Chapter 9
As we walk through the snow every step feels like the most effort. I don’t suppose it helps that we’ve all been working outside in the cold for the best part of the day. My arms and legs feel so heavy and my fingers and toes still feel so numb. My fingertips have actually gone bright red, almost like some kind of allergic reaction, although my mum did always used to joke that I was allergic to helping out around the house.
There is still a lot of snow on the ground but at least it has stopped coming down now. Now all we have to do is wait, for the snow to melt, or for someone from the label to come and pick up us in some sort of weather-appropriate vehicle.
It’s dark but the snow on the ground goes a long way to reflecting the various light sources around, making it a bit lighter than it normally would be on a winter evening, but at the same time it’s so strange and alien, like we’re on another planet. Also, the fact that everything is so still, and so silent, only adds to the weird vibe. I don’t suppose Dylan floating the idea of us having a slumber party with cannibals helped to lift the mood either.
The only sounds you can hear are the crunching of the snow beneath our feet and our conversation which, now that we’re a decent distance from the farm, has returned to a normal volume.
‘Are we going the right way?’ I ask.
‘I’m pretty sure this is where we abandoned the bus,’ Mikey replies. ‘Just along this road, and around the corner, and we should be able to see it.’
‘I don’t know,’ Taz says. ‘You would think, if it were this way, we would see our footprints from before.’
‘Except it has snowed since then, you thicko,’ Dylan reminds him.
‘You’re calling me a thicko?’ Taz replies with a scoff. ‘The man who cried cannibal?’
‘You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face when we never see Jamie again,’ Dylan replies, but then his words occur to him, and he laughs. ‘Okay, the cold air is sobering me up a little, perhaps they weren’t cannibals, but Jamie is missing.’
‘Don’t worry, mate, we’ll find him,’ Mikey reassures his brother, squeezing his shoulder.
‘Yeah,’ I hope so,’ Dylan replies.
I look over at him and smile. It’s not often you see bursts of vulnerability from him but, when I do, I really like it.
Dylan realises I’m smiling and cooing at him so he pulls a face at me.
‘And, if we don’t find him, bassists are really easy to replace,’ he jokes.
And just like that normal Dylan is back.
‘So, what’s our plan for tonight?’ I ask.
‘Sleep on the bus, I guess,’ Mikey says. ‘I guess we’ve got a bunch of stuff on the bus that we can use to keep warm.’
‘We could load up on merch, if there is any knocking around,’ Taz jokes. ‘Five Burnouts t-shirts each.’
‘And we can burn the posters we have of Taz, because no one ever wants those signing anyway,’ Dylan jokes.
‘Or we could burn a few pairs of your skinny jeans,’ Taz replies. ‘Who packs seven pairs of skinny jeans for a few nights on the road?’
‘You never know,’ Dylan says. ‘I’ve been burned before.’
Dylan has a distant look in his eye, like he’s recalling a horrible memory.
I don’t think I know that one, and I don’t think I want to.
‘Whatever we do, I think we’re all just glad to get out of that house,’ Mikey says.
‘Sorry for even suggesting it,’ Dylan says, kicking the snow playfully, like he’s trying to mask a little frustration. ‘It seemed like a good idea, at the time.’
‘And it would have been a good idea,’ I reply. ‘If we had ended up anywhere but there.’
Dylan laughs.
‘I do get us into some scrapes, don’t I?’
‘You do,’ I tell him. ‘But you’re Dylan King.’
‘Yeah, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’ve actually made being trapped in a blizzard a fun, crazy adventure,’ Mikey adds.
‘Yeah, with anyone else, it just would’ve been cold,’ I joke.
‘And, here we are, the bus,’ Mikey says proudly. ‘Right where we left it.’
I have never been so relieved to see the tour bus. Usually, I can’t wait to get off it, to stay in a hotel, or to get home to my comfortable bed, but right now it’s the only place I want to be.
We left the bus unlocked, and the keys in the safe, so that if a mechanic got to the bus before we did, they could get on with the repair work. Well, who is going to burgle a tour bus, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a blizzard?
‘After you,’ Dylan prompts Mikey.
‘Why me?’ Mikey asks.
‘Because you’re my big brother,’ Dylan reminds him in a baby voice.
‘You’re older than me too,’ Taz reminds Mikey. ‘And Nicole is a girl.’
I’m all for equal opportunities for men and women but if a little sexism means I don’t have to be the first person to board the abandoned bus in the dark, then I’m all for it.
‘Okay, fine,’ Mikey says with a sigh. ‘But stay close. Strength in numbers and all that.’
Strength in numbers may well be a thing but, looking at the four of us, I don’t think we add up to much.
Walking up the steps, to head upstairs to the living area, you can’t even see what is in front of your face. Once we’re up the stairs though, all tentatively walking behind Mikey, there is some emergency lighting on at least.
‘The back lounge is probably the best place for us,’ Mikey whispers. ‘We can sit there, make a plan.’
‘Good idea,’ Dylan says. ‘We just need to keep warm for tonight. Help will be here in the morning.’
God, I hope so, because I’ve never ruled out dying on a tour bus (I’ve probably come close, a couple of times, with some of the older buses/more chaotic drivers) but freezing to death was never the way I thought I would go.
That said, now that I think about it, it’s not actually that cold in here at all. I was expecting it to be freezing, after sitting in the snow for a day, but it actually feels quite nice.
Mikey stops in his tracks, causing the rest of us to bump into him, one at a time.
‘What is it?’ Dylan asks.
‘There, look,’ Mikey instructs us. ‘In the middle of the floor… has someone been here? It looks like they’ve trashed the place.’
‘Ah shit,’ Dylan says, confidentially walking forwards. ‘They better not have taken anything of mine.’
Dylan reaches forward, to start looking through the items on the floor, only for the pile to rise up in front of his eyes. As random items of clothing fall away, all that’s left standing in the centre of the lounge is Jamie.
‘You gave me a scare,’ he says, groggy, and bizarrely pissed off.
Dylan shoves him back onto the sofa.
‘ We gave you a scare?’ he blurts. ‘ You gave us a scare .’
‘You’re being dramatic,’ Jamie moans. ‘Pat wanted me to move logs, I did a couple, it was hard work, so I decided to sack it off. He came out, laid it on thick about how we all had to pay our way and earn our keep and whatever. So, I waited until he wasn’t looking, and then I came back here for a bit of peace. It’s no big deal.’
‘It’s no big deal?’ Dylan repeats back to him. ‘It’s no big deal? I thought we were eating you.’
Jamie laughs.
‘No, literally, he thought you were being eaten,’ I point out.
‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ Jamie jokes.
I don’t even want to think about what he means by that.
‘Anyway, you should be thanking me,’ Jamie continues.
‘Why?’ Mikey asks.
‘I fixed the bus,’ he announces proudly. ‘Well, kind of. I’ve turned it off for now, because I don’t want to run the battery flat, but I charged our devices and put the heating on. It was easy to see, in the light, how to restore the power.’
‘So we can head home?’ Taz asks.
‘I can’t make it drive through the snow, clown,’ Jamie claps back. ‘But we can sleep here. We’ll be warm, and safe in our bunks.’
‘Then why were you sleeping on the floor?’ Mikey asks him. ‘I had a few beers when I got back. I fell asleep in here. I couldn’t be arsed moving, so I pulled some clothes over me.’
He says that like it’s a completely normal thing to do. I guess on tour it is.
‘I carried a bunch of food up here, and some drinks, if you guys wanna chill for a bit?’ Jamie suggests.
‘There’s not much else to do,’ Dylan says as he swigs a beer that he seemingly pulled from nowhere.
And just like that it’s like we never left. We grab drinks, and snacks and Mikey digs out his acoustic guitar. He noodles away on it, like he always does when we’re just sitting around on the bus.
‘You know, one day, I think we’re all going to laugh about this,’ Dylan says confidentially.
I chuckle.
He’s right, I’m sure we will all laugh about this one day, it might even be today. I’m just glad that we’re all here, all alive, with all of our hair still on our heads.
‘We can laugh at Nicole’s face, surely?’ Jamie says.
‘Oh my God, I’d forgotten about that,’ I reply. ‘Kitty did it. Apparently, she wants to be a make-up artist. I think she just wanted to torture me.’
‘And you do genuinely look like you’ve been tortured,’ Mikey jokes.
‘Nicole, the Insane Clown Posse called, they want their face back,’ Taz joins in.
‘All absolutely fantastic jokes,’ I say sarcastically. ‘Thank you. I’ll go find some face wipes.’
‘Nah, leave it on,’ Dylan tells me. ‘You look great in anything.’
I smile. I will take it off, later, before bed, but for now – who cares? This face full of chaos just shows what I’ve been through over the past twenty-four hours.
Plus, if any strangers do board the bus, at least I can scare them away.