The show went good, Madison was front and centre and really enjoyed herself which pushed me harder to do good at what I do. The only spoiler was my stand in guitar, although the same make as my trusted original, somehow, it lacked the warmth and spirit of the other one. I made good and hopefully no one noticed. On Occasion Rich glanced over towards me and caught my eye, prompting me for a reaction, I kept my face straight and showed no emotion either way, but did throw my bro a stink eye once or twice, not having the required affect, it just gave way for Sambora to smile and raise his eyebrows at me.
After the show I headed back to my dressing room, opening the door, I found the usual flowers and cards from my devoted fans, sitting my butt on the chair I began sifting though the pile of cards and read each one. I picked up a nice looking good luck card with a horseshoe shape on the front, and lucky clover, opening the card inside was wrote in young handwriting,
"Dear Mr Bon Jovi, I hope you have a real good show, my mom will be there tonight to see your show, and its real special like cause she has now beat cancer. I would love to make her dreams come true and was hoping you would let her come back stage and say hi and have a photo took. We will be sitting in row B2 of the pit, I've saved my pocket money so I could let her come with my Grand pappy and daddy, Please make her dream come true. Love Ellie Malone aged 10."
I read the message over twice, then went out and found Mike Rew, seeing him down the corridor I called out to him, "Yo Mike," he finished his conversation with a crew hand and walked over to me.
"Yes Jon,"
"Do me a favour, go check out front of stage row B2 the pit and see if a young girl and her grandfather and dad and mom are still there would ya, if they are have them brought back to my dressing room, oh and get David Bergman to call back too"
he shook his head and set off to do as I asked, passing Maddi as she walked back along the corridor to my room.
"Hey beautiful, enjoy the show?"
slipping her arms around my neck, she smiled broadly and planted a kiss on my lips, "mmm hell yeah, I was mesmerized by the gorgeous guitarist..." she chuckled, as I smacked her butt. "Cut it out or else?"
"Else what"
both smiling her eyes mischievous, I whispered, "you'll pay..." copying my cheek she whispered back in a low voice in my ear, "bring it on Jovi..." she broke from me and headed inside the dressing room just as Mike Rew returned down the corridor with the family he had been sent to find. Coming down the hall from the other direction was David Bergman. I slid back through my dressing room door and waited for Mike to bring the family in and introduce them. First through the door with Mike was the young girl called Ellie, she stood proud wearing a Jovi t and jeans with sneakers, her blond hair long fell around her shoulders, she wore a big grin and confidently held out her hand to meet me.
I crouched low so I was, more her height and shook her hand and gave her a hug.
She let go of me and smiled as she stood back a little and introduced her mom with pride in her eye's, "Mr Bongiovi, this is my momma, Sienna...." still beaming and smiling she stood to the side and allowed a beautiful women, looking very scarred from her illness, to step forward. She held out a very slender hand towards mine, I gently took her hand and kissed it, I would have liked to give her a hug but she looked like if I did she would break into tiny pieces, just like a porcelain doll. With a shaky voice she spoke, "thank you so much for meeting me, that's another thing ticked off my bucket list, just four more to go."
"pleasure, so you been a fan for a while then huh?"
she shook her head, "yeah since I was a young girl, obviously a very long time ago..."
we both laughed, "time and health have been good to you Mr Bongiovi..."
"Thank you, your kind, but you don't see me in the morning... it takes a while now to get these bones moving freely, were all getting older right?"
she shook her head again, "sadly we are." she grimaced and near collapsed on the floor, " I managed to catch her, as she smiled at me weakly, "my hero"
"You ok?" she regained her composure, "Sure, it happens, its age isn't it?"
we both laughed.
