“Hey, Bri, we’ve got sound check in ten.”
I looked up from the couch I was sitting on in our dressing room
to see my cousin Kevin stick his head in.
“I know, Kev. I’m about
ready,” I replied.
We were getting ready for our first of two concerts in Venezuela
as part of our Black and Blue World Tour.
It was exciting because the Backstreet Boys tours usually only went to
the US, Canada, and Europe. This year,
we had gone all out and were hitting nearly every continent and finally getting
to perform for our fans all around the world.
I glanced at my watch, wondering if I had time to make a phone
call to my wife, Leighanne. It was
almost five o’clock here, so that meant it would be six o’clock at home in
Georgia.
I imagined Leighanne at home in the kitchen, getting dinner ready. She would be eating all by herself
tonight.
A lump rose in my throat as I thought about my wife. That was the hardest part of touring – not
being able to see my family. Leighanne
sometimes came on tour with me, but lately, she had been picking up more and
more acting gigs and was having to travel more herself. I was glad for her, but that meant that we
had less time to spend together.
I quickly made up my mind to give her a quick call, knowing that
by the time the concert was over tonight, I’d be exhausted, and she’d probably
be getting ready for bed.
A few minutes later, a smile came across my face as her familiar
voice answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, sweetie,” I said.
“Brian!” she cried happily.
“Hey, baby! What’s up?”
“Getting ready to go for sound check in a few minutes. I just wanted to call and check up on you,” I
replied. “How’s everything at home?”
“Fine,” she replied. “Just
fine. How are you doing?”
“Pretty good. The tour’s
going great. I just wish you were with
me,” I said.
“Oh, honey, I know. I wish
I were there too,” she replied wistfully.
“Well, don’t worry. In a
month, we’ll be back in the US, and you can come on tour then,” I said.
“I know. I can’t wait to
see you,” she replied.
Suddenly, the door to the dressing room opened, and Kevin’s head
popped in again. “Come on, cuz, it’s
time for sound check,” he said. When he
saw that I was on the phone, he smiled knowingly. “Tell Leigh hi for me,” he said.
I grinned. “’Kay. Leigh, baby, I gotta go now. It’s time for sound check. Oh, and Kev says hi.”
She laughed slightly. “Tell
him hi back for me,” she replied.
“Will do. I love you,” I
said.
“I love you too. Talk to
you tomorrow then?” she asked hopefully.
“Of course. Bye, sweetie.”
“Bye, baby.”
There was a click as she hung up the phone, and I slowly hung up
mine as well, sighing. We had only been
apart for a few weeks, and we talked usually every night, but I missed her like
crazy.
“You coming?” Kevin asked from the doorway.
“Yup,” I replied, standing up from the couch. “I’m on my way.”
***
“Well, we are here,” Darrin announced
as he parked his car in front of the gate that protected the huge house that
was within.
I nervously chewed my lower lip as I rested my right hand on the door handle,
debating whether or not to exit the car. I felt myself jump as Darrin
rested his hand on my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.
“It will be ok,” he assured me. “We are probably worrying for nothing.
I bet they will be happy for us.
They will finally be getting what they always wanted. But just in case, let’s tell them after
dinner so we can run if it gets bad,” he joked.
I snorted at his bad joke and inhaled deeply as I tried desperately to calm my
nerves. “Well, let’s get this over with then,” I suggested, while opening
the door and stepping out of the car. Moments later Darrin was at my side
and we both walked up the driveway towards the house, hand in hand.
As soon as we stepped onto the porch,
the door swung open and out stepped Darrin’s parents, Patrick and Sharon, both
with smiles on their faces. We all greeted each other and entered the
house, promptly beginning to eat dinner as we made small talk.
Suddenly I heard a gasp coming from my
left side where Sharon sat, and I followed her gaze to the ring finger of my
left hand. I glanced over at Darrin, and we both shared a nervous
glance. It was now the time to tell them
the news.
***
It was just after eight that night when I sat down at the
computer to get on the internet, as I did every night. As the modem dialed up, my thirteen year
old sister Breanna came out of her room, which was right down the hall from the
computer room, and headed into the bathroom to take a shower.
Meanwhile, I logged onto Instant Messenger. My buddy list popped up, and I saw that
several of my buddies, including my friends Heidi and Melissa, were online.
Heidi, my best online friend, IM’d me almost immediately.
WildcatHokie220: Hey
Julie!
RokofAges75: Hey!
RokofAges75: What’s
up?
WildcatHokie220:
Guess what?!
I smiled, knowing something was certainly up. She was excited, I could tell.
RokofAges75: What?
WildcatHokie220:
well… Darrin and I are engaged!! J
I gasped out loud, breaking into a grin. Heidi had been dating Darrin Hale for as
long as I had known her, and I was hoping they would get married sometime. I had never met Darrin, or Heidi for that
fact, not in person, at least, but from what she had told me about him, he
sounded like an awesome guy. I was happy
for her.
RokofAges75: That’s
awesome, Heidi! Congratulations!! J
WildcatHokie220:
Thanks!
WildcatHokie220: His
parents aren’t so happy about it though…
RokofAges75: Oh? Why
not?
WildcatHokie220:
They’re really over protective… he’s their only son, and they can’t
accept that he’s grown up now. They
think we’re too young to get married.
I rolled my eyes.
Heidi was almost twenty, and I knew Darrin was a few years older than
her.
RokofAges75: Aw, I’m
sorry. L Don’t worry though, I’m sure they’ll come
around.
WildcatHokie220: I
hope so
There was a pause, and I was trying to think of something else to
say, when something coming from the TV in my sister’s room caught my attention.
There was a beeping sound, like the kind you hear when there’s a
weather alert. But when I squinted at
the small TV in her room, there was nothing scrolling across the bottom of the
screen. Instead, the show that had been
on disappeared, and a news reporter came on.
“Good evening, I’m Jane Gilmore with a Special News Report. For the past few hours, rumors have been
circulating concerning some sort of astrological threat that is being kept ‘top-secret’ by NASA. We’ll now go live to the White House, where
President Bush will address the nation in a press conference concerning this
issue.”
Feeling my heart start to pound faster, I got up from the computer
and went into Breanna’s room, standing in front of the TV to watch.
The screen left the reporter’s face and went to President Bush’s
instead.
“My fellow Americans… one week ago, Dr. Frank Sloan, an astronomer
at the Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, made a startling discovery. Dr. Sloan here will be able to explain this
to you better than any man, so here he is.”
Bush stepped back from the podium he was standing at, and another
man stepped up to it. He made no
introductions, just stared grimly towards the camera and spoke bluntly.
“There is a comet currently
traveling through space, and it is heading right for
us. After continuous close observance of
the comet, many tests run countless times, we have come to the result the comet
will hit in a month.".”
I could feel the blood drain from my face as I comprehended the
president’s words. A comet? Coming directly at us?
I was shaking now, uncontrollably. This seemed surreal, like a horrible
nightmare I was trapped in. Of course,
that’s what it had to be. I was
dreaming. This couldn’t happen in real
life, just in the movies. I had seen
“Armageddon”, and I had seen “Deep Impact”, and all the rest. But they were just fiction. That couldn’t actually happen… could it?
***