Good Man

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.
-Napoleon Hill



While life at home for the Armstrong family was still adjusting to the newest addition that was Dominique, life at home for both Caroline and Tre seemed to find a balanced niche. Even though they were becoming more open to friends and family about their revived relationship, this wasn’t quite a rehashing of their previous venture into coupledom. This time around, they had years of knowing each other notched on their belts. They had more life experiences that both involved and didn’t involve the two of them together. Their first relationship was built on lust and learning the ropes along the way whereas their new relationship was built on friendship and familiarity. Tre knew all her quirks now; what she liked, what she hated, what she thought was funny and what her goals were. The same went for Caroline. She knew his moods better now; when his joking was genuine, when it was meant sarcastically to cover anger or pain or fear, and when he did it to appease others.

What else was new was that they weren’t living together and had no plans to do so in the foreseeable future. They each had their own homes, and preferred it that way. Tre loved his house just as much as Caroline loved hers. She may not have picked the house like Tre did with Giselle before they had married, but Caroline had made her home with Mike. Plus, she had a house she did choose back in New York, which was currently being lived in by Mike’s birth mother Lucy, as the older woman had rented all her life and Caroline wanted someone she could trust to stay in the house when she was on the west coast.

Aside from all the changes in everyone’s lives, there was one certainty they had to look forward to; the debut album from TBC.

It was still untitled but recording was over with and the album was being sent off to be mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York City, and to Chris Lord-Alge after that for mixing. The interview and photoshoot with Rollingstone magazine that had been scheduled at the end of the month had been postponed until early to mid-July because the Armstrongs were too caught up with Dominique, then Billie and Adrienne’s 21st wedding anniversary. And two days after that was the holiday so it was just a busy personal time and family would always take precedence over work.

However, just when they all thought everything was on its way to Easy Street, life decided to go and throw them a curve ball for shits and giggles.

It was half passed noon at Caroline’s home in the Piedmont suburb of Oakland and she and Tre had their children in the pool with them, with the assistance of Caroline’s parents who had come over to see their grandbabies. It was also not just for the little ones, but because it was only two days after the second anniversary of Giselle’s death and they still wanted to spend another day in the sunshine with their surviving daughter, amid family and laughter. They knew it was how Giselle would’ve wanted it. The plan was for swimming, lunch on the grill of hot dogs and light salads, and more swimming, followed by probably more grilling for dinner.

While Caroline was swimming toward Mikey like the shark from Jaws, causing the boy to squeal with laughter, Caroline’s father Paul called out to her, holding her cell phone up.

“Care, your phone’s ringing.”

“Who’s calling?” she asked, without bothering to turn her attention to her father.

Paul glanced at the screen and squinted because of two things: the sunlight and his eyesight in general as he was too vain to put on his glasses most of the time. “Ted Jensen?” he replied in a questioning tone. It wasn’t a name he was familiar with or had ever heard Caroline mention before.

“Ted?” This got Caroline’s attention. Swimming over to the edge of the pool, she gestured for her dad to hand the phone over. When she answered the call, she scrunched her nose. “Hello?”

“Caroline? It’s Ted Jensen.”

“Yeah? What’s up, Ted?” She had no clue as to why he would be calling. But she knew it had to be something important. The only reason she had his personal number was for so-called ‘work emergencies.’ “Everything okay with the album so far?”

“Well, that’s what I’m calling about,” he commented. “The answer is not quite.”

A ball of nerves began to form in the pit of Caroline’s stomach as she gestured for Tre to swim over and for her mother Joanne to take over prime kid-watching duty within the pool. “What’s wrong with the album, Ted? You’re starting to freak me out.”

Tre’s face fell at her question, switching his attention back and forth between her profile and her cell phone. “Put him on speaker,” he muttered, and she obliged.

“Three of your songs have gone missing. They were there on Saturday when I was last in the studio. I was out of town from Sunday until yesterday and when I got back this morning, they were gone. I had them cataloged and they were next on the mastering chopping block, so to speak. I know this sounds horribly unprofessional of me, but I am not sure if someone came into the studio while I was away and accidentally deleted the files or if they were stolen, or…I dunno.”

“Oh god, please be joking.”

“I’m sorry, Care. I wish I were.”

“What can we do now?” Tre piped up.

“That you Tre?” Ted asked.

“Yeah, I’m here, too. What’s your suggestion? I mean, what songs went missing?”

“Shit, ah…” Ted trailed. “’Goodnight Moon’, ‘Little Boy’ and that cover you guys did of ‘Rock the Casbah.’”

“Fuck,” Caroline mumbled.

“Do you think we should re-record or scrap ‘em? I mean, from an outside perspective, you’ve heard the songs, so do you think it would be worth our while to bother recording those songs over again or come up with something new, ASAP?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes.”

“The first two were fucking amazing. The cover…was okay.”

“We are definitely not going to scrap the first two songs,” Caroline grumbled. “Those were the first two we wrote together.”

“So, then re-recording those are a must, but ‘Rock the Casbah’ is debatable?” Tre questioned, but more as a statement. “We can re-record it, we can scrap it and have only eleven songs on the album instead of twelve, or we can record a new twelfth.”

“We need to ask Billie what he’d want to do before we make a decision,” Caroline said, looking at Tre, almost forgetting Ted was still on the line. “We’ll get back to you as soon as we can, Ted, okay? In the meantime, please…please, do everything you can to find those missing three tracks and we’ll get together to see what we’re going to do on our end, either way.”

“Alright, I’ll do everything I can and exhaust all my resources.”

“Thanks, buddy. We appreciate the call,” Tre spoke

“Of course, I’m just sorry the call had to be bad news.”

“S’alright,” Tre shrugged even though Ted couldn’t see it. “Shit happens. We’ve dealt with bigger problems before.”

After that, the call was more or less over. Caroline set her phone down on the concrete and pulled herself out of the pool to sit on the edge and then began to call Billie’s number. When the guitarist finally answered on the third ring, Caroline passed along the bad news and told him to bring his family over for hot dogs and swimming so he could still continue grandpa duty while the three of them also had an impromptu band meeting.

But to stop by the store on the way over to buy extra hot dogs and buns in case they ran out.

And a bottle of ketchup because apparently they were running low already.



As the evening hours began to wane and the sun began its leisurely descent toward the horizon, the air seemed to remain warm despite the decrease in sunlight. Billie Joe and his family had taken their time to come over and weren’t in time for lunch but they still brought the extra hot dogs, buns and ketchup in case that was the same food going to be eaten for dinner. It simply took longer to get themselves together because of Dominique had been down for a nap, and like the saying, never wake a sleeping baby. The infant girl was still asleep, however, by the time they arrived to Caroline’s house; Joey carrying her in her car seat and letting her continue to sleep in a shaded area under the patio so the sun wasn’t beating on her.

Chloe brightened up the moment she saw Adrienne and scampered, with help from Tre, out of the pool to give her godmother a soaking wet hug around the legs. Fortunately, Adrienne had her bathing suit on underneath the black slip dress she was wearing and didn’t mind the moisture seeping through to her skin. That, plus it was really warm out and the cool water was a small blessing. Billie Joe had nodded toward his bandmates, acknowledging them and the main reason why he was there, but it went unspoken that they would touch upon the subject later on since a few more hours delay wouldn’t hurt. He pulled off his T-shirt, through it over a lounge chair and jumped into the pool like a cannon ball, causing Mikey to shriek in laughter, which then caused Dominique to finally stir from her nap and begin to cry. Nicole grabbed her daughter up and took her inside for an undisclosed amount of time, probably to either change or feed the baby girl in privacy while Joey looked after for a moment before shoving Jakob into the pool and jumping in after.

Aside from Paul Woods and Nicole with Dominique, everyone was in the pool, splashing around and laughing and swimming up a storm. A rousing game of Chicken Fight occurred in which Adrienne sat on Tre’s shoulders and Chloe sat on Jakob’s, with Adrienne pretending like she was really trying to shove Chloe off her son’s shoulders but, as expected, fell of her own volition to let the four year old girl think she won. Joanne Woods had her hands full with Avarielle and Lakota, who she was keeping upright in their SunShade Pool Buggies. Meanwhile, Joey swam around the sides of the pool, attempting laps, and Caroline did her best to catch Mikey every time he clamored out of the pool and decided to jump back. Then there was Billie Joe, who was clearly enamored with Rhiannon. He had since pulled her out of her own SunShade Pool Buggy and was skimming her along the surface of the water; her little face scrunching with from the sun’s glare and from smiling. He was always most attentive to Rhiannon lately.

Caroline knew a part of him hoped the twins were his, especially since he had no daughter of his own. Even though he had a granddaughter now, it wasn’t the same as it being your own child.

As the day wore on, they got out of the pool here and there for bathroom breaks, or drink breaks or Popsicle breaks. And eventually, dinner, which was mostly hamburgers this time, with some hot dogs Billie Joe had brought, and then swimming seemed to be over for the day. Jakob watched after the kids while they played in the grass afterward, letting them all climb over him. Mostly, Chloe wanted to be wherever Adrienne was, which was perfectly fine for the forty-five year old woman. And despite having a brood of her own and two little ones who had only just had their first birthday, Caroline was still happy to take a turn holding Dominique and kissing her tiny little face. She looked just like the baby pictures Caroline had seen of Joey around the Armstrong house.

When the get together made its way inside and the kids were set down in front of the TV to watch some Disney movie, Caroline’s parents, Adrienne, Joey and Nicole sat around the kitchen and kept themselves busy. Jakob was the only one watching the Disney movie with the kids while the TBC bandmates excused themselves to head downstairs into the basement studio to talk.



In the dim lighting of the basement, surrounded by recording equipment and instruments of all shapes, sizes and varieties, Caroline took a seat at the control table. She swiveled around to face the couch behind her where both Tre and Billie Joe had sat down, both crossing their left ankles over their right knees and, upon realizing they’d done so, Tre decided to be the one to drop his leg down.

“So,” he began, tightening his lips into a thin line.

“We have a decision to make,” Billie Joe finished, looking at Caroline, who nodded.

“I think we can agree not to scrap ‘Goodnight Moon’ or ‘Little Boy’. They’re the first two songs we recorded in this new venture of ours. We know they can be hit singles,” she commented, leaning forward and folding her hands between her knees. “The real decision is what we do about the cover song.”

“Or don’t do,” Billie Joe remarked. “Honestly, if this is all about us starting new and going forward, maybe we really shouldn't be looking back and rehashing some song that’s already been done before. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the song and The Clash, but it’s not ours, even if it was our updated version.”

“And Ted basically said it was lackluster,” came Tre’s two cents as Billie Joe gestured to him as if furthering his point.

“So, our options are to either scrap ‘Rock the Casbah’ and continue with just eleven songs for the album or record a new song. Do we have any songs that we had decided against adding to the album that we could give a second chance?” Caroline looked between both guys. “I don’t remember too many that equaled or surpassed the ones that already made the cut.”

They all fell silent for a few moments, thinking and occasionally glancing at one another.

“Actually, there is a song…”

Tre and Caroline focused on Billie Joe who was looking down at his legs, picking at the material at the end of his long-since dried swim trunks.

“There was a song that Mike wrote a few years ago, just before the two of you got married,” he brought his eyes up to lock with Caroline’s. “He said he had promised to write a song for you at some point and had been messing around on his own with a simple melody but had no lyrics. It wasn’t until after you were married that he had finished the song and played it for me one night when he came over for something or another.”

“He did?” Caroline asked, a spark of happiness fluttering in her heart. How lovely it was to learn such information about her husband, years after he was gone. “Did it get recorded?”

Billie Joe shook his head. “No, he never recorded it. He played it for me on guitar and I grabbed a second guitar and joined him, playing alongside. He had the lyrics written down on the front and back of a sheet of yellow, legal pad paper.”

“What did he call the song?” Tre inquired, very curious since he hadn’t heard of this so-called song for Caroline either. “What was the title?”

“Uh, let me think…” he trailed, trying to visualize the lyrics and how the song went to rejog his memory. “Shit, um…I think it was something to do with fire…”

“Fire?” Caroline raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Billie Joe was still off in la-la land, trying to remember the name when suddenly his eyes widened. “This World Can Burn!” he announced, gleefully.

“That’s the title or are you prophesizing, oh great one?” Tre quipped with a deadpan expression splayed over his face.

“It’s the title. I remember one of the lyrics went something like, ‘this world can burn…I don’t give a damn…so long as I got you and you got my hand.’ Yeah,” Billie Joe nodded, smiling as he stared off, thinking back on when Mike was singing it for him for the first time. “And, uh, ‘be my woman, I’ll be your man…’ something, something. I forget the rest. I mean, if I had the lyrics in front of me, I think I could remember how it all went and sounded.”

Caroline didn’t realizing she had tears rolling down her cheeks until Billie Joe leaned forward and wipe one away with a smile dangling off his lips.

“We need to find those lyrics, then,” Tre said. “If not for the sake of us having a new song for this album, but so Mike can finally give Caroline his song, even if it’s us doing it for him.”

A small smile formed at the corner of Caroline’s mouth as she looked toward Tre. “I still remember him saying he was gonna write me a song one day, but I’d actually forgot about it. So much was happening around that time, what with getting married and starting our families, and our separate bands…”

Caroline leaned back in her chair and wiped away what was left of her tears before folding her arms under her chest. This new information about the song really was like Mike sending her a message from beyond. She almost wondered if there weren’t other things she didn’t know about him doing or writing or whatever that might be tucked away in this big house they once shared and was now solely hers.

“Well, if you two wanna come over tomorrow, we can start turning this house upside down looking for the lyrics if you want,” Caroline offered. “They might just be in a filing cabinet or something, but you never know.”

“I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning at ten but I can swing by afterward,” Billie Joe mentioned.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“I think it goes without saying that I’ll probably just stay the night,” Tre spoke with a smirk in his voice.

Billie Joe gave Tre a sidelong glance and laughed a little. “Yeah, I guess it does.” He looked over at Caroline who was narrowing her gaze at Tre in faux derision. “Well, I think that’s my cue,” he announced, standing up. “Joey and Nicole are gonna need to get Dom home to bed and we’re all probably gonna crash soon after. Adrienne and I have been taking turns getting Dom during the night so Joey and Nicole can sleep a little longer, so our sleep schedules are pretty much shot right now.”

“More so than when we've been on tour?”

“Oh yeah,” Billie Joe nodded. “It’s been many, many years since I had to do this kind of thing; since Jakob was a baby and that was what? Shit, almost seventeen years ago. I’m a bit rusty.”

“It’s ‘cause you’re so old, Grandpa,” Caroline teased.

“Shut it, you’ll be there someday, too.”

“Uh, hello. I have kids not much older than your granddaughter. Tre, on the other hand, is probably a few years out from being a grandpa, depending on when Ramona decides to get in the family way.”

“What about Estelle?” Billie Joe pointed out.

“Well, technically, she is my stepdaughter and I would only be a step-grandmother when she would become a mom, but I think she’s a long way from motherhood. She only just graduated high school and will be immersed in college in New York City in a little under two months. She’ll be so caught up with the city life, and schooling and finding her own feet, she won’t want to be bothered with getting tied down for a while.”

“Well, whatevs. I’m an old fart or at least getting there. I readily accept this. But I am also the sexiest grandpa around. Don’t forget that.” He pointed at both Caroline and Tre.

Tre saluted his friend of twenty-six years. “Yes sir, grandpa sir.”

Giving Tre a slap on the shoulder and hugging Caroline, Billie retreated back upstairs to gather his troop while Tre and Caroline stayed back a little. He scooted closer to the edge of the couch and grabbed her hands in his. He studied the smoothness of her skin before letting his eyes trail upward to her face.

Without hesitation, she leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. “I still can’t believe Mike wrote me a song after all.”

“I can. He loved you so fierce, I wouldn’t doubt it if there were actually more songs he wrote, tucked away somewhere.”

“That’d be nice,” she admitted. “Have you ever written anything for Giselle?”

Tre shook his head, “No. I can’t say that I have, unfortunately.”

Caroline just held his gaze while he still held her hands. “Well, maybe you should.”

“Yeah,” Tre nodded, considering. “Maybe I should.”