Rocked Up

I fumble with my phone, getting the G.P.S. going. I struggle to keep my energy up when I see my E.T.A. It looks like I’ll be arriving at six a.m. Obviously I could have planned this better, but I’m on my way and I’m not turning back. I turn on the radio and the Allman Brothers are playing. Perfect, I can’t think of a better sound track.

I pull onto the freeway and my back wheels driving over the curb cause the bus to bounce around violently, almost knocking me out of my seat. I turn down the radio and buckle up.

After a long boring ride on the highway, I managed to stay awake and make it to LA and the G.P.S. says I’m close. There’s a yellow warning light, indicating I have low fuel, that I have a sincere conversation with. I beg and plead to not run out of gas.

I’m so close, just a little longer, come on baby.

The G.P.S. gives me my commands:

Turn left

Turn Right

Destination is on your right

And then I’m here, I made it, I’m exhausted.

I park as close to the curb as I can and turn off the engine. The bus is dreadfully out of place on this quiet residential street. I feel drugged; I played to a sold-out crowd, then drove through the night to get here, and now it’s morning and everything feels completely surreal.

There she is, I can see her one house down from where I stopped. She’s stepping out of the front door and closing it behind her.

I take in a deep breath – I can’t wait to hold her – and feel a second wind wash over me. I put on my jacket, only to try and look cool. I drink some water from a bottle to try to remedy my dry mouth. I’m nervous, I hope she hasn’t changed her mind about how she feels about me.

She’s walking this way. I prepare to get off the bus as gallantly as possible, like a knight dismounting his horse, like a captain from his ship, like…

I miss a step and fall flat on my face.



“Brad! Oh my god are you okay?” Lael shouts and runs over.

“That was a longer drive than I thought,” I answer, rolling to my back.

Lael lies on the grass with me. She holds my face and kisses me softly. “I can’t believe you did that. I’ve been up all night, worried. I wanted to call or text but I imagined you reaching for the phone and crashing. Do you even have a license?”

“No,” I answer.

“Brad!” Lael scolds me.

“I. Missed. You. So. Much.” I kiss her between each word.

“C’mon, we’re lying on my neighbors’ lawn.” Lael pulls at the cuffs of my jacket.

I stand up and we face each other, her teal hair is tied up and she’s wearing a long tee shirt and comfy pants. The air smells like flowers, the morning sun makes her tired eyes squint. She looks like home and I would have driven that bus around the world to see her.

“Lael.”

“Yes, Brad?”

“I am in love with you.”

She leans in and kisses my bottom lip softly. Her face is completely relaxed, and she looks at me with the most caring eyes I’ve ever seen. She tilts her head and as she kisses me again, I can feel her giving me her trust; so completely vulnerable and perfect.

“Inside,” Lael commands, her voice soft.

She holds my hand with a soft grip and walks me to her front door. She takes me down a short hall and into her room.

“You must be so tired, baby,” she says, pulling at my shirt.

She undresses me completely. I would have at least kept my boxers on, but I forgot who I was dealing with here. She slips out of her clothes and is completely naked. I get the impression this is how she always sleeps.

We get into her perfectly soft bed and tangle our naked bodies together.

“And I’m in love with you,” she whispers in my ear.

I fall asleep in the morning light with a smile that lasts for as long as I’m asleep.

There’s a thud and crash that wakes me. I don’t know what time it is, but the room looks considerably different with the blinds closed.

The door opens and a young black woman walks in. Lael wakes up when the woman opens the blinds.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” the woman exclaims, surprised to see us. “It’s eleven a.m., you must have had a hell of a night.” She struts right over to the bed and sits down cross-legged facing me.

“I’m Christy.” She introduces herself to me and shakes my hand.

“Brad,” I reply groggily.

“I know,” she laughs.

“Christy…” Lael interjects.

Then a little Chihuahua scurries into the room and jumps onto the bed.

“This is Little Groot,” Lael says, introducing me to the dog who gives me the side eye. “Ok, now that we all know each other, how about a little privacy?”

“Fine. It’s nice to meet you Brad,” Christy says with a smile and struts out of the room.

“The door!” Lael shouts.

Christy raises an eyebrow then closes it slowly.

“Does she always come in here like this?”

“I tend to oversleep these days,” Lael says. “It’s her gentle way of waking me up. Apparently I can be prickly if she tries to force me awake. How did you sleep?”

“Like a baby, this bed is amazing, how do you ever get anything done?”

“I figure you spend a good chunk of your life in your bed, best to get a good one.”

“Look, I want to talk about something,” I tell her. “It’s about the events that led to you bowing out of the last shows of the tour. I know what really happened.”

Lael closes her eyes and puts her head back on her pillow. I wait for her to say something, but silence hangs in the air too long so I continue.

“I’m not mad, I just want you to know we don’t have to tip-toe around. Your father won’t have any control over me very soon. I’m tired of this fake business and I want to start something new. I don’t need to take over the world, I just want to do something great. I want to create something with you. A new life. The three of us.”

Lael smiles and pulls the covers over her face for a moment, then pulls the covers away. We laugh like children playing.

“What are you thinking?” Lael asks.

I swing around and lie on top of her, pinning her down. I hold the back of her head and look at her with intensity.

“I have no idea,” I answer.

We laugh again. Lael adds, “Sounds like fun, count me in.”

We spend most of the rest of the day naked in her amazing bed. She orders food, we watch Netflix, we are perfectly at ease. Beyond the borders of this bed the world does not exist. I know I have to take care of a few things and can’t stay here forever. The bus, for one. I do have a condo I should check on, and there is the issue of the rest of my life I have to figure out. But I know exactly where I need to go.

After some time, I kiss her goodbye and promise to return tomorrow.

I have a car come and take me to the old theater, the only place I seem to be able to get perspective.

It’s a little late in the day for me to have the theater to myself. Surely there will be a band doing sound check. That’s fine. Sometimes I can’t think if it’s too quiet.