Wednesday, September 20th, 8:30 AM
Grand Rapids, MI
Evan stood up from the seat.
Dad and Mom-Kyleigh were there to help him, as he stood tall, much taller than what seemed only hours earlier. He began walking down the aisle on Mom-Kyleigh’s bus. But with each step he soon realized he was not on her bus but walking on the Moon.
The hull wasn’t around him. In his walk he easily breathed in ambient air. An atmosphere on the Moon? He could see the dark space around the Moon’s sky only broken by bright sun rays shining down. He was alone, though he could hear Dad and Mom-Kyleigh talking, somewhere, in the background.
The view changed. He now stepped upon an endlessly horizontal red surface, swirling, turning beneath his feet, though not altering his forward motion or his balance. He could yet hear Dad and Mom-Kyleigh happily speaking, but still behind him, not in front of him.
The surroundings changed again. He recognized the view. He was on the surface of Titan. Alan was here, tossing rocks into the lake of methane again, but like himself, no hull surrounded Alan. He sensed none of the hull people had the hull around them, though he couldn’t see this to verify.
He stopped walking. Limati appeared before him, about two yards away, though at first Evan’s sightline hit at the creature’s torso area. He looked up at Limati’s face. Words came out of Evan’s mouth without thought. “For what it’s worth, thanks anyway, for having me move the others around, to visit those places. The Moon. Jupiter. Titan. I will…I will never forget them.”
A grey alien’s face, floating, ugly, forced itself before Evan, nearly blocking the entire view of Limati. The face hovered about mid-distance length between himself and Limati and began growing in size, floating closer, and closer. Evan’s heart rate picked up. But then Limati abruptly decreased in size. At first, he wasn’t sure, but then could see, a person approaching nearer. Limati was now Syrrah. A fierce Syrrah. A Syrrah who was holding a black nightstick club. She began striking and beating the alien face, made of thick cloud-like material, until the face was mere remnants of wispy substance. Obliterated. Gone.
Evan opened his eyes. He shot up from bed.
“What the heck,” he said quietly, rubbing his eyes. “What sort of weird-ass dream was that? From my own mind, or Art’s?”
Whatever. It needed to be forgotten for now.
After feeling fully awake he got dressed. He checked the time on his iPhone. 8:45 AM. Greg wasn’t here. Quite the early bird, he was. He recalled yesterday Greg said he would be at the hotel’s workout room, fortunately reserved this morning for Dana’s tour members exclusively. No public peeps allowed.
He placed a microwaveable macaroni and cheese in the microwave. Yay. Breakfast.
Once it was heated, he sat at the little table in the small, corner kitchenet, removed the plastic top and spooned a good portion of it into his mouth. He took out the Unihertz from his backpack. Art had advised to use it in a case like this. He found Neraeh’s number and selected it.
“Hello, Evan?”
“Hey. Yeah, it’s me, on Art’s Unihertz. Hold on. Chewing.” He quickly chewed and swallowed the mac and cheese mouthful. “Sorry. Freddy there too?”
Rustling, moving around noise could be heard in the background. “Hey, dude. I’m here. Safe to talk now?”
“Yes. Greg is working out. Once we get done, I’m joining him too.”
“They had you guys stay in a hotel again?” Freddy asked.
“Dana wanted to. It’s just a hop skip away from the Van Andel Arena. Nice town here.”
“Oh, great,” Freddy said. “So, definitely safe to talk?”
“As safe as can be expected. So, this is it, guys. What we’ve been waiting for all along.”
“Evan,” Neraeh said. “Got to tell you something. I can’t make it for the Thursday night show, but I can for the Friday one. Will that be all right?”
“Your work?”
“Well, more than that. My mom. They’re doing another EMDR treatment, you know, like Art and I discussed before we met Felicia. But I want to be there for her, to help out. I’m sorry about this.”
“No, no, no,” Evan said. “Please, of course don’t be sorry. Dana is doing meet and greets, with photos and autographs both nights. We are all set up for it. That gig’s not going anywhere. Trust me, her dad is really pushing for it, since the fans love it and will help sell out both nights, since some tickets are left. The only problem I see is if Lloyd or Carter position me somewhere else, so I can’t be there when you meet with Dana.”
“Oh,” she said. “Her dad is still rather upset.”
“Well, yeah, he told me to stay away from her, and I have, since Dayton. And Carter had me in the backstage area again last night at Van Andel, so I’m not seen at stage front. They of course don’t want Dana’s fans coming after me.”
Freddy laughed. “You mean YOUR fans. You got fans big time, dude.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Not too happy about that.”
“It’s only two more nights,” Freddy said, “and then, if all goes well with Neraeh meeting Dana, I mean, if we definitely get some positive, affirmative feedback from their meeting that Dana is Syrrah, hopefully won’t be too much longer, with the tour done, and you can break free from this joint.”
Evan laughed. “Yeah. True that.”
“But, seriously, Evan, it’s been in the news, all over the Internet,” Neraeh said. “Those Hollywood sites. And of course Twitter and Instagram. Tons of people took tons of photos and videos.”
“And even on Facebook,” Freddy said. “And dude. Not sure if you checked this morning or not, but your worst fear has come to light.”
“Oh no. You mean, Heidi?”
“Yup. Neraeh saw it first.”
“I took a screen shot,” Neraeh said. “I can send it to you, once we’re done talking. She posted on her own Twitter that she can’t believe her ex-boyfriend joined security for Dana’s tour, when he couldn’t stand Dana or her music, thought she was ugly, stuff like that.”
“Oh no, no, no, that is not good, not good at all,” Evan said. “Are you her follower, or friend?”
“No, I’m not. So, it’s public.” Neraeh sighed. “I’m sorry, Evan. Heidi just posted it early this morning, I think around seven AM. But, since I doubt there’s any connection between Heidi and Dana, Dana probably won’t see it.”
“Let’s hope so. Someone else connected with Heidi’s Twitter could, though, but hopefully not. Dana snuck over to see me, when her dad wasn’t around, before last night’s concert and told me her Twitter has blown up with fans posting about me, how they like me, liked our performance, so I’m thinking it’s just her Twitter account she’s focused on. But, it’s probably inevitable she’ll find out, eventually.”
“Do you have any idea, any clue,” Freddy asked, “if she would even consider switching bodies with Felicia?”
“I have no idea, Fred, no idea. I’ve barely scratched the surface on her, I mean, like developing any sort of close friendship or anything. So I definitely need to get that done ASAP.”
“I thought Art was going to block Heidi from posting these type of things,” Neraeh said.
“He is, Neraeh, but only to a point, because he said certain events need to transpire, as they were meant to be, something like that.”
“Yeah.” Freddy let out a rough exhale. “Art. Pretty scary guy. If you’re on his good side, fine. But on his bad side? Geesh. At least if you can believe all he told us. But I shouldn’t say more, since you’re using his device.”
“I’m sure he already knows everything we’re thinking,” Evan said. “But, for some reason, not exactly sure why, I do trust him. Didn’t for a while there, but I do now.” He paused a bit. “Listen, guys. I need to get to my workout. But, remember, Neraeh. You have to approach Dana by yourself. Very important.”
“Oh, I know, don’t worry, and I will.”
“And I’ll be not too far away,” Freddy said, “if anything goes down.”
“I’m hoping everything will be fine,” Evan said. “And I think it should be.”
Evan said his good-byes and ended the call. After finishing up his mac and cheese, he headed out the door for the workout room.