Good Man

Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost



The wheels of a white, 2013 Prius coasted along US Highway 50, five hours out of Oakland and one hour out of Stagecoach, Nevada where the three members of TBC had just taken and hour break from driving to go to grab lunch at a McDonalds, use the bathroom and look around town like typical tourists; taking random pictures of everything and anything.

It was a Monday afternoon, the 6th of April, and traffic was sparse; not because it was the middle of a weekday, in between morning and evening rush hour times, but because it was in the middle of nowhere. Tre was behind the wheel, watching the road before him as Billie Joe sat beside him, feet up on the dashboard and fiddling around with his iPod, completely ignorant to the conversation going on between the drummer and Caroline who was sprawled out in the backseat. She had her back propped up against a pillow on the right, back passenger side door, her feet just barely touching the left, back passenger door. If she looked into Billie Joe's sideview mirror from where she sat, she could see him bobbing his head gently to the beat of the music he was listening to; his eyes distant from daydreaming.

"Did you see the sign road sign we just passed a second ago?" Tre asked, looking into the rearview mirror to glance at Caroline.

"No. Why?"

"One of the towns we'll eventually reach is called Cold Springs. Kinda ironic for Nevada, huh?"

Caroline smirked. "Yeah, maybe that would fit better in New England or something. Or maybe they should call it Dry Desert Like The Rest Of The State And A Good Place To Have Vultures Pick At Your Dehydrated Corpse Town."

Chuckling, Tre nodded his head. "I like that one. If I ever get to have my own town, that's what I'm calling it."

The conversation dwindled as they continued on. At just after four in the evening, they stopped for a piss break and Caroline took over driving for the last two hours until they happened upon a small, hole-in-the-wall motel outside of Eureka, Nevada that reminded them all of the type of motel that someone could expect to be slaughtered in a horror movie by a psycho killer. A little freaked out by how creepy the place was, Tre decided to be the manly one of the bunch and exit the car and go toward the front office to rent three rooms if they had them available.

"I hope we're not killed in our sleep here," Caroline commented as she watched Tre walking out of the front office and toward the Prius. She looked over to Billie Joe who was grimacing. "That would suck, you know?"

Raising his eyebrows as Tre shook three keys at the two inside the vehicle from where he was now standing outside, Billie Joe let out a sigh. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Doing what? Staying here?"

"The road trip? For one, I hate driving long distances. Two, we're gonna sleep in beds that probably have old stains in them and smell like mothballs and possibly be killed in the night by a Mike Myers, wielding a butcher knife. Three..."

"...Why is Tre mooning us?" Caroline interrupted Billie Joe's whining as both nonchalantly stared at their friend bent forward, with his pants pulled down over his ass and shaking it at them.

"It's Tre," Billie Joe gestured with his hand as if that was the only explanation either of them needed.

Shrugging, Caroline opened the driver's door and clamored out of the Prius as Billie Joe, begrudgingly, followed suit. "Pull up your pants, Tre, or you'll get the psycho mutants from The Hills Have Eyes all hot and bothered," she quipped as she went around to the trunk to open it up and grab her suitcase out. Tre did as he was told and smiled as he grabbed his and Billie's suitcases out and passed Billie Joe's to him.

They each took their own room key and unlocked their respective doors at virtually the same second, stepping inside, warily.

As Billie Joe turned on the light switch on the wall, he looked around and was surprised by how clean the room actually was. There wasn't much. There was a bed with nightstands on either side, each with its own lamp and no doubt a bible in one of the drawers, as well as there being a dresser across the room with a boxy television sitting atop it, a small table with two chairs in the corner with a mini fridge and a door to the bathroom. There was no closet anywhere, but Billie Joe didn't need one. It was actually pretty nice. It smelled okay, looked like the sheets where new, and it was quiet.

"Ahhhhh!" came a scream coming from Caroline's room.

Billie Joe and Tre darted out of theirs at the same time; their rooms located on either side of Caroline's. They opened the door to their female bandmate's room and found her jumping around just outside the bathroom door as if a spider were crawling on her.

"What's wrong?" Tre inquired in a worried voice.

Caroline gestured at the door and backed away so Tre stepped forward and turned the knob to the bathroom door and poked his head in and then shut it quickly, looking over at Caroline and then Billie Joe before busting out into laughter.

"What is it?" Billie Joe was severely curious now. "What's in there?"

Shaking his head, Tre opened the door again and this time he pushed it all the way open. Billie Joe inched closer to get a better look, hoping no gigantic tarantula was about to pop out.

Instead, what he saw made him bust out into a laugh that mirrored his friends. Furrowing his brow he looked at Caroline and gestured into the room. "Care, it's just a squirrel sitting on the windowsill."

"And it's babies. Did you see the babies in the tub?"

Billie Joe looked again and laughed harder. "Oh, shit. It's a fucking litter."

"Don't get me wrong, I love squirrels and think they're adorable little rodents, but I am not staying in this room when Rocky and his spawn are in my bathroom."

"Rocky?" Billie Joe repeated.

Tre laughed at the reference. "Rocky, the flying squirrel from Rocky and Bullwinkle."

"Oh."

"You can stay in one of our rooms," Tre offered.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that," Caroline readily agreed as she snatched up her suitcase and purse and all but ran out of the room. She went straight toward Tre's room and sat down on the edge of the bed and just waited for him or Billie Joe or both to come inside.

It was about five or ten minutes later when Tre came inside his room and placed his hands on his hips. "Well, the owner refunded my money on the room and apologized profusely. I told them it was no big deal, that this was the first amusing highlight of our road trip and worth it. I asked if they had another room, but the other's are all full. Then they said they would clean out your room of the squirrels and you could still have it, on the house, but I told them you would be too weirded out about it."

"Thanks."

"No prob."

"We gonna go get something to eat now? I'm hungry."

"Sure," Tre nodded gesturing for Care to join him outside. "Maybe we can find a podunk diner that serves squirrel."

The smack to the back of the head that Tre received seconds after his joke was well worth it.



At 7:45 the next morning, Caroline rolled over in bed and hit a wall.

She blinked the sleep from her hazel eyes a few times, trying to determine what the blob of white cotton beside her was before it registered in her mind that it was Tre in a white T-shirt, laying on his side, his back to her, and snoring deeply. Furrowing her eyebrows, she had to think back to why she was in the same bed with him and if anything had happened the night before.

Going over everything, she remembered the squirrel family in her room and Tre offering to let her stay in his. They had gone to dinner at a nearby pizza place and came back to all watch some shit television shows on the CW network in Billie Joe's room. Afterward, Tre and Caroline headed back to Tre's room, call their respective children to wish them goodnight, and then slid into opposite sides of the bed to go to sleep.

Nothing happened.

"Tre, wake up..." Caroline whispered as she poked the drummer in the back.

He stirred and then jabbed him in the center of the spine.

"Ow, what the fu---"

"Wake up," Caroline repeated as she sat up and threw the duvet off her legs. "It's almost eight and we need to shower and get breakfast before we hit the road again."

"One more hour."

"Fuck that. I'm not driving in a car if you haven't showered."

Rolling onto his back, Tre stared up at Caroline as she placed her feet on the floor and got up to walk over to her suitcase and pull some articles of clothing out. "Where we getting breakfast?"

"There was a diner a half mile down the road. We'll go there." Standing up straight and padding across the floor to the bathroom, she added, "I'm showering now and I'll try not to use up all the hot water."

After the door was closed to the bathroom, Tre stretched his arms up above his head and yawned, wiggling around a bit to get the tired jitters out of him before sitting up and running a hand down his face. He narrowed his eyes toward the bottom of the bathroom door and took note of the light being on inside. A moment later, the sound of the shower running followed by the sound of clothes crumpling to the tiled floor in a heap of soft material. The shower curtain jostled as it slid open, then jostled again to close, signaling Caroline was under the shower head.

And for that brief moment, Tre pictured Caroline in the shower; hot steam circling her naked body as the water came pelting down against her smooth skin.



Two hours later, the threesome had made a stop at the Ruth Copper Pit, just about ten miles from Ely, Nevada. They took pictures of the place with the rest of the tour going through, dressed incognito in sunglasses and baseball hats, despite the fact that the rest of the tour as comprised of men and women who were eligible to collect social security checks and grew up in America during the cultural revolution.

A half hour after getting back on the road, they crossed the state line into Utah, wherein jokes of Mormonism were being slung left and right as Billie Joe manned the steering wheel.

Over the next four hours, they passed the time playing games like, seeing how many of a certain animal was roadkill on the side of the road, talking, singing along to the car's Sirius radio, joking, or simply watching the monotonous scenery going by.

At 4 in the afternoon, their bladders were full again and their stomachs and gas tank were running on empty. They took a piss break at a small truck stop, grabbed some candy bars from a vending machine to tide them over, and then got back on the road. Twenty minutes later they crossed into a new state; Colorado. Then, twenty minutes after that, the reached Grand Junction and pulled into a rest stop to eat and fuel up the Prius.

"I'm done driving for the day," Billie Joe announced. "Your turn, Tre." The guitarist threw the keys to his drummer friend as soon as he looked his way.

An hour after first arriving to the rest stop, they band drove away and drove for another hour and a half until they came upon a motel in Gypsum, Colorado. This time, all three had their own rooms and their was no problem with squirrels, much to Caroline's pleasure.

The next morning, a Wednesday, and two days after first heading out on their road trip, Billie Joe, Caroline and Tre were piling out of another diner and into the Prius. Tre was driving again and they began to head east once again. At 11 AM, Tre took a detour off an exit ramp and took them in the direction of Buffalo Bill's gravesite. They climbed out of the Prius, took pictures like complete goobers, and goofed around a bit like teenagers instead of the forty- and thirty-somethings they were.

By noon they were rolling through downtown Denver, but didn't stop for any detours in the city. That wasn't the goal of the trip. The goal was to travel together, just the three of them, off the beaten path and bond.

Forty-five minutes later, they did stop again, though. They came to Byers, Colorado and stopped to see the Commanche Crossing Historical Railroad Site. After taking some pictures, Billie Joe consulted a fold-out map of the USA he had brought even though they had a GPS system in the car, and he deduced they were about a thousand miles from Oakland already.

Give or take.

Shortly thereafter, the got some lunch at a rest stop in Deer Trail, Colorado and eventually crossed the state line into Kansas by three. When the four o'clock hour came upon them, they made another stop to the Prairie Museum of Art and History. While Billie Joe was earnestly interested in what the museum had, Caroline stepped outside to call home and check on her kids.

Her parents were staying at her house with them, with help from Estelle. When she hung up the phone, Tre happened to be walking out at the same time with his own cell phone in hand.

"Remind me that I owe Estelle a big one."

"A big one what?" Tre inquired.

"Anything. She's been a saint helping me with her brothers and sisters. Especially now, which I know is a tough time." Caroline pocketed her phone in her purse and folded her arms across her chest. "This month she turns eighteen, next month is her senior prom, and in two months she graduates high school."

Tre watched expression on Caroline's face change slightly from admiration to rue. "What's up?"

"I've just been hit with the beginnings of empty nest syndrome." She turned her head and caught Tre's confusion. "Estelle is my daughter, blood or not. She is Mike's daughter, my husband's firstborn and I'll have been her stepmother six years next month. And she's gonna be graduating and going away to college in the fall," Caroline pouted.

"Stella's going away to college?" he inquired. This was the first he was hearing of what Estelle was planning to do after high school.

"Yeah. She got accepted to Parson's in New York City last month. She leaves at the end of August."

"Wow. Good for her."

"Yeah," Caroline agreed. "She's really interested in fashion and I really believe she has the makings of a great designer."

"Did you see that old wagon wheel in there?" came Billie Joe's question as he joined his bandmates outside, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb.

Caroline shook her head. "No, I wasn't really interested. I wanted to call home and check up on the kids.

"Gotcha," Billie Joe nodded as Tre took leave to make his own phone call home where Ellis was at his house with Avarielle. "He doing the same?"

Nodding her head, Caroline began to walk toward the Prius where Tre had parked it. She waved her hand at the drummer and he threw the keys to her. "My turn."



Two and a half hours later, when they passed a road sign for a place called Ellis, Tre had Caroline pull over so he could take a picture of the sign with his camera phone and then sent it to Ellis as he got back in the car.

An hour later when they pulled into a motel in Bunker Hill, Billie Joe was in a hyper mood.

Pulling on his red skull cap, the 43-year-old man, but eternal child at heart, began to act out karate moves; left over from their most recent conversation about The Karate Kid.

"Wax on, wax off, wax on...wax off."

Caroline smiled. This really felt like they were all teenagers, on a road trip of self-discovery or something before they all had to grow up and meet the real world.

Running at full speed, she jumped up on Billie Joe's back and fortunately for both of them, he caught her. He hooked his hands under her knees as she wrapped them around his waist and he carried her around the parking lot, giving her a piggyback ride. As they all laughed at their hi-jinks, Caroline placed a kiss to Billie Joe's cheek and then slid down his back to the gravel below as her feet touched ground.

Eventually, they began to act like adults again when they took a walk to buy some beer from the nearest convenience store and brought it back with them to Caroline's motel room.

Knocking back beers and snacking on Doritos, they turned on some music, played Go Fish of all the card games out there, and ordered a movie to watch from the TV. As the night wore on, they grew tired and the guys began to migrate to their respective motel rooms.

And it felt like as soon as Caroline's head hit the pillow, her cell phone alarm was going off.

Grumbling to herself, she picked the phone up and took note that it was nine in the morning.

Once she had pulled herself up out of bed and had taken a shower, she dressed for the day in a simple pair of jeans and a white tank top. She left her hair down and applied some make-up, knowing they would be arriving to their destination about two hours after they hit the road.

"Morning," Billie Joe grumbled as she finally stepped out of her motel room and placed a pair of sunglasses on the bridge of her nose.

Caroline turned her head to the right and found Billie Joe with his own pair of sunglasses on and looking like he'd gotten hit by a bus. "Morning," she repeated. "You sick?"

"No, my back aches."

"Oh," was her initial remark. Then, "Oh. My bad. It was the piggyback and all that last night, wasn't it?"

Billie Joe shrugged. "That, my mattress was pretty much a piece of shit and I'm just no spring chicken anymore."

"How will you ever manage your infamous jumps with your guitar once we go on tour?"

"Stunt double," the guitarist remarked without missing a beat.

Caroline laughed as she took Billie Joe's suitcase from him and dragged both his and hers toward the Prius and unlocked the trunk. At that moment, Tre was leaving his room and dragging his suitcase behind him.

"With all this traveling, I completely forgot about the time zone changes," Tre commented as he reached the car. "I called Ellis to see how Avarielle was doing. Totally woke her up. Apparently, it's only 6:30 in Oakland right now."

"Dumbass," Caroline laughed as she waited for Tre to put his suitcase in the trunk.

Tre just smirked and looked over at Billie Joe. "What's wrong with you?"

"He requires a stunt double," Caroline spoke up first.

Billie Joe just nodded and grabbed the keys from her. "I'll drive to Abilene."

After they piled into the Prius, Caroline sat in the front passenger seat, with Tre directly behind her in the back while Billie Joe got them back onto the road.



A little more than two hours later, the Prius coasted along one of the main roads in Abilene, Kansas as Billie Joe slowed down the speed a little to figure out where they were going.

Caroline and Tre were in the midst of chowing down on some green apples they'd picked up at a random farmer's market along the way, when the GPS lady's voice commented that they had reached their destination. All three looked to their right as Billie Joe slowly pulled into a small parking area beside a decently large, Victorian-style house that was painted pink with white trim and roses growing up the side of the wrap-around porch.

"This is it, alright," Caroline remarked. "The sign out front said this was the right Bed and Breakfast."

Stepping out of the car once they were parked, all three of them sauntered around to the front of the house and up the stairs to the porch where a couple in their sixties were sitting on rocking chairs.

"Good morning," the old man greeted.

"Morning," Caroline greeted in return on behalf of her and the guys. As they walked into the house, they were instantly greeted by a plump woman in her mid to late fifties.

"Hello, I'm Iris. Welcome to the Rose Vine Inn," she spoke in a bright and cheery tone that matched the sparkle in her blue eyes. "You're a half hour early for your check-in time, but that's okay. Your rooms are ready either way."

"Yeah, there was, like, no traffic congestion," Billie Joe said as he looked around.

"Come on, I'll show you to your rooms." They began to follow Iris up the stairs to the second level of the house and she pointed out three doors toward the end of the hall. "There is no private bathroom, you are aware of that?"

Tre nodded. "Yeah, we know. It's fine."

Iris smiled. "Oh, you're Frank. The one I talked with on the phone. You have a very distinct voice."

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, I guess."

"And you're staying till Monday morning, right?"

"Yep."

"Well, I'll let you all get settled into your rooms, pick which one, among yourselves, that you each want to stay in. And I offer only breakfast in the morning at nine. Lunch and dinner is up to you."

"That's fine. Thank you," Caroline smiled.

Iris looked at Caroline and smiled back, then down at Caroline's left hand. After noting the engagement and wedding band the younger woman wore, she looked between the two men and saw they each wore wedding bands also.

"Are you one of their wives?" Iris asked, making a face that meant she didn't mean to be pry.

Caroline laughed. "Uh, no. Frank is actually my brother-in-law, and Billie here is our best friend. I'm actually widowed."

Iris' eyes went wide and she placed a hand over her heart. "Oh, honey, I am so sorry. I know how you feel though. I lost my husband seven years ago."

"Almost three for me."

"Almost two for me," Tre piped up.

Iris looked to Tre and furrowed her brow. "You're a widower?"

He nodded. "Caroline's sister, my wife, she died after she had our daughter."

"Oh, how tragic." Taking Caroline and Tre by the hand, Iris gave them both a squeeze and a supportive smile. "It's not easy, but it gets easier. The cliche that time heals pains isn't complete codswallop." She then looked at Billie Joe with curious eyes.

Throwing up his hands, Billie Joe smirked and shook his head. "I'm still married. Twenty-one years in July."

"Oh, how lovely," Iris cooed. "Herbert and I were married twenty-six." She smiled and the let go of Tre and Caroline's hands. "I'm sorry. I ramble. I'll just let you three get settled.

As Iris took down the stairs, the trio looked at one another and just shrugged and laughed.

"This should be fun," Caroline quipped.