Music Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

by Yzanburg


Talent Scouting

Chapter 1

The roar of the crowd was deafening. Wave after wave of shouts and yells assaulted my ears as I strummed my guitar. It was invigorating. Looking over my shoulder I could see that the rest of my band was having just as much fun as I was. This is what we had been working for our entire lives. We finally made it onto the big stage, not some shitty coffee shop in some little town that eight people attend. There were hundreds of people here, filling the concert hall with the sounds of their amusement. Looking out over the sea of people, I could see just how much they were enjoying themselves. They actually liked our music, our own creations. That feeling is indescribable.

As the music died down and we played the last notes of our set, the cacophony of cheers and hollers that followed was unlike anything I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. I looked on in wonder as Mark, our vocalist, addressed the crowd for the final time tonight.

"Thank you all for coming out. It's been a real pleasure playing for you all!" He took a pause as the crowd applauded once more, taking in his words. "We honestly can't wait to come play for you all again. Have a good night, and thank you all once again for coming!" And with those final words spoken, we took our leave from the stage, walking past the curtains as the sea of people continued to cheer us out, leaving nothing but pride and adrenaline in our minds.

"Holy crap guys! That was amazing! I've never seen a crowd like that from on stage before!" Jason, our drummer said, bouncing up and down like a rabid chihuahua. He usually doesn't talk much, all work and minimal play. I guess adrenaline does weird things to people. "Did you see their faces? They loved us! We kicked some serious ass tonight guys."

Mark, Chance, our bass player, and I all stared at him for a moment, not really sure what just happened.

"What..?"

"You just spoke." Mark told him, his face scrunched up in a confused look.

"Yeah?"

"More than three words." I told him matter-of-factly.

"Wow.. You're right. We need to do stuff like this more often!" Jason told us. He clearly enjoys playing in front of crowds like this. Maybe it'll bring him out of his shell a bit.

"Don't worry, bud. There's going to be plenty more gigs like this as far as I'm concerned." Frankly I liked having Jason talk a bit more. It would certainly make band practice more interesting than him just making us play over and over again. It kind of drags on after a while. "Remember we have a road trip to Montreal coming up in a couple days, the crowd's going to be just as big there, if not bigger." The smile on his face after I said that could only be described as one thing. Childish. But he was definitely happy, so I guess that makes it okay.

***

As the fire crackled its way through the night, I sat on a log nearby with my guitar in hand. We had decided against getting a hotel for the night and opted to get a campground instead to save on money. The van we used for travel and the occasional house was quaint at best. A burgundy VW bus. The spare tire cover on the front sported the logo of our band, A large 'B' made out of roots. The back of the van, as well as the roof, were stacked with band equipment, making the inside a little cramped. But even still, Mark, Chance and Jason managed to sleep in there quite comfortably. I, on the other hand, couldn't get cozy enough to sleep.

Scooting a little closer to the fire, I began to idly strum a few simple chords. Humming along to the unnamed tune, I gradually became aware that it wasn't just the sound of my own song hitting my ears. It took me a while to finally become fully aware of the accompanying voice due to the fact that it meshed so well with my own. Turning my head to try and find the source of that soothing voice, my face scrunched into a look of confusion. There were no people around that I could see. And yet I could still hear that voice.

Curiosity peaked, I got up of the log I resided on and began to follow the humming into the forest, still strumming the chords I had been playing, in an attempt to get her to continue her song.

"Shit, I probably should have grabbed a flashlight.." I continually had to duck my head or sidestep a rock or fallen tree at the last second because my visibility was terrible in the forest. Not wanting to have to trek back and possibly miss out on this meeting I carried on. Cursing under my breathe I carried on, having just hit my head on a low lying branch I slowed my pace a little to keep from repeating myself and causing further pain. Being cautious to duck under anymore branches and sidestepping any rocks or stumps along the way I followed the voice. After a few more minutes of ducking and dodging I noticed a faint light. It grew in intensity the closer I got to it until suddenly all I could see was white. Anywhere that I looked was nothing but sureen nothingness. I should have stopped walking right then but I took a few more steps and let out a very unmanly yelp of surprise as I began to fall.

With the wind whipping my hair around I continued to fall, frantically trying to get a hold on some possibly unseen object. But sadly I just continued to grasp nothing and kept plummeting to my imminent demise at an unseen impact zone below. All the while that I was careening downwards I could still hear that voice from the forest, permeating the wind and intruding my ears, as if just to mock me for have fallen so easily. So I closed my eyes. I snapped them shut in a hope that I was dreaming and that when I opened them, if I opened them, I would be back at the campsite in front of the fire. But when I opened my eyes, instead of the fire and the van to greet my eyes, all I saw was blue. An ocean of blue in front of me. I gasped, thinking that this was some cruel joke. Then with a sudden impact to the entire backside of my body, I hit something and the world went black.

***

Gradually lifting my eyelids open, I immediately felt a pang of pain along my spine. Nothing too bad, but still enough to be uncomfortable. The second thing I noticed was the bright light shining down on me, surrounded by a green ceiling of leaves. Confused and shaken, i slowly got to my feel and peaked my head out of the hole I guess I had made. looking around I saw my guitar laying nicely atop the tree, not a scratch or dent on it. The sky was still a bright blue so I guess I wasn't unconscious for that long. Slowly climbing out of the hole, I took a seat next to my guitar and just looked around. To my immediate left there was just dense forest. and in front of my was a small bridge crossing a quaint little stream. Animals were running around everywhere I looked, none of them really paying any attention to me at all. And then I heard it. The voice I had been following through the forest was directly beneath me. Suddenly scared, I held my guitar tightly to my chest and tried to stay as still as possible. But nothing happened. No bright lights, no perpetual falling. Nothing. Chuckling to myself, I loosened up a bit.

"How could a song hurt me." I laughed as I listened to the soothing voice coming from below, a soft tune with no real rhyme or reason to it. "Something that sounds that beautiful can't possibly be scary." Taking out my guitar, I slowly began to pick at the notes she was humming and gradually worked my way into her song. making a charming melody out of really nothing. Getting really into the tune, I began to hum along, loosing myself in the melody. But then I noticed it. Stopping immediately, I knew I had been noticed. The humming had stopped, and all was silent below.