PRACTICE WAS STRANGE the next day. Jerod was totally cranked up from the show, rattling on about how great we were and how we'd be headlining soon. Butt was excited, too, I guess. Only, unlike Jerod, he noticed that something was wrong.
In the beginning, it was just Butt and Relly. In some ways they couldn't have been more different. Butt was built like a caveman, all muscle and shaved boney head. Relly wasn't exactly frail. He could stand up in the blast from the amps and I think it even made him stronger. Still, he was no ironman. Butt wasn't what you'd call smart either. And sometimes the stuff Relly talked about went way over his head.
All the same, they were the core of the band. They'd been together the longest and Butt could tell when things weren't right for Relly.
I stayed in my place, off to the side. Jerod jumped around and practically strangled the mike stand. Butt drove the band like a thudding train engine. And Relly played stuff I'd never heard before.
No chord charts that night. No words for Jerod. Just a huge endless riff like a monster snake slithering out of its nowhere hole. And just when I thought we'd gotten to the end, Relly took us deeper and farther.
He looked over at me, gave a little nod. Was it noise that came out of the amps then? Yeah, I guess. Was it music? Yeah, that too. But it was something else. If I'd been one of the Dungeons & Dragons crowd, I might have said Relly was doing sorcery. If I'd read a lot of elves and dwarves stuff or hung out with the Wicca girls, I'd say he was casting a spell.
But I wasn't. So I just thought, All right, he's opening the door. And I guess we're all going through.
What door? I didn't know then. Where were we going? It would take me a while to figure that out, too.
Did I want to go with him? Oh yeah. No question about that. Butt and Jerod did, too, though I guess they couldn't see it the way I did. Butt just drubbed his drums. And Jerod wailed and practiced looking good, riding the riff. We all went though, in our ways. Relly opened the door and Scorpio Bone headed straight through.
OK, I know this sounds like I was going crazy. But sometimes the truth is crazy. Sometimes everything you know is wrong. And you've got to face that straight on if you want to really live your life. I was in the band and I was staying. Relly was my best friend and there was no way I'd do anything to change that. I was heading for the "other side," as Relly called it. And there was no turning back.