Now or never

Rumours about the biggest event of the year, most probably the biggest event ever brought to this godforsaken place, turned out to be true – a famous rock band was coming to town.

Jeff couldn’t believe this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he grabbed his phone and made a call.

“Liz? Is that you?”

“Who’s that?” sleepy voice responded.

“It’s me, Jeff,” he was whispering, as if someone might be listening to their conversation. “There’s a job out there.”

“Jeff, I don’t think...”

“Get dressed, there’s someone we have to visit.”

“But...” she was about to say something, but Jeff had already hung up the phone.

Trevor was lounging on his cosy couch with a giant slice of pizza in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other and watching his favourite blockbuster when someone knocked at his door. He ignored the knocking, but it didn’t stop so annoyed he got up and, taking a gulp of beer on the way, went to see who it was.

“Who’s there?” he growled.

“Trevor! It’s me, we have to talk,” familiar voice whispered from behind the door.

Trevor opened slightly the door. He poked his head through the door, extended his hand with the bottle of beer to Jeff, muttered “cheers” and was about to shut the door, but Jeff had already sneaked inside.

“You shouldn’t have come here, someone might have seen you,” Trevor tried to whisper but his voice sounded like a thunder.

“Nah, no one saw me.” Jeff pushed up his glasses that were sliding off his nose.

“How the hell can you be so sure?”

“Maybe because you live in the middle of nowhere and the rest of the world is asleep?” A woman’s voice came from behind Jeff.

“Liz? What on earth...” Trevor thrust the bottle into Jeff's hand and quickly closed the door. “I can only think of one reason why you are both here, and I don’t like it.”

Trevor knew perfectly well what it was all about, and he didn't want to be part of it as things didn’t work out as planned last time. But Jeff was so obsessed with his idea he was already telling them what they were going to do and how.

The more Trevor listened to Jeff, the more he became convinced that Jeff was right – they couldn’t miss the opportunity. And why should they if they were born to do that? Especially Trevor, who loved to blow things up. It’s just that he wasn’t good with calculations and things like that, but that’s why they had Liz who took care of it. And there was Jeff who considered himself the heart and brain of the operation.

“All right,” Trevor finally agreed. “Let’s get the work done.”

They spent the following weeks planning, organising, studying site plans and purchasing explosives. Everyone was perfectly aware of their role and knew exactly what to do. However, there was a tension in the air about their different working methods, but no one really dared to question them, at least not in front of others, because all that mattered was the result.

One evening Liz decided to check the plan to make sure they didn’t miss anything. This time they couldn't make any mistakes as their reputation was at stake. And reputation in their business was everything. She sat down at the table, put her hair up in a ponytail and started to revise the plan.

Liz was sure they had a good plan as they had been working on it for weeks, but she had a weird feeling they had missed something. But what? She checked every single detail and found nothing. But then she spotted something that made her big eyes look even bigger. In a moment she was already making a call.

“Jeff, I have bad news. Can you come over?”

When Jeff arrived, Trevor was already there anxious to hear why on earth he had to leave his cosy couch in such a late hour and so much in hurry. Liz went straight to the point, but there was something Trevor didn’t understand.

“Let me get this right – would this have made us look like fools again?”

Liz nodded.

“But there is something else,” she added.

Trevor and Jeff exchanged looks.

“You probably remember that Marco was in charge of explosives last time.” Liz touched her hair while spoke.

“Of course, I do but what does this have to do with Marco?” Jeff nervously glanced at his old Rolex watch.

“It seems he made changes in the calculations the very last moment without letting us know.” Liz had finally said it.

For a moment, there was a silence in the room, but then Trevor jumped up to his feet, shouted "motherfucker" and slammed his fist on the table so hard he almost broke it.

“That's why he didn't show up in the end,” Trevor shouted. “That piece of shit screwed up everything and then just disappeared. Now it makes sense.”

Liz waited patiently.

“But how come we almost made the same mistake?” Trevor was still furious.

“Because we used part of the previous calculations without knowing that Marco had changed them,” Liz sighed.

There was a silence in the room again, and this time it was Jeff who broke it.

“We made a mistake, and now we have to correct it. That’s exactly what we are going to do.”

Finally, the day had come. Crowds of people were heading towards the open-air stage where the concert was about to start. Trevor, Liz and Jeff were already inside getting ready for the night’s show – not so much for the rock band’s show as for their own. Trevor was sweating and his heart was pounding in excitement. His hands were shaking so bad he could hardly hold the detonator. He was about to bring this to an end. And he was not going to fail. Not this time.

So this was it. The last song, the last chorus. Now or never. Trevor smiled and pushed the button.

A few seconds later, stunning fireworks lighted up the sky, unveiling beautiful masterpiece Trevor, Jeff and Liz had created.