“Andrea, let me ask you something,” the woman with the drink in her hand said as she sat down. Her blonde hair was wrapped up in a tight ponytail and offered her flowing hair no freedom. Andrea glanced up from her drink and looked over at her older sister.
“Hit me, Sam,” Andrea responded by using the very nickname that Samantha hated. She felt the cold stare against her skin, but it didn’t remain for long as Samantha handed her the drink she had come back with.
“How is it that not only did Sarah find us, but she managed to actually get in through the front door? She’s seventeen years old. This is what’s wrong with America.” Andrea slowly nodded her head while her brown eyes landed upon her younger sister who casually sat down at the table.
“Hey guys,” Sarah spoke in a rather cheerful tone and dropped her tan Coach purse onto the table as her eyes scanned the room around her. The place wasn’t exactly beaming with upper-class clientele, but it also wasn’t a trashy place. At the end of the day, this place could only be described as being here. The management did everything to keep it clean, but it wasn’t a place that you would come to unless there was nothing else in town.
In Lebec, California, this was it though.
“Look,” Samantha pointed a finger at her sister. “I don’t know what you’re even doing here or how you got in here, but you shouldn’t be here.”
Sarah looked over at her other sister for some assistance. “So not saving your ass right now. My mind is focused on something else.” More like the reason why they were here on this particular evening. Any of these three ladies, Sarah included, could be caught in one of the higher-end clubs in Los Angeles. So what was it that brought these three ladies here?
“Just because the two of you seem to think you’re so much older than me—“
“Um, we are, but thanks for calling us old.”
Andrea looked over at Samantha. “Speak for yourself. I’m still very young and can get anyone in this place.”
“Yeah, if they don’t have a penis and enjoy girls as well.” Andrea’s eyes immediately shot to Sarah who instantly regretted everything she just said. “So, enough about Andrea, let’s focus back on the two of you trying to ditch me. How did you even find him?”
Samantha stuck her thumb over at Andrea who was trying to enjoy her drink, but was finding complete difficulty in this. “Seriously, you two are annoying. You know that?” Andrea then grabbed her brown hair and ran her fingers through it slowly. “A friend of a friend told me.”
“She means,” Samantha began. “The girl she brought home last night happened to go to this place and told her that he was here. Though, that remains to be seen.”
Andrea turned her entire body towards her older sister. “For the record, he is here. So, shut your face.” As her rage subsided, her eyes landed upon a fairly attractive woman with a killer body walking through the front door of the establishment. Andrea, probably the best looking of the three at the table, had every chance of succeeding with the fantasy playing in her head.
Before she could make her move though, the lights in the establishment dimmed. Samantha glanced around the room and realized that the place was literally packed with people. Small tables, much like their own, lined the entire place up to the very stage. The trio of girls found themselves sitting in the middle of the room, and just watched as people were even lined up against the wall. There were easily a few hundred people inside of the building.
Without warning, the drums began to play in a simple rhythm. Samantha’s eyes focused on the drummer, a skinny guy who was no older than nineteen years old. There was a pause. He played the same rhythm again, his eyes closed while doing so. Then, it came a third time, but this time there was a guitar playing behind it.
The people in the audience started to buzz. The rhythms were fast and flawless. The tune the fingers danced upon instantly filled the air with excitement. The notes flew through the air so fast that it took a moment to take it all in as a man walked from the backstage area. With brown hair flowing to his neck and a large beard that equally matched it; this man could almost be looked at as a modern-day Jesus.
He made his way to the microphone, his eyes closed as well, and then they opened suddenly. “You build me, you knock me down,” his voice cooled the crowd down, but at the same time had them at their edge of their seats. His fingers continued to dance as it moved from A minor to E minor 7th. “Provoke a smile and make me frown.” His voice just slid over the notes effortlessly.
“You are the Queen of Runaround, you,” the man’s voice continued to dance through the notes graciously, his timber evoking this strong feeling across the entire room, as they were drawn into him. His fingers easily moved to add a B flat to the chord. “Know it’s true.” Back to A minor. “You chew me up, you spit me out.”
As his voice moved forward, the intensity in his face only grew as he strummed away, not even needing to look at the guitar. His fingers just kept moving, going to an E minor 7th once again. “Enjoy the taste I leave in your mouth.” Throw in that B flat. “You look at me, I look at you.” Then a B chord. “Neither of us knows what to do.” His body moves with the rhythm of the song, the keyboard behind him jamming away with the bassist and other guitarist as they move into the chorus.
“There may not be another way,” the words just coo as he goes from an E minor to a C Major 7th. “To your heart, so I guess I’d better,” his voice just pours out over the speakers as he switches back to an E minor. “Find a new way in.”
He takes a deep breath in. “I shiver when I,” and back to that C Major 7th. “Hear your name, think about you but it’s,” and then to the E minor chord, “Not the same. I won’t be satisfied till,” his fingers add a B flat, “I’m under your skin.” His voice just powers through like a freight train while his fingers just dance away as if they were separate from his mind.
Then there’s a break in the action while he scans the crowd, feeling the fervor just rise and rise. His eyes are cold and bleak, but filled with life as his hand attacks the strings again, following the same chord progression as before.
“Immobilized by the thought of you. I’m paralyzed by the sight of you.” The raw emotions just leave his voice as his eyes close once again, lost in this trance while his fingers just seem to be locked in. “And hypnotized by the words you say. Not true but I believe them anyway.” The girls in the audience all just look at him as his vocal chords just sing the notes with grace and beauty.
“So come to bed, it’s getting late. There’s no more time for us to waste.”
He never stops, never gives up.
“Remember how my body tastes? You feel your heart begin to race.” His voice just climbs the scale with sheer ease. The band flows right into the chorus as the man just walks around the stage, getting the crowd more and more excited, into what he’s doing, and completely controlling the stage before he goes into his solo. It’s amazing to watch as his fingers and body play through the solo, the emotion that emotes from him, until he walks up to the microphone once again, and they hit the chorus once again.
“There may not be another way to your heart, so I guess I’d better find a new way in.” The words are more like a chant now, and the crowd starts singing along with him, wanting to connect him as he just keeps plowing through, no end in sight. “I shiver when I hear your name, think about you, but it’s not the same.” His arm keeps going, moving through the chords. “I won’t be satisfied till I’m under your sk-i-in.”
The band cuts out as he keeps playing, his eyes moving through the sea of people. “Evening, everyone. Shiver by Maroon 5 there. Let’s keep it going. I’m David Noble, you’re spending the evening with me.”
6 Weeks Earlier
“Just hold my hand, Philly, it’s going to be alright!” David’s voice was filled with life as his eyes continued to scan the road, pushing his car to the absolute limits as it roared down the road and he kept moving in and out of traffic. To his right sat his very pregnant friend, girlfriend being too strong of a word, who was well into the stages of labor.
“This is not going to go very well if neither of us gets there!” she yelled back at him, the tension a simple result of being in constant pain. David shrugged his shoulders as his car immediately swerved into the right lane before pulling off the road and into the parking lot of a hospital. Even before the engine was cold, David jumped out of the car and raced over to the passenger side door before yanking it open and helping Philadelphia out of the car.
She looked at him for a moment before kissing him on the cheek. “Time to make you a daddy and me a mommy, huh?” Her words were just very simple and sweet in all of the right ways. Her brown hair was tied into a ponytail and David just flashed her a smile.
“I like the sounds of that.” He needed this moment more than anything, having had to deal with a number of downs over the past few months, including losing his job. David reached behind the passenger seat and grabbed a blue duffle bag before closing the door for good and locking up his car. As he looked over at Philly, David saw her grabbing the side of the car in pain and her eyes closed as she gritted through it all.
“Come on,” he told her calmly, trying to be her rock through all of this, before grabbing her arm and wrapping it around his neck. They began to walk, Philly needing to take tiny steps so as to not fall over, but eventually the duo made it inside of the hospital. “I need a wheelchair over here immediately! My girlfriend is in labor!” As soon as the words left his mouth, a nurse rushed over to the couple and helped Philadelphia into the chair.
Philly just looked up at him. It was the first time he had ever mentioned her as his girlfriend. There was a twinge of sadness in her eyes. The nurse began to push her towards the admitting area.
“Have you contacted her doctor?” the nurse asked David and he quickly nodded his head.
“Yeah, we called in the car. It just happened all of a sudden, you know? She had been in some pain this morning, but we were going out for lunch and suddenly her water broke. Anyways, he said he would be here as soon as possible. Doctor Katchatory,” David rambled on as the nurse just took it all in. She was used to the panicky, worried, overzealous fathers and had learned how to handle them with relative ease.
“Good. Katchatory is one of the best that we have here. I need you to start filling out some paperwork for me. I’m going to get her into a room where she can be more comfortable and start doing a full work-up on her. Once you finish the paperwork, we’ll get you in there with her,” she responded with an expert tone. David nodded his head before he looked at Philadelphia who looked like she wanted to murder David for doing this to her.
He bent down and looked her in the eyes. “Hey, I love you. I’ll be in there soon.” She smiled back at him before the two kissed each other passionately. There was a definite spark between the two, even if the situation hadn’t been what they asked for. David still remembered coming home from a date and finding Philadelphia sitting on his couch, already months pregnant. He could barely remember her, but slowly all of the details started flooding back to him. Now, he was about to become a father.
David made his way to the counter and began to fill out the necessary paperwork when a boy, no older than ten, walked up next to him and tugged on his blue jeans. “Excuse me, mister?” the little boy asked him and David looked down to see this kid with mousey brown hair with an excitement, a sparkle even, in his eyes. “Are you David Noble? The wrestler?” David smiled.
“No, not anymore.” His voice was solemn, it having been weeks since he had even discussed his life that had started as quickly as it had ended. Before the kid could even say anything else, a woman entered the hallway with a happy look on her face.
“David!”
He turned his head slightly and flashed a smile as his oldest sister, Samantha, ran up to him and threw her arms around him and brought him in for a hug. “I got your message! So happy for you! The big day!” Her brown hair bounced as she continued talking and moving away from her only brother. The love he received from his sisters had always almost made him forget that he was adopted. This very moment though, David loved the thought of having a family there to support him during his most difficult time.
“Where’s Andrea? Sarah? MacKenzie?” He wanted the rest of his sisters there with him.
“They’ll be here soon. Andrea went to get Sarah. Mom went to get MacKenzie. Mom actually called me and MacKenzie was talking a mile a minute in the background. She couldn’t be more excited to be an aunt. Where’s Philly?”
David stuck a thumb towards the restricted area. “They’re taking her up to her room. The doctor should be here soon. Everything feels a little frantic and hectic right now.” Samantha just smiled at him, making him feel at ease.
“It’s going to be okay. You’re about to be a father though. Moments like this are about to become your entire life.” David nodded his head in agreement, knowing this to be rather true. It frightened him slightly, but he wasn’t going to shirk from his responsibilities. He was ready to embrace it all.
“Mr. Noble?” This voice came from behind him and David quickly turned around to be met by an actual doctor, female, and short. “David?”
“Yeah, that’s me. What’s going on?”
“Philadelphia, she’s about to have the baby pretty soon. I thought you might want to get in there to be with her,” the doctor informed him and the words didn’t hit David nearly as hard as she had pictured them to be.
“Yeah, I know she’s about to have the baby pretty soon. That’s why I brought her here. She’s in labor. I just need to finish filling out this paperwork,” David responded and started to finish off the mountain of paperwork he still had to go over. Yet, the doctor tapped him on the shoulder and shook her head.
“No, you do not understand me. The baby is coming right now. Like, in the next few minutes, she’s actually going to give birth to your child.” David kept scribbling furiously on the paperwork before he stopped and looked up at the doctor.
“Wait, what?” The doctor just smiled and laughed as Samantha popped him in the back of the head.
“Get your ass in there, you idiot,” Samantha said and began to push him towards the room. “Philly is really about to have the baby.” A smile exploded on David’s face as he broke into a run and went into the restricted area. As he got in there though, he realized he had no idea where he was going. He spun around, hoping to go get the doctor, and in the process, nearly ran her over.
“I have no idea where I’m going,” he confided in her as if it was bad that he didn’t know. She just shook her head.
“That’s why I’m with you. You’re going to be fine. Just relax. She’s doing all of the hard work,” she joked with him before she began to walk down the hall. A wave of emotions overcame him, emotions like joy and pride, but most importantly, confidence. It was time to become a father. He could do this, he knew that much, and as he stepped towards the threshold of the room where Philly was at, he smiled at her.
“Ready to do this?” he asked her and she looked at him with this face filled with scorn on it.
“I’m ready to kill you,” she responded, a little edgy from the pain she was experiencing, and David quickly walked over to her head and grabbed her hand.
“Like we always worked on, Philly,” he whispered into her ear and she looked over at him, a little worried.
“You sure?”
“I can take the pain.”
Before he knew it though, a wave of pain exploded into his mind as she grabbed as hard as she possibly could, transferring her pain to David who looked like his hand might break at any moment. He groaned from the pain before kissing Philly on her forehead. “You’re funny.”
She continued to grunt as the doctor sat on the other end. “You’re doing great, Philly. You’re doing great!”
David just sat there and waited, knowing that soon, he would be a father.
A very proud father.
David strummed out a few notes on the guitar, his eyes closed and his hand moving far too effortlessly. The rest of the band members were taking a break, having played for the last half an hour straight. David wasn’t done though and just continued to play a few notes, picking up the speed ever so slowly until he’s jamming away. “These days,” he begins to sing, his voice so soft and raspy, but smooth at the same time. “With the world getting colder, she spends more time sleeping over, than I planned.”
He nails out a few chords, his eyes never opening in the process. Samantha and Andrea just watch in awe at his ability to hold onto this crowd, the ease with what he’s playing at, and the way he just seems to be in complete control of everything. “When did he learn how to play the guitar?” Samantha asked Sarah who just shrugged her shoulders.
“I’ve never seen him pick up a guitar, period,” Sarah replied, her eyes unable to move from her brother. The people in the room were moving closer to the stage, having their drinks, and just enjoying the show.
“Tonight we’re gonna order in, drinking wine, and watch some CNN. It’s dark I know, but then again it’s the brightest thing I got,” his words just fall out of his mouth while his head starts moving with the music. His fingers dance along the strings of his guitar and then he strums a chord.
“When I’m covered in rain,” his voice sounds pained as he sings those words, feeling his heart that’s filled with such anguish, holding onto the word rain for a few moments longer than the other words. “When I’m covered rain, rain, rain, rain,” he repeats that words over and over again, before pulling away from the microphone, and his fingers start to play again at an accelerated pace until he nails the chord he’s looking for.
“So, what happened? He comes here and just starts playing? Why?” Andrea asks the question that seems to be on everyone’s mind. Yet, no one has an answer as they just watch him play, his heart literally pouring out onto the floor by now as beads of sweat run down his forehead.
“Firewoods to fire places, Summer snow and fallen places,” David continues to sing, his mouth pressed into the microphone as his tone just carries throughout the bar. There’s soul in his words now as they come out of him. “Now we’re people watching other people, people watching you and I,” he moves along, chuckling at the end of his sentence.
“Standing by the missing signs, at the CVS, by the checkout line, she puts her quiet hands in mine, cause she’s the brightest thing I got!”
Andrea turns back towards her sister. “We’ve got to get him out of here,” she tells Samantha.
“I didn’t recognize him, Andrea, when he first walked out here. He’s not the same person who left us. Something has seriously snapped inside of his mind I think. Everything that happened, it just drove him to the edge,” Samantha reminded her, and Andrea’s eyes darted to the table, grabbing her drink in the process.
“When I’m covered in rain, rain,” he powers through it all, his voice just growing with each note that he hits in his mind. “When I’m covered in rain, rain, rain, rain,” the way he sings the word over and over again, makes you feel like he’s drowning in it, unable to pull himself up any more.
“Oh, I’m covered rain,” he repeats the line over and over again, his voice getting softer and softer before he turns his attention to the guitar and just starts playing notes that seem impossible at first, but only get tougher as he picks up the pace and just starts going crazy all over the guitar. The notes fly through the air and it’s just beautiful, each note, the placement, the attention he gives each one of those. He stresses a few of them and then backs off a few other ones until his hands are literally flying up and down the neck and body of the guitar.
He begins to play these insane chords, jazzy chords that are filled with sadness and he doesn’t give up the speed, only going faster in the process as everyone just eats it up. Behind him, his drummer has gotten back onto the stage and accompanies him before it reaches its apex and all of the chords build into this big crescendo and just explode into nothingness. There’s silence, and then David just picks up where he left off, soft and smooth, his face tight and his mind working overtime as he pours his heart into the music relentlessly.
“Wow,” Sarah speaks in this revered tone. Watching her brother play like this was something else, to be honest. David was never the kind of person to play in front of people, but whenever he played for her, she could literally see the talent flying off of his fingers. Yet, that was at the piano or a keyboard. Never on the guitar. It just reminded her of how gifted he was. Her eyes were focused on his fingers as they started dancing across the neck, fretting out his notes, and playing at an even faster tempo than before as the remainder of his band joined him in the process, picking up right behind him as he just started jamming with impossible augmented and diminished chords, chords he was just plucking out of thin air.
He threw in a 7th and a 9th here and there, but eventually, it became too simplistic for him and he added in a few 11th and 13th chords to the mix before his fingers were moving in a blur as his band somehow managed to keep up even as the crowd was in pure awe of him. Once again, it all breaks back down to a very slow tempo as the music stops for a brief moment.
“And come December, Lydia left.” There was sadness in David’s voice. “She mentioned something ‘bout it being for the best. And I can’t say I disagree, and its killing me.” His voice is almost at a whisper now, his voice cracking in the process. “And now I’m standing, facing west. Tracing my fingers round a silhouette.”
Finally, his eyes open. “I haven’t gotten used to yet, but it’s the brightest thing I’ve got.” His fingers nail another chord. “When I’m covered in rain.”
Then, there’s just silence. The people in attendance start clapping like crazy as David smiles out at everyone and shakes his hands, feeling the pain in his wrists and fingers. He looks over at his various band members and smiles at them as they can just feel the sheer high of being able to play like that. David takes a sip of his water before walking over to the microphone.
“That was fun, huh?” his voice is ever so scratchy. “Covered in Rain, by John Mayer there. How about we do another Mayer song, would you guys like that?” They all scream in approval of his desire. David walks over to the other band members and talks to them for a moment.
“What do you think, Andrea?” Samantha broke the silence at their table.
“I think Philadelphia hurt him more than we can ever imagine. He slit his wrists, Sam. He was depressed. All he had to look forward to was being a father. He gave up his job and his career to make sure he could do the right things in his life. He knew PRIME was pushing him down a road he would never recover from. Now? He has nothing.”
Sarah looked over at her sisters. “So, now what?”
Andrea didn’t have an answer for her as David started to play again. The drummer started them off and David just took over.
“Back to you, it always comes back around, back to you, I tried to forget you, I tried to stay away, but it’s too late,” he sang into the microphone, the tempo of the song picking up with each one of his words as he played like he was a little kid in a candy store.
There were limitless decisions in front of him, and music allowed him to make all of them.
“Stupid phone,” David muttered under his breath as he held his iPhone in the air, trying desperately to find a signal. The strong walls and electrical interference were proving difficult as he paced up and down the barren hallway. At one point, he contemplated just throwing the phone into the wall, but decided against that idea. As he moved out of the restricted area of the maternity ward, he found a nurse who saw the frustration on his face.
“Need any help, sir?” the polite, young nurse asked him. David looked up from his no service having phone and saw the young blonde sitting all nice and orderly behind the receptionist desk.
David held up his phone. “No service? Know where I can get some?” The look on the woman’s face didn’t give him much hope though.
“Sorry, it’s really tough to get a decent signal around here. If you want, you can use the payphone across the hall,” she added and pointed across the hallway where he found an old-school style phone on the pasty white wall. David nodded his head towards the woman and walked over before realizing that he didn’t have any change on him.
David turned and looked back at the receptionist. “I don’t have any change. You have a phone I might be able to use by any chance?” The woman looked around, trying to see if anyone was nearby, before she looked back at David and nodded her head.
“Yeah, but be quick with it, please. I don’t need my boss catching me letting a guest using this phone. She’ll go off on me,” she confided in him and pushed a bulky, black phone towards David. Noble took the phone off the receiver and started to dial a phone number before his eyes flashed over to the attractive woman.
“Thanks,” he said before smiling at her, putting her at ease.
“Oh, no problem. By the way, you look really famous,” she casually threw out there. David just shook his head.
“I hear that all of the time.”
David then turned his attention back to the phone and heard it ring three times before a woman picked up on the other line. “Hello?” A smile broke across Noble’s face as he leaned up against the wall and folded his arms across his chest.
“Hey, Mary-Lynn,” he said, pride in his voice.
“Craig! Andrea sent me a text saying that Philly was in labor. Is everything okay?” David could barely contain his excitement little more.
“I’ve got a baby girl! Sasha Anne, perfectly healthy. Just a little over 5 pounds. The cutest thing alive!” David was practically gushing into the phone at this point. He could also hear the smile on her face as he just rambled into the phone.
“Good! David, I’m so proud of you,” Mary-Lynn sounded sincere in her words, and David couldn’t be happier.
“Yeah, I just wanted to call and tell you all of this. I’m going to let you go though, I don’t want to get the woman who let me use her phone to get in trouble,” David said, looking at the receptionist the entire time to calm her growing fears.
“No, that’s fine. Just call me later, I’m about to get on the plane in a minute,” she said, not wanting to get any further into that discussion knowing how much of a sore spot that was with David. Mary-Lynn was on her way to another show, an industry that had left David behind rather quickly.
“Sounds good, have fun. I’ll call you tonight.”
“Take it easy.”
Just like that, David hung up the phone and found himself just standing there with a huge smile on his face. He began to feel his feet underneath him and began to walk towards Philadelphia’s room when he found that room where they keep all of the kids when they’re not being tended to by their mothers. David just froze and looked around until he found Sasha resting comfortably in her bed-crib hybrid. An unforgettable smile crept across his face.
“Look at my little girl. Even just standing here, looking at her, she’s the smartest one of all of those other babies in there. I mean, just look at her,” David spoke even though there was no one around him. He just couldn’t stop smiling at this point. “That one kid over there in the corner, he’s got boogers in his nose. Can’t even be bothered to pick them out. My kid though? No boogers. Why? She picked them out. She’s that damn smart.”
He spent another minute just standing there, watching his little girl sleep so peacefully. “I’m lucky to have you in my life, Sasha Anne. Very lucky. I’m not going to mess this up, I promise you. I chose you. What does that mean? That means I have your back from here until the end of time. I’m going to watch out for you, protect you, and most importantly, love you. You’ve always got me in this world, Sasha Anne, I promise you that much.” Just hearing her name roll off of his tongue made him want to keep saying her name over and over again.
“My little girl, she’s smart. I tell you, she’s so smart,” David finished before sticking his hands in his pockets and walked away with a large smile on his face. The hallway seemed impossibly long, but finally he made his way to Philadelphia’s room and opened the door. As he stepped through the threshold, he was greeted to the sight of a man, slightly smaller than David was, but more muscular. The man was bending down and kissing Philadelphia on the lips.
It was obvious to David that she knew him.
David took a step forward and looked at the two. “Someone want to explain what the fuck is going on around here?”
Andrea, Sarah, and Samantha all sat at the table as a lull in the music had finally taken place. Nearly two hours had passed, and the trio of sisters were very surprised at the turn of events that they had just been privy too. This wasn’t there brother, not one they were at all aware of at least. Yet, there he stood for two hours, performing music, and playing a guitar while looking like a completely different human being.
“Okay, has anyone worked out any plans on how to get him out of here?” Andrea broke the silence that had lingered around the entire table. As she looked at each one of her sisters, they all had this blank look on their faces. No one had truly expected any of this.
“Look, I’m stumped,” Samantha responded after a few moments had passed. Instead of moving though, they continued to sit there and watched the proceedings take place around the entire bar. Out of the corner of Sarah’s eyes, they saw a large man making his way towards their table.
“We’ve got a problem,” Sarah whispered under her voice, but Samantha and Andrea weren’t quick enough to react before the man had approached their table with a rather serious look on his face.
“Anything we can help you with?” Samantha asked the large bouncer who didn’t show much emotion on his face.
“I’ve been asked to have you three ladies removed from the premises.”
“By who?”
“David, that’s who.”