He had actually walked by a bum on his way to the concert. Calvin grinned as he imagined the implications of dropping the concert ticket in the homeless man’s paper coffee cup instead of the toonie. Images from a digital projector were popping up on the screen at the back of the stage.
Calvin wondered if that homeless man, maybe he should have asked him his name, would feel comforted at this benefit concert. The poor guy could have at least made a meal out of the hor d’oeuvres that were being served in the church lobby. A quick glance at the program reminded him that it was in fact a vestibule. As much as he felt out of place, Calvin shook his head thinking about the irony of that bum not finding refuge at a benefit concert for a homeless shelter.
Looking at his ticket stub, a pang of conscience reminded him that his two dollars of charity didn’t make up for the twenty dollars he could have paid for his free ticket. Fortunately for him, the program had a donation envelope for a free will offering to be taken at the end of the concert. Calvin had just finished writing out his cheque for eighteen dollars when he was interrupted by a bright eyed brunette wearing blue jeans and a John Kraybill t-shirt.
“Are these seats taken?” she asked.
He had tried not to think of it as a rock concert, but his friend was now a celebrity, and he was just going to have to get used to the reality of it.
“They’re all yours,” smiled Calvin. As much as he hated seeing John’s face on a t-shirt, at least she wore it well.
“Thanks,” beamed the brunette as she and a friend took off their jackets and lowered the cushion on the theater style seats.. “My name’s Kerry and this is my friend Zoie.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking both their hands, “I’m Calvin.” He was ready to set aside his cynicism for the rest of the evening. John didn’t know it, but for the first time, he had helped Calvin meet a girl, let alone two cute girls.
“I can’t believe I’m here,” grinned Kerry as she looked around at the colourfully decorated walls of the sanctuary. “And check out this church. Isn’t it amazing?”
“Yeah,” nodded Calvin, hoping to hide his disdain for the glitz and glamour of this kind of mega-church, “it’s something else.” Wanting to shift the conversation in other directions, he asked “so are you guys big fans of John?”
“Well, yeah. I am. Zoie notsomuch. I picked up his CD last year and I can’t get over his voice. It’s like Burton Cummings meets Bill Gaither.”
Not sure which of the three men being connected would have been more offended by that comparison, Calvin turned his attention to Zoie. “So I”m guessing this isn’t really your scene then?”
“No, sorry,” she started. “I’m not really into the whole church thing. I volunteer at the shelter, so I’m just here to support their work.”
“She’s the one that told me about the concert. As soon as I heard, I insisted we buy tickets, and now here we are.”
“So where do you two know each other from then?” asked Calvin, sensing that these two beauties didn’t quite have everything in common.
“We work together at a bank downtown.”
They were cut off by the speaker who introduced himself as Pastor of Celebratory Worship. He started by welcoming everyone to his church and went on to introduce John and his music.
After the concert, Kerry was filling out her ballot for an autographed poster, when Calvin got up the nerve to do something he wouldn’t normally do. “You know, if you two are up for joining me for a coffee, I could help you out with that.”
“I think she’ll be able to fill out the form on her own.”
“What?! You could get me an autographed poster of John Kraybill!”
“I can do you one better than that.” Calvin spoke with a confidence he rarely experienced in the presence of attractive women, but he almost never had a card of this magnitude up his sleeve. Sure his surprise might actually draw their attention away from him, but this was the closest thing he’d had to date in a very long time.
“Alright then, you’re on!”
