Free Songbird by Jamie Campbell

something we don’t have time for,” Ryan finished my sentence. “Five minutes to curtain.”
    I wanted to curse Big Randy and his entire radio show. I knew a lot of our time was actually lost in the traffic, but I couldn’t exactly curse the guy who was probably lying on a ventilator because of his car ac cident on the highway. I was sure Randy was tough enough to incur my wrath.
    Demi grabbed my dress and I slid into it. Within seconds, the sound technicians had wired me up and a guitar was thrust into my sweaty hands. So much for warming up or a show circle.
    Before my head could stop spinning, I was hurrying out on stage in the dark, my ears filled with the sound of my excited screaming fans.
    In the dark, I could just make out Forest, standing with a guitar right where he should be. His profile was illuminated from backstage, it took my breath away. Why did he have to be so good looking? Especially when I needed to focus. What was the first song again?
    A single light flashed, signaling the spotlights were about to come on. The show was going to start, with or without me being ready for it. I stared at the floor, shaking out my nerves. Everything would be perfect tonight, it just had to be.
    The spotlights came up and my presence was revealed to the audience. They went nuts, which gave me the boost I needed. I couldn’t say for sure, but it didn’t look like there were any empty seats in the auditorium. At least not big blocks of them, anyway.
    The first set went smoothly. We got further into the show than we did the previous night without having any hiccups. However, halfway through a particularly big song, I completely lost sound. I couldn’t hear a thing over the crowd, not one thing. The band, the backup singers, they were all drowned out by the mass of teenagers screaming.
    I looked backwards at my team, trying to get some help like I had opening night, but they seemed just as confused as I was. I couldn’t go on, something major had happened. It didn’t look like it was just my earpiece this time, everyone was having the same problem.
    I stopped, unable to continue singing when all we sounded like was just a bunch of noise. Even while screaming, the audience would still notice.
    “Sorry guys,” I said to the audience, putting my guitar down. I looked at the band and gave them a quick cut it signal. The entire place went quiet. Deathly quiet. “Sorry to interrupt, it seems like we’ve got a little bit of a sound problem. I’m sure my crew will have it fixed in a minute.”
    Thousands of faces stared at me as I stood there awkwardly. Once, I would have improvised and done a little a coustic with nothing but my guitar. Now all I could do was freeze up.
    It felt like forever passed. I kept looking toward my crew, waiting for the thumbs up. Big Randy would have loved to have seen my failure, I’m sure he’d have a lot to say about it tomorrow on his show. From Star to Zero, the downfall of Brierly Wilcox . The headlines would be unbearable.
    Finally, I got a thumbs up. I put my earpiece back in. “Okay, folks, sorry to keep you. It seems like the problem should be fixed. Can I get a test from my band?” They each tried a few notes in turn, they came through the piece crystal clear. “Excellent, now let’s start from the top.”
    Ace counted us in on his drum kit and the lights went down again. We started the song over, hoping to be able to finish it this time.
    By the end of the show, I was even more upset about the incident. Problems happened all the time in concerts, everything could go wrong. The difference was that most performers didn’t let the audience know about them. By stopping and waiting for the problem to be fixed, I was proving what a poor performer I was. I was letting the audience see through the magic and that was a definite turn off for them.
    Backstage, I was hysterical. “Demi, why do we keep having these problems? People are going to stop coming, it’s going to be all over the