Page 97 of Caught in a Storm
Billy smiles.
“Yeah, all right,” says LaVar. “Figured there’s no harm in asking.”
“What’s this, Mr. Perk?”
Billy is hanging his guitar back up on the wall. When he turns around, Jackson is holding Margot’s song, the untitled thing about being lost or maybe being found. Billy wrote the song out from memory after Margot left, setting her words on sheet music, complete with the notes he wrote with her on the fly the night Lawson showed up. He couldn’t bring himself to toss it when he packed up to move here from Robyn’s place. “Just a song a friend of mine was working on.”
“Cool,” says Jackson. “Like, an original?”
The kid sets the sheet music up on the stand and starts playing, and it sounds pretty damn good. Jackson plays it again, a little faster this time, and it sounds even better. Billy’s new place isn’t as noisy as the one above Charm City Rocks, but when Jackson stops, Billy can hear the unmistakable sounds of wooden sticks on plastic coming from a few blocks over.
“Cay, is that Daquan out there?”
Everyone goes quiet; Lincoln tilts his head.
“Um, pretty sure Daquan’s always out there, Dad,” says Caleb.
Billy’s fingers still buzz and sting from the Fender strings as he goes to his music closet. Packed in with his Rolling Stones and stacks of sheet music, he finds his old Kawai electric keyboard. He’s held on to it over the years, because it’s perfect for traveling or for when his students need him to come to them.
At the sight of a new instrument, Jackson’s eyes light up. “What’s that?”
Billy blows a bit of dust off the keys. “Jackson, you feel like jamming a little?”
Chapter 53
Caleb watches most everything on his laptop now—basketball, shows, movies, whatever—because the resolution is straight-up ridiculous. He taps the full-screen icon on YouTube and the video box spreads wide, practically theatrical. The Wonderboom speaker he keeps on his desk connects as he bumps the volume up.
The video he’s about to watch is titled “Car Chase: Official Teaser Trailer.” It just came out today—a whole YouTube takeover—and everyone’s talking about it online. The caption reads: “A Man. A Car. A Race Against Time.” Which sounds pretty badass. He taps the play arrow.
It opens on a low-angle shot of long grass blowing in the breeze beside a highway. “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC starts. There’s a shot of a cow chewing, and Caleb snickers. Engine sounds approach, louder and louder until they’re a roar, then a silver Porsche bursts across the screen. Cut to a cool head-on shot of Lawson Daniels. He’s looking over the steering wheel, but it’s like he’s staring right at Caleb.
“Holy shit,” Caleb says, because Lawson is wearing the same leather jacket that he wore when he showed up in the driveway outside.
Lawson checks the rearview mirror and sees three matching black BMWs chasing him. The dudes in one of the BMWs look like they might be Russian, but bad guys in movies always look like they might be Russian, so who knows?
“Thunderstruck” intensifies. Nah-Nah-Nanananah.
One of the maybe-Russians puts his arm out the driver’s side window and starts shooting. Lawson jerks the wheel, and bullets whiz by. “Nice try, mate,” he says.
There’s a shot of the Porsche from the front. The camera lifts, revealing an approaching helicopter closing in from a distance. The pilot is wearing a helmet and a black visor, but he somehow looks Russian, too.
“Oh, is that how it’s gonna be, then?” says Lawson.
AC/DC is slowly chanting “Thunder” under drums. The guitar riff skitters along. Words flash on the screen.
From the producers of Iron Fist and Throttle Junkies
Starring Academy Award nominee Lawson Daniels
The road is deserted. There’s a tunnel up ahead. Lawson jams the gas pedal down and grips the wheel. The speedometer reads 145 miles per hour as the song’s opening lyrics start. The BMWs and the helicopter speed up, too. Apparently, they’re all racing to this random tunnel in what looks like maybe England. Close-ups of hands and tires and exhaust pipes and Lawson’s furrowed eyebrows.
AC/DC sings, “You’ve been…” Then Lawson says, “Good luck, you stupid motherfu—” but before he can finish swearing, the lead singer screams, “Thunderstruck!” and there’s a dazzling montage of shit exploding: two of the BMWs, the helicopter, a speedboat, a black Humvee, the side of a skyscraper. The trailer cuts to black.
Car Chase
Next summer
Only in theaters
