The Long Road

I was running along Polk Street, my guitar under my arms and sweat running down my face. I bumped into people, too tired out to mutter an apology as they yelled. I skidded outside the entrance to the Hemlock Tavern. I rushed down the stairs and stopped again when I saw my band performing onstage. Harry turned to look at me and threw his hands up in the air.

'Where the hell were you Leslie? We had to get your mum to play guitar in your place!'

'My mum!?' I yelled, my heart filling to the brim with horror. I saw my mum strut out onto the stage, holding my guitar, which had disappeared from under my arm. She squinted at me through the lights and a look of pure anger exploded onto her face.

'I am so ashamed of you Leslie! I'm taking you back to Australia right now missy!' she roared.

Blood started dripping from her fingernails as she grabbed me and tried to drag me towards the door. As I passed the bar, I realised that Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool from Green Day were sitting there, staring at me.

'Help me you guys! Please!' I started yelling, hoping that they would come to my rescue and get me out of my mum's grip. But they just smiled at me. Tre laughed out loud and shook his head at me.

' Jesus, Leslie, you really fucked up didn't you?' he laughed, holding up his can of beer.

I started yelling again to them, begging them to help me. My mum started breathing fire and my hair caught alight. My vision became blurry and I was being shaken viciously as my hair burnt down to nothing. . .

I finally woke up, small beads of sweat running into my eyes. I sat up and tried to remember where I was. A pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and forced my to sit up straight. It was Hamish, with Katie standing behind him looking worried.

'Leslie, it's alright! You don't need to freak out any more alright? It was just some nightmare!' Hamish said softly.

I nodded and tried to catch my breath. I told Katie and Hamish about my dream and they listened as I told them the gruesome details.

'Green Day was in your dream? Well that explains something!' Hamish laughed.

'And what is that?' I asked, folding my arms.

'You are gonna meet them somehow while we are here! I mean, we all know how much of a Green Day fan you are. You worship them like they're golden statues or something.'

I moodily threw a pillow at Hamish, who stuck his tongue out at me and ran from the room. Katie sat on my bed and smiled.

'I'm just glad you're okay. When you were asleep, you were kicking and moaning in your sleep. It got me really worried!'

'Just chill! Don't worry about it!' I replied, throwing off my bed covers and walking over to my suitcase. 'It was just a dumb nightmare!'

Katie smiled at me and left me in the room by myself. I pulled out some skinny jeans, an old concert shirt from several years ago and my new brown leather jacket I had bought before the trip. I pulled on the clothes and leaned against the wall for a few moments. Anxiety about my mother filled my tired brain again. She was certain to find out soon enough. How angry would she get? Would set my hair on fire like in my dream?

Everyone felt jet-lag that morning, with bags under their eyes and occasionally dropping off the sleep at the table. After a breakfast of sausage and egg muffins, (Justin had popped down the road to a McDonalds not far off) we left the hotel to go explore the area. We just walked around the streets, occasionally walking into a store and checking out what was on sale.

While we were walking back to the hotel after a couple of hours , Katie suddenly stuck her arm out on the road and a cab pulled up next to us.

'You guys go ahead. Leslie and I are gonna check out the library!' she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the cab. The others waved us away and we were speeding down the road.

'The library? Why are we going there?' I asked as Katie looked around the road.

'Cause, sometimes at libraries there are records kept about marriages, deaths adoptions and births! If there are some records there, we can look you up! That's if you are there!'

It was such and unusual and clever idea that I became excited. Soon, we pulled up outside the Main Library on Larkin Street. We quickly walked in and approached the front desk, where a middle aged man was stacking up some books into a cart.

'Excuse me, but does this library keep any birth records?' Katie asked sweetly, putting on her innocent face.

The man smiled at us kindly.

'It turns out that it does. Follow me and I will set them out for you.'

We followed the man through the library, dodging people holding books in their arms. We were lead into a completely different room where there were dozens of files.

'So what in particular are you ladies looking for?' the man asked.

'Birth files actually, in 1995.' Katie piped up, taking control of the situation.

'What hospital?' the man asked again.

Katie and I tensed up nervously. I had never known what hospital I was born at. Now was a good time to ask my mother, but since she was on the other side of the world, there was no help.

'All of them!' I suddenly said, the words slipping out of my lips.

The man nodded and brought some files and put them on the table in front of us. They were from several different hospitals all in alphabetical order. The man left us and we started flipping through the many records, in search of my name. I wasn't sure how many hours had passed, but to me it felt like forever. My hands were numb from flipping through hundreds of pages, and my eyes were sore from scanning and taking in word after word after word. But I didn't want to give up, not until I found my father somewhere in those records

'Leslie, I think we should leave it for today. It's been four hours, and we haven't found anything!' Katie groaned, her head sinking on the table.

'No, we should keep going! We will find my name soon!' I pleaded, my finger racing down the J list of the San Francisco Hospital.

Katie glanced at her watch and jumped to her feet.

'Leslie we have only two hours till the show! We should go!'

I groaned as I forced myself to my feet and stumbled from the records room.

'Hey, we'll get that library guy to look through them! He can call us if he finds you!'

Katie talked to the man, who was happy to do the job for us. After saying goodbye, we raced out to the road and hailed a cab. We sped back to the hotel, grabbed our instruments and met up with the rest of the band outside the Hemlock Tavern.

'Where were you guys? You were gone for hours!' Justin complained as we approached.

'Sorry, we got distracted!' Katie said, re-adjusting the keyboard in her arms.

'Well, you guys ready?' Harry said, an excited glint sparkling in his eye. We all cheered and raced into the tavern, my nerves mixing together with my excitement.

After proving who we were, the security let us through and we set up our things on the stage. The tavern started filling up with people, chatting amongst themselves and pointing at us like we were animals in a cage. It was like any crowd we had performed in front of, but still, they seemed threatening.

A man suddenly jumped up on the stage and approached us. He looked as though he was in his thirties, was short and wiry, and had fizzy hair as if he had recently stuck a fork into an electric socket. He bounced on the balls of his feet, looking around at us excitedly.

'Hey guys! I'm Red, and I'm gonna introduce you guys tonight! What's the band name?' he asked in a loud quick voice.

'We're Black Beauty Boulevard, from Australia.' Harry piped up, putting on his serious band leader voice.

'Sweet! I can tell from those bodacious accents! You guys ready?' Red said, rubbing his hands in a energetic way. We did one last sound-check and gave Red the thumbs up.

Red strutted up to the microphone and the crowd suddenly burst into a fit of yelling and clapping. Red was obviously a favourite at the tavern

'Hello you beautiful people who have come tonight! We have a stellar line up tonight for you folks! First up is a small punk rock band who have come all the way from Australia! Let me introduce you to the one and only Black Beauty Boulevard!

A large applause was given to us as Red ran off the stage and gave us the spotlight. Harry nodded to me and mouthed 'Mystery Lights'. I did the opening chords to Mystery Lights and we broke into a fast paced punk number that Harry and Justin had written when the band had first gotten together. After I got over my usual pre-show nerves I started being my wild crazy self, jumping up and down and occasionally running over to my microphone for back up vocals.

After we finished the song, the crowd broke into loud applause screaming and clapping so hard as if to bring the roof down. Harry raced over to a cardboard box and pulled out a dozen copies of our un-signed CD. We managed to sell the whole box and we ended up with $500 for selling them for $5 a CD.

We packed up our gear and started heading towards the door when suddenly someone stepped in my way. It was a guy who was around my age, tall and had dark hair with blonde highlights. He also had very green eyes. Altogether, he was pretty hot. He looked at me with a toothy grin.

'Hey there, I watched your band and you guys were awesome!' he said stuffing his hands into his skinny jeans.

I blushed at the praise and looked at my feet nervously. My tongue felt like a dead animal rotting in my mouth.

'Oh wow - yeah - umm . . . Thanks.' I spluttered, feeling like a complete moron. Oh great, now this guy was going to think I was hopeless case.

The guy laughed, which sent nervous shivers down my spine.

'So, you guys gonna do a gig anywhere else? I didn't get a chance to get one of those CDs.' he said.

'Oh yeah, we're gonna perform here another two nights and we were thinking of flying to Phoenix.' I said, my confidence growing.

'Coolness! Maybe you can do a quick show in Oakland, y'know before you leave. I live over there, I'm just down here for the night with some friends.'

Suddenly a mobile started ringing. The guy pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen.

'Just my dad. I'll call him later.' He shoved his phone back into his pocket. 'Anyway, maybe I'll see you tomorrow! I'm Joey by the way.'

I blushed again as he looked at me expectantly.

'Oh, I'm Leslie.' I laughed loudly and clamped a hand over my mouth when people started looking. Joey chuckled.

'Alright Leslie. I'll be here front row centre tomorrow!' And with another smile, he raced back towards a group of other guys who ascended the stairs and left the tavern.

I stood there for a little while, staring at the stairs where Joey had left. And yet, I started thinking to myself. I had seen his face before somewhere. I couldn't put my finger on it. But after a minute I brushed the thought away. I was probably thinking of someone else.

After everyone else had finished talking with people at the bar, we said our Last goodbyes and we left the bar. And all the way driving back to the hotel in the rental car, I thought of Joey and his emerald green eyes.