An Enchanted Lunch
By: Jenna
“Okay, I am sick of always
being the one to decide this guys, where are we stopping to eat?” Brian
yelled at the top of his lungs to the rest of the guys on the bus.
“Mc---” Nick started to
speak but was cut off by Brian.
“No! No McDonald’s, I am so
sick of McDonalds!” Brian shot back at Nick.
“Okay, this billboard looks
interesting,” AJ observed out the window on the bus. “Hey! Take the next
exit and turn left.” He called out to the bus driver.
“Okay, sure thing.” The
bus driver shouted over his shoulder.
“What’s the name of the
place, AJ, Arby’s?” Howie asked sarcastically.
Kevin was sitting in his
seat, his eyes never left the book he was reading.
“It’s called Enchantra’s
House of Delights.” AJ replied proudly.
Nick laughed. “It
sounds like a porn store, figures you would notice that sign, AJ.”
“Hey, let’s give it a try,
it said good food.” AJ shrugged his shoulders.
As the bus pulled into the
parking lot, Nick, AJ and Brian looked out the windows on the left side to see
the so-called good food restaurant. It was a small white building with
dark green shudders. Flowers surrounded the bottom of the building and
along the walkway. It did look like an enchanted house from a story.
As the bus came to a halt,
Nick jumped up out of his seat and grabbed his jacket. “Good, I am
starving.”
“Nick, you are always
starving.” Brian laughed as he followed his friend off the bus towards
the front door.
“I think you guys should go
take-out, we are already behind schedule as it is.” The bus driver
advised.
Howie and AJ waived back at
the bus driver without turning around.
As they entered the dark
restaurant, their noses were filled with scents that brought back memories for
each of them, pleasant memories.
“I think I like this place
already.” AJ said as he rubbed his hands together.
Brian grabbed the menu that
was at the counter next to the cash register. Scanning down the list of
dinner items, he noticed they all had exotic names, and below each description
there were words that were Latin or some type of weird language. All of
the guys took their turns looking at the menu.
“Could we order our food to
go?” Howie asked the cashier.
“Certainly, you may want to
have a seat in a booth though, it will take about 5 minutes to package up,
okay?” The waitress with the nameplate that read “Trisha” smiled at AJ.
The waitress followed the
guys to the booth. All but Nick ordered the same items off of the
menu. Nick ordered a platter that was intended for two people and Brian
and AJ immediately gave Nick a dirty look.
“Hey, back off, I said I was
hungry!” Nick growled at them.
After waiting for ten
minutes, their order was completed and they took the bags and got back onto the
bus. Nick grabbed his bag and went to his bunk on the bus to be alone and
eat in peace and quiet as he told them when he walked away.
______________________________________________________
The bus roared to a stop
outside of the auditorium where the concert was scheduled. Crowds of
people were surrounding the building and the guys knew that they would have to
make a run from the bus to the back stage door or be mobbed by the fans.
Once inside the building,
each of them went into their assigned dressing rooms and got their clothes
changed for the first number of the concert. They joked around after they
were dressed and politely took care off all of the people with backstage
passes.
“Five minutes, guys.”
A promoter walked past them with his hand held up.
Nick, Brian, AJ, Howie and
Kevin walked to the stage in the darkness and took their places for the grand
entrance. The music was cued up and the smoke started billowing out of the
machines.
The guys burst through the
smoke, the girls started screaming wildly. Brian sang his part of the
song to perfection and they moved gracefully to the choreographed dance steps.
When Nick’s turn to sang
came up, everything seemed to come to a screeching halt. Nick opened his mouth
to sing, but it wasn’t his voice that came out, it was a young girl’s voice,
almost a 10 year old girls voice. Puzzled, Nick cleared his throat and
tried again. It was still a
young girl’s voice,
a voice that couldn’t carry a note, either.
Nick tore his headset off
and ran offstage. The music had already stopped and the crowd had grown
quiet. Brian followed Nick offstage to see if his friend was okay.
He found Nick pacing back and forth clearing his throat.
“Hey buddy, what’s
wrong?” Brian asked as he put his hand on Nick’s shoulder.
“Hem,” Nick tried to clear
his throat and it was high pitched. “I don’t know!” Nick replied,
his voice sounding like a little girl’s.
“What can we do?”
Brian was starting to panic, they had an auditorium full of 30,000 screaming
girls and Nick couldn’t sing.
“Go on without me.”
Nick said. His hand was up to his throat.
Reluctantly, Brian ran back
out onto the stage and told the rest of the guys what was going on and that
Nick wouldn’t be able to perform tonight.
Nick walked slowly back to
the bus, his head down. He was thinking over and over in his head what
would cause his voice to do what it was doing.
Once inside the bus, Nick
decided to go lay down in his bunk thinking that maybe he would start to feel
better. He brushed aside all of the gamely cartridges, comic books, food
wrappers so he could lay back.
Looking at the litter that
was surrounding him, his eyes fell on the flyer from the “Enchanter’s House of
Delights.” Nick picked the paper up and read it. He looked at the
description of what he had eaten and bolted up and struck his head when he came
to one part in particular.
Clutching the paper, Nick
ran as fast as he could to the stage, the group was performing The Perfect
Fan. Nick ran onstage and interrupted the entire show. When he
appeared onstage, the crowd burst into applause and screams. Nick looked
at the crowd, gave a faint smile and shoved the paper at Brian.
“Read this.” Nick’s
voice was still not the same.
Brian looked at Nick as if
he was ill.
“Come on, read!” Nick
shoved the paper at him insistantly.
Brian read the paragraph
outloud. “Adrenialiena, a spicy combination of meats and cheeses guaranteed to
alter your voice or appearance. The only cure is to kiss a member of the
opposite sex a tender and long loving kiss.”
“That’s what I had! I
have to kiss someone.” Nick looked out desperately at the crowd.
“Whoa, wait a second, what
did us guys eat then?” Brian was starting to panic. His eyes skimmed the
page for their food item. Relieved, Brian read that their food only
induced a long, peaceful sleep lasting 12 hours. He failed to finish the
part that read, this will occur in 5
hours after it is
eaten. Nick pointed that part out to them and
told Brian that
there were only going to be awake for about
10 more minutes.
“Man! I had some of that
too!” Nick sputtered. Yanking on Brian’s headset and pulling it off
of his head, Nick spoke into it. “Um, I need a kiss.” That
immediately brought a response of screams.
Nick walked down the steps
in front of the stage, he walked up to a young girl and looking tenderly into
her eyes with his dazzling blue eyes, he bent forward and kissed her very
passionately.
It was a good thing that
Nick had been holding onto her waist, because the girl fainted from his
kiss. Nick smiled at her friends and softly said, “Thank you.”
Turning and running back
onto the stage, the group hastily performed one last song and then ran off the
stage as fast as they could to the bus.
When the driver got onto the
bus, he found Kevin, Brian, AJ, Howie and Nick fast asleep in their seats, Nick
holding onto his gameboy and Brian snoring loudly. Looking at the piece of
paper in Brian’s hand, he laughed softly to himself and shook his head.
“Enchantra’s House of
Delights. These
guys will never learn.”
The End
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