Categories > Celebrities > Slipknot > Pain Lies on the Riverside
I Lost Myself In a Familiar Song
0 reviewsBasically Jim has a talk with his mother, and he convinces himself to meet some new people.
1Funny
Sometimes Sid plays his music to its full volume. Well, make that /most of the time/, unless he’s talking to someone. And even then...
Well, anyway, he’s just flipping the radio stations while keeping his eye on the road, but he’s unable to find anything. Jim already gave him the directions to his parents’ house, and it turns out that Sid’s been in that area many times, so driving there would be easy. Almost throughout the drive, neither says anything and soon it becomes awkward for Sid. So he asks with his eyes still on the road, “So are you new in this city, or...?”
Jim had been looking out of the window, or mostly just nothing, and was deep in thought. Sid broke him from his trance, and the tall man shrugs. “Oh, um...no. I’ve actually just moved back here some months ago,” he finally replies, not really looking at the younger man.
“Ah, okay. So I guess you got homesick, huh?” Sid almost smiles as he asks this.
Jim sighs deeply and uses his hand to keep his wind-blown hair away from his eyes. “No, circumstances brought me back here.”
“Ah, I hear you now. So what are you doing now that you’re back here?” Jim simply stares at him, wondering why the guy’s asking personal questions. Because, well, they just /met/, last time I checked. Fortunately, Sid realizes that was a personal question to ask, and he tries to explain himself. “I mean, I was just asking that because, well, I was hoping that I’d get to know you better.” Jim blinks at that. “Well, I mean...well, I tend to be friendly with a lot of people, and I always ask this shit.” Sid sighs. “Don’t mind me. You just got that cool vibe from you.”
Jim cracks a small smile, and he glances back at the road. “Thank you.”
“You’re not very talkative, are you?”
“Not, really no.”
“You wanna go down to this club?”
Jim simply stares at him at such a question. He hopes that the guy isn’t hitting on him. “Excuse me?”
“Well, you also seem like a lonely guy.”
Jim gives Sid a look. “I’m not a lonely person,” he simply says. “All of my friends are at where I used to live.”
“Well does it hurt to have friends here, too? I don’t think so. Just sayin.’ ”
Jim glances at Sid, and he shakes his head, trying to figure out how he can respond to that. Maybe this guy is right. The only folks outside his family he had interacted with since moving back here were his employer and co-workers at the car shop. And even then.... “Who are you to tell me that I need friends here? Because I don’t. I’m perfectly fine on my own. And I wish you’d stop asking me these personal questions. I don’t care if you’re a friendly guy. I don’t even know you. I didn’t even want you to take me home. I was going to take the bus back.” And he’s through.
“Okay fine,” Sid mutters, making a mental note not to open his big mouth again. He glances over at the street where Jim’s parents live and he turns to said street, waiting for Jim to tell him which house to stop at. When Jim does, Sid pulls the car over to the driveway. He sighs. “Well, here you are.”
Jim smiles faintly. “Thank you.”
“Mhm.” Sid then takes out a napkin from the glove compartment and a pen, and he writes a phone number, giving it to Jim. “That’s if you want to keep in touch.” Jim looks over at Sid, but he soon gives in and takes it. Sid smiles at the reaction. “That’s also if you change your mind about going to the club.”
Jim nods reluctantly and gets out of the car. His mother Kathy just happens to come out to the porch to see if there’s any mail in the mail box, when she sees Jim getting out of the car. She also see the younger man, and she sighs, not really amused. Jim waves as the car pulls from the driveway, before he turns around and sees his unhappy mother walking back inside the house. He then realizes what she thinks she saw. “Oh no,” he groans to himself, knowing exactly what she’s going to say. He steps inside the house, taking off his shoes—house rules—and he follows her into the kitchen, leaning against the door frame. He speaks, “Mom? It isn’t really what it looks like...at all.”
Kathy, however, refuses to listen to him. “Oh really? Then why would you let a random stranger take you home? Unless you just had a quickie with him.” She sighs miserably. “I was hoping that you had stopped doing that, dating random men for sexual gratification.” Jim rolls his eyes at this, letting her talk. He seriously hates these talks; it makes him feel as if he’s fifteen again. Everyday he regrets coming out to his parents when he was nineteen. Kathy even thought she was a bad mother. “And another thing!” she continues, “You said you still liked women...I haven’t seen you bring home a single girl when you were younger, and you never talked about any that you dated.” Tears well up in her eyes and Jim sighs sadly, wondering why she’s making a big deal about this. “I just want a grandchild that won’t turn into...well...” she turns to Jim and sighs, “your niece is pregnant.” Jim blinks at the news. “She’s going to end up as a failure just like her mother!” She sobs as she takes out a gallon of milk. “And I just want you to have a child and raise him or her right.” She adds, “And don’t even dare mention adopting. /That ain’t the same thing/!”
Jim finally speaks, “Are you finished? Can I say something?”
“I’ll probably interrupt you.”
“That guy and I did not do anything.”
“But I bet you’re going to.”
Jim sighs. “No, not really. I’m not really thinking about dating anyone. That one night, when I was nineteen? That guy I brought home? That was a one time thing and you knew that...”
“That guy was a lot older than you.”
“Only by three years.”
“And now you’re going to prey on young boys now!” She wells up in tears again. “Oh god. My son’s going to be a pedophile!”
Jim scoffs at such a ludicrous idea. “What?! Why in the hell would I be that?!”
“Only your father and I are allowed to say ‘hell’ in this house.”
“I’m sorry. Why would I do that?” Jim gives up, then. He knows he’s not going to win the argument, just like how he ironically didn’t win the argument about what an uncle did to him when he was thirteen; neither of his parents believed him. He sighs. “You know what? Forget it. I just haven’t found the right woman yet. I know I will one day. I don’t really like kids, either.” Kathy simply sniffles, pouring milk in the cup before she reaches for her sugar-free cookies. She doesn’t even look at him now. Jim says nothing else and walks over to the basement, where he sleeps. He really hates being that guy in his mid-thirties who is living in his parents’ house.
He resolves not to go back up for dinner in the evening. He knows that Kathy’s probably going to tell his father about what happened. He ends up falling asleep on the couch, waking up hours later at 10:37.
He is pretty hungry, but he doubts Kathy left anything. He suddenly glances at Sid’s phone number, thinking about what the guy said to him earlier that day. Maybe it would be nice to hang out with Sid, Charlie and Lorraine. And maybe they have other friends around. He takes a deep breath and takes out his cellphone, dialing his number. He waits for awhile before Sid finally answers.
“Hello?”
“Um...” Jim sighs, not sure why his heart’s pounding. “Hi, Sid, this is Jim. I just wanted to know where that club is again.”
______________________________________________
Michael Shawn Crahan, a former musician, transformed an abandoned building into a club in 2004 for young hopefuls looking to make it big in the music business. It was also a place for people young and old to hang out. The Safari Club is significant because the bands performing there were from the heavy metal genre (though some indie musicians play in this as well), and he’s seen many musicians come out with interesting concepts and magic in their music. And that’s what he wants, to see if these bands will transform the music industry. He noticed how bad the state of music was as far bas as the early 90s; for an example, cover bands. That’s why all the bands had to write their own music to play in his club, kind of like what CBGBs required back in the 1970s.
About a year ago, his wife convinced him to open the club in the daytime as well, but as a place for coffee. Shawn reluctantly agreed; he didn’t want The Safari Club to be like motherfreakin’ Starbucks. Fortunately it isn’t. It’s a little more money for profit, something needed when this is his only source of income now. His wife works too, so they’re able to support their children.
Well, when there aren’t any bands performing, usually someone would bring rock or metal music and people would live off that. Such as tonight. Sid walks inside and brings a couple classic rock CDs to play in. Sid does this every Thursday night. Some others contribute as well. Sid goes in to knock on the door to Shawn’s room, and the door opens. Shawn blinks at the four CDs in Sid’s hand. “What’s this?” he simply asks.
“I got Rush, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Boston.”
Shawn smiles faintly, leaning against the door frame. “You brought three of those the last time.”
“Well, people like this stuff now. You want Gorgoroth? Go ask Joey for that.” At that Sid heads out to the mini backstage and puts in the Rush CD.
Meanwhile, a very short man enters the club, and he looks rather eager for a drink. His job in a television show stresses him beyond belief to the point where drinks and sex make it better. He sits over at the bar, and Lorraine comes out and grins. “Oh hi, Joey. You look tired.”
The man known as Joey sighs and shakes his head. “I think I should sue for sexual harassment,” he mutters. “This woman just won’t leave me a lone. And I swear the TV host has been making eye contact lately.”
“Awww, poor baby.” She reaches over and pet’s Joey hair, and Joey simply looks at her, disturbed. “It’s not like you can’t tell them that you don’t like poontang.”
Joey simply asks, “Is that medicine all right for you?”
“I don’t know, but the doctor told me to take it anyway.
“Plus, Robert has been fucking stalking me lately, calling our apartment. Mick threatened to call the police the next time he calls.”
“Awww.”
“So, it’s pretty fucked up. I guess I’m hiding...” Joey chuckles dryly, staring down at the counter. “I hope he doesn’t show up here.”
“Well, hey, you can hang out with Charlie and Corey. And I did see Sid just a few minutes earlier. I should tell you about this guy that got hit by a car.” Yeah, she still believes that.
“Yeah, I’m not hanging out with them.”
Lorraine puts her hands on her hips at that response, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not still mad at what happened last week, are you? Man, you men like to hold grudges, I swear. What do you want to drink?”
“Smirnoff?”
“Okay then...”
While Lorraine goes and fixes Joey a glass of Smirnoff, Jim cautiously peeks inside, wondering if he should go in or not. Well, he did tell Sid that he’d be here. And here he is. What ends up bringing him inside is another call from his mother. He dies not want to deal with her. He did tell her he’d be out, though. A man behind him taps at his shoulder. “Are you gonna go in or not, man?” he asks, annoyed. Jim gives him a look before stepping inside.
Immediately after, Lorraine gives Joey his drink, and she looks up. “Hey! It’s that guy!” Joey looks up at her, confused. Lorraine waves as high as she can so Jim can see her. Jim does, and he smiles, happy to see a familiar (?) face. “James, right?” she asks as he sits next to Joey. “I’m so glad you’re here! How was your stay at the hospital?”
“Huh? I didn—” Of course he soon remembers their conversation that afternoon. “Oh, um, it was great. They took real care of me.”
“Well good.” She turns to Joey. “Joey, this is James Root. He’s the guy we met earlier,” And by “we,” she meant her, Sid and Charlie. “Jim, this is our friend Joey Jordison.”
Joey looks up and down Jim. He can’t help himself, though. He does look attractive, and tall guys often come with big sizes. It doesn’t help that he usually has a big for big guys anyway. He pretends to not care, though. Well, actually, he doesn’t care. He isn’t in the mood for sex anyway. “Hey,” he simply says before he gets right back to drinking.
Jim clears his throat at the awkward greeting. “Um, hi,” he simply says, feeling slightly intimidated by Joey already.
Lorraine says, “Come sit with us. I’ll give you a free drink tonight.”
Jim smiles at Lorraine’s offer. “No, you don’t have to. I’ll pay.”
“Just pay me back next week. What would you like? Beer? Liquor?”
“Do you have Budweiser?”
Lorraine slowly giggles at him. “You really are a cutie,” she says before going over to give him a bottle. Jim thanks her afterward, and Sid walks over to the bar, blinking at the sight of Jim. He grins.
“You finally fucking made it, man.” He’d give him the homie-hug, but they don’t know each other that well.
Lorraine grins. “He said that the hospital treated him well.”
Sid simply stares her at that, and he then glances at Joey. “Hey, what’s up?”
Joey glances at Sid before shrugging. “Shit happened.”
Sid smirks before he leans against Jim, whispering. “Joey’s got a stalker.” Jim raises any eyebrow at that but nods anyway. He glances at one of the CDs that Sid has in his hand. He smiles.
“Boston, huh?”
Sid blinks and looks down at it. “Oh, uh yeah. Every Thursday night, unless we have a band play here, we play the classics. I mean, this isn’t a rave club or shit like tat. We play rock and metal.”
Jim smiles at that. “Wow, tat is interesting.”
“It is.”
Lorraine sighs. “Yeah, well I worry about that new club that opened two weeks ago.”
Joey looks up at that. “Yeah, you guys told us about that. Who’s the guy again?”
Sid replies, “His name is Geraldo. From Los Angeles, and the club is like, fucking Hollywood, man. Like /The L Word/.”
“...”
“Well, anyway, it’s a pretty standard Hollywood nightclub. I really hope it doesn’t’ put Shawn out of business.”
“If it does,” Joey begins, “I swear all hell will break lose. I’m not gonna let this Geraldo asshole ruin this club. We all chipped in to help it thrive.” A man comes over to Joey, then.
“Hey, Joey,” he says, leaning against the counter close to the short man and smiling, his smile harboring a hint of want. He whispers, “I was thinking, you know, if you wanted to go back to my place again tonight.”
Joey simply blinks at him. He then pushes the guy away, utterly disgusted. “No, man! Now fuck off!” The man mutters something a long the lines of, “slut,” and walks off.
Jim looks over at the three of them, confused as to what the fuck they were talking about. Sid glances at Jim. “I’ll explain later. How did you get here?”
“Bus,” he simply replies. He then gestures at the Boston CD. “So are you gonna play that?”
Sid looks at Jim suspiciously. “Yeah, why?”
“I was hoping you can put on /More Than a Feeling/,” Jim replies. “I was thinking about it and...you know...”
Sid simply stares a Jim, who immediately regrets asking such a request. The younger man then turns to Lorraine. “Is he here?”
Lorraine replies, “Yes.”
“Shit.” He then turns to Jim. “Yeah, there’s this guy here and he doesn’t want to listen to that song.”
Jim raises an eyebrow at that. “Is he your employer?”
“Um...no?”
“Well, then I don’t see why you can’t play the song just once.”
Sid smirks at Jim, shaking his head at him. “Wow, you...first you tell me not to talk to you, and then you make me want to play a song I could get my ass kicked for. You haven’t even apologized to me.” Well, Jim...Sid makes a good point.
“All right,” Jim sighs, realizing that he should’ve done that. “I do apologize for snapping at you about the personal questions.”
Sid takes a moment to reply, “You’re forgiven.”
“/Now/ can you play the song for me?” Jim grins at him.
Sid snots and shakes his head, walking over to the back to put the CD in. Lorraine simply exchange looks with Joey. “Oh, he’ll learn,” she whispers before More Than a Feeling begins playing. Sid walks back over to the guys, and he smirks at Jim as he sits on a stool.
“You’re welcome,” he says.
Jim smiles. “Thank you, Sid.”
Sid sighs. “Well I should leave soon. I need to see if anyone called me. No one has responded to my ad for a roommate, yet.” Jim blinks at that.
“You’re looking for a roommate?”
Sid looks over at him. “Yeah, why?”
Before Jim can answer, someone suddenly shouts, “Where the fuck is Sid?!” One can hear people yelping because the man was pushing them roughly out of the way. “He’s so fucking retarded, I just want to—” The short, medium-build man with the short blond hair stops as he spots Sid and walks over, slapping the younger man on the back of the head. “How many fucking times do I have to tell you never to play that song, man?! Are you retarded?”
Sid growls. “You know, you’re lucky we’re in here in front of all these people, or we’d throwdown. And besides,” he points to Jim, “/he/ made me play the fucking song! I tried to warn him that you wouldn’t like it.”
As soon as the shorter man glances over at Jim, he immediately blinks at him, shocked at his presence. He bites his lip and his facial expression softens. “Oh...” he simply says quietly, unsure if he should walk closer or not. Jim, likewise, blinks at the guy as well, utterly surprised to see him here as well. One is not able to tell if he’s amused to see the guy or not. He doesn’t smile though, and suddenly memories flood his mind. The same thing happens to the shorter man as well. Neither of them knows what to say to the other. Eventually, the shorter man breaks the silence between them. “Hey, Jim.”
Jim simply replies softly, looking down at his own knees for a moment, “H-hey Corey....”
Sid glances between Jim and the man known as Corey. Lorraine does as well, and she whispers to Sid, “I think they know each other.”
Sid simply turns to Lorraine. “Thank you, Madame Obvious.”
Corey hears that. He smiles a little. “Fuck yeah. I mean, he and I go WAY back. I think it was in 1994 or something?”
“1992 or ‘93,” Jim simply replies, sipping his beer.
Sid sighs. “Well, then we don’t need any introductions.” He then looks over at Corey. “I already introduced him to these guys and Charlie.”
“Cool,” Corey replies. He then smiles a little at Jim. “You wanna come and drink with us? I mean me and Charlie?”
Jim thinks it’s too soon. “No, um...I’ll be fine here.”
Corey nods slowly, glancing at his shoes. “I...I just want to know why you came back,” he says softly, looking back at Jim.
Jim simply replies, “Circumstances.”
“I see.” He takes a deep breath and then glances at Joey. “Hey, lady, wh—”
“Fuck you,” Joey simply mutters.
“O/kay/ then. I’m going back to Charlie. See you guys later.” At that, Corey walks out back to the other side of the club. Sid immediately follows.
“Hey, Corey? I need to ask you something,” the man says as he leaves.
Jim lets out a shaky sigh, drinking his beer again. Yeah, he really wasn’t expecting to see Corey so soon, even though he’s been in the city for some months now. Lorraine then turns to Joey. “So Mick isn’t coming tonight?”
Joey shakes his head. “No, he’s busy.”
Lorraine simply laughs at that as if it’s a joke. “/Sure/ he is. Well, Chris couldn’t make it tonight, either, and who knows where Craig is.”
“He’s at home.”
“Of course.”
Suddenly, a man with an acoustic guitar steps up on the stage and brings the mic stand closer to him. He clears his throat. “Hey, can you turn off the music?” Someone turns off the music to Boston. “Thank you....um...good evening.” People stop to look up at him. “My name is Robert and I...” he sighs, “I’m madly in love with someone.” Joey simply looks over at the guy, horrified.
“Oh god no!” he groans.
“And...” Robert stops for a moment and looks around until he spots Joey. “Ah! There he is!” He shouts, “Can someone get a spotlight over to him? He’s right there at the bar next to the bartender!” The spotlight finally hits an extremely humiliated Joey. “There we go.” Joey simply looks away from everyone, while Lorraine and Jim simply look at each other. One can hear Sid, Charlie and Corey already laughing their asses off. Robert continues. “I want to dedicate this song to this man that I’m just utterly in love with.”
“Pleasedon’tsaymyname.../please/don’tsaymname...” Joey prays.
“Joey Jordison!”
Joey groans, wanting to just die. Robert then begins strumming on his guitar to the tune of Lola by the Kinks. He then begins to sing, “Well, I met him in a club down in old Safari, where you drink champagne and it taste just like cherry.../...um.../snowy! S.N.O.W.Y—snowy!” Several people start laughing as well as the fiasco, and even Shawn comes out to see what was going on. He blinks at the scene before him. Robert continues to sing, “He walked up to me, and he asked me to dance. I asked him his name and in a dark brown voice he said, ‘Joey!’ J.O.E.Y— Joey! Ja-ja-ja-ja-Joey!” To make things even more awful, he begins vocalizing.
“What...the.../hell/?” is all Shawn can say to this. It doesn’t help poor Joey at all that the other guys are laughing even harder at the sheer awfulness. In fact Corey laughs so hard, that his chair flipped backwards.
Jim can’t help but chuckle a little at the guy singing terribly. He does look over at Joey...except the short man had already left. Yeah, somehow he managed to slink away and out of the club. Short people have that kind of advantage.
Well, anyway, he’s just flipping the radio stations while keeping his eye on the road, but he’s unable to find anything. Jim already gave him the directions to his parents’ house, and it turns out that Sid’s been in that area many times, so driving there would be easy. Almost throughout the drive, neither says anything and soon it becomes awkward for Sid. So he asks with his eyes still on the road, “So are you new in this city, or...?”
Jim had been looking out of the window, or mostly just nothing, and was deep in thought. Sid broke him from his trance, and the tall man shrugs. “Oh, um...no. I’ve actually just moved back here some months ago,” he finally replies, not really looking at the younger man.
“Ah, okay. So I guess you got homesick, huh?” Sid almost smiles as he asks this.
Jim sighs deeply and uses his hand to keep his wind-blown hair away from his eyes. “No, circumstances brought me back here.”
“Ah, I hear you now. So what are you doing now that you’re back here?” Jim simply stares at him, wondering why the guy’s asking personal questions. Because, well, they just /met/, last time I checked. Fortunately, Sid realizes that was a personal question to ask, and he tries to explain himself. “I mean, I was just asking that because, well, I was hoping that I’d get to know you better.” Jim blinks at that. “Well, I mean...well, I tend to be friendly with a lot of people, and I always ask this shit.” Sid sighs. “Don’t mind me. You just got that cool vibe from you.”
Jim cracks a small smile, and he glances back at the road. “Thank you.”
“You’re not very talkative, are you?”
“Not, really no.”
“You wanna go down to this club?”
Jim simply stares at him at such a question. He hopes that the guy isn’t hitting on him. “Excuse me?”
“Well, you also seem like a lonely guy.”
Jim gives Sid a look. “I’m not a lonely person,” he simply says. “All of my friends are at where I used to live.”
“Well does it hurt to have friends here, too? I don’t think so. Just sayin.’ ”
Jim glances at Sid, and he shakes his head, trying to figure out how he can respond to that. Maybe this guy is right. The only folks outside his family he had interacted with since moving back here were his employer and co-workers at the car shop. And even then.... “Who are you to tell me that I need friends here? Because I don’t. I’m perfectly fine on my own. And I wish you’d stop asking me these personal questions. I don’t care if you’re a friendly guy. I don’t even know you. I didn’t even want you to take me home. I was going to take the bus back.” And he’s through.
“Okay fine,” Sid mutters, making a mental note not to open his big mouth again. He glances over at the street where Jim’s parents live and he turns to said street, waiting for Jim to tell him which house to stop at. When Jim does, Sid pulls the car over to the driveway. He sighs. “Well, here you are.”
Jim smiles faintly. “Thank you.”
“Mhm.” Sid then takes out a napkin from the glove compartment and a pen, and he writes a phone number, giving it to Jim. “That’s if you want to keep in touch.” Jim looks over at Sid, but he soon gives in and takes it. Sid smiles at the reaction. “That’s also if you change your mind about going to the club.”
Jim nods reluctantly and gets out of the car. His mother Kathy just happens to come out to the porch to see if there’s any mail in the mail box, when she sees Jim getting out of the car. She also see the younger man, and she sighs, not really amused. Jim waves as the car pulls from the driveway, before he turns around and sees his unhappy mother walking back inside the house. He then realizes what she thinks she saw. “Oh no,” he groans to himself, knowing exactly what she’s going to say. He steps inside the house, taking off his shoes—house rules—and he follows her into the kitchen, leaning against the door frame. He speaks, “Mom? It isn’t really what it looks like...at all.”
Kathy, however, refuses to listen to him. “Oh really? Then why would you let a random stranger take you home? Unless you just had a quickie with him.” She sighs miserably. “I was hoping that you had stopped doing that, dating random men for sexual gratification.” Jim rolls his eyes at this, letting her talk. He seriously hates these talks; it makes him feel as if he’s fifteen again. Everyday he regrets coming out to his parents when he was nineteen. Kathy even thought she was a bad mother. “And another thing!” she continues, “You said you still liked women...I haven’t seen you bring home a single girl when you were younger, and you never talked about any that you dated.” Tears well up in her eyes and Jim sighs sadly, wondering why she’s making a big deal about this. “I just want a grandchild that won’t turn into...well...” she turns to Jim and sighs, “your niece is pregnant.” Jim blinks at the news. “She’s going to end up as a failure just like her mother!” She sobs as she takes out a gallon of milk. “And I just want you to have a child and raise him or her right.” She adds, “And don’t even dare mention adopting. /That ain’t the same thing/!”
Jim finally speaks, “Are you finished? Can I say something?”
“I’ll probably interrupt you.”
“That guy and I did not do anything.”
“But I bet you’re going to.”
Jim sighs. “No, not really. I’m not really thinking about dating anyone. That one night, when I was nineteen? That guy I brought home? That was a one time thing and you knew that...”
“That guy was a lot older than you.”
“Only by three years.”
“And now you’re going to prey on young boys now!” She wells up in tears again. “Oh god. My son’s going to be a pedophile!”
Jim scoffs at such a ludicrous idea. “What?! Why in the hell would I be that?!”
“Only your father and I are allowed to say ‘hell’ in this house.”
“I’m sorry. Why would I do that?” Jim gives up, then. He knows he’s not going to win the argument, just like how he ironically didn’t win the argument about what an uncle did to him when he was thirteen; neither of his parents believed him. He sighs. “You know what? Forget it. I just haven’t found the right woman yet. I know I will one day. I don’t really like kids, either.” Kathy simply sniffles, pouring milk in the cup before she reaches for her sugar-free cookies. She doesn’t even look at him now. Jim says nothing else and walks over to the basement, where he sleeps. He really hates being that guy in his mid-thirties who is living in his parents’ house.
He resolves not to go back up for dinner in the evening. He knows that Kathy’s probably going to tell his father about what happened. He ends up falling asleep on the couch, waking up hours later at 10:37.
He is pretty hungry, but he doubts Kathy left anything. He suddenly glances at Sid’s phone number, thinking about what the guy said to him earlier that day. Maybe it would be nice to hang out with Sid, Charlie and Lorraine. And maybe they have other friends around. He takes a deep breath and takes out his cellphone, dialing his number. He waits for awhile before Sid finally answers.
“Hello?”
“Um...” Jim sighs, not sure why his heart’s pounding. “Hi, Sid, this is Jim. I just wanted to know where that club is again.”
______________________________________________
Michael Shawn Crahan, a former musician, transformed an abandoned building into a club in 2004 for young hopefuls looking to make it big in the music business. It was also a place for people young and old to hang out. The Safari Club is significant because the bands performing there were from the heavy metal genre (though some indie musicians play in this as well), and he’s seen many musicians come out with interesting concepts and magic in their music. And that’s what he wants, to see if these bands will transform the music industry. He noticed how bad the state of music was as far bas as the early 90s; for an example, cover bands. That’s why all the bands had to write their own music to play in his club, kind of like what CBGBs required back in the 1970s.
About a year ago, his wife convinced him to open the club in the daytime as well, but as a place for coffee. Shawn reluctantly agreed; he didn’t want The Safari Club to be like motherfreakin’ Starbucks. Fortunately it isn’t. It’s a little more money for profit, something needed when this is his only source of income now. His wife works too, so they’re able to support their children.
Well, when there aren’t any bands performing, usually someone would bring rock or metal music and people would live off that. Such as tonight. Sid walks inside and brings a couple classic rock CDs to play in. Sid does this every Thursday night. Some others contribute as well. Sid goes in to knock on the door to Shawn’s room, and the door opens. Shawn blinks at the four CDs in Sid’s hand. “What’s this?” he simply asks.
“I got Rush, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Boston.”
Shawn smiles faintly, leaning against the door frame. “You brought three of those the last time.”
“Well, people like this stuff now. You want Gorgoroth? Go ask Joey for that.” At that Sid heads out to the mini backstage and puts in the Rush CD.
Meanwhile, a very short man enters the club, and he looks rather eager for a drink. His job in a television show stresses him beyond belief to the point where drinks and sex make it better. He sits over at the bar, and Lorraine comes out and grins. “Oh hi, Joey. You look tired.”
The man known as Joey sighs and shakes his head. “I think I should sue for sexual harassment,” he mutters. “This woman just won’t leave me a lone. And I swear the TV host has been making eye contact lately.”
“Awww, poor baby.” She reaches over and pet’s Joey hair, and Joey simply looks at her, disturbed. “It’s not like you can’t tell them that you don’t like poontang.”
Joey simply asks, “Is that medicine all right for you?”
“I don’t know, but the doctor told me to take it anyway.
“Plus, Robert has been fucking stalking me lately, calling our apartment. Mick threatened to call the police the next time he calls.”
“Awww.”
“So, it’s pretty fucked up. I guess I’m hiding...” Joey chuckles dryly, staring down at the counter. “I hope he doesn’t show up here.”
“Well, hey, you can hang out with Charlie and Corey. And I did see Sid just a few minutes earlier. I should tell you about this guy that got hit by a car.” Yeah, she still believes that.
“Yeah, I’m not hanging out with them.”
Lorraine puts her hands on her hips at that response, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not still mad at what happened last week, are you? Man, you men like to hold grudges, I swear. What do you want to drink?”
“Smirnoff?”
“Okay then...”
While Lorraine goes and fixes Joey a glass of Smirnoff, Jim cautiously peeks inside, wondering if he should go in or not. Well, he did tell Sid that he’d be here. And here he is. What ends up bringing him inside is another call from his mother. He dies not want to deal with her. He did tell her he’d be out, though. A man behind him taps at his shoulder. “Are you gonna go in or not, man?” he asks, annoyed. Jim gives him a look before stepping inside.
Immediately after, Lorraine gives Joey his drink, and she looks up. “Hey! It’s that guy!” Joey looks up at her, confused. Lorraine waves as high as she can so Jim can see her. Jim does, and he smiles, happy to see a familiar (?) face. “James, right?” she asks as he sits next to Joey. “I’m so glad you’re here! How was your stay at the hospital?”
“Huh? I didn—” Of course he soon remembers their conversation that afternoon. “Oh, um, it was great. They took real care of me.”
“Well good.” She turns to Joey. “Joey, this is James Root. He’s the guy we met earlier,” And by “we,” she meant her, Sid and Charlie. “Jim, this is our friend Joey Jordison.”
Joey looks up and down Jim. He can’t help himself, though. He does look attractive, and tall guys often come with big sizes. It doesn’t help that he usually has a big for big guys anyway. He pretends to not care, though. Well, actually, he doesn’t care. He isn’t in the mood for sex anyway. “Hey,” he simply says before he gets right back to drinking.
Jim clears his throat at the awkward greeting. “Um, hi,” he simply says, feeling slightly intimidated by Joey already.
Lorraine says, “Come sit with us. I’ll give you a free drink tonight.”
Jim smiles at Lorraine’s offer. “No, you don’t have to. I’ll pay.”
“Just pay me back next week. What would you like? Beer? Liquor?”
“Do you have Budweiser?”
Lorraine slowly giggles at him. “You really are a cutie,” she says before going over to give him a bottle. Jim thanks her afterward, and Sid walks over to the bar, blinking at the sight of Jim. He grins.
“You finally fucking made it, man.” He’d give him the homie-hug, but they don’t know each other that well.
Lorraine grins. “He said that the hospital treated him well.”
Sid simply stares her at that, and he then glances at Joey. “Hey, what’s up?”
Joey glances at Sid before shrugging. “Shit happened.”
Sid smirks before he leans against Jim, whispering. “Joey’s got a stalker.” Jim raises any eyebrow at that but nods anyway. He glances at one of the CDs that Sid has in his hand. He smiles.
“Boston, huh?”
Sid blinks and looks down at it. “Oh, uh yeah. Every Thursday night, unless we have a band play here, we play the classics. I mean, this isn’t a rave club or shit like tat. We play rock and metal.”
Jim smiles at that. “Wow, tat is interesting.”
“It is.”
Lorraine sighs. “Yeah, well I worry about that new club that opened two weeks ago.”
Joey looks up at that. “Yeah, you guys told us about that. Who’s the guy again?”
Sid replies, “His name is Geraldo. From Los Angeles, and the club is like, fucking Hollywood, man. Like /The L Word/.”
“...”
“Well, anyway, it’s a pretty standard Hollywood nightclub. I really hope it doesn’t’ put Shawn out of business.”
“If it does,” Joey begins, “I swear all hell will break lose. I’m not gonna let this Geraldo asshole ruin this club. We all chipped in to help it thrive.” A man comes over to Joey, then.
“Hey, Joey,” he says, leaning against the counter close to the short man and smiling, his smile harboring a hint of want. He whispers, “I was thinking, you know, if you wanted to go back to my place again tonight.”
Joey simply blinks at him. He then pushes the guy away, utterly disgusted. “No, man! Now fuck off!” The man mutters something a long the lines of, “slut,” and walks off.
Jim looks over at the three of them, confused as to what the fuck they were talking about. Sid glances at Jim. “I’ll explain later. How did you get here?”
“Bus,” he simply replies. He then gestures at the Boston CD. “So are you gonna play that?”
Sid looks at Jim suspiciously. “Yeah, why?”
“I was hoping you can put on /More Than a Feeling/,” Jim replies. “I was thinking about it and...you know...”
Sid simply stares a Jim, who immediately regrets asking such a request. The younger man then turns to Lorraine. “Is he here?”
Lorraine replies, “Yes.”
“Shit.” He then turns to Jim. “Yeah, there’s this guy here and he doesn’t want to listen to that song.”
Jim raises an eyebrow at that. “Is he your employer?”
“Um...no?”
“Well, then I don’t see why you can’t play the song just once.”
Sid smirks at Jim, shaking his head at him. “Wow, you...first you tell me not to talk to you, and then you make me want to play a song I could get my ass kicked for. You haven’t even apologized to me.” Well, Jim...Sid makes a good point.
“All right,” Jim sighs, realizing that he should’ve done that. “I do apologize for snapping at you about the personal questions.”
Sid takes a moment to reply, “You’re forgiven.”
“/Now/ can you play the song for me?” Jim grins at him.
Sid snots and shakes his head, walking over to the back to put the CD in. Lorraine simply exchange looks with Joey. “Oh, he’ll learn,” she whispers before More Than a Feeling begins playing. Sid walks back over to the guys, and he smirks at Jim as he sits on a stool.
“You’re welcome,” he says.
Jim smiles. “Thank you, Sid.”
Sid sighs. “Well I should leave soon. I need to see if anyone called me. No one has responded to my ad for a roommate, yet.” Jim blinks at that.
“You’re looking for a roommate?”
Sid looks over at him. “Yeah, why?”
Before Jim can answer, someone suddenly shouts, “Where the fuck is Sid?!” One can hear people yelping because the man was pushing them roughly out of the way. “He’s so fucking retarded, I just want to—” The short, medium-build man with the short blond hair stops as he spots Sid and walks over, slapping the younger man on the back of the head. “How many fucking times do I have to tell you never to play that song, man?! Are you retarded?”
Sid growls. “You know, you’re lucky we’re in here in front of all these people, or we’d throwdown. And besides,” he points to Jim, “/he/ made me play the fucking song! I tried to warn him that you wouldn’t like it.”
As soon as the shorter man glances over at Jim, he immediately blinks at him, shocked at his presence. He bites his lip and his facial expression softens. “Oh...” he simply says quietly, unsure if he should walk closer or not. Jim, likewise, blinks at the guy as well, utterly surprised to see him here as well. One is not able to tell if he’s amused to see the guy or not. He doesn’t smile though, and suddenly memories flood his mind. The same thing happens to the shorter man as well. Neither of them knows what to say to the other. Eventually, the shorter man breaks the silence between them. “Hey, Jim.”
Jim simply replies softly, looking down at his own knees for a moment, “H-hey Corey....”
Sid glances between Jim and the man known as Corey. Lorraine does as well, and she whispers to Sid, “I think they know each other.”
Sid simply turns to Lorraine. “Thank you, Madame Obvious.”
Corey hears that. He smiles a little. “Fuck yeah. I mean, he and I go WAY back. I think it was in 1994 or something?”
“1992 or ‘93,” Jim simply replies, sipping his beer.
Sid sighs. “Well, then we don’t need any introductions.” He then looks over at Corey. “I already introduced him to these guys and Charlie.”
“Cool,” Corey replies. He then smiles a little at Jim. “You wanna come and drink with us? I mean me and Charlie?”
Jim thinks it’s too soon. “No, um...I’ll be fine here.”
Corey nods slowly, glancing at his shoes. “I...I just want to know why you came back,” he says softly, looking back at Jim.
Jim simply replies, “Circumstances.”
“I see.” He takes a deep breath and then glances at Joey. “Hey, lady, wh—”
“Fuck you,” Joey simply mutters.
“O/kay/ then. I’m going back to Charlie. See you guys later.” At that, Corey walks out back to the other side of the club. Sid immediately follows.
“Hey, Corey? I need to ask you something,” the man says as he leaves.
Jim lets out a shaky sigh, drinking his beer again. Yeah, he really wasn’t expecting to see Corey so soon, even though he’s been in the city for some months now. Lorraine then turns to Joey. “So Mick isn’t coming tonight?”
Joey shakes his head. “No, he’s busy.”
Lorraine simply laughs at that as if it’s a joke. “/Sure/ he is. Well, Chris couldn’t make it tonight, either, and who knows where Craig is.”
“He’s at home.”
“Of course.”
Suddenly, a man with an acoustic guitar steps up on the stage and brings the mic stand closer to him. He clears his throat. “Hey, can you turn off the music?” Someone turns off the music to Boston. “Thank you....um...good evening.” People stop to look up at him. “My name is Robert and I...” he sighs, “I’m madly in love with someone.” Joey simply looks over at the guy, horrified.
“Oh god no!” he groans.
“And...” Robert stops for a moment and looks around until he spots Joey. “Ah! There he is!” He shouts, “Can someone get a spotlight over to him? He’s right there at the bar next to the bartender!” The spotlight finally hits an extremely humiliated Joey. “There we go.” Joey simply looks away from everyone, while Lorraine and Jim simply look at each other. One can hear Sid, Charlie and Corey already laughing their asses off. Robert continues. “I want to dedicate this song to this man that I’m just utterly in love with.”
“Pleasedon’tsaymyname.../please/don’tsaymname...” Joey prays.
“Joey Jordison!”
Joey groans, wanting to just die. Robert then begins strumming on his guitar to the tune of Lola by the Kinks. He then begins to sing, “Well, I met him in a club down in old Safari, where you drink champagne and it taste just like cherry.../...um.../snowy! S.N.O.W.Y—snowy!” Several people start laughing as well as the fiasco, and even Shawn comes out to see what was going on. He blinks at the scene before him. Robert continues to sing, “He walked up to me, and he asked me to dance. I asked him his name and in a dark brown voice he said, ‘Joey!’ J.O.E.Y— Joey! Ja-ja-ja-ja-Joey!” To make things even more awful, he begins vocalizing.
“What...the.../hell/?” is all Shawn can say to this. It doesn’t help poor Joey at all that the other guys are laughing even harder at the sheer awfulness. In fact Corey laughs so hard, that his chair flipped backwards.
Jim can’t help but chuckle a little at the guy singing terribly. He does look over at Joey...except the short man had already left. Yeah, somehow he managed to slink away and out of the club. Short people have that kind of advantage.
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