The Kids From Yesterday

12:00pm
Two blocks from Webster Townhouse
Boston, Massachusetts
January 5th, 2005
“Will you stop that, you’re going to ruin the sleeves of your hoodie,” Frank said and slapped at Ellie’s hands that were picking at the cuffs of her hoodie that where sticking out from under the arms of the winter coat she had over the hoodie.
“Sorry,” Ellie mumbled and tucked her hands under her thighs, “I’m just nervous.”
“It’s your mom Ellie, there’s nothing to be nervous about,” Frank assured for the fifth time on their trip.
Ellie and the band had been traveling north to Massachusetts for about three hours, and they were about two blocks from Ellie’s childhood home. What her friends always called the Webster Townhouse. Ellie grew up in a 4 bedroom Townhouse half a mile away from Fenway Park, yes she’s a Goddamn Boston Red Sox fan, get over it. Have you ever seen a white catholic family watch baseball? Everything you learned in catechism goes out the goddamn window.
When Ellie found out that the Sox made playoffs and then made it to the World Series she was ecstatic. She was in Kansas at the time and was crashing on some dude’s floor, and they were diehard baseball fans and she actually got to watch the 2004 World Series. She cried when they won. Two days later she was in Colorado.
“You live this close to Fenway? That is fucking awesome,” Ray said from the passenger seat as they passed the west side of the park.
“Yeah, I’ve spent many a days, and yelled many a cuss word in that park,” Ellie sighs, “Goddamn Sox, couldn’t win a game to save their lives until I leave the state and they win the World Series, what fuckers.” She crossed her arms and fell against Frank’s side with a look of mock anger.
“Here we are! Webster Townhouse!” Gerard cheered as he pulled into the driveway of Ellie’s childhood home. Ellie immediately felt sick to her stomach, she cowered back into the seat she was in and pressed herself into Frank’s side. She didn’t understand why she was scared to see her mother, but the fear was there.
“Come on Ellie,” Frank mumbled and pushed her softly to move out of the van.
Ellie took a deep breath and clambered out of the van into the snow that was on the driveway. It was fucking buck ass cold. She walked up the brick walkway to see the front door fling open and her mother run out in only a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a pair of snow boats she had probably thrown on the second she saw the van pull up.
Cara Webster is exactly what Ellie will look like in thirty years. She was short and petite like her daughter, the same wavy blonde hair, the same eyes, nose, and face shape. Cara took her daughter into her arms and started speaking in a language none of the guys understood; it sounded like Dutch but none of them were sure.
Cara kissed her daughter on the cheeks multiple times, while Ellie smiled and let her mom shower her in hugs and kisses, and speak at her in the language the boys didn’t know.
“Okay, mama, ich habe es. Du mich vermisst,” Okay, mom, I get it, you missed me. Ellie spoke trying to pull away from her mom.
“Missed you? You little shit, you had me worried sick!”
Huh, that’s where Ellie gets it from.
“I know, I’m sorry mom,” Ellie says as she finally escapes from her mother’s grasp, “I have some people for you to meet,” She says and turns her attention to the guys who are still lined up next to the van.
Cara turns her eyes toward the five men dressed in various forms of all black, and Ellie starts to regret not picking out their outfits so that they may have included color. Gerard was wearing a black and grey scarf, but other than that, no color on any of them.
“Let’s go inside though, it’s fucking cold out here,” Ellie says and loops an arm with one of her mother’s.
Once inside Cara tells the boys to make themselves comfortable, making sure they took their shoes off at the foyer so they wouldn’t track snow into the house and asking them if they wanted any coffee.
The Way’s and an Iero were a little too enthusiastic about the coffee.
“Please Mrs. Webster—”
“None of that in my house, you call me Cara or mom… Mrs. Webster is my demonic mother-in-law,” Cara cuts Mikey off.
Mikey nods quite fearfully, “Of course Cara…”
Cara smiles and proceeds to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
“Forgive her, she’s a bit abrasive,” Ellie speaks up, “And my nana on my dad’s side is a bit satanic…”
“I see where you get it,” Frank says.
Ellie flips him off.
Five minutes later they were all gathered in the kitchen sitting at the table with steaming cups of coffee in-front of them. Even Ellie, but she has more creamer and sugar in hers than coffee.
“So what are your names,” Cara asks and looks to her left where Mikey unfortunately got stuck sitting.
“Mikey Way,” he says with a bit of hesitation in his voice as he sticks his hand out for Cara to shake.
“Michael, nice to meet you,” Cara smiles softly and shakes Mikey’s hand.
“No disrespect Cara, but I prefer to be called Mikey,” Mikey said and then looked like he wanted to take it all back. Ellie had scared him a few times with her overbearing personality (usually it was in the morning), but Cara had him petrified. She was an intimidating woman.
Cara only nodded and smiled. Ellie knew what that meant. She was going to consider Mikey’s request.
Introductions went around the table, each member telling Cara who they were, what they played in the band, all that jazz. By the end of it, the boys had Cara laughing at the stories they were telling her from their time on the road.
“Okay, so the last time we were in San Francisco, not our recent stop, but back in January,” Gerard began smiling, Ellie had heard this story, “we walked off the bus in like make-up and costume and there was this guy in front of this crack house, really this is the only time that I’ve ever been scared on out the road because come on we’re from Jersey, well anyway, the guy is all like ‘you better stay on that side of the road mother fucker, I’ll knock you out,’” Cara laughed and looked at Frank.
“What about you Frank? Where are you scared?”
“Detroit…” he says sheepishly, “and I every right to!” he defends when the other guys start snickering at him and giving him shit about it.
“Really, because you screamed pretty loud this morning in the shower, you ass, you woke me up,” Ellie grumbled, “Apparently there was a spider, according to the scream…” Frank sent her a glare from across the table that said one thing ‘run’.
Ellie leaped from her chair and headed for the living room shrieking.
“Don’t break anything! So Bob…” Cara warned and then turned her attention toward the drummer, completely ignoring her daughter’s screams.
“Frank! Don’t, I don’t like being tickled!” she shrieked bounding up the stairs.
Frank followed her and chased her into her room and backed her into a corner near the dresser. Ellie’s room faced the back yard which faced east. She had dark heavy curtains that were blocking any light from coming in the room casting it in an eerie light. Her walls were painted a dark blue that automatically left you feeling calm and sleepy almost, they were covered in posters of everything from plays, small prints of famous art pieces, a few bands, a Red Sox poster, a few art projects, and a small picture of Our Lady of Sorrows. She had a dark wooden bunk bed with a full sized bed on the on the bottom and a twin on top, a small TV on her dresser, among countless framed pictures of Ellie with other kids. There was a closet near the door on the adjacent wall; it was a typical teenager’s room.
Frank was grinning down at her as she a nervous smile; she really didn’t like to be tickled and she knew that was his punishment for her for making him look like the pansy he is.
“Come on Frankie, let’s think about his rationally,” She squeaked flattening herself against the wall, “I mean do you really want to tickle me?”
“No, not really,” he grinned and braced both of his arms above her shoulders. Ellie’s been in this situation before with men twice Frank’s size, but really, it’s not different. She grins mischievously and ducks under his arms so quick, Frank stares at the wall for a second.
He whips around to an Ellie standing by her bed with a shit eating grin.
“Come on Frank, really? Do even realize what you did wrong? I mean—” Ellie looked at Frank; he had a new demeanor coming from his face. Softer almost, he was glancing at the dresser and the photos.
“Which was is your brother?” He pointed at photos on the dresser.
Ellie sagged a little and took the two steps to the dresser. She picked up a frame with just her and her brother two months before the accident. The picture was of the two at Elias’ winter percussion championship show. The last show he ever had. The two were inside of a gym, Elias was wearing a medal around his neck along with his uniform, and he had his arm wrapped around Ellie’s shoulders. They were both grinning widely and looked genuinely happy.
“This was at Winter Percussion Championships. They took first that day; it was an undefeated season, I don’t think I’d ever seen my brother so happy,” Ellie says showing Frank the photo.
“What did he play?” Frank asked.
“He was center snare, and drum captain, my brother was a crazy drummer, any percussion instrument you threw at him he knew what to do, he was constantly keeping us up with drumming, whether it was his drum set, or his practice pad, he was always drumming. When we were younger, like 11, 12 years old, he always told me that his drumming would take him places, and when I was 11 and 12 I thought the same thing, when I was 17 I thought the same thing, the morning he was killed, I still thought that his talent would take him places,” Ellie said proudly, “I wish he could’ve met Bob, but then I think that had he not died, we would’ve never met, which is a fucked up thing to think about… like it’s selfish.”
Ellie always thought about what would’ve happened had Elias lived. Had the accident never happened, she thought selfishly that all the time. Had her brother actually looked both ways before he crossed the street that Tuesday morning, she would’ve never met Frank. She didn’t know how to feel about it, she psychologically couldn’t pin-point an emotion.
“Honestly Ellie, I think we would’ve, you said yourself that your brother liked us, he probably would’ve dragged you to a show, and you probably would’ve met us under different circumstances,” Frank says trying to ease her worries, “You and I were meant to find each other, it’s not selfish to think that, because this is what fate had in store, because everything happens for a reason,” He lightly takes hold of the photo and sets it back down on the dresser.
“Elliot!” Cara yells from downstairs, “There’s a blizzard coming in tonight!”
“I think we’re staying the night,” Ellie says and walks to the doorway of her room, “Okay ma!”
Frank walks up from behind and rests his hands on her hips and his chin on her head, “That sounds like fun, where are we going to sleep?”
Ellie thought about it mischievously.
“Well you’re sleeping with me because our house has shitty insulation and I freeze my ass off during blizzards,” Ellie laughed and turned around in his grasp, “I don’t care about the others, they can fight over the top bunk,” she laughed and planted a kiss on Frank’s lips.
He hummed into the kiss and leaned into it. The two went at it furiously, each of them scraping against each other’s teeth.
“Ahem,” Ray cleared his throat from the end of hallway right at the top of the stairway, the two detached at the mouth, “Cara wants Ellie…” he says awkwardly and scratches his neck, looking down at his sock clad feet awkwardly, “Um, when did this happen?” he asks softly, not looking up.
“Um, I’m going to go see what my mom wants,” Ellie says and untangles her-self from Frank. She passes Ray down the stairs, who was blushing. All three of them were pink in the face at different levels of pink. Ray was the pinkest.
-
Cara wanted Ellie to help her slave away in the kitchen for lunch and then help get whatever she was making for dinner. They talked quietly as Ray hovered in the kitchen trying to help…
“Toro, we’re just making sandwiches, go away,” Ellie nearly growled and pushed out of the kitchen into the living room, “I’m trying to catch up with my mother as well!”
“Ellie, be nice,” Her mom mumbled sticking her head into the refrigerator looking for the lettuce, “What do you put in a vegetarian sandwich?” Cara says to the fridge as if it could answer the mysteries of life.
-
“Remember when you fell off the hand rail of the stair case?” Cara asked laughing.
Cara and Ellie were in the living room sitting on the L-shaped couch talking with the rest of the band. Well sort of, they were arguing and ignoring the mom and daughter.
“Fell! Elias pushed me.” Ellie clarified, “Oh my god and I broke my arm! I couldn’t draw for a month a half, I nearly gave Elias a concussion when I got my cast,” Ellie smiles remembering swinging at his head with the orange and black cast. She got it in October and had it on for her fifteenth birthday.
She was sliding down the hand rail her freshman year and Elias pushed her to be funny and she ended up falling 6 and a half feet to her left arm. She had never screamed so loud in her life.
Well except maybe…
“Elias was grounded till your armed healed, and then some.”
“He was grounded till New Year’s; you and dad wanted to take band away from him,”
“He took art away from you,” Cara pointed out
“I didn’t care though—art was never going to take me anywhere, drumming was going to take Elias somewhere and I didn’t want him to miss out on all the drumming opportunities that high school band threw at him,” Ellie replied softly.
“GIVE THAT BACK TO ME,” Mikey yelled and tackled Ray to the ground; they were wrestling over his phone.
“Ray, give that back to Mikey,” Ellie and Cara said tiredly.
The two looked at each other and laughed.
“Like mother, like daughter,” Cara gathered her daughter into a bone crushing hug.
And they stayed like that, for a long time. Hugging it out, making up for every hug that had been missed and lost in the last six months, for all the hugs they should’ve given each other when Elias died, for all the hugs that Ellie needed during her time away. And Ellie knew, she knew that things were okay between her and her mom at that moment. It was okay, Ellie was okay… she hadn’t been okay for a while.
-
Frank looked at the embrace that Cara and Ellie were sharing; they had been sitting like that for a while now. Ellie had settled in a weird position so that the two could watch TV comfortably so that they could still be hugging. Frank snuck at least eight pictures with his phone. He didn’t know why, but he felt like someone should.
9:12 am
After dinner…
“Okay, sleeping arrangements,” Cara said around nine pm after they ate dinner, “Ellie’s bed fits three people.”
“There’s the top bunk left, you can fight over it,” Ellie finishes for her mom.
Frank had never seen his band mates move that fast as they raced up the stairs shouting obscenities about rotten eggs and sleeping on the ground.
“We slept on random floors for two and a half years!” Gerard shouted.
“Then you won’t have a problem sleeping on the ground will you, Way?”
“Should we tell them that there’s a guest room?” Cara giggled.
“No, let them fight,” Ellie waved her hand, “What are you smirking about, Iero?”
Frank made eye contact with Ellie, who too was smirking, “Nothing, I’m just observing you two, you’re a lot alike,” he explains.
The two looked at each other then back at a Frank and nodded grinning. Ellie shared the same smile as her mom from what Frank could tell. She was also about two inches shorter than her mom, and lankier as she was still built like a child. Ellie hadn’t reared any children, so she was still smaller hipped and narrower in her build. But looking at Cara, her body yelled that it had birthed a couple of kids, but not in a gross way, but in a beautiful way.
Frank knew exactly where Elliot got her looks from and he was willing to bet it wasn’t from her father whom he had seen pictures of floating around the house. She was an exact replica of her mother who was beautiful in her own aged way.
“What?” Ellie asked catching Frank in his weird act of staring at the two.
“Nothing, you’re just beautiful,” he blurted without thinking. His eyes turned to saucers and his face went red, “Um,” Frank cleared his throat, there was a thump upstairs and a scream, “I’m going to go see if they didn’t kill each other,” he mumbled and ran out of the living room up to Ellie’s room that was currently being bombarded by grown men who didn’t know how to act like grown men.
--
“Well, he seems nice,” Cara laughed watching Frank race up the stairs.
Ellie stayed silent. Beautiful?
I’m not beautiful, I’m built like a thirteen year and dress like I’m trying to hide everything that makes me a girl.
“I think he’s high,” Ellie finally said, “I’m not trying to be self-deprecating or anything, but I’m not beautiful… I’m built like a goddamn child.”
“Ellie, shut up, I think he sees the potential woman you will look like, I looked just like you until I birthed a pair of twins,” Ellie’s mom rubbed her back with her fingertips softly.
Ellie stayed silent.
“So tell me about your summer and your fall, and your birthday and everything that I missed while you were off adventuring the continental United States,” Cara finally asked.
Straight and to the point, just like me.
“Adventuring? More like fending for my life,” Ellie looked at her mom.
“Same thing, we’re all fending for our lives every day, you just decided to go roam around the country which possibly put you in more danger than the average person, but yes adventuring,” Cara clarified.
Cara was probably the most laid back mother you’d ever find when it came to ‘finding yourself’. She wasn’t angry that Ellie left –from what Elliot could tell anyway- she figured her daughter needed it. Elliot needed to go see what else could happen to you before your eighteenth birthday, and she was glad her mom supported it. Cara wasn’t trying to keep her from leaving again; she hadn’t tried to talk Ellie out of Europe or whatever may happen after Europe. She just wanted to see her daughter and to hear about her times gallivanting around the country. And Elliot was more than happy to share.
Of course you will leave out huge details. No need to worry mom.
Ellie rambled off about ending up in New York the night after graduation. How she slept on the subways, and visited Ground Zero. How she spent a month in Ohio alone and found a job at a cute mom and pop diner and roomed with a girl that she didn’t particularly like. How she was in Kansas and how she spent the most time there sleeping on random floors, working a random job, watching the Playoffs and The World Series with a group of people around her age that she shacked up with. She spent her birthday in Colorado and Thanksgiving in Utah. How she finally ended up in Seattle, how the boys actually found her.
“Well, did you learn anything from it?” Cara asked thoroughly intrigued.
“Yeah, never admit to anything no matter what it may be, always create a diversion, always trust the people who pull you out of immediate danger, there are a lot of things that can get you killed so you have to do whatever it maybe in order to see another day, and don’t trust anyone,” Ellie explained, “When I was ‘adventuring’ I never knew if I see would my next meal, or the next state, the next day, or even the next hour, so I went bat-shit crazy for a minute there, I was reckless and completely irresponsible by mouthing off to people that had those connections that could get you and I both killed, and it was stupid, but I felt like I needed it, I felt like I needed some stupid because I had always been so smart, I don’t know mom, some of it was a blur, I didn’t do drugs because I knew what would happen if I did… but I would just do crazy shit like sit in on a drug deal and watch someone get beaten to a pulp because they couldn’t pay up… and meth addicts are ruthless, let me tell you what…
“When Frank and the guys found me, mom, I was being chased by men that wanted to kill me for stealing money… stupid shit like that.” Ellie finished.
Her mom stays silent.
“How in the hell are you alive?” Her mom asked after staying silent for what felt like an hour.
“Lady Luck… I don’t know… my guardian angel hates me, I’m sure, one of these days he’s going to be like ‘I’m tired of her shit, let’s see if she’ll learn from this near death experience,’ which I probably won’t…” Ellie shrugged.
“I swear Ellie Love; you’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days…”
“I know, I’m sorry—I’ll try to keep the curiosity at a minimum when we’re in Europe,” Ellie assures.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Good,” Cara smiled and wrapped Ellie into another hug.
-
“Are you tired?” Frank asked Ellie around midnight, “Because I’m exhausted.”
“Hmm,” She mumbled resting her head on his shoulder, “I’m sleepy.”
“How can you guys be tired, we didn’t do anything,” Bob asked.
“I slaved over dinner for your sorry ass,” Ellie snapped.
This was the Ellie that more or less scared everyone. The cranky-tired one that first bared her head at the airport the day after Christmas; she was spiteful, insulting, and fussy to boot. Frank had made the poor choice of telling her—at the airport that morning—that she was acting like a child and asked her if she wanted a juice box.
“Correction—” Bob got cut off by Ray who slapped him giving him a look saying ‘don’t start antagonizing her’.
“Where’s everybody sleeping?” Cara asked from her spot.
Six different people answered her question all at the same time.
“One at a time,” she rolls her eyes.
“Frank is sleeping with Ellie,” Gerard blurted.
Cara looked at the both Frank and Ellie – quirking an eyebrow.
Frank groaned at the insufferable embarrassment his lead singer was.
“Thanks Gee, I know I can always count on you to get my mother to think that I’m some slut,” Ellie said tiredly, dropping her head into her hands.
“I mean like in the same bed but like not – um –”
“Shut up, Gerard,” Mikey laughed, “I’m sleeping in the guest room, on the floor because those two lovers hate me,” Mikey then proceeded to cross his arms as he glared at Ray and Bob who were snickering at Mikey’s immaturity by being even more immature by sticking their tongues out.
“And I’m sleeping on the top bunk in Ellie’s room,” Gerard said trying to cover the fact he’s blushing by saying it into the pillow.
“I figured you’d all sleep in the same room,” Cara laughed, “This house gets really fucking cold at night during a blizzard – just watch, you’ll all end up in her room,” Just as the words leave her mouth, the lights flicker and then go out.
“Shit, we’d be better off sleeping in the van where there’s a heater…”Bob says somewhere in the darkness.
“Is it just me, or did it just drop ten degrees,” Frank says frantically. Ellie feels him scoot closer to her and wrap his arms around her.
“I second Bob’s motion,” Ray says.
“You guys are idiots, we have a fire place,” Ellie says irritably and pulls away from Frank, “Come on mom, let’s find the flashlights, we’re all sleeping down here boys,” she says as she walks with her mom –without bumping into anything – to the kitchen.
-
“I cannot believe I am sleeping on the ground,” Bob mumbled as he situated himself on the ground next to Mikey.
Ellie was sleeping on the couch with her mom, her mother on part of the “L” Ellie on the other. The boys on the ground on top of countless blankets to soften the ground, the fire was burning steadily warming the whole first floor, you couldn’t even tell that the electricity had gone out.
Ellie was exhausted in every meaning of the word, she didn’t sleep that much the night before and it was closing in around one o’clock in the morning.
“Good night Ellie,” Cara mumbled from her side of the couch, “Good night boys.”
“Goodnight mom,” Ellie smiled as she saw her mom smile tiredly as well with shadows of the fire minutely dancing around her face making her seem younger.
“Goodnight Cara!” The boys rang all at the same time from the ground.
Cara nodded and turned to face the couch. Ellie knew she was asleep in less than five minutes.
“Psst, Frankie,” Ellie whispered when she was sure her mom was sleep.
“Hmm?”
“Get up here.”
“Shush!” Ellie heard from Gerard.
“You shush,” Ellie countered.
“Both of you shut up,” Bob mumbled angrily from his spot, “I need my beauty sleep,”
“No amount of sleep can help that face, Bob.” Ray whispered on the other side of a half-asleep Mikey who was too tired to say anything.
“You better sleep with one eye open, Toro,” Bob’s voice penetrated the shadowy ground of black bumps one of which was moving and coming closer to Ellie.
“All of you shut the fuck up,” Frank whispered urgently looking over at Cara who looked like she was asleep before climbing onto the couch with Ellie.
Various noises of kissy-lips came from the guys on the ground, all of them giggling like school girls.
“I swear to God, I will fuck each and every one of you up, you instigative little shits,” Ellie growled propped up on her elbow to look over Frank’s body to glare at the guys with the dim light of the fire flickering off her face.
“Shit, the fire makes you look almost menacing,” Gerard mumbles cowering in his blankets.
“I hope it does,” she glares and then falls back onto the pillows.
“Go to sleep, guys,” Frank mumbles tiredly.