Chapter 5: A Confrontation

Terry Smith, soon to be Terry Johnson, shared her siblings' brown hair, hers cut short, and blue eyes. She slotted neatly between Tony's six feet and Tina's 5'4", splitting the difference. The fact that they were siblings was instantly obvious to any observer.

"Thought I'd find you two out here," she said, getting her younger siblings' attention. Tony and Tina shot up, both eager for some news. "Mrs. Harris said I could tell you everything so here is what we know. Rebecca is almost certainly suffering from an infection related to her surgery. There are several that people get at hospitals and those that have invasive surgery are the most likely to get one. They aren't common, but they aren't unheard of either. We haven't isolated exactly what it is yet but the lab is working on it."

"The infection caused Rebecca to run a dangerously high fever," Terry continued, "and I mean really dangerous. It was over 104 when she first got here. She was seriously dehydrated as a result. Tony, don't let anyone tell you different, you did exactly the right thing bringing her here as fast as you did, OK? We can't be sure if you saved her life or avoided possible brain damage, but it was a near thing."

Tony nodded at his older sister and muttered, "OK"

"We put her in an ice bath and pumped a couple of IV's in her to stabilize her, her fever is down and her brain patterns are normal, she's out of shock. She's being moved to ICU now for observation until we get the lab results. After we know exactly what it is she'll get a pretty powerful antibiotic cocktail that should knock it out pretty quick. In a couple of days she'll be as good as new."

"Can we see her now?" Tony asked.

"No, she's not conscious. The doctors are keeping her that way to keep her rested. She probably won't be awake until sometime tomorrow morning. I suggest you just take it easy for a bit, go home. Especially you Tony, you look like crap."

"Gee thanks sis. I've had a bit of a rough morning in case you haven't heard."

"Tina?" Terry said, suspiciously. "Oh Tina?"

"Yes?" Tina replied with a bit of a giggle in her voice.

"I knew you two would like Rebecca and I'm glad you're concerned, she's a sweetheart and all that. But..."

"Yes?" Tina giggled again.

"Why does our brother look like that?"

"Huh? Like what?" Tina laughed again.

"Tina, you know what I mean. Like, like..."

"Ooooh, you mean like he's had a really bad day so far and his girlfriend is in Intensive Care? Like that you mean?"

Tony collapsed back into the chair he had been in, waiting for and receiving the expected verbal onslaught.

"GIRLFRIEND! TONY! You were just supposed to help the girl with her wheelchair NOT put the moves on her. What am I going to tell her mother? I TOLD her you were a nice..."

"Her mother already knows," said Marj Harris walking up to the trio. "Her mother saw them spend a couple of hours together on Sunday. I'd say I saw it coming, but it was already there. Relax, her mother approves."

"Besides," said Tina. "Tony wouldn't know how to 'put the moves' on a girl even if he had an instruction manual. Every girl he's gone out with had to chase him down and thwack him with a blunt object. I'll give you Rebecca's method may have been a bit overly dramatic, but it got the job done."

Tony closed his eyes and reached his hands out to Marjorie Harris. "Marj! Marj!" he said. "I hope this newfound knowledge of my affections for your daughter won't ruin this beautiful thing we have together!"

"TONY!" all three girls said together, then broke into laughter.

Tony stood up and really did gather Marj in a hug. "How are you doing Mrs. Harris? I know this has to be hard on you."

"I'm better now Tony. Thank you. Thank you so much for bringing Rebecca here like you did. I already thought very highly of you, you know. You're my hero now. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to Rebecca."

"I was just doing my best for her. I always will. I do believe I've become rather fond of your little girl Mrs. Harris."

Tony and Tina headed out to get some lunch. They dropped by the school so that Tina could inform Mrs. Finch of Rebecca's condition and grab her book satchel and wheelchair. Oddly, the wheelchair was missing. The office agreed to find it, insisting that it must have gotten moved to a closet to clear out the front office area. Tony had simply left it where it was when he picked up Rebecca.

Both teens were restless. They played a few songs together in the basement, tossing around song ideas for the band. Tony and the guys had played around just for fun for about a year now, but had never tried to play professionally. Little sister Tina had left them to it until about six weeks ago. When the guys came over to jam one afternoon in the late summer they found Tina's electronic keyboards and synthesizers set up in new racks right in the middle of their practice area. They had always used Tina's old practice drum set (from her percussion phase) for their informal jam sessions. Ten thousand dollars worth of Yamaha keyboard equipment now sat next to it along with a violin, two saxophones, and, for heavy-duty, all-out axe grinding, Tina's hot-pink Fender electric; affectionately named Pink Piggie. Tina had joined the band and everything changed.

Tony already knew that Tina was a force of nature. The boys in the band soon found that out as well. They simply couldn't resist the young musical prodigy. They had gone from just a garage-band jam session group into a fairly well rounded band almost overnight. Tina's keyboards and synthesizers added a dimension they never had before.

Dewayne Wade was as good a guitar player as Tony had ever heard. He was a 5'10" black kid in Tony's class at school (all of the "boys in the band" were juniors at West Central) who idolized Jimi Hendrix growing up. He was a pure rocker at heart but his black southern roots gave his lead guitar playing a soulful signature that Tony could never emulate.

Kyle West was a more than competent bass player. He was nearly 6'4" and thin, which pretty much guaranteed him the nickname 'Lurch' in school. He eschewed the normal bass player stereotype by being outgoing and daring in his playing. He wasn't content to simply play in the background. Bass was, after all, the foundation of everything, he would say.

Jerry Madsen, the band's drummer, was 5'10" with shoulder length blonde hair. He was limited only by the practice kit in the teen's basement. Once things got more serious he moved in not just his own drum kit, but a dizzying assortment of devices for producing various sounds. Jerry wasn't just a drummer, he was a percussion freak.

Tony himself had pretty much settled on acoustic guitar as his instrument of choice though he would certainly join in with Dewayne on an electric when the song called for it. That was happening more and more as he became the groups rhythm guitarist. Most often he relied on his new prized possession bought over the summer, an Ovation Adamas series acoustic-electric cutaway.

One thing they had in common was that all of them were vocalists. Tony could imagine any one of the five fronting what he was now considering an average band and doing it quite well.

Even serendipity of talent needs direction and that came unquestionably from the younger Tina. She had already coached the band to a solid dozen songs, mostly improving on what they had played before. Slowly but surely they were building a body of material so they could actually start searching for "professional" work. Professional meaning only that they got paid something for playing music. For Kyle and Dewayne that was a worthy goal, they could use something tangible to show for all the time, effort, and money they put into their music. For the others the music was the end goal itself, but music unshared and not performed for others was just an exercise in their own passion; lyrical masturbation as it were.

"Don't you think that may be just a bit too ambitious this time sis?" asked Tony a few minutes later. He had pulled his headphones off after hearing only a few seconds of the song she proposed. He knew the song well but never even considered actually trying to perform it.

"Well, it is ambitious, but we can do it. A crowd would go nuts for it."

"True, if they didn't just think we were totally nuts. Then again maybe we are. Find anything else lately? That one is going to take a whole lot of work."

Tina reached up to the shelf she was standing in front of and tossed Tony a tape. Part of her organization of the band was to start making a cassette tape of each song the band wanted to learn. She spent a lot of time dubbing 5 copies of each song onto cheap 30-minute cassette tapes.

Tony listened through Elton John's 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting'. He knew this was one of 'his' pieces. Tina could play most anything on a keyboard but she insisted Elton John (or Bernie Taupin if you prefer) pieces just didn't "fit her hands". While not up to Tina's level Tony could play keyboards, but if he did he vastly preferred a real piano over an electric imitation just as he preferred an acoustic guitar. "Yeah, we could do that, very danceable. Sure wish I had a real piano for that one though."

Danceable was a term the guys had never used before Tina joined. It weighed heavily on any song choice they made now. You can sit in the basement and jam to anything, but if you wanted to get paid to take the stage for three hours at a high school dance or party, you better being playing music kids could dance to.

"I know Tony, but we can't exactly lug around a piano can we? Learn it on the piano if you want but practice on the electric keyboard too, OK?"

"OK sis, you're the boss." Saturday Night's Alright is doable, Tony thought, but my God, Bohemian Rhapsody?

"You know what we really need for this one," Tina held up a tape, "is a tuba."

"A WHAT?"

Tony woke from a semi-sleep when his alarm blared at 6 AM. A faint hint of dawn was softly lightening the windows in his basement bedroom. Tina was snuggled around him, her head resting on his chest, breathing softly. Tina knew Tony wasn't going to sleep well as long as Rebecca was in the hospital. She probably wouldn't either. Even before midnight she had simply walked into his room in the basement and crawled into his bed. They made it through the night together, neither sleeping well.

Tina moaned into Tony's chest and asked the time. "Six o'clock," Tony replied.

"Tooooo early!"

"Not if we want to stop at the hospital before school its not," Tony replied.

"Ohhhh, can we?" Tina was instantly awake.

"That's the plan. Go get dressed and I'll buy you breakfast on the way."

"Deal!" Tina jumped up and headed out of the room. She was only wearing her normal sleeping attire that used to consist of one of her dad's old shirts and her panties. More and more these days, as today, it was one of Tony's shirts. Apparently, she made allowances for Tony's shirts; they didn't have to be old. He had been wondering where that shirt had gone.

Tony and Tina were quickly showered, dressed, and out the door. After a quick breakfast at the local Waffle House they were headed to the hospital when Tony pulled into a 24hr drug store nearby. "What do you need here?" asked Tina.

"I thought they might have some flowers or something. They probably do, it's the nearest store to the hospital. I doubt the gift shop there is open yet."

Tina didn't argue. Going to the hospital to see Tammy without some kind of gift for her would have been unthinkable to Tony. Why would Rebecca be any different? It wouldn't matter to Rebecca. She didn't want Tony's flowers. She wanted Tony. Much to Tina's pleasure and amusement it looked like she had him too. She got out of the car and followed her brother the "Loverboy" into the store.

Tony was disappointed at what he found in the store. He was still trying to find some flowers that weren't obviously near death when he heard Tina squeal. She came running up to him with a six-inch tall teddy bear. "Here you go big brother, its perfect!" She held up the little brown bear. It was wearing a red shirt that said TONY in white lettering across the chest.

"Whoa, cool, they have a bear named after me!"

Tina giggled and said, "Well they have a whole rack full of them with different names. This was the only Tony I could find though."

Tony thought for a moment and asked, "Don't you think that's maybe a bit umm pretentious?"

Tina gave Tony a look that clearly meant that he really shouldn't be questioning someone of her obviously superior intellect. He'd seen it before and learned to just shut up and do whatever it was that she wanted. Outside of pretty much anything musical he didn't think himself intellectually inferior to Tina, but he was smart enough to know when to preserve sibling harmony by deferring to her. It cost him nothing and gained him a lot more.

"Her mother will think so. Her father will think so. Blame me if they say something. With Rebecca just shut up and take all the credit. She will think it's the most precious thing in the world. Oh, the word you're looking for is presumptuous, not pretentious. Now let's go already."

Tony readjusted his thinking on their relative intellects slightly.

"Yes ma'am," he said and headed to the cashier.

The teens met Mr. Harris in the ICU waiting room. His ruffled clothes showed that he had obviously been there overnight. "Hi Mr. Harris, how is she doing?" Tony said extending his hand.

"Tony! Ah, and Tina is here as well. It's good to see you. People around here are saying some awful good things about you son. They say you saved my little-girl's life."