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oliverreedmasterass · 2 years ago

Text

Part 6!

As always, a MASSIVE thank you to @starcatcherkiszka for the fic idea!

In case you want something to listen to while you read: ✨Summer of 69 Playlist✨

Words: 4k

Warnings: language, mentions of war/guns

Synopsis: Greta Van Fleet somehow manages to travel back in time to the Summer of 69, during the Woodstock Art and Music festival. You can only imagine what hijinks they’re going to get up to.

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Jake was having the time of his life. The day seemed to zip past him as he screamed his head off to Country Joe McDonald, Santana, and John Sebastian. He had even started to buddy it up with some of the guys from Sly and the Family Stone, which was something Jake wished he could brag about to every person on the planet. As the sun started to lower over the horizon during Mountain’s set, Jake felt fully content with all the music he had been able to experience over the past two days. He could have done with a bit better food, since the berries and handfuls of nuts were hardly enough to keep his stomach satisfied, but it was a minor setback. He felt entirely in his element, and he was in no rush to get back to the present.

He had been thrown off guard that Josh, Danny, and Sam were already starting to think about returning back to 2023, especially since they had just traveled back in time. There was so much more that Jake needed to explore outside of the Woodstock festival: he wanted to try and find Cream, he wanted to see the Beatles play at Abbey Road, hell, he wanted to travel to San Francisco to see what the Haight was like. Sure, there was a lot going on for him in 2023, but he had stumbled across something magical and he didn’t want to let it go to waste. 2023 would be waiting for him in the future.

He wanted to share every moment with his brothers, but it really disappointed him that they didn’t seem to share the sentiment. Sure, they all had a ball playing on stage but, once the second day started, they had become a bunch of grouches. While he enjoyed his time mingling and sharing guitar tips with people, Josh, Sam, and Danny stood awkwardly off to the side. He caught them whispering amongst themselves a few times which sparked a bit of paranoia for Jake. Usually when they did that, he was in the dog house. Jake couldn’t possibly imagine what he had done but, then again, he usually never knew what he did wrong.

“He’s definitely hiding something from us,” Josh decided as he watched Jake peek over his shoulder at him from the stage and then snap his back head around to continue talking to Freddie Stone.

“If we all gang up on him, he’ll talk,” Sam started to plan. “We just have to make sure he doesn’t talk circles around us or run. I’ll hold him down, you guys smack him if we need to.”

“I’m not smacking Jake,” Danny shook his head. “At least, not yet. I’ll go and talk to him, I have a feeling he’ll share more with me than you two clowns.”

“He’s got a point,” Josh muttered. “Jake actually likes Danny.”

Danny left before he had to hear Sam whine that Jake did too like him, he just showed his affection differently for his brothers. He climbed up the stairs to the stage and placed a gentle hand on Jake’s shoulder, who tensed at the touch.

“What’s up?” Jake tried to sound composed, even though Danny had scared the shit out of him. “This is Freddie Stone,” he added, motioning to the guitarist for Sly and the Family Stone.

“Of course,” Danny gave a wide smile to Freddie and shook his hand.

“I gotta find Sly,” Freddie excused himself. “I’ll be back though, I don’t want to miss The Grateful Dead.”

“You and me both,” Jake said with a laugh. “Is everything okay?” He returned his attention back to Danny. Danny should have come up with a better game plan before approaching Jake: he really didn’t know the best way to accuse him of withholding important information from them about how to travel back to the future.

“Um, yeah,” Danny stumbled on his words. “We’re, uh, just a little bit tired is all.”

“You didn’t get enough sleep?” Jake cocked his head to the side.

“No, uh,” Danny’s eyes darted around for the right words to say. “I mean, we’re kinda tired of being here. Right now. Like, we, or, at least I, want to get back to Nashville. I kinda miss my bed.”

Danny shouldn’t have been surprised that Jake greeted his confession with a massive pout.

“You’re not enjoying yourself?” he asked. Danny nervously rubbed at the back of his neck.

“It’s not that, um, we’re just a bit concerned about how we’re going to get back home, is all. It seems like it’s not bugging you at all, so I was just a little curious what your plan was moving forward.”

Jake attempted to keep a straight face.

“I want to stay through Jimi Hendrix’s set,” he stated flatly. “Beyond that, I’m not quite sure what I want to do yet.”

“So you’re in no rush to get back to the future?”

“Nope.”

“Huh.” Danny looked troubled. He struggled to make eye contact with Jake, instead focusing intently on a tall light tower just off to the side of the stage. “We’re all pretty determined to find a way to get back, I take it you’re not gonna help us?”

Jake pursed his lips together. He hated seeing Danny acting like a nervous wreck, but he also really wanted them all to stay with him while he lived his best life in the 60s. He knew he was being selfish above all else, but he really didn’t want to share with his bandmates that he had found a beam of light that looked pretty promising coming from someone’s van the night before.

Jake had woken up right after Joan Baez finished her set early that morning. He sat upright in the dark and listened to the soft breeze rolling through the trees when it occurred to him that the rain had stopped. Everyone else was sound asleep in the van, but Jake wanted to get out for a stroll down by the stream to try and reflect on their performance, since the adrenaline was replacing his exhaustion again. He carefully exited out of the van and walked a couple hundred yards away, enjoying the damp, humid air on his face and the sounds of people singing around a bonfire in the distance. As he started to relive his memories of Sam opening their set with “Age of Man,” the people in the crowd singing along to “Light My Love,” and the thunderous applause after “The Weight of Dreams,” he saw a bright light in the distance.

“No way,” Jake murmured to himself. As he neared closer to the run down van tucked back in the woods, it became clear that the light was emitting out of the windows. Jake was at first skeptical that the van was just filled with a bunch of hippies who had a lot of good shit, but he could feel a familiar warmth coming from the van that brought him right back to the door in the studio hallway. Even though it was blinding, Jake cupped his hands around his eyes and tried to peer inside the windshield of the van. The only thing inside the van was the searing light. Jake had to slap himself on the cheek a few times to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things again. but no, the light was still there.

“This must be our ticket home,” he whispered to himself. He gazed at the van a bit longer, wondering if he should tell his brothers about it. He had a gut feeling that they would all insist they leave before Jake could even embark on his mission to hunt down Cream. He really didn’t want to do that on his own. So, at 4am, Jake made the executive decision to keep the van a secret until the time felt right. They still had a lot to do.

Back on the stage with Danny, Jake could tell that Danny was staring him down, trying to read his expression. He had left the poor drummer hanging for a while, and he could tell that the anticipation was eating Danny alive.

“I’m not gonna stop you from finding a way back home,” Jake decided, “but I’m not sure why you guys are so concerned about leaving. I mean, aren’t there other things you want to do?”

“The main reason I came here was to make sure you were safe,” Danny reminded Jake. “I didn’t necessarily want to travel back in time to Woodstock.”

“So none of this was worth it?” Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“That’s not what I said,” Danny corrected him.

----

From behind the stage, Josh and Sam watched as Danny and Jake stood stiffly facing one another, Jake standing on his toes to try to get at eye level with Danny.

“I don’t think it’s going well,” Sam whispered to Josh.

“We should probably go in for backup,” Josh agreed with a sigh.

---

“What are you saying then?” Jake gave Danny a hard look. Danny looked on the brink of silently throwing his hands up in the air and stomping away. That was when Sam and Josh hurried to his side, holding him in place.

“Everything going okay?” Josh watched between the two. Danny looked a bit less tense with Josh and Sam by his side, but Jake on the other hand seemed to be nearly vibrating in place, he was feeling so many emotions at once. They were all ganging up on him, he should have seen it coming. It didn’t matter what he wanted, they were going to make sure they dragged his ass back to 2023 where they would waste their days away in the studio. Jake just couldn’t wrap his head around how none of them could see that they were basically on vacation. A really, really cool vacation.

“I’m staying here,” Jake declared before he could even process what he was saying. Josh studied his twin to try and figure out what was going on with him.

“Like, forever?” he guessed.

“Maybe.” Jake was the one to throw his arms up in the air and stomp away. He wanted to find Carlos Santana and talk with him more about guitar solos instead of getting heckled by his bandmates.

“Someone’s in a grumpy mood,” Sam whistled as Jake powered away from them.

“He was super defensive,” Danny shared between Sam and Josh. Sam felt bad about how upset Danny looked. It seemed like they had missed a lot of what happened between him and Jake. It was a surprise though: usually Jake was nothing but kind and understanding with Danny. Sam couldn’t fathom what Danny could have said to set him off.

“In what way?” Josh tried to prod Danny along.

“He was really unclear about what he wanted to do, and if he’ll help us find a way out of here. It sounds like, if he was given the option, he would want all of us to stay here and leave 2023 behind.”

“I think you mean, 2023 ahead,” Sam corrected Danny. “Sorry,” he apologized after Danny glowered in his direction.

“I feel like he’s forgotten what he’s leaving in 2023,” Josh thought hard. “Do our parents mean nothing to him?”

“He can hang out with them now, they’re just gonna be toddlers,” Sam thought aloud.

“I’ll try to talk to him a bit more,” Josh volunteered. He really hoped that he could get through to his brother in ways that Danny couldn’t.

----

Jake tried his best to enjoy The Grateful Dead’s set, but he was too heated from his confrontation to really take in “Mama Tried” or “Dark Star.” Instead, he was fretting on whether he had made the wrong decision, hiding the portal back to the future from his brothers. Danny made it abundantly clear that he had seen everything he wanted to see in 1969, and was ready to book it back to the comfort of his Nashville home. If Jake were in his shoes, he would have wanted to know where the portal was. But Jake also felt like Danny needed a bit of prodding to really enjoy things. He had to be pushed to take the LSD on the walk, he had to be convinced to play a set, he was just the kind of person who needed a push to live his life. Jake was pretty certain that he would be doing Danny a massive favor if they traveled to London and saw the Beatles perform. He knew Danny would eat that up, and there was no time like the present...or past.

As for Josh and Sam, Jake had no clue what was going on there. Josh had been pretty excited about everything, so Jake was stumped why he would want to leave so quickly. He had a hunch that Sam wanted to abandon ship only so he wouldn’t run into Joan Baez who, in his mind, was sure to interrogate him over why he missed her set.

“Talk about a bunch of ungrateful little asswipes,” he muttered to himself.

“What was that?” John Fogerty asked beside him. Jake blushed; he hadn’t realized he had spoken out loud.

“Nothing,” he was quick to reply. “I just said Jerry’s guitar kinda sounds out of tune.”

“You’re right,” John realized. “Good ear.”

Jake smiled and nodded at the Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman and then returned back to his brooding. He was glad that the stage was entirely dark, so it was hard for anyone to see how deep the creases were in his brow. That included Josh, who approached Jake without realizing just how ticked off he had become since he last saw him.

“What’s crackalackin, broski?” Josh tried to clear the air with his hands up in two shakas. Jake snapped around and gave Josh a look that Josh luckily couldn’t see well. If he could make out how red Jake’s eyes looked, he would have ran to the hills. “Not talking to me? Right on,” Josh continued.

“Why do you want to leave?” Jake cut Josh off, crossing his arms.

“Oh,” Josh seemed thrown off by Jake’s forwardness. “Well, I mean, I’d be more than happy to stick around for a bit longer. I just, ah, don’t want to get drafted.”

“You think you’re gonna get drafted?” Jake’s voice rose. He didn’t actually know if that was a genuine concern they should all have but, in that moment, he wanted to believe that it was a ridiculous excuse.

“I can’t go to ‘Nam, not after reading The Things They Carried.,” Josh explained. “ I won’t deal with that, Jake.”

“That was a fictional book,” Jake stared at his brother. “And you can just lie and say you’re color blind.”

“I don’t think it works like that,” Josh argued. “Plus, how would I fake being color blind?”

“How can you really prove that someone is color blind?” Jake asked back. Josh tsked; Jake did have a point.

“I just want you to have a good time here,” Jake’s voice softened for a brief moment. “I don’t understand why you can’t slow down and enjoy everything.”

“I did that yesterday,” Josh put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Now I need to start thinking ahead. Can you imagine Sam with a gun?”

“Just, drop Vietnam, okay?” Jake asked. Even if he really wasn’t paying an ounce of attention to The Grateful Dead’s set, it was really killing the mood.

“Jake,” Josh tried to find his eyes in the dark. “I know you about as well as I know myself. And I know that you know how to get out of here.”

Dammit, Jake thought to himself. He should have known it was impossible to keep secrets from Josh. They really did have some kind of telepathy that at times could be a blessing but, more often than not, felt like a curse to Jake. He really didn’t want to fess up, but he also knew that there was no talking himself out of it either. So much for making sure Josh, Danny, and Sam all got to enjoy their time in 1969.

“There’s a bus,” Jake’s voice felt disconnected from his body. “It’s out in the woods near the stream, probably about a half a mile away from where Dave’s van is parked. I found it last night while taking a walk when you were all asleep. I’m not positive that it will take you back to 2023, but it’s got light flooding out of it that looks exactly like what was coming out of the door.”

“There we go,” Josh patted Jake on the back. “Was that so hard?”

Jake wanted to roundhouse kick Josh in the head for his condescending tone, but he grit his teeth instead.

“Why hide that from us, Jake?” Josh had to ask. He was really disappointed in his brother. Danny was bound to get an ulcer the size of a tic tac if they stayed in 1969 one more day. Jake shrugged and then realized that he had to talk since Josh couldn’t see him in the dark.

“It was stupid,” he admitted. “I just thought we’d be better off enjoying our time here. I knew you all would book it the moment you knew there was a way to escape.”

“How about this,” Josh proposed. “You take us to the van, just so we can make sure the portal is still there, and then I’ll stay here with you until you want to come back? I can’t say what Sam and Danny will want to do, but I won’t leave your side.”

Jake couldn’t form the right words to tell Josh how much that meant to him. Having Josh with him was really all that he needed.

“Sounds like a plan,” was the best he could say. He felt Josh put a hand on his shoulder and give it a few taps before steering him off the stage. They met Sam and Danny at the bottom of the steps, and Danny once more was trying to avoid eye contact with Jake. “I’m really sorry,” Jake’s voice cracked a bit as he stared down at his friend. “I shouldn’t have talked to you like that, it was really uncool of me.”

“You can say that again,” Sam interjected before Danny could accept Jake’s apology. Danny had told him everything that had gone down between him and Jake at the side stage and, with that information fresh, Sam felt livid. Danny held a hand up to keep Sam from getting into a yelling match with Jake and nodded towards the guitarist.

“I accept your apology.”

“Jake knows how to get out of here,” Josh announced.

“I knew it!” Sam couldn’t help but shout, which caused Jake to wince. He felt like Sam was seconds away from throwing a fist at his face. It wouldn’t matter though; what hurt more was the stare Danny was giving Jake. He looked as if he had just heard that Jake ran over his dog and then put the car in reverse to do it again.

“It’s a recent development,” Jake lied to try and lessen the hurt.

“No it’s not,” Josh clarified. “Just own up that you did something shitty, Jake.”

“Fine,” Jake sighed. “I’m sorry for being a shitty person.”

“Apology maybe accepted,” Danny said under his breath.

“I’ll take you there,” Jake decided. He mostly wanted to break out of the circle they had formed: he hated that all of their judgmental eyes were glued to him. He was a lot more at ease walking a few paces ahead of them, towards the stream. Sure, he could hear Sam calling him an asshole behind his back, but that was to be expected. As the youngest sibling, it was Sam’s obligation to be the meanest to Jake.

Jake wasn’t sure if he felt relieved or disappointed that the light was still flooding out of the van when they approached it.

“It’s kinda crazy that no one else has found this,” Josh mused as he walked past Jake to study the car.

“They probably did, they were just tripping balls so they didn’t realize the light was actually real,” Danny said, joining Josh’s side.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I want to get back to my self-driving car and drink a big old bottle of 21st century Corona,” Sam announced. Jake wanted to protest, but he silently watched as Sam made his way to the van’s side door and reached to tug it open.

“I’m gonna stay with Jake,” Josh spoke up before Sam could leave. “Us being here means a lot to him, even if we could be drafted into the US military.”

“I still don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Jake protested.

“It’s your call, you can do whatever you want, but you are going to miss some pretty good acts,” Josh looked between Sam and Danny. “Joe Cocker, The Band, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young are all playing tomorrow.”

“And Jimi Hendrix,” Jake added.

“And Jimi Hendrix,” Josh nodded.

Danny and Sam stood by the car door and studied each other.

“It was pretty cool to see Santana earlier,” Danny admitted.

Sam gave one more look at the door handle and then turned away. “I do like Crosby et al.”

“How about a compromise,” Danny took up the role of the moderator, as always, moving back towards Jake and Josh. Jake motioned for him to give his proposition. “We stay for the last day, and then take off Monday morning. And that means all of us.”

Jake thought it over. He still thought they were crazy to not want to explore more around 1969, but he also was starting to understand why they wanted to get back to the future. Just thinking about the fact that they would be on the grounds for another 24 hours made Jake’s stomach groan in protest. A guy could only have so many cashews in a day.

“Agreed,” he said, extending a hand for Danny to shake. Danny grasped it and pumped their arms up and down once. “Pleasure doing business with you,” Jake couldn’t help but joke.

“I want to shake on it too,” Sam came back to Jake’s side.

“I know you spit in your hand,” Jake shook his head at his younger sibling.

“Damn,” Sam cursed. He had been caught red-handed.

The sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival opening their set captured all of their attention. Jake tapped his tennis shoe in the mud to “Born on the Bayou” and could hear Josh humming along as well.

“Well,” he said, “should we head back into the crowd?”

“If I remember from my dad’s concert DVD, we’ve got a long night ahead of us,” Danny shared. “We’d better find a spot where we can get comfy.”

“I want to find the guy with the bongos from earlier,” Josh stated. “He was fun.”

“Good luck finding him,” Danny snorted.

“Just because you said that, I am gonna find him,” Josh sounded determined. Danny threw back his head and groaned at Josh’s stubbornness.

“Just enjoy the music,” Jake shook his head at Josh. “The bongo guy will find you if you’re really meant to cross paths.”

“That’s beautiful, Jakey,” Josh wiped a fake tear from his eye.

“Come on,” Sam motioned for them to join him as he moved back towards the stage. “I don’t want to miss ‘Green River.’”

“Is that Joan Baez?” Jake couldn’t help but call out, pointing over Sam’s head. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sam let out a mouse-like squeak and dove behind a tree, landing in the grass with a thud.

“Is she gone?” Sam’s voice was muffled since his face was pressed into the soil.

“He’s just messing with you, Sam,” Danny called to him.

Sam pushed himself back upright, spitting out some grass in the process, and glared at Jake while he brushed the foliage off of his shirt.

“You’re on thin ice, pal,” he tried to sound as intimidating as possible. Jake could only laugh in response to his younger brother’s threat. He was bound to use the Joan Baez prank on him many more times over the course of the night. Sam was going to regret ever calling him an asshole behind his back.

#greta van fleet #gvf #jake kiszka #josh kiszka #sam kiszka #danny wagner #gvf fanfic #gvf fic #gvf fanfiction #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fanfiction #woodstock #sly and the family stone #carlos santana #joan baez #creedence clearwater revival #john fogerty #the grateful dead

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oliverreedmasterass · 2 years ago

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Part 5!

A HUGE shoutout to @starcatcherkiszka for the fic idea!

In case you want something to listen to while you read: ✨Summer of 69 Playlist✨

Words: 4k

Warnings: drug usage, language, nudity, Robert Plant

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The tent Dave had referred to was essentially just a tarp held up by three or four large sticks that had been planted into the ground. It wasn’t much, but Jake, Josh, Sam, and Danny all gladly ducked under it to get out of the rain. They were all soaked to the bone and, as their adrenaline slowly wore off, each of them grew more uncomfortable in their soggy clothes. It was hard to fret over though, since so many people surrounded them and demanded their full attention.

Someone passed Sam a blunt and, with a laugh, he happily took a puff, passing it over to Danny who, while he looked skeptical at first, shrugged and took a hit as well. Carlos Santana had Jake cornered, and was trying to pick his mind apart to understand where he had come up with the “Weight of Dreams” solo.

“You’re telling me,” Carlos looked at Jake in disbelief, “that you just closed your eyes and let your fingers do the work?”

“I can’t really read music,” Jake admitted. “It’s all by ear, I dunno, once I get a melody down, it’s pretty simple to create variations of it that I can put into a solo.”

Carlos thought hard on Jake’s words. “I need to write this down.”

Josh found Ravi Shankar and, like Sam had done to Joan Baez earlier, was unleashing every compliment he could think of, which Ravi Shankar reacted to with a bright smile.

“I’m glad my music means something to you,” he told Josh.

“Means something to me?” Josh sputtered. “That’s an understatement!”

Dave approached Sam and Danny, who were busy laughing at how ridiculous Josh’s hair looked when it was wet, and motioned back towards the line of vans.

“Hotels are entirely booked for the next 30 miles. You probably shouldn’t be driving in this weather, the rain’s really coming down. I’ve got a van at the edge of the field, wanna spend the night there?”

“You’re asking us to go to your van?” Danny raised an eyebrow. “Do you have candy in there?”

Dave looked at him strangely. “I’m not sure I follow.”

Danny’s face dropped at the realization that his joke probably didn’t make sense to Dave. Cults were a lot bigger than kidnappings at the time, he supposed.

“I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m sorry,” Danny tried to backtrack. “I’m tired.”

“Then follow me!” Dave's face brightened once more as he waved for them to join him. “Arlo Guthrie’s supposed to be going on next but, shit, with the set you guys played, I’m sure you’d like to take a breather.”

Sam and Danny couldn’t have put it better themselves. They were able to drag Jake and Josh away from their conversations and, together, they made the trek around the outskirts of the still large crowd to Dave’s van. It was a Volkswagen, and they admired the psychedelic paint job on its exterior.

“It’s not much, but she does the job,” Dave said as he unlocked the door. “It’s gonna be crowded back there, hopefully there’s enough space for you all.”

Dave was right that it was crowded, but none of them minded sitting on top of each other. What mattered was they were finally out of the rain, and they could dry off. It was a pain to peel off their damp clothes, but by the time Arlo Guthrie started his set, which they could just barely hear off in the distance, they had all found spots in the back of the van to settle for the night. Jake felt that it was inherently wrong to miss any of the performances, but everything was catching up to him fast. It felt like eons ago that they had been in the studio, and Jake realized that he had been going for easily over 36 hours straight without a second of sleep. It was no wonder that he felt like he couldn’t move the second he took a seat and started to rest. Josh, Danny, and Sam felt the same: within five minutes they were all fast asleep.

Danny was the first to wake up the next morning, and he let out a deep yawn as he attempted to stretch in the compact interior of the van. He had a split second where he forgot where he was, and then felt his heart thunder in his chest at the memory of the night prior.

“Oh my god,” he whispered to himself as images of their performance danced in front of his eyes. They had played at fucking Woodstock.

“Hmm?” Josh hummed beside him, turning on his side so he could face Danny.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Danny said in a hush.

“It’s all good,” Josh’s voice was groggy, “I gotta piss.”

It wasn’t graceful, but Josh managed to climb over his brothers, open the van door, and leap out into the glowing early morning sunshine to rush to a tree off in the distance. Danny watched him go, and then rubbed at his eyes a bit more. Jake and Sam were both still fast asleep even though Josh had bumped into them at least 5 times while trying to exit the vehicle. Danny watched as Jake repositioned himself, tucking his feet up towards his knees in fetal position while hugging one of Dave’s throw pillows. Beside him, Sam was a heap of hair under an impressive pile of blankets. Danny knew them both well enough that he was certain they wouldn’t be up until well-past noon.

There was too much running through Danny’s mind to allow him to fall back asleep, so he ducked out of the van and had to take a second to admire the view in front of him. The number of people was still something he could hardly fathom, but he was also tickled by everyone’s eccentric fashion, from parachute robes like Josh was wearing to American flag pants. Danny had to hold in a laugh when he saw a man around his age walk by, entirely in the nude, carrying a sheep like a baby.

Josh rejoined his side and watched the man pass by.

“I kinda want to air it out,” Josh spoke. Danny turned around to face him.

“Please don’t.”

Josh chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, which was rosy from their walk in the sun the day before. Danny had a bad feeling that his face was pretty flushed as well, but he tried not to fret on it much.

“I thought I was going to wake up back in 2023,” Josh admitted. Danny was glad he wasn't the only one who had expected that.

“Are you getting worried about how we’ll get back?” Danny asked. Josh thought about it and gave a small shrug.

“I probably should be. I mean, I love being here in this time period but, man, we’ve got so much going for us in the future. And I don’t want to get drafted.”

Danny’s face fell at that. He had been so caught up in the music and culture that he entirely forgot all four of them were technically eligible to be drafted into the Vietnam war.

“Rockstars or not, they could pull an Elvis on us,” Josh continued.

“We should probably try to find a way out of here,” Danny decided. “Or flee up to Canada.”

“That could be nice,” Josh considered the option. “But yeah, I think let’s set our sights on 2023.”

“Any ideas about how we get back?”

“That’s the tricky part,” Josh tapped his chin. “I still really don’t understand how we got here in the first place. Usually with time travel in the movies there’s some kind of explanation, like a failed government experiment, or an opportunity for the characters to right a wrong, I don’t know. For us, it seems like it came entirely out of left field.”

“A part of me thought that if we performed, then the beam of light would come back,” Danny shared. “Like, we’d do our set, blow everyone away, spread some peace, love, and unity, and then dip because we had served our purpose.”

“There’s got to be a way out of here,” was all Josh could say. An air of uncertainty hung between them. Danny could feel his chest starting to tighten at the thought that they ultimately had no gameplan to get back to the future. What he wouldn’t give for some old guy driving a DeLorean to pull up at that moment. “I saw an acoustic back in Dave’s van,” Josh changed the subject. “Wanna sit out in the grass and play something?”

Danny was still feeling the stress eating away at him, but he did enjoy playing the guitar so it was hard for him to turn down Josh’s suggestion. It seemed like a good way to get out of his head.

“Why not?” he replied. So, a few minutes later, they found themselves sitting out in a nice patch of sun where the grass wasn’t too wet from the rain. Danny attempted to tune the guitar and Josh smiled at a group of teenagers that passed by.

“Play whatever you want, I’ll try to sing along,” Josh encouraged Danny. Danny thought on what song would be the best to play and started to strum out the intro to “Anthem.” Josh chuckled at him and started to clap along to the beat.

“With the news there’s something every day, so many people thinking different ways, you say, where is the music? A tune to free the soul, a simple lyric to unite us all, you know…”

By the time they reached the chorus, enough people had joined them that they had a full circle. Josh looked around at everyone with a bright smile and waved his hands around, encouraging them to join him in the song. The pack of people swayed back and forth to the music and sang in unison:

“And every glow in the twilight knows that the world is only what the world is made of, just you and me can agree to disagree, and the world is only what the world is made of.”

Danny played the last note, and then Josh grinned at the group.

“Having a good time?” he asked around.

“This is my Mecca,” one guy closed his eyes and nodded with a beam.

“I’m looking forward to Jefferson Airplane tonight,” a girl answered, and was met with murmurs of agreement from some other people in the circle. “My friends saw them in San Francisco and said they sound great.”

“It’s gonna be hard to beat that band that played last night though,” the Mecca guy raised an eyebrow. “What was their name? JJ and the Salty Dogs?”

“Before last night I’d never heard of them,” an older man admitted. “But boy, I have a feeling they’re gonna blow up after this festival is over.”

Danny and Josh shared a quick smirk.

They played through a few more of their acoustic songs, including “Mountain of the Sun,” and Danny had a field day playing some of his favorite Beatles songs that he was pretty sure had already been released, like “Blackbird” and “I’ll Follow the Sun.”

Danny found himself getting lost in the music and, before he knew it, they had been playing for over two hours and attracted a crowd of enough people that Danny couldn’t keep track of them all. Their audience was eager to join in the music with their own singing and clapping, and a few people even brought over their own instruments, ranging from bongos to triangles to tambourines. Josh was handed a bamboo flute which he took with a loud laugh. Although it was obvious he had no clue what he was doing, he had fun trying to follow Danny’s guitar playing without sounding too shrill.

Danny and Josh were having so much fun, they entirely missed Sam rushing out of Dave’s van, his hair a mess, clutching a blanket up to his bare chest and looking around in a state of panic. He turned in a full circle to gather where he was, and then rushed through the crowd to Danny and Josh.

“Did Joan play already?” he asked, his eyes wild.

“Yeah man, she played super early this morning,” the guy with the bongos informed Sam.

“Shit,” Sam cursed, and then started pacing back and forth with worry. “I told her I would be there to watch it. I can’t believe I slept through her set! I completely blew it, I’m an idiot.”

“Dude, you were tired,” Danny reminded Sam. “You needed your rest.”

“She personally invited me to come and see her,” Sam groaned. “I can’t believe I managed to blow Joan Baez off.”

“Why don’t you come and join us?” Josh asked Sam, obviously growing tired of his whining and self-loathing. “Sing a few songs, it’ll do you good.”

Sam looked like he wanted to keep pacing back and forth, but he instead opted to plop in between Josh and Danny and drop his head into his hands. Danny and Josh exchanged a look and then Danny started to strum at the guitar.

“Hey Sam,” he sang down to Sam in the tune of “Hey Jude,” “don’t give a damn, take a sad song, and make it better.”

Sam peeked up from his hands at Danny and shook his head. Danny nudged him in the side with the neck of the guitar as he kept going. Josh tried to play along on the flute but it came out sounding like a whistling tea kettle, so he passed it off to the person nearest to him in sheer embarrassment. That did manage to get a good laugh out of Sam though, and Josh and Danny were happy to see that he was sitting back upright, watching Danny intently with a twinkle in his eye.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Danny stopped singing to tell Sam. Sam lifted up his shoulders as if saying, “yeah, I guess,” and smiled at Danny.

“Are you guys playing guitar without me?” Jake’s voice called out from the van. “Where was the invite?”

“What a diva,” Josh rolled his eyes. Jake came barreling through the crowd while trying to tug on his velvet pants, which had just barely dried. He approached his band members, entirely out of breath, and gave them an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, I slept in. I had a really weird dream where I turned into a raccoon and was chasing people in some national park. The plot was really riveting, so I didn’t want to wake up.”

Everyone stared at Jake with concern, but Danny finally snapped back to life and held the acoustic up to him, which he gladly accepted.

“Anyway, here’s Wonderwall,” he started to joke, but quickly stopped when he saw Danny’s warning glare. “Right, sorry,” Jake was quick to apologize. “That’s not a funny joke. Butterfly effect, right.”

He dropped down onto his butt next to Josh and strummed a few notes. After gazing around at the people who were watching him with interest, he started to break into “Crossroads,” which made Josh groan.

“You and your Cream songs,” he complained.

“Cream rocks,” Jake started to argue back, without missing a single note. Josh opened his mouth to protest that the song didn’t quite match the mood they were going for, but he stopped himself when he saw Dave rushing in their direction. Josh wasn’t sure what the matter could be, but from the look on Dave’s face, he was a bit concerned to hear what he had to say.

“Something kinda weird happened,” he greeted them. Jake immediately stopped playing. Dave looked around at them and then sucked in a breath of air before continuing on. “There’s this band based in London, I’m sure you’ve heard of them, they’re called Led Zeppelin.”

“Oh brother,” Sam mumbled.

“Their manager heard about your set last night and their front man, Robert Plant, insisted on flying out here so he could meet you.”

“Why?” Jake arched an eyebrow.

“Their manager didn’t share too many details, he just said to get a car for Robert. He’s on his way here now.”

“Should we leave?” Danny leaned close to his bandmates to conspire. Josh was quick to shake his head. He didn’t know what Robert Plant wanted; if anything, he was really intrigued why he was in such a rush to see them.

“Why don’t you all get yourselves put together and then meet me back at the stage, okay?” Dave told them before hurrying away.

“Are we gonna have to throw hands against Robert Plant?” Sam couldn’t help but ask. That wasn’t on his time travel bingo card.

“No,” Josh assured Sam. “We’re just going to have a civil conversation with him.”

Twenty minutes later, they were standing in front of Robert Plant, who was staring at Josh with a level of intensity that made his skin crawl. Robert never broke eye contact with Josh as he shifted from foot to foot.

“You’ve got a similar sound to me,” he started. Sam automatically paled.

“We are gonna have to throw hands against him,” he whispered in fear.

“Now, I’m not accusing you of copying or anything,” Robert continued. Sam let out a gasp of relief. “I just find it a bit uncanny how similar you and I sound,” he said as he stared into what Josh felt was the inner depths of his soul. “We bear a bit of a resemblance as well,” Robert was on a roll now. “I apologize if this is a bit forward, but what’s your mother’s name?”

Josh couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You think I’m your long-lost brother or something?”

Robert shrugged. “I always thought it would be cool to have a brother who’s also a musician.”

“Our Mom’s name is Karen,” Jake cut in. “I’m Josh’s brother. So is Sam, over there.” Jake motioned in Sam’s direction, where he was half-hiding behind Danny.

“What’s your dad’s name?” Robert ignored Jake, still talking to Josh.

“Kelly,” Josh replied.

“Maybe we’re cousins or something then,” Robert frowned. “I just can’t shake the feeling that you and I are related.”

“Right,” Josh nodded. “You and I are related, but you’re not related to my brothers.”

Once more, Robert ignored what was said to him.

“This is exciting,” he continued on. “We can have some kind of rivalry, like the Beatles and Stones or something. I always find that I write and perform better when it’s a competition.”

“I don’t know if that’s healthy,” Josh begged to differ. He was starting to feel uncomfortable about everything. He didn’t like how Robert was only addressing him, and how excited he was to pit his band against theirs. Even in 1969 they couldn’t shake the Led Zeppelin comparisons. Josh couldn’t help that he knew how to belt it out like Robert Plant did. That was just a god-given talent that they both had been blessed with.

“Nonsense,” Robert waved him off. “You release an album and then we’ll release an album and we can leave it up to The Rolling Stone to declare a winner. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

“It does,” Jake stepped closer to Robert. “We’ve got this song in the works right now that’s really good. It should give you a run for your money”

“Really?” Robert put his hands on his hips. Jake couldn’t help but grin since he could tell that he had him in the palm of his hand.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “It’s like a rock opera; it’s got an acoustic intro and then it shifts to an electric fantasm with this insane guitar solo that goes on for over five minutes. Everything boils up to this huge crescendo and then it ends with a reflective, pondering conclusion.”

Jake had Josh, Sam, Danny, and Robert’s attention captured. For the life of him, Josh couldn’t figure out what his twin was trying to do.

“Does the song have a name yet?” Robert sounded intrigued.

“Yup,” Jake nodded. He sounded like he was doing everything within his power to hold in a loud laugh. “It’s called, um, Stairway to Heaven.”

If Robert Plant wasn’t in front of them, Danny would have body slammed Jake to the ground for being so careless and stupid. Robert repeated the song title to himself while stroking his chin.

“That’s got a nice ring to it,” he decided. “It’s a rock opera?”

“Something like that,” Jake replied, trying to ignore the gestures Danny was making towards him, expressing that he was going to kick him in the shins if he kept talking. “It’s really philosophical and existential.”

“I do like a bit of existentialism,” Robert commented. “You see? This is great, I’m already starting to get ideas. Jimmy and the guys are gonna be so happy to hear that the writer’s block is going away.”

“Congratulations,” was all Josh could think to say. Robert was looking at him strangely again, which made him want to disappear into the folds of his oversized parachute outfit.

“I swear we’re related,” Robert shook his head. “I’m gonna have to ask my mum about that one.”

Josh was ready to tell Robert for the second time that he was pretty sure they weren’t related, and that they were just both white and had curly hair. Before he could though, Jerry Garcia walked by, which stole Robert’s attention.

“Oh,” he gasped out, giving the members of Greta Van Fleet a quick, apologetic smile. “I’ve always wanted to meet Jerry.” He started to rush away, but then stopped and whirled around to face them again.

“I’ll have my manager send you my contact information,” he said. “I need to hear more about this Stairway to Heaven song.”

Jake gave him a large thumbs up, and then he was off.

“Are you out of your mind?” Danny turned to Jake the second Robert Plant was out of earshot. “Why would you tell him about Stairway to Heaven?”

“I want to be able to tell people that Led Zeppelin ripped us off first,” Jake answered simply.

“I don’t think it works like that,” Sam squinted as he tried to think things over. “I mean, the only reason you know about that song is because they wrote it.”

“It’s a case of who came first, the chicken or the egg, Sammy boy,” Jake wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Time travel is a tricky thing, but I just changed things so now I know about Stairway to Heaven in the future because I invented it on the spot in 1969.”

“My head hurts,” Sam replied.

“Or,” Danny stepped in, “we’re going to return to the future, only to find that some band called JJ and the Salty Dogs did a song called ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ and not Led Zeppelin.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Jake asked.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Danny grumbled.

“I mean, if we make it back to the future,” Josh spoke up. Danny’s shoulders slumped at the reminder. Surprisingly, Jake seemed unbothered.

“We’re bound to get back at some point,” he said, like it was nothing.

“How can you be so sure?” Danny asked.

“Just a gut feeling,” Jake chirped.

From the stage, Quill started to play. Jake perked up at the music and pointed towards the stage, where some other musicians were starting to gather.

“I’m gonna hang out up there to get a better view,” he excused himself. They watched him jog away, and then Sam looked at Danny and Josh.

“I don’t know why he’s so optimistic about everything out of the blue.”

“It does seem a bit out of character,” Josh had to agree. Usually Jake leaned more on the glass half empty side of things. Out of all of them (with the exception of Danny, of course) he seemed like he would have a nervous breakdown over being trapped in the past. Instead, he was socializing with the members of Canned Heat and Country Joe McDonald, laughing loud and beaming like the happiest guy in the world.

Watching Jake, it seemed that they were all in agreement:

He knew something that they didn’t know.

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