"Bon! Open up!" 

Just my luck. Right when I need to take a piss, someone comes knocking on the door. Bon wasn't there to answer so it'd have to be me. And our guest would have to be patient if they knew what was good for them. 

"You're late, Bon, we've been waitin' for ya' for two hours!" 

I recognized Angus' voice. There were two hands knocking on the hotel room door so he might have had a friend with him. Inching my way around the dark bathroom I got myself fixed up and quickly washed my hands. The knocking got louder as I approached the door. I opened it and narrowly missed getting bopped on the head. 

"Sorry about that," Angus said, holding his hand away. 

"What's going on?" I asked. Out in the hallway stood Angus and Phil, both of them looking antsy. 

"Call Bon out, tell him it's time to go," Angus said. I looked back and forth between them. 

"Bon's not here," I said and both men froze. "He left a while ago."

"You're serious?" Angus asked, his tone not a happy one. I nodded and he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Great."

"Where'd he go?" Phil asked.

"He said he was meeting a friend but he didn't say where," I said, concern building up. "What are you late for?"

"Band's got an interview downtown," Angus said. "They told us ten sharp an' it's almost thirty after." He looked at his watch. "Forty after, pardon me."

"Cliff an' Mal stayed behind an' we went lookin' for him," Phil said. "Thought he'd be here." Bon didn't mention anything about an interview. He left so early he probably thought he'd have enough time to visit his friend and still make it. Maybe he lost track of time. Or something happened to him....

Calm down, Hannah, you're from the future. If anything had happened to Bon, you'd be the first to know about it. 

Stelle's mother came to mind. I still wasn't convinced my being here had nothing to do with the accident. What if something happened to Bon because of me?

"I can help you look for him," I said grabbing the other key to the room. The men stepped back as I came out. 

"There's not many places to look," Phil said. "Unless ya' wanna scout the whole country."

"We'll do it if we have to," I said and Angus and Phil looked at each other. With talk of searching the whole country, both of them probably wished Cliff and Malcolm had gone looking instead. 

"You have any idea where he might be?" Angus asked. "You probably don't know which friend it was..."

"No, he didn't say," I said as we walked down the hall. The elevator was most likely still out of service and these two had to climb the stairs. "And I still don't know the area very well." Phil walked ahead of us, leading us to the stairwell. 

"Think it could have been Jack, Phil?" Angus asked, his voice echoing down the stairs. If I had known I'd be getting some exercise I would have done some stretches first. There was a stitch in my side already. "Or Henry?"

"Might be," Phil said. "They're in the Newcastle area, that's hours away. Shit..." Both men realized the severity of the situation and quickened their pace. I struggled to keep up, thankful I left my leather jacket behind. Running in the heat would kill me. 

"What will happen if we don't find him?" I asked. Phil crossed the lobby first, opening the door for Angus and I. We stepped outside and I was hit with a burst of hot sunshine. Across the street was the construction I heard; it looked like a new office was being built. With all the cones put up cars struggled to get where they were going and traffic built up. Everyone honked their horns. Some exchanged friendly swear words.

"Best case scenario, we do the interview without him," Angus said. "Worst case, they call the whole thing off and or sue the band for not keepin' up our end of things." I paled. 

"Or Bon's lyin' in a gutter somewhere an' no one knows where he is," Phil said and I felt lightheaded. I had to stay optimistic. Bon was okay, he had to be. He was always okay.

Except when he wasn't.

**********

"They don't really have the right to sue the band for this, do they?" I asked as all three of us ran for the bus waiting on the corner. The line for it was getting shorter, the doors would be closing any minute. It was the only one we could fine that was leaving in the direction of Newcastle. We couldn't make it the whole way but maybe we'd meet up with Bon halfway there. Maybe it was a silly idea but we had nowhere else to go. We had no other leads. 

Phil slammed his hand on the bus right as the last person in line got on. The driver saw us and motioned for us to climb aboard, Phil letting Angus and I go first. The only open spaces were near the back and we all sat together. As per usual, there was a baby crying back there. "Management signed an agreement," Angus said, catching his breath. "We agreed to show up, all of us, they're expectin' us. I can't imagine this big time production takin' a shoestring band to court but they could."

"This isn't like Bon," Phil said. "Never in his life has he been the type to pull this kind of thing. At least, not as long as we've known him."

"I could see him runnin' from a Valentine's photo shoot," Angus said, trying to cheer us up. "I've seen what the higher ups made 'em wear."

"Have you seen what he wears now?" Phil laughed. "They ought to be runnin' from him." The bus pulled off from the curb and I remembered I left all my money in my jacket. Angus and Phil were more likely to have brought their wallets with them but one glance at their pockets had me thinking otherwise. It'd be easy to forget something like that when you're in a hurry to pick up your bandmate. These men were small, a wallet would be easy to spot.

I averted my gaze from their laps and kept my eyes forward, cheeks burning red. 

"Bit worried about him," Angus admitted. "He's disappeared plenty of times but this....this is different."

"How do we know this friend of his isn't dangerous?" Phil asked. Angus and I turned to him. Phil looked down at his shoes. "I know a few blokes who'd pull somethin' hairy."

Now my heart cracked for Phil. Who the fuck got him hooked on drugs? Who the hell pretended to be on his side while only hurting him more? And what if something was happening with Bon? Why were they meeting so early? The sun had barely been up, it was still dark out. I wanted to beat myself up for not asking but I trusted him! Bon's got trustworthy friends, they wouldn't hurt him. 

At least I thought they wouldn't. I wasn't really sure about anything anymore.

"Bon's been on the streets longer than us," Angus said. "He knows his way around, he can take care of himself." Trees flew past the window and the baby finally quieted down after getting a glimpse of Phil. 

"Hope so," Phil said and pulled out his cigarettes from his shirt pocket. He looked at the drooling baby who stared up at him, then put the pack away. 

"How long do we look for him?" I asked, my heart racing still. "When do we decide to call it quits and head back?"

"Let's look until we find him," Angus said. "Interview or not. We'll call Cliff an' Mal an' tell 'em what's happened an' they'll do it for us."

"Why can't they just do it now?" I asked. "Wouldn't they understand a band emergency?" A missing band member had to be a decent excuse for not working.

"Normally these people have other bands they interview in the same day," Angus said. "We booked an early spot. An' lucky for us no other band picked today for a talk so we're technically free all day to look for him." He coughed into his hand. "Best if we can try to get all five of us there."

"They're not," Phil said and Angus looked at him. "The people runnin' this aren't free."

"No," Angus said. "We're jus' wastin' their time an' money."

"If they're holding an interview that can't start, why aren't they free?" I asked. This would make fascinating material for my book. I just hated that one of my friends was missing for me to learn about all this. "What are they doing besides waiting around?"

"Bookin' other bands, ya' know," Angus said. "Makin' calls an' schedules. Puttin' together questions for each band they got lined up, ya' know. All very technical, ya' know?" I blushed when he smiled at me. I could listen to him talk for ages...

Right. Bon.

"Cliff an' Mal are probably stressed out," Phil said. "They're jus' waitin' on us."

"Should we have called them?" I asked. I hung on to my seat as the bus bumped along the road. The baby started crying again. 

"We'll let 'em know where we are soon as we can find a phone," Angus said. "Mal'll be pleased."

"He's always pleased," Phil said and laughed while Angus smiled. 

"You'd be pleased too if you were in his shoes right now," Angus pointed out. "He's been under a lot lately an' now this."

"Could they reschedule?" I suggested. Right away I knew why that wouldn't work.

"Too late," Angus said. "Already booked other bands to talk to an' tour starts in two days. Couldn't do it."

"Maybe he's shown up," Phil said. "While we were out."

"If that's true Bon owes us bus fare," Angus said, patting his pockets down. "I got nothin'."

"Shit, I'm out too," Phil said. Both men looked at me and I held out my empty hands and shrugged. "What do we do?"

Angus sat up and craned his neck to see up front. The bus was pulling up to a curb and stopping at a large sign. "We gettin' off?"

"Not unless we pay," Phil said. Some people were standing up and leaving the bus, showing their passes or dropping some coins into a slot on their way out. Funny. I was used to people paying before they got on the bus. Phil looked around and motioned for us to stand up. "Come on, let's go."

Angus and I looked at each other before standing up, Angus sighing. He grabbed my hand in a reassuring way, letting me know we were not actually about to go to jail. Phil walked to the front of the bus, following the line of people. Taking his time. I looked at the tops of the other passengers' heads and looked for anyone who might look like Bon. For all we knew, he was on the same bus we were. Phil looked back at us once before giving us a signal, then booking it off the bus. He jumped down the steps and Angus pulled me along with him, letting me go for a second so I could jump next.

"Hey!" the driver yelled, honking his horn. "Lunatic kids, ain't nobody gets free lifts around here!" My legs stung when my feet hit the ground and Angus was right behind me. The incoming crowd waiting to be let on gasped in shock as we ran through them, covering their ears from the loud horn and cussing. "Fucking kids, get back here!"

"Ya' think he got a good look?" Angus asked as we ran down the street, taking my hand in his again. 

"Let's hope not," Phil said, panting. The hot sun was horrible alone and this running had us beat. We didn't stop running until the horn faded out. The street was dotted with grey garbage cans, some of them overflowing with trash. Graffiti covered the walls with four letter words and obscene drawings. This looked like the kind of place shady dealings would happen with shady friends. I suddenly hoped we wouldn't find Bon down this street. "Let's hope he doesn't know enough about the band to recognize us."

"You alright?" Angus asked letting go of my hand. I needed to sit down for a minute. I found a stoop outside the door of a house and sat down, not really caring whose house it was or if they welcomed visitors. I rocked myself back and forth, hoping to distract myself from the lightheaded feeling. 

"I need a minute," I said, Ang's voice sounding far away. Angus sat next to me while Phil leaned against the railing on the stoop. 

"When's the last time you ate somethin'?" Angus asked, looking me over. Without my oversized leather jacket I probably looked much smaller than usual. I thought back to the salad I feasted on the night before. 

"It doesn't matter," I said, hanging my head down so I could get better blood flow. "Last night," I answered.

"Jesus, kid, no wonder ya' look so sick," Angus said. He looked around and must have seen something. "Phil? Think you can grab somethin' out of the machine?"

Phil didn't look so sure. "I can try. Ya' want somethin' too?"

"Whatever you can get," Angus said and Phil walked over to an old, dirty vending machine. The glass was caked with mud splatters. With no spare change, the machine wouldn't work. We watched Phil crouch down and stuff his arm through the slot. "Why didn't ya' eat somethin'?" Angus pushed away a lock of my hair. 

"I wasn't hungry," I said. "I didn't do it on purpose." The heat along with strenuous running was bad enough. But with an empty stomach and lack of sleep, I had been doomed from the start. The world wasn't fading anymore but my head still felt like it would float away any second. Little by little Angus' voice came into focus and I could hear him properly. "I guess I should have prepared to go on a rescue mission for Bon."

"Ya' gotta take care of yourself, love," he said, looking at me with kind eyes. Any other time of day I would have been thrilled at this attention from Angus. But I'd rather have the sickness pass than have everyone staring at me for slowing the search down. Every second wasted here was another second without Bon. 

"We can't stop now, we have to keep looking," I said, making an attempt to stand up. Angus pulled me back down. 

"Not until you're up for it," Angus said and that was that. Phil already had two water bottles sitting on the ground next to him and was fighting for a third. The vending machine rocked back and forth; a poorly looked after rinky dink machine. Phil pulled his arm out and stretched it, knowing he was going to be sore for a while. He brought the three water bottles over to us and set them down. 

"The food's too high to reach," Phil said. "This is the best I could do."

"That'll work for now," Angus said, opening up a bottle and giving it to me. I downed half of it in one sitting, beads of water rolling down my chin. Embarrassed, I wiped it away.

"Thanks," I said. Angus and Phil helped themselves to a drink and I could slowly feel the world coming back. Everything was clearer, the colors were sharper as were the sounds. The lightheaded sleepiness disappeared and I thought I could stand again. "I think I'm okay."

Neither Angus or Phil made any move so I stayed where I was, having another quick drink. "If he's not here, where do we look?" Phil asked. 

"We shouldn't take another bus up north," Angus said, a playful glint in his eyes. "Since we're not good for it." He held a hand over his eyes to block out the sun. "Could hang up missin' posters around town."

"I think we ought to turn back," Phil said. "If he's not here, he could be anywhere. Could have gotten on a plane to France for all we know."

"We should find a phone," Angus said. "Let 'em know where we are..."

"With what money?" Phil asked. "Every little thing costs money around here..." Fuck, none of us had thought of that. 

While Phil and Angus tossed ideas back and forth, some met with a snappy comment in response, I stood from the stoop and looked up and down the street. With no money, there was no way to call Malcolm or Cliff. There was no way to call a cab or even pay for one should one drive up the street. We couldn't pay for a bus and we really shouldn't try our luck by pulling another fast one. 

So...what was left for us to do?