[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
They left Tampa and headed north.  Next stop Atlanta.  Eight hours up I-75.  A good first run.  Not too long, but long enough to give the sense of tedium and claustrophobia that went with a bus trip.

Nick got out his guitar almost immediately.  He looked expectantly at Mel.  She opened her guitar case and handed him the sheet music to Who Needs the World, a song from Now or Never. 

“Play this,” she said.

“Cool,” answered Nick.  “Then what?”

“Then play it again.”

“How long do I keep playing it?” he asked.

“Until you can play it with your eyes closed,” was Mel’s response. 

Nick looked startled.

“You can play whatever you want when you are playing for the pleasure of it,” said Mel.  “But when you pick up that guitar to practice, I want you to play this song and only this song.”

“Play it with me,” said Nick, wondering if she would.

“Sure,” replied Mel, and she took her guitar out of the case.

They played the opening chords.  Nick started to sing.

“No,” said Melody.

“No what?” asked Nick.

“No singing.  Only playing.”

“But I…”

“Trust me,” said Mel. 

Nick did trust her, so he started again.  And this time, he only played.  It was hard not to sing.  A couple of times, he caught himself humming but quickly stopped.  Mel pretended not to notice.

The two musicians were so into it that they forgot all about Jeff and Toby, who were playing chess in the dining nook. 

“You ever done a tour on the buses, Jeff?” asked Toby, moving a pawn forward.

“Just one,” said Jeff, with a shudder.  “Heavy metal band.”  He didn’t mention which one.  “I spent more time protecting them from themselves and each other than from the fans.”  He got a faraway look in his eyes.  “Man, that was one filthy bus.”  He shook his head.  “What about you, Toby?”

“I’ve done a couple.  Nothing this upscale.”  He laughed.  “Of course, this is scaled down for Nick.  On his last Backstreet tour,” he lowered his voice when he said the word ‘Backstreet’, “they each had their own bus.  Can you imagine?”

Jeff shook his head.  It was hard to imagine.  He moved his bishop diagonally and took Toby’s knight.

“What do you think of having to listen to that for hours at a stretch?” asked Toby, nodding his head toward the living area.

Jeff listened for a minute.  “Sounds like heaven to me.”

“No kidding, huh?” replied Toby, with a smile. 

They moved the pieces around the board for a few more minutes.  The guitar music stopped, then started, then stopped.  They heard soft laughter, and then the music started again.  Both men had exactly the same thought.  Neither of them expressed it.  It pleased one of them.  It did not please the other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The buses pulled over after a couple of hours.  For this first leg, all the trucks and buses were traveling together.  People poured off the vehicles.  They stretched their limbs and talked in groups while the drivers filled the gas tanks.  Even though the buses were completely outfitted with snacks and drinks, there were lineups in the convenience store area.

Nick watched Mel make a beeline for Gus, with her cell phone in her hand.  They put their heads together over some sheets of paper.  Gus talked, and Mel nodded.  Then she folded the sheets of paper and shoved them in the pocket of her jeans.  She gave Gus a hug and walked quickly away.  Nick watched her leave, wondering how much longer he could go without actually touching her.

The guitar lesson, if that’s what you wanted to call it, had been torture…and bliss.  Bliss and torture.  Bliss to be playing music together, to be so into it…together…just a couple of musicians playing guitar. Torture because Nick wanted so badly to set the guitar aside and sweep her into his arms.

Mel wandered over to the picnic area.  She sat down on a table cross-legged and watched the others.  Toby was talking to Gus – probably finding out what Mel wanted from him.  Jeff was shadowing Nick in his usual unobtrusive way.  For a big man, Jeff had a way of making himself…well, not invisible, but unnoticed.  When you saw Nick and Jeff together, you didn’t immediately think ‘there’s a man and his bodyguard’, you just thought it was a couple of guys.  But when Jeff went into protective mode, you noticed him then.  Melody remembered his stance in the elevator in Rome. 

The elevator. 

Melody sighed.  Dammit!  How was she going to get through this?  It was a damn good thing she could play the guitar with her eyes closed because when she watched Nick’s beautiful hands move over that guitar, watched his forehead crinkle up in concentration, watched his eyes flutter shut when he really got into it… Melody shook her head to clear it.  Damn!  Damn!  Damn!

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the pages.  She smoothed them out and read them again.  Man, Gus was good!  In a little more than two hours, he’d found out a lot.  She punched a number into her cell phone.

“Hey, Tofu,” said Nick, “did you manage to make a date with the counter girl?”

Chris Sandoval laughed.  “Well, sure.  You know…if I’m ever passing back this way…”

Nick shook his head.  “I don’t know how you’ll survive.  You know, sometimes we’ll be on these buses for twelve…eighteen hours…that’s a long time for you to go without.”

Tofu grinned, “Ah yes, my son, that is true but eventually, we get off the bus.  Then I just have to make up for lost time.  It’s a complex mathematical calculation…”

“Maybe Gus can do it for you on his computer.”

“Maybe.  He sure works that thing.  He was going at it the whole time we were driving here.”

“Really?” said Nick.  “What was he working on?”

“I don’t know.  Probably some shit for Toby.  Making another check list or something.”

“Yeah, probably,” said Nick.  He looked over at Mel, who had finished her phone call…or calls, maybe. She folded the papers and slid them back into her pocket.  “Well, I guess we’d better get back on.  Tom’s giving us the high sign.”

Nick watched Mel out of the corner of his eye, when they got back on the bus.  She pulled the pages out of her pocket and slipped them into her bag.  Then she took out her crossword puzzle book.

“What are you going to do now, Nick?” she asked.

“I thought I might watch a movie.  Why?”

“I’ll sit here, then,” she said, indicating the end of the sofa that didn’t have a good view of the television. 

The television hung from the ceiling by the wall that separated the kitchen from the living area.  There was a DVD player and a video game set-up attached to it.

Jeff popped in a movie and the three men sat down to watch it.  Nick was totally aware of Mel’s presence at the other end of the sofa.  He was also aware of the bag at her feet.  He wondered what was on those pages.  He knew it was none of his business, but he wondered anyway.

Partway through the movie, Jeff cleared his throat.  Nick and Toby looked at him.  Jeff smiled and nodded over at Mel, who had leaned her head sideways on the padded arm of the sofa and was fast asleep.  Her hands were folded under her chin, and her knees were pulled up.  The puzzle book had slipped to the floor.

Nick got up and tiptoed to the back of the bus.  He came back a minute later with a blanket and gently spread it over the sleeping woman.  The men went back to the movie, but Nick couldn’t tell you how it ended.  He wasn’t paying any attention.  His eyes were focused on the screen, but his brain was focused on Mel and how much he wanted to pick her up and carry her back to his bed and lie down beside her and wrap his arms around her…

“What do you want to do now?” whispered Toby.  “A little Nintendo, maybe?”

“No,” said Nick.  “I don’t want to wake her.  You know, a nap doesn’t sound like a bad idea.  I think I’ll go lie down for a bit.  When are we stopping again?”

Jeff slid open the window and exchanged some words with the driver.  “George says another hour or so, unless you want to stop sooner,” he replied.

“No, that’s good,” said Nick.  “That will do me just fine.”  He got to his feet and headed to the back of the bus.  Jeff put his hand into his bunk and came out with a book – the latest spy thriller.  He settled back in the armchair. 

“I guess I’ll do some paperwork,” said Toby.  He went to the dining nook and spread his folders out on the table.  Goddamn Mel!  Just because she went to sleep that meant the whole world had to stop! 

Nick had not been the only one who wondered what Gus had given to Mel.  Toby had the same questions…only he asked them.  Gus was cagey and said it was just something private for her. 

In Europe, Gus wouldn’t have answered that way…he would have told Toby the truth immediately.  But since Rome, things had changed.  Gus didn’t tell Toby, and Toby didn’t press him on it.  But as soon as Jeff went to use the washroom, Toby was determined to get a look in that bag.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Melody opened her eyes and stretched out her legs.  There was a blanket over her.  She blinked twice, and Jeff came into focus.

“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty,” he said, smiling.

“Oh, my,” said Melody, sitting up.  “I guess I nodded off.  What time is it?”

“Close to six,” said Jeff, checking his watch. 

Melody never wore a watch.  She said it interfered with her concentration when she played the guitar, and she had lost so many watches over the years by taking them off to play and then forgetting to put them on again, that she eventually just gave up and stopped wearing them.  There was always someone around who knew what time it was.

“Six!”  Melody did the calculation.  They’d had an early lunch at the hotel and been on the road by noon.  They had stopped at two and then she had done a puzzle or two before nodding off.  That meant she’d been sleeping for…omilord.

“Yeah, you’ve been out for almost three hours.”

“Please tell me I don’t snore,” she begged.

Jeff laughed.  “No, you don’t.  I’m sure Toby is relieved to know that.”

Melody nodded.  She was relieved too.  That was one less thing that she could do to annoy Toby.  Everything she did or said seemed to make him sigh or roll his eyes or shake his head.  Having her sawing logs in the bunk next to him would be an over-the-top irritation.

“Where’s Nick?” she asked.

“He’s napping too.  You looked so peaceful there that he thought he’d join you.  I mean…”

Melody knew what he meant.  She stood up and made a big production of folding the blanket with her back to Jeff. 

“Thanks for the blanket,” she said.

“Don’t thank me, thank Nick.  He’s the one that spread it over you.”  Jeff was doing it deliberately now because he liked the delicate shade of pink that her ears were turning.

“Yo, Sleepyhead.”

Melody turned to see Nick standing in the doorway of the kitchen area.  His hair was tousled, and his eyes were only half-open.  He had a red crease down the side of his face.  He was beautiful.

“Takes one to know one,” Mel threw back at him. 

Nick grinned at her and turned back to the kitchen.

“Okay,” said Toby, bustling back into the living room.  “Now that you two have been raised from the dead, we can get back on schedule.”

“What do you mean?” asked Melody.  “Coke, please,” she said to Nick who reappeared in the doorway, holding up a bottle of water in one hand and a Coke in the other. 

Nick nodded.  “Jeff?  Toby?”

Jeff said he’d take the water, thanks.  Toby sighed and said he was okay, thanks.  Nick tossed the bottle of water to Jeff.  He disappeared for a second and came back with a second bottle of water.  He handed the Coke to Mel and sat down on the sofa, as far away from her as he could get.

“Okay,” he said, “that’s better.  Now, what about the schedule, Toby?”

The convoy of trucks and buses had been scheduled to stop at five o’clock for another break.  George had radioed the others and said that Nick was sleeping and so he was just going to keep going.  A quick check with the other drivers showed that they, and their passengers, were happy to do that as well.  Apparently, Nick and Mel were not the only two that were unconscious.  Last night’s after-party was catching up with them all.

Toby didn’t care if the whole crew was unconscious.  He didn’t like schedules messed with.  And this one only got messed with because of Mel.

Toby put the question to Nick.  “So…do you want to stop for dinner somewhere, or do you just want to keep going?” 

Nick looked at the others.  He didn’t care.  What did they think?  This was the kind of decision that he hated making.  It didn’t matter what he decided.  The law of averages told him that someone wouldn’t like the decision.  Jeff?  Jeff just shrugged.  Mel?

“I don’t care one way or the other about dinner.  I’ve got a date in Atlanta, but it’s not ‘til much later.  Whatever you want…”

‘Whatever Nick wanted’ was to ask a whole lot of questions about her date in Atlanta.