night?”
“What do you mean?” I started to throw some stuff into my black shoulder bag.
“At the concert.” She walked back toward the couch where her purse and newspaper lay.
“We did the gig. Why? You didn’t go, did you?”
“No.” She picked up the Dayton Herald. “No one’s told you about this?”
She unfolded the newspaper to reveal the front page and main headline.
DEATHSTROKE SHOW TRIGGERS RIOT
16 Hurt, 1 Critical
Beneath the headline, there was a color photograph of me rocking my whole body forward at the edge of the stage, hair flying, sending a spray of sweat into the crowd.
I took the paper from Mary, dropped down on the edge of the bed, and began to read.
DAYTON— The antics of DeathStroke’s lead singer Everett Lester took their toll last night at the Dayton Arena, where 16 of the 17,682 in attendance were hospitalized after a riot broke out when Lester passed out onstage and management stopped the concert.
A 14-year-old Xenia girl is in critical condition at Good Samaritan Hospital. She was struck in the head by a microphone stand, allegedly tossed from the stage by Lester, who witnesses say openly guzzled whiskey from a bottle during the six songs the band performed before the show ended abruptly.
Lester passed out onstage immediately after whirling the heavy black mike stand. The girl, whose name is being withheld, was carried by friends to an outlying concession area where employees phoned 911. Lester was carried from the stage by security personnel, and his whereabouts was unknown at press time.
DeathStroke manager Gray Harris announced that management teams from the band and from Dayton Arena had agreed to cancel the show. Although Harris told patrons they would receive a full refund, fans began yelling obscenities, fighting, and throwing everything they could get their hands on. A race to the exits ensued, trampling dozens of DeathStroke fans in the fray. Of the 16 people taken to the hospital, only the Xenia girl sustained serious injury.
Witnesses say things started getting out of hand when Lester encouraged the frenzied crowd to repeat the lyrics from a new DeathStroke song entitled “Freedom.” “Judgment Day is a lie, you know,” he reportedly yelled to the audience. “All of us are going to survive. There is no hell…only Freedom.” Then the band launched into the new song by that name, the last one DeathStroke played before Lester passed out.
Mary was sitting next to me when I dropped the paper and fell back onto the bed, pulling my hair and screaming, “Nooooo!”
9
“I JUST SAW CNN!” Endora panicked. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“I’m not okay,” I said into my phone, sitting slumped in the passenger seat of Mary’s Subaru.
“What’s the matter? Where are you?”
“On the way to the hospital.”
“Hospital?” she gasped. “What’s wrong? Are you sick from last night?”
“It’s not me. Did you hear about the girl?”
“Yes, I told you, I heard about it just now. Are you in Cincinnati?”
“No! I’m still in Dayton.”
“Everett, you’ve got a show in Cincinnati in…four hours.”
“Didn’t you hear about the girl at the concert last night? That it was my fault.”
“I’m sure it’s just all the pressure you’re under. Gray’s taking care of this other thing, I’m sure.”
“What the heck do you mean . . . that Gray is gonna pay this girl’s parents so I don’t go to jail?! Is he gonna pay to make her better? To make her live?”
“Look, Everett, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”
“No, but it’s going to be the last!”
“So it is...very good. Good! Calm down. I agree. There’s no reason for you to lose control like that. No excuse. But listen, darlin’, you’ve got over twenty-five thousand people counting on you in Cincinnati tonight. Those people love you just the way you are. You don’t want to let them down, do you?”
I didn’t say a word but instead
“What do you mean?” I started to throw some stuff into my black shoulder bag.
“At the concert.” She walked back toward the couch where her purse and newspaper lay.
“We did the gig. Why? You didn’t go, did you?”
“No.” She picked up the Dayton Herald. “No one’s told you about this?”
She unfolded the newspaper to reveal the front page and main headline.
DEATHSTROKE SHOW TRIGGERS RIOT
16 Hurt, 1 Critical
Beneath the headline, there was a color photograph of me rocking my whole body forward at the edge of the stage, hair flying, sending a spray of sweat into the crowd.
I took the paper from Mary, dropped down on the edge of the bed, and began to read.
DAYTON— The antics of DeathStroke’s lead singer Everett Lester took their toll last night at the Dayton Arena, where 16 of the 17,682 in attendance were hospitalized after a riot broke out when Lester passed out onstage and management stopped the concert.
A 14-year-old Xenia girl is in critical condition at Good Samaritan Hospital. She was struck in the head by a microphone stand, allegedly tossed from the stage by Lester, who witnesses say openly guzzled whiskey from a bottle during the six songs the band performed before the show ended abruptly.
Lester passed out onstage immediately after whirling the heavy black mike stand. The girl, whose name is being withheld, was carried by friends to an outlying concession area where employees phoned 911. Lester was carried from the stage by security personnel, and his whereabouts was unknown at press time.
DeathStroke manager Gray Harris announced that management teams from the band and from Dayton Arena had agreed to cancel the show. Although Harris told patrons they would receive a full refund, fans began yelling obscenities, fighting, and throwing everything they could get their hands on. A race to the exits ensued, trampling dozens of DeathStroke fans in the fray. Of the 16 people taken to the hospital, only the Xenia girl sustained serious injury.
Witnesses say things started getting out of hand when Lester encouraged the frenzied crowd to repeat the lyrics from a new DeathStroke song entitled “Freedom.” “Judgment Day is a lie, you know,” he reportedly yelled to the audience. “All of us are going to survive. There is no hell…only Freedom.” Then the band launched into the new song by that name, the last one DeathStroke played before Lester passed out.
Mary was sitting next to me when I dropped the paper and fell back onto the bed, pulling my hair and screaming, “Nooooo!”
9
“I JUST SAW CNN!” Endora panicked. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“I’m not okay,” I said into my phone, sitting slumped in the passenger seat of Mary’s Subaru.
“What’s the matter? Where are you?”
“On the way to the hospital.”
“Hospital?” she gasped. “What’s wrong? Are you sick from last night?”
“It’s not me. Did you hear about the girl?”
“Yes, I told you, I heard about it just now. Are you in Cincinnati?”
“No! I’m still in Dayton.”
“Everett, you’ve got a show in Cincinnati in…four hours.”
“Didn’t you hear about the girl at the concert last night? That it was my fault.”
“I’m sure it’s just all the pressure you’re under. Gray’s taking care of this other thing, I’m sure.”
“What the heck do you mean . . . that Gray is gonna pay this girl’s parents so I don’t go to jail?! Is he gonna pay to make her better? To make her live?”
“Look, Everett, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”
“No, but it’s going to be the last!”
“So it is...very good. Good! Calm down. I agree. There’s no reason for you to lose control like that. No excuse. But listen, darlin’, you’ve got over twenty-five thousand people counting on you in Cincinnati tonight. Those people love you just the way you are. You don’t want to let them down, do you?”
I didn’t say a word but instead
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