DAY ONE It all started when we saw Walker. He walked out of the stage entrance and we were just ten feet away from where he was standing. I couldn't decide what my reaction should be. The father of Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson was right there and all I could do was stare in awe.
"Let's go talk to him" Johanna said to me when she finally let go of my arm after grabbing it in shock.
"What are we going to say, what can we say?!" I said still staring at him.
"I don't know, but we should take advantage of this before he leaves... He's let fans back before I think, well I doubt he'd let us back, but it would still be cool to talk to him; but maybe, just maybe he'll..." she trailed off as he started walking closer to where we were seated. He stopped again; looking around, and fidgeting with his video camera.
"Well come on" I said with a smile. We slowly approached Walker. He looked at each of our faces for a second before I blurted out a stupid sounding hello. We could tell he knew, that we knew, who he was. We talked for a minute, when the ice finally broke, about boring things like the great weather for the show, seeing how it was an out door venue, and about the incredible number of fans that show up to Ontario performances. Johanna asked if the guy's were excited, the first intelligent question out of the two of us. He told us they were a bit sleepy, but they were very anxious to get on stage. Soon there was silence from the three of us and we all looked around nervously. Everyone was out of things to talk about. He was just about to say good-bye to us and walk away when I asked a very embarrassing question, one that was probably the whole purpose of this encounter. I didn't know how to say it though, so I said it very blunt.
"um, Mr.Hanson? Is there any way we could get backstage at the end of the show?" after I asked I felt very foolish, but I could tell he knew it was coming. After a short pause he responded.
"I'm really not supposed to do that." He said
"I know...that’s ok" I said losing all hope.
"Well" he paused again and looked around to see that no one was listening "Alright, I guess so. If you wait by the stage entrance after the show, I will try and see what I can do. I'm not promising anything though" he said.
I tried desperately to contain myself. I didn't want him to think I was going to faint or spaz out or anything remotely resembling a "normal" teenage girl's reaction to such amazing news.
"Just the two of you though" he indicated. We said thank you and goodbye.
So there we were standing by the stairs that led backstage. The crowd filtered through the exits in a quick loud rush. Everyone was still excited over the amazing hour and forty-five minutes they had just spent with Hanson. I had no idea what was going to happen to us, for all we knew Walker had forgotten or decided not to let us backstage. Security guards were staring at us and we knew we were probably going to get kicked out soon. Half and hour passed, and we just stood and watched as crew members packed up the stage and cleaned up the mess of water bottles, and small gifts that had been thrown by fans. We started to become restless and we were losing any hope of someone coming to rescue us from the strange looks of 'what do you think you are doing' coming from the busy crew. Just as we were about to leave to catch the next city bus, we heard a quiet 'psst' from the top of the stairs behind us. We turned around relieved to see Walker.
"I didn't forget about you" he said "come on up". He waved his arm, gesturing to follow him. Johanna smiled at each other as we stepped around the flowers and the teddy bears cluttering the stairway to our own special backstage visit. We followed close behind him, through many doors and dark hallways. Incredible thoughts were filling my head, and I pictured him taking us to a room where we would be seated with Hanson and talk and laugh for hours... But instead we entered a rather tiny room overfilling with noisy press people, huge video cameras, and a couple of anxious fans. Walker patted Johanna on the back and told us they should be there soon. I couldn't help but feel sort of disappointed Walker left us standing in a room with about 20 people and another long boring wait. But the thought of Hanson being in that very room was all I needed. My stomach was turning. I was overwhelmed by the thought of finally meeting Ike, Taylor, and Zac. But at the same time I was uncomfortable and I was being squished. The room was much too small to hold this many people and furniture. We soon got tired of standing and spotted a couch with just enough room for the two of us to sit. We dodged the cameras and squealing fans and sat down with a huff. We sat for 20 minutes, constantly checking our watches and slowly becoming rather sticky from the body heat. My ears were still ringing from the loudness of the concert adding the screams of 17 thousand girls. We watched the other fans and the press chatting and we weren't really paying attention when we were approached by a tall blonde lady, wearing a short skirt suit.
"Hello girls". We stared up at her, she introduced herself as a reporter from a popular local newspaper. She was holding a notepad and a pen and had a camera around her neck.
"Did you enjoy the concert?" she asked
"yeah it was amazing" I said. "They always seem to give the fans more than we expect."
"Excellent!" she chirped, nodding and scribbling on her note pad "Could you tell me your names?"
I hesitated, "I'm, Christa and this is Johanna."
Just then cameras started flashing and a girl by the door screamed. We stood up quickly realizing they must have come in but we couldn't see a thing. Suddenly the lady grabbed my arm and started to pull me through the crowd. I clutched Johanna's hand and didn't let go until we stopped filtering through the overcrowded, undersized room. The lady swung me around and held the camera up to take a picture. As a reflex I smiled as the blinding flash went off and just like that, the lady was gone. It took me a second to realize why she took our picture (I was preoccupied by trying to locate Hanson) then I felt the hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Isaac's chest right in my face. Beside him were Johanna, Zac and Taylor still smiling as other reporters took pictures. The flashing slowed and Ike smiled and said hi to me. But I didn't even get a chance to open my mouth before Johanna and I was pushed out of the way by a tall man with a video camera, and Hanson was escorted into the hall. Johanna and I stood there in utter confusion with our jaws open. The mass of people left us alone in the room.
"That was it?" I said in disbelief. I was familiar with the term 'grip and grin', but that was just ridiculous. The noise and camera flashing slowly moved down the hall. Walker, not noticing that we were still in the room, shut the door.
"We didn't even get a handshake." Johanna mumbled. We had no idea where to go, and Walker was probably long gone by now, so it would be pointless to try and look for him. We found ourselves sitting on the couch again and emphasizing to each other that it wasn't and that it couldn't be over yet. We then realized where we were. It was Hanson's dressing room. Backpacks were beside the couch and familiar clothes were hanging in an open closet. There were empty bottles of coke littering the table and a small video camera. It was hard to believe that the small room had 20 or so people in it no more than 3 minutes before. The door swung open startling us, Walker stepped in.
"Good, I thought you got lost" he said and began to shut the door, he poked his head in again "stay here, we'll be back in a bit". He left us to wait again. Only this time the wait wasn't so long and nerve racking. My heart was still beating at an inhuman pace, but I was able to make myself feel normal. Five minutes later Zac entered the room alone and paused in his tracks when he spotted us sitting on the couch in his dressing room. He made an unsure approach to a smile.
"Hi" was all he said
"Hi" Johanna and I replied enthusiastically at the same time. He walked by us to the closet and grabbed his clothes.
"The other two will be here soon, but I'm going to get changed now because I just got attacked by a water gun." We laughed quietly and he walked into the bathroom at the other side of the room and shut the door. Just moments after that Taylor and Isaac entered the room laughing about something obviously really funny, until they saw us. I felt my heart fall into my stomach and it quickly filled with even more butterflies.
"Hey guys" Ike said "we didn't get a chance to say 'hi' exactly back there did we?" He came over and sat next to me on the couch. I watched Taylor get his clothes and leave the room without any acknowledgement that we were sitting there. I turned and looked at Ike and smiled, pretending I didn't notice Taylor's rudeness.
"Hi" I said "I'm Christa", and I held out my hand to receive the handshake that I had been waiting almost 3 hours for. Johanna introduced herself adding what a great concert they played and they shook hands over me.
"Thank you" he responded. "We always look forward to playing Toronto". We smiled and he got up and walked over to a box filled with water bottles. We watched in awe as he sipped the water. He carried his water to the closet and stood in front of it.
"Were you at the concert that we did at Canada's Wonderland and the screams went up to 140 decibels?" He asked taking his clothes off their hangers and looking back at us.
"yeah" I said. "That was really loud".
"I know, you guys have amazing lungs!" he said. He knocked on the bathroom door.
"I'll be out in a second" Zac yelled from inside.
"What are you doing? You've been in there for a long time. "Ike said. He turned and grinned at us.
"I have not" Zac mumbled opening the door. He was wearing a navy blue construction suit and carrying his wet clothes. Ike threw his clothes on the counter in the bathroom and quickly took off his shirt. Johanna and I both went wide-eyed. He acted as though nothing was different.
"This thing isn't easy to put on you know." Zac said to his brother.
"Sure Zac" Ike said sarcastically and shut the door in his face. Zac turned around and smiled at us.
"Still here?" he said shoving his clothes into his backpack beside us.
"Yup, we're waiting for your dad to show us how to get out" I said, ensuring him that we weren't stalkers.
"Oh, did he let you back illegally?" he asked. We nodded. "Yeah, cause you don't have backstage passes. He's done that before and then he forgets where he leaves them and he has to go and find them and make sure they get out okay and then..." he stopped in mid sentence and grabbed a jar of Pringles’ off the table. "Are you hungry?" he asked, opening the jar and holding it out to us. We both said no thanks. He then proceeded to jam about 7 Pringles’ into his mouth and mumble okay. He sprawled out on a big black armchair in the corner of the room and continued to indulge in Pringles’ as we started at him uncomfortably. He seemed to be a bit shy with us as well. I don't blame him, after all he was alone with two fans that were girls, and you know we might have jumped him or something! He had his guards up, we could tell.
"SO!...What's your name's?" He said with a mouth full. We told him and he nodded. "Hi!" He said.
We chuckled, "Hi" we said again.
"Soooo" Johanna said. "Um, Where are you playing next?" We already knew, but I could tell she was trying to start conversation in this awkward moment, and I was very glad of that. But before he could answer, Taylor appeared in the doorway.
"Zac mum wants to talk to you" he said. Zac jumped up and walked to the door Pringles’ in hand. Taylor nodded at us and smiled at us. At the door Zac turned to look at us... "Montreal" he said and they left. I felt very out of place. We were just sitting there with nothing to say when we opportunity to ask every question and say any comment that we had been saving for months and months. We were just watching as they got ready to leave. And that would be it, forever. Ike came out of the bathroom and put his clothes in his bag. He looked like he was thinking about something.
"Do you have to be home any time soon?" he asked.
"No, why?" Johanna replied cautiously
"Just follow me" he said. We got up and followed him into the bathroom he took a huge watergun off the floor and filled it up while he spoke.
"We're going to play a little prank on Zac and Tay" he announced with a grin. "Do you want to help me?" he asked. Of course we nodded and smiled. He smiled back at us and we followed him as he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulders and peeked into the hall. "Ok lets go" he said with excitement. We walked into the poorly lit hall and headed towards the exit sign. "When we get outside go behind the bus and I am gonna distract the fans if they are still by the gate. Our bus is the blue one closest to the door, no one should see you if you stand near the wall." We stopped in front of the door and he continued his instructions. "I'll come back and check if there is anyone on the bus and I will give the signal to come on. If there are people on the bus...then I will decide what to do then. Okay? are you ready?" he raised his eyebrows at each of us. We said yeah, unsure of exactly what the purpose of this was, and followed him out the door. He peeled around the bus and we heard the shrieks of 20 or so fans. Johanna and I inched around to the back of the bus and hid. We exchanged a few quiet 'this is crazy' and 'why is he doing this' between each other. We were still star struck by the whole situation Isaac had put us in. He returned and stepped onto the bus. Moments later he came back out without his watergun, which we guessed he had used to excite the fans. He gave us the signal, a thumbs up. We stepped into the bus with him and walked down the thin hall surrounded by bunks.
"What are we supposed to do now?" I asked. He opened the curtain of a very low bunk.
"Hide" he said. We looked at him in shock. There were three large suitcases on the bed and just enough room for the two of us to crouch down. We got in with a few groans and ows. He smiled. "You guys are good sports" he said. He shut the curtain quickly as more people entered the bus. We could hear the voices of Diana, Zac and Jessica. We sat rather uncomfortably and listened quietly, our hearts racing as we heard all 9 family members and two other men, most likely bus drivers, enter the bus with a lot of noise. The fans outside were still screaming. We said nothing in fear of being heard. Around us we heard talk of the concert and lots of laughter as the family ate snacks and got ready for bed. Suddenly the curtain to the bunk we were in opened at the other end and a suitcase was pulled out. We didn't breathe until it was put back and the curtain was closed. The noise inside the bus, slowly started to fade and it grew quieter and quieter. I started to become very scared. The engine started and Johanna grabbed my hand and we squeezed tighter as lights turned out, and we almost broke each other’s hands when the bus started to move. "What are we going to do" I whispered so quietly that I didn't even hear it. We sat and stared at the blackness that was soon brightened by streetlights. I realized just then how stupid we would look if someone found us. They would more than likely think we were crazy fans that decided to join them by hiding with their luggage. We would probably get into a lot of trouble and be banned from any Hanson appearances. Then it hit me even harder when I realized where we were. We were in Hanson's presence and all I could think about was how thirsty I was and how badly I had to go pee. And all I could feel was fear. We were both dead tired due to lack of sleep and walking around all day. I must have zoned out for a while. Johanna nudged me and I heard the whispering. I glanced at my watch and it had been 2 hours since we pulled out of the venue. She pulled the curtain back slightly and we saw Ike standing across the hall pointing at the bunk we were in. Taylor peered out from his bunk, slapped his forehead and lay back down. Ike saw us peeking out and crouched down in front of us.