07 - When You Wake Up - Lucie
15-year-old Taylor Hanson threw his backpack down in the foyer and made a beeline for the bathroom so he could beat his older brother, Isaac, to the shower after a long, hot soccer practice. It was early September 1998, his sophomore year at Central Tulsa High School and Taylor was the starting sweeper on the Junior Varsity soccer team. His eldest brother, 17-year-old Isaac, was s senior and the starting right wing on the Varsity Soccer squad, he was expected to attend Princeton on scholarship after he completed his senior year.
Taylor stood under the cool stream of water and relaxed his tight muscles while shampooing his ear length golden blonde hair. It had been a long day and after his shower he could only look forward to more schoolwork, hooray! Taylor's dreamy mind began to wander and he lost track of the time. He didn't realize how long he'd been in the shower until he heard Isaac pounding heavily on the door, telling him to 'hurry it the hell up'.
He turned off the water and pulled back the curtain, stepping into the muggy bathroom. After quickly toweling off he gathered up his dirty clothes and left the bathroom.
"Took ya long enough, geez! I thought you, might have died in there for a second!" Isaac quipped sarcastically from his position outside the bathroom door.
"Relax, I'm out now, what more do you want?!" Taylor looked pointedly at his brother and then disappeared around the corner headed for the bedroom he shared with Isaac, and one of their younger brothers, Zac.
Taylor walked down the hallway, stepping over toys and dolls left about by his younger brother and sisters. He laughed as he passes his sisters' bedroom and saw the two of them singing along with their Backstreet Boys CD into their hairbrushes. The two of them were such little hams! He made his way to his bedroom and pushed open the door to be met by a blaring Fastball CD. Zachary, his 11-year-old brother was sprawled across his trundle bed, doing math homework and didn’t notice when Taylor entered.
"Hey, Zac, what's up?" Taylor inquired as he pulled on a fresh pair of shorts and a clean T-shirt.
"What? Oh, hey Tay, nothin' much." He looked at Taylor and then back at his homework, "how was practice?"
"Tough, Coach Silverstein got really pissed cause Adam and Daemon showed up like, 20 minutes late, again, and he took it out on all of us. We had to sprint, like, I swear-20 suicides and the heat made it even worse!" he sighed and dramatically flopped back onto his lower bunk.
"Sucks for you." Zac stated, almost sympathetically. He was a seventh grader at William H. Vespy Middle School and played on their soccer team, though is practices were far less intense for the most part.
"So when's mom getting home today?" Their mother Diana was teaching at a private music school, giving voice lessons on a daily basis.
"She just called to say she was on her way to pick up Mackie and Zoë at daycare and she'd be home soon. She said dad would be home early tonight and we were going to have a family meeting after dinner." Zac flipped his long hair out of his caramel eyes.
"How much do you wanna bet he got transferred again?" Taylor sat up and brushed a random strand of hair back from his face, he sounded almost bitter.
"I hope not." Zac stated simply. He looked back at Taylor, a hopeful and naïve look in his eyes.
"Yeah, me too." He patted Zac on the head and lay back on the bed, closing his piercing blue eyes, exhausted. He quickly said a silent prayer hoping their father hadn't gotten transferred yet again. They'd been back in Tulsa for two and a half years now and everyone was really beginning to like it. Taylor had finally gotten his life back on track and he didn't want to have to move and start all over again. Taylor Hanson hated moving.
He was just about to fall asleep when Isaac clambered into the room and began rummaging through drawers, looking for something suitable to wear. "Ike, could you quit making so much freaking noise, I'm trying to take a nap here!" Taylor lifted his head long enough to finish his sentence.
"I'm tired too, get over yourself, Tay. All I need is to find something to sleep in and I'll shut up. Man, you act like you're the…" Taylor tuned Isaac out as he began to babble, like usual.
"Come on Tay, wake up, man we've got a show in two hours. We've gotta get ready." Isaac shook Taylor's shoulder.
"Oh man…" Taylor groaned as he rolled over and slid out of his bunk, following Isaac down a narrow hallway.
He found a chair and sat down, pulling a pair of Dr. Martens on and lacing them up. Zac jumped out the open door to the tour bus and sprinted the twenty feet to the backstage and Isaac followed him, shouting over his shoulder for Taylor to make it quick.
Taylor finished lacing his boots and exited the bus, following in his brothers' wake and made his way to the backstage area of Jones Beach Theater on Long Island, New York. His bodyguard, Jason, followed faithfully behind him. For then next two hours he went through obligatory sound checks, hair and makeup, then he and his brothers participated in a quick interview with a local news station.
Admiral Twin closed their half-hour opening set and came off stage, warning the boys that the stage was slippery due to the light rain. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac made their way to the side of the stage and hyped each other up, washing away any traces of nervousness. Then they had a mandatory cheer with their back-up musicians.
As Taylor made his way to the keyboards he could feel the adrenaline surge through his veins. He could hear thousands of young girls screaming his name and Isaac's and Zac's and many more screamed Hanson! Hanson! Hanson! He couldn't wait to get the show under way, he loved performing for the fans.
Zac counted off four beats and they began to pound out the opening notes to "Gimme Some Lovin'". The curtain fell and Taylor could see all the girls and boys and families, a small portion of the millions of fans that were helping he and his brothers to live their dream. These were the people that kept Hanson alive, these fans were the reason they performed and Taylor loved it more each day.
"Thank you guys!" Isaac shouted into his mike as the closing notes of Man from Milwaukee faded in the speakers.
"Good bye and Goodnight!" Zac screeched as they ran off stage, still high on their performance.
The rain was falling too hard for any encores tonight. Taylor was disappointed that the show had to end so soon, he never wanted it to end. The stage was being cleared rapidly, to keep the equipment from getting any wetter than it was, it had rained throughout the entire performance tonight.
Taylor sighed and shook out his wet, shoulder length hair before following an exuberant Zac through the rain back to the tour bus where they could change and go to sleep after another long day and a tiring performance.
Taylor found himself in his bunk once again and lay back extremely tired but extremely content.
"Night Tay," Zac called from the bunk across the narrow hall.
"Night Zac, "Taylor replied, "Goodnight Ike."
"Night Tay, night Zac." Isaac responded from the bunk next to his. And Taylor fell into a deep sleep, totally satisfied with is life.
"Boys, wake up." Diana Hanson peeked her head into her eldest sons' bedroom. All three had fallen asleep just after school and hadn't awoken since. Now it was time for the family to sit down to dinner and he sons needed to be awoken.
"What, Ma?" Zac mumbled sleepily as he rolled over in his bed to face her.
"Time for dinner." She stated, "you get out of bed and wake your brothers up, then all three of you wash up and join the rest of the living in the kitchen." She smiled as her third child gave in and slowly got out of his bed.
"All right, we're up." Isaac and Taylor groaned simultaneously.
"Good, hurry up or your dinner will get cold." Diana turned and headed down the hall.
Taylor, Zachary, and Isaac Hanson stood around the bathroom sink washing their hands for dinner; each lost in their own little world. Taylor was the first to break the silence.
"Guys, I had this really weird dream, it was so real too..." he paused for a second making sure he had his brothers' full attention before continuing. "We were in this band-"
"And we were really, super famous." Zac cut in enthusiastically.
"And we were doing this show and there were all these girls screaming our names..." Isaac trailed off.
"You had that dream too?" Taylor asked incredulously.
"Yeah."
"Me too." Zac added.
"Wow, that's so...weird..." Taylor trailed off and followed his brothers to the dinner table to join his awaiting family and the news of whether or not his silent prayer had been answered, he hoped his life would remain the same, it was hectic enough as it was.
As he sat down to say grace he shook his head, as if to dislodge some inconceivable notion, there was no substance to the dream he and his brothers had, it was nothing more than a coincidence and he was sure of that. They could never make it in that business...right? Of course, he smiled at his foolishness and turned his attention back to his kitchen table, in the real world.
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