"Go away Colin. I haven't gotten my fifteen hours of sleep yet." He grumbled. There was rustling of sheets from the other side of the room, and Gavin's orange head popped up and gasped, "Garrett! It's one in the afternoon! We're gonna be late!"
Garrett jumped up immediately nearly knocking over Colin. Garrett glared at him through sleepy eyes. "Colin! Why didn't you tell me?" The brunette shrugged, looking apologetic. "What's up with you? Cat got your tongue?" Colin looked mournful. Chortling was heard from the doorway, and Gavin, who was making his bed threw Colin a glance, then looked at the chortling Adam.
"Ok, what did you do to Colin?" Gavin asked him in a skeptic tone. Colin excitedly held up one finger, making sure the young blond at the door saw it. Adam smiled slyly at him. "Jinxed. He cant talk until someone says his name five times." Colin waved around his finger trying to get Adam's attention.
"Yes, yes, he said your name once. Four more to go!" He said evily. Colin looked remorseful again, and turned to Gavin who was shaking his head at Adam. "Really Adam, I thought you were above this..." Gavin scolded mockingly.
Adam grinned. "Nope."
Colin moaned and pleaded with his green eyes for someone to release him from his misery. Adam and Gavin looked at each other, a sparkle in their eyes. "Wanna see how long we can keep him like this?" Adam said.
Gavin smiled toothily, "Yeah!" Together they rushed out of the room through the beads laughing, much to Colin's dismay.
Garrett sighed and started putting on some socks. "Colin..." Colin excitedly threw up another finger. "...why don't you just talk. Its only a game." Colin looked at Garrett as though he had just suggested taking up snake baiting as a hobby.
Garrett threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine, fine, play your game. But I'm not saying your name anymore. Why don't you try to trick them into say it? That'll be fun." Colin paused to think about it, then rushed out of the room with a smile on his face. Garrett sighed, and plopped back down on his bed. He thought about his friends, and chuckled to himself. His life wouldn't be the same without them. "What'd I do to deserve friends like this?" he asked himself.
Gavin peaked his head through the doorway beads calling, "Come on! We're on in two hours! Get ready you lazy bum!" Garret groaned, and threw a pillow at the beads, but he missed his brother. "Damn you, Gavin; stand still when I want to hit you."
"But I did, you just throw like a girl."
The second pillow didn't miss.
The four guys made quite a sight walking downtown Toronto with all their gear on rickety carts behind them. But people probably weren't staring at their gear, but more their attire. The most appropriately dressed Adam was wearing an off-white tux shirt, worn out black tux coat--unbuttoned--and bright yellow prom pants with a blue stripe down the legs, completed by brown cowboy boots. Colin, being the second most appropriately dressed, was wearing an untucked maroon dress shirt, dark blue dress slacks with a red stripe, and a powder blue tie that, of course had yellow polka dots all over it. The two brothers drew the most stares however. Gavin, the most. With his red hair, midnight plum dress coat, pea green dress shirt, and odd black and white tie dyed flared pants, one couldn't help but stare. And the electric blue shoes--with flames--tied it all together tastefully. Garrett, slightly more modest, wore his favorite 80's 'riff raff' shirt, as Colin had described it. It had a black base, and looked as though a drunk painter spilled large globs of magenta and cyan on it, then sprinkled random yellow dots all over it for fun. It delightfully clashed with his periwinkle and blue-grey striped pants. Not to mention his famous yellow "Dick Tracy" hat, which barely fit his mass of brown hair. When the four eyesores entered the Radical Coffee Grind's backdoor, they were immediately greeted by the owner, who appeared to be very bitchy.
"You boys are late!" The goateed owner spewed, throwing his arms up in the air.
"Sorry Mr. Kirkoff. Colin got his foot stuck in the toilet...again." Adam explained. Colin stared at him with absolute appal in his eyes.
Mr. Kirkoff looked at Colin, to see if it was true. Colin, swallowed his pride and nodded apologetically. Kirkoff sneered, then muttered to himself. "Figures...Anyway boys, get set up. I'm not paying you lot to stand around!" And he stormed off. As he did so, Colin smacked Adam upside the head. "Ow! Colin you bitch monkey!" Then he realized a second too late what he had just done. "Oh crap!" Colin grinned evilly, as Adam smacked himself in the face.
"Got ya! Ha! That's five! Read' em! Five! Haha!" Colin spoke for the first time in two hours.
"Curse you! 'Till next time Batman!" Adam retorted.
Garrett smiled and shook his head. "Why do I hang around these guys again?" he asked his brother, not really expecting an answer. Colin and Adam looked at each other, grinned, then both gave Garrett a huge "cobra hug" together. "Because we LoooooOOOooOOOooovvveee you!" They said in disgustingly sweet unison as Colin ruffled Garrett's already messy hair.
"Ack!" was all Garrett could respond, but should have been prepared for what came next, when both young men hastily kissed him from both sides. Gavin, who was watching, cracked up and nearly dropped his accordion.
"Ah! Ok, love you guys too, but not like that!!" Garrett shouted, wiping his face with his unbuttoned sleeves. The two young men laughed heartily, enjoying his discomfort. Adam then tapped Colin on the arm and said, "By the way....Jinx! Can't talk 'till someone says your name five times!" Colin looked appalled once again, as he realized they had both declared their love for Garrett at the same time. Except this time, Colin had a reply as he held up one finger for Adam to see. Garrett snorted with a smile on his face, and started hauling his equipment toward the stage.
The "stage" could barely be called a stage; for it was only a slightly raised platform, with a few lights, and luckily places to plug in equipment. Garrett finished unpacking, and did a sound check with Gavin at the controls. Garrett stared out at the tiny crowd that was already there, busy drinking coffee and reading magazines. He knew there were not going to be many more people coming. Not too many people came just for them. He recognized a few faces, and smiled at them. They smiled back and waved; they had been there the week before. Maybe they liked his band? Or maybe they were always there, drinking coffee and reading magazines. He sighed, and wondered if they would ever get any further than this. He wondered if he and his friends would always play tiny underground coffee shops, taverns full of drunk people, and the occasional uptight college. Granted, he wanted more than anything the chance to play at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern, or the Bathurst Street Theater, where some of his idols had played, but so far not many people seemed to notice them. If he made it at one of those places however...well, maybe they would get noticed. Maybe they would start drawing crowds...a fan base even...
A yelp brought him back to reality. Adam was huddled by Colin's guitar and mic stand, sucking on his hand. "What happened?" Garrett asked.
"It shocked me!" Adam said exasperated, motioning to Colin's microphone. Mr. Kirkoff came up to them, obviously hearing someone in despair. "Oh yeah, that. It's a bit testy. Tell Tie-Boy not to touch it too much while he's singing, ok? We've had a few shows get interesting when that happened." As Garrett watched him walk away, he secretly hoped the next gig they did would be better. He also realized that the name Kirkoff would be better off as Jerkoff.
The show wasn't too bad, if you didn't count the fact that everyone in the crowd was too busy ignoring them, and the few people that did seem interested, became unimpressed when Colin grabbed his microphone too tightly; thus ending the song and their gig. They all walked home in the misty drizzle, dragging their carts with their heads hung low.
"Guys, I'm really sorry. I blew all our gigs there." Colin mourned.
"Don't worry about it Col, not your fault the microphone was a standing death trap." Garrett said, brushing it off.
"Yeah," Gavin added. "At least you're all right."
"But you'll have to admit," Adam started with a spark in his eye. "It was pretty damn funny when your hair stood on end and we all stopped. You should have seen the look on everyone's faces...especially Kirkoff's!" Colin and the others laughed together in the rain.
least we don't have to put up with that guy anymore." Garrett added. "It's actually a relief. Thanks Colin. Thank you for nearly being a martyr and freeing us from that neo-coffee-nazi."
For a few blocks, no one spoke. Everyone knew they didn't have another gig planned, and no one was sure they would ever get another one. Even if they did, they knew it would probably be some crappy joint with inattentive audiences.
"We need a drummer." Adam said out of the blue.
"What makes you say that?" Gavin asked. Colin
answered for Adam, and started counting reasons off on his fingers.
"Well, One. people have told me that." Adam nodded at this.
"Two, we need someone to keep rhythm besides Adam. Three. Drummers make band's more interesting. Four. We suck without one. Five. We suck.. nine and three-quarters. We suck. ten. We'd sound better with one, and seventy-three trillion, we suck."
"We don't suck." Garrett growled. Colin gave him a forlorn puppy dog look.
"I know. I was kidding."
Garrett sighed. They did need a drummer. He had been thinking about that for a long time now. But where were they going to find one?
"I want sushi." Adam declared, changing the subject.
"That's nice." Colin responded, seeming to take interest in the grey clouds and buildings above.
"How much money did we make?" Adam asked Gavin, ignoring Colin's dry sarcasm.
"Well, we made 200 dollars, so that's... 50 dollars each." Gavin replied, counting their pay.
"Cool! Who's up for some raw fish and wasabe with me?"
"We need our gig money to fix the kitchen sink...and I think the refrigerator is about to break...again." Garrett replied, taking the role of a pseudo parent. "And I don't know when we can play again. I've been contacting places but no one seems interested." He added sorrowfully. The group never looked more glum.
Gavin tapped his brother on the shoulder. "Aw come on bro. We've just got the shaft, we could at least try to cheer ourselves up a bit. Don't you think?" Garrett looked at his brother through his wet strands of hair, and appeared thoughtful. Then Gavin added with a smirk, "The sink can wait. If it busts all the way, we could do our dishes on the balcony in the rain."
"Not on my hammock mind you!" Colin retaliated.
"What, you're going to sleep on it in the rain?"
"Well, no..."
"Ok guys," Garrett said. "We'll go for sushi or whatever. But make it cheap sushi, got it Sashimi Man?" Adam nodded with a grin and queried. "We gonna go to the Korea House, or the Pearl?"
"Pearl, cheaper. And they know us there." Colin said. He looked at Garret and Gavin for approval. They nodded.
After lugging their stuff back to their apartment, they trekked to Bloor Street in the rain and entered the restaurant. They walked through the unusually bright Japanese restaurant, and sat down at an open spot at the sushi bar. They were greeted by a cheerful young Asian girl, whom they had come to call Kirioke. She served the soggy musicians miso soup, and then their usual tray of assorted sushi. While they sat eating in silence, the owner came up behind them.
"Oh, my favorite clashing cousins!" he announced. They turned and smiled, as he gave them all a big hug. "Hey Mr. Mikado," Garrett replied. "and we're not cousins." The group had frequented the Pearl so often over the past few years, they had struck up a kind of friendship with the aging owner.
"Oh, I know that! I just like calling you that! I think it fits!" When all they could muster was a weak smile, he sat down next to Adam who was stuffing his face with sashimi. "Now these aren't the clashing cousins I know. What is wrong?" Adam grunted under his breath, "11. We suck."
"You suck? Oh my. Do I even want to know?"
"Mr. Mikado, our playing sucks." Gavin corrected.
"Oh come now, I know you boys are good."
"Have you heard us?" Adam said between chewing. Mikado looked down and said quietly, "Well, no...but I bet you are good!" Colin shook his head. "No, we need a drummer. We're putting audiences to sleep. It's sad."
Mikado looked thoughtful. "A drummer you say?" The group nodded solemnly.
"Hmmm, well...I think I might be able to help you."
Gavin stared up at him with wide unbelieving eyes. "You play drums?" Mikado laughed heartily at that. "No! Me? Drums! Ha! Hardly. But I think I know someone who does. Now, I don't know if he'll come, but try coming here around one tomorrow. Oh goodness...he's quite the character..."
"But we wont have enough money to buy lunch. We only came because we decided we needed some cheering up." Garrett said sadly.
"Oh! Don't worry about that! In fact, if you come tomorrow, I'll give you all free green tea ice cream!"
Adam nearly dropped his chopsticks when he heard that.
The next day, which was considerably more sunshiny, the quad ran to Mikado's restaurant. They ran only because Colin, Adam, and Gavin had slept in for once.
"If you two hadn't stayed up all night playing Candyland..." Garrett lectured.
"Mousetrap!" Colin objected.
"Mousetrap...then we wouldn't be running!" Garrett gasped between breaths.
They finally bounded into the restaurant, gasping for breath, and getting stares from the few people there. When they didn't see Mr. Mikado, they made their way over to the sushi bar, and everyone inside returned to their own business. They sat for a few minutes, and Kirioke from the night before greeted them. "Back again? What would you like today? The usual?"
"Oh, nothing Kiri. Mr. Mikado said to come back." Garrett replied. She nodded. "Oh yes, he told me about that." She glanced over to a new customer, and quickly said to the group, "Oh, wait here!"
The group was staring at all the different fish cakes, when they were greeted from behind with a slow, "Bonjour..."
They turned and faced a short, slightly husky, dark haired, amber eyed young man with Kirioke beside him.
"This is Javier. He moved here from Montreal. He claims he doesn't speak much English...but don't believe him! He is such an actor...and more importantly to you...a drummer! Show them..." She said to him. Javier grinned at her, then bowed to the group and picked up two chopsticks and started drumming away on the counter. Then the bowls, the glass, anything...and surprisingly, it sounded awesome. When he finished with a grand finale on the good dinnerware, a few customers in the restaurant smiled and clapped for him, including the quad of friends. He bowed to the restaurant, and oddly enough, said with a thick Russian accent, "Tank you! Come again tomorrows, for me to play for yous again!"
Garrett spoke first. "That...was incredible."
Javier grinned and said with a thick French accent this time, "Tank you."
"Mr. Mikado thought of him, because Javier here likes to drum on everything. He's very entertaining, and he loves to convince people he's not from Canada." Kirioke said to the friends.
"Vhat are you saying for me? I am not from Canada, I am from Ollld countrry...vhere we use all of zee goat..." Javier mumbled in his Russian accent again. Kirioke just looked at the group and mouthed, "See what I mean?"
Garrett looked at his bandmates, and judging by their expressions, they were seriously impressed with his drumming. And a sense of humour was always appreciated.
"So guys..." Garrett started. Everyone turned to him and all at once said, "Yes!" He nodded grinning. "That's what I thought."
Javier seemed to understand what they said to him, even though he still pretended to be from the "Old Country" trying desperately to understand English. "Tank you! Tank you...much for the opportunity for me to plays fors you!" He said with much excitement.
"Come on Jav-I can call you Jav right? Jav...Kiri said you were from Mon-rah-ahl, so what's up with this Old Country stuff?" Gavin asked curiously. "And besides, your accent isn't quite correct. You're actually speaking with a Belarusian accent, which in it's own right is hard to mimic, so I commend you on that. However if you want the true Old country accent you should..."
Gavin would have continued on if Adam hadn't had stopped him by asking him where his glasses were. They were obviously on Gavin's face, but it distracted him for long enough to make him forget what he was saying.
Javier stopped and looked serious for a moment, then spoke with his natural French Canadian accent. "Well, you-see...I want to be an actor. Or comedian. Mostly comedian. Anyting where girls can see me. Ah yes, zee women.... You see, zee women of zee Old Country are for not how you say...'vuluptious'...So derefore, I vill be...um...for drumming for you. Zee women here...zay are beeautiful! And I hear zay like zee musicans, yes?"
"Well, we're in it for the music...but I guess that's a stereotype that ends up true in a lot of cases." Garrett said wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"Well, I think there's only one thing to say." Colin started. "And that's, 'Velcome to...zee band.'" He added in his own fake accent.
Everyone rolled their eyes and groaned.
They left the restaurant with Javier's phone number, and he with their address and phone number. From what they gathered from his old country rambling, he had to go to his temporary job, but promised to visit them the next day.
As they walked back down the street, gathering the usual stares, and thumbs up from the riff raff, Garrett suddenly thought that they could go somewhere. And as they passed the Horseshoe, he visualized his band being on the chalkboard sign, which currently announced that the Rheostatics would play in a few days, and he knew they would be there for that. Soon... He thought to himself. We'll get there.
"Hey, Garrett?"
"Yeah Colin?"
"When are we going to think of a name?"
"Oh Gord..."
"I suggested Blinking Burritos..." Gavin mentioned.
"Oh there's a good one! If we ever wanted to take up Spanish guitars, maybe. But something tells me...probably not!" Adam retorted rudely.
"What, yours was better? What was it...Radical Drive By Dump Truck or something unintelligent? Oh whatever..."
"Intelligent?! And 'Blinking Burritos' is intelligent?"
If we last that long without killing each other that is... Garrett thought to himself smirking.
SeE YOu jAm JuNkieS...