Chapter 101

Our final night in Chicago was our best, and that’s saying something. The Reds were a hit, along with everybody else. We were planning to leave for Minneapolis right after the show, so we had checked out of our hotel, and then performed the show.

They knew we had a full day off and were ready for it. When I saw the gentleman and the man with the gun walking to us, I got very excited.

“Michael, you broke the record for the number of people in here for a concert. With that, here is a check for $2,145,000. I rounded it up. Thank you very much for including us. If you do this again next summer, think of us, please?”

“Yes, Sir I will. I’m losing a few of them to college, but I will do all I can to keep my quality of performers up to snuff.”

“I totally understand, thanks again,” he said shaking my hand.

After loading up the buses, we started our seven-hour drive to Minneapolis, Minnesota. We would need to fill up once at least. Peter and Katie were our driver and navigator, the other bus was Ally and Jeff. Jennifer’s mother loved to drive the bus. The traffic coming out of Chicago was slow, but we picked up speed on the other side of Rockford.

Jenn was by my side, but quickly fell asleep. I heard shoes coming up behind me, it was Brigitte. I thought she was going to ask me something, but instead, she put my other hand on her blouse covered breast and held it there for about fifteen seconds or so. She kissed my hand then left.

I got a text from her, “My heart beats only for you.”

What a romantic she is. Jenn’s hand had been on my groin through this and I heard her mumble, “What made you hard?”

“Only you baby, you do all the time.”

Pulling into a gas station woke most of us up. “Where are we?” people were asking.

“La Crosse, Wisconsin,” Katie yelled, “Food break, if you want something.”

Stretching her arms was my fiancée, asking, “Get me something to eat, Lover. I don’t care what?”

“OK, Jenn -- wait here.”

I waited for the others to leave first, then I got out with Miss LaPierre taking my arm.

“Can I say how well you are in front of people? I could never do what you do every night,” she said. Tracy took my other arm saying, “Hey there guys?”

“Hey Trace ... do you know Brigitte?”

“We have never spoken to one another. Are you from Greece? Your accent sounds familiar.”

“I was born in France but went to school in Greece until our family moved here two years ago,” she said to Tracy.

I had never heard her talk so much to someone before. Maybe they could be friends?

“I need to get some goodies for my fiancée, excuse me ladies?” I said leaving them behind me.

After I got what I wanted, I saw them walking together arm in arm looking around. You never know, do you?

I got back on the bus, handing my girl the bag of stuff I got. I went to the buses’ bathroom, knocked and heard, “We will be out in a minute.” That was Genny Schraeder ... We?
‘
After a few minutes, Genny, then Mike Bell came out hand in hand. He had an amazing smile on his face. I wonder what they just did. I needed to pee.

I got out, walking by them, with her face smooshed against his. Two LDS teenagers, making out in the bathroom ... Wow! She’s older and taller than him. Their kids would be quite good looking, and hopefully musically inclined.

I joined up with my girl, and Peter yelled, “WE LEAVE IN FIVE ... COME ON.”

His wife, with her flaming red hair, gave him a fantastic looking kiss, as the kids were coming back on board. “Get a room,” some of them said as they were going to sit down.

Stuart and Princess sat in front of us. She turned around and said, “What is there to do in Minneapolis when we get there?”

“Annabelle, don’t bother them, I can look it up for you.”

“Isn’t he just the best ever?” she said to me.

“I wouldn’t know,” was my smarmy answer.

I heard a slap, and she giggled. He must have slapped her on the butt to get her to turn around.

Without turning around, he asked me, “Where are we performing, Boss?”

“They have a Target Center of their own ... it holds 19,200 people,” I answered.

“Michael,” Jennifer said after tugging on a piece of jerky, “How much have we made so far?”

“Yeah,” I heard from in front of us, “I was wondering about that myself.” That was Joan Prefontayne. I excused myself from Jennifer and got up going to the front of the bus.

“Hey everyone, I have been asked how much you have made so far. Do you all want to know this?”

“Hell yeah,” said Peter driving, glancing over at me for a split second.

“We have had just over 80,000 people seeing us perform, so far.”

That generated a lot of discussion. I added, “Adding up the four checks we have received so far totals to about seven million dollars and each of you has earned about fifty thousand dollars.”

“That includes Paul, Cece, and Baby Andrew, each getting a half cut. If we keep getting full houses, and there is no reason to believe we won’t, means that over seven hundred thousand people will have seen us perform. To put that in perspective, that’s as many people as are in Fort Worth, Texas. Indianapolis has eight hundred and fifty thousand people.”

“Did you just say $50,000 each?” little Geena Prefontayne asked.

“Yes ma’am, you four, so far have earned almost $200,000 in total, the same as the Mitchell’s and the Newman’s. It is important to remember that you all must Federal and Indiana Tax on the money you earn!”

“So, there is an advantage to having siblings in the GSS?” Joe Abbott, one of the Viola players asked. “Does my brother Sam have a chance to get in?”

“At the auditions we have the first week of school, anybody not in the GSS, will have a chance for the six spots we have ... as long as they are ten or going to be ten this coming school year. When does Marcus turn ten, Mr. Abbott?”

“November, thanks for letting me ask about this. He can really sing.”

“That’s good. I need to sit down now ... It’s not safe for me to be standing while this bus is moving. Have fun.”

I got back to my girl, noticing Princess was asleep on Stuart’s lap. He smiled up at me.

I slid back underneath my girl, and she said, “You love to talk, don’t you?”

“Not as much as I like to fuck,” I whispered in her ear. Her response was giggling.

Third stop – 419 Miles
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis Target Center
(One Performance)

We pulled up to our hotel, clearly the biggest place we had stayed in before. I saw the arrow pointing to the fitness room, hot tub and pool, making me very happy.

Our four rotated to include Tracy again. She seemed very eager. After we dropped our stuff in the room, they all were hungry. The snacks apparently didn’t have any lasting effect, so we went down to the breakfast buffet that was still out.

Me, my redheads and Stu walked in to find several of the GSS already there. Jenn got us a table, and I would get her a plate of food. There was a guy there making omelets to order, but we weren’t fancy breakfast eaters when on the road. I got us some waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon, plus a nice selection of fruit.

After I sat down, Tracy was quick to get on my other side almost knocking the food out of Princess’ hand. If my sister wasn’t such a nice person, Tracy might have a black eye right now.

My attention was directed to Jennifer anyway. We were sharing food as we ate. Tracy and Princess talked as they were on either side of Stuart eating, leaving us alone.

After we were all done, I said, “Now what?”

“What is there to do?” Jenn asked.

“Do we want to find a place to sing?” Tracy asked.

“I’m kind of music’d out,” I said. “How about anything else?”

“So, Mr. Thomas, what’s on the docket today?” Stuart asked from across the table

“Anything you can suggest, Mr. Holland?” I asked right back to him.

“Have any of you ever gone roller-skating?” he asked.

“That gives me the image of people on stage with casts on either their arms or legs,” I retorted.

“Oh, come on Michael,” Princess said. “If Stuey thinks it’s fun, let’s try it. Unless, you are scared of putting roller skates on?”

The nearby GSS crowd all went, “Oooohhh!”

“Let’s go,” I said, after taking a few last bites of food. I was tired, but I needed to put on a stoid face.

Stuart told us of a place called the Roller Garden. We piled into some cabs and headed there. Apparently, word got around and the place had filled up with the GSS.

I had on roller skates for the first time in over five years. Mom had been worried about me hurting myself. Isabel is going to be eating her words.

Jennifer looked uneasy with skates on, but I kept a hold of her as we stepped on the glossy surfaced wood floor. She seemed a bit awkward.

SPLAT! She fell on her butt. I got her up and helped by rubbing her butt a little.

“That’s not helping, lover boy. Maybe, I can just watch for a while?”

I took her to the closest opening in the wall and set her down.

Charles came in, with his own skates. He was with Shirley. It appeared she was only going to watch him.

With Jenn watching, I caught up to Isabel. “Hey Sis, want to skate together?”

“What are you talking about, Michael?”

“Until my mother told me I couldn’t skate any more, I was the youngest member of the Indiana Chapter of the Roller-Skating Association of America. Would you like to dance with me?”

Stuart had handed them a copy of our FROZEN music to play, as I had asked him to. “Love Is An Open Door,” started playing and we skated together like we were meant to.

She used her newfound knowledge of dancing and showed off to everyone else as we did some side by side spins together. We got up to speed and I turned around going backwards and she backed up against me and we did some inline circles together. She was a feather in my arms. I was Charles to her Claire!

The music switched to my absolute favorite on the whole album ... CD; “In Summer.”

Charles took over the inner circle and was having all kinds of fun skating while his own voice was blasting over the speakers.

I let go of my partner, deciding to do my signature move from when I was nine years old. I went around the circle to pick up some speed, then I made sure no one was around me and I did a forward flip somersault landing perfectly. All the new and old redheads were watching and applauded.

I may have hurt one or both of my ankles, but I tried not to show it.

Princess skated up to me and said, “You are a faker, acting like you didn’t know how to roller skate.”

“I never said any such thing,” I said. “However,” I said speaking much quieter, “I have hurt myself; I believe I need a wheelchair, please? I’m done. Help me take my skates off, please?”

Jenn and Tracy each unlaced a shoe and pulled them off.

“Michael,” Tracy said, “You have really hurt yourself.”

“I’m OK, don’t worry about me,” I said.

“You just had to do that jump, didn’t you?” Princess said.

To make things even worse, someone had texted Mom, who was running over to me and said, “You were always a showoff, young man. This is exactly why you weren’t supposed to skate anymore.”

“Isabel practically dared me to do it!” I said back to her.

Here it comes, “I suppose if she asked you to jump off a cliff, you would do that as well?”

“If it was a lover’s leap, I would,” I answered tearing up a little. “I think; it hurts more ... then I first thought.”

“Can you walk?” Tracy said.

“Maybe, If I could have a couple of pretty redheads holding me up,” I said. Always the scoundrel!

“All right,” Jennifer said. “Hold your hormones, Michael. We all have to check our skates in first.”

Back at the hotel room, Jenn, Princess, and Tracy along with Stuart helped me get on the bed. I hadn’t broken anything, but it hurt ... like hell!

Jenn got out the Mineral Ice.

While we had been waiting, Tracy and Jennifer were massaging my ankles from my knee to the bottom of my feet. That greatly reduced the initial discomfort. The application of the Mineral Ice made me tingle, but in a good way.

“That is very cool,” Stuart said.

My phone rang.

Tracy handed it to me, “Hey Mom, everything is just fine. I’m already feeling better.”

“Do I even want to know what song you have as a ringer for me?”

“It’s Paul Simon’s ‘Mother and Child Reunion,’ Janice ... it seems appropriate.”

“It’s really good to hear that you are doing OK. Take care of yourself. I’m sure you are surrounded by those who love you.”

“Completely, except you aren’t here, why is that?”

“Don’t start with me, young man. Will you be OK for tomorrow night?”

“It would take a whole lot more than some sore ankles to knock me off my feet, mother.”

“Wonderful, see you when I see you honey,” she said.

“I have got the very best mom in the world,” I announced to the room.

“It doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty hot too,” Stuart said out loud.

“Stuey,” Isabel practically whined. “She’s not prettier than me, is she?”

“Nobody is prettier than you Annabelle,” he was quick to answer.

“It seems that Stuart is drinking the same Kool-Aid Michael uses,” Tracy said.

With an odd look on her face, I said, “I will explain what that means later, Annabelle.”

Now grimacing, I said, “Jennifer, the pain is coming back and getting stronger again ... do we have any pills just for that?”

“Oh, I have some pills for pain,” Tracy responded. “I can even cut one in half if you need me to.”

“What is it?” Jenn asked.

“It’s called Tramadol, I have it because I sometimes have really painful periods. It’s safe,” she assured me. “It’s only 100mg, Jenn!”

“OK, cut one in half, would you please? I don’t want to go to sleep quite yet.”

She went in her purse and got out a pill showing it to me, then she cut it in half with a fancy device.

Princess got up to get me a glass of water from the bathroom. These fabulous ladies all treat me so well. I took the pill and it did help me relax without falling asleep.

****

My phone woke me up, “Yeah this is Michael, who’s this?”

“Jeff Bell, Boss ... I was just wondering, since the “Hello” number is so well received, could we do another number from THE BOOK OF MORMON musical?”

“Like, which one?” I said cleaning the gunk from my eyes.

“Well, a few of them are too ‘out there’ for the general public, but a few are quite humorous and/or written to make you think.”

“I have listened to the whole show, musically speaking. Which ones do you like the most?” I asked, seeing Princess and Stuart making out on the other bed. She was on top of him, they were both dressed.

“Besides ‘Hello,’ I think ‘I’m Here For You” and ‘Baptize Me,’ could be quite evocative without being too preachy.”

“I also like ‘I Believe’ a lot,” I said to him.

“My folks and I have actually seen the show on Broadway. Dad laughed while Mom was a little uncomfortable during a few of the songs. Ask Mike, he was there?”

“Let me listen to them again, then I will get back to you, OK? Do you have one you would like to sing?”

“That’s up to you, Boss. Any of those would be a blast.”

“Your father would be proud of you, right now,” I said. “That’s more progressive than I thought members of the church would be to a show that mocks your faith.”

“My dad doesn’t feel that way. He thinks it’s causing people to ask more about the church. The number of new converts seems to prove it.”

“Maybe, we could generate a mini-set like we did with FROZEN,” I thought out loud.

“That’s a great idea, Boss. Could we do it before I leave school and the GSS?”

“You mean add it to this tour?” I responded, starting to feel a bit woozy!

“If it’s not too much trouble. Why not?”

“I like your attitude Mr. Bell. I will see what I can do. Give me a few days. We would need to take part of one of our days off to teach this to everyone, you understand?”

“I will pray for you to do all you can, Michael. You have the spirit of love inside you.”

“I don’t know about all of that, Mr. Bell. Talk to you later.”

I immediately downloaded the whole show and began to listen to it more closely. I’m coming up on 300 musical scores.

After completely listening to it, I texted all the gentlemen who were in “Hello” plus pretty Sofia Moore, a twelve-year-old black girl with a clear voice.

With a hitch in my getalong, I went with Jennifer downstairs to the computer center. I printed from my laptop, sheet music for me and only lyrics for these guys to learn. On my way out, Princess came up with a wheelchair for me saying all she needed to do was flirt a little to get it.

I asked if there was a place in the hotel for us to practice a few musical numbers. They were quite cooperative, and I texted to the same people where to meet. Everyone who was in our room had followed us to find out what I was up to. When Stuart heard my request for a place to practice, he ran somewhere by himself.

I heard him coming through the Conference Room door with one of my synthesizers. I assumed I was going to get a piano from somewhere, but the guys showed up with Peter bringing in a keyboard from the bus and helping him set me up.

There were some chairs for the non-singers to sit on, as I got up to speak to my singers.

“Hey, you guys ... thanks for coming so quickly. I had a fabulous idea given to me by Jeff Bell. We ... meaning you, are going to learn some more music from THE BOOK OF MORMON.”

They all loved the idea, and I added, “There is a song about being baptized. That is why I asked Miss Moore to join us. She gets to sing a song with Charles King.”

I had Princess and Tracy hand out the lyrics I had printed and copied.

“Don’t worry, we will be changing a few lyrics to keep the crowd from calling all of us racist, but the music is really great and I expect everyone to give this the best you can. Let’s start with singing “Hello” to get the juices going. We didn’t sing it at the last concert.”

“By the way, Jeff. You’ll be singing ‘I Believe,’ all by yourself a little later.”

He gave himself a fist, then settled down. It was the song he wanted to sing, I could tell...

Hello! My name is Elder Price
And I would like to share with you
this most amazing book

Hello! My name is Elder Green
I would like to share with
you this book of Jesus Christ

I have fallen in love with this little piece of music, and when Charles becomes Elder Cunningham, it really rings true to me.

I had reworked the end for them with some tight harmony to sing. Even just with the synthesizer alone, this number really rocks, in a semi-inspirational sort of way.

I carefully stood up and started the applause for them. Behind me, the crowd really enjoyed it. I turned around to find many more people in the room. Word sure gets around quickly.

After the sound dwindled, I played my phone to let them hear how the song “Two By Two” sounded, while they looked over the lyrics at the same time.

“Michael, I can get the complete score for you if you want?” Jeff said from behind me. “How many copies do you need?”

“Sixty,” I said without turning around. “Hear that guys, in less than a week we will be performing these numbers with the entire GSS orchestra!”

There was another big round of applause, both in front and behind me. Mike and Genny were cheering together.

“OK, playing the same parts as before, this number is called “Two By Two...”

(SPOKEN)
Do you have any idea where they’re sending you, Elder Price?
Well, of course we don’t really have final say over where we get sent, but I have been praying to be sent to my favorite place in the whole world.
Well, if you prayed for a location, I’m sure Heavenly Father will make it happen. You’re like the smartest, best, most deserving elder the center’s ever seen.
Aw, c’mon, you guys.{br}