The Festival
‘ It was late at night when my phone began to ring. The moon had been up for hours and I was just getting ready to hit the sack. "Who could possibly be calling me?" I thought to myself as I picked up the call. "Michael, what're you doing?" Of course, my older sister Jessie, the only person on this planet who actually refers to me by my real name. Not that I care, I find it to be more unique considering every other Michael I've known is not even a Michael at all, just Mike. "Well I was getting ready for bed when you called me." I knew she could tell by my tone that I was not interested in talking right now and she couldn't care less. "Michael, it's summer, and you get a full 12 hours of sleep not matter what time you crash." She had a point there. "Anyways, you remember how we talked about trying to get you into working staff for this years Harry Brown festival?" "Yeah?" Now she really caught my attention. "Well I made a few calls this morning and now you're all signed up. Start packing clothes to last you for the weekend and any other essentials you can think of. You'll be staying with me and Matt -her boyfriend- in our camper with plenty of food in it to last us." "A little last minute, but I'll start packing right now!" "Good, we'll be leaving at 8am tomorrow morning. Think you can handle that?" "A giant mug of coffee and I'm ready to go." "Of course, you and your coffee. I have to go now so you better be here on time tomorrow. I'll talk to you later, love you." "Love you." I hung up the phone with excitement. This was the festival I'd been wanting to attend for years now, but couldn't because Jessie had considered me to be too young. The festival may be magical, but it's also a dangerous place, and to my sister I'll always be her little brother. I showed up the next morning earlier than planned causing my eyes to leave me with more bags than I had packed. As I got out of my car, I saw Jessie loading supplies into the camper while Matt was