask me first, that’s
all”

“
Ok, I
will”

Stewie had strapped up the bass
nice and tight. It was one of these belts like you get in RAF
planes, where it doubles up in both directions like an “X”. He made
it tight as he possible could. Zo tried to pull it out as a test.
It wouldn’t budge. We were ready. It was an odd looking vehicle
now, a bright yellow Moped with an almost black and brown rusty
sidecar. It would do though. Anyway, a lick of paint would sort
that out no problem.

“
That looks…”
Nick began, trying to find the right words as he looked at the
horrid looking thing, “….durable”

“
You guys look
ready” said Stan, “We’ll fetch the van and we’ll be on our
way”

The boys all started to walk
away so they could get into the van. I and Lizzie got back onto the
Moped. I don’t know why the thought arrived when it did, but I
suddenly realised that we had no helmets. Lizzie stayed on the bike
as I rushed inside the building. I remembered that out of the
corner of my eye I saw a sports shop, so I headed straight
there.

The bloke at the counter, who
looked as tired as hell, looked alarmed as he saw me running
towards him. He must have thought I was rushing in to nick
something. He hid behind the counter in fear as I ran over to the
biking section. I grabbed two basic adult helmets, one blue and one
pink. Perfect. I went over to the till, bought the helmets with the
last of my money and ran back outside.

By the time I arrived at the
bike, my helmet was already securely on my head. I threw the pink
helmet to Lizzie who popped it right on and fastened the straps. As
I climbed back on I saw the boy’s van come around the corner. It
was a small, black, dirty Volkswagen campervan. It was small, so I
could see what the issue was with the new guitar not fitting
inside. The boys looked squashed up as it was with all the amps and
stuff taking up most of the room.

The Van sped on to take the
lead. Large clouds of smoke came out of the exhaust like a dodgy
car in an old film. I turned the key, kick started the engine,
revved up the engine, let go of the brake and sped off after them
onto the main road.

“
Aaron?”
Lizzie asked over my shoulder,

“
What?” I
answered,

“
Is this trip
always going to be this unpredictable?” she asked,

“
I guess so” I
replied,

“
Good” she
said with a giggle, “then I know it’s gonna be fun!”

CHAPTER SEVEN

We weren’t on the road too
long. It was only a couple of miles up the road to the next gig. At
that point it was nearing midnight and Lizzie had already fallen
asleep against my back. She was brave. How anyone could fall sleep
on a motorbike? Even if you’re just riding on the back, how could
you fall asleep? If that was me, I’d keep worrying about what might
happen while I was nodding off. The last thing you want to wake up
to is a nasty crash! At least when you’re awake and you can see the
accident coming, you can prepare yourself for it. If you’re asleep
when it happens you’ll wake up half way through. She was a brave
girl.

Then again she was brave to
come out with me on this adventure in the first place. She’s
probably the best friend I’d ever have. There will always be that
one friend who will be your mate for life. You might meet them
early in life, in the middle or even towards the end. Nonetheless
they will come. I was lucky to have Lizzie with me. She makes me
feel good. I don’t think I would have had the energy, strength or
bravery to leave St.Ians if it was just me on that bike. I knew
just how lucky I was. So I then knew that it would be best to do
all I can to not lose her. I needed her. Like a lovebird needs
another lovebird. Like the flowers need sunlight. I needed her. She
was so much apart of me that I didn’t know what I’d do without her.
I leaned over and kissed her on her forehead. I smiled before
looking back at the road.