Chapter 22

The applause was almost deafening.

I'd just finished Skin with Darlene and Kelly dancing around me, and the audience loved it, especially when Darlene pulled off her skincap and took her second bow.

"Thank you. Thank you," I said, and waited for the applause to die out. "You've been a great audience, and I wish the show could go on forever." Then I had to wait again for the applause. "The fireworks start in about ten minutes, so we'd like to finish with one last..."

"Tony!" someone whispered from the side of the stage. I looked over. Tami was holding up two fingers.

"Sorry," I told the audience. "Two last songs."

It had been a good day. No, a great day. I hadn't climbed out of Tami's arms and my sleeping bag until after nine and wasn't all that surprised to find out I was the first. I was surprised that Sally was the first girl out of the big tent.

"Good morning," I called as she stumbled toward the rest rooms. The others all appeared in the next ten minutes. I started breakfast, and Chad and Toby showed up from their tent in the next space before I was done.

"I see the girls have you well trained," Toby said with a grin as I stirred my scrambled eggs.

I grinned right back. "I'm traveling with six of the sexiest girls in Washington, only one of which is my sister. You're traveling with your sister and him." I pointed my spatula at Chad. "Want me to teach you to cook?"

The bright red color in his cheeks was all the answer I needed.

After breakfast we loaded up and headed back to Sheridan. Robbie had met a guy at last night's concert and arranged to borrow his warehouse, so by eleven we were practicing. We put in five hours with only a small break when Robbie sent me and Tami to Wendy's for burgers.

While we ate, Tami set-up her laptop to check e-mail or whatever. She was eating a burger with one hand and typing with the other when she choked. I'd been sitting between Sally and Robbie, talking about one song that we were having trouble with. I jumped to my feet, but before I could get to her, the choking turned to laughter.

"Stay!" she said as she saw me coming forward, holding her palm out to reinforce her command.

"What?"

"Robbie, I need your advice." She pointed at her laptop screen. "Do we tell him now and ruin his day, or wait till after the show?"

Ruin my day?

Robbie came around and read whatever was on the screen. She didn't laugh, but there was a sadistic feel to the grin on her face. "It would be better for the show to wait until later, but this is to good to keep. But first," she motioned Traci and Kelly over.

It took the two younger girls over a minute each to read what was on the screen. I knew from their big grins that it wasn't good. Traci walked over, leaned up on tip-toes, and kissed me on the cheek. "You're still my favorite brother."

I knew I was going to hate whatever it was.

"Can I read it to him? Please? Please? Pretty please?" Robbie begged, sounding like a five-year-old asking for candy.

Tami nodded.

"Do I need to sit down?" I asked.

"Maybe you'd better."

I sat, but before Robbie could start reading, Kelly came over and sat across my lap. The gentle way she sat down instead of her usual running jump made me wonder who'd died. But I knew Tami wouldn't be so callous about something like that.

"You don't have to tell me," I said. "I know already."

"You do?" Tami and Robbie asked together.

"Yep. Last night some bigwig from Virgin Records was in Otter Park, heard the Wizards play, and signed them to a hundred million dollar contract with a movie deal on the side."

"Close," Tami agreed.

"Close?" Kelly wiggled to get comfortable and I decided that a good lap-warmer was almost as good as a hundred million dollar contract. Almost. Mostly.

"Cousin Cinnamon e-mailed me."

"Why'd she e-mail you?" I asked.

"Probably cause she knew I was checking my e-mail and didn't know if you were. She sent me a link to an article in the Rocky Mountain News..."

"The Rocky Mountain News?" I interrupted. "Wynter's won the damned Nobel prize."

"Not for five or six years," Traci said from behind me. She laid her hands on my shoulders and started rubbing. "She's only thirteen."

Tami grinned, turned sideways, and held both hands out at Robbie as if presenting her.

Robbie put on a straight face, cleared her throat and started reading. "Dateline... we can skip that. This small mountain community was shocked not so much by a robbery attempt at the Community Schoolership Fund's concert at Otter Park as by the way it was foiled. Twelve-year-old Kenny Taylor, son of Doctor and Mrs. Kevin Taylor, offered himself as a hostage to save two classmates and their chaperone when Carl Garrett held a knife to Brinkly Ward's throat and demanded the proceeds from their donation table. Ward has been confined to a wheelchair for several years as a result of a condition related to ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

"Taylor was able to talk Garrett into leaving the table and other hostages on the pretext of robbing several other tables during the distraction caused by the surprise appearance of Tyrone Hayes at the concert. Taylor, with the help of sixteen-year-old Ron Lopez, son of a local policeman, then disarmed the robber when safely away from the crowd. Lopez, who has been instructing Taylor in karate, hapkido, and kung fu, said his star pupil was unranked but probably about the equivalent of a brown belt."

Karate? No wonder the little punk hadn't been afraid of me.

"Garrett was taken into custody," Robbie continued, still straight faced, "by police officers Bill Hlavacek and Evan Peters and off-duty State Patrolman W. T. "Red" Swingle, who said the suspect appeared to be high on one or more narcotics.

"This isn't Taylor's first opportunity to play hero. Last year he was instrumental in the capture of convicted cocaine dealer Juan de Ramirez y Sanchez, along with two kilos of cocaine. The year before, he was instrumental in the rescue of two friends from the Hargus Mine."

"Ward, a singer with Brink of Destruction was checked by paramedics and released after giving her statement."

Robbie finished and looked up. I realized every eye was on me, though Sally, Toby and Chad couldn't have a clue what was going on.

"Kenny is going to be so pissed that they called him a twelve-year-old," I said after a few seconds.

"Is that all you have to say?" Tami asked.

"Okay, I'm impressed. But I still ain't leaving him alone with my little sister."

A little after four we packed up again and headed east of town to the Polo Grounds. Personally, I refuse to believe that anyone in Wyoming had ever seen a polo match, let alone played one, but the Polo Grounds were where the big annual fourth-of-July celebration was held.

Several hundred cars were already there when we arrived. Families parked, barbequed, and played football, soccer and other things. Fortunately we were able to park near the stage, where a rock band was playing.

"These guys play till five," Tami explained. "Then there's another group from five-thirty to seventy-thirty. Then we've got the prime spot from eight until the fireworks."

"How'd we manage to get the prime spot?" Robbie asked with a wink to me.

"Well, I happened to mention our five state concert tour..."

I've really got to keep Tami away from Robbie.

With nothing to do until seven-thirty, we wandered the Polo Grounds. Robbie and I even managed to find a touch football game. She didn't get to tackle anything, but it helped. That and the practice.

At seven we barbequed steaks, then set up the band's equipment. At eight Traci started things off with Jailhouse Rock. There were maybe fifty people by the stage when we started, but by nine, the crowd had grown to several hundred. Robbie was doing Bridge Over Troubled Water when I noticed three guys setting up extra microphones in front of a stage. One of them came over to me and handed me a note. 'WE'RE BROADCASTING NOW, SO INTRODUCE THE GROUP.'

I handed the note to Tami. She shrugged innocently.

"I hope you at least got us royalties this time," I whispered as Robbie finished her song. I took a mike and walked out on stage. "That was Robbie Tate with Bridge Over Troubled Water," I said. I'd considered introducing her as Roberta, but I wanted to see my mom and dad at least once more before I died. "Her newest CD, Live from Otter Park is available now. And this is Unrehearsed. On the keyboards, Toby Reyes. On drums, his slammin' sister Sally. And the man on the strings, Chad Davis."

"Next up, we have Darlene Carter with I Will Always Love You."

The concert went great. By the time I finished Skin, we probably had a thousand people, easy, and who knew how big a radio audience. I finished my lead-in, then jogged off the stage. Traci walked out, said something to Toby, walked to the front of the stage, and sat down, her feet dangling over the edge.