3. Mai
Mai
Mai felt deeply unsettled that Midnight Thunder were playing two concerts in Burra Creek. Why on earth did they decide to end their world tour in a backwater town like the one she lived in?
She'd Googled why, and all it told her was they wanted to return to their roots and put on some shows in small towns. And luck or Lucifer, or whoever was in charge of those decisions, made them pick Burra Creek.
The chance of running into any of the band was infinitesimal, but her skin still itched at the fact Ford was so close by.
And if she had to listen one more time to someone at work wax lyrical about a Midnight Thunder song, or how Ford was their hall pass—that one made her want to vomit—she was going to veer away from the softly spoken doctor that she was known as and shout in someone’s face to shut the hell up.
Of course, there was also speculation about Sie Harrington, and she'd listened to the wild theories her friends in the pub quiz team came up with about where Sie was, without saying anything. Not that they'd noticed how quiet she was, as silence was her default.
Last week, her blood had run cold when Sadie pulled out an ageing app and put a picture of Sie Harrington—it felt like a lifetime ago, and she now referred to Sie as a whole separate person—into it to work out what she would look like now.
They tried loads of different iterations.
Making her hair different to the straight, black style she used to wear and taking off the raccoon makeup.
One of the faces it spat out looked so similar to hers that her heart plummeted, and she shrank down in her seat, pushing her pink glasses up her nose as if that would protect her identity.
She’d breathed a huge sigh of relief when they didn’t make any connection to her and put the app away.
Mai’s phone rang, and she jumped. She would have left it, but Hel’s name flashed up on the screen. Something must be wrong for Hel to be calling her, so she answered it.
Mai didn’t even get a chance to say hi before her friend spoke.
“I stuffed up, and I need a favour.”
“Yeah?” Mai said, her voice soft as usual.
“I’m booked as the doctor at the Midnight Thunder concert tonight,” Hel rushed.
Mai’s breath caught in her throat. “Okay,” she croaked out.
“I’ve got a plan. It might be a bit stupid, but it’s Frost’s last game this season.”
“Okay,” Mai said slowly, not quite seeing how Hel’s boyfriend, Frost’s—who was coaching the local ice hockey team—game was relevant to Hel’s concert commitment.
“I’m going to propose to him tonight,” Hel said in a rush.
Mai blinked, then blinked again. She pulled her phone away from her ear and stared at it for a moment. Had she heard her friend right?
“You’re going to propose?” she asked tentatively.
“Yes,” Hel exclaimed, way too loudly for a phone call.
Despite Mai's own discomfort, a massive grin split her face. “That’s awesome.”
It made her a little envious when she saw her friend and the hulking hockey player together; they were so in love. Not that she would ever call him hulking to his face, but he was a man mountain.
Her mind, without her own volition, turned to Ford; he was tall as well, six-two-ish.
But when she knew him, he’d had the lithe build of youth.
The photos and videos she watched of him—only ever alone late at night when her hands looked them up on their own—showed that he'd filled out. But despite the cords of muscle, his build was very different to Frost’s.
“Yeah. I love him. He loves me. I can’t see a reason not to,” Hel continued, her voice still nervous and rushed. “I once thought a girl was getting on the ice to propose to her man, and I thought it was an amazing idea, and it kind of stuck with me. So here we are.”
Mai laughed softly. “I’m so happy for you.”
“I totally forgot I was the doctor tonight at the concert, and I desperately need someone to cover,” Hel said.
Even though Hel couldn’t see her, Mai shook her head. She didn’t want to go. “You know my patients tend to be four kilograms and under. I’m not going to be much use at a concert. Unless they have an invasion of premature babies.”
“Do you know CPR?” Hel asked.
“Of course,” Mai said automatically to the stupid question.
“Then you’ll be fine. Please!” Hel begged.
“Why me?” Mai didn’t want to go. Did she?
A little voice in the back of her head clamoured to be heard. A voice that said she would love to hear them play, that she was wasting away without live music.
She glanced over at the guitar that sat propped in the corner of her living room. It was nothing fancy, a plain old acoustic guitar, but playing it kept the itchy feeling away.
It still made her sad that she left her electric guitar behind. But when she walked away from the band, she told herself that part of her life was over and she wouldn’t need it. But even after all these years, her fingers ached for it so often it hurt.
“I’ve tried everyone else,” Hel stated bluntly. “I know it’s not ideal, but they're all either on-call or going to the concert.”
Mai wasn’t surprised. Midnight Thunder was the biggest thing ever to come to town.
Well, scratch that, Taylor Anderson, international movie star, came to town and somehow ended up marrying her friend Clara.
That caused a lot of excitement around the hospital for a while.
Fortunately for Taylor and Clara, people settled down quickly, and they decided they liked him, treating him as if he had always lived in Burra Creek.
“You’ll be able to watch and listen to the show from the medical tent,” Hel wheedled.
“I don’t know,” Mai hesitated.
Come on, her brain shouted at her, just say yes. You’ll get to see Ford. She shushed it. She could see Ford on the internet. She didn’t need to be in a concert venue with him.
“Please,” Hel begged.
Mai was only half surprised with herself when she said, “Sure. I’ll do it.”
“You are amazing,” Hel bellowed into the phone, then apologised. “Sorry, too loud. Thanks, Mai, I super appreciate it.”
“No problem,” Mai said, even as she was thinking. Shit, shit, shit, shit.
Hel gave her all the details she needed and thanked her a thousand times before she hung up, leaving Mai to her memories of the time when she was a rockstar standing on the stage with Midnight Thunder.
When she showed her work ID to the security guard at the staff entrance, she half hoped that she wouldn’t be on the list and could walk away.
As he checked, she listened to the speakers, outside what was normally the town’s football stadium, blasting music that was written on her soul, as it was all from the first Midnight Thunder album.
She left the band before the second one was released, but she wrote so much music with Ford that she continued to hear her lyrics and melodies appear on every album over the last sixteen years.
“Have you been here before?” the gruff security guard asked her.
“Yeah.” She had been to the stadium a few times to watch the football.
“Great. The medical tent is where the south goal usually is,” the guard told her, as if she should know which way round the stadium was oriented.
“Ummm.” Mai pushed her glasses up her nose and shrugged apologetically.
“It’s at this end,” he harrumphed.
“Thanks.” Mai gave him a nod and made her way into the stadium.
She averted her eyes when she walked past a merchandise stall. She didn’t want to see Ford’s face plastered all over t-shirts. Despite her best efforts, she peeked at the stand and saw underwear!
Wow, that was a new one.
Donnie must have made one hell of a deal for them to agree to have their faces on people’s groins!
Mai laughed to herself when she thought about Donnie. He was their manager back when she was a member of the band, and he was a huge part of the reason for their gigantic success.
When he met them, he was looking for his big break in the music industry. When he heard them play, he claimed they had ‘it’, and he would take them ‘all the way’.
And he did.
He fought tooth and nail for them. Getting them into gradually bigger and bigger venues.
Getting their singles played on all the radio stations.
Creating buzz around them. He was incredibly smart and loyal to a fault.
If he put the band’s faces on underwear, there must have been a lot of cash on the table.
She stopped and stared at the stall, unable to prevent herself from looking now that she’d started.
Ford’s face was everywhere. Older, with some grey hairs starting to appear, and lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there when she knew him. Even with all the changes, he was still Ford.
Her Ford.
No—she corrected herself—he hadn’t been hers for a long time, and that was her choice. She walked away from him.
She would never admit it to anyone, but she always kept an eye on the news for stories about Ford. Waiting for the one she dreaded, the one about his engagement to a supermodel or actress or someone equally glamorous.
But it never came. His name was linked to woman after woman, but they didn’t seem to stick around very long.
She’d spent six years with Ford, and she now compared the men she met with the memory of him.
Unfortunately, everyone she dated seemed to come up lacking.
With Ford, all she wanted to do was be with him.
She could objectively see all the irritating things he did, but none of them actually annoyed her; she just laughed at him.
The longest she’d dated anyone in the last sixteen years was six months, and by the end, the sound of his breathing made her want to smother him with a pillow.
The man staring back at her from a pair of pink ladies’ knickers had a lot to answer for.
“Can I help you?”
Mai jumped at the voice. In her wander down memory lane, she hadn’t noticed the man approach. “No thanks.”
“If you’re not into the new stuff. I’m just bringing out the old merchandise.” The man dumped a crate of T-shirts onto the table and began to unpack them. “People are really into nostalgia now.” He pulled out a T-shirt and held it up.
Mai’s face flushed, and her ears rang as Midnight Thunder stared back at her. The original lineup. She stared back at herself—all black hair, raccoon makeup and angry pout.
“No. T..t..thanks,” she stuttered and backed away.
She wanted to run. She shouldn’t have come.
The only thing that stilled her feet was her promise to Hel. That promise kept her walking to the medical tent and woodenly introducing herself to the nurse she would be working with, even as the image of her face on a t-shirt was clouding her vision.