Keith didn’t stir so I climbed down. Meanwhile Ryan kept pounding. “Get up. We have a ferry to catch!”
“I’m up,” I yelled.
The banging stopped, so I assumed Ryan was just getting us up. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the clock. How could it be six already? I opened the blinds, filling the room with light. I shook Keith awake. “Get up!”
He gave a few grunts and went back to sleep. “Lay off!”
“Your guitar is gone!”
He sat bolt upright. “What?”
“It isn’t,” I said. “I didn’t know how else to get you up. Obviously you didn’t hear Ryan bang on the door 15 minutes ago.”
“Bloody hell!”
“You’re not as alien as I thought. Now you’re sleeping longer than me.”
When we finally staggered out to the van, Ryan insisted on driving so I was wedged in back. The van reeked of stale cigarette smoke, and Billy and Jimmy’s lack of bodily hygiene.
Everyone was semi-comatose until a convertible with two girls pulled up behind us.
This woke Jimmy up. “Hey, a couple of birds are behind us.” He rolled down his window and leaned way out to wave. Billy rolled down his window from the front seat. Within seconds, they both hung out their windows, trying to get the girls’ attention.
“Get back in the bloody van,” Ryan barked. “If any coppers come along I’ll get the ticket and my dad’ll revoke use of the van.”
The girls waved back. I watched from the side mirror as the driver blew several kisses. Suddenly the convertible sped past, blowing the horn several times.
Billy still hung out the window, blowing kisses.
“Get the fuck back in here,” Ryan yelled. “I don’t want a fucking ticket!”
“It’s bloody boring riding in this van,” Billy said, slinking back into his seat.
“Bloody right about that,” Jimmy concurred.
I thought the scenery was lovely and couldn’t understand why anyone thought it boring. The road twisted and turned around cliffs that overlooked the sea.
Jimmy begged Ryan to speed up. I was glad Ryan refused. I quite wanted to see my next birthday.
We finally made it to Rosslare and piled out of the van to check in at the ferry. Jimmy was still in a bad mood until we ran into the girls from earlier. Jimmy and Billy stopped to chat while the rest of us continued on. “If you’re not with us at check in,” Ryan yelled, “We’re going to England without you.”
“You can’t fucking play without us!” Jimmy yelled back.
We meandered to the terminal and took our place in the queue. Jimmy and Billy staggered in shortly after.
We checked in and Ryan counted out the entire fare in small bills and coins. We trudged back, squeezing ourselves in the van once again.
In about half an hour, we were on the ferry. I grabbed my satchel and Keith’s hand. “Let’s ditch the others.”
“Once we’re back in England I’m taking out more money. Ryan’s not sure how we’ll pay for the hotel and food.”
“What happened to all that money we made last night?”
“The ferry cost a lot and we also needed petrol.”
“Petrol and the ferry couldn’t cost that much.”
Keith looked slightly uncomfortable.
I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. “What did he do with the money?”
“All right, he spent a hundred quid on weed and enough beer for a few days.”
“He borrowed fifty quid from me, then blows money on weed and beer!”
“The weed helps us perform better.”
“I’m not busting my derriere making postcards so you lot can buy drugs. I didn’t need drugs before my second year presentations.”
“And you were a bundle of nerves. It might have helped you to smoke a bit of weed.”
“I have better things to spend my money on. I thought this tour would be more fun. From now on I’m keeping my postcard money to pay lodgings.”
The alert came to return to our cars. Everyone was in a foul mood, mostly me. I felt used and didn’t talk to anybody the whole way. I dug my tape player from my bag and put the headphones on.
Suddenly traffic slowed. We saw the signs indicating roadwork the next three miles.
“Bloody hell,” Keith yelled. “Why can’t they give more advanced notice? I’d of taken a different route.”
“Just get off when you can. We’ll try and go around this mess,” Ryan suggested.
After much stopping, then going all of five to ten miles per hour, we finally pulled off the M4 and wound up in Port Talbot. We wandered a bit, running into dead ends before Ryan complained we were using too much petrol.
“I told you we’d fucking get lost,” Keith screamed.
By now I was starving and needed a toilet. “Let’s find something to eat and get directions,” I suggested.
“I barely have enough to secure lodgings,” Ryan yelled.
“Then munch on the weed you bought,” I shot back.
“You fucking told her? Are you fucking daft?”
“Oi, we don’t keep secrets from each other,” Keith shouted back.
“If we find some place cheap enough I might be able to buy everyone something, but from now on I’ll just take care of Keith and me. The rest of you blokes can sleep in the van and smoke weed.
No one else said anything. We found some fish and chips, but I only had enough for two orders, which we all had to split. No one even bothered to thank me.
As we neared Cardiff, the petrol gauge teetered dangerously toward empty. “We’ll find a bank in Cardiff,” Ryan said. “There’s money in the account I was saving for more tapes, but we can recoup at the Borderline. It’ll just delay things.”
It was touch and go having enough petrol, but the rock gods were looking out for us. However, it was now past five and the banks were closed.
We finally made it to Cardiff University and checked in.
“Let’s go somewhere together,” I suggested to Keith. “I’ve had it with the others.”
“Amen to that,” Keith agreed. “What do you want to eat?”
“Anything but fish and chips, but I only have 10 quid left.”
“I’ll go to the bank first thing tomorrow.”
“That fund has to support us for the next year and maybe more. I can only contribute so much while I’m in school.”
“Unfortunately for tomorrow’s show, we’re the first of three bands playing some punk show. The other two bands are from Cardiff and pretty well known. We’ll have to put on the best fucking show ever to get them to buy enough tapes.”
We wandered Cardiff and shared a pizza. Keith noticed they had Guinness on tap.
“You have plenty in the van,” I said. “Have your precious Guinness later.”
“Like hell. This is on tap and you can’t have pizza without beer. I have a fiver left anyway.” He pulled a crumpled note from the pocket of his threadbare Levis and slapped it down on the order counter. “I was saving for just the occasion.”
“You had this all along while I bought everyone’s lunch? You could have pitched in for petrol. We barely made it to Cardiff.”
“We did though, so no big deal.”
“It is a big deal.” We found a vacant table. “Sometimes you are so selfish.”
“What do you mean? I’ve invested tons in this band.”
“I’m sacrificing the most and it’s not even my band.”
“Sure it is. You’re part of this band as much as any of us.”
We spent the rest of the evening walking along the bay. I was sick of drawing postcards so painted the sunset before exhaustion swept over me.
As we walked back to our room the buildings emitted an eerie glow from the street lamps. The second we got to our room I barely had the energy to shed my clothes and crawl into bed. Keith did the same and crawled in next to me. He wrapped his arms around me.
“Don’t get any ideas,” I said. “I just want to sleep.”
“Come on, it’s early still and I’m used to staying up ‘til two or three.”
“I had three hours of sleep last night. Take a cold shower. Ring me in the morning.”
“Fuckin’ aye!” He threw the blankets off and got up.
I was too exhausted to care.
[To be continued… Click here to view all chapters.]
