Rock and Roll Angel Pt. 05

Kat blushed. "Buck kind of has a crush on me."

"Remind me to take you car shopping," he said. He put $500 dollars in front of her. "I need a good laptop. See what Buck can get me." he slid the second phone too her too. "In case you need to talk to me."

"How do I use it?" Mental note, hide this from mom and dad.

"I can't believe in this day and age, a modern girl like you doesn't have a cell phone."

"We're practically Amish here in Ballinger," Kat said. He showed her how to use the sleek phone. After the lesson she asked, "You have friends you can call?"

"Not sure I should," Ethan said. "I may have already screwed the continuum."

"The what?"

"I've changed the past somehow," he said.

"How?" she asked.

"You don't enter the singing contest that launches you onto the path were we eventually meet."

"The contest is back on," Kat said. "My parents said I can go."

"Great!" Ethan said looking relieved.

After chewing a bit of steak, she asked. "And I win?"

"Hands down," he said. He took a sip of ginger ale. "Do you think Rev. Rumpot has liquor in the house?"

"Rumcup," she corrected with a laugh. "Not a drop... sorry."

He pushed another hundred at her. "Get me beer?"

"I'm only eighteen," she said.

"What about Buck?"

She nodded. "He'll do it for me."

"I could use an acoustic guitar," he said fingering more money.

"Keep the cash. The Reverend has that," Kat said. She got up and returned with two love worn acoustic guitars. She watched him expertly tune the instruments.

"When is the contest?" he asked.

"Saturday... two days from now."

"You rehearsed?"

"I've been practicing here at the reverend's. But you just told me I win? Why should I bother?"

"How is the contest structured?" he asked.

"I sing my main song, then an encore if I get picked the winner."

"You got sheets for your main song?" he asked.

She fished around the music sheets at the piano. "It's called 'Jesus Owns My Heart."

He looked at the music and started to play. "Sing," he said. She did. After she sang a few lines he stopped and said, "You win with this song huh?"

"What's wrong with the song?" she asked a little annoyed. "It's a church favorite."

"I bet," he said. "Wonder how many other contestants will be singing it? It's stodgy kid... and a little boring."

"This is the AESC. The All Evangelical Singing Competition not American Idol or the Voice. I'd totally lose if I sang Elton John or anything akin to rock and roll."

"Sing me the encore," he said.

She sang 'Deliver Me to Heaven.'

"Wow... you win with those songs huh?"

"You SAY I win?"

"I never asked you in the future what you sung in the contest. Guess I'm gonna have to trust your choices," he said looking worried.

She rolled her eyes. "I gotta go," she said but the last thing she wanted to do was leave. "What you gonna do?"

"Watch some TV... swim maybe. See you tomorrow?"

Is the sun gonna rise? "Jesus willing," she said automatically.

"Better show up with beer," he said.

Kat headed for the door.

"Thanks," he said.

Kat sat in the van for a couple of minutes simply incapable of driving away. In another half hour she would officially be late getting home. Getting grounded would mean no singing contest. "I'm eighteen!" she groused so tired of being treated like a kid. The distinct sound of the sliding door to the the Reverend's pool deck came to her in the night air. She got out of the van and sneaked around to get a peek but encountered the high impenetrable hedge that surrounded the pool. A large maple tree grew close to the hedge at one end. This is so stupid, she thought even as she started to climb up the maple.

The underwater pool lights were the only lights on giving off a an eerie blue glow. Below, Ethan stood at the deep end of the pool facing her direction.

"Oh my," she whisper for he was totally naked.

His body was sculpted perfection, his flaccid organ hanging loose. He was impressive in resting state and she speculated wildly at what his size would be fully erect. At first, his wings were pulled in tight. Then he spread them out bathing them in ripply greenish blue light. He pulled them in tight again and dove in head first. She watched him slide underwater, his form distorted by the rippling surface. At the center of the pool he spread his wings out.

"My lord," she whispered.

His wings pulled in tight again as he surfaced. He swam to where he had dove in and pulled himself out of the water and got to his feet. With his back to her, he did a very animal thing, he vibrated and shook the water off his wings.

"Wow," she whispered as a warmth, starting at her crotch spread to all parts of her body. Even her long brown hair seemed to be tingling. He turned to face the tree and she nearly fell out when she saw that he was fully erect. What she didn't see in the eerie light was that his wings had changed from white to a deep pink with dark red edges. Ethan went into the house out of view.

As quietly as she could, Kat climbed down from her perch, got in the fellowship van and drove home.

********

It was the first week of summer and Ballinger University was out. The usually hopping campus was near deserted. The only activity was at the baseball stadium where crews were preparing for the AESC singing competition. Kat headed in the direction of the baseball stadium. She needed help buying Ethan's laptop, plus Ethan had just called her and asked for some other tech stuff that baffled her. Also, he wanted one of those Netspend credit cards you buy over the counter and put cash on as needed. She knew she could get one at the Bag-n-Sack but noway was she gonna do it in town with out raising eyebrows.

She spotted Buck seating in the stands with a bunch of other boys. The group of boys saw her and one popped up to head her off. Kat rolled her eyes, it was Alan Stone the leader of the only Christian rock band in the city of Ballinger. For a brief moment, Allan's band was called Jesus Wept but a quick Google search proved that the name was taken.

"Finally wised up and come to join Jesus Weeps?" Alan asked. Kat thought that the unoriginal name sounded stupid but she was brought up too polite to say so.

"Sorry... my parents said no," she lied. She never asked her parents to join his band because they sucked. All the other girls in town thought she was crazy for fending off Allan. He was considered the most popular boy in town, good looking, rich family, connected, guaranteed a plentiful ministry somewhere in the country. Plain and simple he was prime husband real estate. She thought he was a total pig and despised him. He was always at the center of torturing her late friend Claymore Shaw.

"Why you here then?" he asked with a lecher's grin.

Not to see you, tell you what, she thought. "I came to talk to Buck." Buck was the band's keyboardist and all around tech guru. "My dad is setting surveillance cameras at the store."

"Where rehearsing. He can come later," Alan said clearly annoyed that her visit had nothing to do with him.

"I'll tell my dad you said so," Kat said with a smile and turned to go.

A few seconds later, Buck was trotting at her side. Kat held back a triumphant smile. Her dad owned the local hardware store and was the best friend of the mayor... namely Allan's dad.

"You going to drive me to the store?" Buck asked. He was a big kid, over six feet tall, a little chubby with messy floppy red hair and surprisingly dark. His father was Mexican and his mother? Irish or something. If he wasn't such a tech geek, he'd be playing center or guard on the school football team. He was already in college and lucky him it wasn't Ballinger University. Wisconsin Tech was HIS destiny.

"My dad is paying a firm to put up the cameras. I Just wanted to get you out of rehearsal," she said. She handed him Ethan's list. "I need those things. Where can I get them?"

"The laptop? Best Buy in Livingston. The other stuff too I guess," he said.

"Can you help me get a Netspend card?" she asked.

"Easy we can do that at the Bag-n-Sack."

"No... I wanna do that in Livingston too," she said quickly. "Road trip?"

"Yeah, sure," he said sounding surprised and pleased all at once.

"What about the rehearsal?" she asked.

"Won't make a difference. We'd still suck."

Kat laughed. Buck beamed with happiness at making the prettiest girl in all of Ballinger laugh.

********

On the way back from Livingston, Kat said from behind the wheel of the fellowship van, "Thanks, Buck you're a great help."

"You can thank me by not calling me Buck," he said shyly.

Kat frowned. "You have another name?"

"Buck is a nickname I got stuck with in first grade. I was kind of big back then too. I have a real first name."

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. WHAT is your name?"

"Danial... I like Danny."

"Danny," Kat said, "please to meet you."

"You okay with me calling you Kat?"

She laughed. "I'm okay with Kat."

"Can I ask why you're buying all this expensive tech stuff?"

She went quiet. He was being polite not bringing up the Netspend card that he helped put a thousand dollars in cash on. That alone must be setting off alarms in the poor boy's head.

"None of my business... sorry," he said, quickly backing down.

"Don't be sorry," she said. "I asked you to help so it IS your business." she pondered for a second on what to tell him. "I have this friend that has this condition. Because of the condition... my friend can't leave the house."

"Okay... is it a guy?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"You... um with him?"

She thought about that for a second. Ethan had said that they become friends sometime in the future. But what did he mean by FRIEDS? She realized that she needed to look beyond Ethan's awesome wings and ask more questions. "My relationship with the guy is complicated. He's in kind of in a mess and I'm helping him get out of it."

"Your parents know about this guy?"

Ouch... "No they don't."

"I won't tell," he assured her.

"Thanks," she said. "I need you to buy me a case of beer."

********

Kat pulled the van up to front gate of the Rumcup place, punched in the code and drove in. Ethan came out wearing just jeans and pool slippers to help her unload. Lord he was beautiful! In the house he iced down some the Rolling Rocks she brought him then loaded the rest into the fridge. Kat made a mental note to make sure ALL of the beer was gone after he left. Last thing she needed was being pegged a party girl by the Rumcups.

She preheated the oven for a frozen pizza then went into the living room to watch him work with his new laptop. "I got over two hundred in change," she said as she fished the money out of her jeans pocket.

"Keep it," he said "Take Buck out to a movie or something."

"He prefers Danny," she said.

"Take Danny out, tell him thanks."

"How do we become friends in the future?" she asked.

"You join my band," he said.

"You come find me?"

"In a way," he said. He looked up from the laptop. "I don't know if it's a good idea for me to tell you any of this," he said seriously "If I say too much maybe the future will change. The very fabric of reality could tear and the guts of the universe could come spilling out."

Kat frowned at his overly violent description. "Or MAYBE we meet BECASE you tell me," she said.

"There's that," he said going back to the laptop. "Okay... this is how it went down. You and your band Jesus Weeps—"

"Hold on!" she yelled. "I join up with Jesus Weeps? But they're... awful!"

"Yes, they are a totally shitty band," Ethan agreed. "My band, Angel's Nest—"

"That's the name of your band?" she asked totally shocked. "I just made that name out of the blue for my new email account."

"Really?" he asked. "My friend Joy came up with the name. Anyway, your band and my band meet with dozen's of other at the the Byle City Rock Festival in Ohio. I hear you sing and offer you a job."

"Just like that?" she asked totally stunned.

"The me in the future has no idea who you are or that we have met before," he said. "In fact, you play the innocence country bumpkin." He gave her a long serious look. "Wonder why you do that?"

She shrugged. She knew why she did it. It made people underestimate her and that allowed her to operate under everyone's radar. She used that little stunt often to get what she wanted from people... especially boys. She was doing it to poor Danny even now.

"You never let on about meeting me," Ethan said. "Probably for the best I guess."

"This is hard for me to... accept," she said softly.

"I know. This time travel stuff boggles the mind."

"No... the fact that I join up with Jesus Weeps."

Ethan laughed at her weird but charming reaction.

"Whats all that other stuff for?" she asked indicating the hands off phone sets he was fiddling with.

"This?" he said holding up one of the headsets. "This is insurance for the future." he walked up to her, brushed aside her long brown hair on the right side of head and put the hands off thing around her ear. His brief contest was electric. "Make sure the ear bud is secure," he said as he walked back to the kitchen table were he put a matching device in one of his ears then hit some keys on the laptop. "Can you here me?" he asked.

His voice came loud and clear from the device in her hear. "Yes," she said. "What's this for?"

"For us to talk during the AESC contest," he said.

"Why?"

"History says that you win that contest. I'm gonna make sure it happens." He handed her sheets of paper.

"What's this?"

"The new song for the contest."

She looked at the sheets. "Why this song?"

"In the future you sing it for me," he said. "It was... um... very effective."

Kat noticed that his wings went a little pink at the edges. "Are we lovers in the future?" she asked bluntly.

"Get there and find out," he said. The edges of his wings got pinker. He handed her more sheets of paper. "Your encore song."

She looked at the title of the song. "No way the contest comity gonna approve this one."

"If the comity is under fifty they won't know what it is."

"How old am I when we become lovers?" she asked.

"Kat... I'm not going to answer that, okay?"

She stood up, took off the ear thing and put it on the table. "I got chores," she said and left miffed. "We ARE lovers in the future... I KNOW it," she said to herself on the way to the van. Again, she heard the pool deck door slide open. With no hesitation, she went to the maple and climbed up to peek. Unlike the night before, the deck lights were on this time. He stood at the deep end of the pool his wings pulled in close in what she had come to accept as their casual resting state. He wore her brother's old gym shorts, and held a bottle of Rolling Rock in his hand. The pinkness on the edges of the wings persisted.

"You are killing me Girl!" he yelled at the night sky then drained his beer.

He put the empty on the ground and pulled down his shorts. He wasn't fully erect but his member twitched in a serous semi state. Kat was no virgin, she had had three lovers to this point in her life so was no stranger to the male organ. Although, Ethan by far was the biggest she has seen out side the internet. He dove into the pool like he had the night before and again spread his wings underwater at the middle. Unlike the night before, she saw the dramatic change in color. When he surfaces his wings were blood red, the edges a darker crimson. He swam back to the deep end and pulled himself out of the water, stood and did the shaking thing again. It was such a primal thing to behold.

When he turned her way, he was fully erect.

The water excites him she realized... or is it me?

********

"Okay, your entry song is accepted," Maddy Olkin said.

Kat knew that it would fly, it was a little unusual but acceptable to the AESC. The encore song worried her though. Just in case, she had brought along the sheet music for her original choice. Maddy Olkin frowned as she looked at the sheets for Kat's encore. She held it out to Brad Jackson the head of the approval comity.

"I liked the title," Brad said.

Maddy slapped it with the approval stamp. Kat exhaled. Ethan was right. Maddy and Brad were in their late twenties and had no idea that the song was a hit at the height of the hippie movement. Worried that wiser minds might intervene, Kat cleared out fast. The sound of rock music - really Bad rock music— came from the baseball park entrance. It took her a couple of seconds to place the song plaguing her ears... John Lennon's 'Instant Karma' reworked for the Christian pallet. Kat rolled her eyes. It embarrassed her the way Christian rock bands stole and butcher rock tunes. Be original then maybe people would come flocking to the cause she wanted to scream at them. The music was so bad that it HAD to be Jesus Weeps. She walked into the the tunnel that led to the park. Yep, Jesus weeps was rehearsing. From where she stood she could see the the expression of pain on Danny Goya's face as he played his keyboards. She covered her mouth to stifle a laugh as she waited for the song to end.

"Hey Danny!" she called out when the song ended.

Surprised but happy, Danny waved.

"My dad need him again... sorry, Allen."

********

"What your mystery friend need now?" Danny asked.

"Nothin' Just thought you needed rescuing." She bumped him with her shoulder.

He had no idea what to say or do so he kept walking.

"I was thinking of joining Jesus Weeps" she said. "What you think?"

"That you're crazy," he said.

"Why do you play in that awful band?" she asked.

"It's the only rock and roll gig in town," he said.

"Buy you lunch? Arby's? Applebee's?"

"Got something better," he said.

********

On the edge of town, Kat sat across from Danny in a tiny little alcove of a Mexican restaurant that she didn't know existed. A big bowl of homemade corn tortilla chips with a hot tangy salsa rested between them.

"How long has this place been here?" Kat asked as she raised a salsa laden chip near the size of her hand to her mouth.

"As long as the Mexican handymen have been coming to town... forever I guess," Danny said working on a monster size chip himself.

"Your dad works for the university ground keeping crew?"

"He owns the contract but doesn't work for the university," Danny said. "He's got the church and all the big shot homes in town too."

A woman came to the table and exchanged rapid fire Spanish with Danny. Than To Kat, she said in English, "The chicken enchiladas are from God."

"I'll have that," Kat said.

The woman smiled at Kat, gave Danny a wink and left the table.

"I see you and your dad at church but never your mom," Kat said.

"Guess everyone knows that my mom ain't Protestant," Danny said.

Rumors were that Danny's mom was Catholic, a rare thing in Ballinger.

"Irish Chaotic right," Kat said.

"German Jew," Danny said.

Kat's mouth dropped open. She was stunned by that bit of unexpected info. "Your dad? Is he...?"

"Jewish too?" Danny asked amused. "Naw... he a Catholic to the bone."

"You and your dad go to church. You're Christian like us right?" Kat asked.

"Catholics are Christians," Danny said.

"You know what I mean... you joined the local church right?"

"Depends on your definition of JOINED. To be honest, dad goes to church to pick up clients. He'd do the same if it were a synagog or Shinto temple."

Kat thought about that for a few seconds. "If your mother is Jewish that makes you...?"

"A Jew," he said. He went into an odd and harrowing story of his bar mitzvah down in Arizona in a place called Morenci, his dad's home town. A torrential rain fell just after a big snow storm in the mountains. The river overflowed and the town was flooded forcing many out of their homes. On that night, Danny gave his bar mitzvah speech outside around a burning trash can at the designated shelter surrounded by family, local coalminers and migrant workers.