Good Man

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

Tre sat on a stool in the center of the stage at 924 Gilman Street with a very minimalist drumset before him. He held onto his drumstricks, counting beats in his head as he watched Billie Joe on his right, beginning to strum a few chords on his acoustic guitar. After only a short measure, both Billie Joe and Caroline, who stood at Tre's left, began to sing in harmony to Simon & Garfunkel's 'Sound of Silence.' Billie Joe took the lower, more monotone vocal part, Caroline sung the higher melody.

As the second verse kicked in, Tre went into playing the drums, his face in all seriousness as his body rocked back and forth with the beat of music while Caroline began to pluck at Mike's favorite bass; the white one with the black star on it.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

As Tre was gently drumming away, his mind wandered in a way that he was still able to focus on what he was doing while a little bit of the world slipped from his consciousness.

Before his blue eyes, he was remembering another time, ten years ago, just before American Idiot came out. He was walking along Telegraph Avenue with Mike to get a cup of coffee. They both had their kids in tow; Mike with a seven-year-old Estelle, Tre with a nine-year-old Ramona who was staying with him during the summer and a three-year-old Frankito.

They were joking about this or that while their daughters walked ahead of them, giggling about something or another, while Frankito more or less walked in step with his father, as best as his considerably shorter legs would take him.

Mike was looking forward, his hands shoved in his pockets, clearly watching his daughter weave with Ramona amongst the other people walking in the opposite direction on the sidewalk. Tre had looked at Mike's profile and gave him a nudge, inquiring as to what he'd been thinking about.

With a shrug, Mike simply smiled, making some comment on how it was weird that Estelle was becoming more of her own person and it made him feel old sometimes, to which Tre joked Mike needed to get married again, knock the woman up and have another kid, so that having a baby would make him feel like a young dad again.

Throwing Tre a withering look, Mike had merely shook his head, making some reply to the fact of just getting out of the shortest marriage known to man with Sarah and not emotionally ready to jump into that situation again.

What suddenly made Tre smirk at this memory, was what he had said in return to Mike.

"You'll meet someone soon enough. You may not realize it right away, but she'll take you by surprise when you're least expecting it and steal your heart away and she'll be the one."

Blinking the memory away, Tre glanced at the profile of Caroline's face.

How funny it was that a year and a half later, Tre's comment to Mike would come true, but only after some trial and tribulation.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

Billie Joe looked out at the crowd of guests; family and friends. They all stood in front of the stage, looking up at the trio on the stage of the punk club where Green Day got their start when they were just fifteen years old and called Sweet Children, not to mention they had a different drummer then, too. Under the stage lights, Billie Joe could barely make out most of the guests, but he did see Adrienne standing in the front, swaying slightly to the music as he began the third verse with Caroline.

Looking to his left, he met Caroline's gaze halfway. They smiled at each other and then looked forward again. Billie Joe leaned into his microphone and strummed a little harder as the song went on.

And as the the stage lights gently blinded his line of vision, his mind's eye saw plenty.

He closed his eyes, but continued to strum, to sing. He smiled as his mind wandered, thinking about a time, some nine years earlier when Green Day was over in England to play at Milton Keynes. He was backstage, hours before the first of the two shows they'd be playing in two nights' time. Billie Joe was wandering around, walking back and forth, jumping up and down; basically trying to calm his nerves while also mentally preparing himself for the excitement that came with playing live.

The green eyed guitarist was in the zone, so to speak, when a pair of long arms came up from behind him and wrapped around his body, squeezing him tight till he could barely breathe. Trying to whip his head around, Billie Joe saw that it was Mike and wriggled out of the grasp as the taller man laughed and let go of his best friend.

Cackling, Mike made some comment about the look on Billie Joe's face and how he probably thought he was gonna get mugged, raped or both despite the security in their own backstage space.

Billie Joe had just scowled and shoved Mike, only to smirk afterward and walk away to grab a beer and take a swig of it. Mike followed and shouted to someone, wondering where the cognac was. He wanted some fancy-ass cognac. Billie Joe began laughing at Mike going off like a loon, but on purpose. He wasn't actually being an asshole. Just mocking rockstar celebrities and the tantrums they threw.

It always amused Billie Joe how people always thought Mike was the 'quiet one' in their band, when in all actuality he was probably the weirder one, just after Tre, of course. Mike was always joking around, laughing about something, talking in his cheesy radio voice. And when they were on stage together, he was a life force until himself. The way Mike jumped up and down with his bass, plucked at it like a God commanding his legions to do his bidding, and stared out at the crowd with either a smile to melt their 'I'm so tough 'cause I'm watching a punk band' hearts or a staged sneer to strike fear into the fearless.

That was the Mike he knew, loved and would always remember. That was his best friend since they were ten years old, just children. That was the brother he wished was biologically his. That was the man who made Billie Joe godfather of two of his children, Estelle and Mikey.

'Fools' said I, 'You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.'
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

Caroline dipped her head down and looked down at her hands as she plucked away casually on Mike's bass, and for an instant she could almost picture his arms going around her to show her what to do when he was first teaching her how to play the instrument.

When she lifted her hazel eyes, she saw her parents Paul and Joanne in the crowd of guests, alongside both of Mike's adoptive parents and his birth mother and siblings; adoptive, half and step. Mike's cousins and Billie Joe's siblings, even. Ellis was there, holding onto Avarielle, Estelle was keeping Chloe in check while Mikey was old enough now to know how to keep still and behave. The twins were in strollers, and somehow out cold.

Then there was Dave and Nef who stood with a redheaded woman named Eve in her mid to late twenties who they had brought into their fold months earlier as their new lead singer for The Sinners, as well as a forth member, another black guy named Keith, to play bass. The band was back to being a foursome and was recording at Ocean Way in Hollywood.

They had moved on, and she was glad for them. It's what she wanted them to do. She was only holding Dave and Nef back and she wished them all the luck in the world.

And now, as she sang in front of a crowd, it was probably the first time in over two years she'd done so, and she wasn't nervous. It was like riding a bike.

Closing her eyes, she smiled as she thought about how peaceful she actually felt and she remembered one of the most peaceful times of her life.

She saw, in her mind's eye, herself on a sandy beach of Santorini, a Greek island Mike had taken her to for a week's vacation about a month before he had proposed to her. She was standing barefoot in the sand as the salty water from the Mediterranean rolled in and out, splashing at her ankles when the tide brought the water in toward the beach. The air had been warm, the breeze was minimal, the sky was a dark purple from the sun having set nearly an hour beforehand, and Greek music wafted down to the beach from every direction as she felt a pair of hands find their way to her hips.

Caroline had instinctively leaned back into the body of Mike; knowing it was him because she sensed the smell of his cologne almost immediately. She smiled and practically cooed when his arms snaked around her waist and he held her close; bending his knees slightly so that he could lean his chin down on her shoulder and brush his nose against the side of her neck, inhaling her scent.

They both had stood there together on the beach, watching fishing boats and yachts, alike, hundreds of feet out into the water. A warm breeze of wind off the water hit them gently and both hitched their breaths as Mike had begun to sway their bodies from side to side to the steady beat of music coming from somewhere behind them.

She could almost hear the words he had whispered into her ear that particular night.

"I hope heaven is just like this."

Opening her eyes back up, Caroline fought back one stray tear that threatened to fall as she instead smiled and continued the last part of the song with Billie Joe and Tre.

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, 'The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.'
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

As their voices faded away, Billie Joe and Caroline turned to look at each other once more and smiled, closing the distance between each other and hugging while the guests for Mike's memorial began to applaud them.

Tre stood up and smiled a little as he joined the other two closer to the edge of the stage. He helped Caroline remove the bass from around her neck and shoulders and set it down as Billie Joe did the same with his acoustic guitar. The three of them joining in more of a group hug, they all moved to step down from the stage and walk up to their friends and family on the floor and greet them.

Billie Joe went to Adrienne first and hugged her tightly. "Mike would've been so happy to see how well you three have moved on..." she said, letting a hand linger on her husband's back.

"Yeah, it took a few bumps and hurtles to get over, but we're getting there."

The Armstrongs stared at each other lovingly and kissed while Tre and Caroline walked toward her adoptive parents. The Woods greeted their daughter and their deceased daughter's husband with open arms.

It basically became a hugging fest at Gilman as the trio worked their way through to everyone who had come to the memorial. Before they had surprised everyone with a quick, three-minute musical tribute to their fallen friend and husband, there had been words shared by those who loved him and known him best; sharing sweet and funny stories about things Mike had done in life and how, even after two years gone, he was still greatly missed and always would be.

As Caroline made it back toward the front of the club, a place she had only ever seen in pictures or heard of in stories Mike or the others had told her from their past, prior to signing with the 'horrible major record label,' she could almost picture in her mind the three members of Green Day, no older than twenty years old, jumping around and beating the shit out of their instruments as they played their youthful punk rock music as a slew of Oakland youths moshed and body slammed each other on the floor below the small stage.

It brought a smile to Caroline's lips.

In the midst of thinking of these things, she felt a sudden tap on her shoulder.

When she turned around, she found herself face to face with Rob Cavallo, who she hadn't seen in a while. She knew he had made the tough decision to leave Warner Bros. and Reprise and it was like another chapter in their lives was ended. He was the one who got both Green Day and The Sinners off to their starts. They were the people they became because of him and now he had bowed out of that branch of their lives.

"You three sounded great up there," Rob complimented, gesturing toward the stage.

"Thanks," she replied. "It felt great to be up there, too."

"Yeah, it looked like you were having a good time." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "You looked as if the three of you had been performing together for years."

Caroline simply smiled in response. "Well, we kinda have this bond. Not just because Billie's like a brother to me and Tre and I had a 'sordid' past and are now related by marriage or anything. We have Mike in common and he brought us further together, in life and in death."

Rob nodded at this, bit his bottom lip and looked as if he were contemplating something deep. "You know, I was just thinking..." he began, but was interrupted by Billie Joe and Tre approaching them.

"Hey, Rob!" Billie Joe greeted. "Long time, no see. What's been happening, you defecter?"

Laughing, Rob shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, nothing much. A little of this, a little of that."

"Fiddling about?" Tre offered with a shit eating grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Maybe," Rob answered with a laugh. "No, I was just telling Caroline how great the three of you came together on stage. It was like a sort of poetic syngery."

Billie Joe just stared at their producer friend. "Wow. Big words."

Flashing the younger man a 'oh, just shut up' look, Rob placed his left hand on Billie Joe's shoulder. "I'm serious," he spoke in, well, seriousness. "I was about to ask Caroline if the three of you ever thought of starting a band together?"