As always I have to say a huge thank you to my friends who help me. Randi and Stev 2244 for their incredible support encouragement, and desire to help convert gibberish into something almost readable. Thank you both.
"Sit down, Ali, for god's sake. Security will throw us out."
"Oh, don't be a fuddy-duddy, Babe," she grumbled, ignoring my pleas. If anything, she sang louder. She sang at the top of her voice, not caring who heard. She knew all the damn words, probably better than Rob Chisholm, the singer did.
It was our first night out for ages. We both worked long hours and this was a bit of a reprieve. I was worried, though. The big burly bouncer off to the side was giving us funny looks.
The Civic Theatre was a seated venue, and we were supposed to remain seated. Bloody stupid, really. We were at a rock concert, and weren't allowed to dance? Who stays seated at a rock concert? Not Ali, anyway.
I had managed to get front row seats, so that's where we were: front and centre. Ali had been a Rollicking Lizard fan her whole life. Personally, I thought they were a bit naf, but she loved them. I remember her telling me what a huge part of her life the band had been growing up. She was a dedicated fangirl. She even confessed to me that she lost her virginity to the sound track of the Lizards. She was hard core, her bedroom walls, and even her roof, were wallpapered with their posters when she was a teenager. Jesus, stored away in our garage, she still had some. When I saw they were having a reunion tour, I quickly snapped up tickets as a surprise.
When I showed her the tickets, she went off her nut and she showed me over and over how much she loved me for thinking of it.
She got all dressed up. She was still a striking woman at thirty eight. Still wore the same clothes she did when we married. Tall and willowy, with a natural grace, her long wavy brown hair set off her cute face. She might not have the elegant beauty of a movie star, but she had that gorgeous cute thing going on: dark sparkly eyes, a pert little nose, which she hated, but I loved.
Personally, I thought she was beautiful and watching, her sway to the music in the front aisle sent shivers up and down my spine.
The little black dress, much shorter than she normally wore, showed off her long slender legs and the firmest arse ever. For a woman who does no exercise, her butt is spectacular, firm and bouncy.
As the Lizards got to the chorus, Ali started really belting it out, singing the words back to Rob, the lead singer. I saw him staring right back at Ali. He had definitely noticed her singing. It probably wasn't just the singing, as she danced in a spinning, arm-flailing, spiralling dance, her vocals stretching to match the band.
Ali is a performer, a good singer in her own right. She sang with a small vocal group and was part of the theatrical society. She wasn't into the acting, but if they put on a musical, she jumped right in. Her voice was great, actually. I always thought she should do something with it, but she sort of let it slide.
I knew deep down she would love to sing more, she just didn't have the opportunity, or the courage; the drinks we had with our dinner before the show seemed to have eroded any fears.
When Rob jumped down off stage and jumped in with Ali's dance she looked stunned at first, but then beamed a huge smile as he grabbed her hand and swirled her into a spin. When it came time, he drew her close and they sang together into his mic. He sort of stopped singing and let Ali really belt it out.
The crowd, of course, went nuts, and I saw the envious looks of a few nearby women. Ali was living their fantasy. Ali played along with Rob, kicking up her heels and leaning in really close as they shared the mic.
At the end of the song, he gave her a kiss, applauded loudly which we all joined in with, before he jumped back up on stage.
Ali looked flabbergasted and jumped into my arms screaming. "Did you see that?"
I laughed, "You were better than him." She kissed me wildly, her hands crushing my face.
When the band started the next song she was back up and singing again. He stared down at her and they were more or less singing to each other.
Then, to my amazement, he reached down and waved for her to climb up on stage. She couldn't clamber over the little barricade until the bouncer came and lifted her easily up on stage.
Once there, they shared a brief kiss and then powered into the song. Ali knew all the words, knew them off by heart. She needed no prompting. When Rob organised for her own mic, she really took off. It was like she was born for it.
To say I was proud and stunned would be a complete understatement. I was thoroughly amazed. By then, the crowd flooded the aisles, and there was dancing everywhere. Security tried to stop it, but after a few minutes they gave up. I joined the throng of party goers at the front and danced with a group of women, about my own age, who were dancing like they didn't care. I tried to watch Ali, to enjoy the moment, but my dancing partners wanted my attention. We really got stuck in. It was a wild and abandoned party like atmosphere.
The band had to do three encores, and Ali stayed for them all.
At the end, security started herding the people away from the stage. I looked for Ali and saw her being guided off the side of the stage with the band.
The MC announced that the band would be signing autographs out the front in about ten minutes.
I wandered over to the side of the stage and tried to find a door backstage.
One of the security guards grabbed me. "Hey, Bro. You can't go back there."
"But my wife was the one on stage."
"Don't matter, mate. You can't go back there. The band will all be out the front in about ten minutes. I suggest you wait there."
The theatre held about one thousand people, and I think every one of them stayed for a signing. I milled around waiting impatiently, I couldn't see Ali anywhere. I tried to ring her cell, but it just went to message bank.
I was becoming a little agitated when she sprang into my arms from out of the swirling masses of people. "Oh my god, babe. Thank you so much. Oh my god, what a night."
With her back in my arms, I felt a little better. "You were amazing, Ali, bloody awesome. I couldn't believe it."
"I know, right? Holy shit, what a rush, babe."
As we stood there, some of the fans even asked her to sign their new CD's. She felt like a star.
She signed a few good naturedly, and said, "Can we wait till everybody goes. I just want to say thanks to Rob."
I didn't really want to, but I could see there was no winning that argument. We stood off to the side and it took the best part of an hour before Rob sauntered over to us. He reached out his hand to shake. "Hey, dude, I'm Rob. Pleased to meet you."
Ali jumped into his arms and he laughed loudly. "Dude, your wife is amazing. We want to take her with us."
I sniggered. "You should be so lucky."
He gave me a coy nod. "Dude, I'm serious. I'm not messing about. That was fucking amazing, and we want Ali to come with us. We have a three week tour that finishes in Auckland. We'll pay for everything, food, accommodation, costumes. We'll cover it all."
"You're joking," Ali screeched excitedly.
"No, Babe, deadly serious. We want you, and we'll pay."
"Sorry, we can't do it. Ali works, I work. We can't just drop everything." I threw back at him, totally disconcerted.
She looked at me. "Babe, I could get time off." Her look so full of expectation, pleading, begging.
"Honey, I can't get time off. On top of that, there's nobody to look after the kids."
I saw the lights go out in her eyes as the realisation set in. She sighed. "Sorry, Rob."
"No, come on, Babe, we can make this work. What if just you come with us. You said you can get time off."
