Roadie In Love - 6. Las Vegas or Bust?

Eric and the band hoped Kevin would be in the dressing room. He wasn't. Eric tried phoning him; straight to voice mail. They had a few hours before they took the stage with the rest of the bands for the finale, so Eric headed back to the hotel. He had no luck there either. Eric left numerous voice mails over the course of the evening, no response at all. He hoped Kevin didn't do something stupid. For the finale, all five bands joining together, playing Free Bird, was a blast. Kevin was going to be sorry he missed it.

Kevin had a nearly six hour head start. After hiding in a bathroom for perhaps twenty minutes. He made the ten-minute walk from the stadium to the hotel, he went up to the room, packed up his stuff, and wrote Eric a note. Eric had already been there, so he wouldn’t see the note until later.

Dear Eric,

I'm sorry. I just couldn't do it. I hope you're not too mad. I don't really know where I'm going, but I can't face you or the rest of the band, the crew, and Jason right now. I'll head west toward Albuquerque, but I don't think I'll be able to face you all, even then. Maybe I'll head straight to Vegas, and call you Thursday afternoon, after you get in. Don't hate me.

Kevin the Loser

P.S. No, I'm not going to do anything stupid, like I'd planned before I left home.

Immediately after the show, Eric and the rest of the band walked through the stadium a couple times before they concluded that Kevin probably wasn’t there. They took the short ride to the hotel, Eric becoming quite depressed when he walked into the room, and the faintest of hopes that Kevin would be there died. He went into the bathroom and took a shower.

After his shower, Eric went to the mini-bar and took out the two bottles of Jack Daniels. He emptied them into the plastic cup the hotel provided, swallowed it quickly, and eventually turned toward the bed to get some sleep. That’s when he finally saw the note on his pillow. 'Mad? No way Kevin. Concerned and worried, yeah.'

Calling Kevin hadn't worked, so he tried sending a text.

'Hi Kevin. I saw your note. Thanks for letting me know you’re OK. I understand you not wanting to face us. Texting should be OK, right? Nobody’s mad. Let’s meet up in Albuquerque, please?'

Eric waited a few minutes for a response. He didn’t want to push Kevin. Twenty minutes later, Eric looked at his phone for what seemed like the thousandth time. Of course, it would have beeped if Kevin answered. It was now a little after eleven. Kevin had been gone eight hours. He had to try again.

'At least tell me you're okay?'

Around fifteen seconds later, he saw the indication that Kevin was typing. Waiting for the answer was brutal.

'Who is this, and what is your relationship with Mr. Lewiston?'

'Stop fucking around, Kev. It's Eric.'

'Hello Eric. This is Corporal Eddington with the New Mexico State Police. Again, I ask what is your relationship with Mr. Lewiston?'

'Sorry for the language, Corporal. I'm a close friend, Eric Targon.'

'Thank you Mr. Targon. Are you aware of any relatives Mr. Lewiston may have?'

‘Why? What happened?’

‘I’ll get to that. Family?’

'I know his parents are both dead, he hasn't ever mentioned anyone else.'

'I guess I can give you some details then. Mr. Lewiston has been in an automobile accident outside of Tucumcari, New Mexico. He appears to be mostly alright, just bumps and bruises, but he is sedated at the moment. Unfortunately, his vehicle is not currently drivable. Probably never will be.'

'Kevin is part of the road crew of the band I am in. We'll be leaving for Albuquerque in the morning. Can you tell me where he is, so I can let his supervisor know?'

'Yes, he's at the Doctor Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital, in Tucumcari.'

'Thanks, Corporal. Somebody will be there for him tomorrow afternoon.'

'That's fine. I was looking for an emergency contact when your text came through. I’ll be heading out shortly, but I'll obviously be leaving his cell phone with him; just don't be surprised if he doesn't answer immediately. Like I said, he appears to be alright, but he was bounced around pretty good. I suspect he fell asleep, then drove off the highway, and his vehicle flipped multiple times.'

'Oh, no. You're sure he's alright?"

'I'm no doctor, but he doesn't look that badly hurt.'

'Okay. Thanks again. Have a good night.'

'You too.'

Eric screamed, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" He was unconcerned about any possible neighboring guests. Cary was on one side and Pat on the other. Moments later, someone was knocking on his door. Looking out the peep hole, he saw both his neighbors.

Cary was obviously concerned, "What happened? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No. Come in. I need to sit down. We should get Mike and Jason here, too, so I won't have to repeat this three times. Once will be hard enough."

Cary and Pat looked worried. Cary called Jason, Pat called Mike. They were both there within minutes. Eric was trying to hold it together.

"I tried texting Kevin. After the second text, I got an answer, but it wasn't Kevin."

Eric proceeded to read the interaction with Corporal Eddington aloud.

Jason speculated, "You don't think he may have gotten hold of some alcohol, do you?"

Cary answered, "I doubt it. I gave him half a shot of Scotch to calm his nerves before Jackson. He hated it and I joked about him trying Rye or Bourbon. He didn't like that idea either."

"He was probably just stressed out after leaving the stage earlier and was tired," Eric added.

"Well, regardless, does anybody have a clue where this place Too-coo-kari is?"

Pat looked it up, "It's about two-and-a-half hours this side of Albuquerque, Jason."

"On the way?"

"Looks like it, yeah."

"Okay. Let me see if anybody is willing to head out earlier tomorrow to stop there on our way."

Eric quickly added, "I want to go along, preferably soon."

Jason nodded, then sent a text to Lucas Kenner on the road crew. He was the friendliest of the few besides Kevin who traveled in his own car. Jason preferred not to use the bus and make the entire road crew leave early.

'Luke, are you still awake, and willing to do me a huge favor by heading out to Alby a little early?'

'Sure. What's up?'

'Kevin was in an accident a couple hours out of Alby. Eric wants to get there sooner that we're expected.'

'Is he alright? Fuck.'

'As far as we know, just bumps and bruises, but he's sedated.'

'Damn. Yeah, I can leave at like five.'

Eric didn't like that option, "Ask him if he'll leave in like an hour if I share the driving with him."

Jason asked.

'Yeah, that'd be okay. I can meet him in his lobby in as little as fifteen minutes, I'm pretty much packed up.'

"Tell him, that's perfect."

Jason did, "Keep me up to date, will you, Eric?"

"Sure thing, Jason."

At that, everybody except Cary left.

"Are you okay? I know you and Kevin are more than just friends now. I don't want you driving that long if you're upset."

"I'll be fine. Knowing he's basically alright and I'm on my way. Yeah, I'm good."

"Okay. Keep me up to date too."

"Of course."

"Goodnight, Eric. Drive safe."

"I will. Goodnight to you too, Cary."

Eric stuffed his clothes into his duffel bag and headed down to the lobby. He took a minute to send Kevin a text that he was on his way, in case he happened to look at his phone. As promised, Luke arrived moments later; closer to ten minutes than fifteen.

"What do you know, Eric?"

"I'll read you the text from the state trooper in the car."

Within a few minutes, they were on the highway and Eric read the text to Luke.

"I don't want to be negative, but I'm thinking that trooper downplayed his injuries. You don't flip a car a couple times and walk away with just minor injuries."

"Well, we gotta hope he was at least close to accurate."

Luke and Eric swapped places a couple times to split the driving close to half. It was just after midnight when they left. With stops for gas, snacks, and pissing, they arrived at the hospital just after eight-thirty AM. Visiting hours were flexible there, so they got Kevin's room number, and went upstairs.

Kevin was awake and still nibbling on what the hospital considered breakfast when they walked into his room.

Kevin looked up, surprised, “What... what are you doing here?” He hadn't looked at his phone that morning.

“Really Kevin? You thought I would hear you were hurt and NOT show up?”

“Sorry, hi Eric, hi Luke.”

Luke was concerned as well, “Hey. So, how are you? I don’t see any casts or nothing.”

“Mostly just sore all over. The severe injuries, from what I was told were two dislocated shoulders and a concussion.”

Eric took the ball, “The trooper I traded messages with said you flipped your car a few times?”

“Until I passed out, I thought I was in a NASCAR-type crash. Six flips before I blacked out.”

“Fuck. You could have been killed. You weren’t trying to do that, were you?”

“No, Eric. Like I put in my note, I wasn’t planning on doing anything stupid. I was just tired and drifted too far off the shoulder at probably the worst possible spot. The right wheels fell away about a foot and the rolling started. I wasn’t really speeding, but with a seventy-five mile per hour limit, just a couple over is still too fast to leave the road.”

Luke was shocked, “You went off the road at seventy-five?”

“More like seventy-eight, but yeah.”

Eric realized he hadn’t given Kevin a proper greeting yet, “Luke, I’ll have to ask you to pretend you didn’t see this.”

Eric leaned over and gave Kevin a very passionate kiss.

“Whoa. We’d heard that maybe you two were more than friends. It’s a good thing stuff like that doesn’t gross me out.”

Eric snorted, “I appreciate your sensitivity, Luke.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean...”

“It’s cool. You’re my ride to Albuquerque, so I can’t get mad at you. Kevin, did they give you any idea how long you’ll be here?”

“Another night for observation. I should be out of here tomorrow. Eric, I’m really sorry I ran out on you guys. I just saw all the people and panicked. I just knew you’d all hate me.”

“Nobody hates you, Kevin. I doubt the crowd even noticed there was no bass. You’re going to hate yourself after I tell you how the night ended, though.”

“What happened?”

“All the bands came back out on stage and played ‘Free Bird’ with Skynyrd.”

“Now you’re just being cruel. You really are mad.”

“Luke, help me out here.”

“He’s not lying, Kevin. It was amazing to see. I sneaked my phone out and recorded it.”

Luke showed Kevin the first minute or so of his recording.

“Oh, man. Did I fuck up, or what?”

“Epic fuck up dude. I hear Ultimate Classic Rock dot com wants to run an exclusive on it,” Luke laughed at his own joke.

“Funny. That’d be a hell of a way to get my fifteen minutes of fame.”

Eric consoled him, “You had almost two hours of fame in Jackson and Houston. Variety.com mentioned you in their weekly review. We’ll have to wait to see if they say anything about last night.”

“Really? Don’t tell me, I’ll check it out myself later. Do you plan on hanging around, or going on to Albuquerque?”

“The trooper said your car was undriveable, so we can't leave without you. The caravan is probably just leaving Arlington now, no point in moving on until later, do you agree, Luke?”

“Yep. Other than moving on for some food, maybe.”

“Might I suggest the hospital cafeteria? The quality of my breakfast is at least a half-star.”

Luke faked a gag, “Restaurant, Eric?”

“Um...”

“Go ahead and eat. I’m due for some more morphine, or whatever they’re giving me. I’ll be back asleep soon after.”

“Okay, I guess. We’ll see you later.”

“Counting on it.”

Eric leaned in and gave Kevin another kiss.

“I gotta find me a girl, you guys are making me jealous.”

“Good, if we were making you hard, I’d be worried.”

“Not a chance. More comments like that, Eric, and I will leave you stranded here.”

“You do that and I’ll have to explain to Jason why I’m, um, we’re stranded here.”

They finally left to get breakfast, Kevin got his next infusion of painkillers, just Tylenol at this point, but he made Eric and Luke leave because he was still uncomfortable around any of the band or crew for bugging out. He needed more time to think. After a short nap, Kevin looked up Variety.com's review of the two shows he did play. There was some discussion about the concert in general, more on the Black Crowes, and then a small snippet on Deja Vu's performance.

'The opening act, Deja Vu, is worth mentioning. A blues/southern rock band out of New Hampshire of all places, they put on a very good performance for a mostly unknown act. Their shows in Jackson, MS, and Houston, TX had a slightly different flavor than their usual setup. Bass player Mike Taylor recently had an accident and was unable to play. His fill-in was unique, to say the least.

One of the road crew played keyboards. Kevin Lewiston played his keyboard as if it were a bass guitar. While to the trained ear, one could tell it wasn't a bass guitar, it still sounded quite good. This writer listened to their original recordings after the first show. While there were a few miscues, namely on 'The Final Days,' an original Deja Vu song, and their version of Robin Trower's 'Victims of the Fury,' the performance by an unknown, very likely an amateur musician, was impressive.'

Kevin’s mood was lifted by the review. He knew he’d flubbed a few notes, so that being printed didn’t bother him. And he knew he was definitely an amateur.

Eric and Luke found a restaurant nearby and had breakfast. While they were waiting for their food, Eric filled Cary and Jason in on Kevin’s status. Next topic was how to handle Kevin’s release tomorrow.

Luke was concerned about how to go forward, “I’d hate to drive there, then here and back tomorrow, but with Kevin out, I’ll need to help out with the crew.”

"If you don't mind, Luke, you could drive us to Albuquerque, and I'll borrow your car to come back for Kevin."

"Yeah, I guess I can trust you with it. It's not like you'd steal it. But keep it on the highway, huh?"

"That was cold, Luke. But, thanks. I'll take good care of it."

"I know Kevin will joke about it later, so I'm sure he'd forgive me. How would you want to work it? I mean, there's no point in me getting there way before everybody else. But what would we do for like another four or five hours?"

"I'm thinking we see if we can get an early check-in at a hotel, get a few hours sleep, I know I'm exhausted after being up all night, so I'm sure you are too."

Luke smiled, "Two beds?"

"Yes, we'll get two beds, no offense, Luke, but I really have no interest in you in that way."

"That's good to know."

Eric shook his head, "You're really something else."

"Life's too short to be serious all the time. I'd get a real nine to five job in that case."

Eric agreed. They stopped by the hospital once more to share the plan with Kevin, Eric saying he'd be back later. Eric checked in with Cary to let him know the plan as well and to find out where they were. Cary told him they were about an hour past Amarillo, only a few miles from the New Mexico border. By the time they went back to the hotel for Luke to retrieve his belongings, they would only be a few minutes ahead of the caravan. They left for Albuquerque and arrived with enough time for Luke to get checked into the motel that the crew would stay at before the rest showed up. Eric stayed long enough to have an early dinner with the band and headed back to Tucumcari.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Kevin continued thinking about what he'd done at the Dallas show. After reading the review from Variety, he decided he overreacted massively. The fear was definitely there, but if Kevin had known how well his first performances were received, perhaps he may not have been quite so scared. The point was moot now, since beginning the next night in Albuquerque, Alexandra Plano would be handling the bass duties and Kevin could go back to the job he was comfortable with, setting up and tearing down.

He understood why so much of the crew enjoyed their jobs. He got to see places he never would have. Sure, some of the days were long, filled with hard work and heavy lifting, but they also gave him a sense of accomplishment. He'd never really had that before. He was unable to work, mostly because his grades weren't good enough for his parents to allow him the time to get a job. Since he wasn't very good in school, he never felt like he'd accomplished anything there. Being on the road crew, he got things done nearly every day. Even the off-days had sufficient activity. Then, to top it all off, there was Eric.

What started out in June as nothing more than a fantasy, had turned into reality. He and Eric had something good together. He realized it was a deeper relationship than he had with Lenny, even without having gone all the way yet. He felt he'd been right in not taking that leap the time Eric offered to make love a week or so ago. Now, after his total fuck-up at the Dallas show, Eric wasn't mad, and had said that nobody was mad. If that wasn't true, he could have ruined everything, which is exactly what he was afraid of as he left the stadium. 'Shit, was it only yesterday?'

It was nearing the end of visiting hours when Eric walked back into Kevin's room. After most of a day thinking about his gaff, he was happy to see Eric. Not to say he wasn't happy that morning when Eric and Luke showed up, but at that time he was still mixed up over what he'd done.

Smiling, "Hey, Eric. I'm glad you're back."

"I said I would be."

"Yeah, I know. And you've said things wouldn't go awry with a little mistake, but that was a doozy last night."

"It was, and it wasn't, Kevin. I pushed you too hard. I think you finally tried to go through with it so you wouldn't disappoint me. I should have seen that and let up on you. I didn't, and here you are in the hospital."

"I can take that blame, Eric. You believed in me when I wasn't sure. Had I seen the review in Variety before this morning, I may have been confident enough to go on."

"Well, let's call the whole thing water under the bridge, and just pick it back up where we were on Friday."

"I can't do that, Eric."

Eric couldn't hide his shock, "Why... why not?"

Kevin smiled, "Don't look so worried. I want to move forward, take the next step in our relationship. You mean a lot to me, and I can see after the accident, how much I mean to you. When I'm healed, I want us to make love."

"Wow. I didn't think you'd come around this quickly, but, yeah, I want that as well."

"Good. I think maybe when we get to Vegas, that would be enough time, and the right place for us."

Eric smiled, "Here and now would be the right time and place in my mind, but you're right. You need to heal first."

"Huh! You're horny."

"I'm twenty-one. That's still not too far removed from 'horny teenager.' But I did a lot of thinking today too. After Luke and I got a room..."

With a little distress in his voice, Kevin reacted, "Run that past me again?"

"We drove through the night. I knew I was staying until tomorrow and needed some sleep, so I rented a room, and Luke and I both took naps. You can't believe that he and I did..."

"No. I'm sorry. Just the way you said it; I took it the wrong way. My skin is still a little too thin, I guess."

"Yeah, and I need to remember all you lost before we met and choose my words better. Forgive me?"

"Only if you forgive me too, and seal it with a kiss."

"Of course, otherwise it's gonna be a cold lonely summer."

"But I'll fill the emptiness. Get over here, stop spouting song lyrics and give me that kiss."

They were still kissing when the nurse stuck in her head and said visiting hours were over. When she next came by, she told Kevin they were a beautiful looking couple.

Next up - "Back to Normal, For a While"