Never the Same #72 The Concert

When Farrah couldn't take off from work to go to the concert with Kirk, he asked Sarah. This won't lead to any conflict,will it?

 

Cue: “They Don’t Know” https://youtu.be/SNchTKdRs2A?si=hNNi3GNxEV0bADtM

         (A cute video with a surprise cameo at the end.)

 

            So, life went on as usual for a week plus. On Farrah’ day off, they went out to eat and caught a movie like they would normally do. In the usual range of conversational topics Farrah never asked about the concert or who he asked to go with him. Kirk felt like if she didn’t ask, he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her by saying something enthusiastically like, “Oh yeah! I’m taking Sarah!” Indeed, that would go over like a lead balloon and maybe finish off their relationship for good. Kirk did contemplate the possibility of “the end” with Farrah occurring sometime soon anyhow�"if he happened to be in the wrong mood at the wrong time with the wrong circumstance, he’d surely say the wrong thing. Especially considering devoted Sarah sitting on the sidelines.

            Anyway, the day of the concert arrived. Kirk completed his day in the shop with brother-in-law Jon working on the stock car, but his mind pretty much stayed on the anticipated concert with attractive hippie chick Sarah E. Kirk took off in the pink van after cleaning up and donning his best casual clothes, namely a paisley shirt with button down collar along with button fly bell bottoms with a twill light jacket for it was getting a bit chillier nights. He cruised over to Sarah’s house. She blissfully bounced out of her house wearing her best tight bell buttons, colorful loose blouse, and the now familiar wide, floppy-brimmed hat along with a borrowed alluring faded denim jacket with fur at the cuffs. With her long blond hair cascading from under said hat, Kirk drank her in thinking she appeared more ravishing than ever after being separated for the past three months. Of course, the fling she gave him on his birthday last year lingered forefront and centered on his mind�"always. No doubt about it on that memorable night, Sarah fulfilled the epitome of a “fox” as they described comely girls back then especially recalling that Jimmy Hendrix song. Jumping into the van on her own, she immediately slid over to sit next to Kirk on the van’s warm engine cover. They shared a brief kiss. Kirk deeply breathed in her strong aphrodisiac patchouli fragrance.

            His desire grew.

            Stopping off for some fast food, Kirk felt very excited to attend a concert for the very first time and being able to experience it with alluring Sarah. While they waited for their food at the counter, Sarah sultrily swung over and around the partition railing taking absent-minded poses and sways. Kirk could only watch this joyful girl as she unpretentiously eyed him back. When they got their orders as usual or so it seemed already after being separated for some months, Kirk ate heartily while Sarah ate next to nothing.

            Afterward, the drive went smoothly with Kirk planning to arrive plenty early enough which turned out to be a good plan because they had to park quite a hike from the auditorium. Of course, paying for parking and then heading out to walk on the damp streetlight lit sidewalk in the autumn’s cool drizzle tried to put a damper on their enthusiasm but it failed and so they remained cheerful and contented as they walked arm in arm, she standing hardly up to his shoulder, along with the other couples and loud-mouthed groups of boys strutting along in clouds of smoke, obviously high.

            On that cool October, drizzle fell on a black sidewalk, lights reflecting in flat, sparkling sheen where Sarah and Kirk spent forty-five minutes in what seemed like a barely moving endless queue with the multitude of other excited young people. Making it thoroughly an authentic real-life experience, they got thoroughly chilled in all due course, but they gladly shuffled hand-in-hand into the warm Millard Fillmore Auditorium to mix with the buzzing concert-attending crowd.

            After getting their tickets punched, they received maps of the Aud to locate their seats. Not quite nosebleed seats, but definitely not stage front either, and, thankfully, not stuck behind a pole either. Just up above halfway, slightly right of center stage. Nearby, a few people had already lit joints in hand anticipating or maybe in preparation for what was to come.

            They still remember taking in that young crowd, different from any crowd or situation either of them had ever attended or been involved with, the crowd slowly filling all the seats for the band who had reached their musical peak, bolstered by the top-selling success of their previous album, Close to the Edge. It remained Kirk’s favorite album in his collection with three extended, perfectly composed, and wonderful epical symphonic-rock masterpieces. The crowd knew that even though this was their Relayer tour, typically the five musicians that composed the band Yes would play, perfectly one fan might say, cuts from all their earlier, current, and forthcoming albums.

            The couple sat on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what might happen on the stage below them. As they waited, they took in the surrounding crowd’s soft roar of background conversations, yells, and playful shouts. All about, lighters flashed everywhere to touch off glowing reefers like fireflies across a twilit glen on a warm summer’s night. They barely got comfortable with a little cuddling when they noticed the thickening haze of marijuana smoked in profusion. Fans of Yes were not a rowdy bunch or potheads like the crowds at hard rock concerts. They all tended to think of themselves as cerebral people with a deeper intellectual appreciative of the finer points and longer composition of progressive rock’s art and the intake of marijuana facilitated that appreciation and experience. It may have been the thrill of anticipation, but the couple swore that they experienced highs without a single drag.

            Still 1974, they came to witness the progressive rock group Yes on their Relayer tour but knew that the album Tales of Topographic Oceans would be in heavy play on this tour because it had been out longer and more widely released than the newest, Relayer. Yes, then and now, remains Kirk’s favorite band over the many years of their playing and his listening. After a several minute wait, the lights went down and the “Opening (Excerpt from) Firebird Suite” classical musical piece rose up in volume which led into a recording of the quiet strains of what sounded like a flock of birds descending on the auditorium and in response, the crowd noise faded away while the blazing of huge, powerful searchlights pointed at the largest triple display of  mirror balls the couple had ever seen each the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. With the illuminated white flashes swirling around the auditorium like a million fireflies swarming everywhere, the flashes rippled across and illuminated, for a multitude of split seconds across the thousands of faces turned upward from row one to fifty-five. While the many lighters ignited to light off nearly the same number of joints.

            The large and complex stage set included a pair of huge fluorescent sea creatures, a clam and lobster, but the closed curtain concealed what was to become a great show. Soon enough, the searchlights began rhythmic flipping the blazing beams to the audience’s agog eyes while illuminating the mirror balls.

            The intensity of the flashes grew with the seemingly approach and volume of songbirds. Everyone knew where this beginning led: The opening to the song “Close to the Edge.” For minutes, the sounds and lights intensified until a single spotlight lit the gap in the curtain for lead guitarist, Steve Howe playing the song’s acoustic opening. The crowd’s recognition greeted the guitarist deafeningly, but the appreciation quickly fell to a whisper to take in the virtuoso’s talent. After a few bars, the curtain whipped open to reveal the remaining members that made up Yes.

            Everyone familiar with the band knew what was coming, and suddenly the entire stage lit up with the other band members joining in with the bombastically grandiloquent extended composition. Kirk and Sarah were instantly transported to a place beyond recognition propelled by the fantastic music of Yes. They experienced blissfulness, pleasure, and ecstasy.

            The concert had begun, and beyond all expectations, it was glorious! Accompanying the Tales songs, the huge sea creatures moved  along with the music.. Chris Squire’s extraordinary bass rumbled throughout the auditorium, and Alan White’s drumming kept the audience bouncing along. One extended composition “Revealing Science of God” Jon Anderson’s lyrics had the wonderful reprise, “getting over, over hanging trees, let them rape the forest…” filled Kirk with awe and emotion giving him goosebumps to hear it in person. A line, a song, and a scene Kirk would remember all his life.

            Now able to take in the whole band, the stage set was decked out in a brightly colored nautical setting with giant sea creatures like a lobster, stingray, and a shark.  Interestingly, the keyboardist sat inside a giant clam that opened and closed seemingly clamping down on the keyboardist which at this juncture happened to be Patrick Moraz as he flounced away on those keys. Halfway through the first set, the smokey haze had thickened. Shouting to Sarah even though she sat only inches away, Kirk told her that he felt high from all the smoke. Reassessing what he experienced, Kirk realized he probably felt the excitement of the crowd and channeled the music to induce his euphoric sensations.  The pair just got into and savored the whole extended experience. With a break after an hour and a half the band came back and played it hard and grand. After the same period of time, the band finished up with their most famous early tunes with added flourishes and extended refrains. Too soon it ended up with a fantastic rendering of “Roundabout” their most famous song. The buzz of the audience replaced the band’s playing with conversation and exhilaration.

            Kirk and Sarah embraced and shared a long kiss to celebrate the experience. As they moved out with the exiting murmuring crowd in a much quieter auditorium they shared their thoughts saying the concert turned out better and bigger than they ever imagined. Moving with the now much more subdued crowd down the black rain-slicked streets and sidewalks, they made it back to the van.

            Kirk had to sit in the driver’s seat to relax for a few minutes held in an embrace by Sarah that she punctuated by kisses. Still filled up with the adrenaline of the excitement, Kirk let out a long breath.

            “Hungry?”

            “Famished!”

            So, they merged with the brisk traffic and headed out of the big city. After about 45 minutes, they found themselves on the main drag being Main Street heading into suburbia. They came up to the intersection where Kirk had witnessed/caused the infamous ambulance crash. Kirk would never forget nor be the same because of the event and so whenever he passed through, he would recall that fateful day. He didn’t mention it to Sarah on that particular night.

            “Hey! How about pancakes?” He asked.

            “Oooohhhh, that sounds so good! But where?”

            “Right around the corner,” he pointed, putting on the van’s turn signal, checking his side mirror, and swerving over two lanes into the turn lane. He eyed his rear views again to make sure; Kirk wasn’t about to ever let an ambulance surprise him from behind ever again. 

            Practically next to the dealership where Kirk had worked a year and half ago sat the all-night pancake restaurant named “Uncle John’s.” As they pulled in, they were surprised how busy the restaurant was well after midnight. After getting the van parked, they headed inside allowing the warm, taste bud-activating aroma whet their appetites, not that they needed any help in that department. They were seated rather quickly and were handed menus.

            “All scrumptious pancakes, all the time!” It read.

            The menu had a mind-blowing photographic selection of about thirty kinds of pancakes. Sarah zeroed right in on the blueberries and cream pancakes, that is, topped with vanilla ice cream�"a short stack of course. Kirk couldn’t decide and so when the waitress returned, he sure wasn’t going to send her away without ordering so he settled on the Hawaiian pancakes which turned out to be coconut pancakes topped with bananas and macadamia nuts topped with pineapple sauce. Yowzah! But a bit too sweet he thought.

            Despite getting the short stack, Sarah didn’t eat much of her pancakes, but she finished off every drop of the ice cream. Kirk said he was so stuffed that they would have to roll him out to the van, but he made it there on his own with a few stiff maneuvers and groans. They took off toward Sarah’s house. She cuddled up closer to Kirk than usual and nuzzled his neck which he eagerly leaned into.

            Between kisses, Sarah cooed, “let’s go parking.”

            Kirk didn’t need convincing. “Any place you have in mind?”

            “Head to swamp road. Do you know it?”

            “Yep,” Kirk answered. After a few minutes with the flip of his turn signal and a right turn off the main drag they headed down a series of side roads. Following about ten minutes of convoluted turns and a turn onto the deserted uninhabited swamp road, they found a nice quiet place to park. After a few minutes of rising intensity, just when they were about to get to Kirk’s favorite part, Sarah put her hands against his chest, pushed him away and said,

            “Stop!”

            “What? What’s wrong?”

            “Sssshhhhh! I hear something�"a car, I think.”

            “I don’t hear anything.”

            “Ssshhhh. Wait.”

            Kirk then heard something determining it was indeed a car. “Ah, they’ll just drive by.” 

            They didn’t say a word as the sound got louder and louder. It slowed and stopped next to the van. Suddenly, a very bright light flashed into the windows one at a time. The vehicle then slowly moved to in front of the van and just as abruptly brilliantly bright red, blue, and white lights began frantically flashing.

            “Damn and s**t!” Kirk muttered.

            He jumped up and moved to the driver’s seat without shoes on as a uniformed policeman tapped on the window with the unlit end of a flashlight.

            “Hello in there!” the policeman said. “Roll down your window please.”

            Kirk did as he was told.

            “Anyone else in there with you?”

            “Yes, I’m here!” Sarah said, half-shouting.

            “Morning ma’am. Are you all right?”

            “Couldn’t be better,” Sarah said, cheerfully as she settled in her seat.

            “Sir, could I see your license?”

            “Of course,” Kirk said, nervously pulling his wallet out.

            He handed the license over to the policeman who scanned it with his flashlight. He handed it right back. Kirk was greatly relieved that the policeman didn’t run it in the automated “SCMODS”* because he’d find that offense of “failure to yield” he had gotten with the Bug a few years ago.

*”State County Municipal Offender Data System” (Borrowed from the movie The Blues Brothers.)

            “All right. Just checking on your vehicle parked out here in the middle of nowhere, to make sure it wasn’t abandoned. You know you should have at least your parking lights on out here on this dark road. Understand?”

            “Yes, sir I got it.” Kirk reached down and flipped his lights on.

            So I am double-checking with you here�"ma’am, are you sure you are okay with your current situation here?”

            “I’m good and just fine,” Sarah cheerfully said.

            “All right, then,” the policeman said. He stepped back away from the van. He chuckled a bit. “Goodnight. Have fun you two!”

            “Ah, thanks, officer,” Kirk managed to answer rather dumbfounded over the transaction.

            After getting in the squad car, the policeman doused his blinding lights, and after a moment pulled away and disappeared around the next bend.

            Well, that turn of events pretty much put a damper on the expected early morning activities so they just cruised back to Sarah’s house for their customary cup of hot Nescafe coffee at about one-thirty AM.

            Kirk could be Never the Same after what had transpired that night which ended up very memorable in a few different ways, but... what about Kirk facing Farrah? What will she suspect? What will she know? How will she react?