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Achmed Khan was known by his peers by one of two nicknames. The Axe-Man was one that much older, which referenced how he played out on a baseball field. He was the second-best hitter of the Humongous Melonheads (behind the no longer so Secret Weapon of Pablo Sanchez, who was the best at arguably everything in the sport) back in little league and this transferred over as their co-ed team split into boys' and girls' baseball teams for Past President High School (which everyone thought was an awful name, Past President Patriots? Really?), where he continued that position, though a bit more comfortably, since the next best hitters were Tony Delvecchio and Kenny Kawaguchi who... weren't the best hitters, some might say.
The second was one that was slowly growing onto him. Rock-Med. And if anyone knew anything about Achmed Khan, he loves rock music. Love isn't a strong enough word, some might argue. Ever since Achmed was just starting kindergarten, his cousin Iqbal introduced him to the great world of rock and roll. He brought tape after tape, so much so that for his 7th birthday, his gift was a Walkman, and he brought that thing with him everywhere. Mostly because the giant boombox in the house was, to the joy of Amir, his younger brother, and to the dismay of his parents, playing rock music constantly. It got to a point where he'd shred on his baseball bat as if it was a guitar and he was constantly listening to some Pink Floyd tape as he was walking up, trying to imitate the guitar part of Ain't Talking About Love, or for that matter, any rock artist. Ask Amir, Achmed probably has it on tape. Twisted Sister? He regularly hums I Wanna Rock as he walks to school, Deep Purple? For the first day of April, he only plays April. 12 minutes of complete musical bliss, on loop, for 18 hours, straight. Achmed was well proud of his collection.
At least, for a long while he was. You see, Achmed's many Walkmans that he's gone through had already begun to run thin and hadn't worked as well as they once had. Not to mention that everyone had moved away from walkmans and less artists were putting out things on cassettes. CDs were more popular, and his boombox, which still worked, could use cassettes, it wasn't as easy as it was to use his Walkman as a portable music player. In 2001, the iPod came out, and while Achmed wasn't as interested in the extra stuff, it apparently could store as much as 1,000 songs at the time. Middle-School Achmed was interested, but he knew he had more. And fortunately, by 2004, they had a brand-new iPod, one that could store 8,000 songs at the maximum storage capacity, and Achmed was groveling at the mouth for the thing. Sure, he could put photos on it, and it could play games, but he was desperate for something as expansive as that. The only issue? Man, it was expensive. As in, an arm and a leg. 400 dollars?! For a music player?! Achmed knew how costly that was, especially as Amir also wanted an iPod, and it made sense, coming to his first year of high school with an iPod would be really cool, in the eyes of some, but Achmed practically needed the thing.
Fortunately, Achmed's birthday was right around the corner, so when his parents told them he'd only be getting one gift this year, he more than knew what it would be, and he was stoked.
Achmed sat around the dinner table, his eyes fixated on the present wrapped so neatly, eying it as if he was a hungry vulture.
His dad cleared his throat. "Beta, do you wish to open your-"
Achmed veraciously nodded. "Yesyesyesyes, papa, letmeopenitletmeopen-" He sputtered out, practically lunging at the present.
His dad knew there was no stopping him and he set the gift down. Within a second, Achmed tore apart all of the wrapping, and it had gone to shreds across the dining table. His parents watched in shock and humor as Achmed scrambled through their delicate wrapping, trying to hold back chuckles. Amir too, was on the verge of collapsing at the sight of this display. Soon enough, a glistening white box sat free from his wrath, there it was, the iPod.
Achmed lit up and hooted. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He cheered and hugged his parents tight.
His parents laughed. "Now, be careful with it, this is expensive and we can't afford to get another one." His mother reminded him.
Amir protested. "But I thought I was going to get an iPod too..."
Their father interjected. "A different one, yes. And on your birthday. One that is much cheaper."
Achmed grinned and he practically lunged to the computer plugging in the little music player of his dreams. And then he stopped. How was he supposed to get all of his songs onto this little thing? I mean sure, he had the dinky little FireWire cable plugged into the computer, but his tapes weren't going to be able to just be read by a computer, at least not anymore. Dmitri once told him about how computers USED to do that, which man, Achmed wished they still did. He sighed and got up, before an idea struck him right in the idea.
Iqbal. Achmed ran over to the phone and punched in his number immediately. He knew he had to be calmer about this, especially as his parents and Amir were watching him, seeing Achmed descend into madness.
"Hello?" came from the other line.
"Iqbal? It's Achmed-"
A hoot then emerged. "YOOOOO, Happy birthday, man! What are you, 18?"
"16, Iqbal."
"Damn, so your parents would kill me if I invited you to a college party."
Achmed laughed. "I think they'd do that anyways. They let me rock out, but I already know they'd freak out if I rocked out that way."
Iqbal laughed. "Anyways, what's up? Do you need some new tape recommendations? I already got some stuff that I could hook you up with."
Achmed paused. "Actually, I just got an iPod, and I was wondering if you maybe had experience with it?"
Iqbal sighed. "Yeah, I've had experience with them. Why didn't you get a new Walkman, re-recording all of those old tapes would take you forever!"
Achmed felt something sink in his stomach. "अरे बाप रे-"
His mother cut in and shouted from across the room. "Language, Achmed!"
Achmed winced and replied quickly, putting the phone away from him. "Sorry, maa!" He then turned back to Iqbal, returning the phone to his ear. "What do I do then? I can't just waste away all of my summer getting everything onto here!"
Iqbal paused. "Have you heard of LimeWire?"
Achmed shook his head. "No, not at all."
Iqbal lit up. "Okay, so it technically isn't legal-"
Achmed flinched up. "What?! Iqbal, are you crazy?! Are you trying to-"
Iqbal shushed him. "Calm down, calm down! It downloads music, but it's pirated music. It's like Napster, you remember that right?"
Achmed wearily nodded. "I remember that, yeah."
Iqbal chuckled. "Of course you do, anyways, it should basically help you get back your music library."
Achmed paused. "And you're sure this is okay?"
Iqbal scoffed. "I've done it so many times with different people's iPods, newer Walkmans... even burning things to CDs, I'm sure it won't be that bad. Alright, I gotta go, but hey, happy birthday, when we hang out next, you gotta show me that song you've been working on, and hopefully you'll like your iPod."
Achmed chuckled. "I'm sure I will, alright, see you, man."
Iqbal then hung up, and Achmed put the phone back in its slot, he then turned to the eyes of his parents.
"What was that about?" Achmed's father asked.
"I was asking Iqbal about getting my rock on my iPod." Achmed replied.
Amir paused. "Don't you need to pay for them on iTunes?"
Achmed shook his head. "No need, I have another way up my sleeve."
Amir raised an eyebrow as Achmed slid over to the computer. Within a few moments, LimeWire had been downloaded and installed onto the computer, and Achmed had already begun browsing through the songs he could download. Boring stuff, mostly, the new Britney Spears album, gross.
After more browsing, Achmed had found the rock stuff through a few searches, but stuff he was unfamiliar with, no matter, Achmed was always willing to broaden his horizons.
Of course, when he found this, it was something he completely was caught off-guard by. A Canadian band, Sum 41, the album, Does This Look Infected?, and the song, Still Waiting.
So am I still waiting
For this world to stop hating
Can't find a good reason
Can't find hope to believe in
Achmed was then enamored with the guitar part, it had energy to it! It felt powerful, strong, and with a tune unfamiliar to him. And lucky him, it was already downloading. Then, another track by them came up, Motivation, and again, the guitar came out swinging. Achmed was now glued to the machine, and he couldn't let go. This was it, he had broken a new discovery, and this was it. Today, July 11th, 2004, everything changed.
"ACHMED!!!! DINNER!!!"
Achmed didn't reply, the computer was now overflowing with downloaded tracks, from blink-182, Creed, Radiohead, Deftones, Evanescence, Three Days Grace, Hoobastank among so many others he just HAD to listen to their entire discography... and of course all of his old stuff. Some of the craziest guitar parts he's ever seen, and some of the coolest solos, such as from Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train, or some of the Van Halen ones like Eruption or God forbid, Master of Puppets from Metallica. Achmed may have found his newest drug, and that was a SWEET guitar solo. His iPod was now overflowing with music, and he had some veracious ideas. He was practically numb physically but mentally he was all abuzz, he was about to go out and compose something amazing, just in time for tomorrow's game, and he knew that it would be amazing.
His mom then came in. "Achmed! I've called you four times, come downstairs before your food gets cold and your mind turns to mush!" She protested.
Achmed flinched back to reality. "Huh? O-oh! Sorry, maa, I'll be right down." He said as he finally closed LimeWire after running it for the past thirteen hours just trying to download everything at once.
His mom sighed. "Please."
At the dinner table, Achmed was prodding at the food on his plate, while Amir was funneling it down. He was distracted; rock had a tendency to do so every now and then, but not to such a level.
His mom again protested. "Achmed, please eat your food, it's already cold."
Achmed mustered a nod and then he looked at Amir. "Dude, come with me to the basement after dinner."
Amir lit up. "Are you serious?"
Achmed nodded. "I have an idea."
Amir sat down by his drum set, while Achmed steadied his guitar. Amir raised an eyebrow. "What do you want me to do?"
Achmed grinned. "Just follow my lead." Achmed then pressed a button on his laptop, it was now recording them. Immediately afterwards, Achmed began to shred at something new. Rougher, more dramatic, and then, with a single cue, Achmed led on Amir as he started drumming and Achmed got into the groove, rocking on, with one of the most intense guitar lines he's ever written to date. As they kept going, Achmed lost sight of everything around him, truly immersed in rocking on, he made something that truly encapsulated both elements of who Achmed was. The Axe-Man and Rock-Med.
When the song came to its conclusion, Achmed turned to Amir, who stared wide-eyed and completely amazed. Amir then stammered. "Woah. That. That was AWESOME!" He lit up with glee. "Man, you HAVE to show me those new songs you found; they rock!"
Achmed grinned. "That's it, this is my new walkout song for tomorrow! It's... it's perfect!"
Amir paused. "So, could I get one like that?"
Achmed paused. "Maybe after I show you the new songs, you'll be able to make something new centered around the drums?"
Amir grinned. "Awesome! You're the best!"
Achmed shook his head. "Nah, we're just rockin' out! No one's the best if we're having a good time!"
At the school's baseball field, Achmed came in swinging to the coaches office.
"Coach! I want to change out my walkout song!" Achmed said.
The coach looked surprised. "You're sure? You've had the same one for years now, and you've told me all before how it's the essence of rocking out or-"
Achmed cut him off. "I know what I said, but this, this is it." He handed the coach a USB stick with the audio track on it.
The coach plugged it into his laptop and then for a quick second he ran the song through the sound system of the pitch, and it all came to life with the vivid guitar shredding that Achmed had churned out the night before. Achmed grinned, he knew that this was the PERFECT track, I mean sure, Tony had his iconic Grease Lighting instrumental, Pablo had a truly iconic piece, but Achmed now had something rivaled those two, something iconic, recognizable, and one that set an emotion into the pitcher, that this guy? Achmed Khan? He's going to hit every ball out there, just you see.
As Achmed descended down towards the other batters, they all stared at him in shock. Tony was the first to say anything.
"Yo, Slick. Is this your new... walkout song? You changed it?"
Achmed smugly replied. "That's right, Vec. I made it last night."
Kenny rolled up right beside the two. "No way, Achmed, you made that?!"
Achmed smiled. "Better believe it! What do ya think?"
Tony grinned with a bit of a sly look on his face. "It suits ya, I like it. Much more intimidating than what ya got before."
Kenny nodded. "What Tony said. I didn't realize your band was actually that good too!"
Achmed hesitantly chuckled. "I mean, it's just me and Amir. I really got the inspiration from a bunch of new songs I found."
Kenny raised an eyebrow. "You found new songs?"
Achmed lit up. "Well yeah! After today's game, how about I show you guys?"
Tony nodded. "Count me in, Slick. If we get some pizza too, that sounds great."
Kenny added. "Now this I have to see."
The coach then stepped out. "Well, I see Rock-Med got us hyped for the next game we have today, huh?"
The entire team erupted into hoots and hollers, and Achmed lit up at the praise. He didn't really expect it from such an amateur project like this, but that stroke of inspiration to rock on, it absolutely is shaping him now, and there's no turning back, Achmed Khan's rocking on, in a brand new way to rock on.
And now, he's going to do the two things he does best today.
Play Ball and Rock On.
The End.