**
Luke sat with his notebook. The words on the papers meant nothing compared to the thoughts in his head. He couldn’t understand why Amy still rang in his mind. Maybe it was the whole damsel-in-distress aspect, but whatever it was caused him to completely forget about his throat and the show the band was supposed to play that night.
After his encounter with Amy, Luke had spent a little while longer outside. He actually waited for the limo to return back to the hotel. Luke wanted to ensure that Amy had arrived at her apartment without a problem. The limo driver said he waited and she flicked the lights twice. Luke thanked the driver, tipped him, and then asked him to step away from the limo.
“I need a favor,” Luke had said.
“Like?”
“I need you to not be a limo driver for a few seconds. I need you to understand what I’m going to say… and what I’m going to ask…”
Luke dropped his pen and closed the notebook. There was nothing lyrically happening. Well not anything he could actually write about. It would end up being fluff for a love song. The kind that didn’t make sense.
The guys had gone out for a walk to stretch their legs and try to cure their hangover headaches. The night before hadn’t ended when the limo returned without Amy. Luke still had to face the party on the top floor of the hotel. And a party it was. The people were having a wild time and within an hour, Luke got the first phone call from Frank.
“Why am I looking at a picture of you guys playing guitar and fans in your hotel room?”
The question made Luke feel like he was thirteen and had just been busted for having a party at home. It made him laugh and there was no getting around it. He told him what had happened and before Frank could protest, he invited Frank to join the party and then hung up. Luke managed to rest his voice for the rest of the night, letting the fans sing while they all played. They played a few songs two or three times and before long, Luke noticed that the fans were taking turns coming in the room. A group would listen to a song and then shuffle out so the next group could enter. It was the ultimate sign of respect for the band.
It finally ended right around three in the morning. The band stayed up for another hour, celebrating what had just happened, and then retreated to their bed to crash, and the night - or morning - finally ended.
Luke heard his cell phone and rushed to it.
It was a call he had been waiting for.
“Dr. Hornsbury, hello.”
“Luke, how are you feeling today?”
“I’m good.”
Luke felt his throat. It was tight. Sore. Annoyed. He knew Dr. Hornsbury would be able to hear it through the phone.
“Have you been resting?”
Luke swallowed. The silence became his answer. “Dr. Hornsbury…”
“Luke, I know you’re on tour with your band, but I just want you to know that the longer you wait and push yourself with this…”
“I get it,” Luke said. “I could hurt myself permanently.”
“Not even that,” Dr. Hornsbury said. “You could end up off the stage for months if this gets bad enough. I really think you needed some rest…”
“Needed?”
“You’ve been playing shows, Luke. I’d like to see you again soon. I’d like to check to see if there has been anymore damage and how much. We’re approaching a crucial point here, Luke.”
“The tour’s almost over,” Luke said.
“Then what?”
Luke couldn’t reply. The then what? was the hardest part. The band needed to wrap up the tour and then get right into a studio. Studio sessions were worse than touring. In the studio every note needed to be perfect, both played and sung. Going right into the studio to record would ruin Luke’s voice.
“What do I do, doc?” Luke asked. “I have a band. A career. A record company on my neck.”
“It’s time to talk,” Dr. Hornsbury said. “Come see me as soon as you can, okay? We’ll see if there’s more damage and go from there. But I need you to wrap your head around telling everyone about this. Luke, it could just be a setback, nothing more. If you ignore it… if we have to operate and if you have to wait months or years…”
“I get it,” Luke said.
Just then, the door opened and the rest of the band filed into the room. Luke turned to shield the phone conversation.
“I have to get going here,” Luke said.
“Be careful tonight, Luke,” Dr. Hornsbury warned.
“Thanks. Bye.”
Luke ended the call.
“Bad news, brother?” Mack asked.
“No, not really.”
“Hey, what happened to you last night?” Gray asked. “You went out for air and came back almost an hour later.”
Luke smiled. “You know…”
“Tell me you had a woman,” Mack said. “What did you do? Pick someone out of the crowd and go to their room?”
“No,” Luke said. “I was outside. And there was a woman.”
“Unbelievable,” Jake said. “They just flock to him.”
“Nobody flocked,” Luke said. “She ran into me. She was walking home from work and thought someone was following her. She was scared to death.”
“Walking home that late?” Mack asked. “Where does she work?”
“She’s a chef at a restaurant around here. Maybe we could eat there before we leave town.”
“Yeah, sure,” Gray said. “We’ll get on that.”
“Why’s it eating you right now?” Mack asked.
“What?” Luke asked.
“Something’s eating you,” Mack said. “I can see it.”
Something was eating at Luke. It was Amy, yes, but it was also his voice. Luke had been trying to calculate the implications if the band cancelled tonight’s show. The financial implications, the way the band would feel, but most of all, the fans. Luke knew it would upset all the people who had been looking forward to the show for days or weeks if he cancelled the day of the show.
He couldn’t do it.
Not this show. He’d have to find a way to get through it. No question about it.
Then again, he’d been telling himself the same thing for the last dozen shows.
“You can’t meet a woman at midnight and fall for her,” Mack said. “That’s…”
“Nobody is falling for anyone,” Luke said. “She was in trouble last night. I called for a limo to take her home.”
“Did you go with her?” Trent asked.
“No. She was scared, man. I think some guy on a bike was following her. She got home safe but I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Why?” Mack asked. “You want payment?”
He smiled and Gray laughed.
“I just want to know she’s okay,” Luke said. “She didn’t seem like the type that knew what to do with trouble, or the type to cause it.”
Mack put a hand to Luke’s shoulder. “Those are always the ones that cause the trouble.”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I’m all messed up right now. The bus thing yesterday, the party last night, and now we have to get to the show for tonight. I’m a little out of it.”
“Don’t let her flood your mind,” Gray said. “If you’re going to though, then check up on her. You know where she lives, right?”
Luke looked at the band. “I had the limo take her without me. She was uneasy about me going. Which I understood.”
“Damn,” Mack said. “Oh well then, right?”
“Not quite. I sort of pressed the limo driver for her address.”
“You didn’t,” Gray said.
“Yeah, I did.”
“For a stranger? For some woman.”
“It’s not going to be some woman,” Mack said. He shook his head. “Do what you have to do, Luke. We have to get out of here soon. The bus will be here.”
“The bus?” Luke asked. “Really?”
“It was just a tire,” Mack said. “It’s all fixed already.”
“Why
didn’t they fix it on the side of the road last night?”
Mack laughed. “Because the longer we stood there the more of a crowd there would have been. Plus, you wouldn’t have met your girlfriend, right?”
Luke opened his mouth to say something along the lines of she’s not my girlfriend, man… but that was pointless.
“Okay,” Luke said. “Let me make a call and take care of something.”
Luke made two phone calls and then took the back stairs down to the ground floor of the hotel. He took more caution in the daylight. It was well known that Fallen Tuesday was at the hotel. Out back a black car waited. It wasn’t a limo, thankfully. Luke opened the passenger door and saw an envelope on the seat. He grabbed it and then sat in the seat.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Luke closed his eyes and spoke. He had it memorized. He hoped this wouldn’t blow up in his face.