As the song started, I thought my chest was going to explode with pride and I had to bite back a smile. To have Erika give a shout-out to the store, that was huge, too. But, man! That was my little sister’s mix that people were hearing. It made me shake my head. She was that person, you know? She had that spark that made her special. Maybe it was guts, or just being ballsy, but failure was not an option for Dizzy. I was really proud of my sister. Not too many big brothers could say that, but not too many families were like us.
I’d emailed the application in to Waverley. I hadn’t told anyone yet, except for Olivia. There was no point in saying anything unless I got in. Dad, especially, would be shocked. I’d never mentioned university to him, and definitely not going away to school. He probably thought I’d always be around, hanging out at the store. Guess I never gave him any reason to think different. He never questioned me when I left: same time, three afternoons a week to go to the campus downtown. I never offered anything, either. Now that the idea was planted in my head, it had taken root. Every time I looked around the store, I didn’t see shelves of records, I saw walls trapping me. The stack of books under the desk was like a ball and chain, proof of the time I’d been stuck behind it.
Maybe that was how he’d felt when he was my age, stuck living in his parents’ house. A life on the road had called to him. I was pretty sure he’d understand that there was more to life than The Vinyl Trap.
- 36 -
Dizzy
It was Friday, the day of the concert, and school passed in a blur. I kept staring at the clock, silently counting down the hours till the concert started. With the money from Debbie at Vintage Village, Maya and I had searched for tickets online. Seats on the floor were going for almost a thousand dollars. But ones in the second level, at the end of the arena, cost about two hundred dollars each. We’d sat, huddled in my room, not daring to exhale, while the money transferred out of Maya’s account. A few minutes later, the tickets appeared as an email attachment on her phone.
“Step three, complete,” Maya had whispered.
When the end-of-school bell finally rang, we both bolted out of the building and speed-walked to her townhouse. Our plan was to get ready there to avoid all conversation with Dad. Maya’s mom wouldn’t be home with the twins until after she was done work, so we’d have at least an hour on our own.
When we got inside her room, I shut the door, even though no one else was at home. We still called the place “Dale’s townhouse,” even though Maya and her mom had lived there for over a year and a half. Maya’s room was even smaller than mine. There was only enough room for a single bed and a dresser. The closet door didn’t close anymore because it was jam-packed with clothes, so it stayed open and had become a rack for jackets tossed over its corner. The dresser was cluttered with makeup and jewellery. Maya went directly to her closet and started yanking clothes out and tossing them on her bed. “Oh my god!” I squealed. “Are we really doing this?”
Maya nodded. “I figured out the bus routes during Math class.” She sat on top of her clothes and pulled up an app on her phone. “The #77 will take us to the city. We transfer at Walpole and take the subway downtown.”
“What about coming home?”
“The #59 goes direct, as long as we catch it before midnight.” If we missed that route, we’d have to do more transfers. “What about this?” She held up a floral tunic dress. “I was thinking with my leather tights?”
“Sure,” I said and nodded like it mattered. I would have been fine wearing the hoodie and jeans I’d had on at school, but I knew Maya would lose it if I didn’t let her style me. “And for you …” She pulled a vintage-y T-shirt and blazer out of the pile. “I was thinking this.” She held the clothes up to me and tilted her head, appraising.
Playing fashion show was only making me antsy. I agreed and put on the clothes, praying that Maya would give the outfit her seal of approval.
“And now, for some makeup.” I kept my groan to myself and let Maya coat my eyelashes with mascara and blush my cheeks. “What do you think?” she asked, stepping away from the mirror.
“Your best work yet!” My skin glowed with sparkly powder and she’d outlined my eyes so the blue popped. She’d even found a shade of lipstick that didn’t wash me out. My hair was still a mass of uncontrollable red curls. Maya tossed on a scarf and called my outfit complete. She changed into her tunic dress and put on a cropped blazer and the tall wedge boots. Just as we were clomping down the stairs, we heard the key slide into the front door lock. Maya turned to me in horror. “My mom! She thinks I’m just going to your house for a sleepover!” As soon as Maya’s mom saw us dressed up, she’d know we were up to something.
I grabbed her shoulder. “Say there’s someone playing at the store tonight. We’re having a party.”
Maya nodded, almost falling down the stairs in her haste to get to the bottom.
Carla stumbled in, one kid in each arm and her bag hanging off her shoulder. The keys she’d used to open the door still hung in the lock. Her hair hung in her face and her cheeks were flushed from carrying the girls all the way from where she parked her car. “Oh! Maya!” she said, surprised. “I thought you were going to Dizzy’s.”
“We are. Just leaving now.”
“My!” Ivy reached for Maya, and Maya’s mom handed her off without asking Maya if it was okay. “Oof. The girls are getting so heavy.” She pulled the keys from the lock and tossed them onto a side table by the door. “What a day! I had two meetings back to back —” She caught herself in mid-sentence and looked at us suspiciously. “Why are you so dressed up?”
I cleared my throat, ready to take this one for Maya, who gave her mom a wide-eyed innocent face. “There’s a sax player in town tonight. An old friend of my dad’s. We’re having a little party for him. Nothing big though. Just a bunch of guys Dad knows.” The lie slipped easily off my tongue. Too easily.
“Oh. Okay. Well, have fun.” But the look on her face as she surveyed the mess of toys and unwashed dishes made me think she’d have done anything to come with us. “Dale’s working late. Guess I’m on my own tonight. Again.”
Maya caught my eye. “We better go.” She put Ivy down and watched her toddle into the living room on unsteady legs.
“Yeah. Bye, Mrs. Alvarez.”
“Bye, Dizzy. Text me tomorrow, Maya, so I know what time you’ll be home. Dale and I need to leave by six —” Her last words were cut off as Maya shut the door. We both gave a sigh of relief that we’d escaped the townhouse with our plan still intact.
The walk to the bus stop was short, just a block toward my place. The line was crowded with other concertgoers, which made me feel better. With this many people going to the concert, we could just follow the herd. Some people had on Georgia Waters concert T-shirts. One woman was talking loudly about how she’d met Georgia ten years ago when she toured. A little voice said in my head said, I’m her kid! Every time Maya and I caught each other’s eyes, we shared an excited smile.
“I’m turning off my phone,” Maya said. “Just in case my mom tries to call me; it will go straight to voice message.” I did the same and we watched our bus lurch up to the curb. The brakes hissed and the doors opened. People at the front of the line moved aside to let the passengers off. “Oh my god,” Maya gasped beside me. “Is that Lou?”
“What? Where?”
“Getting off the bus! I can see him through the windows.”
I spun around so my back was to the open doors. I pulled my scarf over my head to hide my hair, a dead giveaway, and hunched against her. “Is it him?” I asked.
“He’s with a girl. Dizz,” she whispered. “What if he sees us?” We fell back to the end of the line, putting as much distance between ourselves and Lou as possible.
Maya bowed her head, daring quick glances at the people exiting the bus. “He just got off. He’s going to the store.” That was in the other direction. I let out a sigh of relief. We were safe.
“Lou!” Someone ahea
d of us in line shouted for his attention. I whimpered and held onto Maya.
“He’s turning around,” Maya whispered. The guy who’d called out to him stepped out of the line.
“Hey, man! You’re not going to the concert?”
Maya and I kept our heads down, shuffling closer to the open doors. “Nah,” Lou said. “Not this time. This is my girlfriend, Olivia.” Girlfriend! I was desperate to turn around and look at her, but I knew what would happen if I did. Only one person stood between us and the step up into the bus.
“I better get going,” the guy said. “Catch you later.” He took a step back and bumped into us. Maya stumbled. “Sorry!” he said, but it caused a commotion. I held my breath and bolted up the stairs.
“Dizzy?” I didn’t look back. Lou called for me again, but I paid the driver and slunk into the first open seat I found on the far side of the bus. Maya squished in beside me and pulled the scarf off my head.
“He saw you,” she said, breathless.
I could hear him outside the bus. “Dizzy? Where are you going?” I didn’t reply. He knew the answer.
- 37 -
Lou
“Where was Dizzy going?” I asked Dad when Olivia and I walked into the store. He was shelving new stock and looked up at us. His eyes flickered over to Olivia, but he didn’t say anything.
“Dizz?” he asked. “Don’t know. She’s not back from school yet. Thought she was at Maya’s.”
“Maya was with her. They were getting on a bus. For the city.”
Dad frowned. “Why would she take —” He stopped in mid-sentence. “Oh shit,” he muttered. Then he groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “The concert.”
“Yeah.” I looked at Olivia. Now wasn’t the best time for introductions, but I didn’t have a choice. “Dad, this is my girlfriend, Olivia.”
Dad blinked like he hadn’t heard me correctly and took a step closer, holding out his hand to shake hers. “Nice to meet you,” he said, but quickly turned back to me. “Girlfriend, eh?”
“Yeah,” I said and hoped we could avoid any more of the conversation. This wasn’t how I wanted Dad to meet Olivia or vice versa. “Did Dizzy get a ticket?”
A flicker of something, guilt maybe, crossed Dad’s face. “Don’t think so. I know she tried, but it didn’t work out.” Before I could ask him how, he said, “Barney. She went to him for a ticket.”
“She wouldn’t have told us even if she had got one. She knows we think it’s a bad idea.”
Dad gave me a warning look, his eyes darting to Olivia. “It’s okay. She knows,” I said.
He made a noise in his throat and raised his eyebrows. “Oh.”
And I’d be willing to bet Dizzy had told Maya, too.
“I can’t believe she went,” he grumbled and rubbed a hand over his chin, frowning. “Dizz has never gone to the city on her own before. You think they told Carla where they were going?”
“Doubt it. Carla’s pretty strict with Maya.”
Dad looked like he hadn’t heard me as he stood behind the cash desk. “Dad?”
“Yeah, I’m just thinking. Maybe I should go after her? Try to find her before she wastes her money on a ticket. Scalpers will be asking double, maybe triple. Where’d she get that kind of money, anyway?” Dad stood frozen, lost in thought. “I gotta call Carla. She’ll be pissed if she finds out I knew and didn’t tell her.”
Dad’s face sagged, but he picked up the phone and looked at the list tacked to the wall. Dizzy had written out “Important Numbers” in Crayola markers years ago, and the alternating black and purple printing had faded with time. The corners of the paper curled and a splash of coffee stained one side. “Hi, Carla,” he said. “It’s Ray.”
While Dad talked to Carla and told her I’d seen the girls heading into the city, I watched Olivia take in the posters on the walls, the bins of records, and Dizzy’s DJ booth at the back. How different was my life from hers? She said she and her mom could go for days without speaking to each other, and when they did, it was usually a criticism, not a conversation. Dad, Dizzy, and I couldn’t go five minutes without talking. There was always music playing, and half the time some of Dad’s friends were hanging out with us, too.
“We think they were going to the concert.” He was quiet while he listened to Carla. I imagined her freaking out on the other end of the phone. “Dizzy’s a big fan.” Dad turned to me with a shrug, like, What else am I going to say? “Haven’t tried calling her cell yet.” Dad gestured for me to dial Dizzy’s number. I did, but it went straight to voice mail. I shook my head at Dad. “She’s not answering either. Look, concert’s probably over at eleven o’clock or so. I’ll wait here and send Lou and his … and Olivia, down to the arena and see if they can find them, drive them home.” Dad nodded as Carla spoke to him, his mouth turning down in disappointment. “Guess this is part of having a teenager,” he agreed. “Okay. I’ll let you know when we have them. No, no, you’ve got the two little ones. We don’t mind.” He hung up and sighed, then turned to us.
“You two mind heading into the city? Try to find them and drive them home after the concert? Carla’s worried about them taking a bus home so late. If you two split up, watch the exits …” He let his voice trail off. Now wasn’t the time to point out that Olivia had never met Dizzy before.
Dad went to his office and grabbed the keys that hung on the wall. Rarely used, the car sat behind the store on a skinny piece of cement. He tossed the keys to me and I turned to Olivia. “Guess we’re going for a ride. Sorry.”
Olivia shrugged. “Your house is a lot more exciting than mine.”
The car was a rust bucket. Dad had bought it off some guy when we were little so he could take us on road trips. Once we went all the way to Florida and the car broke down when we were halfway home. We’d had to spend two extra days in some dinky town in Virginia. Me and Dizz caught frogs in the forest behind the motel and swam in the unheated pool until our lips were blue.
I put the keys in the ignition and prayed that it would start. The engine sputtered, choked, and then wheezed to life. “Living large,” I said sarcastically to Olivia.
She smiled and clicked the seat belt into place. “Your sister’s a bit of a rebel.”
“We call it strong-willed.” I pulled into the back alley, turning toward the street. “This is new, though, going into the city on her own.” Downtown was a confusing maze of streets. What if they got lost and wandered into a bad part of town? It was getting dark. They could ask the wrong person for directions. Buy tickets from a thug. Get mugged. Two young girls, carrying money for tickets … my mind spun with bad scenarios. I pressed down a little harder on the gas pedal. I was overreacting. They weren’t stupid, but they were fifteen.
“So, Maya’s got a little brother or sister?”
“Yeah. Twin sisters. They’re about a year old. Kinda rocked her world when they came. New stepdad, too. Maya likes him, but he’s a pilot, so he’s gone a lot.”
Olivia nodded. “That would be hard. All those changes.”
“She spends a lot of time at our place.”
“I wish I’d had a best friend like that. When my dad left, my mom kind of lost it. Started drinking even more. I hated being at home with her. I understood why Dad left. I wished he’d taken me with him.”
I looked at her, wishing I could take away some of that hurt. I took one hand off the steering wheel and reached for Olivia’s. She gave it a reassuring squeeze back. We were getting closer to the city, the downtown skyline not in the distance anymore.
“Maya must know about Georgia.”
“Yeah, Dizzy probably told her.” We passed a sign announcing we’d arrived and that the population was 1.732 million people. And my little sister was somewhere in the middle of it.
- 38 -
Dizzy
The bus lurched forward, chugging for a block and then stopping for a red light. We’d escaped Lou and were on our way. I gave Maya’s arm a squeeze. We both sat back, watching the down
town skyline of the city draw closer. There was a lot of emotion racing through my head. This was the gutsiest thing either of us had ever done. The streets got more congested with cars as we got closer to the city. Horns honked, and I could see beams of light from the arena shooting up into the night sky. Throngs of people of all ages flooded the sidewalk and dashed across the streets, oblivious to pedestrian crossings. Lou’s number flashed on my phone. Without answering or checking his texts, I turned the phone off. He could be mad at me later. I didn’t want him to ruin my night.
We got off the bus and went down the stairs to the subway with most of the other passengers. A train shot into the station and hissed to a stop. Maya and I gave each other excited looks. We were that much closer to the concert.
The noise level on the train rose as we got close to the stop by the arena. Passengers crowded at the door, anxious to get off. “Oh my god.” Maya took a deep breath in. “We’re here.” I gave her hand another excited squeeze. We walked up the stairs to the sidewalk. Even though it was dark, the street lights lit up the night like it was daytime.
The arena doors were a block away. We got caught up in the stream of people heading toward the entrance. Some sang Georgia Waters’s songs at the top of their lungs. Maya grabbed my hand, and together, we forged ahead, following the swell of people. Why had we been nervous to come down here on our own? It’s not like we could have gotten lost. Georgia Waters fans weren’t troublemakers either. I smiled at Maya as if to say, See, this was the right choice. But her eyes were darting around so fast, trying to take everything in that she missed it.
The arena was decked out in all things Georgia. Banners hung from the ceiling and fluttered in the breeze from the opening of doors, television screens showed footage of past concerts, and kiosks were set up with merchandise. Maya turned on her phone and pulled up the tickets so they could be scanned by security. Once we got through the metal detectors, we were officially at the concert!
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