Good Man

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me



A shrill scream pierced through the air, followed by a whoosh of movement, and then the sound of something dropping haphazardly into water.

Caroline jumped out of a large pool of water almost immediately, pushing her soaked hair back of her face and smiling from ear to ear as the water came only to her waist, but was tricky enough to try and walk through. She began to move away from the end of the humongous water slide so she didn't kicked in the back by Billie Joe who was sliding down at the moment; looking up at Tre who was standing outside of the pool, holding a hand out.

The 42-year-old drummer was every inch as soaked as she was, his brown hair matted down on his forehead and over the tops of his ears, and was wearing a pair of black sunglasses over his blue eyes.

He had managed to keep them on all the way down the slide when it was his turn, but upon becoming submerged into the pool, they floated away from his face and he had to scramble to get them back and then out of the pool, as per the lifeguard's orders.

"Oh my god, that was so much fun," Caroline squealed, taking Tre's hand as she walked up the light blue, concrete steps out of the pool. His hand wasn't necessary as there was a handrail, but it just seemed like the thing to do to him and she didn't seem to question it either. "I can't remember the last time I went to a water park."

As Billie Joe suddenly plopped ever so gracelessly into the pool with a yelp of laughter before it was muffled by him going under, several heads turned as he reappeared, and those same several heads began to murmur in realization of who he was. There were already a few loitering people amidst the water slide area at the White Water Bay Amusement Park in Oklahoma who were trying to subtly follow the trio around. None had go so far as to take pictures or ask for autographs.

Then again, where would anyone keep a pen and paper or their phones and cameras? In their swim trunks? Highly unlikely. Water and paper don't mix, just as water and electronics don't mix.

"Woo," Billie Joe remarked, wiping water from his face as he trudged toward the stairs and looked up at his friends. "I'm surprised water parks are open this early. Must be a down south thing."

"Water parks are open in southern California all year long," Caroline pointed out as they began to walk toward the next fun thing to do.

"True, but California is like its own little world."

"Good point," Tre agreed.

"You guys hungry or thirsty yet?" Caroline wondered as they neared a wave pool.

Billie Joe scrunched up his face and shook his head, gesturing over his shoulder with his left thumb. "Nah, I got a few mouthfuls of chlorinated water back there. I'm good."

As the guitarist began to walk a bit ahead of the other two, Tre placed his hand on the small of Caroline's back; his eyes wandering to her ass and how her hips swayed in the white bikini bottoms that matched her white, strapless bikini top. He admired the way her tanned skin glistened from the leftover water beads resting there or rolling off her. Not to mention he was quite amazed at how her tube style top managed to stay up without any straps or strings.

Flat chested, she was not.

Caroline turned her head at the gesture of his hand upon her and she smiled a little but then began to walk a little quicker, not as if she was getting away from him, but to claim a free lounge.

"I could really use a hat right about now," she commented as she sat down.

"Want my sunglasses?" Tre offered, ready to take them off.

Caroline shook her head, the hoop earrings she was still wearing jangling. "No."

"There's a boutique hut thing over there selling hats," came Billie Joe's voice as he gestured in the direction of said hut, while taking a seat in another lounge.

"And if I had my purse on me, I'm sure I would go and buy one."

"Give me the key to the lockers. I'll get your purse," Tre once again offered.

Making a face up at him, Caroline shielded her eyes from the bright sun. "You can't go into the girls' side," she smirked, pointing at his crotch with her free hand. "You gotsa penis."

Billie Joe laughed as he undid the chain necklace around his neck which he had slipped his and Tre's locker key onto. "I think he meant our locker key, Care. But nice deduction there about boys having penises."

Caroline simply chuckled and reached over to swat playfully at Billie Joe. Looking from the older man to the slightly younger one, she beamed up at him like a little girl. "Aww, you gonna buy Carrie a hat with your own money? Wow! What a knight in shining swim trunks."

"Well, milady, I'm sure the ten to twenty bucks it's going to cost me won't break the bank," Tre answered as he took the key from Billie Joe. "You can pay me back later."

With that, the drummer began to saunter away in the directions of locker bays where the men and women changed, separately. As he did so, with his usual stocky gait, Billie Joe threw a questioning look over at Caroline, raising one eyebrow while squinting at the same time due to the sun beating right into his eyes.

"Did I just miss some sort of sexual innuendo there?" he wondered. "It's only been, what...three days since you two slept together? Or is it shorter than that?"

"Shorter."

"Shorter? When was the last time?"

"Last night, after we got back to the hotel after that club in Oklahoma City."

"Was that the second time?"

Caroline turned her head away from the wave pool before them where all varieties of people were splashing each other, attempting to swim or lounging lazily in large inner-tubes. She cast her hazel eyes upon Billie Joe's squinty face and smirked. "More like every night since Saturday night."

Billie Joe was actually quite surprised. Not in a horrified sense, but more in disbelief. And it's not that he wasn't happy the two of his friends were having a good time bumping uglies together. He was. He was just...impressed?

"Really." It wasn't a question, more of a statement. "Huh. Well, uh...good for the two of you, I guess," he added with a laugh.

A few minutes later, Tre came sauntering back up to the other two with a the locker key in one hand and a black, straw fedora with a black and white sash around it in his other hand.

He placed the hat on top of Caroline's head, which caused her to just about jump out of her skin what with her not realizing he was near. She turned and looked upward slightly and smiled.

"Thank you," she cooed, taking the hat back off so she could pile her hair on the top of her head and then place the hat back on; only a few tendrils of hair falling out.

And just as the trio fell into a lull of having nothing to talk about at the moment, an errant orange and white beach ball came flying toward them, hitting Billie Joe on the back of the head. His gasp of surprise was followed by a girl's voice apologizing profusely. They each turned to look just behind Billie Joe to find a girl, no more than thirteen years of age, running up to them to catch her beach ball which was drifting toward the wave pool from the momentum it built of bouncing off the 43-year-old musician.

"I'm so sorry, sir. I was trying to throw it at my brother, but he ducked."

Billie Joe simply smirked. "Well, you know what they say: try, try again." He got up off his lounge and to the ball faster than she could. "Which one is your brother?" he asked, gesturing to the two boys a few feet back from where the girl had originally been standing.

The girl smiled. "Him," she spoke, pointing to a teen boy around fifteen or so, wearing blue, Hawaiian print swim shorts.

With that reply, Billie Joe arched his arm back, holding the beach ball and flung it directly at the teen boy. It made direct contact with the kid, but it didn't cause any pain due to the ball's soft, plastic texture. That didn't mean the teen still didn't yelp out.

"It's war," Billie Joe declared.

This was music to Tre's ears. He pulled a ten spot out of a pocket of his swim trunks and handed it to the girl. "Here, go buy two more beach balls from that vendor. Game of Keep Away will commence as soon as you bring them back and we get them blown up. Kids verses Adults."

"That's not fair," the other teen boy remarked. "You guys are taller."

Caroline stood up and laughed. "Not by much. They've been stuck at this height for about twenty years. You'll probably surpass them in height in the next five minutes."

Fifteen minutes later, Keep Away was on. Like Donkey Kong.



Later in the afternoon, the trio had left White Water Bay and got back on the road, heading south to Texas. Just after five, they rolled into Shamrock, Texas and stopped for a bite to each before continuing on for a short while later, finally coming to Amarillo where they checked into their next hotel for the night.

The next morning, Caroline awoke beside Tre in her hotel suite. This time around, on the travel back to California, they were staying in more of the style they were used to. No more backwater motels with the chance of happening upon mama squirrel and her babies in the bathroom tub.

The pair shared a shower together, got dressed and packed up what little of their belongings they had dragged out of their suitcases. They headed down to the Prius and packed it up before grabbing a few muffins and cups of coffee from the hotel's continental breakfast. Billie Joe was designated driver for the day as Caroline called shotgun and Tre lounged out in the backseat, his head situated behind Billie Joe's seat so he could share glances with Care as they texted back and forth to each other as not to drive Billie Joe nuts.

Just before rolling into New Mexico around ten-thirty, Caroline opened up text message with picture attached from Tre and busted out laughing.

"You're not supposed to be laughing," the drummer commented, seriously.

"Oh, I'm not laughing at the content of the picture. Trust me, I'm not. Just...that you managed to take the picture without us realizing you were doing it at all."

Billie Joe took his eyes off the road for a moment to glance at Caroline. "What'd he take a picture of?"

"You don't wanna know."

"Well, now that just makes me wanna know even more."

Caroline gave Billie Joe a look of uncertainty. "Are you sure? What will be seen cannot be unseen," she warned with a giggle under her breath.

"Just show me," came the reply, laced with some irritation.

"Alright, you asked for it." Flipping her cell around, she waited the few seconds for Billie Joe to register what he was seeing before he suddenly sputtered and winced.

"Oh, what the fuck, dude?"

Both Caroline and Tre began to laugh out loud at their friend's reaction.

"I told you," Caroline jested.

"Ugh, seriously. Tre, man, I did not need to see a picture of strangling your cock at ten-thirty in the morning."

"Hey," Tre muttered. "Care warned you, did she not?"

Shaking his head, Billie Joe returned his attention to driving, trying not to think about Tre's schlong. A shiver ran through his body which got another laugh out of Caroline, and eventually things became quiet again; aside from the faint tap-tapping of fingers on the keypads of cell phones as Caroline and Tre continued to text -- or sext -- each other.

By noon, they came upon Cuervo, New Mexico; Billie Joe announcing the fact by shouting out, "San Diego, Jose Cuervo!" and Tre responding with a deadpan, "2002 called; it wants his quote back."

Caroline was confused by the interaction between the two men. Billie Joe caught her look and offered up an explanation. For a few months in 2002, we toured with Blink 182 as the Pop Disaster Tour. During some of the backstage shenanigans, we were all drinking tequila and general fucking around. At some point I quoted, 'San Diego, Jose Cuervo' probably because that's where we were at the time and that's the brand of liquor we were drinking. That moment ended up being filmed for a tour video and every once in a while one of us quotes it."

"Oh, Riding In Vans With Boys, right?"

Billie Joe nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay, yeah. I watched that with Mike once."

The conversation fell silent once more. At one point Tre fell asleep as they were rolling through downtown Albuquerque, but didn't make any stops, so Tre never knew where they were. At almost five they reached the "continental divide" and grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was about an hour and a half later that the crossed state lines into Arizona.

Just after seven, the reached their hotel in Holbrook, Arizona, booking three rooms to keep up appearances, but only two would be getting used that night.



The next morning was Thursday, April the 16th, and it was the fifth morning in a row that Tre and Caroline had woken up beside each other in bed. This time, they were in his hotel room; seemingly trading off every other night with who slept where.

They weren't considering what they were doing as being in a relationship, just friends with benefits. Sure, they loved each other, but it was more along the lines of just being friends. Friends who shared a sexual and romantic past, but still friends nonetheless. They weren't at the point of making it into anything more at the moment. Right now, they were away from their real world; away from their families and friends, their careers and homes. They were like kids, free to come and go as they pleased, with nothing to consider but what pleased their every whim during their travels.

After only about an hour on the road, they passed a sign for Joseph City, Arizona and Billie Joe made Tre pull the car over to the side of the road. They all hopped out and Billie Joe passed his camera off to Caroline who then proceeded in taking a picture of the smiling guitarist under the sign who was posing as if he were holding the sign up with his hand.

Almost two hours later, they were coasting through downtown Flagstaff and looking for a rest stop to take a piss break and maybe grab a quick lunch which they didn't finally do until about another two hours later. During that extra two hours, they passed the time by playing rounds of Eye Spy, then began singing '100 Bottles of Beer On The Wall' but only getting to 75 because they got bored. Finally they decided on listening to the satellite radio and singing along with that.

At two-ish in the afternoon, they each seemed to sit up straight as the sign announcing they were entering California came into view. All three of them seemed to smile with delight.

After all, as nice as traveling around can be, it makes you enjoy coming home all the more, because you realize, just as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz said back in 1939, "There's no place like home."

Only a mere twenty minutes or so later, give or take, they came upon road sign for Needles, California which Tre thought was another of the funny named towns they needed to take a picture of. So, he pulled the car over and took a picture, hopped back in the car and drove off once more.

Finally, at six-thirty, the skyline of Los Angeles came into view, and while it wasn't their home city, it was still a sign of California life. And California was home.

And there's no place like home.