The Pageturners

The warm afternoon sun shines through the window of white two-story suburban home located in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. A shaggy haired 18 year old boy is standing in the middle of his bedroom holding a guitar in his hand while standing over a distortion pedal. He starts to play part of an original song that he usually does with his band as he imagines performing in front of a sold out crowd at the Filmore Auditorium. All he wants is to have that success on stage; he can't see himself doing anything else.

He loses himself in his playing for a moment before hearing the honk of a vehicle outside his house. After hearing the noise, the boy looks outside his bedroom window to see a white/beige 1967 VW Bus in his driveway. He recognizes it right away as his friend and then rushes to get dressed in a white button up. Before running out of his house, the boy grabs his red graduation cap and gown by the door.

Once he climbs in the VW, he is greeted by his excited friend that says, "There he is! Ace, the prince of lateness finally makes it out on time for something."

Ace laughs and replies "Of course! This is high school graduation, our chance to finally be recognized on stage for getting through the past few years and I am all about being recognized on stage for things." Ace then looks out the window of the VW as it speeds down the road, and then turns back to his friend "Besides Lucas, we've been planning what happens starting tomorrow for the past year so graduation is like the ignition that sets our plans off.”

The two then pull into the parking lot of a medium-sized public high school, Lucas parks the van, and turns to Ace "So you're still all for it then? Starting tomorrow, we are driving out west and doing this tour to California?”

Ace instantly says back, "Yes! If we don't take the opportunity now, we might not ever get the chance to again! We have to do it.”

Lucas smiles and looks up to the sky and then sighs before turning his attention back to Ace "Okay well we did work a lot the past few months to save up for expenses so even if the bus breaks down we should be fine. I just can't believe we're going to do it!” The two boys then jump out of the VW start walking towards the high school.

As Lucas and Ace walk towards the front doors of the building, they are met by a third boy that is the same age with short black hair. Ace excitedly greets the boy with a pat on the back and says "Drew! Just the guy we were looking for! Hey, Me and Lucas were just talking about tomorrow, this is the last call, are you still set to go?”

Drew turns to Ace and Lucas and looks them dead in the eyes and says, "I've never been more ready for anything in my life!" The three laugh, enter the school and proceed to join the graduating class of 1968.

The next day, Ace packs everything up that he will need to spend the next 4 weeks on the road with his friends while they tour. He hugs his parents and tells them good-bye before loading everything he chose to bring along for the tour into Lucas's VW Bus. Once the two reach Drew's home, they are greeted with Drew holding a drum in his hands. He opens the back of the VW to put it away he says, "Okay guys, I'm going to need a little bit of help getting the rest." Once they loaded up the rest of their equipment, Drew insisted to his parents that he was going to be going on vacation with Ace and his family. He would not risk telling them the truth because he felt that they wouldn't let him go if they knew he was touring with a rock band. After they diffused the situation and packed everything up, the trio officially began their tour in Lucas's VW.

After a few hours of listening to bands like: The Beatles, Cream, and The Monkees on the radio, the band arrived at the record store. The owner of the record store had seen the band play before at a bar that was local to where Ace lived and invited them out to play there for $250. As the bands arrived, the owner of the store helped them all move equipment into his crowded record store. The store featured a poster on the front wall that read: LIVE, TONIGHT, THE PAGETURNERS, along with White Sun and James Giff!

Ace smiled seeing the name of his band in bold on the poster and the band's first gig on the tour did very well. A total of 50 people bought tickets and more lined the outside to listen to the them play. After playing the 6 original songs and 2 covers, Ace noticed that the crowd was much larger than their usual shows.

At the end of the night, after the band packed everything back into the bus and accepted the payment for the show, Ace decided to take a look around the store to look for any of his favorite albums. Ace looked through a shelf in the distant corner of the store and noticed an album that had a cover that was completely black. When Ace touched the album cover, a little black book fell out of the vinyl sleeve and on to the ground. Ace quickly rushed down to pick up the book and opened it to look inside. Every page of this black book was empty and barren of any ink. Ace looked over this little black book without much thought and decided to just pocket it and use it for a lyric book for new songs. He then started to leave the record store lobby and noticed a cold gust of wind following him as he left. After saying a final goodbye to the store’s owner, the trio arrived at a hotel close to store. That night at the hotel, Ace laid in his bed restless. He noticed the black book sitting by the table with his other luggage and picked it up to write some lyrics. Ace was shocked to discover that the notebook had words printed across the first page that made up a single question: What is your greatest desire? Ace raised his eyebrows at sight of the question and thought it might have been vandalism from one of the other two boys in the band. Ace then proceeded to take a pen and write under the question in cursive, "To get a record deal with my band." Ace then started to write lyrics under the answer.

After many hours of driving to Arizona, the trio found themselves playing at their second gig at a large bar at 6:30pm. Over a hundred people showed up and they were set to make 400 dollars off of the show. Ace, Lucas, and Drew loved the attention and couldn't believe that other people cared so much about music that they had written in their bedrooms. Once they finished their set, a man in a black suit approached them and introduced himself as Henry Phillips. He sat the boys down and lit a cigar before saying, "Listen guys, that crowd loved you. I think we need to get those songs recorded. Would you three be interested in cutting your tour you mentioned on stage short? I could set you guys up in a place in LA beside my studio and we could record you guys an album!”

Ace remained silent for 10 seconds to wait and see if Drew or Lucas would respond first and they didn't. Instead they looked at Ace with faces that read, "they are your songs." Ace then smiled and said "you got a deal."

The man in the expensive suit smoking a cigar smiled and then said to Ace, "Great, I'll give you $20,000 to make it happen and for the rights. Let me meet you three for lunch here tomorrow and we can discuss how we will get you guys to LA." The man then calmly stood up and shook Ace’s hand before saying, “Meet me at the cafe across the street tomorrow at 11am.” He then walked away from the trio, disappearing into the smokey haze of the bar.

That night at the second hotel, Ace laid in his bed thinking again about the little black book and the events of his day. He pulled the book back out and thought to himself, “Did this little black book really make a dream come true?” Ace closed the book and tried to tell himself that it was all just coincidence before drifting into a deep sleep. That next day, the band met with the man at the cafe to discuss the record deal again. He pulled out a document from his briefcase before discussing the deal of the contract. After being promised that the VW bus would be brought to them later, the band quickly agreed to everything Henry said and afterwards followed him out of the cafe and into a 1968 Cadillac limousine. Henry then said to the trio, “Okay boys, we’re going to the airport to fly to Los Angeles. I am going to set you up in a place while we cut this album.”

Hours passed and the band enjoyed every second of luxury while being brought through to the studio near the sunset strip. Eventually, they were dropped off at their temporary high-scale condo to settle in. Once they were unpacked, the band was rushed to the studio and were quickly submerged in many hours of creative discussion about their music. Over that next week, the band recorded all six of their songs but were urged to come up with one more for the album. This created a lot of pressure on Ace to write a song on the spot to top off the album.

One night while alone in his room in the condo, Ace decided to pull the little black book out again. This time the book asked the same question but on the second page. Ace thought deeply and then wrote, “to write a song that the whole world will love.” Ace then closed the book and went to sleep. That next day he woke up to discover multiple pages of the book were covered in what seemed to be lyrics and chord charts for a song.

Ace followed his heart and passed the song off for his own. The reaction from the rest of the band and the producers was ecstatic, it was like every one that heard it instantly knew it was a hit! This amazed Ace but he continued to keep the true origins of the song hidden.

After the song was finished, Henry Phillips could not wait to release it to the world and wait for the success that came. He did not have to wait long because after the song was played on the radio, the band managed to sell millions of their debut album. It was a massive success and the band quickly found incredible fame.

Months later, Ace decides to stop in at the same bar in Arizona where the band was signed. While replaying the memory in his head at the table it happened, Ace is shocked by a hand being placed on his shoulder. Ace then hears a voice in his ear that says, “So I see you found my book.”