EFFA
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The heavy knocking of my heart against my chest pounds like a sledgehammer, my pulse rising with the adrenaline of the moment. It’s utter euphoria, the endorphins from an undeniable surge of excitement coursing through my veins as my heart pumps faster, harder and more furious with every movement I make. My mouth opens, and I use every ounce of energy I have, letting the words flow over my tongue like the lyrical geniuses are somehow caressing the air with their magic. My husky voice echoes through the stadium, gravelly, silky, but with a hard edge that only the best girl rockers can accomplish.
I’ve worked hard for this. So have the girls. We’ve come from nothing. Worked our way up to packed out stadiums, and now we’re living the dream. And as I sing the catchy lyrics to our chart-topping song Melodramatic, Casey moves in behind me, slamming on her lead guitar as I strum away on mine, performing the backup guitar as well as singing. I’m talented like that. Sweat beads on my forehead, trickling down my temple as strands of my long blonde hair stick to my face.
Turning to the microphone again, I belt out the verse, my voice caressing the words like warm thick honey as I glance to Andi, who’s trying to find her lighting cue. But it isn’t coming. Her face contorts, screwing up, as she moves forward anyway on the stage with her Fender bass guitar and starts rocking out. Her pixie haircut, short on the sides, but longer on top, dyed red today, sways with the frantic movements of her head banging as she takes her position at the front of the giant stage.
Kristy leads in with her drum solo, banging hard and furious, the vibration running right through me making me smile as I sing. She’s a different person while playing percussion. On the kit, she’s a freaking animal, and she lets loose like an untamed beast. But, in person, she’s quiet and calm.
Casey breaks away from me, strutting her way over to Alana in her little section of the stage, where her keyboard and DJ set is stacked up. She’s working frantically, giving us that slight electro edge that mixes in with our hard rock sound making us that little bit different to the other rock bands out there.
The end of the song creeps up, and the crowd is pumped. I’m on a high, but the lighting is strobing all around the stage in the wrong cues as per usual. It should be fading into yellows right now to match the gold streamers that are about to burst out over the crowd. But no, of course not, Dennis has the strobe light going off erratically instead.
I swear this guy has no damn idea what he’s doing.
He’s killing my buzz.
The cannons shoot out the gold streamers, and they fly through the air flittering delicately down into the crowd. A round of cheering, jumping, and applauding erupts as they throw their hands in the air. The lighting above flickers. They strobe to pink then flash on all at once. The vivid bright light making the crowd all gasp as I lose my place in the song and the lyrics fail me while I’m blinded momentarily. The other girls must have issues too because the music comes to a screeching halt. The stadium begins to shake with jeers of unhappiness as I repeatedly blink while looking upward trying to figure out what the fuck’s going on with Dennis and his preposterous lighting techniques.
“For fuck’s sake, Dennis,” Andi calls out loud enough for the front row to hear as she steps forward, looking up to the rafters. The jeering becomes louder as the lights continue to flicker and change sporadically. Fuck me! I grit my teeth in annoyance trying to find my center of calm, but it’s absolutely not working.
“Dennis, will you fucking fix this shit, you mother fucking moron, before I come up there and shove something very long and hard up your fucking ass.” Andi calls out raising her fist up into the air toward Dennis, who’s in the rafters with our lighting equipment that’s clearly more than a little fucked up right now.
I turn toward my microphone and look out to the crowd whose jeering and sneering is now almost as loud as one of our songs, and I raise my hands trying to placate them. “I’m sorry, guys. Technical glitch and all that. We’re working on the matter. If we could all open our chakras and embrace the harmony of music we’d know this was meant to happen. Could we all take a moment to embrace each other...” I pause and smile. “Turn to the person next to you, and take them in a tight hug showing your affection,” I advise calmly wanting nothing but peace and love.
Casey laughs as Andi rolls her eyes.
The crowd chatters on a little more, and I turn just in time to see someone throw something at me. I dodge whatever it is and furrow my brows crossing my arms over my chest. “That’s definitely not embracing the love, people,” I blast into the microphone.
Casey chuckles and Andi walks up to the closest microphone. She grabs it firmly in her hands and grunts out loudly, “Luke, get Dennis to fix the lighting, or turn the fucking normal lights on so we can continue to rock, hey?” There’s a massive sarcastic tone to her voice and the crowd cheer, loudly.
Luke’s our manager, slash agent slash general organizer, of our day to day existence.
“Yeah Andi, you rock!” Someone in the crowd yells out, and she finally smiles and does a curt curtsey and then walks to the middle of the stage.
The lights flicker a few times followed by a loud bang which is then followed by a mass of flashing beams which scatter over the stage and the audience. We all look up as another loud cracking noise resounds from above, followed by a flash. An array of orange and yellow flickers rain down, like a giant sparkler going off, and then I see it—like in slow motion—a heavy stage light tumbles down right in line with Andi’s head.
She freezes, her eyes opening wide as she takes in the massive black object hurtling toward her at lightning speed. The crowd gasps and my heart races frantically. My pulse quickens so fast I can feel the pressure in my skull, and I think I’m going to vomit. I don’t have time to get to her. But suddenly Luke jumps out from the side of the stage grabbing her in a full force lunge and landing on top of her, pushing her to the floor face first. The light plummets down right next to the pair, smashing in a wave of broken glass and metal as it breaks apart all over the floor then bursts into a ball of flames.
“Fuck!” I call out as the amber and yellow flames lick and burst upward, quickly taking hold of Andi’s bass speaker, then continue up, scorching the curtain right next to it sending the side of the stage into a blazing inferno.
I turn to Alana who’s standing by her keyboard dock looking mortified while the crowd erupts into a screaming frenzy. Security guards rush out attempting to tackle the blaze with fire extinguishers as I pull off my guitar and run along with everyone else to the other side of the stage away from the flames.
“Holy fucking shit, Alana, did you see that?” I ask as she grips my hand for support while we wait for the others to join us backstage.
She nods. “Effa, how could this happen? I mean all those people out there…” Tears fill her beautiful blue eyes. “They’ll be okay, right?”
I flick my head out from the backstage area to see that the ushers are leading people out of the venue and the fire is completely under control. Slumping my body with relief, I close my eyes and hear the thumping footsteps of Kristy and Casey coming my way.
“Are you guys okay?” Kristy asks, and Alana and I both nod.
“That was fucking amazing, girls. We should do that every concert. Oh my God, I’m on such a high right now,” Casey calls out bouncing up and down on her toes like a freaking maniac, her plastic bangles jingling on her wrist with her hyperactivity.
“Casey, Andi could have been killed. I mean… she’s your cousin,” Alana berates, and Casey snorts.
“At least she would have gone out in an epic… flames of glory style rock ‘n’ roll performance,” she yells while doing the rock ‘n’ roll sign with her two hands and sticking out her tongue.
I try to hold back my giggle, but I can’t fight it for long.
“Casey, did you use before the show?” Kristy asks raising her brow.
Casey opens her eyes wide and swipes at her nose while nodding her head. “No!” She smiles.
I roll my eyes and Alana groans. “That would explain that crap then.”
“Explain what?” Casey asks as Andi and Luke rush down the stairs toward us.
Andi looks like shit. Her hair is a disheveled, sweaty mess, and her bass is completely shattered from the fall—it’s almost hanging in a long line from her hand. She’s going to be pissed.
“Explain what?” Casey asks again, but we continue to ignore her as we all move in surrounding Andi and Luke.
“Shit Andi, are you okay?” I ask, and she turns up her lip, looking straight to Luke while ignoring me.
“Luke, this shit has got to stop right this minute. Dennis has to go. No ifs, no buts, no damn maybes. You got it? Our lighting’s been shit for the entire tour, and tonight… this?” Andi scrapes her fingers through her hair. “My fucking bass is screwed. Gone. Demolished beyond repair. All because of that fucker not being able to sort his motherfucking shit out. You hired him. You make him gone. Or I swear, I’ll put a hit out on him…” She pauses for a breath. “And you know me, Luke, I will do it. I will sort that little weasel out. He’s ruined tonight’s show. What the fucking hell are we going to tell our fans? There better be some sort of epic press release following this, and we will have to come back at the end of the tour to do another show free of charge for the fans. We’re at the damn height of our careers here, and this epically shit show tonight is only going to damage us…” She rolls her eyes for effect. “Fix. This,” Andi demands pushing his chest hard, making the ever-stern faced Luke take a step back as she throws her broken bass to the ground dramatically and storms off, pushing roadies out of her way as she goes.
Gnawing on my bottom lip, I take a deep calming breath in and look to Luke. His sweeping short blond hair sitting in waves on his head, which is a little messier than usual, making his usual surfer good looks appear like he’s been windswept at the beach rather than saved a life at a rock concert. His broad shoulders fit perfectly into his suit which he pairs with a white shirt, with no tie, making him all business but cool at the same time. His jawline is strong, and his bright blue eyes are like the depths of the ocean, cool and calming for a man who’s intimidating and oozes confidence.
However, right now, his cool, calm façade is cracking, and I see the anger lying beneath. He’s pissed about what’s happened here tonight, and I don’t blame him. There’s no doubt this is damaging—for him, for us, for the tour. Negative publicity is not good publicity at this point. This crap makes us appear like a totally unprofessional unit, when in fact, we are the opposite. We need to fix this. He needs to fix this. And fast.
Taking a calming breath in, I figure I need to ease some of Luke’s tensions, and I know a method that always works for me and others when I do it to them. So it can’t hurt to try. I step up to Luke and place my open palms on his chest. He looks down at me, opening his eyes wide like I’ve lost the plot, but I smile calmly and take in a long steadying breath.
“Take in a deep breath, Luke, and look into my eyes.”
He slumps his body. “Effa… look… you’re great, and I love that you’re so in tune with nature and the elements and what the hell ever other stuff you’re into, but your hippy shit isn’t going to work on me—”
“Look in my eyes, Luke. Take a deep breath in through your nose… just humor me.”
He rolls his eyes as Casey giggles beside me. But then he stares into my eyes and pulls in a deep breath.
Pressing my palms harder into his chest, I peer into his eyes. “Positive healing energy is flowing through my hands into your body. Take in a deep breath… aaannnddd hold.” He takes in a deep breath, holding it. “Aaannnddd out.”
Luke breathes out and raises his brow like he’s curious about something. I smile nodding my head slightly and remove my hands from his chest as he swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in his throat as he swallows.
“Did that actually just work?” he asks raising his brow.
I raise up on my toes in excitement. “You tell me. How do you feel?”
He gives his head a quick shake. “I swear, Effa, you’re an enigma… I don’t understand you at all.” He looks up and then back at me. “I don’t know how that worked. It can’t have worked. But… somehow I feel better. You freak me out, you little pixie,” he croaks, and I grin so wide my cheeks hurt.
“Thank you so much, that’s nice of you to say. Now go find us a new lighting tech… because Dennis sucks and he’s fired.”
Luke chuckles. “Yes, ma’am.” He affirms it with a salute and walks away.
Turning around, I notice Casey’s sniffing the air like some sort of weirdo as she paces the backstage area. I ignore her, letting her journey into her own world, and instead, I step up to Alana and Kristy. “What a night, hey?”
“Long way from Nimbin, New South Wales.” She giggles. “Although, I can totally imagine something like this happening there at the local pub because Davo got high,” Kristy jests and we all laugh.
“Totally! Even though tonight went up in flames, we’ve made it girls. The five of us country chicks have made it to the big time, and we’re only going to go up from here,” Alana chimes in.
“Hell, yeah. We’re going to illuminate this world,” I beam and they both chuckle.
“Luminous… for world domination,” Kristy sings placing her hand out.
I smile putting my hand on top of hers, Alana follows, and we all smile bobbing our hands once then lifting up high with a cheer. Even though Casey and Andi weren’t in the circle, Luminous started out as just Alana, Kristy, and me. And now with cousins, Casey and Andi along for the ride, we’re ready to take on anything life throws at us.
We’re primed, eager, and aching to take on the world.
It’s there for our beckoned call.
We just have to grab it with both hands and tear it to shreds.
“I can smell chili cheese fries… I’ve got the munchies,” Casey calls out, and we all turn to smile at her.
Okay… so first chili cheese fries… then, world domination.