The Best Night of Your Life

As the car pulls into the parking lot, you can already tell that this is going to be the best night of your life. While it may be freezing cold and pouring raining, your skin is tingling with the fire of excitement. One shaking hand clutches the tickets and the other holds a small disposable you bought after realizing that you forgot to bring the high-end digital camera your mother bought last year. Glancing down at it, you sigh at the small camera and mourn that you will leave tonight with only twenty seven poor quality snapshots. But there isn't any time for that now. Music is starting to play from inside the building.

You run with wild abandon, staying on the balls of your feet. The line isn't that long, so you keep your fist held out for the woman bearing the stamp. After a purple music note is pressed against your knuckles, you run for the stage. The first band is finishing up their act as you find a decent spot on the left side of the stage. As the next three bands give their own performance, you enjoy the show but are more focused on moving past the thick masses of people. You need to get closer.

The house lights return to full capacity as another band leaves the stage. Crew members take to the stage and begin to prepare for the next band, your band. Your heart is pumping like mad. This is it. This is the moment. You are living now, living at the edge of the stage. Everything goes to black.

Three men dressed in black and gold uniforms run onto the stage and you go wild. Everyone is screaming and jumping up and down in excitement. All of the screams nearly drown out the opening chords, but you all are only getting louder. Spot lights flash as the singer runs onto the stage, waving a white flag with the band's seal. You told yourself that you wouldn't scream like a little girl, but you do anyway. The energy of the crowd is invigorating and you feel like a whole new person. The only thing in the world is this moment, this place.

The songs are sung with a passion that rivals those recorded on the CDs. True, the quality is a smidge poorer due to you standing a foot away from the speakers, which pumps out the loud rock hits with poor bass quality. That isn't all that important right now. Everyone in the building is singing along and screaming their hearts out. You know all the words, you have every song memorized.

The heavy beat of the music pounds through your skin and shakes through your bones. The fast-paced pounding of your beating heart matches it with perfect synchronization. Every single hair on your body is standing up, quivering at the roots. That is, all but the hair on your head. That hair is whipping around your head, flying everywhere as you jump up and down.

All through the first two songs, you have been snapping pictures. But twenty seven pictures is not nearly enough, and you're out of film. It's really that not important now. You will get some clear shots of the guitarist and the singer since they were right in front of you. You're more pleased by the fact you can now physically enjoy the music without waving a camera around.

You've let loose. There is no need to hold anything back from the pack of strangers you are pressed up against. You sing and dance like you do when you're alone in your room, but with an energy you have never felt before in your entire life. Nothing like when you were curled up in the arms of the man you loved. Not even close to your first kiss. Can't even compare with moving away to college. This is what it feels like to be alive.

The band shares that same energy with you. You can see it in the shimmering sweat glistening in the spot lights. You can feel it as they stomp their feet on the stage. As the lead singer walks right up to the crowd, you spot the fiery passion in his eyes. They shine like the highest cut of diamonds. He looks you right in the eyes and you feel a spark run down your spine, as if he has passed that fire into your bones. He speaks to you with a loud, but friendly, voice. After every time the band speaks, the crowd screams in approval. You want to know what is actually being said, but only half the words reach your ears undistorted. Despite that, no one stops screaming.

But this night can't last forever, no matter how much you want it to. The band has to finish the tour, and you need to go home at some point. The band says farewell to some more screams and waving arms. They chuck guitar picks and drum sticks into the crowd, just passing over your head. Even though they are walking off the stage, you aren't moving. You hope they will come back on for an encore, hoping for one more song. Maybe the man in front of your no stage sees it in your eyes, because he has bent down to lift some sheet of paper of the stage floor. After crumpling it up, he tosses it at you. You catch it seconds after it hits the ground. In your hands is the band's set list. A smile bigger than that of the one on Christmas morning, lights up your face. You hold a part of the night, a part of the band. With that smile growing, you rush away from the stage. In a little while, the band will be coming out for quick autographs. You need to find them now.

Pushing past the people who are here for the final back, you make your way to the outer hallway. Already others have gathered for the same reason as you, and you take your place. Some time passes and there they are, right in front of you once more. With happy smiles, they greet everyone individually. You fight to hold down girly giggles again as they shake your hand before signing the crumpled paper. In a single breath you tell the men who you have adored for years that this was the best night of your life. With airy laughs, they thank you.

As all the noise fades, you catch your breath. Your feet ache from jumping, your throat is dry from screaming, and your ears feel muffled. None of those little pains bother you. You are impervious to the burdens of the world. Nothing can get past this shield of bliss. Not tonight, not ever. A feeling like this will never fade, no matter what the world throws at you. When things are too tough to bear, you have this night to retreat too. And there will be more such nights. I promise that. (C)