On stage, Ronnie feverishly slapped his bass. The audience roared, chanting over and over again: “Du-bai! Du-bai! Du-bai!”

Todd shuddered.

Wrested from his cloud of self-pity by a tap on the shoulder, he turned to find Colin and Sebastian standing behind him with foolish grins plastered on their faces. They’d just come from the merchandise table.

“This is so awesome, man,” began Colin. “They have reissues of all the old Dubai albums! I’ve never even seen this one… how did they see their instruments through all that hair?”

Sebastian held up a reissue vinyl.

“Hey is this your mom on the cover of this one? Her dress is kind of see-through…”

Todd snatched the record from Sebastian’s hands and stormed off towards the green room, his friends following closely behind.

Todd could not believe that his dad was putting him through this. For years, Ronnie had threatened to stage a “comeback tour,” but Todd never really thought it would happen. He was trying not to overreact.

On the one hand, his dad’s music career had provided the family with a very comfortable living. Of all his friends, Todd had the biggest bedroom by far. He had a basement full of recording equipment and musical instruments. He’d met a smattering of celebrities. But all this was of little consolation, now that his friends were ogling a picture of his mother in all her youthful, uninhibited… glory.

“Dude...give it back. I paid fifteen dollars for that…” Sebastian implored, reaching for the contentious album.

“Your mistake!” replied Todd. He pushed open the green room door, and reached under his dad’s makeup table for his backpack. He unzipped his bag and shoved the record inside.

“This is why our band will never work,” Sebastian mumbled. “It’s your stupid attitude…”

Todd bristled at the suggestion that his attitude was anything less than stellar, especially concerning their band, Jokers Wild. He had always considered the fledgling outfit – featuring himself, Colin, and Sebastian – to be his ticket to stardom. If anyone had a bad attitude, it was his bandmates. As self-appointed “leader” (later re-named “band manager” as “leader” proved too controversial), Todd was the one that handled their extensive marketing efforts! He was the one that played drums AND sang all the songs! HE WAS TRYING TO GET THEIR FIRST GIG, FOR CRIPES SAKE! Clearly, he was the heart and soul of the band.

Colin and Sebastian watched as Todd’s eyes grew wide and the corners of mouth crept slowly towards one another. He was clearly not going to stand for Sebastian’s inflammatory accusation.

“Fine! If you think you’d be better off without me, then I quit the band! But keep in mind that I retain the rights to the name Jokers Wild, AND I wrote all the songs so those are mine too! Big mistake guys…big mistake…”

Todd folded his arms across his chest and glared at Colin and Sebastian, who were both trying to suppress their giggles. Todd always made the most amusing faces when he got mad. He turned away from his friends and reached for his backpack, pulling out his sleek new Neptune brand laptop and fancy Zorg headphones. He snapped the Zorgs onto his head, and turned on the laptop, balancing it precariously on his knees.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, EX-bandmates, I’m going to work on my solo project.”

He focused on the computer. Colin and Sebastian turned to each other, exchanged a knowing look, then turned back to Todd, who continued to pretend that they didn’t exist.

“Alright – Cool… We’re gonna go catch the rest of the show without you,” Colin said as he and Sebastian wandered out the door. They made their way back to the stage, basking in the energy of the performance. As the second encore was nearing completion, Colin turned in the direction of the green room, only to be met head-on by Todd, who was now standing right behind him.

“He practices that in the basement, like, every night. Mom’s afraid he’s going to hurt himself.” He said gesturing towards the stage. His dad was now on his knees – his wild and thinning hair sticking to his sweat drenched face – playing his bass like a piano as it lay on the ground before him.

“So… We still jamming tomorrow?” asked Todd.

Colin and Sebastian nodded their heads.

“Totally.”