Rhapsody by Anna Mason (short novels in english txt) 📕

“Come on” I yelled over my shoulder to my best friend “We’re going to miss it!”
The streets we ran along were muggy and humid. The recent rain had drenched me to the skin, and my hoodie was such a sodden mass I had pulled it off and it hung over my arm. My t-shirt clung to my midriff and arms, clammy and cool, but not all together unpleasant. The rain had made the humidity oppressing.
Steam came up through the manholes in the dirty street, and it moved in a swirling motion from the slipstream of my feet as I ran through it. I tore around the next corner and almost collided with some gawky Asian tourists pointing to some of the pigeons that hung around on the lamp posts and window sills of the city. The woman yelled at me in what could have been Japanese, and the husband just glared at my back, but I didn’t really care. I heard my friend behind me apologizing for my reckless behavior.
I looked back over my shoulder and grinned at her, but she just slowly shook her head at my impish ways and hurried to catch up. One more corner now, I thought, and then we would be there. I could here the crowd that had gathered to witness music spectacular of the year. The crowd was loud, it sounded like a huge bee hive buzzing after someone had thrown a rock at it. I turned the corner fast, but had to pull up short to avoid smashing into a street vendor selling hotdogs and French fries to the crowd. My red Chuck Taylors threw up a small spray of gravel from some construction work being done on an apartment building. The Barbie wannabes glared at me as the gravel smacked into their faked baked calves. I just grinned bigger and leaned back against a marble column of the park entrance. The stage was far away, a distant blur I could vaguely make out through the haze from the rain and cigarette smoke. Water from a fountain in the tinkled merrily as it splashed into the basin that caught it, just another back ground noise in the cacophony of sound that made of the soul of my city. I spun on my heel to look for my friend, and nearly sprawled on the wet sidewalk. I heard giggling behind me and whirled around again to see who was laughing at me, but the crowd was there and the giggler was undistinguishable, although I suspected one of the barbies. I turned around again just as my friend caught up to me. She was panting hard and crouched down on the grey pavement fingers splayed out behind her for balance. She looked up at me and managed to proclaim “sheesh,” before taking a gulp of water from the bottle she had pulled out of her bag.
A burst of thunder sounded, followed by a short splatter of rain. Everybody looked towards the sky, and several indignant yelps about the wet rain, and wet hair could be heard. Mother nature paying back those orange glow barbies. The noise level increased as many minds voiced many opinions about the impending storm, and the music to come. “All right,” I said, “we need to get closer.”
“Ok,” was my friends panting reply, as she tucked her water bottle back into her bag.
We walked the edge of the crowd, looking for an opening to squeeze through. Finally, a likely spot opened up, and we darted in. People grumbled at us as we struggled our way toward the stage. The grip on my shoulder tightened as we wove and ducked our way through the sea of hot bodies pressing towards the stage. Around us people moved and squirmed. The anticipation level was high. I could see the stage more clearly now, but it wasn’t close enough for my liking.
Just a bit further I thought. I wormed my way through another hole. I glanced down at the digital watch on my wrist, any second now and my waiting would be over. I was close enough to stage now to able to touch the amps and maybe even the feet of the bands. The noise level rose another decibel and screams of obsessed fan girls pierced the air in a raucous chorus. Fake smoke was spreading across the stage; it formed small eddies as a breeze washed across the smoke, and then it poured over the edge adding an ethereal surrounding. Strobe lights began to flash in varying colors and patterns, blue swirls and green squares mixed together and purple stripes overlaid them both. A loud speaker cut off the gravely recorded music that had been screeching out of the amp stacks. A chocolate smooth voice announced the name of the first band, and there they were, striding smoothly across the stage to their positions.
The lead guitar tore into a squealing riff, the bass throbbed out a rhythm below that, all accented with a quick staccato drum beat filtering through. The noise level surged once again and the bodies around me began to sway and push into me, and I pushed back. The lead singer’s voice flowed smoothly in with the low, gravelly, mellow voice, a stunning contrast to the heavy metal holding it up. And then we began to dance.
Who we danced with didn’t matter. All that mattered was the movement of the body on a hot summer’s night. We moshed, we jumped, and we shook until we felt like we could fall where we stood but the music kept us going. I was the human girl who had wandered into the fairy ring, forced to dance until dawn broke the spell and I was released. The only problem was I never wanted this moment to end. But end it did when the last bands final note faded away into the night, the strobes stopped flashing and the last of the applause ceased.
As my friend and I faded out the crowd, we linked arms and walked down the darkening streets. In front of us, the clouds from the rainstorm were lit in startling vermilions and oranges, making the tall skyscrapers stand out in black silhouette. Were the storm clouds had cleared, the faces of moon, and stars that made the Big Dipper, Orion, and all of the other constellations peeked out at us, dimly at first, but then brighter as the sun sank and the color faded away over the edge the world. Street lamps flickered on casting long parodies of our bodies against the brick walls of the buildings as we moved deeper into the darkening city.

Publication Date: 07-01-2010

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