----THAT NIGHT: PRE-SHOW---
Monk had insisted they arrive super early so he could investigate better.
"You know just because we're getting here early doesn't mean the band's going to finish any earlier," Sharona pointed out.
"I know that," Monk said looking like he still had hope in that theory.
The band was unloading their instruments onto the stage, leaving guitars and amps scattered along with pieces of the drum kit everywhere. Monk walked over and looked at the bass drum which had the band's name printed on it in large block letters- THE NAKED PUPPET. Underneath the name was a small adequately proportioned drawing of a naked puppet.
Monk choked, "Ahh! Oh geez!"
Sharona rushed over, "What's wrong?"
Unable to speak in his disgust Monk just pointed.
"Oh the name?" Sharona said.
"Yes. . . t-that . . . I mean who names a band THAT? What kind of . . . " Monk cried as he broke off.
Sharona laughed, "I've seen a lot worse Adrian. Names containing specific parts of the body if you know what I mean."
Monk just shook his head, "I just don't want to know. . ."
"Names that describe body functions," Sharona teased him.
"Oh gosh Sharona, stop please," Monk cringed.
"Names that describe bowel movements and regurgitation and -"
"STOP! Please!" Monk held his hands to his ears.
"Ok, ok" Sharona said chuckling at him. "Look why don't you walk around for a bit? I'm going to hit the ladies room."
Monk nodded, "Ok but be careful, you can pick up at least 53 different diseases in a place like this," he said seriously.
Sharona smiled, "I'll be sure to wipe my hands on you after I'm done then."
Monk gave her a dirty look and then started walking around. The drum pieces all over the floor were starting to bother him. He started arranging them to his liking. One tom on each side of the stage. A crash symbol here and there for decoration. The snare drum at the back of the stage. And the bass drum smack in the middle.
"Excuse me!" A loud voice said.
Monk looked up from admiring his work and saw the green-haired spiky head guy running over to him.
"Dude! What are you doing?" he demanded.
"Uh. . . I was just arranging the set here, it looks much better now," Monk replied.
"Much better? Much better?! You've arranged my set into the four corners of the earth!"
"B-but it looks nice," Monk said.
The guy threw up his hands in frustration. "Just. . . just don't touch anything else. I mean it," he said glaring at Monk.
"Adrian!" Sharona saw him from behind the wings and came out. "Are you getting into trouble again?"
"N-no I was only-" he began.
"Oohmygosh, I leave you alone for like two minutes and you're already making people hate you. Usually it takes at least an hour," Sharona hissed at him. She turned to the drummer and apologized profusely, "I am SO sorry. Forgive him, he knows not what he does."
She turned to Adrian, "C'mon Sherlock, we've created enough trouble here," she said dragging him away.
"I-I wasn't doing anything wrong!" he protested.
""No, you were just born," she replied.
Monk looked really hurt.
Sharona saw his face and patted his back, "Oh, I'm just kidding. There, there. I'm glad you were born," she said sincerely. "My life would never have been this exciting without you."
Monk looked rather pleased and smiled at her. "Let's go up into the light booth. I can see better up there," he suggested.
"Yes, I have a feeling we'll be outta-the way" Sharona answered as they backed up against a wall to avoid getting run over by enormous amps being wheeled by.
Monk suddenly grabbed Sharona's hand and held it in his. She looked down surprised to see his warm strong hand gently grasping her smaller hand.
He didn't say anything, just gave her one of those awesome and rarely seen smiles of his and led the way to the booth.
-------------- --------------------
From the light booth Monk was able to see much better the stage and audience area. The club was beginning to fill up rapidly as well and Monk was glad to be away from all those weird-looking people with the spiky hair and chains.
While Sharona was chatting with the light board operator, Monk took a look around at the vast area of buttons, switches, and mixer controls.
Those couple of switches. They were sticking out.
Some were set at FULL for the house lights. But a couple of others were up and down at different settings.
It was starting to bother him.
He craned his neck to the left. His itchy finger reached out and he was about to touch the switches when suddenly the light board operator moved over.
"Just got word over the headphones. Show's starting," he told them and moved to the board to bring the house lights down.
Now the switches were all over the board as the operator pushed up a couple.
Monk couldn't help himself. He moved the far right switch up to meet the one on its left. The operator had turned back to talking to Sharona and wasn't paying any attention. Monk took note of the two of them getting quite cozy and felt a jealous streak rush through him. He wished she'd put her arm around his shoulder the way she was doing with that guy.
But the board had his full attention at the moment. He moved the next couple of switches up to match the far right one.
Down below, the opening act Wink 242 looked up in amazement as their stage lighting turned from cool blue accents and strobe effects to a bright lemon yellow and orange look a la K.C. and the Sunshine Band.
The stage manager quickly notified the board operator who swung around in his chair and looked down at the stage, horrified.
Sharona ran over, "Adrian! WHAT have you done now?"
Monk was still "fixing" the switches and now the lighting changed to extremely white-hot bright light.
The crowd murmured confused. The band groaned and covered their eyes from the bright intensity of the lights.
Monk looked up from his work, "Um, I j-just had to f-fix a few things. That's all."
The operator looked at him as he tried desperately to re-set things, "Dude, you messed up all my cues!"
"I-I'm sorry," Monk replied, "I thought it would be helpful to have the switches lined up. You know, so it was more organized."
The operator glared at him, "GET OUT," he said steely.
------------ ----------------
"Great, you got us kicked out of the best seat in the house," Sharona snapped at him.
"Well, so sorry. But I'm not any happier down here either," Monk replied.
He suddenly bumped into a crowd of screaming punk-rocker guys. One guy had his tongue pierced and the ring continued through his tongue and came out his chin, ending in a stud.
Monk looked sick.
"What?" Sharona asked.
Monk shook his head slowly, "HOW. . . is that. . . possible??"
Sharona grimaced as she saw what he was talking about. "Some things are just better off not knowing about," she replied and steered him in the other direction.
Several audience members kept flinging themselves in their path, as they were totally oblivious to anything but rocking to the music. Some girl had a choker with spikes so long they poked into Monk's shoulder.
He yelped and stepped backward almost knocking Sharona over.
"Geez, what's wrong?" She asked as Monk's body was suddenly pressed very closely to her chest.
He took a moment to respond as he stared down into her eyes, lost in them. She had such beautiful eyes, they seemed to be looking right through him. His face felt flushed, "Uh..n-nothing. My fault."
They continued meandering through the crowd. A whole group of teens were flinging around glowsticks through the air and one almost clocked Adrian in the eye.
He held back his screams of panic as the space between him and the other audience members narrowed to about an inch and a half. Monk held his arms up to his chest in a protection stance.
A guy inched by with so many dyed colors in his hair, Monk had to stop and count them. He happened to stop right in between two girls facing each other, dancing. Suddenly Monk realized one of the girls was trying to dance with him. She put her arms around his neck and started swaying her hips.
Monk tried to scream. Sharona had disappeared.
"Hey, you're kinda cute," the girl said smacking her gum. "A little stiff but cute."
"Yeah," the other girl replied smiling at him sexily. "My turn next," she winked at him.
"Nice costume by the way," the girl dancing with him said referring to his suit.
"Cc.costume?" Monk said feeling terror rise in him; he yelled as loud as he could which wasn't that audible due to the increasing noise coming from Wink 242.
"Sharona!"
Suddenly she appeared and started laughing when she saw his predicament.
"Sharona!" He whined, "Help me!!"
"Oh well it looks like you're a little busy, I'll come back later," she smirked and pretended to walk away.
"WAIT!" Monk squeezed his way out of the girls grasps and ran over to her. "You just left me!" he protested looking upset.
"Aw Adrian, I'm sorry. I won't leave you again," Sharona replied taking hold of his hand.
He smiled at her touch and grasped her hand tightly. Overcome by something, perhaps the need for someone familiar, he brought her hand to his mouth and gently kissed it.
Sharona looked caught off-guard. "T-thanks."
Monk nodded and looked away quickly.
Sharona started bobbing her head to the music, "Ya know, this stuff is kinda catchy."
Monk looked at her like she was crazy. "What are you talking about? It's just noise!" He shouted over the din as they began to unwillingly get closer to the Empire State Building sized speakers.
"What??" Sharona shouted back, "WHAT BOYS?!"
"No, no!" Monk shook his head, "Too much NOISE!"
"WHAT?!! I don't have any TOYS!!" She replied looking confused.
Monk gave up after that. Finally they were able to get away from the speakers. Monk rubbed his ears hoping he didn't have permanent ear damage.
"Why doesn't somebody just murder somebody already?" Monk said irritatedly. The crowds and the noise were bothering him but there was something else too. For some reason he felt like he wanted to be alone with Sharona. He felt like he always had to share her with someone. She was HIS nurse for crying out loud.
"What's with you?" Sharona said looking at him, "That's a terrible thing to say."
"Well if something would happen, I could solve the murder and we could go home," he explained looking more uncomfortable in his environment with every passing minute. He had let go of Sharona's hand and was grasping his shoulders.
"Hey, it'll be okay," Sharona said tenderly and suddenly she had put an arm around his shoulders and laid her head down on him.
Monk swallowed, Sharona was so close to him. He wished they were at her house away from the noise, just him and her. Maybe her making cocoa especially for him with exactly eight marshmallows. And maybe sitting with her on her couch. . . maybe closer than usual.
A couple of punk girls walked up to him, interrupting his daydream. A girl with neon orange spiky hair stepped up, "We heard you were looking for some information about that murder the other night?"
Monk perked up at this and said, "Yes I am. What can you tell me? Where you here that night?"
"Whoa there Curly," she said laughing.
Monk twitched his head to the side at the nickname.
"We gotta talk somewhere else," the girl replied.
Suddenly Sharona's cell phone went off. She answered it and pulled it away from her ear, "Adrian, it's Stottlemeyer. I'm going to have to go outside, I can't hear a thing. Will you be alright? Just for a moment?" She asked concerened.
Monk felt warmed by the fact that she cared. "I'll be f-fine," he said trying to sound confident but not succeeding very well. But Sharona nodded her head and left.
Monk had insisted they arrive super early so he could investigate better.
"You know just because we're getting here early doesn't mean the band's going to finish any earlier," Sharona pointed out.
"I know that," Monk said looking like he still had hope in that theory.
The band was unloading their instruments onto the stage, leaving guitars and amps scattered along with pieces of the drum kit everywhere. Monk walked over and looked at the bass drum which had the band's name printed on it in large block letters- THE NAKED PUPPET. Underneath the name was a small adequately proportioned drawing of a naked puppet.
Monk choked, "Ahh! Oh geez!"
Sharona rushed over, "What's wrong?"
Unable to speak in his disgust Monk just pointed.
"Oh the name?" Sharona said.
"Yes. . . t-that . . . I mean who names a band THAT? What kind of . . . " Monk cried as he broke off.
Sharona laughed, "I've seen a lot worse Adrian. Names containing specific parts of the body if you know what I mean."
Monk just shook his head, "I just don't want to know. . ."
"Names that describe body functions," Sharona teased him.
"Oh gosh Sharona, stop please," Monk cringed.
"Names that describe bowel movements and regurgitation and -"
"STOP! Please!" Monk held his hands to his ears.
"Ok, ok" Sharona said chuckling at him. "Look why don't you walk around for a bit? I'm going to hit the ladies room."
Monk nodded, "Ok but be careful, you can pick up at least 53 different diseases in a place like this," he said seriously.
Sharona smiled, "I'll be sure to wipe my hands on you after I'm done then."
Monk gave her a dirty look and then started walking around. The drum pieces all over the floor were starting to bother him. He started arranging them to his liking. One tom on each side of the stage. A crash symbol here and there for decoration. The snare drum at the back of the stage. And the bass drum smack in the middle.
"Excuse me!" A loud voice said.
Monk looked up from admiring his work and saw the green-haired spiky head guy running over to him.
"Dude! What are you doing?" he demanded.
"Uh. . . I was just arranging the set here, it looks much better now," Monk replied.
"Much better? Much better?! You've arranged my set into the four corners of the earth!"
"B-but it looks nice," Monk said.
The guy threw up his hands in frustration. "Just. . . just don't touch anything else. I mean it," he said glaring at Monk.
"Adrian!" Sharona saw him from behind the wings and came out. "Are you getting into trouble again?"
"N-no I was only-" he began.
"Oohmygosh, I leave you alone for like two minutes and you're already making people hate you. Usually it takes at least an hour," Sharona hissed at him. She turned to the drummer and apologized profusely, "I am SO sorry. Forgive him, he knows not what he does."
She turned to Adrian, "C'mon Sherlock, we've created enough trouble here," she said dragging him away.
"I-I wasn't doing anything wrong!" he protested.
""No, you were just born," she replied.
Monk looked really hurt.
Sharona saw his face and patted his back, "Oh, I'm just kidding. There, there. I'm glad you were born," she said sincerely. "My life would never have been this exciting without you."
Monk looked rather pleased and smiled at her. "Let's go up into the light booth. I can see better up there," he suggested.
"Yes, I have a feeling we'll be outta-the way" Sharona answered as they backed up against a wall to avoid getting run over by enormous amps being wheeled by.
Monk suddenly grabbed Sharona's hand and held it in his. She looked down surprised to see his warm strong hand gently grasping her smaller hand.
He didn't say anything, just gave her one of those awesome and rarely seen smiles of his and led the way to the booth.
-------------- --------------------
From the light booth Monk was able to see much better the stage and audience area. The club was beginning to fill up rapidly as well and Monk was glad to be away from all those weird-looking people with the spiky hair and chains.
While Sharona was chatting with the light board operator, Monk took a look around at the vast area of buttons, switches, and mixer controls.
Those couple of switches. They were sticking out.
Some were set at FULL for the house lights. But a couple of others were up and down at different settings.
It was starting to bother him.
He craned his neck to the left. His itchy finger reached out and he was about to touch the switches when suddenly the light board operator moved over.
"Just got word over the headphones. Show's starting," he told them and moved to the board to bring the house lights down.
Now the switches were all over the board as the operator pushed up a couple.
Monk couldn't help himself. He moved the far right switch up to meet the one on its left. The operator had turned back to talking to Sharona and wasn't paying any attention. Monk took note of the two of them getting quite cozy and felt a jealous streak rush through him. He wished she'd put her arm around his shoulder the way she was doing with that guy.
But the board had his full attention at the moment. He moved the next couple of switches up to match the far right one.
Down below, the opening act Wink 242 looked up in amazement as their stage lighting turned from cool blue accents and strobe effects to a bright lemon yellow and orange look a la K.C. and the Sunshine Band.
The stage manager quickly notified the board operator who swung around in his chair and looked down at the stage, horrified.
Sharona ran over, "Adrian! WHAT have you done now?"
Monk was still "fixing" the switches and now the lighting changed to extremely white-hot bright light.
The crowd murmured confused. The band groaned and covered their eyes from the bright intensity of the lights.
Monk looked up from his work, "Um, I j-just had to f-fix a few things. That's all."
The operator looked at him as he tried desperately to re-set things, "Dude, you messed up all my cues!"
"I-I'm sorry," Monk replied, "I thought it would be helpful to have the switches lined up. You know, so it was more organized."
The operator glared at him, "GET OUT," he said steely.
------------ ----------------
"Great, you got us kicked out of the best seat in the house," Sharona snapped at him.
"Well, so sorry. But I'm not any happier down here either," Monk replied.
He suddenly bumped into a crowd of screaming punk-rocker guys. One guy had his tongue pierced and the ring continued through his tongue and came out his chin, ending in a stud.
Monk looked sick.
"What?" Sharona asked.
Monk shook his head slowly, "HOW. . . is that. . . possible??"
Sharona grimaced as she saw what he was talking about. "Some things are just better off not knowing about," she replied and steered him in the other direction.
Several audience members kept flinging themselves in their path, as they were totally oblivious to anything but rocking to the music. Some girl had a choker with spikes so long they poked into Monk's shoulder.
He yelped and stepped backward almost knocking Sharona over.
"Geez, what's wrong?" She asked as Monk's body was suddenly pressed very closely to her chest.
He took a moment to respond as he stared down into her eyes, lost in them. She had such beautiful eyes, they seemed to be looking right through him. His face felt flushed, "Uh..n-nothing. My fault."
They continued meandering through the crowd. A whole group of teens were flinging around glowsticks through the air and one almost clocked Adrian in the eye.
He held back his screams of panic as the space between him and the other audience members narrowed to about an inch and a half. Monk held his arms up to his chest in a protection stance.
A guy inched by with so many dyed colors in his hair, Monk had to stop and count them. He happened to stop right in between two girls facing each other, dancing. Suddenly Monk realized one of the girls was trying to dance with him. She put her arms around his neck and started swaying her hips.
Monk tried to scream. Sharona had disappeared.
"Hey, you're kinda cute," the girl said smacking her gum. "A little stiff but cute."
"Yeah," the other girl replied smiling at him sexily. "My turn next," she winked at him.
"Nice costume by the way," the girl dancing with him said referring to his suit.
"Cc.costume?" Monk said feeling terror rise in him; he yelled as loud as he could which wasn't that audible due to the increasing noise coming from Wink 242.
"Sharona!"
Suddenly she appeared and started laughing when she saw his predicament.
"Sharona!" He whined, "Help me!!"
"Oh well it looks like you're a little busy, I'll come back later," she smirked and pretended to walk away.
"WAIT!" Monk squeezed his way out of the girls grasps and ran over to her. "You just left me!" he protested looking upset.
"Aw Adrian, I'm sorry. I won't leave you again," Sharona replied taking hold of his hand.
He smiled at her touch and grasped her hand tightly. Overcome by something, perhaps the need for someone familiar, he brought her hand to his mouth and gently kissed it.
Sharona looked caught off-guard. "T-thanks."
Monk nodded and looked away quickly.
Sharona started bobbing her head to the music, "Ya know, this stuff is kinda catchy."
Monk looked at her like she was crazy. "What are you talking about? It's just noise!" He shouted over the din as they began to unwillingly get closer to the Empire State Building sized speakers.
"What??" Sharona shouted back, "WHAT BOYS?!"
"No, no!" Monk shook his head, "Too much NOISE!"
"WHAT?!! I don't have any TOYS!!" She replied looking confused.
Monk gave up after that. Finally they were able to get away from the speakers. Monk rubbed his ears hoping he didn't have permanent ear damage.
"Why doesn't somebody just murder somebody already?" Monk said irritatedly. The crowds and the noise were bothering him but there was something else too. For some reason he felt like he wanted to be alone with Sharona. He felt like he always had to share her with someone. She was HIS nurse for crying out loud.
"What's with you?" Sharona said looking at him, "That's a terrible thing to say."
"Well if something would happen, I could solve the murder and we could go home," he explained looking more uncomfortable in his environment with every passing minute. He had let go of Sharona's hand and was grasping his shoulders.
"Hey, it'll be okay," Sharona said tenderly and suddenly she had put an arm around his shoulders and laid her head down on him.
Monk swallowed, Sharona was so close to him. He wished they were at her house away from the noise, just him and her. Maybe her making cocoa especially for him with exactly eight marshmallows. And maybe sitting with her on her couch. . . maybe closer than usual.
A couple of punk girls walked up to him, interrupting his daydream. A girl with neon orange spiky hair stepped up, "We heard you were looking for some information about that murder the other night?"
Monk perked up at this and said, "Yes I am. What can you tell me? Where you here that night?"
"Whoa there Curly," she said laughing.
Monk twitched his head to the side at the nickname.
"We gotta talk somewhere else," the girl replied.
Suddenly Sharona's cell phone went off. She answered it and pulled it away from her ear, "Adrian, it's Stottlemeyer. I'm going to have to go outside, I can't hear a thing. Will you be alright? Just for a moment?" She asked concerened.
Monk felt warmed by the fact that she cared. "I'll be f-fine," he said trying to sound confident but not succeeding very well. But Sharona nodded her head and left.