So as tempting as it was to remain in the bus the whole night, it was the last show of the tour and in spite of the exhaustion and AK's bed looking cozier than any other bed in the world we jumped out of the bus and hanged out in the heat awaiting the show.It was a sad day. I was suffering from an emotional concoction of disbelief and excitement and exhaustion and early nostalgia of the times that were being and soon will no longer be. Sigh.
We laughed at Snoop's lyrics for the last time and spoke to his roadies for the last time. And while we were trying to figure out which side of the stage we would be taking I ran into AK while he was making his way to the stage, the show about to start, and he smiled to me and held eye contact and we both went our way.
We decided to take Flea's side for some reason because we were mostly always on John's side which is where most of the "side stage action" takes place.
It's on John's side that the band goes on stage and gets off, where Louie is standing watching over the band, bringing them their tea/water/towels/whatever they may need. This night there were barely any people sidestage.
So I think I didn't enjoy the show much and besides, something happened to Anthony's earpiece that he was pissed off most of the show to the point he just ripped it off and threw it away. I had never seen him that angry on stage before.
But to me the highlight of the show was almost at the end when Flea looks at me (I was standing quite close to Tracy, his tech) and he comes and stands right in front of me, staring at me in the eyes and plays his bass for me! He went on for like a minute or so, I think I was crying, it was such an incredible moment...
When the show was over they had built a big catering tent and had drinks inside for the crew and guests, so we went in to drink a little water and we just wanted to thank and say good bye to everyone who took such good care of us.We sat down in one of these round tables and the girl sitting next to me asks me if we got the backstage passes through a contest or if we knew somebody, so I said we knew somebody. She had the same kind of passes we did so I asked her if she won hers and she said she knew somebody too, so I asked who and she said she was Flea's sister. That was sooo funny. She was such a sweet down to earth girl.
Then while I was speaking to her, Flea walks in with this Harry Potter plastic glasses on (he looked so cute!) and comes to talk to his sister who is standing near me. He's talking to her and when he spots me he introduces me to his sister and tells her that we've been going to all the shows.
He looks at me and asked me if I liked the show and then he says "Thank you for coming to all the shows". I couldn't have been more utterly elated. I love Flea. I wanted to hug him for ever and ever and forever more. I think I told him "thank you for the music" or some cheesy/lame line like that. Then I was wondering whether his glasses had erm… well… glass but it was just the plastic frame and then he told me that they were Harry Potter glasses because the book had just come out and he asked me if I knew Harry Potter, so I said I did and he told me that his daughter loved it. What happiness. Then he gave me a hug before he kept talking to his sister.
After that, Louie came over and had a little talk with him too and said they were leaving in the afternoon next day.
Then we left the tent and I saw Anthony, almost in the shadows, getting on his bus. He wasn't part of all that "after show festivity" in the catering zone, he didn't even walk in there, just took his food into his bus.
Next day Geli and I were at the Albuquerque airport on our ways home. Geli was going to spend some Summer days in California and I was going back home to Mexico. We saw Gage standing in the drop-off area and went to talk to him. He was waiting for Chad and Anthony. When they arrived Chad and Gage went into the airport and Anthony came over. Can't really remember what he said, but he looked just so beautiful. He went up to Geli and said to her "oh, come on give me a hug" and Geli, German as she is, gave him this semi-‘I’m-not-bothered-hug.
Then he hugged me. He held me long in his arms and I do remember I was hugging tight and sincerely. Oh my God.
No words can describe that moment.
I said the deepest thank you very much I could have ever pronounced, close to his ear while we were still hugging.
Then we went through the security scan and they held Gage, Chad and Anthony in a room and the airport police was inspecting their laptops. That was weird. As I was crossing the metal detector they made me take my sandals off! and when I was on the other side Anthony asked me if I was hiding some potential Mexican weapon in my shoes. I laughed a lot and we continued walking and talking until he said he had to wait for Gage and Chad who were still in that room.
I told him I had to go and made my way to my gate.
I sat down in the waiting area in my gate and observed them walking around the airport, just like average people. Nobody noticed them and I was quite shocked because I thought people were going to jump on them. Only 3 teenagers who walked past them noticed and one of the girls was noticeably excited and went up to say hello to them. And that was that. I was numb for the longest time, sort of in an emotional comatose state. Then the nothing.
When I got home, after a couple of days of plain rotting on the couch in a rather "this really didn't happen" state of mind, I got an e mail from Geli. She said she and Louie and John were in the same flight to California, and she finished her e mail saying "and guess what John was wearing"...
After that I kept on rotting in the couch for another month or so, wondering how was I supposed to live my life the way I lived it before after living it through all of this.
To this day, this experience as a whole remains one of the most intense moments of my existence, one of those things that make life so worth living and just so passionate and exhilarating that drive your heart mind and soul to the edge of a blissful insanity , up and down from the south hemisphere of the Earth to the next contiguous galaxy and back times 11 and through all these materialized angels and human entities, sharing it all, the joy, the absolute happiness and delirious anxiety and even the lowest of lows where you sweat life from each and every pore of your body. I will never forget.
And still not over.
To be continued...
