The stage was hot and rickety. I almost refused to go on. It didn't even seem safe. What were they thinking? Ben had gone to tune up, and I passed Jeremy and King Ruff's guitarist looking pathetically done.

            "Don't jump around, bitch." The guys said and I nodded, as I grabbed my guitar. I guess we were going to do this. But this was not our standard.

            I looked out over the crowd. Kids, lots and lots of kids as far back as I could see, all the way to the buildings, and I judged about the area of a good size fair grounds arena. Pretty good crowd. I like crowds usually, I really enjoy festival seating, and people into it, dancing, having a good time. So I started, feeling the energy.

            Three songs in I was preparing to sing, I had the mike in both hands, and was humming, using the crowd energy, when suddenly out of the blue, I felt this overwhelming fear come over me.

            I can't describe it as anything else but fear. It felt way deep, and real and impressed me with its urgency. I looked back at the band, they were ready for my signal, playing already, waiting. I yelled the beat--- I pushed against the anxiety and it practically took my breath away. I used a hand signal, heard in my mind words I had never heard before.

            "My son." Utter revelatory calm.

            I reared back. I knew that voice and it wasn't and couldn't be anything else but that voice. His voice.

            Right here. Right in the middle of our concert. The fear and the anxiety melted in the face of this overwhelming knowledge that the voice belonged to HIM.

            I bowed my head. I closed my eyes. I didn't know what to do. Do I stop the concert? Do I pray? Am I having a life changing event? Am I about to see an angel?

            And as I bowed my head, I heard the strains of my song, the new one. In my head. Change of plans. Not unheard of, the guys would go along with it. Instantly I introduced it, talked about it for a minute and then gave the count. It starts with just singing and then the musicians start in. I started, I heard Ben join me, and then when it would have been Jeff's part, the rap hip hop part, it all went crystal clear.

            Not again. Not really. I still felt the fear, and in my mind I pictured Aubrey. Aubrey. Where the f-ing hell was Aubrey?

            I sang words I didn't know... I got looks from the guys I didn't know how to explain, and then when the feeling got instantly even worse-- way worse-- I shut the song off and said into the mike:

            "I gotta meet a friend---."  I was singing alone with no back ground.  The guys were confused, blinking at me in surprise. "I gotta find a girl. There ain't nobody for me but this girl. And she in danger man, I gotta find her now. I'm gonna jump, I'm gonna jump and you gonna give her to me, baby, now." I tossed the mike, I've never crowd surfed, or body slammed anyone, and the leap of faith it takes for a big tall guy like myself to jump off the stage into the arms of the crowd is almost more than I could take.

            I felt the hands, the excitement engulfed me, and faces swam, people swam, my hands were grabbed, my body pulled along, and finally I turned myself, and asked to be put down. I was not far from the stage, and not far from my security guys. Spotlights were on me, lighting up the path I was in, and the crowd parted and I started to run, and they were screaming, thinking it was amazing, and fun, and crazy--- and it was.

            Until I was almost across the floor of the arena. And I saw the girl on the ground, ahead of me, being dragged by just one guy, with a couple of others standing over her. I grabbed a couple of nearby guys and the spotlight shone directly on Aubrey's still form, looking like a sack of old clothes on the ground, beat up and bleeding.

            The crowd shushed, as more and more people saw, as others backed up, ran away, and security closed in.

            I arrived first, lifted her easily against me, and turned to look at the band. Ben started a different song, one we might have ended with, and the police and the security guys got me and my burden out of there.

*******