Small Steps (Holes 2)

Armpit laughed as he pulled into the parking lot, which was crammed with cars and people.

Ginny sang, “Two plus two is four, Mrs. Randsinkle.”

He couldn’t find anything that resembled a parking space. It was X-Ray’s fault for being so late.

He lifted the handicapped placard out of the pocket in the door beside him. “I’m going to have to use this,” he said.

Ginny stopped singing.

“It’s not because I don’t think you can walk.”

Ginny nodded. “I know,” she said.

He hung the placard on the rearview mirror and parked right in front.

Ginny tightly held Armpit’s hand as they made their way to the building. She was so excited she would have fallen several times if he hadn’t been holding her up. “Small steps,” he reminded her.

“Is she all right?” the ticket taker asked.

“She’s dancing,” Armpit told him.

Inside, they had to maneuver their way through throngs of people all moving in different directions. Before going to their seats, they got in a long line at one of the concession counters. Ginny’s mother had given her twenty dollars.

Armpit lifted Ginny up on his shoulders so she could see. She really wanted to get a Kaira DeLeon official tour T-shirt, but when they got to the front, they were told it cost twenty-eight dollars.

Armpit was willing to pay the other eight dollars, plus tax, but Ginny’s mother had told her not to let Theodore pay for anything. Instead, Ginny bought two soft drinks, which came in plastic souvenir cups, and a bucket of popcorn for them to share. She paid with her twenty-dollar bill and got one dollar and seventy-five cents back in change.

Armpit held the popcorn and his drink, while Ginny held on to her drink and his arm, as they slowly made their way to their seats. He couldn’t help thinking about the last time he’d held a bucket of popcorn in a crowded place, but they safely reached section B, row M, seats 1 and 2 without incident.

The large stage, with giant towers of speakers on either side, jutted out in front of them. Behind them were at least forty rows of seats, and those were the good seats. Beyond those, and to the sides, were two tiers of bleachers.

He glanced around at the people seated nearby, realizing they were the ones to whom X-Ray sold the tickets. Well, at least they got their money’s worth. These really were great seats.

“Great seats, huh?” he said.

“Yes,” said Ginny.

He looked for Murdock but didn’t see him. An African American girl was sitting a few seats away with her boyfriend. If she was Murdock’s daughter, then that was too bad. He remembered Mur

dock had bought the tickets so he could spend time with his daughter on the one weekend a month he got to see her.

Backstage, Kaira DeLeon was chewing a piece of gum that had long lost its flavor. This was always the worst time for her. She knew she’d be all right once she started singing. Then she would disappear into the music.

The backstage area was filled with people, half of whom she didn’t recognize. Besides all the people working on tour, there were record company executives, friends of record company executives, children of lawyers, brothers-in-law of security personnel. Every once in a while someone managed to slip past the Doofus and ask for her autograph. In Houston, a woman and her two kids had actually asked her to sing a song for them.

Kaira wore a lavender sweat suit. Beneath it was the outfit she’d wear for the show, which was little more than sparkling underwear with fringe. For some reason it seemed all right to dress that way in front of thousands of people, but in this small area it would have been embarrassing.

She wished she had stayed in her dressing room instead of having to be around all these people. It was almost eight, but the concerts never started on time. She should know that by now. El Genius liked to “make ’em wait.” He didn’t want her taking the stage until the audience had worked itself into a frenzy.

She looked at him, shouting into his walkie-talkie. She pitied the person on the other end. Next to him, her mother was drinking from one of those horrible plastic souvenir cups with her picture on it. Lately her mother had begun having cocktails during the show.

At least Aileen wasn’t around. Kaira could no longer stand the sight of her. She’d already gone to Dallas to make sure all the arrangements had been taken care of at their next hotel.

Kaira wondered if her mother suspected there was something going on between Jerome and Aileen. Maybe that was the reason for the cocktails.

A local DJ was onstage now, firing up the crowd.

“Is everyone ready?”