Song of the South

First Meeting

Friday finally rolled around. She had cleaned up from supper. She gave the small children a bath so that she wouldn’t have to do it when they returned home. She got her father settled in his bed so he could watch TV. She even called the neighbors to let them know she was taking the children out to a movie. The older woman told her she would “pop over” to check on him while they were gone. Kinsey gave her neighbor a huge grin in thanks. That’s part of the reason she loved living in a small farming community.

The older children were more than excited to discover they were going out to see a movie. Especially a movie about a horse and horse race. She knew the little children probably wouldn’t be as excited about the actual movie, and would mostly likely fall asleep during it, but they were excited to get to go out somewhere besides the grocery store and day care. Making sure her father was alright and had everything he needed, she finally loaded up her siblings into her truck and began the trek into town.

She bought a medium bucket of popcorn, after all that was a big part of the movie-goer experience, and a large drink for them to all share. She got settled in the back with her siblings to await this movie to start. Daisy was very excited to see this race horse movie and Jesse wanted to see all the action. The previews were so-so but it was the actual movie she was interested in. Just as she had predicted, not even half-way into the movie and her two youngest siblings had fallen asleep. The two oldest were wide awake and quite interested in the movie.

Kinsey absolutely loved the movie! The older two children seemed to really like it as well. As the credits began to roll, she had Daisy take her purse so she could scoop up the smaller two children and carry them to her truck. Making sure the children were secure in their booster seats, she climbed into the driver’s side. Jesse sat in between the booster seats in the back while Daisy sat up front with her big sister. As soon as they returned home, she got all the children tucked into bed. It was much later than their bedtime.

As soon as the children were in bed, she went to check on her father. He had fallen asleep in bed. She smiled at him as she turned off the TV and then the bedside lamp. It had been a long day. It was a great day, she wasn’t saying it wasn’t, but it had been long. Turning off all the lights, then locking the doors, she finally let herself head to bed as well. It didn’t take her long to drift off to sleep!

As she was checking her emails and Facebook the next morning, she was told Shinedown would be in town doing some promotional stuff for their up-coming album. They were doing a cross-country tour in a strictly promotional tour. They would be in town on Monday! She smiled and started trying to figure out how she could get to see the tour. She would have to take the two little children. The older two would be in school. Shinedown was her all-time favorite band!

They probably wouldn’t be getting enough fresh fruits and vegetables. I mean they were on tour, how much good food were they really eating?! Perhaps she could bring them some of the fruits they grew? Yes, that would be good. Everyone likes fresh fruits and vegetables, don’t they?! She started planning in her head while she did her college work. The children were doing their chores after breakfast and then would spend the rest of the day playing outside. Her father was settled out on the front porch to get some fresh air and sunshine.

Monday morning rolled around and Kinsey began to get a bit anxious. She got dressed for the day. Her father would be doing his physical therapy while she took the two little children with her as they went to see the Shinedown promotional tour. She packed up Hayden’s little red wagon, three watermelons, ten cantaloupes, two full bags of apples, two bags of oranges and two bags of pecans for the band. She found the closest parking space she could and unloaded the wagon and fruit first.

Hayden wanted to pull his wagon so she let him. She held Bella’s hand in her left hand and Hayden’s hand in her right. He was pulling the wagon behind him with his right hand as best as he could. There wasn’t a huge crowd, which was a bit shocking, but there were several people in line talking with the some of the crew and management. Kinsey came to a stop behind the “woman” in front of her. This person looked like she was a hooker and had just gotten off work. Kinsey tried her best to keep the children busy so they wouldn’t see too much. She was busy with the children, in fact, that she missed the look Jake shot in her direction when he saw her walk up.

There were plenty of people that had come out to see the tour since they started. The short red-head with the two small children caught his eye. She looked too young to have children. When the woman standing before him said something, it snapped him back to reality. He chatted with everyone, took pictures, and signed everything anyone wanted him to sign. The red-head was the last in line and it wouldn’t be long before she was at the table.

“Oh they are precious!” Bill exclaimed as Kinsey was the next person in line

“Thank you.” Kinsey shyly stated

“What do you have in your wagon?” Brent asked, smiling down at Hayden

Barry looked over to where Kinsey stood and watched as a slight blush rose to her cheeks.

“Well, we figured being on a cramped tour bus you gents probably weren’t getting a lot of good fruits so we thought we would bring you some from our farm.” Kinsey stated

“Thank you so much!” Brent stated with a huge grin

“What all do you have?” Eric asked, joining the conversation after the woman before Kinsey moved down the table to Zach

“We brought some watermelons, some cantaloupes…” Kinsey started

“Apples and ‘cans!” Bella stated

“She means pecans.” Kinsey chuckled nervously, “Everything was grown on our farm. The cantaloupes and watermelons are some of the sweetest you’ll ever eat.”

“Thank you very much!” Eric stated, grinning at her

Brent was watching the two small children as they looked around. Hayden squealed in delight when he saw the sleek black tour bus off to the right of where the band had been set up for this. Kinsey had brought one of the older posters, one of the few times her father had taken her to a concert and one that they had both honestly had a great time at, to get signed for her father. Brent asked her name which she gave but then quickly added she wanted it signed for her father. Barry, Zach, and Eric were now listening in on the conversation.

Kinsey told the group a little about her father, about the concert he had taken her to, and how he had actually become a fan of the band that night. It was something they still shared to this day. She briefly explained that her father had some health issues which was why he couldn’t be there. She wanted her poster to be signed for him. Everyone was very nice about it and were happy to sign it for her father. Brent asked if there was anything she wanted signed for herself.

“No, I don’t need anything.” Kinsey quietly stated

Hayden was jumping around so she missed the look that passed between the four band members.