"Uh, where, exactly?" A.J. wanted to know. He peered at the orange mist that surrounded them. "Or are you seein' something I ain't?"
"Just mist." Brian confirmed. "But I came from that way," he pointed behind himself, "and I always just keep goin' forward."
"Okay then," Kevin started to move forward, then stopped. "I'm stuck."
"You're level with me," his cousin explained. "Y'all are in my brain, so I have to go first." He moved forward and sure enough, Kevin came unstuck.
"Since when are you the expert on this kind of stuff?" Howie asked, falling into step with A.J. a few paces behind Brian.
"It's not me, it's Nick. I can't talk to him, but I sort of... pick up stuff he knows" was the reply. "Ask *him* about it when we get him out of here."
"I'm makin' a list, believe me." A.J. muttered.
They slogged on in silence for a while. Brian couldn't help noticing that it was harder to move than before - was it because he was pulling the others with him, or because time was somehow running out for Nick? He shivered and tried to repress the second thought. He noticed Howie begin to slow down.
"D? You okay?" he asked, worried. Howie didn't look nearly as solid as A.J. or Kevin... more like the final scene in the A-Ha video. It was hard to tell if the condition was getting worse or not.
"Yeah..." Howie nodded. "Well, I wish we could make this a little easier..."
"Try thinking about Nick while you walk.. or whatever it is you're doing," he suggested. "The first time, Mindi got me to remember everything I could about him, bad and good. Now, I sort of know the way, but I guess you don't yet."
"Yet." Kevin groaned, "If he ever makes us do this again..."
"What?" A.J. demanded.
"I'll... throw him out of the dressing room in his underwear again." They all laughed remembering that particular incident.
"Remember how he squealed?" Brian chuckled.
"Him?? Who could hear him over the girls!" A.J. grinned.
"Serves him right," Howie grumbled. "All that stuff he tried to get me to eat while I was sleeping. I could have choked!"
Kevin laughed, "He wasn't the only one in on that game."
"Richardson?"
He threw up his hands in a not-me gesture. "Hey I just watched, man."
Brian diverted attention away from himself quickly. "But then again D, you still treat him like a little brother."
"He *is* the youngest," Howie defended himself.
"Still... you ever even notice the daggers you get every time you call him 'Nicky' in public?"
"You kidding? That's half the reason I do it!"
"Aww, Sweet D's fallen for the killer Carter eyes." A.J. mocked.
"Yeah, those baby blues..." Howie responded in a girly voice. He pretended to faint, "I just go absolutely... hello!"
A pair of deep blue eyes looked down at him.
"Nicky?" he gasped, reaching for the bodiless eyes. They hung in the air, unresponsive.
"I think we're getting there. One of your memories, D?"
"No, mine" A.J. volunteered, then fell silent. They continued to move forward.
"Do you remember meeting Nick?" Kevin asked, breaking the silence.
"Not really. I remember him at a couple of auditions, but I couldn't tell you which one was the first." Howie mused.
"Me neither. But I remember the first time we sang together. What a voice!" A.J. grinned, "Never met a kid so blonde with so much soul."
"What did you used to sing?" Brian wanted to know, "When it was just the three of you, I mean?"
"Anything. Audition pieces, stuff on the radio..."
"100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall..."
"Oh man, I forgot about that!" Howie began to laugh.
"Tell us, Bone" Brian encouraged, hoping for a happy memory.
"We were sitting around at this audition. Me and Howie, we'd been there since six.. just waiting. It was one in the afternoon and the casting director... dude was out to lunch, literally. Maybe fifteen kids had gone in before lunch and five times that were waitin'!"
"All scrunched up in one room."
"Uh huh. I was bored out of my skull and mad at the casting people for taking so long, so I decided to be obnoxious."
"He opens his mouth and starts singing 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, loudly."
"But good." A.J. pointed out. "Howie's sittin' beside me, dying of embarassment, tryin' to shut me up. Mom is probably as pissed off as I am so she lets me sing. I get to ninety-seven... and a familiar voice picks up the harmony. It's Nick, somewhere across the room. People are staring now, some snickering."
"I joined in eventually. We got to seventy before they finally kicked the three of us out. Mrs Carter was *mad*..."
"I can't imagine anyone singing 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall well. We always sang it at the top of our lungs, as off-key and obnoxious as possible," Kevin remarked, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
With a wink at Howie, A.J. launched into the song, somehow making it sound like something right out of Rogers and Hammerstein. Still grinning, Howie followed. Brian found his note and went for it as well. Soon 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall was having its debut perfomance in four-part harmony.