What If? Episode 907

Queen Killer

Scott was taken a little off guard when the little group of teenagers made their way into the city for their concert. The whole place was buzzing, but it was a totally different kind of feel to it than any of the big cities Scott had been to so far.

Where Anchorage wasn't nearly as big as the other cities - and still went to 'sleep' at a reasonable time, and Omaha was almost ... matter of fact, on schedule ... Portland was alive. He could see people on the streets in all kinds of different dress and social class - many of them easily interacting in a way that he really hadn't seen before. It was friendly. And even in the dampness, there was a warmth to the interactions between people. Not like New York, which never slept and felt impersonal with every person you met.

No, Portland was ... well it was kind of nice.

That's not to say that he hadn't expected the vast, semi-dirty city with the cluttered streets and bums at the corners. He did. That was part of big city life. But he hadn't expected the fact that as they grabbed dinner, they could easily see Mount St. Helens in the distance, smoking away like the now-active volcano she was.

"Woah," he almost whispered under his breath as he took in the dark, muddy trails that marred what had once been a pristine mountain-scape. It had only been nearly two years since St. Helens had awakened - and she was still letting everyone know she wasn't ready to sleep yet.

As they sat down outside in the patio at the burger joint, he couldn't help but stare at the volcano - looming almost menacingly beyond the city like some sort of realistic Mount Doom.

None of the others said a word, and all of them seemed to be doing the same thing ... watching the volcano while the news on the radio reported how there had been a massive event overnight that had resulted in what they were already calling the 'little grand canyon of Mt. St. Helens' as they reported that residents and visitors should be prepared for more seismic activity.

When the group was settled, and properly tired of watching for an eruption, they headed to the concert venue. Once they were inside, the entire crowd was buzzing - both energetically and literally - Scott found himself more than a little uncomfortable as he realized how incredibly thick the air was with marijuana smoke.

He couldn't turn around without running into someone or another that was freely passing a joint.

Scott couldn't help but frown at the situation, though he was outright shocked when someone put the joint in his hands with a broad smile.

"I don't... no," he tried to explain, trying to give it back, but all that got was warm smiles from the people around him and encouragement to share it with someone else, then.

"I'm not-" Scott started to say before Farrah's sister just plucked it out of his hand and passed it down.

"Just run with it," she said.

Scott frowned at her but couldn't deny that he was glad to not have to deal with it - until the whole process ended up repeated over again, with Farrah giggling at his increasingly frustrated look every time he had to say "I don't smoke" again. And again.

The lights went down, and it wasn't more than a few minutes of the crowd chanting, screaming and stomping - and more joints getting passed all around him - before the lights on stage went up to the now, so familiar and slightly overplayed 'Lonely is the Night', and though the song wasn't too bad, it really wasn't very good live. And the guy singing it didn't have enough good songs to make a full set list, so halfway through Billy Squire's opening act, the crowd started chanting for the main event.

Small pockets in the crowd started up the familiar stomp-stomp-clap until it was echoing from every corner of the stadium and Billy Squire's band seemed to make a quick shift to end the set list.