the death of a musical hero

so the sunday night RIGHT before my birthday (on monday) my dad and i were watching the news, for some reason, and suddenly my whole life was turned upside down. the lady started talking about the tuba man. and i was like "OMQ I LOOOOVE THE TUBA MAN HE IS SOOO COOL ISNT HE DAD??? HES SO AWESOME!!!! WE NEED TO SEE HIM AGAIN!!!!"
because see, i met the guy. i knew him.
we were coming out of the baseball stadium the night after school got out. we had seen the mariners vs. the marlins, and we lost to the marlins 9-3. ichiro didnt hit a SINGLE ball. and i mean, much as i hate baseball, i know some of who is who and a little of what is what. and as we were walking around catching some air (we had suite seats given to us for free by moms work) the tuba man was there, playing his tuba. i had seen the guy once before a looong time ago when my dad walked all the way to my moms work from the ferry one day but i didnt know who he was. over time i had heard about this guy. he sat outside the football and baseball stadiums (quest and safeco field) and he played his tuba all day long. he took requests; he knew basically EVERY song. he was such a smart guy. he was in his 50's of 60's i believe. he wasnt homeless, he had an appartment. but still, people gave him money, so he took it. and i mean, how cool is this guy that he PLAYS HIS TUBA ALL DAY LONG????? i mean seriously that is a GREAT WAY TO LIVE YOUR LIFE!!!!! the lived and breathed to play the tuba, and i live and breathe and to play the trombone (among other things). so you see, i could relate to the guy. ever since i had heard about the tuba man i had wanted to meet him. and finally i got the chance to. as usual there was a small crowd of people around him and i watched as the shouted out suggestions. somebody suggested "8 days a week" by the beatles and he played it. and he was good. it was a great feeling, to watch my role model in action. all i wanted was to actually meet him. and i sort of got to. i stayed there longer than the other people and suggested the simpsons theme song and he played it. i suggested the simpsons because it was one of the songs we played at our last band concert. and he played it almost like we did. we didnt have a tuba last year so i had no idea how the song sounded on tuba and i wanted to know. and i got to hear it. and it was so cool. so when he finished it i introduced myself. "hi, im lainey! im your biggest fan! you are totally awesome. i play trombone in our school band and i think its just about the funnest thing in the world!"
"Oh really? well its nice to meet you, lainey."
it looked like he was going to say something more but he got cut off by this little boy who tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he could play happy birthday because it was his birthday. oh i didnt mind. i thought it was really cute. and the little boy was so adorable. then my dad dragged me out of there so we could get to the car. the game had went past 10:00pm and it was easily close to 10:45 now.
so there i sat so eager to hear about the tuba man.
but what i heard that night was just about the worst thing ever.
the tuba man, the always-happy-guy that i looked up to, my role model, guy who lived to play his tuba and bring joy to people, had been beaten to death by three teenagers. i didnt even listen to the rest of what they were saying. i just sort of sat there on the couch, staring at the tv screen, watching, but not really listening. i watched people lay flowers on his coffin. i watched a lot of people gather around his coffin and put flowers on it. a huge tenis ball became lodged in my throat and before i could stop myself i was crying. just one tear rolled down the side of my face. and i got up and left the room. in the safe confinds of my bedroom with the radio on full blast, out of earshot of the rest of the house, i collapsed on my bed and wept into my pillow. it soaked up my tears like a sponge. i cried harder than i had the night before. i cried harder than i had in a while. he was dead. the tuba man was dead. gone. and it killed me.