A moment of Zen - Canterbury Knights

[D'Artagnon]

While out shopping with my partner, this song came on the radio and I had the image of this scene running through my head.  Had to come home and try to bang it out right away.

 

For those that don't know the song, here's a few references.

 

For the Glee fans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeENLD4BBsk

 

For Anime fans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvvP1kmzNHY

 

 

The Story - Middle of November, a week before Thanksgiving break.

 

The radio comes back from a commercial break and the DJ's voice picks up.  "It's pretty miserable out tonight, folks.  Pouring down rain, cold, nasty.  The kinda night that you'd much rather just sleep away, ya know.  Stay indoors.  Veg out with the TV or a book.  But I'm thinking that some of you out there need a little energy.  A little kick in the pants.  So for all you late shifters, doing what you do to keep the world spinning at night, for all you pizza guys keeping the heavy fuel heading my way, for all you kids out there hitting the books hard between X-Box breaks, let's see if we can get the juices flowing a bit."

 

The first beats and synth stabs reach out, seeping into your head, filling a back beat into your own pulse.

Down on Peabody Street, sitting at the dinning room table upstairs, Robby and Kenny are bent over their homework, As the beats and volume build, Robby's shoulder twitches in time to the beat.  Kenny notices almost at once, looking up with a quixotic expression.

 

Three blocks away, Max is up in his room, trying to answer a history question from his text when the beat invades his ears as well.  Unconsciously, his heel starts lifting and dropping with the meter and he takes in a deep breath.

 

Out in Salisbury Beach, Nick clicks on the radio in time to hear the DJ's final sentence and his eyes snap open wide, recognizing the song.  Over at the small desk they share, Cody is face down trying to puzzle out Latin conjugations for "occento" when the sound reaches him as well.  From under his bangs, he looks over to see Nick beginning to shake his hip around slowly in time with the beat.

 

Robby slowly looks up, his blue eyes partly shadowed by his hat.  "Standing in the rain," he half sings half whispers.

 

Max slowly stands, bowed over, but his heel still keeping time.  "With his head hung low"

 

Nick raises his head, leaning all the way back, his hands slowly forming fists.  "Couldn't get a ticket."

 

Kenny looks over at Robby, lifting an eyebrow.  "It was a sold out show?"

 

Robby looked over at Kenny, his eyes beginning to match the grin forming on his face.

"Heard the roar of the crowd."

 

Max unconsciously activates his body focus, his telekinetic touch reaching over to the radio's volume knob and giving it a few degrees of twist louder.  "He could picture the scene."

 

Nick points at Cody, swinging his body around to face his boy friend full on.  "Put his ear to the wall!"

 

Kenny leaps to his feet, taking a stance as Robby also stands up, so fast that the heavy oak chair behind him slides back two feet.  Together they sing, "And like a distant scream!"

 

Max's arms flail into a windmill air guitar strum, head stretched high, a grimace of rock glory on his face, singing out as well.  "He heard one guitar!"

 

Nick took three quick steps and slid on his knees to where Cody sat, looking on bewildered.  "Just blew him away!"

 

Kenny and Robby rammed shoulders together, shouting out the lyrics, mimicking guitars themselves.  "Saw stars in his eyes!"

 

Max jumped and dropped to one knee while strumming the next power chord on his imaginary guitar.  "And the very next day!"

 

Nick slid his hand out on the imaginary neck of his own imaginary guitar, bringing his voice down.  "Bought a beat up six string."

 

Cody looked over at his crazy boyfriend and rubbed his fingers in Nick's wild mop top.  "in a second hand store."

 

Robby looked across the room and hopscotched two of the Jedi class light sabers over to his and Kenny's hands.  "Didn't know how to play it."

 

"Boy's, what's going on in there," Kenny's dad said from the kitchen.

 

Max felt his body focus energize, his body starting to glow as the beat built up again.

 

Nick looked deep into Cody's eyes, watching as his more straight laced boy began to put his hands in the air guitar position as well.  "But he knew for sure..."

 

"That one guitar!"  And all the boys strummed their instruments at once, singing loudly.

 

"Felt good in his hands."  Nick leaned backwards, stretching his thighs as he put his shoulders to the floor.  Cody stood, going into "I'm too cool for guitar, I play bass" mode.

 

"Didn't take long!" Max shouted out, swinging his arm wild for the strum as his feet left the ground.

 

"To understand!" Kenny called out turning his back to Robby's shoulder, both of them using the lightsaber blades as guitar necks and strumming over the handles..

 

"Just one guitar!"  Nick called out, popping back up to his feet and switching into glabro form, looking more rough and ready rock star-ish.

 

"Slung way down low!"  Robby sang, turning so his back was pressed up against Kenny's back.  He felt Kenny's head loll back against his shoulder as they both kept playing air guitar.

 

"Was a one way ticket," Max sang out, turning the volume up again from across the room.

 

"Only one way to go," Cody sang, stepping forwards and playfully nudging Nick over backwards.

 

"So he started rockin!" Robby and Kenny stood side by side, leaning back and forth to the beat as they sang and played

 

"And he's never gonna stop!" Cody also switched to glabro, instantly looking 5 years older and a bit rough around the edges.

 

"Gotta keep on rockin'!" Kenny shouted, leaning back deep as if hitting a really high note on the lightsaber in his hands.

 

"Some day gonna make it to the top!"  Robby shouted, spinning in place.

 

"And be a juke - box - hero!"  Max sang out, eyes closed, spinning in the air.  His brother Michael opened the door, having heard Max banging around from downstairs and looked on in annoyance.  He shook his head wearily and closed the door.

 

Over at Paul's home, Jack was watching in mild amusement as Paul knelt on his bed, strumming imaginary strings on his own Jedi class lightsaber.  Paul's singing was horrible, but the show wasn't bad, as far as Jack was concerned.  He simply grinned, his hands slapping out drum beats as Paul made an absolute fool of himself.

 

Paul just grinned and grimaced banging his head in time with the song.

 

As the final drum beats kicked down and the last strum sounded, the boys collapsed back in their seats.  Robby and Kenny dropped on the big overstuffed couch, giggling maniacally as Kenny's dad came into the room to see what was so funny.  Max relaxed and sighed heavily, telekinetically turning the volume down again and picking up his pencil, thinking of visiting Cameron's dreams later that night.  Cody sat sideways on the desk chair and draped an arm over the high wooden chair back, watching as Nick fell over the back of the couch and noticed Yoseph's bare feet, looking up to see his mentor glancing back and forth between the two boys.  Paul collapsed backwards on the bed and immediately had to deal with Jack pouncing him.

 

The next song began, even as the rain outside continued to fall.

[Zach Caldwell]

Very Nicely done. Play the music as you read folks.

[Jeikor]

WOW!!! That was great!!!      

[Mark C.]

I love it! Many thanks!

[Ricky]

OK, letting you watch videos MAY work.

[D'Artagnon]

A look ahead, into Max's future.

 

 

School was like normal when I went back.  Word had gotten around that Cam and I had been jumped while camping out.  Small towns have a way of spreading the news quickly.  And of making the story better with every telling.

 

I "heard" all sorts of variations on what "happened" to us.  And gotta say, some of them were wildly imaginative.  One kid thought we'd been jumped by kids from nearby high schools, looking to keep me off the soccer pitch.  A couple of girls got quiet when they walked by me, but they all still were thinking about that we supposedly had been camping at the Watch so we could have sex with girls and someone's father or older brother showed up to beat on us.  One older boy, with a Emo haircut, had it from a reliable source that a random homeless nut job had attacked us in the woods to steal food.  Someone else, walking by, was thinking about how it was lucky i could still see after getting kicked in the head like that.  Other speculation ranged from us being abducted by aliens, that we'd gotten into a fight after stealing beer and getting shit faced, someone thought there was some kind of weird sex stuff going on (almost true), and there was even a freshman that thought it was some kind of live action role playing game that went really, really dark.

 

Fortunately, I could keep my head down as I walked the halls to the lunchroom.  It helped me keep from smiling.  If they only knew, right?  Like if they only knew I could hear what they're thinking.  I walked through the cafeteria line and sort of mumbled when asked about different foods.  I still felt weird, but the control I'd practiced in the last 10 days since the attack at Rocky Fen paid off.  I was able to listen without being distracted, and without having to exert myself any.

 

See, it's not a matter of trying to read minds.  That requires more focus and is really involved.  Going deep into someone else's gray matter like that is like trying to cross a jungle on a deserted island.  You don't really have a map and everything is tangled, light shifts through the upper canopy and makes strange shadows.  It isn't easy, so don't worry about some unsuspected telepath picking your mind for like PIN numbers or your password for Facebook.  I've not done it much, and even then I don't like to do it.  It feels weird being in someone else's head, and I get dizzy afterwards.

 

On the other hand, just listening to surface thoughts all around you is more like just listening with ears.  It's like broadcasting radio signals: anyone with the right radio, dialed in to the right station can hear whatever signal is freely sent.  Usually, it's pretty short range.  Mike isn't sure if that's a matter of the energy of the signal most people put out or if having so many signals kicking out all the time in large populations just muddies the signals into that background noise that used to buzz around in the back of my head.  I'm better at screening that out now, and the surface mumbles too.

 

As I crossed the lunchroom for a table near one of the corners, I caught a lot of other signals.  Two girls and one upperclassmen boy were thinking really dirty thoughts about me.  The girls I sort of ignored, but I scoped around to see who the upperclassman was.  I was so shocked by the images in his head that I was kinda worried.  It made me feel sexy but also made me feel dirty, like a target on someone's scavenger hunt list.  Like a disposable thing and not a person.  The kid was smart, I felt, but sick.  Not sick in the head, just sick in the heart.  Like maybe he didn't have one.  Pure sexual predator type. 

 

I lost the contact as I walked across the room, but made a note to keep my eyes out for that person's "feel" again.  Whoever he is, he has a lot of bad ideas,  And apparently he's acted on some of them, with an eye to acting on me.  Something I might have to take action on later.  Have to admit, though, the thought of being under that boy's eyes again, under his thoughts, made me shudder.  Kid was cold.

 

But that's another story.

 

 

Just an idea of what Max's second story will be like.  No working title as yet, just a lot of ideas and a general plot line.  Watch this space..

[Guest]

terrbile, i hate cliff hangers! LOL no it was incredable I love the way you flowed them together how I missed the link to these is beyond me, you have the best fantasy story going keep at it. you have one huge fan right here who's willing to wait form more including chapter I  LOL  I know nothing! I ay nothing! I hear nothing!      a nudge is as good as a wink to a bind bat can't wait to see more.  Still not sure how i missed this. course i was busy hunting those days so that may be why. just read and listened to the songs as well awesome work  I'll plug you into my battery charger if you get low on ideas it'll get the barin juices flowing and it also has a 150 amp jump start  if we really need it LOL       

[Guest]

I watched the video a second time, cause something didn't sound quite right and now i know why LOL the dude is playign a les paul in the video, and what I am hearing is a telecaster.  not a les paul LOL sorry of course i know it's a movie and they dub things in it's just they all sound different each type has a unique sound like my Gretsch sounds way different then my les paul, and the same with the start, and telecaster, It's all in the body and pickups. even an Ibanz  has a unique sound, but anyways most people wouldn't know one from the other unless you really sit and listen to like a live concert video and watch them change guitars during the playing and even then most people wouldn't notice the subtle differences it really takes that to spot it, and listen closely to the sounds each guitar makes. there is even a huge difference in bass guitars  everyone thinks one bass sounds like another but thats not the case. ok I'm a weirdo LOL it's just hollywood, and I know it's all audio editing. and a les paul looks more flashy on screen then a plain fender strat.   but the song is great, and I think I'll go see how long it takes me to get the right effects and play it (about 20 mins) actually I think I'll drive my neighbors nuts, I aint had my amps cranked in a while. time for something heavy and metal !  Don't shoot the messanger  Like i said I'm a guitar nut and am lucky i got one gift when i was born and thats a musical ear. I may have been cursed with many other things but at least i can shine when I play

[Mark C.]

Huh? If Mozart didn't play it, is it a real musical instrument? grin....

[Guest]

It's that damn guitar ear  i got.  i can tell the tones of just about any guitar played from acoustic to electric.