Chapter 46: Trust in Me (The Python’s Song)

Labatt’s Guest House, London, Ontario
8:14am, Friday, January 4, 1980

“Ha! I can’t believe that me and Lynette beat you at mini-golf last night, Cuda,” Shannon laughed as we huddled around the kitchen island in the guest house at the Labatt’s property. We had about twenty-five friends, who went to Red Lobster for dinner and then over to Fleetway-40 to bowl and play a round of indoor mini-golf.

“Well, it was kinda hard to hit good putts when you were either jigglin’ your boobs in my line of sight or rubbin’ your putter’s handle up the inside of my legs,” I replied before I washed down my chocolate chip muffin with some coffee.

“All’s fair when it comes to putt-putt, Cuda,” Lynette chuckled from across the kitchen island.

“All’s fair with other things, too,” I countered and gave my soulmate a small wink. Lynette blew me an ‘air-kiss’ in return.

“Ohhhh!” Sammy and Eda laughed as Lisa gave my left shoulder a small smack.

“Hey! Guys!” Cathy said as she and the rest of the Shania Twain Band, along with their five parents, Tom and Bertha McGregory, Mr. and Mrs. Deetson and Mrs. Twain, walked into the guest house.

“Oh! Timmy’s muffins and coffee. Awesome!” Paul said as he pulled the door shut after his bandmates and their parents scurried in out of the cold. (Tim Horton’s muffins and coffee)

“Yeah. Daddy made a Timmy run for us,” Sammy said as she saluted the STB folks with a raise paper-cup of Tim’s coffee.

“Yeah! Thanks again, Mr. L,” Wayne added before downing the last of his second carrot-cream filled muffin.

“Don’t thank me. All I did was pick up five dozen muffins and two large carafes of coffee as I used one of your Time Bandette credit cards to pay for all this,” Mr. Labatt laughed from his spot at the dining room table.

“Speaking of Time Bandette credit cards, don’t you have a belated birthday present for Ms. Eda, William?” Katie sweetly asked her husband.

As Mr. Labatt dug into the front pocket of his tailored business suite’s trousers, he smiled over at Eda and motioned for her to come over to the table. E bounced over to Sammy’s parents and clapped her hands in glee as Mr. Labatt held up a ‘purple and silver’ colored Time Bandettes’ credit card in his right hand. Sammy’s dad then said, “I’ve been meaning to give this to you since your sixteenth birthday, Eda, but it seems like every time I’ve seen you, something else has been going on in our lives. So, uh, ‘happy-a-little-birthday.’”

“Thanks, Mr. L, Ms. Katie,” Eda replied as she took the small credit card in her fingers and turned it around a few times.

“Because I kept on forgetting to give it to you, Eda, here’s a little something to make up for my faux-pau,” Mr. L added as he held a crisp, brown, one-hundred dollar bill between his left index and middle finger.

“Thanks, but you don’t have to do that, Mr. L,” Eda quickly replied, as well as taking a step back from him without taking that ‘C-note’.

“Eda,” Mr. Labatt said in his ‘no-bull’ businessman’s voice.

E immediately stepped back up to him and reached out to snag that bill from his proffered fingers. With another nod of thanks from our grinning drummer girl, Mr. Labatt simply said, “You’re welcome, Ms. Eda.”

The twenty teenagers and seven adults made quick work of those sixty muffins, carafes of coffees and a few teas as we talked and laughed about last night’s bowling and mini-golf, or today’s concert. After taking a drink order from my girls, Sammy, Gary and I walked over to get the Cokes, Sprites and a Diet Coke from the fridge.

It was a good thing that no one had a coffee, tea or those pops at their mouths when Bertha ‘not-so-innocently’ asked, “So, Mikey, do you have any more shocking surprises in store for tonight besides those ‘glittery nipples‘, ‘drippin’ pussies‘ or your guitar’s neck between the girls’ naked legs?”

“Mother!“ “Mom!“ Cathy and Paul cried out in embarrassment as the rest of the parents burst out in laughter at my second mom’s inquiry.

“What? You were the ones doing that crazy junk up on the stage?” Bertha asked with a monstrous grin on her forty-five-year-old face.

“You just wanna see if teenage kids can have heart attacks, don’t you, Bertha?” Sharon Twain chuckled from across the dining room table where the adults were congregated. Bertha simply smiled and winked at Shania’s mom, and Steve’s parents, Betty and Patrick.

Looking over my shoulder from the loveseat at the snickering adults, I calmly said, “We may have a few more surprises in our bag of tricks, tonight ... seeing how ‘you‘ were partly responsible for having us perform naked up on stage.”

“That’s right! Your name ‘was mentioned‘ in the NIS program guidelines. It was there along with your guys’ VP, Mr. Williamson in the material that was mailed to our house after Christmas time!” Lisa exclaimed as she turned around on Zupena’s lap to look over at Paul’s and Cathy’s mom.

“I’m surprised you even read it, Lisa, seeing how you’ve probably heard everything there is to know about the Naked-in-School program from Mikey and your other Medway friends,” Bertha chuckled.

“Well, yeah ... I still wanted ‘ta read about what could happen on each day of the week ... you know with the various types of requests and touchings, and, uh, our teachers’ in-class lessons,” Lisa replied in a less excited tone.

“I’ve heard about some of the lessons and things that these guys did. I’m gonna dread my week in the program,” Eda added as she sat in Wayne’s lap on the leather sofa.

“You’ll be fine, E, Bricky,” Lynette confidently said.

“Yeah, Brick and Eda, you being naked on stage at this big concert and on national TV, you should no have any worries about being naked at school,” Zupena added as she patted Lisa’s right thigh. Lisa leaned towards Zupena and softly kissed her forehead. As my youngest and oldest girlfriend cuddled and kissed, I noticed Lisa’s right hand absent-mindedly moved to gently scratch the area under her large left breast.

“Are you girls really going to, uh, ‘bother’ Mike as he’s playing guitar on that Bad Company song?” Tom McGregory asked with a silly grin on his face. I loved how Bertha lightly patted her hand on his hand after he asked that ‘shit-disturbing’ question.

I wasn’t surprised when Shannon quickly and excitedly replied, “Oh! We’re gonna ‘bother‘ Cuda alright. Aren’t we girls?”

I immediately felt like Mowgli from the Jungle Book as my five man-hungry girlfriends started to act like Kaa, the python. Their beautiful eyes seemed to sparkle mesmerizingly like that snake’s spinning eyes to put me in a trance.

Paul saw my ‘oh shit’ look from his spot on the carpeted floor, and chuckled at my predicament. He then killed all of us by singing in the soft slithery lisp of Kaa:

“Trust in me ... Just in me.

Shut your eyes, and trust in me.“

Most of us just about died when Steve perfectly added, “Hold still, please,” as we all remember Kaa saying to Mowgli in that fantastic Disney movie.

Paul gave his bandmate a thumb’s up for that appropriate comment as he continued singing:

“You can sleep, safe and sound,

Knowing I ... am around.“

(Note: Trust in Me [The Python Song] was written in 1967 by Robert and Richard Sherman, two Disney songwriters for the wonderful movie, Jungle Book. The original version of this song was sung by Sterling Holloway, playing the part of Kaa, the python. Scarlett Johansson also sang this in a more recent movie. If you haven’t seen the original animated Jungle Book movie, I would highly suggest you do so.)

Everyone was laughing as Paul’s continued his perfect rendition of this Disney song. Lynette, Shannon and Tempe all moved like dancing snakes as they pretended to be hypnotizing me like the ‘man-cub’, Mowgli. I was definitely enjoying the entrancingly exquisite moves of my three potential devourers as my other friends were egging on these three girls. I played my part well and began to gently ‘wobble, sway, and fall asleep’ to their rhythmic body movements and arm actions.

Lynette, Shannon and Tempe were so into their spellbinding dance that they didn’t notice Mr. Labatt and Mr. Deetson sneaking around the dining room table. Both of men crept up behind the three girls with Mr. Labatt holding his fingers up at his mouth to keep the others there from notifying the ‘three pythons’ of their impeding presence.

Paul did a magnificent job in carrying out the drama as he continued with his ‘lispy’ singing:

“Slip into silent slumber,

Shut your eyes, and trust in me.“

Just as my three ‘hypnotic snakes’ were about to close in on my faux-slumbering body, Mr. Labatt and Deetson jumped at the three girls and wrapped them up in their arms with a loud, “Gotcha!” and “Ha!”

“Gawddd!“ “Jesus!“ Lynette screamed and Shannon bellowed while jumping out of their skin. Tempe loudly shrieked and collapsed in fright as my two ‘Shere Khan‘ Bengal Tigers came to my rescue ... just in the nick of time.

The whole guest house erupted in laughter as my three girls rolled around on the carpet between me and my two rescuers.

“Oh! My! God! I wish I had my video camera to capture all that!” Sammy laughed as she bounced on Gary’s lap in the recliner.

Mr. Labatt and Mr. Deetson got down on their knees to give the truly startled girls a little hug of support as they half groaned and half laughed at the all too true reenactment of that hypnotic scene from the Jungle Book.

“Oh, God. Oh, God ... I think I may have pa-peed my pants,” Shannon struggled to say after she pushed herself into a sitting position on the carpet.

“Shoot, I’m glad I have my bikini here as I’m definitely gonna have to change my britches,” Lynette huskily added as she rested her head on my knee.

“I’m sure you girls can steal a pair of Sammy’s panties, if you really need ‘um,” Katie laughed as the adults were all standing up at the dining room table to get a better look at the scene in the living room.

“You’re gonna need to bring three pairs over here, Sammy,” Tempe laughed as she held her hands against the crotch of her jeans. “You might need to bring over some sweat pants, too.”

“You didn’t, did you?” Lisa softly but incredulously asked as leaned forward in Zupena’s lap.

Tempe looked up at Brick and barely nodded as she rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up onto her knees. Lisa immediately pushed off of Zupi’s lap and moved to give her best friend a hug. Lisa then looked over to Sammy and then to Eda and calmly said, “Go, please.”

Those two girls scampered to their feet and immediately headed towards the front door to grab their ski-jackets. As they looked at my three girls, Shannon gave a little negative wave and said, “I’m good, really.” “Me, too,” Lynette quickly added.

“Oh! God! You mean I’m the only one? Oh! God!” Tempe laughingly whined as Lisa helped her to her feet.

“I’m sorry about scaring you like that, Tempe,” Mr. Deetson softly said as he moved to give Tempe a hug.

“No, no! That was awesome. I loved it ... really!” Tempe chuckled as she reached out to rub on Mr. Deetson’s arm.

“That was awesome, guys,” Brad laughed from the wing chair with Elizabeth sitting between his legs on the carpet.

“I love the Jungle Book, and you really did a killer Kaa, Paul,” Elizabeth said.

“Yeah, that’s one of my favorite Disney movies,” Cathy added as she reached over to her twin brother and shared a high-5 with him.

“And you two were wonderful Shere Khans,” Betty Deetson said as her husband and Mr. Labatt moved back over to the dining room table. Steve’s dad gave a little bow as some of my friends gave them a small round of applause for their literally scaring the pee out of Tempe, along with collapsing Shannon and Lynette into a puddle of goo.

Lisa led a still smiling Tempe down the hallway as everyone was cracking up at the playful performance. When Sammy and Eda came running back in the guest house with rolled up sweatpants in Sammy’s hands, Lynette pointed to the bedrooms and laughed, “Tempe is back there with Bricky.”

When Sammy called out, “Oh, Tinkle Bell, where are you?” everyone once again burst out laughing at our redhead’s humorous play on ‘Tinker Bell’.

An even larger roar followed Tempe’s laughing cry, “That’s not funny, Sammy!”

“Yes it is, Tinkle Bell!” Lisa roared from alongside her best friend.

When things finally settled down from our Jungle Book experience, Mr. Labatt said, “While I’m not sure what you kids have planned after you have a sound check down at the JLC, just remember you need to be back here by two-thirty, quarter to three at the latest. We’ve got four limos arranged to take us over to the Armories for our early dinner, and then we’ll be off to your grand show.”

“We’ll have time for Zupena to do our makeup at the JLC, won’t we, Mr. L?” Lynette asked.

“You should. I fully expect our early dinner to be done by five-o’clock and it’s just a hop, skip and a jump over to the JLC from the Armories,” Sammy’s dad replied with a smile.

“I can leave makeup supplies in limo, yes?” Zupena asked with a smile.

“If you have your supplies with you, Zupena, I’m sure you can leave them in these guys’ dressing room over at the JLC,” Ms. Katie replied. Zupena quickly nodded her head at Sammy’s mom to confirm she indeed had her makeup kit here with her.

Hearing about being at the JLC, I took a gander at my watch. With it being nine-forty-eight, I lightly tapped Tempe on her now sweatpants covered thigh and said, “I think it’s about time we get ourselves and our instruments over to the arena.”

“Can we swing by my place so I can get a new pair of jeans, please?” Tempe sweetly asked as she turned around in front of me to give me pull up off the sofa.

“I’m sure you can sweet talk Zupi into stopping by your place, B-G,” I replied as I gave my shortest and tallest girlfriends a little wink.

Nobody was in any hurry to get their winter gear on as we discussed who was riding with whom. The only semi-argument occurred when Steve tried to beg his dad into letting him drive their rental car down to the JLC. The elder Deetson won this argument by saying, “I’d let you, Steve but you’re just seventeen, and the rental agent at the airport said only those eighteen-plus were allowed to drive the car, sorry.”

“You four can ride with me, and I’ll drop you off at the arena if there’s not enough room for you with these guys,” Tom McGregory added as he zipped up his thermal lined, leather jacket.

“They can ride with me and E. I’ve got my mom’s Galaxy 500, so hitching a ride isn’t going to be a problem,” Wayne offered as we all maneuvered around near the front door until everyone seemed ready to venture out into the cold.

I was glad my girls didn’t pitch a fit when I said I was going ride with Sammy, Gary, Brad and Elizabeth in Sammy’s Bronco. With Zupena having to stop over at Tempe’s, I wanted to be with our equipment trailer to help as much as possible with getting our instruments into the JLC.

When Sammy pulled up to the Talbot Street loading bay area of the arena, she asked, “Do you feel good about backing the trailer into that docking area, Gary?”

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard to get this thing in there,” Gary replied with a smile.

Brad and I both opened the back doors when Sammy stopped with her four-way flashers on. I then added, “We’ll keep an eye on traffic for you, Gary.”

As Gary pulled back out onto Talbot to create some turning room for the trailer and Sammy’s Bronco, Brad and I stepped out onto the street and waved at the few cars to have them stop. With Brad doing most of the signaling for Gary as he backed the trailer into the loading area, we heard a shrilled, “Oh! My! God! That’s Mike and Sammy!”

When I turned towards the high-pitched shriek, I saw a somewhat familiar girl skipping down the sidewalk towards Sammy, Brad, Elizabeth and me. As she broke into a semi-run, I noticed a fairly large guy jogging behind the cute girl.

“Mike! Sammy! It’s me, Reena from Guelph Collegiate. We, I mean Frank and me, we just got here for your concert, and we decided to scope out the downtown area,” the bubbly brunette teen excitedly said as she approached us.

“Hey, Reena ... and you, too, Frank,” I replied as I rapidly switched my views between these Guelph students and the road as Gary nearly had the Bronco’s front end out of the roadway.

“Hey, guys. Glad you could make it. Where’s the rest of your crew?” Sammy asked as she moved to greet the two Guelph teens.

“They’ll be down here later on this afternoon, Sammy,” Frank replied as he came to a stop beside his cheerleader girlfriend.

“You’re good, Gary!” Brad yelled as Gary slowly backed in, and then stopped the trailer at the loading doors.

“You got all your instruments in the trailer?” Reena asked as we started to walk along the side of the Bronco to the rear of the trailer.

“Yeah. We, uh, we kinda have a few more things than the last time we played for you guys,” Sammy chuckled as she waited for Gary to bring her the keychain, which had the key to the trailer’s lock.

“You gonna need a hand with bringing all your instruments into the arena?” Frank asked as Sammy unlocked the rear door to our trailer.

“In this damn cold weather, we can use all the help we can get,” I laughed and did a little ‘jig’ to help keep the blood flowing in my legs. It didn’t take long for the cold biting wind to make me wish I had on a pair of long-johns under my blue jeans.

Thankfully, Devin had a full complement of guys waiting for us to make real quick work of getting our instruments from the trailer inside the JLC. By the time my girlfriends arrived at the loading bay, we had everything but Eda’s two bass drum cases set inside the arena.

When I handed Frank the last drum case, Reena excitedly said, “Hey, Lynette. It’s so-so good to see you again. And you, you must be Lisa? I’m Reena, and that big guy is my boyfriend, Frank. I’ve seen your pictures; Oh! Gawd! ... On the album jackets of No Fear! and in Maclean’s. You are so, so pretty!” Reena gave Lynette a hug and then moved to give my busty girlfriend a welcoming hand-shake, which Lisa easily bypassed to share a hug with the excitable teen.

“Hi, Reena. I, uh, it’s nice to meet you,” Lisa replied with an easy smile as the two girls hugged.

“Hey, Reena, Frank. I’m glad you guys could make it down for our concert,” Lynette happily replied as she waited for Frank to pass off the bass drum case to a JLC worker to give him a hug.

“Gawd! I’m so excited being here for your concert. Did you know we’re gonna be naked at the front of your stage?” Reena gleefully rambled as she bounced on the balls of her feet in an attempt to stay semi-warm.

“I heard that a few folks from your school were gonna be sans clothes, tonight ... just like us,” Lisa laughed as she too started to bounce up and down in the windy, frigid air.

“We’ll probably be right there beside you, Reena,” Shannon chuckled as she stepped up with Zupena and Tempe to the open loading bay doors.

“Oh! Hi! Shannon, isn’t it? And I remember you. You’re Zupena. And, uh, I’m going out on a limb here and guess that you must be Tempe, the gymnast,” Reena said as my non-bandmate girlfriends smiled at the cute brunette.

“You got our names right,” Shannon replied.

“The Maclean’s article about these guys helped me remember your names,” Reena chuckled.

“You guys wheel all their equipment out to the main stage,” we heard Devin shout as I closed and locked the door on our trailer. He then said, “Come on in out of the cold. Oh, can one of you guys move your trailer around to the main parking area. The people here will get in a snit, if you leave it and your Bronco here.”

“I can just drive it around and pull into the main lot off King?” Gary asked.

“You sure can. The security people there know that you’ll park it before heading out for your early dinner,” Devin replied from the open loading bay door. Once more, he said, “C’mon, guys. It’s too damn cold to be standing here in this mini-wind tunnel.”

“See ya in a sec, Gary,” Sammy said as she gave her boyfriend a quick peck on his lips.

“Want me to come with you, Gar?” Brad asked.

“Nah, I’m good,” Sammy’s boyfriend quickly replied before he started to walk towards the Bronco.

Once we were inside the JLC with the loading bay door locked, Devin said, “We’ve got Shania’s band all set to go, so we’ll do their sound check first, while you get your instruments set up, ‘kay?”

“Sounds good, Devin,” Lynette replied as we walked along the main concourse to the end of the arena where our massive stage was set up and waiting for us.

“Oh! My! God!” Lisa exclaimed as we walked into the main arena area and saw how ‘small’ our massive stage looked in the cavernous, ten-thousand-five-hundred seat, double-decker arena. “Wa-we’re gonna being playing in here?”

“You’ve never been inside here, Bricky?” Sammy asked our awestruck young bassist.

“Neither of us have,” Eda softly replied as she and her sister both did slow three-hundred-and-sixty turns to take in the recently opened, but empty home of the London Knights’ Junior A hockey team.

“Wow! That’s a freckin’ awesome looking stage,” Reena said as she and Frank walked past our two mesmerized bandmates to stare at our stage.

“You guys will be inside that curved walkway for the concert,” Sammy said as those two were pointing out different things about the stage to each other.

“The information you guys sent us with our tickets said we needed to be here between six and six-fifteen to get ‘ready’ and inside the walkway, right?” Frank asked as he hugged Reena to his muscular torso.

“Yes. We’d like everyone who’s going to be inside the walkway for the concert to be out of their clothes and ready by six-thirty,” Devin replied as we once more started to walk to the main stage area.

“You’re having robes for us to wear ‘till the concert starts, right?” Reena asked.

“Yes, Ma’am. We’ve got pretty some cool souvenir robes for the two-hundred-and-fifty kids who’ll be inside the walkway,” Devin replied. He added, “As you can see, there’s a series of baskets set up just inside the walkway that you kids can put your robes in before the concert starts. Nobody else but the kids with the special lanyards and whistles can get inside the walkway, and you’ll only be able to leave the inner area with one robe, too.”

“That is gonna be way cool,” Reena gushed before she and Frank veered off to the arena floor as the rest of us moved up on the stage to get our instruments set up.

The sound check for the Shania Twain Band went off without a hitch as my bandmates, my girlfriends and a few others helped get our instruments set up and positioned where we wanted them. As soon as Eda, Wayne, Brad and Elizabeth had her drum kit set up on the upper level of the stage, three of Devin’s and Phil’s crew got to work setting up the cameras, mini-spots and other pyro-technical toys around E’s massive D-W drum set. They already had those concert items in place for the two keyboard stations on the mid-level stage.

“Phil! Phil! Are those the flame-burner thingies?” Lisa called out to our lighting coordinator as she stood at the back of the main stage. Our bassist was transfixed on the hanging metal bars over the front of the main stage area and the curved walkway.

“Those are the burner thingies, Lisa. And yes, we have already tested them. The flames extinguish, or burn out after falling about three feet from the burners,” Phil calmly replied to our slightly fearful bassist. The series of burner bars were suspended at least twenty feet above the main stage and walkway, as well as being slightly higher over the elevated mid-level stage areas where Lynette’s and Sammy’s keyboard systems were stationed.

“Why don’t you have any of those burner bars over my drums and the Jazz Band location?” Eda asked as she stood beside her kit.

“We didn’t have enough clearance to safely put a burner bar over your drum kit, Eda. Besides, we figured with that one over Sammy’s keyboard system, that you’d be more than close enough to experience those flames,” Phil forcefully replied to the more comfortable sister.

“Yeah, I’ll sure I’ll have a good view of those flames from my throne,” E chuckled as she stared up at the burners over Sammy’s and Lynette’s keyboard areas.

From the control booth near the far hockey ‘blue-line’ area of the arena floor, we heard Wilson’s voice ask, “Do you have your mother’s violin there, Kalena? If so, can you do a sound check with it?”

“Give me a second,” Kalena replied.

My time-traveling daughter carefully set her own expensive Stradivarius into its holding stand in front of Lynette’s Yamaha keyboards before she picked her mom’s beautifully crafted instrument from Steve’s elevated platform. Kalena flipped the power switch on the wireless transmitter on her mom’s violin and then asked, “You ready for Momma’s violin, Wilson, Devin?”

“Bow it, Baby,” Wilson’s voice came over the speakers.

I was watching Reena’s and Frank’s facial expressions as Kalena skillfully played a wicked rendition of Charlie Daniel’s, The Devil Went Down to Georgia on this one of a kind violin. Both of our Guelph ‘friends’ were astonished at Toxic’s violin proficiency and her body movements as they stared slack-jawed up at beautiful blonde teen.

“That ... Oh! Wow! That was amazing!” Reena breathlessly exclaimed after Wilson told Kalena he had her mother’s violin mix adjusted correctly in his system.

“I like Momma’s violin ... almost as much as I like my own,” Kalena laughed after giving a little bow towards the applauding couple.

With all of Shania’s band sound checked, Wilson said, “Miss E, are you ready to give your kit a workout for me?”

“Tell me how you want it done, Wilson?” Eda replied as she kicked off her tennis shoes and pulled her white ankle socks off before parking her tail on her drum throne.

“Why don’t you start with the bass drums and work your way up your toms to start,” Wilson replied.

Our drummer girl then stomped on her deepest bass drum pedal a couple of times, causing a thunderous thump to resonate through the cavernous arena. With her other foot, she repeated the stomping action with her ‘higher-pitched’ bass drum. As a smile crept over her face, Eda then did a combination, syncopated double bass drum run, which I recognized as part of her ‘triangle-cowbell’ solo segment.

“Big to small Toms, please,” Wilson called, ending Eda’s mini bass solo. E uniformly rapped each of her seven Toms with similar force, so Wilson could properly set the sound levels for each of them.

“Good, your snare, Miss E?” Wilson asked. After Eda laid the lumber to her snare a few times, Wilson said, “That sounds a little ‘tingy’ to me. Can you tighten it up a pinch?”

“It was a little off, wasn’t it?” Eda replied as she used her right fingers to give the tensioners on her snare drum a small twist. “How’s it sound, now?” E asked after she struck her snare a few times and then waited for Wilson’s reply.

“Better. How ‘bout giving me half as much as you just did, Baby?” Wilson asked. After one more adjustment and testing, Wilson said, “Have at your drums, E.”

After ripping out a thirty second snare, Toms and bass drum sequence, Eda stopped and said, “Sounds good through my monitors.”

“Yuppers. Give me some cowbells and triangles, now.”

Eda worked with Wilson for another five minutes to get her cymbals calibrated to main speaker system and then let her have some fun with all her toys for a short play session. As Eda was finishing up her test drum solo, Wilson said, “Lisa-Baby, you ready to give your guitars a whirl for me?”

“Seeing how you asked me so sweetly, I suppose I can,” Lisa laughed after she stepped up to her wireless mic-stand.

“I would greatly appreciate that, Sugar,” Wilson said with a halfway decent southern accent.

It took another thirty minutes to finish sound-checking all our instruments. As I tested my twelve-string Ibanez acoustic guitar, Viktoriya walked out onto the stage with Ian and the rest of Medway’s Jazz Band members. She gave me a funny look as I strummed my guitar before she curled her fingers at me and said, “Give me. I tune for you.”

After two minutes of making minor adjustments to five of the guitar’s twelve strings, Viktoriya smiled and said, “Yes! Sweet sound from sweet instrument.”

“Thanks, Dr. K,” I said as I reclaimed my guitar from my time-traveling lover. I then looked back at the control booth and asked, “You good with this, Wilson, or do I need to play it again?”

“I got it when Viktoriya was adjusting its tone, Mike. We’re all done with the individual instruments, I think.” After conferring with Devin for a moment, Wilson said, “Why don’t you give me a run through of something so I can double check your vocals and instrument sound levels?”