I Made A Deal With An Old Man In A Food Court Bathroom

Part 22

"TOMORROW!", we all said in unison, including Tony.

"Yes, Boys! Tomorrow!", Bob reiterated, "We really must be going!"

I was excited, Corey and Stephen high-fived each other, Ricky threw up the horns, and Tony was smiling.

Derek just stood there.

He had a weird look on his face... a look of doubt... he was nervous.

"Dude! Are you alright?" Stephen asked.

"Yeah, Man! You don't look so good!", Ricky said.

Derek slowly lowered his head, and softly said, "I-I'm not ready!"

That was the first time I ever saw Derek doubting himself. But I guess even the most confident person has a moment of weakness.

"Yes, you are, Dude!", I said assuringly, turning to face him.

"Yeah, Man! You got this!", Corey said, side hugging Derek.

"Dude! We just rocked out all 15 songs that we recorded in Bobs studio perfectly, on the first take, without ANY sheet music. You were excited then, what happened. I can't "Bust This Shell Wide Open" without you."

The first time I jammed with you guys, I was nervous as fuck, Dude!

But, you took it upon yourself to help me "Bust This Shell!"

I want you, Derek, to be as confident, from this day forward, as you were that day."

Did you catch what I did there. Pretty slick, huh?

Anyway, Derek's head lifted quickly, now with a look of excitement on his face.

"Yeah, Baby! Rock and Roll!", he said, throwing up the horns on both hands, and head banging with his tongue sticking out.

We all did the same. Tony too.

"Boys! Now that you've had your little Hallmark moment, I really must insist that we get going!", Bob said.

After a few seconds, Bob yelled in his most evil devil voice, "NOW!"

We all stopped head banging, trying quickly to catch our bearings, as anyone who has ever head banged that intensely knows, you're a little loopy afterwards.

Anyway, we all began knocking into one another, but quickly got our heads straight, and followed Bob through the portal in the closet door.

When we were completely out of the house, Bob snapped his fingers, and we heard the portal close.

I turned around to look at the house, one last time.

"What the fuck!", I said loudly, "Hey, Guys! You're not gonna believe this shit. Turn around!"

They did.

"No way! You're shitting me! Oh My God! What the fuck! Dang!", they all said.

We just stood there, in the side yard, in complete awe of what we saw.

The beautiful Wilhelm Estate that we had just spent the last four months in, and had seen numerous times in our lives, was not beautiful at all.

No!

It was old, raggity, and appeared to have been set ablaze at some point.

Broken windows, charred wood, and peeling paint was what stood before us.

"Um! Bob?", I said, turning around to see him go around the side of the bus.

But it wasn't the same bus that Ricky's Pops had given us, or the same bus that we saw when we first looked through the portal.