You never know what you have until it's gone. 

You also never realise how much you want to brush your teeth until you're not able to.

The morning was bright and sunny and my room was getting stuffy. I only had my purse with me containing my wallet, headphones, house keys, chocolate scented perfume, backstage pass, and a teabag.

For emergencies.

I was able to shower but could only suffice with the same clothes I wore last night and nothing to brush my teeth with. I'm sure they were covered in food. Gathering my things and wishing the room a rotten farewell I walked down the stairs to return my room key. The man looked me up and down seeing as I looked exactly the same as last night. I averted his gaze.

It was about ten in the morning. The city was perfectly awake by now and besides my headache I felt pretty decent. My feet didn't ache nearly as much as I thought they would. But they sure as hell were going to if I ended up lost. 

All the streets looked the same to me. I felt too shy to ask for directions and nobody seemed to have any time to spare. The diner Angus and I went to seemed a whole country away now. I stopped at an intersection and made an attempt to read the street sign down the crosswalk. 

Nothing doing, I was blind as a bat.

I crossed anyway and just started walking in the opposite direction of the motel. Newspaper stands, post offices, payphones, bottle-o's and lolly shops in every direction but none of them I recognised. I couldn't panic yet, I knew my own neighbourhood, I could take a bus or a taxi and be home in no time.

So why were my palms already getting sweaty? 

Why did my headache worsen?

Why did my stomach tie itself in knots?

A cyclist swarm stampeded past me and I jumped out of the way just in time. I neared a payphone and decided to call my mum and explain my predicament. She was probably worried sick, I meant to be home an hour ago. I dialed the number and waited. 

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mum."

"Where are you?" I heard pots and pans in the background. 

"I don't know, I stayed at a different motel and now I'm trying to get home." I twirled the phone cord around my finger waiting for her to get annoyed with me.

"Listen, your brother is going to call at any minute so I'd better go," she said. "I'll see you when you get home."

And she hung up. 

I placed the phone back in the cradle and left the phone booth. And sighed. 

Thanks, Mum.

"Hannah!"

I didn't bother to respond as I've done so before only to see the person calling was referring to a different Hannah, there being so many of us. But when I heard heavy footfalls behind me I turned around to see....Angus.

Angus Young.

With the messiest head of hair I've ever seen in my life. 

I could have swooned.

"What are you doin' here?" he asked catching his breath.

"Going home," I answered. He looked terrible. The man had bags enough to carry groceries in. I would swear on my life I looked undead. 

"You know the way?"

"No, I was going to catch a ride maybe." I paused awkwardly. "Where are you going?"

"I just woke up ten minutes ago an' remembered I had a studio session in an hour. Didn't bother to clean up, sorry I look a mess." He shook out his head of hair and wrinkled his nose. "An' I couldn't jus' run off without sayin' hello."

I smiled. These men were sweet. I looked down at my feet while Angus coughed. 

Damn it, say something!

"You wanna come with me to the studio?" he asked sticking his hands in his pockets. "You don't have to stay long an' it's on the way to the pub from here."

"Well...." Uh, what was I doing thinking about it, this was the chance of a lifetime! But my mum still expected me home. Maybe I should give her a call....then again, my brother was due to ring and she probably wanted me to stay off the line. Then I thought how badly I needed to brush my teeth. If it was only for a few minutes...."Sure."

He grinned. "Alright then, this way." He led me down the street a couple of blocks towards a small building with a few cars out front and a truck. Inside there were a few black and white photos of musicians such as Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix. Next to them was a gold record. Most of the walls were covered in wood paneling or peeling paper. A man was already in there fiddling with a table covered in buttons. He looked up at us when we walked in. 

"Mornin', Ang, get enough sleep?"

"What do you think?" Angus grabbed a case off the floor with his guitar in it. "Go on, make yourself comfortable, everyone is already here."

"Who's this?" the man asked. 

"This is Hannah, this is George." 

My God.

It really was him....George of the Easybeats. They were huge back when I was a kid and I remember asking for all their records for birthdays and Christmas. Instinctively I held my hand out to him and he shook it with a small smile. "The lads are in the back fuckin' off, I came out here to fix this bastard in peace."

"Broken?"

"Broken as shit. Been hangin' on a thread for months now, died this mornin'." Angus must have decided he didn't want to break it any more and left it for George to fix. 

"Well, we'll be in back playin', maybe we'll get somethin' done. Come on." He took my hand and as I tried not grin like an idiot he took us to a back room where Bon was giving Phil a piggy back ride. 

Or, perhaps Phil had jumped on Bon's back and Bon was trying to throw him off. It looked to be the case when Phil slipped off the side and Bon didn't help him.

"Serves you right, ya' freeloader," Bon joked and went back to messing with...a Rubix cube? "Broke my fuckin' back!"

"You break your back every Friday night, ya' know," Phil said. "When we shared a wall in the hotels I never got any sleep." 

"Ya' jealous little man."

"Oi, Angus!" Malcolm ignored the bickering and came up to him with his guitar already strapped around him. "Oh, good to see ya', Hannah. Angus, we're ready to play a bit if you are."

Angus sniffed and set the case down to pull his guitar out. Not wanting to be an interloper I stepped aside and found a chair in the corner. Bon grinned like a jack-o-lantern when he saw me and I grinned back. He looked back and forth between Angus and me and kept winking. Some ludicrous plan of his was working it seemed. Malcolm started talking about the riffs for the new songs and everyone gave their input. 

I don't know anything about music other than what I think sounds good versus what I think sounds stinky. I kept quiet.

"Maybe on the second verse we can add a bit of color over it an' see if that's any good," Angus suggested. 

"Phil? Got the beat down?" Malcolm asked. Phil gave a thumbs up and looked down at his shoes. "Bon?"

"Huh?" Bon was still messing with the toy.

"Is the second verse able to fit in with the melody if we color over it or would it have to be changed?"

"Ah, she's alright. I'll jus' have to color my voice a bit an' we'll see what happens openin' night." He grinned like a wolf. 

"Cliff? What are ya' thinkin' about the bass line?"

I never realised how much discussion there was in recording studios. I suppose with the broken sound board there wasn't much they could do in terms of recording. It was a cute little place. Not a whole lot of room in this particular area but surely the actual recording booth was much larger if it housed five guys and a drum set. I looked at the clock on the wall and was surprised to see it was past noon. My stomach rumbled a little and I looked around making sure nobody noticed. Angus was looking right at me. 

I hoped he hadn't heard that. 

Malcolm set his guitar down and stood up to stretch. "Well I'm about to eat the couch so who wants lunch?"

Bon hurriedly stood up and ran past everyone leaving us to choke on the cloud of dust he left behind. Angus stepped out of the way and came up to me. "Did you want anything? Or should you be headin' home?"

"I think I should go," I admitted. I didn't really want to leave...but my teeth were becoming biohazards. Angus nodded and held his hand out.

"Well it was good to see you again. Still on for another concert?"

I smiled. "Yeah. I'll come to the next one."

"Good. We're playin' at a different pub in Newcastle." He shrugged. "Not too far of a drive."

Only one problem. I don't drive.

But I would make it if I had to do back flips the whole way. 

Malcolm gave me a hug from the side. "Good to see ya', kid. It's nice to see a woman in this testicle tent once in a while." I choked out a laugh. Phil playfully elbowed him on the way out and Malcolm held his fists out ready to fight. 

I really wasn't expecting these men to be so....childlike...

I liked it. 

Cliff and Malcolm ended up going to get the food and I started my trek back to my house. At least this time I knew where I was. 

**********

"I'm home."

"You've been out a while," Mum said. She was looking through a cookbook. "I expected you back some hours ago."

"I got sidetracked." I set my purse down and ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth. 

Much fucking better.

When I came back my mum was washing some dishes. I stood by the kitchen table anxious to tell her about my day. 

"I met my favorite band last night."

"What?" She turned to look at me.

"I met AC/DC after the show last night. And I saw the studio this morning." 

Before she could respond the telephone rang. Quick as lightning she turned off the water and grabbed a towel. "That must be your brother." She almost ripped the phone off the wall. "Hello?"

I left the room.