He Told Me To Walk This Way

Sweet Emotion

The Morning of the Flight to California

In the morning I felt anxious. On one hand I really was looking forward to seeing Aerosmith again. They had been such a huge part of my life, but after the incident with Steven, I had cut all ties with them, including Angela, until she broke up with Joey. But now here they were, being thrown back into my life. I settled on the idea that, yes, I definitely did want to see them. Although I wasn’t sure what I’d do when it came time to “meet” them. I’d already more than “met” them. I wondered if Steven would even remember me after all these years.

After making Ellie a hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon I got her ready to go to my mother’s house. I had called her yesterday to make sure didn’t have any plans and could watch Ellie for me.

Of course when I explained to her where I was going and why, she just said that I was asking for trouble getting involved with “those boys” again.

I stood in front of Ellie’s closet, trying to find something she would agree to wear.

“Mommy, I am not wearing those pants. Do you see them?”

“Honey what’s wrong with these ones? You’re only going to grandmas.” I pleaded.

Little Ellie crossed her arms and looked at me angrily. She had certainly gotten Steven’s stubbornness.

“They’re brown, mommy! I don’t want to wear brown pants. Plus…they’re bell bottoms. Bells are so not in style anymore.”

“Oh really?”

I got up and walked back to Ellie’s closet, where I pulled out a pair of light blue denim skinny jeans from the top shelf, replacing them with the brown pair.

“Those are perfect mom, thank you.” Ellie said shyly.

I left her to dress herself and went into my room, hoping that she wouldn’t have a problem with finding a shirt to wear. I pulled on a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and a Guns n’ Roses shirt. They were a new band but I was really getting into them after having gone to one of their shows a couple months back. They had an awesome front man named Axl Rose who could scream almost as well as Steven could. 

After putting on a little makeup I was ready to go.

“Let’s go Ellie! We need to leave now!” I yelled to her from the front door.

“Coming mommy.”

She strutted down the hallway like she was the baddest thing this world had ever seen. In her left hand she held her overnight bag, and in her right hand was her hamster’s cage. She was smiling hugely.

“Let’s go baby” I said, as we walked out the door.

I made sure Ellie was strapped into her car-seat and then double checked that I still had the plane ticket in my wallet. That was all I needed; to get to the airport only to realize that I’d left my ticket sitting on the kitchen table.

Twenty minutes later I was leaving my mother’s house and getting back into my car. I turned the radio up and heard an overly-enthusiastic radio show spokesman babbling on and on about the Aerosmith tour.

“The Bad Boys of Boston are kickin’ off the tour for their new super excellent album Done With Mirrors! Their first venue will be tomorrow in San Diego. How many of you fantastic listeners will be attending this Aerosmith show? Huh? Huh? Well why don’t you call me and let me know if you’ll be rockin’ out with Aerosmith tomorrow, and go ahead and request a song while you’re on the air with me, that’s Handsome Dan, your favorite radio host!”