Karli Knows Things - Part 3

Karli Knows Things – Part 3

©March 2021 Robert W. F. Taylor

It was the night of the concert. The Arena was totally mobbed with Apple Gangers fans screaming and yelling even though the group had not yet put in an appearance. As usual the concert started with another group. This was to warm up the audience and get them hyped to see the stars of the show when the Gangers finally took the stage. It was totally unnecessary because the crowd was already in high spirits anticipating a great show.

Karli was right in the middle of it all with Lindsay, Glenda and another friend, Sue. Suddenly, her mind gave her the feeling that something was terribly wrong. Her eyes were directed over towards where a temporary section of extra seats had been installed. She had to tell someone, and quickly, that those seats were not safe.

“I’m going to try to get to the office. Don’t go near that red section, guys, okay?”

“Okay. We’ll stay right here, Karli!”

She squirmed her way through the crowd, trying desperately to find a security guard, police officer, or anyone who would do something. They were all very busy with crowd control and keeping fans away from the stage. Worming her way through the crowd, the teen made her way under the seats to the walkway where the stairs led up to the various seat levels. The warm-up group, the Roadsiders, had started entertaining the crowd with their explosive style of frenetic noise which added immensely to the chaos and brouhaha in the packed arena. There was a line-up outside the office and a platoon of guards was hovering around managing the line and the crowd.

Karli went up to one of them. She vaguely knew him. “Hey, Mike. Remember me...Karli?”

Mike smiled, “Oh yeah. How’re you doing?”

“I’m good but listen. There’s a problem inside. Those temporary red seats someone put up are not safe. They are going to collapse. There is too much weight on them.”

He looked at her. “How do you know that? Are you, like, a seat engineer or something?”

“Very funny. Listen, I’m serious, Mike. Please find someone who can do something about it now, because the seats are full of kids jumping up and down. I tell you...it is going to collapse and people are going to die if we don’t do something NOW! This is not BS, Mike it is real. I know it.”

“So, let’s see if I’ve got this right. You want me to disrupt the concert because you thing something could possibly happen in a section of overflow seats that were installed by our arena crew, right?” He grinned down at her.

“Not could, you idiot! Will and soon. She looked at his uniform. “Mike, you are a security officer, right? I just told you that those seats are going to collapse and soon. If you don’t get the people off of there in the next few minutes, some will die and then it will be your fault because you were told about it and think it’s just a joke. You will live with that for the rest of your life and everybody in town will know that you did nothing. This is not a joke, Mike. This is real. I see things that other people don’t. Ask anybody. If you won’t do anything, I’ll find someone who will.”

Karli turned to walk away but Mike grabbed her arm. “Wait a minute. You are serious, aren’t you? It seems to me that I did hear about you being able to see things from somebody. Okay, let’s go. But if you make me look like a fool, you will pay for it. C’mon!” He told another security guard to follow him and together, the three of them fought their way through the crowd over to the red section of temporary seats.

The other guard had a bullhorn with him...a microphone-operated megaphone. He pointed that towards the red seats and was about to tell everyone to get off when Karli put her hand on his arm. “Tell the ones in the front to come down first and lead them off quickly row by row. If they all come rushing down at the same time, they will crush each other.”

The guard told everybody in the seats to come down as Karli had suggested and to keep their ticket stubs. The crowd wasn’t happy about it but they were in a party mood so they did as they were ordered and came quickly down to the ground level in a semi-orderly fashion. As the last few were bouncing their way down, there was a creaking noise. The whole section of seats leaned to the right and came crashing down. Everyone screamed as they moved out of the way and into the throng of exuberant fans. The noise stopped. The band stopped playing. Everyone in the arena had seen the seats fall.

Within minutes, police and ambulances arrived at the arena but, thanks to Karli and the two security guards, there were only minor injuries which occurred because of the pressure of people getting away from the disaster.

Karli and the security guards were mobbed as everyone thanked them.

Several more guards showed up quickly onto the scene and cleared people aside as they led a tall man through to where the collapsed seats were.

“This is the girl who warned us that the seats were going to collapse,” Mike said to the man. “Her name is Karli Williams and she had the ability to see things that we mere mortals don’t.”

The man shook Karli’s hand. “Hello Karli, I’m Roger Mason, the Apple Gangers manager. Are you here by yourself?”

“No, I’m with three friends, Mr. Mason.”

“The boys and I would like to invite you and your three friends to watch the show from special VIP seats up front and then afterwards to come backstage and meet them so they can thank you personally for what you did today. No one can know how many lives you just saved, not to mention how it would have ruined the show for everybody.

Lindsay, Glenda and Cheryl were led to their VIP seats in the front row. The girls couldn’t believe it when Karli told them they were going to go backstage and meet the Apple Gangers.

Security guard Mike said, “Remind me never to doubt anything you say ever again.”

A week later, the mayor of the city presented Karli with a special plaque at a ceremony at City Hall but she still had her head in the clouds. She had had the chance to meet, talk to, kiss, get hugged by, and have at least a kazillion pictures taken with her idols, the Apple Gangers.