The two groups of graduation attendees finally converged at the pad. Livvie held her diploma up in the air with a smile on her face as she and the other came in. She waved Bethany over. Bethany had her own diploma still. She went to her "Aunt" Olivia and hugged her.
"Finally!" She said to her. "Now can use our worldly knowledge to change the world."
"Either that or secure a really cool job working Burger Mall on weekends." Bethany laughed. Davis waved at her briefly then walked over to where Micky and Roark were in the midst of setting something up. Peter looked for a bathroom. He could barely hold it in the entire ceremony.
"What are they doing?" Bethany flagged down her mom.
"They wouldn’t tell me." Chea said.
"Why?"
"Cause I would be the first one to blab. Honey you know your mommy. I can't hold a secret to save my life." She laughed. "Brianna! I'm so glad you're here."
"Uh oh." Brianna said to Davy. "I'm in trouble."
"The caterer cancelled." Chea said. "I'm gonna need your help in the kitchen to whip something together."
"Is Micky going to stay out?" Brianna asked.
"Yes, thank god Roark is distracting him with his secret project." Chea replied pointing to where they used to play their instruments.
"I'm gonna go with Chea." Brianna said.
"All right." Davy said. "I wanna go see what the guys are up to. They seem to be dragging out all of our old instruments."
"Instruments?" Chea and Bethany said together.
"Huh." Chea said. She walked off with Brianna. "I'd be surprised if any of that stuff works now." She said with a curious tone in her voice. Bethany just barely saw Mercy. Even though she was taller than her parents, Mercy managed to stay out of sight of the moment. Mercy smiled limply and shrugged.
"Hey." Bethany said.
"Hey." Mercy said.
"What did you do to your hair?" She asked she picked up a strand of two of her friends hair.
"Oh, its new." Mercy said. "Mom and dad think its part of the mourning process. It won't last, its only a two wash color thing anyway. It'll be gone by tomorrow or the next day."
"Oh good. I was afraid you were going new goth." Bethany said.
"Forget it. Those people are so..."
"Depressing?" Bethany asked.
"No, cheerful." Mercy laughed. "A week or two I'll be in another stage. Lord knows what will happen."
"Indeed. How did you like the college graduation?" Bethany asked.
"I'm so glad that’s over." Mercy said to Bethany as they strolled around the pad. "Any more happy go lucky crud and I would have had to barfy warfy in the bushy wushy."
"Mercy..." Bethany said shaking her head though she couldn’t help laughing.
"I know. All this inspiration. The world is your oyster, you are its pearl. So far for me, its been the world is my toilet bowl, I am its turd." Mercy said.
Bethany laughed hard. "Well maybe you can be like the turd that no matter how you try, you can't flush it away."
"Hmmmm, yeah, there is some benefit to not being able to get rid of me." Mercy said.
"Ah come on, don't talk like that about yourself." Bethany said. "Its the sadness talking."
Mercy nodded.
"Let's get you into something comfy. I'm beginning to think you're trying out for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir." Mercy said referring to Bethanys graduation robes.
"Right." Bethany said. "I have this new outfit mom got me. Today is the perfect day for a test run."
Around the "bandstand" Roark and Micky set up his old drum kit. They also set up a couple of microphones and brought out a few guitars and other various equipment. Micky, Davy and Davis looked on as Roark tuned a guitar to perfection.
"Does your dad know what you're planning on doing?" Micky asked.
"He has an idea I want to go into this." Roark said.
"He isn’t going to be happy. You know how he feels about the music biz, especially since we never really made it." Davy said.
"That’s not even the kicker." Roark said standing up with his guitar. "I'm planning on quitting the firm to do this full time." He said with a smile on his face.
"He isn’t gonna like that." Davis said.
"I know. He wants me to have a real job. Get some real money, get married. But I don’t want to do that." Roark said. "He'll just have to put up or shut up. Its not like he can ground me or something."
Micky nodded.
"Maybe you will find that right girl then." Micky said. "Cause you never know."
"Right." Roark said. He looked up and saw Bethany come down the stairs with a beautiful new looking blue dress on. "You never do." He said quietly. Micky looked at what Roark was seeing. "You look great honey." He said.
"Thanks." Bethany said. "I'm afraid mom thought I was never gonna wear this dress. There was never the right moment for it."
"Speaking of moment, its time for your present." Roark said.
"What’s that?" Bethany asked.
"My band, the New Dreamers, are going to perform for the first time here at your party." Roark said. "The present for you is that you get to make the first request."
"Oh man." Bethany said slapping her head in mock frustration. Mercy rolled her eyes. "You know my favorite song."
"I do." He nodded.
"Then that’s what you play." Bethany said. "And if you don’t get it right the first time, you play it again."
"Then that’s just what I'll do for you." Roark said.
"Since when do you have a band?" Mercy asked.
"About four weeks ago." Roark said. "I answered an ad. They liked me so much they made me their lead singer. I hope it goes well. I'm making this my life long career, hopefully."
"When do you start?" Bethany asked.
"When my band gets here, which should be any minute now." Roark said.
"Great. I can hardly wait." Bethany said walking away. "Come on Mercy, we can get a drink while we wait."
"Sure." Mercy said.
"Davis?" Roark whispered to his buddy after they were out of earshot.
"Yeah?"
"What IS her favorite song?"
Davis shook his head and laughed. He bent over and whispered something in his ear.
"I knew that! I wanted to make sure." Roark said to him as he went back to his guitar. "I knew it. I really did know."
Minutes later Roark band mates arrived. Some had their own equipment with them. It took them a few minutes to hook up. In the meantime everyone gathered in the living room. They all became as comfortable as they could with the limited seating. Mike was one of the last ones to come in, and he spied Roark with his old guitar.
"What is he doing?" Mike asked.
"Apparently he’s going to sing a song." Karen said. "From what I hear this is Bethanys gift. An exclusive performance of his band."
"Band?" Mike grumbled under his breath. "I knew he was doing something in town, but I had no idea it was something this stupid."
"Mike..."
"I mean it, I thought he was going to do something useful with his life not waste it on this." Mike said.
"Look you, just cause it didn't happen for us here, doesn't mean that Roark cant take his own shot at it." Karen said.
"In the real world." Mike said. "Where you come from, how long did we last?"
"Three years. But that was because of problems with management, songs, and eventually each other." Karen said.
"What would you do?" Mike asked.
"I'd let him do it, if it works for him. Its his life. He's not our little Roarky anymore." Karen said. "He's young and wants something of his own, and I say we give it to him."
"Man, how he hated it when you called him Roarky." Mike said. He shook his head. "All right. Lets see what he can do."
"Ladies and gentleman." Roark said into the mike. "On this grand day of graduation, two in fact, I want to dedicate two songs. Auntie Livvie and Bethany both chose them. Cause Bethany is my good friend." He smiled at her. "Hers will be first. The first song performed by my band, the New Dreamers."
The crowd applauded as the first few notes of a song started to play, Bethanys song was by Creedance Clearwater Revival.
"There's a place up ahead and I'm goin' just as fast as my feet can fly
Come away, come away if you're goin', leave the sinkin' ship behind. Come on the risin' wind, we're goin' up around the bend." Roark sang. "Ooh!
Bring a song and a smile for the banjo, better get while the gettin's good,Hitch a ride to the end of the highway where the neons turn to
wood. Oooh!"
After the first lines Bethany and her friends started to dance. She grabbed Davis and twirled him around the room. He almost fell over the couch where Mercy was sitting. She caught him before he fell on her.
"Hey there." Davis said.
"Hey." Mercy said.
"After you miss." He said rising and extending his hand.
"No, I don't wanna..." Mercy said resisting.
"Come on, what’s the worst that can happen?"
"True." Mercy said. "All right."
Later
As Roark finished the second song, Livvies request was a Tom Petty song "Free Fallin'", she had become a fan of the singer a year or two ago, Roark took his guitar off and hopped off the bandstand. Bethany, her parents, and Roarks folks gathered around. The others mingled with the crowd.
"So that’s our sound." Roark said. "We've gonna use our own stuff naturally but today was more of a practice session." He said. "What did you think?"
"I loved it, Roark." Bethany said. She hugged him. "I'm honored you would play for us first."
"No problem." Roark said. "Thanks for letting me use the old band stuff, Mr. Dolenz."
"Enough of that Mr. Dolenz stuff. I feel like I'm running a candy store, or something. Call me Micky." Micky said. "You're welcome to it anytime you need it."
"Yeah." Chea nodded.
"Mom? Dad?" Roark said looking directly at his father.
"I think you did a great job. And those were hard songs to learn. Believe me, we tried them once." Karen said
"Dad?" Roark said still looking at his father. "You haven’t said anything yet."
"You did pretty...ok." Mike said slowly but his eyes were telling a different story. Even though he told Karen that he was willing to give Roark and his band a fair chance he clearly had different feelings about the topic. "Its not bad for a hobby or something son."
"A hobby." Roark said. "A hobby." He said again. "He thinks this is going to be a hobby."
"It should be a hobby, only that. Its very hard to make it in the music business at all. And these days are harder than ever." Mike said. "You should concentrate on what you're doing now, and keep this on the side."
"So that’s it." Roark said. "A side project? I don't want to do that. For me this isn’t just a side project. This isn’t a hobby like quilting or stamp collecting. I want music to be a part of my life dad."
"Guys, keep it down." Karen said through a stiff smile. "There is no need for something silly like this to ruin a perfectly fine day."
"Silly." Roark said. "Now its silly. My father is still telling me what to do even now. If I don't do it his way, its the highway right pop?" Roark said.
"Now, Roark you know what I meant..." Mike said holding out his hand.
"I know what you meant. Just give up. Is that it?" He said his voice rising, getting louder. The other guests in the living room turned to see what was going on. "Just because you were an utter failure at this doesn’t mean I can't try." He said. "If you don’t like it, you can stuff it!" He said angrily. He turned and ran out of the room. He roughly wiped his face with the back of his hand, to rid himself of the tears that started to form at the brim of his eyelids.
"Roark, come back! We can talk!" Karen yelled out to him.
"Talking is over!" Roark said at the door. He glared angrily at his father then walked down the stairs toward the ocean.
A few minutes later Roarks band was gone. Micky put the old instruments away in the attic. Mike sat on the couch with Karen. Chea as helping her mom clean up. Davy, Mercy and Brianna played a old board game, as Peter talked about school with Livvie and Davis.
"So now what do you want to do?" Karen asked.
"We can go back in the morning." Mike said.
"Okay." Karen nodded. She felt a tear coming to her eyes. Her baby was gone possibly forever from their lives.
"Karen, don't cry." Mike said. "Today was probably a long time a coming."
"I know." Karen said. "I know. But it still hurts."
Micky joined Chea and Bethany in the kitchen.
"Thank god that’s over, now things can go back to normal." Micky said.
"Yeah." Chea said.
"Hmm." Bethany said. "Someone should go after Roark. He must have cooled down by now."
"I dunno." Chea said. "Its getting dark, should you go alone?"
"I'll bring the others with me." Bethany said drying the last plate. "Mercy? Davis? Want to go for a walk?" She asked as she left the kitchen.
"Okay, but if its off a short pier I'm not interested." Mercy said. Davis looked at her. "You know, take a long walk off a short pier?"
"Ohhhh, ok." Davis said nodding at her.
"Come on." Bethany said. "It won't be light for much longer."
"All right." Mercy said. The trio headed for the door. Bethany pulled a windbreaker on, and Mercy and Davis pulled on some light coats they had at the ceremony.
"We'll be back." Bethany said waving.
"All right. Be careful." Chea said.
Bethany nodded and followed her friends out the door. A few beats passed. The silence was finally broken by Mike.
"I know what we should do." Mike said. "Speaking of a long time coming."
"What’s that?" Peter asked.
"Well I know we talked about this once, and we never brought it up again, but I think its time." Mike said looking into Karens eyes. "What do you think?"
"Time for what?" Karen asked. Mike sat forward and drank from his water glass. He looked at everyone, who now sat on the edge of their seat with baited breath.
"Time for them to know the truth." Mike said. "Its time to tell them."
"About...?" Micky said.
"You know." Mike said.
"What?" Micky asked. He thought on it a second. "Oh." Slowly but surely everyone realized what he meant.
"Its time." Mike said. "For them to know it all."
