Chapter 2

The next morning I grabbed a breakfast sandwich from the freezer and nuked it as my parents fussed over me. My dad made sure I had the auto club and credit card, and that I could call them if I needed anything.

“And remember, when you get there go right to your Aunt Becky’s store. If it is after 7, call her and go to her house.”

I rolled my eyes and said “Yes, dad. And on Monday morning to go to the University and get my room assignment. And to not pester them at all.” He nodded, and after walking me to my car he and mom both hugged me. Finally, I was free!

I drove down the hill towards the bottom, another thing I would never miss. It had become my job to use the tractor with the snow plow to clear the thing in the winter. And helping dad with the pressure washier in the spring to wash off the sand and salt. I was already loving that in LA, there was no snow!

And my mom must have called down, as at the bottom of the hill was almost everybody. My brother, his wife, and their kids outside of their house. Aunt Kim, Uncle Jeff, Grace, Joshua, Larry, Francis, and Nancy. And of course her parents.

I pretended to smile and wave at them as I drove to the highway, then made a turn and it was finally behind me. It was six in the morning, so I figured I should get to LA by six in the evening.

Overall I made good time, only stopping to piss, eat, and get gas. And as most of the area was desolate, I was pushing 70 or more for most of the trip. And I was even wondering what it would be like when I got there.

To be honest, I was a bit nervous. As much as I tried to talk about being worldly as I was from LA, I had never really done more than visit there since I was a kid. One of the first trips I took there in ages was when I was 10, and Pete and Mandy flew me down on their first airplane. It was exciting, and from the airport we first stayed with her mom, then went to see the cool things. Disneyland, the beach, Knott’s Berry Farm, and lots of cool things. And it was so big!

I had distant memories, but this I remembered. How there were lights all over, and even late at night there were things going on. Want to go shopping, a dozen malls within a half-hour drive. More movie screens in some theaters than within a hundred miles of where I lived combined. And all the people.

I think I knew everybody in Pocatello and the surrounding area on a first name basis. But there, there were people that were amazing. Grunge, rockers, and some I could not even begin to describe. None in boots and hats, but doing their own thing. Back home, almost everybody even dressed the same.

We took the train to Long Beach one day, and there were guys in suits next to guys that looked like they just left some concert. Long hair and plaid flannel clashing with the tailored suits. Tank tops and shorts on some girls, business skirts and pant suits on others. Two worlds colliding on the same train.

I arrived at just after five, and realized that one thing would take me some time to get used to, the traffic. I had arrived in LA at three, it took two hours just to get from the pass outside of Riverside to here. But I was able to find Aunt Becky’s music shop, and she ran and gave me a huge hug when I walked in.

Aunt Becky was a slightly matronly lady, with glasses and a nice figure if just a little heavy. She gave me a big hug, and asked me how the trip was, and giving directions to everybody in the place before getting in her car and telling me to follow her home.

And when I got there we walked inside, and of course it was more of the same. I liked Taylor also, but for some reason never called him “Uncle Taylor”. And of course I met Patricia and Clarice again. Patty was five, and was cute. Clarice was four and I could barely understand her but they both seemed glad to see me.

And of course, an hour later came a knock I expected. Aunt Linda came in with Sherry, and as soon as she dropped her hand so she could play with the other two girls and came and gave me a big hug. Her and Becky talked about how I had grown, and talking about how much bigger I was than they remembered. Of course, that was not hard as neither one of them was much over five feet tall while I was 5’10”. And after some prompting she got Sherry away from Becky’s kids and she shyly gave me a hug. Telling her I was her “Cousin George”.

We all had dinner together, and after showing me to my room Aunt Becky pointed out the four boxes on the floor. Awesome, a new computer. It even had one of the new LCD displays, not an old tube type like I always had at home. Becky asked me if I had everything with me, and I grinned and nodded.

And I promised we could get together on occasion to play. And she smiled when I said I had brought everything to hook my keyboard up to the computer. When she asked me what I used, she actually laughed when I told her I used a Casio PSR-500m and a Roland G-600 now.

“Wow, you still use that Casio? I remember when your brother picked that up, and one for your sister. You must have been what, 10? You still use it?”

“Well, since it is MIDI it can do most of what I want. I use the Roland now as my main board, I picked that up last year in trade for an old snowmobile I had. It’s a better keyboard, the Casio is now more of a secondary if I need more than one.”

We talked keyboards for most of the night, and she said I should come by the shop to see something she had picked up. And as the next day was Saturday, I might want to join them for their “Weekly Party”. And it sounded pretty good. A band, food trucks in the parking lot, and I could see what was new in music and equipment.

It took a while to get to sleep, as there always seemed to be a background nose. And I loved it! Not the dead silence of Hicksberg, this was a real city! Almost 10 million people, all doing things.

The next morning I slept in a bit, then waved to Aunt Linda as I got into my car and drove to New Dawn. And she was not kidding! There were around fifty people around, and three trucks selling food. And three guys and a girl playing on a bandstand that had been built on the side of the store. Becky introduced me to everybody, and I ended up falling in love. Twice.

The first was when I met “Uncle Mike” again, and at least he offered to shake my hand instead of giving me a hug. But I did not mind the hug from his wife “Aunt Peggy” was still a babe. Then I was introduced to Kristen.

And she was playing with the second thing I fell in love with. A Roland XV-88 synth. Kristen was wearing a pair of tight jeans and a pink blouse, and was playing a great rendition of “With Arms Wide Open”. Even singing as she played, transposing the genders in the song where appropriate. And I could appreciate her tight little body, looking like a bit stockier version of her mother. But a good stocky, as her mom was willowy thin. She was a bit more like her father in that aspect, not unlike Grace but better but together.

But she smiled when I was introduced her her as “Cousin George”. I had seen her before, but it had been years as my brother rarely met with Peggy’s family. In fact, I had seen Mike most often as we always came by to see Becky on every trip. So Mike was known to me, but seeing Peggy then Kristen again was something special.

However, she showed me the synth, and it was incredible. This was a true professional synth, and I whistled at the price. $3,800! Of course, it had other things added to the expansion ports built in. But still, that was a staggering price.

She then started to sing “Maria”, a song by Blondie from a few years ago and she had almost as much vocal range as Deborah Harry. Not quite as deep, but still impressive. And when she finished I asked if I could take a turn. The adults left us as I started playing with the banks. And hitting one I liked, I started Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down. And I smiled to myself as out of the corner of my eye she seemed to be as taken with my playing as I was with hers. And after that I played with the banks a few minutes, and started in on “My Way”, by Limp Bizkit. I was just finishing when I saw her rush off to the front of the store. I will admit I did check out her ass as she ran there, and was just finishing when I saw why she had gone to the front.

Uncle Keith was grinning, and he gave me a hug and welcomed me to LA. Of course, I should not have been surprised that Kristen knew him, and I think it surprised her that I did also. We spent the next hour messing around, and Kristen I even smiled when she moved a used DX7 over next to me and we did a few songs with Keith singing.

The last one when I did the drum and bass parts for “Dream On” as Kristen played lead and Keith sang. Now granted that was a song made long before we were born, but it could be placed right next to anything Aerosmith was still putting out even today.

Once we finished Keith gave each of us a hand slap, and we went out to watch the band playing. They were not bad, but nothing special. We started talking about types of music, and Keith said that first and foremost he would always be a rocker. I was not surprised when Kristen said she was mostly into playing oldies and pop songs. Not a surprise, since that was what her mom mostly did. And although like her mom she also played flute and sax, keyboards were her first love.

Me, I admitted mostly grunge and post-grunge. I laughed and nodded with Keith when he called it “Angry white boy music”, and Kris agreed with him. I said I could do others, that was just the style that I liked the best. And the kinds of things I did for a while in a garage band I was in back in school. But we never went anywhere, not even any decent gigs so we ended it even before school ended. Keith admitted that mostly he was making a living as a studio musician.

“It is not bad, and I get paid to play. But it is not what I want to play, what they tell me to play. But it pays the rent and child support, so that’s enough for me.” After a bit Kris had to take off, so Keith and I went to the far side of the parking lot. And giving me a wink he opened his wallet and pulled out a joint. So the two of us toked up a bit and talked about music.

And when we were done we went back into the store where I again smiled when I saw Kris. And for the first time, I realized that having so many “cousins” was not necessarily a bad thing. Especially when one looked like her. But most were even younger than Grace. But Kris, that was one cousin I realized that I would like to become “kissing cousins” with. Even if only in my dreams.

On Monday though, it was time for my vacation to end. I went to Cal State Northridge and checked in and did the in-processing things. Then with a grin I got my key and headed to the dorm. And it was not bad, certainly much better than I would have had if I had joined the military like my dad wanted.

I had a room that was smaller than mine back home, and I shared it with only one other guy. Not the forty guys to a room I was sure that the military lived. There I met Chet my roommate, and Mike and Josh, the guys in the room that we shared the bathroom and a common room with. And in it a TV, couch, and a chair. Also a dining table, that I imagined would come in handy for studying.

Chet helped me bring up my things, and after getting them in our room I headed back to Beckie’s to get the last of my things. Turns out that Chet was a Computer Sciences major, and he was actually impressed when I unboxed my computer.

And even I was a bit impressed. A Gem “Becky Special” as my brother called them. A dark midnight blue case, with an Athlon 2200 CPU, ATI Radeon 9700 video card, eight gigabytes of RAM, and two 80 megabyte hard drives. Along with a DVD-CDRW, 20 inch LCD display, and all the connectors to hook it up to my keyboards. Soon it was all hooked up, and he said that he did not know that Gem made blue ones.

I said that they were an exclusive deal with a music store in the area, and that is where this one came from. “Ah, so that makes sense. I guess you use it for music mostly?”

“Well, music, games, and other things. The gal that owns the music store is kind of like my aunt, so she and my brother got it together as a graduation gift for me.” Of course, the last thing I wanted to mention is who my brother was.

Chet showed me around the campus and we talked about our background. He was a local, from down in Huntington Beach actually. I said I had been born over in Van Nuys, but moved to Idaho when I was a kid. Then he teased me of all things about my “butt-ugly car”.

Now granted, the Aztek was not my first choice. But it was a gift, and even I liked the fact that it came with the tent so I could use it for camping. While not as crazy about it as my brother was, I did appreciate doing it on occasion. And my last girlfriend even said she appreciated that it came with an air mattress. Which I would inflate so we could make out and use our hands to make each other happy But Trudy was already a memory, that had only lasted for about two months, she stayed in Pocatello and was going to Idaho State.

Well, the fact that it had a tent did impress him, and he said that would come in handy at beach and tailgate parties. And when we talked about family, his dad worked at one of the aerospace companies in the area while his mom was a pharmacist assistant. I said the truth, that my dad had recently retired as a RADAR technician, while my mom was a freelance writer for magazines.

I had the next week off, so mostly drove around to get familiar with the area again. I remembered enough and from visits to find my old house. The house was still owned by the family, but it was now owned by a couple that used to work for my brother. I drove by, and almost felt like going and asking to look inside. But I also saw it looked, different than I remembered as a kid. The garage was now connected to the main house, and it looked like there was a patio on the roof. I decided to drive over to see Keith.

He was living in this little house in Encino. It was near the LA River, and was a tiny two bedroom place. But it had a garage, and as soon as I knocked on the door we headed back to the garage. I grinned, and soon we were jamming away. And it seems that the next week he was actually working with Steve Harwell! I asked him if he could get him to autograph one of my CD’s, and he laughed and shook his head.

“Sorry kid, no can do. This is a straight studio gig. But tell you what, next time Smash Mouth plays here in town I will get us some backstage passes. He’s cool and all, but when he is in the studio he is a no bullshit kind of guy.”

He then told me he was doing a small concert with some friends at a park that weekend, and I was welcome to go. I said I would be there, and we chatted a bit more and he gave me a couple of joints before I headed back to the dorm.

That week I started my classes, and so far it was not real different than High School. Other than instead of the same classes each day, I would have one for two hours twice a week, and maybe another for one hour four days a week. The schedule was crazy, and I knew I would be needing to look at it for weeks until I got it down. I wondered how they even made the schedules before computers.

And on Saturday night I drove to the park up in the Mojave Desert about an hour away. It was a nice enough drive, and I got there just as they were setting up. Keith introduced me to everybody, and some were surprised when I pitched in and started helping them get everything set up. This was not the same group he played with at my brother’s events though, I knew none of them. Most of them were older, about his age. But the bass player was a really cute girl with strawberry blonde hair and a fantastic figure.

Once all the equipment was set up we went to the old box truck they hauled their equipment in and Keith handed me a beer as we chilled out. The drummer asked who I was, and he said I was the younger brother of one of his old High School buddies. “And don’t let that fool you any. Pete ain’t got a musical bone in his body, but his little brother here got all the talent for that and more from his mom. He is a great keyboardist. And if Janice here ever bailed, I would try to get him to take her place.”

“Fat chance, asshole!” Janice said and tossed her empty can at him as we all laughed. Of course, she was also the girlfriend of the other guitarist so I imagined if that happened, it would mean the band was likely dead. I remember he said they were “The Crutknackers”, and asked him where that came from. And oh boy, I had no idea!

The bass player who was named Crystal laughed, and said it was pun on a band Keith had been in before. That was “The Nutcrackers”, and when it broke up he tried to keep using the name as he was lead guitarist and singer. And as they had already ordered some shirts for a concert they were about to do when two of the other members threatened to sue him, Keith thought fast.

The bass player giggled when she said he had simply changed the spelling from “Nutcrackers” to “Crutknackers”, and even got the company making the t-shirts to make them all over again saying they had made the mistake. I laughed along with the rest of them. And it was a cool name, as well as a cool way to stick it to the man.

I hung out as they did their concert, and even Janice had no problem when Keith called me up to take the keyboards for a few songs. And I could tell I even impressed her. And not only that, but I could actually read music. When Keith said they were doing a Meat Loaf song when I took the keyboard, I saw the score book on the keyboard and flipped through it. Sure enough, “I Would Do Anything for Love” was in there so I was able to follow along good enough. And it helped that I knew the original, and Keith’s score was nothing radical from the Steinman original.

Even the bass player seemed impressed, which I was glad for because she was hot. When the concert was done I saw her and Janice at a table they had set up selling CDs and shirts, and I chatted her up when it got slow, then as we all broke it down and started to put everything back in the truck. I was noticing that Crystal was looking at me a few times through the corner of my eye.

And once we were all ready to head home, Keith gave me a big hug and thanked me for coming. And even Crystal gave me a wave before she climbed in the truck with Keith and they drove off.

As I drove back to the dorm, now I was pondering that I had two hot girls I was interested in. I would have to make sure that next Saturday I was at Becky’s shop, as Kris had mentioned to me she was there each weekend. And for Crystal, I would have to see what Keith would tell me about her.

And Keith was cool, so unlike my dad or brother. When I mentioned as we were pitting the things in the truck after the concert that I needed a supplier since I was new in the area, he actually handed me two joints. And let me take the final five beers that were in the cooler. I stuck the beers in my jacket when I went to my room and handed one to my roomie when I got upstairs and told him about the concert. And he headed out to spend some time at the Student Union, so I plugged in my headphones and with a copy of Keith’s score that he had given me I started going through their playlist.

And even though most were older songs, I did know most of them already. And I was glad that he was one of those rare guitarists that could actually read and write music. And he was really good, which I noticed when I read that some he had also transposed the genders in, as Kris had done the week before.

I had even chuckled when Keith had actually taken the lead in singing “Like a Virgin” earlier in the night, vamping it up as he sang. Which was different, as I had actually been expecting the Weird Al version when they started the song. Then a bit later when they had done an old Cyndi Lauper song. With Crystal singing in a high voice with Janice that “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, with the guys almost immediately responding by saying “And boys just wanna have sex!” And sometimes doing things like licking his lips, and making eyes at Crystal and Janice as he would occasionally throw in some other line.

Then towards the end the guys and gals almost having what seemed like a musical argument on the stage. With the girls first saying their line, then the guys saying theirs.