"The Performance of a Lifetime"
|
"It was a glorious vision", Perry mumbled as the tuna sandwich he was chewing
teased me eyes with every bite he took. I couldn't help but stare. Every chomp into made
me starve for the taste of fish. The smell was intoxicating, despite the fact that it was
coming from a uncleaned plate, and partially from Perry's yellow toothed mouth.
"Why do you still eat in this truck stop diner?" I asked, "After all these years I would
imagine that you would come to the assumption that perhaps this is why your cholesterol
is too high."
"Are you even listening to me?" Perry exclaimed in a dark voice, while peering at me
with a stare that reminded me of my step father after I got detention in third grade. "Nothing
can compare to them. I thought the imagery was more beautiful than an Arizona sunset,
and then...well then it happened".
"What?" I asked.
"The music." Perry replied. "It was like nothing I've heard. It was as if pure beauty was
flushed out by the screams of a thousand fallen angels. Like a smokers cough. Two cats
mating. Like death had come knocking and it was the last screams before your darkest
hour."
"What did you do?" I asked while grabbing a soggy french fry from his spotted plate.
"What else could I do? I ran. I ran as far as I could. Ever since that night I've been
looking for them. They don't come around often. They prefer the shadows, spending their
time away from the light. This time I have finally found them?"
"Where are they going to be?" I asked as I focused on a bead of sweat slowly dripping
from Perry's creased forehead.
"I have all the information on this notepad. This time they won't escape. I'm going to
find the Three Chord Mafia if it's the last thing I do." Perry said with a crooked smile.
Somehow, I knew that this would be a night to remember.
UPCOMING SHOWS:
NO SHOWS AT THIS TIME.
I looked at the notepad to get all the information I needed. I was puzzled. The notepad
was blank. I leaped out of my seat, smacking his tuna sandwich out of his hand and onto
the diner floor. "What the hell is this?" I screamed as I grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Is
this some kind of joke?"
"What?" He answered while wiping some mayonnaise from his lip.
"The notepad! It's blank".
"Ohh no," Perry said with his head hanging down. "Not again. Jesus. Don't you see?
They've done it again. Slipped through our fingers."
Perry fell to the ground. The diner grew silent, and the stares of the customers pierced
through my skin. They had eluded us again.
13
13