Generation Why Bother

If I were in a solid state of mind, I probably would’ve been so ecstatic and grateful that a near-celebrity was paying me a visit while I was in the hospital. But then again, I was still woozily pained by my sore limbs and in that foggy state of mind that accompanied waking up from a near-death – so my first thoughts upon seeing Andy Allen standing in the doorway weren’t really starstruck.

For a second I thought I was still dreaming, or maybe I was so sunken into the painkillers that I was hallucinating. It would have made more sense, anyway. Even when he walked further into the room, uncomfortably folding his arms and staring at our parents like he was intimidated by them, I couldn’t process it all.

So Tegan just spoke exactly what I was thinking. “Are you…are you really Andy? Or am I tripping?”

He smirked and then said, “Questioning your surroundings. I like that. But yeah, I’m real.”

“Sir, do you have permission to be in here?” My dad cut through the crap and got to the point.

Andy started pacing around the room, avoiding eye contact with all of us. “That…is not a question that needs to be answered right now, as time is of the essence and I need your cooperation as I explain what’s going on and why I’m here,” he blurted out in a rush. “I’m sorry about the whole lightning thing and I’m glad you’re both okay, my condolences, you’re probably hopped up on drugs to get rid of the pain. I know that crap hurts. And the reason why I’m not dwelling on apologies about what happened during the show is that my band and I had already known that you would make it out alive.”

My dad scrunched up his face in confusion, and so did Ms. Tracey, but neither of them bothered trying to form a good sentence to address their feelings.

Andy turned around to look me in the eye, and he ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back. “Okay, dude, I’m really sorry for all this. But again, your life just isn’t gonna be the same anymore. Same for you, redhead chick.” He formed his words in such a sporadic way and kept on looking over his shoulder like he was expecting to be tackled by police.

I looked over at Tegan and she was smirking halfway like she thought we were still dreaming.

“Mr. Allen, sir, uh…we’re fine, though,” I spoke up. “I mean, unless the scars stay on us forever, which lightning scars aren’t supposed to…but even then…”

He pointed a finger in my face, standing between our hospital beds. “That’s where you’re wrong! ‘Cause you know what? When the band got struck by lightning a while back, our scars still haven’t gone away! And you know why?”

I didn’t know if that was a rhetorical question, but Tegan chimed in with, “Why?” anyway.

“Because our lives were changed just like yours! I’m not talking any of that injury stuff. They hop you up on enough painkillers, you’ll be fine in a few hours. But that’s beside the point.” He paused to collect his thoughts, staring at the ceiling for a few seconds. “When I say your lives are literally completely changed forever, I mean that you were struck by lightning from the heavens that have granted you the responsibility of facing perhaps the biggest challenge of your young lives.”

I still thought I was caught in that daydreaming haze where I thought I was on my way to becoming a superhero, but deep down I knew that could never be possible. I guess that was why it was so hard to accept the words that were coming out of his mouth.

“You two have been chosen to join a little group of people who are going to defend the earth from destruction,” he said, alternating between looking at me and looking at Tegan. He sounded completely serious, too. If he didn’t have a reputation for being charismatic in crowds and always knowing the right thing to say to pump up an audience, I probably would’ve believed him right away.

Tegan started laughing, though. I could tell Andy wasn’t amused from the way he glared at her.

“What’re you laughing about?” he grilled.

“What’re you talking about?” she snorted back.

“I’m talking about your future being a guardian of your planet!” he exclaimed, the smile restored to his face. “You’re lucky I came to you when I did, or else all of us would be in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

I pinched myself – not because I was having a heavenly dream and wanted to wake up, but to snap myself out of the drug-induced daze and come back to reality. If only I had known that Andy wasn’t just spewing nonsense.

“Well, that’s the short version,” he continued, standing straight up with his hands behind his back. “There’s more to it, obviously, but I figured I might as well give you a heads-up as soon as possible. I figure I can cover all the bases later when you come over to the band’s flat downtown.”

There are normal circumstances in which you come into contact with a famous person. There are autograph booths, VIP passes, maybe even running into them at a hotel or before a show. And then, there’s the Put’emup, Put’emup way of meeting famous people, which involves pulling you into a life you’d only read about in comic books.