Sweet Children Come Out And Play

Delphine lay on the bed at the hotel waiting for Billie Joe to bring back dinner. It seems he had become her personal butler. Billie was still sort of getting used to the idea that she was pregnant. He told her to lie down while he went to find the food. She wasn’t helpless, but she was grateful. Not like she could not get her own food, but hey, she’ll take it if Billie wants to be the maid. She actually did feel sort of tired. It was much like her mother said she felt on her parent’s honeymoon when her parents found out they were pregnant after coming back from Niagara Falls. She didn’t know why she thought of that just now. Funny, she was doing the exact same thing as her mother. No wait, that wasn’t funny. That’s just scary.

She was staring out the window when she felt something inside her pocket. She pulled out a piece of paper. It was the notebook paper from just three and a half weeks ago on Green Day. ‘The lyrics!’ she thought. Just then, Billie walked through the door with two sandwiches. “Oh good, Billie, you’re back! Look,” she showed him the paper. “I meant to give this to you.”

He took it curiously, but recognized it after a second. “Oh this! Ha! I completely forgot about it.”

“I read what you wrote, but I didn’t show anyone else. We found it in the notebook.”

“It was still in there? Thanks,” he smiled, “I remember this, but I was so high I totally forgot what I wrote.”

“It’s good. You could actually make that a song.” She took a bite of her sandwich.

“It’s half a song. I’ll just have to get high again!” he joked.

“Yep. Oh man, but I can’t anymore.”

“That’s right. Umm…later then,” he trailed off giving a guilty sideways look.
~
“Billie, stop that!” Delphine tried to whisper across the table and kicked him in the leg underneath. “You’ll get us kicked out!” Unfortunately, at the same time she was cracking up and shielding herself behind a menu. You see, they were having lunch at the Louis Brusque Café, an extremely high class and supposedly five-star French restaurant. Delphine thought it would be funny to go invade the place with their dyed hair, tattoos and punky “style”. It needed some sprucing up. But Billie thought it would be funny to draw a mustache on himself and pretend to be French. “Billie, cut it out!”

“No Iy vun’t!” Billie practically shouted back. “Huhuhu!”

“Billie! People are staring at us!”

“So vet? Huhuhu!” he continued pulling up is shirt. Then, as he was making a Gumby handkerchief for his head out of his formally neatly folded napkin, the waiter came by.

“Um, can I take your order NOW?”

Before Delphine could answer, Billie Joe cut in, “Ah yes, I wuld likea sume cheese!”

“Um, sir, if you don’t mind, we have other guests here.”

“I con see tat you silly kingnigit. Now, fetche de cheese! Afterword, wuld you like a cume back tu my place?” he winked.

The waiter looked at him, obviously having no idea what to do, turned around and left. As soon as he had gone, Delphine dropped the menu, got up and ran out of the restaurant pulling Billie by the arm who was still shouting “HUHUHU!” back at the stuffy old café.

When they reached the car, Delphine said, “Billie!” and hit him in the arm, still laughing her head off. Billie started cracking up and they stumbled into the car. “Billie, when I said let’s go be French, I did not mean THAT! They all think we are completely insane! And now we have no food either!”

“Aren’t we? Eh? Really, I don’t want to eat with all those tightwads anyway. Plus it was fucking expensive!”

“You cheap bastard.”

“Been one all my life!”

Delphine leaned over and kissed him, “And I love you for it. Ok then, what DO you want to eat?”

“A hamburger!”

“Fine with me. To In-N-Out we go!”
~
Billie pulled the keys out of his pocket and dangled them in front of Delphine’s face. “Here we are!” He stuck them into the lock of their new apartment, turned the lock, “Wait, close your eyes for just a second.” Delphine did. Billie pushed the door open wide. Then Delphine nearly screeched when Billie scooped her up in his arms, “Ok!” and she opened her eyes as they walked through the door of their apartment.

“Oh my god it’s beautiful!” she cried hugging Billie around the neck and giving him a big kiss on the cheek. Really, the apartment was not much. Fairly small, plain, but it was the first time Delphine and Billie would have their own space. It was gorgeous to them. Billie twirled around in a circle so she hung tighter to him and then ran into the other room and fell down on the bed with Delphine on top laughing.

“Ok, we have to start out our first hours at our new home right,” Billie pushed her off and ran over to his duffle bag. Then he ran back into the room with his hands behind his back. “I have a present for you!”

“You do? Now, what could that be?” she sat up.

“Pick a hand.”

“Ok, that one,” she pointed.

“Nope! Other one!” he teased and pulled out the other.

“Billie! You’re fucking kidding me!”

In Billie Joe’s hand was a black leather bustiea with red ribbon trimming. “You like?”

“NO!”

“Yes!”

“Ha! Well, I suppose I do like a little teeny bit,” she smiled. “Is that the same one?”

“The one and only!”

Delphine got up from the bed, walked over, swiped it out of his hand and walked into the little bathroom of the master bedroom and closed the door without another word but leaving him a dirty glance. She could not believe he had actually bought it. The Hot Topic bustiea. When she stepped back out with just the bustiea and her little red pair of underwear – sorry – panties, Billie’s mouth dropped open. She slowly weaved over and sat down right in the center of his lap, pushing him back on the bed. “Well,” he gasped, “this is a nice home, don’t you think?”

“Ahuh,” she smiled and kissed him. “Take off your pants.” She didn’t have to ask twice.
~
Three days later, they all shipped out to another concert. When the group arrived at the little theater called the Gaslight, no was there except the people working. Tonight was an all-ages concert. The guys liked that best. There were drinks sold in the front little room and the stage in the back. It was small and worn down but nice. The walls were painted to look like a fancy theater like a red curtain painted on the sides of the stage, lights surrounding it and painted statues along the other walls. Delphine, Richelle and Brites helped the guys set up everything as usual before Sweet Children’s turn to play. When one of the organizers in black pants and a red shirt walked over to them in the back of the stage where they all stood, ready to move out on stage, he said, “You guys are Green Day right?”

“Yep!” Billie Joe spoke up. Delphine was confused.

“It’s your turn to play. You can go set up as soon as these guys clear off.” Then he turned around and left.

“Billie,” Delphine looked to him, “What did he mean Green Day?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, we were thinking, you know, from the other day-”

“The Day of Fun. Yep.”

“That and the song. Well, we kinda got asked to change our name. There’s another band called Sweet Child. Thought we were copying or something. Jerks but what can you do? We decided we liked the name Green Day and we wanted to name the band that. What do you think?”

“I think it’s great!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!

About twenty minutes later, Billie, Mike and Tre were all up on stage playing away. Delphine, Brites and Richelle loved watching every time. Also, this time they were back in Oakland, and now some people knew who they were. On some of the older songs like 1000 Hours, the audience was singing back. Delphine watched their faces most of the time. Billie was absolutely loving this and the crowd was on fire. What impressed her most was they knew the words; words that Billie had written himself. She could not have felt more proud of him in her life. “It’s they’re first concert as Green Day,” Delphine mentioned after they finished Why Do You Want Him?

“I guess so,” Brites thought. “Well, this is an important one then.”

Delphine was still snapping pictures. “That’s right,” Richelle said, “Del, get more pictures!”

“Laying in my bed, I think I'm in left field
I picture someone, I think it's you
You're standing so damn close, My body begins to swell
Why does 1 + 1 make 2
Picture sounds
Of moving insects so surreal
Lay around…”

As Green Day finished and the girls ran up from their seats in the front to help pack up the instruments, Delphine spotted a worn see-through blue guitar pick on the ground. It was one of Billie Joe’s. She knew because it was one of the Fender ones with the palm tree on the front which she loved. ‘Hmm,’ thinking, she picked it up and stuffed it in her pocket.

They were the last group performing but everyone stuck around for awhile. By the time they reached the apartment house it was 2am. Everyone barely made it to their beds before passing out.
~
When Billie awoke the next morning, Delphine was already out of bed. He sat for moment thinking about the night before. It really had been one of their best concerts yet. And people knew them. They knew them.

Then he glanced over to the clock. Shit, it was already 12pm. No wonder Delphine was up and gone. He hopped out of bed and ran downstairs. Delphine was sitting alone with a cup of green tea at the island. No one else was around. When he got to the bottom of the stairs she looked up and a smile lit her eyes. “Billie! You’re up.”

“Yeah, I was tired I guess.” He sat down next to her and kissed her good morning. “It felt good waking up in this house again.” They spent the night at the big apartment house.

“Yeah, it did.”

“You’re all dressed. What’s up?”

“I walked to my parents’ house for a second. Said hi to mom. But look,” she pulled forward her necklace with Billie’s pick, which she had still not taken off (and just wore along with other necklaces). She had grown to love it. She almost wished it was a tattoo instead of a tangible thing and was determined to keep it like one. She felt he was always with her in a way. Billie smiled. Then she lifted the pick and behind it was a new pick on the jump-ring. It was blue with a palm tree and pretty worn. He laughed, “Is that mine?”

“Yeah, I found it on the stage and thought I would borrow it. It was you’re first concert as Green Day, and it was such an amazing concert.”

“Yes, it was fun. People remembered us this time.”

“And they knew the words to some of your songs.” She tilted her head, “I’m so proud of you guys,” she said in a mushy tone.

“Aww, thank you sweetie. That’s awesome,” he kissed her lips.
~
The next night was another concert. It was their second as Green Day and it was just as great as the one before. Really. Man, how can you hit two nights like that in a row? If this keeps up, Green Day will really be something; and sooner than any of their families would have thought.

When Delphine awoke the next morning, she found Billie sound asleep. Then all of a sudden she remembered something, ‘The baby!’ She had completely forgotten to tell her friends. They had only been back for two days, but still, you think she would have remembered something so important. It just didn’t seem quite real yet. Maybe that was the problem. And then she would have to tell her family! And Billie’s family too. This was complicated. Then all at once she felt like she had to go tell everyone immediately. She waited a minute, thinking she should not wake up Billie yet. There was plenty of time for this. Nine months in fact. But she had to tell them now. It was making her more nervous by the second. Maybe she would get up and go look to see if everyone else was up. But wait. This was not the big apartment. She forgot. They were in the new home. But then again, Brites, Richelle, Tre and Mike were only a block away. She could be down there in three minutes. Oh, but she could not leave Billie. ‘What time is it?’ she looked up at the clock. 11 o’clock. ‘That’s it,’ she sat up, “Billie,” Delphine shook him lightly. “Billie, wake up.”

“What?” he stirred.

“Billie, we have to get up and go see the guys right now.”

“Why? Something wrong?” Billie said yawning.

“No, but we have to go tell them about the baby.”

“Oh, yes but will they be awake? …What’s the hurry?” he moaned.

“I’m all nervous now. I feel bad we didn’t tell them last night, and I’m dying to tell someone.”

“So everything else is ok?”

“Yes, I’m fine, I’m going to go get dressed,” she kissed him and popped out of bed.

“All right then. I’ll be there in a second,” he said falling back into his pillow.