Discovering the Past

“My dad is protecting him, he always does that,” He said as he took a sip of his espresso.
“Protecting Gerard?” He nodded “From what?”
“From Frank. I guess Frank is a painful subject still for Uncle Gee.”
“Really?” I thought for a moment.
“Why did they fight?”
He smirked. “You’ve seen the videos right?”
I nodded. “You don’t believe the ‘we’re only friends’ bullshit?” I smirked and moved my head in a negative response.
“Don’t you have any theories?”
“Do you want to hear it?”
“Shoot.”
“Frank and Gerard dated, like a couple. Jamia came back and Frank returned to her; or something like that.”
“You got pretty much the idea.” Finally some answers.
“Frank promised to Gerard that they would be together in public and stuff. But that never happened.”
“So they actually dated?” I knew it!
“Sure. According to mum, they were perfect for each other, but they were too proud or too stupid to accept it.” He smelled the coffee and smiled, “God I love coffee.”
I just nodded and drank a bit. He’s a coffee junkie like his dad.
“She told me a lot of things my dad doesn’t know I know,” he winked again.
“And I found out some of them on my own.”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that Frank wrote a Christmas card for Uncle Gee.”
Address.
“Every Christmas, we got a card from Frank, and another for Gerard. But he never accepted them. So mum kept them.”
“OMG. I could get his address form those.”
“Not anymore. He stopped sending them like 5 years ago.”
“What was his latest address?”
“Berlin.”
“What?”
He just nodded.
“There’s more. I was very little but I sort of remember him.”
“How?”
“He came to the house once. We used to live in a house in New York, and Uncle Gerard hung around a lot. I don’t remember much but my mom told me”

Flash Back

Ding dong.
“I’m coming,” Alicia went to the living room and opened the door.
It was a rainy day. It had been raining the whole day.
“Oh my GOD!!!!” She yelled, excited.
“Hi, Ali.”
“C´mon in, you’re going to get wet.”
“I’m already wet.” She held the little man standing in her door.
“Frank, what are you doing here?”
“I kind of want to talk with Mikey.” She handed him a towel for him to dry off.
“Sure.”
“Jr!” A little boy came running.
“Oh my god, is this Jr?”
“Yeah. Honey, call your dad” .The little boy disappeared and seconds later: “How you’ve been? It’s been so long”
Frank just nodded and kept drying himself. Alicia looked curiously at him, there was something different in his eyes, she thought, different form what she remembered. Something was missing.
“Oh My God!!” Mikey screamed when he saw Frank.
“Fuck! What the hell are you doing here?!!!” He hugged Frank.
“Mikey….I can’t …breathe…..”
“Oh sorry,” Alicia giggled, Frank just smiled. That was it. There was no brightness, no excitement, no playful spark in Frank’s eyes.
“How is Jamia?” He asked suddenly, holding Alicia by the waist. At the question Frank looked at the floor.
“We got divorced.”
“Aww, I’m sorry Frank.”
“It’s okay. It was the right thing to do.”

“They got divorced?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
All the people that were having a coffee turned to looked at me.
“Yeah,” Michael said in a low voice, looking around us, and smiling to the people.
“When?”
“Let me think…” he started to do calculations with his fingers.
“They got married after the band broke up, in 2008. He came to the house, when I was three, that means…like, I don’t know…2010?”
“They didn’t last.”
“Aren’t you supposed to know that…?” he arched an eyebrow. “She was your aunt….”
“Errr. I….” Think, think….
“It doesn’t matter; you want to hear the end of the story?”
“Sure.” Almost busted.

Flash back (again -_-)

“So…why are you here?…OUCH!” A punch in his stomach made him arch his back. “What?!!”
“Don’t be rude!”
Frank just smiled.
“It´s okay, actually I need to see Gerard. Do you think you can give me his address or something?” Mikey thought about it.
“Gerard..?”
He wasn’t stupid. Frank got divorced and is looking for Gerard?
But Alicia interrupted the stupid answer Mikey was going to give Frank in order to hide Gerard.
“He´ll be here any moment now!” The couple share awkward looks.
“REALLY? That so cool…”
“You can wait here for him” Before she could finish the door opened.
”Stupid rain,” Frank turned around to see the pale man entering the house.
“Hi Gerard,” He said slowly.
Gerard stood froze, he knew that voice.
He turned slowly and looked at Frank. At the, moment their eyes met, they held the gaze for a second.
“How …have you been?” Frank was nervious.
Gerard stood there in silence.
“I think, Jr. wants to play with you Mikey.” Alicia grabbed her husband’s arm and pulled him.
“I haven’t heard him.”
“I HAVE,” she opened her eyes at him.
“Oh yeah,” Finally understanding. “I’m coming Jr”
They left the living room and went to the kitchen. But stood behind the door. They listened.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
“I miss you………. I miss you Gerard.”
Silence.
“Damn it, we were friends for almost 8 years, at least remember that.”
Ashuuuuuuu. Mikey sneezed. “Shit.”
“Mikey…” She said in a whisper.
“Sorry…”
“I know you’re there!” Gerard scream “Let’s go to the basement.”
Mikey and Alicia heard the steps going down the stairs.
“You screwed it up.” She punched Mikey in the back of his head.
“Sorry.” She gave a small kiss to her husband He looked so innocent sometimes.

About 20 minutes passed, since they went to the basement. Alicia was starting to drive herself nuts. Going around the kitchen table, asking herself what they were talking about. She already started to imagine Gerard and Frank back together. They could all live in New York. Jr would have two uncles and everything would be perfect. Who knows, maybe the band could reunite again. She was sure Bob and Ray wouldn’t have a problem.

“No!” A single word crashed her dreams down. She recognized Gerard’s angry voice.
“Please.” Frank’s pleading voice came also.
“Out. I want you out of my life!”
Seconds later Frank was coming up. He was almost running.
Alicia went to him.
“Are you okay?”
He just smiled sadly and nodded.
“Bye Mikey.”
He went to him and hugged him.
“Bye Jr. He’s a lovely boy, your have lucky to have a child.” His eyes started to fill with tears.
“Frank….”
“It’s okay” He cleaned with his sleeve. Alicia was about to ask him to stay and have a coffee or something.
“I’ll send you postcards okay? If you move let me know.”
“Bye.”
And in a second he disappeared in the rain.

“That was the last time my mom and my dad for sure, saw him.”
“God.”
Stupid Gerard, thinking he could reject Frank like that. I felt so sorry for my father. He made one mistake and Gerard punished him for life. I’m sure he had feelings for him still, but was too proud, as Alicia said, to admit it.
“So he tried,” There was a little hint of anger in my voice.
“Tried what?”
“To fix things with Gerard!”
“Yeah, never knew what they talked about in the basement.”
“Well, Gerard knows.”
“Yeah,” He finished his coffee.
“I would like to find Frank also. So he and Gee can talk and work things out, it’s like a cross Uncle Gee carries.”

After a couple more silent minutes, he asked me if I wanted to see the postcards. Of course I wanted to see them, but it was already late and I had to go back home.
Somehow he convinced me that I could call my Grandmother from his house.

“I think I have proof I’m not a serial killer.”
I smiled. “What about your dad?”
“He won’t know. He will come back late tonight. And we can have lunch at my place.”
“You mean hotel, I thought you were staying here for a couple of days?”
“Yeah, but we have a house when we come to New York.”
“Oh,” Stupid rock star son.