The very strange thing is that Here Come The Mummies will be in Lexington, Ky tonight. They come north for my turn tomorrow night. Nate would have a better view than this: /LSNU2Zn7odE this was taken from a couple of years ago in Lexington.
Here Come The Mummies
Raylan typed in Here Come The Mummies just as Nate had told him. He really didn't want to blow this opportunity to make his son happy, but at the same time he wanted to know what he was in for before he bought the tickets. Just as the screen came up giving him far too many options, Tim walked over.
"Ah, the Mummies." He said looking over Raylan's shoulder. "I took a date to one of their concerts last year, actually she took me, I had never heard of them. But anyway, we had a great time, fun bunch those mummies. But somehow I don't see them being on your list of things to do."
"They're not, but apparently Nate likes them and they're in town in a couple of weeks."
"Oh, Nate," Tim said somewhat surprised.
"What's wrong with them?"
"Nothing, I take it Nate's been listening to their music?"
"Some of it anyway, I have no idea how he got it though."
"Internet, you can everything off the internet."
"I'm afraid that is true," Raylan said returning his attention to his screen but before he could explore further Art called out to him.
With time running short and Tim's urging him to hurry, Raylan stopped by the venue on the way home that night. It wasn't the type of place that he had expected, a combination pool hall and bar with a large open area in the back. One of the waitresses gave a big smile and asked if she could help him.
"Yeah, I'm here to get tickets for a concert in a couple of weeks."
"The Barnstormers or the Mummies?" she asked as she picked up two empty beer bottles from a nearby table.
"The second one."
"The Mummies, yeah, they're fun. I worked their show last year; the crowd had a great time. If you want, you can follow me or you can go talk to Hank over there and he can hook you up."
Raylan looked over to the bar and decided the waitress was a much better option. He watched her sashay to the opposite end of the bar as Hank and set down her tray and toss the bottles, which made rather large clanking noise upon impact with the rest that were already there.
"How many?" She asked.
"Um, two I guess. It is an all-ages show right?"
"Pretty sure, let me check though." She pulled out some kind of flyer, her eyes glancing over it in its entirety. "Here it is, yes, all ages show. Bringing a young date?"
"Hmm? No my son is a fan."
"Awww, how old is he?"
"Eleven," Raylan answered pulling out some cash.
"Let's see, the tickets are $25 a piece with an additional add-on fee of $1 each for the bar making your total $52. Is your son pretty smart?"
"Yeah, as a matter of fact he is," Raylan said pulling the bills from his hand. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, their music, it's full of you know— ''
"No, I don't know, full of what?"
"The kids either don't understand or they do, but it's not that bad, the lyrics are hilarious," she continued getting distracted by a loud group coming in the front door.
She gave Raylan the tickets and his change and left their conversation sitting at the bar as she made her way over to the group attempting to settle them down a bit. Raylan was really beginning to wonder what was going on with this band; he was going to have to make a point of checking them out.
Two weeks later—
Raylan leaned back and stretched the best he could in the crowded surroundings. Nate had insisted, more like demanded, that they get there extremely early in order to get a good place to stand. His argument had been he was short and didn't want to spend the entire concert staring at somebody else's back. So they had waited in the bar area for over an hour to get in another line for an hour to get into the concert area where they now stood behind a barricade just feet from the stage, waiting for over an hour and a half. Nate had a great view, unfortunately the person behind Raylan did not and he had already heard the complaints and felt the person try and nudge up next to him. He sidestepped a little closer to his son who was watching the instruments from the opening band being removed and the stage being prepared for the headliner.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," Raylan said as he casually leaned on the barrier and came down to Nate's height.
"What?" His son asked as he saw two saxophones being placed on the stage to their left.
"Winona is thinking about moving to Florida."
"With Meghan?"
"Yes, with Meghan."
"Why?"
"It seems to be the right fit for her."
"How come?"
"It just does."
"That doesn't make any sense. Did you do something to make her mad?"
"Probably, but I don't think that's the reason."
"But I was just starting to like the baby. She smiles when she sees me and makes funny noises too." Nate said momentarily forgetting about the transforming stage in front of him.
"I know, you are great with her," Raylan agreed. "Winona just thinks it might be best to start over in another state."
"But you're her dad, she'll need you."
"Yeah, well, Winona is capable just like your mom was."
"I guess," Nate sighed.
"Just think we'll have more time together, just the two of us."
"I guess," Nate repeated.
"You don't sound too enthused."
"Well—it'd be great and all, but what you say now and what the reality will be are two separate things. I know you mean well, but, but I just know how things happen."
Raylan chewed on what his son had just said and found he couldn't deny any of it. Who was he fooling anyway; Winona knew it would be better for both her and the baby to leave him out of the equation. She didn't want to see her daughter exposed to the violence of his life or left out like Nate often was. It would simply be better if he was several states away instead of having to constantly make excuses as to why Daddy couldn't or didn't come pick her up for a visit. He needed to face the fact that he was a lousy father.
He heaved out a big sigh and looked around the room that was seemingly made up of college age all the way up to middle age with a few older and a few younger and nearly all white. The crowd was beginning to sense that it wouldn't be much longer and some began to step on the tip toes and peer towards the back of the room. He looked down at Nate whose attention was once again on the stage. The sound man seemed to have finished up and the raised platform was scattered with instruments, set lists taped to floor in various spots along with water bottles placed in appropriate locations.
Raylan scooted over to his left again closing the small gap that had opened. He put his hand on Nate's shoulder and rubbed it a bit. "So tell me what is so different about this band?" He asked as he never had had time to check them out. But as soon as Nate opened his mouth there was the sound of distant drumming followed by a huge cheer.