Furs on Tour - Tuesday
#1 of Furs on Tour
Just a quick heads up before I start :)
'Kay, I'm new to this so I apologise in advance. Comments, critisicims are all welcome.
All characters are mine, similarities between them and real people are puuurely conincidental :)
Tuesday 9th February - 0030 GMT
I'll never know why we had to be there at midnight. We weren't due to leave for 2 hours, and the theatre has never been the most comfortable of locations. The mismatched group of furs were forced to actually talk to each other (!) as rehersals under Mr. B rarely left time for socialising. I'd just closed my eyes for a powernap when I heard a body sit down next to me. Through my hazy vision I recognised the huge brown bear as Sam, a euphonium player. Standing at over 6ft4, Sam was easily the biggest fur on the trip, dwarfing all of the teachers and students. I smiled as he pulled me into a one armed hug and I snuggled against him using his soft furry chest as a pillow.
"And how's my favourite oddball?" he whispered into my ear, tickling it slightly with his breath.
"Never better" I sighed back, smiling again at his nickname for me and wrapping my arms around him.
I should be a Snow Tiger, you know, white fur, black stripes etc. However when i was little I was in a car accident. No-one else was hurt but I suffered internal injuries. To make matters worse, in the CT scan the radiation reacted with my fur, turning each of my stripes a different colour of the rainbow. It's an ongoing joke in our family that the scan mutated my "boring gene" and made me colourful, but it's become harder to see it that way as I've got older. Since meeting Sam, it's been a nice change to hear "oddball" in a non derogatory way.
Anyway, back to the trip!
Somewhere along the line, I fell asleep in Sam's arms. As I slowly came around to him shifting underneath me, I looked up; smiling in what I assumed was the general direction of his face as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.
"Hey sleepyhead" he said, chucking me under the chin and ruffling my black hair, the only bit of me unaffected by the radiation.
"Hey yourself" I replied, sticking my tongue out and moving away from him to readjust my hair. "What's with the wake-up call anyways?"
"We're moving out hun, it is officially time to go!" he said, a massive grin on his face. He jumped up, dragged me up with him and pulled me into a bear hug as the rest of the band started moving towards the door
I couldn't believe that we were actually going on tour to New York!! Not only were we spending 3 days and nights in the Big Apple, but I was sharing the experience with some of my closest friends, and some people I'd like to get closer to.
As I settled into my seat on the coach, wishing I was still snuggled next to Sam, but next to a ginger cat named Alisha instead, I daydreamed about all the things we were going to see and do, not only New York, but the following 7 days in Chelmsford, near Boston as well and soon I was back asleep.
They let me sleep until we arrived 4hours later at Heathrow, although I was informed that they'd had a right game arguing with the coach driver that it was perfectly safe to leave me where I was. The coach driver was a rat though, in every sense of the word, which explains that argument perfectly.
Going through check in was much more interesting once I'd orientated myself. Most of the band had got 2 bags, one being an instrument, which made the furs behind the desk oh-so happy to see us at 6am. Then there was the added fun of "who would be overweight?" As "World Travellers" we were allowed a bag weight of a mere 20kg (that we later found out was actually 23 but Mr. B hadn't wanted to push it. Luckily on the way there were few people over the 20 although a couple were close! It made me giggle inwardly as I imagined the hell they were going to have to go through in 10days time, getting their bags back home under the same weight restrictions.
As we waited at the gate, I wandered over to Rachel, a copper coloured rabbit with vibrant green eyes and white hair who played the trombone and sat behind me in Concert Band, and Chloe a white mouse with golden hair and piercing icy blue eyes who played oboe and sat in front of me.
"Morning" I said smiling and plonking myself down on the solid metal seats next to them. They smiled at me in return and we struck up an easy conversation about nothing much in particular that had us giggling in seconds, just like always!
After a couple of hours, we heard our gate called. Excited we were finally making some actual progress getting to America. We sprang up, grabbing all our stuff and walking quickly through the airport behind Mr. R, a greying wolf whose "bark" was infinitely worse than his bite. Soon we were on the plane! I'd swapped with some smaller people who were easily bullied so I could sit by Rachel and Chloe. Being on the aisle seat was bad from the view point of view, but the extra leg room made the 7hour flight more bearable, and made it easier to talk to Sam, who was on the other side of the aisle.
The flight passed surprisingly quickly as I flicked from channel to channel, and had muted conversations with the furs around me, as we tried desperately hard to not disturb the people around us with our laughing. I believe I fell asleep somewhere over the mid-Atlantic, but the Tinkerbell movie called to me once I woke up, and stayed immersed in my own little 6yr old world for an hour and a half as Rachel and Chloe snoozed beside me.
Tuesday 9th February 1325 EST (all times from now on will be in EST)
We're here!!! The band literally bounced of the plane as we finally entered Newark airport. We were so close to American soil, and yet there was still a massive hurdle to jump: Immigration. We joined the back of the queue, stories about scary immigration furs running through the band like wildfire, muttered from ear to ear, tails drooping as we got closer to the front of the line.
I looked around me after one story concerning a cavity search and a rottweiler, and noticed the giant canines positioned around the room. Each of them was armed to the teeth, but judging by the size of their muscles, teeth were all they really needed. I gulped slowly, turning back round before one of them caught me staring and I was taken away.
As band members slowly started trickling through the booths at the front, the knot in my stomach loosened slowly as none of them were dragged away by their tails. I watched a couple of hilarious "happy dances", the best (for comedic value) done by a stoat named Lindsey who plays the flute. Soon it was my turn. The oversized wolf looked unsmiling at me as I passed my passport, visa waiver and green card over the counter to his waiting paws. He flicked through the passport, grunted at the picture and asked me for a paw print and eye scan before waving me through. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as I joined the last of the band members walking towards the baggage reclamation. We were through, all together, a miracle in itself.
From there it was just a quick hop over to the baggage collection and out into the world. After several hours cooped up in buildings and transport, feeling the wind through your fur was an intensely pleasurable experience. Us older furs were left outside, watching for the coach as the younger ones watched enviously from inside as we laughed and joked in the surprisingly fresh air.
All too soon though, we were back in a moving box, instruments and cases loaded and us trundling along to the Big Apple.
"Guys we need a song!" I heard from somewhere behind me, and as I turned in my seat I saw George, a sleek grey Persian cat kneeling up in his seat to conduct us in a rendition of the Grease medley we would be playing the following day.
(8)Go Grease Lightening you're burning up the quarter mile.... (8)
(8) BeautySchool Dropout... (8)
We were just getting started on "Summer Nights" when Mr. B, the bands conductor (and a meerkat to boot) stood up and quieted us down.
Grumbling we sat facing the right way and listened to the fox at the front talking to us about what we could see out of the windows. Now I was paying attention I looked out across the Hudson River at the New York skyline, marvelling at how big it seemed from a great distance away. All too soon the view was snuffed out by the Lincoln Tunnel that goes underneath the Hudson into ManhattanIsland. By the time we got through the traffic to the other side, everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for a close-up glimpse of New York City. The smaller furs were actually bouncing up and down in a bid to be the first one to see the Big Apple.
The sight that greeted us didn't disappoint. The giant buildings that had seemed so far away from the other side of the river now towered over us in all directions. It was near silent in the coach as we gaped at the sheer size of everything, and the speed that all the smaller stuff was travelling! We learnt much over the next couple of days about how nobody in America stops. Period. The walkways may be flashing to say that you can cross, but the second the green light for the traffic goes on boom. The cars do not wait around for anyone. They also have no amber light, which makes crossing against the light or "Jay-walking" as it's known in America, is really quite dangerous, whereas in England there aren't too many problems caused if you walk out in front of a car you deem to be far enough away.
This discovered, we arrived at the hotel, marvelling further as we lost the elevated seats in the coach and looked up at the buildings from ground level. We hurried quickly into the lobby to receive our key-cards so we could finally have a snooze in a comfortable position. The room I was sharing with an adorable caramel vixen called Grace and my little sister Vicky. After changing into something that smelled less and we were forced out of the door for our first walkabout through New York....at night!!
Beautiful may be a strange word to describe a giant city full of bustling furs, but Times Square is just that. The lights, the flashes of colour, the furs racing from block to block, the fact that I was there, all contributed to the sheer wonder I felt being in this place. Ever second my head whipped to a different direction as my senses were assaulted by 1000 different sights and smells and sounds. My ears pricked as I heard Sam's familiar laugh from not too far behind me, and I smiled to myself. I turned round, readying myself for the inevitable monster hug, but saw instead him merrily flirting away with the stoat Lindsey who had been dancing back in Immigration. My eyes stung as I turned in a full circle, pretending to be admiring the view from all angles, and I focused solely on getting to the restaurant, taking in as much detail as I could along the way.
The restaurant was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Lining the walls up the stairs were hundreds of photos and memoriams of musicians and actor/esses like Marilyn Monroe, and I'm fairly sure Audrey Hepburn was there too. Upstairs was male heaven as each wall was devoted to a sport. There was a Yankees section for the baseball players, a Nicks section for basketball followers, a Giants section for America football fans and a Rangers section for ice-hockey enthusiasts
The meal itself was rather average, most of the menu was chicken. I ended up sitting next to Sam, opposite Rachel and Chloe so the company on the other hand was much better! I don't think I've giggled so much in my entire life! All too soon we were padding back through Times Square, all much sleepier than we had been 2 hours previously. When we got back to the hotel we all drifted to our rooms, thankful for the opportunity to finally sleep after 40odd hours of being awake.