Righteous Obsession (8 page)

Colin stopped by Steve’s room, but he was on the phone
and from the sound of things he might be on it for some time.  What little he
overheard sounded as if Steve was busy tying up some loose ends for their first
European tour.  He took the elevator down to the twelfth floor and knocked on
the door of his parent’s suite.

Amanda opened the door.  He saw over her shoulder that
Liam had beaten him there.  “Hi! Come in.”  She shut the door.  “My!  You both
look so handsome!”

“Mom!”  They chorused and then started laughing.

Liam dressed totally in blue, wearing light blue dress
jeans and a bright blue shirt, which darkened his eyes to sapphire.

“You look gorgeous, Mom,” Colin said.  “I really like
your dress.”

“Thank you.”  Amanda wore a lavender-colored dress in
a floral pattern that complimented her hair color and skin tone.  She wore her
hair in its customary French twist.

“Your mother would look lovely even in a burlap
sack!”  Peter stated as he came out of the bedroom.  He dressed casually in
slacks, a dress shirt and a sports jacket.

“Ouch!”  Amanda grimaced.  “I don’t think I’d like
that!”

“So, Liam, are you going to let your hair grow?” 
Colin teased.

Liam grinned at his brother’s teasing.  “I don’t think
I’d want to grow my hair as long as yours, Colin; it’d drive me crazy!”

“Sometimes I get annoyed with it too,” he admitted and
then laughed.  “Like when I got it caught in the coffee grinder!”  He turned to
his parents.  “Mace and Jake said to thank you for the supper invitation but
they’d both made other plans already and Steve was on the phone talking to
somebody in Europe so I didn’t ask him.”

“Where are we eating?”  Liam asked.

“Your mother has a fancy for real Southern cuisine and
the desk clerk recommended a restaurant in Mid-town near Piedmont Park.”

“I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m hungry,”
Colin replied as they got into their rented car.

“We heard your interview and I’m not sure I like what
Jake said about my chili,” Their mother remarked.

“You never told us that story about your house
either,” Peter said.  “It seems rather small to have been that sort of place.”

Colin grinned and replied, “According to the
historical accounts I found there were only four ladies, but they were very
exclusive, expensive and only the richest gentlemen could afford them.”

They arrived at the restaurant, housed in a
gingerbread style Victorian mansion, built in the late 1800’s.  It had a garden
with a gazebo where people dined.

“This is gorgeous!”  Colin exclaimed as he got out of
the car.  “I feel right at home.”

“When the desk clerk described it to me I knew you’d
enjoy eating here,” Peter replied.

As the hostess escorted them to their table, Colin,
whose attention was on the interior design, failed to notice the peculiar, and
in some cases, the hostile looks he was receiving.  Amanda, however, did notice
and a cold glare from her forced them to turn their attention elsewhere.  They
studied the menu in silence for a few moments then Amanda sighed and declared,
“There are so many things that sound absolutely delicious that I can’t make up
my mind.”

“I wouldn’t look at the dessert menu then,” Colin
advised.

After they had ordered and the waiter had brought
their drinks, Colin leaned back in his chair with a sigh and said, “This place
has such a restful atmosphere I hope I don’t fall asleep.”

“You do look tired,” His mother remarked.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night.  I guess I was
too nervous.”

Amanda suspected being nervous wasn’t the entire
reason Colin hadn’t gotten enough sleep.

Liam glanced at his watch and whistled softly, “Wow! 
It’s hard to believe in just a little over two hours we’ll be playing in front
of twenty thousand fans!”

“Feeling a little nervous?”  Peter asked.

“More than a little, Dad,” He admitted.  “What if I
can’t remember the songs or worse yet, I freeze when the lights come up?”

“I’ll tell you how to avoid that,” Colin spoke up. 
“When the lights come up don’t look at the entire audience all at once.  Just
pick a small section and keep your eyes on it until you feel comfortable enough
to take in the whole audience.”

“I’ll give it a try.”

“Or you can picture everybody in their underwear,” He
proposed mischievously.  “With all those females it could prove to be quite
titillating!”

“Colin!”  Amanda exclaimed, trying to sound shocked,
but not quite managing to hide her smile.

The waiter arrived with their food and any
conversation ceased for several minutes while everybody dug into their food. 
Colin was the first to speak, “What time are you leaving tomorrow?”

“At noon.  Your father wants to tour CNN before we
leave.”

“I figured you probably wouldn’t want to miss out on
seeing CNN up close and personal, Dad!”  Colin teased.

Peter just laughed, nodding in agreement.

“Have you told the President yet that you won’t be
filling his job opening?”  Liam inquired.

“No, it can wait until after our vacation.”

The dessert cart came by and though everything on it
looked utterly delicious, both Colin and Liam passed on dessert.  It wasn’t a
good idea to go onstage, under hot lights, stuffed with a rich dessert unless you
wanted to take the risk of getting sick in the middle of the concert.

Colin leaned back in his chair and dug into his
pocket.  “Could you do me a favor, Dad?”

“Sure, if I can.”

“Could you drive my Jeep occasionally?  I hate to
leave it sitting in the garage for six months.  You can leave it at your house
and I’ll pick it up there when we come home.”  He handed his father his car
keys.

“I can do that.”

Liam dug his keys out, too.  “Could you or mom drive
my Jeep occasionally, too?”

“No problem,” Peter answered

Amanda noticed Colin glancing at his watch and looked
at Peter.  “I suppose we’d better be getting the boys to the coliseum.”

Peter nodded and motioned to the waiter who promptly
brought the check over to their table.

“I’ll split it with you,” Colin offered.

“No, it’s our treat,” Peter said.

“Let me get the tip then.”

“Okay.”

They walked outside.  It was still warm, but not
uncomfortable.  Colin and Liam, for their amusement, tried to guess whether the
cars passing them, going in the same direction, were going to Unforgiven.  A
couple of limousines filled with kids swept past them.

“There’s a good idea,” Amanda remarked.  “Rent a
limousine to take your child and their friends to the concert and then you
don’t have to worry about them getting into an accident.”

“Where do I go now?”  Peter asked as they approached
the coliseum.

“The stage entrance,” Colin replied.

There was a line of cars waiting to get into the
parking lot and they could see fans converging on the entrance from all over
the lot as they drove past.

“Wow!”  Liam exclaimed.

“Do all these belong to Unforgiven?”  Amanda asked as
they passed a row of double-parked white semi-trailer trucks and four
colorfully painted buses.

“Yeah, Mom six of the trailer trucks belong to us,”
Colin replied with more than a trace of pride in his voice.

“Whom do the buses belong to?”

“One is Armageddon’s, one belongs to their road crew
and the other two belong to our road crew,” Liam explained.

“I guess I didn’t realize what a really big production
this is,” she replied.

Peter pulled in behind a limousine already parked
close to the stage entrance.

“Looks like Mace and Jake are already here,” Liam
commented.

As Colin got out of the car he noticed that security
guards were keeping back the fans, trying to sneak in the stage door.  He heard
screams and moans when they spotted him and Liam.  Colin smiled and waved at
them, eliciting even louder screams.

Steve appeared at the door, holding it open until they
were all safely inside then quickly closing it as some of the fans broke past
security and rushed the door.  “That was close!”  He huffed.

Colin turned to his parents.  “I’ll change and be
right out.”

“Colin?”  Russ called, coming up to him with something
in his hand.  “This telegram’s for you.”  He handed it to Colin.

“Thanks, Russ.”  He opened the telegram, guessing it
was from Alethea.  It read, ‘I love you!’

“Who’s it from?”  Liam asked, trying to see over his
arm.

“None of your business,” Colin answered, giving him a
gentle shove.

“I’ll bet it’s from Alethea,” Liam guessed.

Amanda noticed how carefully he folded the telegram,
confirming her suspicion that Alethea sent it.

Colin opened the dressing room door and stuck his head
inside.  “Are you guys decent?”

“Sure, unless you have Vanessa Morrison with you,”
Jake answered.

“Nope, sorry I just have Liam.”

Colin quickly changed into a pair of jeans, ripped in
all the right places, and donned a T-shirt with the band’s logo on it.  He went
back out into the hallway where Peter and Amanda were waiting.  “Ready?”

“Lead the way,” Peter said.

As they walked down the hall Colin stuck his head into
Armageddon’s dressing room.  “Hi, everybody!  How’s it going?”

“Just fine, Colin,” Jodi, the lead singer replied. 
She was a gorgeous young woman dressed in tight jeans and an equally tight
T-shirt.

“How did the club tour go?” Previous to joining their
tour, Armageddon had done a short tour of the club circuit.

“We knocked them dead!”  The lead guitarist
proclaimed.

“Great!  I’ll see you later.”

As he and his parents worked their way to the
backstage area they passed what seemed like dozens of people hurrying to and
from the backstage area.  Colin paused just off the side of the stage and stood
with his hands in his pocket as he surveyed the audience.  From where he was
standing he could see them, but they couldn’t see him.  AC/DC’s ‘For Those
About To Rock’ (We Salute You)
©
was blasting out of the sound system
and the audience was in constant motion.  Fans were still coming into the
coliseum in a steady stream.  Others were leaving to check out the concession
stands or the booths of the advocacy groups.  He saw lots of kids coming back
in wearing or carrying Unforgiven and/or Armageddon T-shirts.  Many were also
clutching pamphlets they had obtained from the advocacy booths.  He hoped the
fans who were old enough had registered to vote.

“I always like to come up and watch all this.  It gets
me psyched up for our performance.”  He glanced at his watch and noticed it was
a few minutes before eight.

The lights in the coliseum suddenly started to dim and
there was a lot of whooping from the audience.  The stage was completely dark
and the members of Armageddon slipped silently past Colin and his parents and
took their places on stage.

“Dudes and dudettes,” A voice announced.  Colin
immediately recognized as belonging to Jazz.  “Please give a rousing Southern
welcome to Armageddon!”

As the lights came back up, the fans greeted
Armageddon with screams, yells, clapping and foot stomping.  Colin even heard a
rebel yell or two.  “I’m going to stay up here for a while,” He said to his
parents.  He nodded at Clem, his guitar roadie.  “Clem will take you back to
our dressing room if you don’t want to stay.”

“I think we’ll go back to your dressing room.”  Peter
decided.

After his parents had left, Colin stuck in his
earplugs.  He always wore them when he played or when he was in the vicinity of
any really loud music.  He could still hear, but they screened out the high
decibels and prevented any damage to his hearing.

Armageddon launched into their first song to the
screams, shouts and applause of the audience.  Colin watched them perform a
couple more songs then he returned to Unforgiven’s dressing room.  His parents
were having a soda and visiting with Mace and Jake.

“How’s Armageddon doing?”  Jake asked as Colin removed
his earplugs.

“Looks to me like they have the audience eating out of
their hands!”  He replied as he glanced at Liam who, as usual, was standing in
front of a mirror, fussing with his hair.  Colin smiled to himself and shook
his head.  He spent more time on it than any teenager he’d ever encountered. 
He was too nervous to sit still so he went back out into the hallway.  As he
leaned against the wall, Alethea’s telegram that he’d stowed in his pocket,
crinkled.  He reread it, wishing fervently that she could be here instead of a
piece of paper.  He sighed, put it away and began to pace up and down the hall
restlessly.

“So, Dude, are you nervous?”