Page 4 of Sing For Me

“Don’t worry,” Wyatt says, pulling us out onto the stage.

“Oh no, oh no,” Rose is muttering next to me, staring at the still-screaming crowd. Across the stage, Uncle Daltrey holds out his arms. He’s smiling. I let out a relieved sigh. Maybe they won’t be too mad.

River takes off immediately, beaming as he runs to his dad. The crowd goes even crazier when Uncle Daltrey pulls him up into his arms. He whispers something in his ear and River shyly waves at the fans. They erupt in another wave of cheers.

“Come on, Rose,” Wyatt calls over all the noise. He takes her hand, leading her across the stage to the piano. Before they get there, big arms appear in my vision, wrapping around me. My dad.

“You’re trouble, kid,” he says, but he’s grinning down at me. I grin right back, knowing he’s not mad. He gestures to one of the roadies before stepping up to his microphone.

“So, my son Wyatt was going to join us on piano for the next few songs,” he shouts to the fans, who scream right back. “But it looks like he brought a couple stowaways.”

Way out in the crowd I can see two of the huge screens that show what’s going on to the fans who are too far away from the stage to see much. Right now, the screens are showing River and Rose. My cousin slaps her hands over her eyes and Uncle Daltrey laughs. He gets both of them sitting in front of the piano, handing them tambourines.

A roadie runs out on stage, carrying another guitar and three pairs of the big headphones our moms make us wear to protect our ears at concerts. On the screen, my face appears. My mouth hurts, I’m smiling so big.

“Will,” my dad shouts over the noise, crouching in front of me, and I drag my eyes from the sight of my face on the huge TV to look at him. “Put these on.” He hands me a set of the headphones. “You don’t ever get this close to the stage without them again, you understand?”

I nod quickly. It doesn’t seem like we’re going to get in trouble for this so I’m pretty eager to do whatever he says to keep it that way. He helps me adjust the headphones on my ears and the sound immediately drops, no longer hurting my head.

My dad grins and holds out the extra guitar. I just stare at it. There’s no way he actually wants me to—

“You guys can sit in on this song,” he shouts. “Onesong. And then it’s straight back to the bus and into bed, you hear me?”

I can’t seem to close my mouth. I’m just standing there in front of all those people, staring at my dad like he’s lost his mind. He laughs and pushes the guitar into my chest. I finally snap out of it and grab the instrument out of his hands before he can change his mind. It’s too big for me, and heavy, but my dad helps me to adjust the strap around my neck, then pulls a pick out of his back pocket.

“You remember the chords we worked on this week?”

“Yes!”

Dad smiles at me. “Have fun, kid.”

When he turns back to the microphone, I snap my head over to Rose and River. They’re both wearing the big headphones too and Rose doesn’t look as scared of the crowd now. She gives me a huge smile and a thumbs-up, like she’s happy for me. Rose knows all about my plans to be in the band someday.

“Looking good, kid!” Uncle Reed calls from behind me, and I spin around to see him grinning down from the drum kit.

This is so cool,I think, turning back to the front of the stage as my uncle counts off the intro behind me. Perfectly in sync, my dad and Uncle Lennon come in on their guitars. Across the stage, Wyatt is standing over the piano, his hands already a blur on the keys. Then Uncle Daltrey starts to sing from a mic at center stage, and I remember that I’m supposed to be playing too.

For the next four minutes, I do my best to concentrate on playing my chords, trying to keep up with my dad. It’s hard to focus though—I just want to look around at everything.

Way too soon, the song is over. My dad takes the guitar from me and hands it off to a roadie. “Have fun?”

I throw my arms around his legs. “So much fun.”

He laughs, ruffling my hair. “Get back to bed now before your mom comes out here and kills me.”

I’m too happy to care that I have to go back. My cousins run across the stage to me, Rose grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the wings.

“That was the coolest thing ever!” I shout. “Did you see me play guitar?”

“Daddy let me play tambourine!” River is grinning just like me.

Rose flips her braid. “That was so scary! Did you see all those people? I thought I was going to throw up!”

“Don’t be a baby, Rose,” River says, and she pushes his shoulder.

I lead my cousins back to the hallway we came through. The sudden brightness hurts my eyes after the darkness of the stage area. It’s a lot easier to hear now, so we all take off our headphones.

“I want to do that every single night,” I tell them fervently.