Drillmington: Amidst the Whirlwind

As the elevator lowered to the ground level, Julisia sent a text for Armando to bring the Lightray around. They had stayed at the Mercier Hotel and been accustomed to the cold air outside. They didn’t feel it, though. The wintry blast did not affect them in the slightest.

As they traveled to the next arena in Wilmington, they took stock of all the posts on social media that had cropped since the arrest of one of TSLs oppositions.

“His name was on the roll,” he said.

“It’s a good thing he’s off the streets,” Julisia pointed out.

“I just hope they don’t use his lyrics in court. That’ll be bad. But I don’t care if he gets the chair. He put babies in danger.”

Julisia put her fist on her chin and looked out the window. She shook her head. “Damn right. I hope he gets life or death.”

“He’ll probably cop a plea and do seven or eight. Easy. By that time he’ll be corrected.”

“You place your hopes on it?”

“I know it.”

“There’s only enough time to tell.”

They arrived at the arena and found an escort that shuttled them to the backstage. The opening act, NevaScurred vaped marijuana. He linked up with TSL. They dapped.

“What’s up, man?” Neva asked.

“Are you ready to get this money? TSL asked.

“You’re goddamn right!”

Neva’s second performance and first opening for TSL presented a challenge and a reward all wrapped up into one. He thundered out onto the stage with aggression and drive. TSL just sipped some water. And not vodka. Or any other spirit. His name simply read irony as he never drank. He didn’t smoke or vape for that matter. Julisia called him straight edge and that’s what she liked about him.

They stayed backstage. She went over the numbers and all of the metadata regarding the concert. In real time, she could bring up the total of tickets sold, what gender, what amount of time they spent recording the show on their mobile devices, all from a single app.

“You have time for four songs, an enocre, three more songs, then a closer with Neva,” she explained.

“Cool.”

Then, their rat phones started to ring. They could either do the show or go on another run which would put them in danger but net even more from the show itself.

“The activity is about twenty minutes from here on the East Side. All we have to do is split. I’ll go, you do the show.”

“You can go. I’ve got this whole situation on lock.” Julisia pecked him on the cheek. She gathered her twenty thousand dollar purse and her seventy five thousand dollar coat and went into the wind. A cold, bitter breeze wrapped around her. Again, she morphed into tactical gear and the Goulding did, too.

TSL just went over his rhymes while looking at his phone for Julisia to be taken from the arena to the place adjacent to the action.

He didn’t fear for her. She had dedicated her life to this craft. It had been an everyday struggle for her to maintain her sanity amidst the whirlwind of different triggers in her life. From the days of college where she had to study for five hours straight just to graduate summa cum laude. She didn’t take guff from anyone and she sure wasn’t going to let down TSL.

He watched as the Goulding weaved in and out of traffic, its blue and gray exterior transformed from that to solid black. That was the grandeur and simplicity of it all.