The Debut - MWBB

This was my entry to the Mid-Week Blues-Buster competition, which brought me an Honourable Mention.

The prompt was a song:

 “Crosstown Traffic” - by Jimi Hendrix Experience. 

The Debut

I saw it all; the palm trees in their neat rows lining the boulevard; the sunshine baking it all; the big living they did here, and I asked myself, was it all it was cracked up to be? Was it everything I’d imagined?

I glanced at my passenger who was grinning inanely at everything around him. It was Matt’s first time too and his smile was infectious; I laughed. He glanced at me, his smile continuing, and then he slapped his hand on my leg giving it a good squeeze while I tried to keep the car steady.

“When are we going to get there?” He asked.

“Any moment now, we should see it up here on the left. I was assured it couldn’t be missed.” Just mention of it gave me butterflies.

Matt pulled out the camera and got it ready.

And then we saw it, in all its splendour, its exterior decoration so elaborate it left us open-mouthed. I pulled the car over slowly, crawling along the curb as he started snapping away.

“Do you think we can do it? Do you think we can get in unnoticed?” His voice was muffled by the long lens camera up against his face.

I pursed my lips. “Sure, why not? We’ve got into plenty others with far tighter security. NY’s no pussy. I heard they’re far laxer out here.”

He nodded. “True, although this kind of get up’s a whole other undertaking.”

“Johnny’s meeting us tonight; he said he’s got it all figured out. He says it’ll be a breeze.”

“I hope he’s right!”

“Me too.” I pulled the car out into the road again, and took us back to the hotel, our sparkling smiles having faded a little now we had seen it.

But Johnny was right, he did have it all figured out, but he played it cool. “You guys sure you’re kitted out with the right stuff? You sure you got everything you need?”

Matt gave a slow nod. “Yep, got everything. And you’re sure this thing starts at 8? You sure they’ll all be there?”

“Oh yeah, the whole town’s been buzzing about this one, the turn out’ll be huge!”

“Good, we can’t afford to mess this up!”

“Oh this is gonna be the making of you two, they won’t know what hit ‘em!” Johnny grinned thinking about it.

I smiled at his confidence. “And you’ll definitely be there?”

“Oh yeah, got me VIP tickets!” He pulled out two gold coloured cards and waggled them in his fingers. We all laughed.

After dinner, we got ourselves ready. Matt kept checking his watch and giving me furtive glances, reminding me that if we didn’t pull this off we were in big trouble.

When I pulled the car up a block down from the house, we could already hear it in full swing. We grabbed our stuff out of the boot without speaking and slowly crept up to the hidden side entrance, and just like Johnny had promised, it was open. He’d also been right about the narrow strip of garden alongside the house being unlit. We got ourselves ready.

I saw the silhouette of a figure by the corner of the house duck out of sight and looked at Matt. This was it.

Then we heard it, a tapping on a microphone and someone coughing into it. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve prepared a special surprise for you all tonight, all the way from New York, your very own Party Crashers!”

There was a second of stunned silence and a roar went up, and we ran down into the back garden, into the light, and up onto the blocks that Johnny had promised would be there. Everyone came pouring out, Prince too, as we opened with our most raucous number, rocking them as hard as we could.