Five more acts followed. A couple were like heavy metal – one a decidedly better group than the other. How do you award points to stuff that isn’t really your thing? thought Tam. They found it interesting that Kakko was into it more than Tam, who only gave them four and five respectively. There was a pretty awful ballad attempt that was decidedly out of tune that they both marked down.
At the interval the group of teen girls next to them, all leapt up and pushed past brusquely. Whatever they were after they were not going to be down the queue. Tam and Kakko had no money and decided it best to remain where they were.
The second half was the same format as the first. There was one exceptional singer. He had a fantastic voice and sang with soul and passion, hitting high notes with ease and power. Everyone leapt to their feet. The girls next to Kakko were whistling and shouting. There was little doubt that this artist was going to get eights from most of the people.
“How do you follow that?” yelled Kakko in Tam’s ear.
After a more muted announcement, a rather timid-looking dark-skinned girl with a guitar crept onto the stage. She was dressed in a pale blue T-shirt and a green and blue rah-rah skirt over navy blue tights. She sat on a high stool, flicked back her long, fluffy hair with blue highlights and began to sing. It was a melodious country song – gentle and deep. There was only polite applause at the end of her song. She failed to manipulate the young audience like the boy who had preceded her. He had been all power and charisma. It was an unfortunate slot, thought Tam. Had she followed the poor heavy metal band she would probably have come over better. He gave her a seven, but Kakko was moved and pressed the eight. The final act was a girl-band. Kakko remarked to her boyfriend that they couldn’t have worn much less if they had been on the beach. Tam just shrugged. They looked pretty cool to him.
When the girls had finished and the final ten-second countdown had been completed, the compère returned and invited all the acts back on the stage. He explained that he was about to get the results through his headset. After a delay punctuated by a few of his terrible jokes, he announced the results. The better heavy metal band came in third, the boy-band that had opened the show, second and the solo male artist, first.
“You can’t argue with that,” said Kakko in Tam’s ear as the applause resounded around the theatre.
“Guess not. The female acts didn’t stand a chance with this audience,” he grunted as the teenagers next to them trampled them to get out of their seats. “The girl country singer with the guitar was good, I thought.”
“That’s because you like that kind of music.”
“Sure. I know I am square. She didn’t stand a chance after that boy. He was always going to appeal to this audience.”
“You are about four years older than most of them.”
“An old man!”
“Yeah. At twenty you’re definitely past it,” joked Kakko.
“So what now?”
“Follow the crowd, I guess.”
“Go with the flow. Better hold on to each other in this crush.”
As they left the theatre, the crowd pushed and pressed in on them and Tam and Kakko were forced closer together than they had ever been.
Outside the air was cold. Some of the young members of the audience were going round the corner to the stage door. Kakko and Tam watched from across the street as the rest of the crowd gradually melted into the bright lights of the coffee shops and bars. The girls at the stage door let out a scream as the bands and, finally, the single male singer were ushered through them into waiting cars. Then they, too, dispersed, and the lesser sounds in the city centre were all that remained.
Tam and Kakko looked at one another.
“Our white gate was inside,” murmured Kakko.
“I was thinking the same thing. The doors are locked to us now. Guess it’s time to trust again. What next?”
“Let’s just walk,” said Kakko. They chose the street with the lights and the night-life and walked past brightly lit shops, a discotheque, several bars and a gaming arcade in semi-darkness with flashing colours and the rattle of coins against a backdrop of up-beat music. As they had no money, none of these places were open to them. People – mainly young – jostled about, intent on having a good time. Some looked happy, some didn’t. Kakko couldn’t remember herself ever being quite so on the outside of things. All they could do in this strange place was observe.
“You notice so much more when you’re just watching,” said Kakko.
“Yeah, ‘people watching’. Looking at these faces, I reckon there are a lot who are not happy here. They’ve come for a good time but so many are sad.” They stopped outside a particularly popular arcade. Young folk were feeding greedy gambling machines with an intensity new to Tam and Kakko.
“That’s ugly,” said Tam.
“But they don’t know that.”
“No. I suppose they can’t afford to admit it. They are keeping the blues at bay with the drink and the bright lights and the crowds… and probably drugs too, some of them.”
“They’ll know it tomorrow. I bet they will all wake up depressed with painful heads.”
“They aren’t thinking of tomorrow; they daren’t.”
“We don’t have many people like this on our planet,” remarked Kakko.
“Oh. We do! You haven’t lived in the city. Downtown we do. Kakko, have you ever looked into the eyes of some of the kids? When you get to college you see it. Some of them are decaying from the inside. They have no sense of purpose and no sense of self-worth. I was once invited to a party in one of the halls. The air of depression and a lack of any kind of hope just hit me. All I was expected to do was get drunk and make passes at the girls. I tried to get into conversation with one of them but she quickly got upset with me and told me to give up talking and thinking and just snog her.”
“And did you?”
“What do you think? I hardly knew her! All I could think of was getting to the bathroom before I puked. Honestly, Kakko, the place just stank. I got outside and I could smell the night scented flowers and the clean, fresh air and thought…” Tam hesitated.
“What did you think, Tam?” asked Kakko impatiently.
“If you must know, I thought of you.”
“That’s nice. So what did you do?”
“I texted you. But you didn’t reply.”
“What did you say? I can’t remember that one.”
“Oh. Something like, ‘How u doing? Missing u.’”
“But I wasn’t ready to be missed, was I? All I could think of was passing my exams.”
“Quite right. But I’m not missing you now. Here we are stuck on a foreign planet goodness knows how far from home and our only means of getting back there is behind locked doors.”
“Yet you’re not sad?”
“No, for two reasons. First, because I’m with you of course…”
“You’re so romantic! And second?”
“Because the Creator is here too. And wherever She is, we are in Her hands…”
“Home is with God?”
“Ultimately, yes. So if the worst comes to the worst and we are dissolved into oblivion we’ll still end up with Her in our home dimension.”
“With Grandma,” sighed Kakko.
“Oh. The welcome party will be tremendous. But for now, I don’t think that’s God’s plan. Let’s keep walking.”
After a couple of hundred metres the shops and lights ended but the road headed on into darkness. They had come to an unlit bridge with iron railings. It spanned a large river that was pitch black except for the glint of lights reflecting on its rippled surface. A cool but sweet breeze struck their faces and fresh air cleared their lungs of the fug of sweaty bodies, stale perfume, alcohol fumes, smoke and who knows what else they had encountered only a few metres back.
“Peace at last,” sighed Kakko. “I guess this place is quite pleasant in the daytime.”
As their eyes got used to the darkness, Kakko and Tam made out t
he shapes of the occasional person coming towards them – people walking with purpose, going somewhere. It crossed Tam’s mind that there may be muggers about in a strange city like this at night, but he didn’t say anything. Then about twenty metres in front of them they saw a lone figure, sitting on the paving stones, back against the railings but hunched forwards, head lolling. They stopped, hand in hand. The person appeared to be asleep … or something. There was a dark object on the ground just beyond the body. Kakko recognised it as a guitar case – and then she made out a skateboard too.
Somehow these things seemed to make this figure less threatening and Kakko approached dragging Tam behind her. The figure moved and looked up, alarmed and yet resigned at the same time.
“It’s OK,” said Kakko hurriedly. “We won’t hurt you.”
Then Tam recognised the pale blue top and the long hair with blue highlights.
“You. You’re the girl that sang in the talent contest just back there. You sang a country song. Danni… or something,” said Tam.
The girl nodded dejectedly. “Da’yelni.” She struggled to get up but Kakko had already got down on the pavement beside her.
“You OK?”
“Yeah… I guess.”
“What do you mean, you guess?” asked Tam who was crouching on his haunches in front of the girls. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, it’s all finished, ain’t it?”
“What’s finished?” asked Kakko.
“You saw it, if you were there. They don’t like me. Nobody voted for me. I ain’t got no talent!”
“But you have. We voted for you. I gave you a seven.”
“And I gave you an eight,” smiled Kakko.
“Thanks. But it didn’t stop me coming last. The compère, he didn’t say who came last but I saw the scores. I was twelfth.”
“But that’s to do with the audience,” said Tam. “They were bound to be into the boys – most of them around us were not really discerning the music but just who was hot. At another kind of gig you’d be at the top.”
“But there ain’t no other kind of gig is there? Not around here.”
“But you don’t need loads of fans. Do you think your music’s good?”
“Nah. I guess it ain’t. I thought so, but now I know, it ain’t. That’s the problem, I really ain’t got no talent.”
“So are you going to try and sing some of the songs the others sang?”
“Nah, course not”
“Why, because you’re not good enough to try?”
“I don’t wanna try. They’re crap. That boy who won, did you register them lyrics? There was only three lines which went over and over, ‘Baby I’m into you. I’m into you big time. You’re oozing all over me…’ What kind of song is that?”
“So what you sing is better, right?” said Tam.
“I think it’s not only better, it is good,” said Kakko. “But you have to believe that yourself. As long as you think it’s good, that’s fine. If the rest of them don’t recognise that, who’s fault is it?”
The girl hesitated.
“Theirs,” affirmed Kakko. “They’re the ones that are missing out.”
“Guess so. But it don’t feel like that.”
“What about your folks? Won’t they be looking for you?” asked Tam. “Won’t they be worried about you out here in the dark all on your own?”
“No. They’re back in the village. I’m a student here. All my flatmates are down there getting pissed. No-one’s giving me a second thought. When I got out the stage door they were all trying to get to that boy-band so I just sloped off.”
Kakko was beginning to understand. Da’yelni felt that even her so called friends had deserted her to swoon over some slick, male pop singers.
Tam had got to his feet and was looking across the road to the other side of the bridge. He stopped to take in what he saw.
“Da’yelni. Are you adventurous?”
“How d’you mean?”
“Can you see anything over there?”
“Where? It’s dark. What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Straight across… there,” he pointed to what was, for him, a clearly defined white gate.
“What’s that doing there?”
“Describe it to us,” commanded Kakko who had also seen it.
“A garden gate, all shiny… in the railings.”
“Da’yelni, you say your music is not appreciated here, but it might be the other side of that gate!”
“You mean kill myself? Walk off the bridge? Who are you – some kind of angels from heaven? I’m not ready to die… not yet! I mean my life might suck, but that’s extreme!”
Da’yelni got to her feet and looked at Kakko and Tam as if they were harbingers of death. She was ready to run.
“Wait Da’yelni. You will not die. We promise,” said Kakko. “We are not from the ‘other side’. We are from this universe. We’re… we’re space travellers. I know that that might sound strange but that gate doesn’t lead to heaven but to another planet. And I’m guessing a planet where they want you to sing. To sing your stuff.”
Da’yelni hesitated.
“I’ve heard of this before. Some people say we, our race, came from another planet thousands of years ago. They just walked through some kind of door. Some people reckon it still happens, but nobody wants to hear that because it means having some sort of belief in God, and that ain’t cool.”
“Do you believe in God, Da’yelni?”
“No… yes… I don’t know.”
“Would you mind if God did exist?”
“Course not.”
“But you say others don’t want to believe in Him.”
“That’s because a God would stop you doing things. Take away your freedom.”
“So without God people are free to do what they want?”
“In some ways, but not really. There’s always someone ready to set themselves up in his place. No. There’s always someone trying to dictate and control – making laws and rules and stuff… if it ain’t God, someone else will step in. Sometimes my songs are about that.”
“But what if God was not about making laws and making you do things? What if God was really about setting you free?” asked Tam.
“Free? How do mean? How can anyone give you freedom? If the law says you have to do something and you don’t, then you get done.”
“God sets me free,” said Kakko. “Free to think, free to explore inside me, and out there.” Kakko threw her arms about in every direction. “The God I believe in doesn’t make anyone do things. It’s people that do that. God invites us to choose. We are always free to be ourselves. She wants it that way.”
“She?”
“Oh, I often think of God as a ‘She’. I know God is neither male nor female but somehow the universe She has made… well, has a feminine touch. It’s not so much mechanical as artistic… but that’s to do with how I feel.”
“You have a feeling for God?”
“Yeah. It’s a sort of… kind of thing we have. A relationship.”
“And your God. She makes you feel free?”
“Sure. Those in authority might tell me what to do – but they can’t tell me what to think or feel inside… with God. And she tells me I can do my thing… be me, even if that gets up people’s noses.”
“You mean God will get you out of prison if you get into trouble?”
“No. It’s not that kind of freedom. There will always be people who make rules for us. But with God we’re free inside ourselves – whatever anyone does to us.”
“You really believe in God, don’t you? You’re from Her, ain’t you?”
“I suppose we are,” answered Kakko. “When people are in a jam we just find ourselves talking about Her… that gate. It’ll be two-way. You’ll get back here. We’ve always managed to get back home. We’ve learned to trust the Creator on this one.” Kakko held her hand out to Da’yelni. She swung her guitar case on her shoulder, picked up the skate board
and crossed the road as Tam led the way. The girl checked over the railings. They were above one of the bridge supports and at this place one step was not going to take her plunging to the river below, even if the gate failed. Kakko was relieved to see the gate was positioned like this because she knew Da’yelni would probably not have had the faith to step through her first white gate if it appeared to lead her into an abyss. Faith and trust grow with experience. Still, Da’yelni hesitated.
Just then a blue car with yellow stripes turned onto the bridge.
“Police!” exclaimed Da’yelni. “So, are we going, or what?”
Tam stepped through and disappeared. Kakko took Da’yelni by the hand and pulled her through. She had been contemplating taking just one careful step, but in the urgency of the situation she almost leapt. They found themselves in the midst of a neat garden with green grass, shrubs and trees. The sun was high in the sky. Da’yelni just stood and stared. The place was beautiful.
“I must be dead,” she said slowly, “but you know what, I don’t care!”
21
Despite it being full daylight, Tam, Kakko and Da’yelni felt tired. They had just got to the end of a demanding day and now, here they were on another world with bedtime apparently some way off. And, God only knew where they were going to find a bed anyway.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard of a white gate inside a white gate,” commented Kakko.
“What do you mean?” asked Tam.
“I mean travelling from one place to another without going back home to Joh. When we went through that gate I was expecting to get back to the cottage.”
“I was too. But this is Joh isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t smell quite right.”
“Now you mention it, I agree. So, I wonder what comes next.”
“I don’t know about you but I’m going to rest,” said Kakko.
The grass was lush and soft and the three young people found a comfortable place under a tree. They lay back and closed their eyes. Kakko slipped her hand into Tam’s. She asked Da’yelni why she wanted to avoid the police. Were they dangerous? Had she committed a crime?
Ultimate Justice Page 19
