Memories

“Hey Brian do you remember when we were teens, that one year on Thanksgiving where you came to my house and during diner you started a food fight with my brother?” Zach asked while lying on his back looking up at the stars. Every member of Avenged sevenfold lay scattered atop of their tour bus roof.

“I remember that. Your sister’s hand got a little to frisky, and when I was going to take a bite too. Oh man the look on your brother’s face was fucking epic when not only the potatoes but the spoon hit his cheek.” Brian chuckled bringing his hands up to rest under his head, “good times man, good times.”

“Remember that time when we were all at my house and Val had made a nice diner for our first Christmas as a married couple and we all went into the dining room to eat, we found Bella up on the table and no food left?” Matt pondered turning his head to the right to see the lanky drummer fiddling with his fingers, brow frowned.

“What did we eat for diner that year I forget?” Johnny spoke even further to his right, on the other side of Jimmy; pulling Matt’s attention way from the agitated looking man.

“I think we ordered pizza from Dominoes.” Matt rolled over onto his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows.

“Yeah, I remember! You guys made me call around to every fucking pizza parlor to find one that was open; just because I am the youngest.” Four of the five men started laughing; no one really noticed that Jimmy wasn’t conversing.

Def to the world; thousands of thoughts played through Jimmy’s head. Old memories and new questions played through his head. His adopted parents had gotten him years ago. Jimmy or by his birth name James was taken from his parents home in the middle of the night by the police during probation check. James was put into foster care for the next few years where things had happened to him; things so bad he would have fared better being with his parents. After a while a loving older couple came across James after he had run away from his foster home. The little boy accidentally ran into the husband, tears streaking his eyes. They took him home, cleaned him up, fed his entirely too skinny body and tried to take him back to the foster home.

James threw a fit! He wouldn’t go back there by any standards after being rescued from that horrible family. The couple decided to call the police and get the boys information; they soon realized his situation and took the boy to the adoption agency that had fostered him out to the family. They signed papers, paid the money required and James was theirs.

Many years had passed since his adopted parents passing. James didn’t attend the funeral; instead he drank himself into oblivion and took every drug he could get his hands on. He went from James Sullivan, the loving wacky adult to being Jimmy the Rev Sullivan full time. He became one with his stake persona, no one could call him James anymore and his life literally came to sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.

Things changed when Johnny joined the band Jimmy still partied but the habit became less intense as he quickly found himself wanting to mentor the kid. When ever he saw that disapproving look Johnny always got on his face when James would stumble in the bus, high off his ass nearly broke the older man. He hated seeing that look, the one where you can tell someone’s disappointed in you. Jimmy let out a sigh and began thinking about random things of the past, history mostly.

“No fucking way! She did not do that at my goddamned diner table!” Brian argued having been told that his sister and her boyfriend had been caught by Matt doing very ‘dirty’ things on their kitchen table as a teen. “I ate on that fucking thing! Hell I picked up fallen food and ate it!”

Brian sat up strait, eyes narrowed looking directly at Matt; the singer had a shit eating grin plastered across his face, making his dimples appear. Matt nodded and let out a loud laugh. “Remember when we took Johnny to our hang out spot for the first time? Jimmy had a bottle of Jack Daniels and was a little tipsy. On our way to the fucking hide out he started screaming at the giant duck yelling ‘look at the size of that fucking duck, look at that duck! Jesus Christ.’ Then he started to run and yell ‘come here fucking stallion duck!”

“I remember that! I twisted my ankle trying get through those thick ass bushes. We were shooting that all access video that day too.” Johnny grumbled; it always had to be him who got hurt huh?

Johnny looked to his left noticing James silence he arched a brow and nudged the drummers arm. The older man looked over with a smile, his eyes glazed. Johnny knew he was a little bit high but he was in a controlled environment with people he trusted, not doing anything stupid. Johnny smiled back and reached his arm between them linking his pinky with the drummers.

One second everyone was laughing at one of their memories the next they were laughing at a giant fart one of their crew had let out as they walked by the bus. All of the sudden Jimmy snapped out of the daze he was in and sat up, looking around to each of his band members. “I wonder if the Mayflower was filled with one giant fart bubble from the pilgrims.”

“What the fuck Jimmy!”