The Bees

The Bees THE WOMEN WHO ROCKED LITHUANIA

AkvilĖ MagicdustÉ Translated by Erika Lastovskytė

16.

Rusnė June 1968

How could The Clovers take the snare?! They knew we had a gig.

It’s a short set, we’ll get through it.

Good morning, your driver is waiting for you. There’s just a small change — you’ll be performing solo. It just so happened: someone got sick, and others had to cancel.

Whaaat?

But we only have a few songs!!!

I just called them in RusnË. They’re waiting for you there and they’re printing new posters, with just your band on it.

93

This is terrible! How are we going to play for so long?

Maybe we can learn some new songs on the way, we’ve got five hours to go.

agh, how am I supposed to learn this so quickly?!

Change, you better change!

In just a few minutes You will be friends with all five of us so just cheer up

what about me? My drums are all packed up.

94

Whaaat? How could they get it so wrong?!!!

The local boys will throw stones at us, the concert ain’t free!

Look, the posters are everywhere — there and there — they’re all over the place.

This is so embarrassing!

Maybe the RusnË fishermen don’t even know who the beatles are.

You wish!

C’mon, we gotta get ready.

95

I feel like we’re headed toward a total fiasco.

Dear RusnË citizens!

We sincerely apologize for the mix-up. Welcome to the stage, the all-female band from Vilnius — The Bees!

What? Who are they?

They promised The Beatles!

We didn’t pay to see some stupid girls’ band!

In just a few minutes You will be friends

96

Boom boom

! ore Enc They’re awesome, huh?

Yeah. I thought I wasted my money.

Cool girls.

Bravo!

Whew! We did it.

Supposedly everything went ‘‘as planned.’’

Of course.

Such nonsense! They say There are no that ALL the scheduled bands failures in the and groups performed.

Soviet Union.

THE NEXT DAY

Unbelievable.

97