Page 9 of Behind the Lights

“Ugh,” frustrated, he pulled his arms apart, “please, Mom?”

“I’ll make a deal with you. You finish out the school year with nothing below a B on your report cards, and I’ll let you go to the concert providing another adult I approve of goes with you guys.”

We looked at each other, grinning. “Deal,” he told her.

“When and where exactly is this concert being held?” she asked.

“July twelfth at White River Amphitheater in Auburn.” Ricky knew it by heart, we’d been talking about it for weeks on end.

Mary laughed. “Had it memorized did ya? Well, let me check it out and we’ll sit down and talk after your final report cards come.”

She barely had the car parked in the driveway before we jumped out and raced to the front door. As soon as it was unlocked, we barreled up the stairs and headed straight for his radio. Once the tunes were cranked up our jam session began.

A couple hours later, Mary came up to let us know dinner was ready. She was laughing as she walked off, I’m assuming it was at our inability to play our air guitars in tune with the beat of the music. But we didn’t care, we were sweaty messes who’d worked up an appetite and were having a great time doing it.

“Hey guys,” Mary said, handing us our plates. “Tonight, you’re staying next door at Joey’s house.”

“We are?” Ricky mumbled through a mouthful of food.

“Lovely.” She scowled at Ricky talking with his mouth full. “Yes. I already talked to Joe and he said he’d be home. I’m um, I’m going out.” She stared at Ricky, gauging his reaction.

I eyed them both, trying to figure out what I was missing.

“You all right, Mom?” The concern for his mother showed through his question. They had a great relationship, one I regretted not having with my own mother.

“Yes love, I’m okay. But Brett asked me out to dinner and a movie and I said yes,” she told him, patiently awaiting his next question.

“Oh, okay.” He shrugged and resumed inhaling his hamburger.

No one seemed upset, so I dug back in. I didn’t think Mary’d ever gone on a date before, at least if she had neither of us knew about it. Which didn’t say much for our attention spans, or lack thereof.

The last couple weeks of school flew by, our weekends were consumed with yard work, so they basically had become non-existent. Ricky’s mom and Brett were seeing more and more of each other, but Ricky said nothing to me that led me to believe he was upset about it. Brett was cool to us, always talking about music and introducing us to more classic rock. When our report cards came in the mail, they showed we’d worked our butts off to get the grades needed to be able to go to the concert in July.

Our birthdays were a little more than two weeks apart, mine being May twenty-sixth, and Ricky’s on June tenth. Since we didn’t have a lot of friends, mostly by choice, Mary opted to have a barbeque at her house to celebrate them as well as our promotion from junior high to high school and invited my dad too. When everyone had gathered in their backyard, she handed Ricky an envelope at the same time my dad handed me one.

“Boys, while we’re happy you ended the school year with excellent grades,” Mary said, eyeing us suspiciously. “Which I hope wasn’t a fluke. But, you’re both transitioning into high school this fall and have more than earned these. Happy birthday!”

We ripped the corner of the envelopes open carefully, hoping we knew what was inside and didn’t want to risk tearing them. The thrill of finding our concert tickets and sixty dollars in cash each made it hard to contain our excitement. The grins on our faces mirrored those of our parents.

My dad reached over, patting my shoulder. “Good job, buddy, I’m proud of you. Save that money so you can get a shirt there. You’ll regret it if you don’t, it’s almost like a concert rite of passage.”

“There’s one catch,” Mary started, and I swear my heart stopped on the spot, fearing her next words. “Brett and Uncle John are going with you.”

Our heads swiveled to the side in unison, locating their faces smiling back at us from across the yard. While it would’ve been cool to have been let loose without parental units around for the day, having those guys with us wouldn’t be too bad. We shrugged and went back to staring at our tickets.

“Ricky?” his mom asked, “can I see you inside for a few minutes please?”

“Um, yeah, okay Mom,” he said, tucking his ticket back in the envelope before following her.

I went back to staring at my ticket, thinking about all the bands I was going to see that day. This was going to be the best day ever. Trapped in my daze, I hadn’t noticed that Uncle John and Brett had walked up to me until one of them shook my shoulder. I looked up and found myself staring into Uncle John’s laughing eyes.

“Are you guys stoked for your first concert?” he teased.

“Hell, oops, heck yeah,” I told him.

They grinned, ignoring my slip of tongue.

Whew.

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