The tickets are real. You are holding them. The Pogues — TONIGHT.
Estephen's scales erupt into full neon blaze: pink, cyan, green, all at once, cycling so fast he looks like a disco ball in cowboy boots. His long tail whips a lampshade clean off the table. Oops. The venue is six blocks away and the doors open in forty-five minutes, and he has not found his other boot yet.
"PER MY RESEARCH," Fillbert announces from the doorway, "the average concert-goer arrives twenty-two minutes before showtime." He is holding a clipboard. He is a worm. He has a clipboard.
You find the boot under the couch. One heroic hop. Laces flying. You and Fillbert are out the door and moving before the lampshade even hits the floor.
The city smells like warm pretzels and possibility. Somewhere ahead, a distant guitar chord floats over the rooftops. Your heart does a drum solo.