"Oh no," Diana said, turning up the volume on the television. "Walker!" Walker came into the room.
"What?"
"Zac got arrested today!" she said, turning to him. "We send the boy out by himself and he gets arrested! I knew you should have gone with him."
"Why'd he get arrested? I'm sure if it were serious someone would have notified us." At that, the phone rang. Walker picked it up. "Hello? Yeah, we just heard, we're watching right now. What's going on?" Diana sighed, looking at the television news reporter who'd interviewed Zac.
"�Zac Hanson and several hundred other young men and women were arrested today in New York's Central Park due to an illegal protest on private property. He himself is out on bail and has said that he will be posting bail for everyone else. I talked to him earlier before his arrest." Zac's picture came on the screen.
"We are protesting the war in Korea and the decision the President has made to send innocent men and women, who haven't even had a chance to really live yet, to fight a silly war that we're not even involved in. As it is, a fourth of those people have already died and we're just sending more people in to add to the body count."
"Does this have anything to do with your brothers being part of those people sent to Korea?"
"This has everything to do with them being in Korea. They're token examples of what we're protesting. My brother Taylor is barely eighteen and he's off in a far away country killing people. Innocent people are dying and that isn't right. I don't care if it's American citizens or Korean hierarchy, no one has a right to die this way."
Diana turned to Walker. "You are definitely going to join him on the rest of this tour. He hasn't been gone a week and already he's starting protests and getting arrested! Walker, he's not going about this the right way." Walker had by now gotten off the phone with the neighbor who'd called to tell him of the news broadcast.
"Diana, he's just doing a little protesting. If I remember correctly, we did our share of the same thing. And I do believe we spent the night in jail for it too." Diana gave him a look. "The kid's all right, he's just against the war. A lot of people feel that way and he's just speaking for them. He has the power to do it. Tell me you didn't have a poster of Bob Dylan in your room that you worshipped every night because of his views on the war."
"What you and I did and what Zac is doing is very different. We just protested a few times with our friends, as everybody our age did. We didn't single handedly start the movement!"
"Oh, Zac didn't single handedly start the movement. Many people feel this way about the war, the just needed someone to speak out so they could join. That's what Zac is doing. I don't mind if he's a hippie for a while."
"Do you remember what we did in the sixties, Walker? Do you know how much drugs and sex happened around us? I don't want my son to be the leader of the next sexual revolution. I don't want him to do any of that!"
"You're becoming a square, Diana."
"I am not!" she said, getting up. "I still have all of my clothes, all of my posters and music and jewelry! I have everything!"
"And where is it?" Walker asked. "Hmm�maybe sitting in the back of the attic somewhere, collecting dust? Diana, Zac will be just fine. He's got a lot of power and a lot of money and that's the kind of thing that's going to start some really good music."
"Some really weird, freaky music. If he even asks for a sitar I'm going to get him a drug test and stick him in a clinic somewhere!" She grabbed the phone from him. "I'm calling him." She dialed her son's cell phone number and put the phone up to her ear.
" 'Lo?" Zac's slightly tired voice said over the phone.
"Zac? Zac are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Thank you so very much for calling us! I find out you were in jail by the news and the neighbors are calling! Even they knew before us! Why didn't you call us?"
"Oh, by the way Mom, I got arrested today." Diana let out a groan. "I told Ron to call you but I guess he didn't. It's not like it was a big deal or anything, I was only in jail for a couple of hours before Ron stopped by to post bail. It wasn't even long enough to get any food�which I was kind of upset over because I was wondering what jail food tasted like. But Mom, it was just a little protesting. I've seen pictures of you and Dad protesting."
"Zac, you just be careful, okay? Protesting and getting thrown in jail is one thing, but leading the protest is something completely different. I don't want this to be a habit and if you keep it up the way you're going you'll have quite a few scratches on your record."
"I'm just fine, Mom. I can take care of myself. I knew what I was getting into when I got involved in that protest and I was willing to face the consequences. I'm not going to stop it, though, just because you tell me to. It's not like I'm smuggling drugs, Mom, I'm fighting a war in the only way I can."
"Honey, this sort of thing happened before and it didn't do anything."
"That's because they didn't know what the hell they were doing!" Zac said, his voice raising. "They were all on psychedelics and thought music was the only thing they could do. That's not the only thing I can do! Listen, Mom, I'm going to do what I have to do." On the other end of the line, Zac hung up the phone and collapsed back onto a couch on his private jet, his manager Ron across from him.
"She's right you know," Ron said.
"Oh, fuck you, Ron, what the hell do you know?"
"That's not something a peaceful Zac would say." Zac rolled his eyes and fell over. "Listen, Zac, these kids are starting to look to you as a role model, something they can base their views of this war on. I think you better start acting like it."
"I do act like it," Zac said. "Whenever they see me, they see me as that guy. I'm just tired and cranky right now and I tend to swear at people when they say things I don't care for when I'm tired and cranky."
"Whatever, Zac. Now when we land you have to haul ass to the arena. There are people there already and they're starting to get restless because you haven't showed up. I don't think any of them have heard about your arrest."
"Well tell them! I don't want them thinking I'm taking my time getting there." At the order, Ron ran off to call the arena. Someone there would make the announcement about his arrest and explain he was on his way to the show. Until they got there, Zac sat back and waited.
He arrived at the arena a bit later, grabbed his guitar and ran onto the stage where the crowd was waiting patiently for him. The spotlight hit him and the audience erupted into screams as their star finally took the stage. "I am so sorry," he immediately said into the microphone. He caught eyes with one of the girls in the front row. "Did they tell you what happened?" he asked her. She nodded. "Good. Can you guys believe that? I got arrested! I'm sitting there with a whole bunch of people, being all peaceful and 'stop the war,' you know, stuff that happens all the time, and they arrested us! All of us! Goes to show you how wonderful our government is. There's so much hate in this world and the few people that actually come together without any harmful intent get arrested. I don't get it." He paused, placing his fingers on the strings. "Just to let you all know, stuff like that happens. I'm not going to let it faze me. An arrest for protesting a stupid war isn't going to hurt you in the long run."
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and began a song. Overall he didn't say very much along the lines of protest, but the crowd continued to eat him up, creating a scene he'd never seen before. He'd never seen so many people stare solely at him as he oozed word after word, note after note of songs he'd created by himself. That night he played more protest songs than normal and was surprised to find a few of them had already learned the words to his original solo song.
After the show he allowed a few fans backstage for autographs. They'd only let in about ten, and he was pleased to find five guys and five girls. Usually the fans he'd met were all girls�this was a big difference for him.
"Hey, how you doing?" he said to the first one, one of the girls, signing the picture the crew had handed each of them for him to sign. She was definitely different. She had a tight T-shirt along with a tight pair of flared jeans that showed off her tiny legs. She was a tiny little thing, but what got him was her extremely long black hair. He discreetly looked over her and noticed she wasn't wearing shoes. "Wow, that's a pretty good picture of me. I'm getting better with age."
"You sure are," she said, smiling. "You know I think you're really doing something great out there."
"I'm just pissed off and that's the only way I can get through it," he said, handing her back her picture. "I'm just surprised at the turn out."
"Well you're excellent. I think you're capturing exactly how everyone's feeling right now and putting it into music that everyone can relate to. You're doing exactly what everyone needed. It doesn't matter who were fans of yours before, or who's just along for the protest, they all need you in the same way and you're the original. You're the only one."
"What's your name?" he asked, shifting his weight.
"Madison."
"How did you manage to get through a concert without shoes?" he asked. She looked down at her feet and blushed.
"I don't like shoes." He grinned.
"Well, Maddie, you're very insightful. I'll have to remember you." She smiled and walked away. The next person came up to him. This one was a guy. "Hey, how you doing?" he asked.
"I'm good. Everybody's right. You really are the next Bob Dylan." Zac's eyes grew upon hearing this information. People were actually saying that? Enough for whoever this guy was to say 'everybody's right?' and compliment him on it? "Do you have an album out?"
"No," Zac said. "Actually I don't. I thought I'd just do a few shows on my own because I was getting really bored at home. I didn't think it'd turn into all of this, though. I thought I'd get a couple hundred fans in each city and have a little fun. I didn't expect to sell out my shows and have people coming up to me saying I'm the next Bob Dylan. I'm hardly Dylan�"
"You've definitely got talent, Zac."
"I guess so�"
After speaking with the next eight people, Zac sat down, completely blown out of his mind. Every single one of them told him how great he was, and yeah, he was used to that. But they actually meant it in a sophisticated way. They were saying he was changing the world for the better, that he'd be remembered forever and that he was capturing the exact feelings of everybody out there, no matter what age.
"Shit," he muttered, putting his hands through his hair. He heard footsteps getting closer and finally a pair of shoes stopped directly in front of him. He looked up and Ron was smiling back down at him. "What?"
"Leno wants you on tomorrow night." His face fell. "Is something wrong?"
"I just didn't expect any of this."
"They never do, Zac�"
The following night after a performance of the protest song Taylor had inspired him to write, Zac found himself sitting right next to Jay Leno without his brothers next to him. Before Jay could say anything, he spoke. "Wow, this is weird. I'm here alone," he said, smiling.
"Have you spoken with your brothers at all?" Jay asked. He shook his head.
"No, actually. Apparently they write home now and then but I haven't been home in a while. My parents say they're okay, so nobody needs to worry. They're both perfectly fine," he said, looking to the audience. He even saw a few of the teenage girls that had been Hanson fans let out a sigh of relief.
"Let's talk about this career of yours. You're blowing up everywhere! Everyone knows who you are and what you're doing but nobody's heard any of your music. You're all over the radio but you don't have singles released so they can't play you. I've heard DJs talking about you quite a few times but they say they have nothing to play."
"Yeah, well, I started out the tour just so I could have something to do," he admitted, lightly laughing. "I was so bored at home and it'd only been a few days. I wrote a ton of songs but I had nothing to do with them. Finally I just said I'd do a little tour with them and before I knew it the venues were sold out and people are telling me I'm this big thing. I didn't expect any of it to happen so I didn't bother recording anything."
"Will you be recording anything?" Zac nodded.
"Yeah. I'm still going to do shows and everything else, but on my days off I'll be in the studio recording. I'm just going to release a single first and then once I get some extended time off I'll record the actual album."
"That's wonderful. Do you have an idea when it'll be out?"
"We're going to try for sometime early next year. It shouldn't take more than a few days to record, actually, if we spend all day in the studio. I have all the songs done and set out, all we have to do is record. I wish I could do it sooner but I'm already booked with tours and shows and such."
"So what's this I hear about you getting arrested?" he asked. Zac put an innocent look on his face and looked away, scratching the back of his head.
"Yeah�about that�"
"What happened to you? I met you five years ago when you were eleven; you're this wacky little good-natured kid and now you're getting arrested?"
"It's not like I did something wrong!" Zac said, looking back at Jay, a smile on his face. "I was in a holding cell at a police station for maybe an hour, if that. I was just protesting in Central Park with a few hundred people and then the police come and they were none too happy about it, so they arrested all of us. I didn't think it was going to happen. If I did�well�I still would have done it but the whole thing was just stupid."
"You think so?"
"Yeah! I don't get why it's illegal to protest. We were on public property, it was a peaceful protest, and it's not like we were really making a lot of noise. We were just exercising our freedom of speech. I guess cops just don't take kindly to peaceful protestors. And there were cops there in riot gear! What did they think we were going to do? Riot? It's a peaceful protest, they should understand that from the 60's."
"Are you starting another revolution, Zac?" Jay asked. Zac shrugged.
"I don't know. I'm just encouraging people to do what they've wanted to do since the war started. If a revolution starts, so be it. I'm just giving people the initiative."
"So where are you going after this?"
"I'll be heading back to the East Coast to finish the dates I have there and I'll be recording over there. After I finish all of that I'll be heading across the country to do the rest of the tour. It might be postponed a week or two if we have more recording to do, but I don't think it'll be necessary."
"How has your audience changed since you've been on this tour?"
"Well, for one thing, I'm actually seeing guys in the audience now," he said, laughing. "I've never seen guys in the audience before. There's a bigger variety of people. Before all we had was teenage girls and whomever they'd occasionally bring, but now I'm seeing more adults. People seem to be more interested in the music and what I'm saying rather than who's saying it."
"How about your music? How has your music changed?"
"Well now I actually have something to write about," Zac answered, shifting in the chair. "Before it was just love, love, occasional social issue, more love�that's okay but it's just the same as everybody else and it gets boring after a while. Now music is actually about something. Some of the greatest music ever created was created about something specific. Now I can actually voice my opinion in music and I can get away from that boring love s�t." Immediately after he spoke he put his hand over his mouth. "I'm sorry."
"See, you get sent to jail for an hour and look what happens�"
"I didn't mean to! I hardly ever swear�really."
"Okay, Zac, whatever you say." Zac made a face. "Do you think when your brothers come back you'll still be doing this?"
"Not by myself, no," he said. "This is just something to do while they're gone. I'm sure by the time they both come back the war will be over and there won't be anything left to protest. If they're up to it, we'll start Hanson up again and do that, because that was what we agreed to in the beginning. If not, I'll just have to go back to mushy love songs. And stop swearing."
"Well, Zac, it's been wonderful having you. You're going places, I can see it now, and I'm glad you stopped by here first."
"Thank you," Zac said, genuinely surprised. He'd been nothing but surprised these past few days. He'd always hid in his brothers' shadows, staying behind his drum set and never letting himself shine. It felt good to be in the limelight for once.