Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2018 21:31:20 +0000 From: Clive Westwood Subject: Life's Illusions - Book Four - Prologue . Relationships To all of you world wide who have sent me kind words, too many to possibly name. Thank you. I really hope you continue to enjoy the story of the extended Thorn family as it rolls on. Enjoy my friends. After this, the Prologue, I will endeavour to post a chapter each week. Please remember to donate to Nifty, it gives so much to all of us. Any amount, large or small, is welcome in order to keep this free site available. Thank you, donations to the address below. http://donate.nifty.org/donate. A nineteen year old boy was sitting alone, in Welsh-Ryan Arena, Chicago, he was all alone, and yet he was surrounded by nearly ten thousand people, watching intently as the number one Pop Band in the US, and Europe, performed before a densely packed audience. The band consisted of three members, but they always had a fourth unused microphone stand on stage, brilliantly spot lit, and they would never be drawn on the many questions about it's significance, other than to say. "Somewhere out there, is someone who knows why it's there, and our hope is that one day, God willing, we will not need it to be there". The nineteen year old watching them knew why it was there, it was an appeal, just the same as the groups name was, 'Missing One', but just maybe, both were nothing more than an empty gesture, to ease their guilt. When they came to the end of their current song, their latest chart hit, the nineteen year old knew what was about to happen. They'd been doing the same thing for the last two, or was it three years?, he'd lost count. A massive charity concert, staged every year, on the same calendar date. He'd watched, with tears starting to form, as they joined hands, walked together to the front, centre stage, the one in the middle acting as spokesperson. "Thank you, each and every one of you, for what you've done today, it will mean so much, to so many who are less fortunate in a whole multitude of ways". He paused momentarily. "You already know the spiel, but I'm going to say it all again anyway, no one gets paid for their work today, the time, the effort, from absolutely everyone, the ladies in the box office, the person who showed you to your seat, the technicians, our roadies, security staff, medical staff, I could go on, and on, and on, every minute of their time is given freely, and with love". His pause was greeted with massive applause. "As in previous years, any and all proceeds from our music, bought by whatever means during the twenty four hours before today, after today, and including today, will be added to the proceeds gathered from your spending, so download, buy it guys, make a difference, there will be, available on our website within seven days, a full breakdown of every last cent received, and everything paid out to services, like power and water, etc, who I again have to thank for discounting their bills down to a point where their shareholders must be sat at home crying, so spend freely, give generously, the more we gather, the more good we can collectively do, and enjoy the rest of your evening". He paused before going on. "Finally, to the acts who have supported us today, all unknown, until now undiscovered, but we know, from your response, hopefully they won't be unknown for much longer, so a really big thanks to them for giving their time free, and for sharing their wonderful talent". That should have been it, from past years, the nineteen year old knew the schedule off by heart, he hadn't ever missed one of these concerts, he wouldn't, he was used to queuing for hours to get his precious ticket, these days he was a patron of 'Missing One Club', that in itself guaranteed him a ticket, and he knew, that should have been the point where they went back to their places, launching into a medley of past hits from the long list of albums they'd released. But something was different, they hadn't moved back, hadn't released hands, the lead singer looked nervously at his fellow band members, receiving a reassuring nod from each before he spoke again, but his voice had changed, he was clearly nervous, his voice trembling. "You will all know that this concert happens, without fail, on the same date each year, we have never shared the reason why it is this date, I'm going to share that reason with you now, but I'm asking for your patience, it's not something that's easy for me to talk about, I might get emotional. In the stadium you could have heard a pin drop the crowd were so enthralled, the nineteen year old started to shake, he hadn't anticipated this, tears were starting to form. "It happens on this date every year because of an event which happened many years ago now, an event which hurt all three of us standing here before you so badly, and continues to haunt us with its pain, every day, from that day to this". The audience seeing clearly, he was close to tears, were totally silent. He paused but still not a sound was heard from nearly ten thousand as they hung on his words. "The anniversary of that event is tomorrow, so today is the anniversary of a day, ten years ago, the very last day when we were truly happy, because in all honesty, we never have, not on any day, been truly happy since". When he paused, the audience stayed silent, hanging on his every word, in the audience, the nineteen year old was silently sobbing. "Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the day my beautiful little brother Dillon walked out of our family home and never returned, it hurt so badly then, and it still hurts badly now, I, we, every member of our family, would give anything and everything to hold him again, to be able to tell him how we all love him and miss him so much, our world is truly missing one". This time when he paused, a collective gasp of surprise rose up from the audience, as most connected immediately what he'd said with the bands name. He knelt, the other two followed his lead, kneeling beside him as he looked directly into the cameras, saying. "We're on our knees Dillon, we're begging you, please, come home, what happened was never meant to hurt you, we realise it did, and we're genuinely sorry, we offer you our humble apologies, this pain of losing you, has been, and still is, so hard to bear, it feels like part of us is missing, there's a deep wound in each of us that will never heal until we're together again, we love you Dillon, please". When he finished speaking, the only sound was of sniffling from the many who had tears running down their faces, including a sobbing nineteen year old. The concert had carried on, overplaying as usual by nearly forty minutes, until the manager came on stage grabbing a microphone. "Ladies and Gentlemen, let's hear your appreciation for Ary, Bobby and Trevor, collectively known as, Missing One". The applause was thunderous, it went on until they played another number, at the end of which all the stadium house lights came on and the guys ran from the stage, on the way off stage they'd been directed to the meet and greet rooms where several 'special fans', had been gathered, some from local hospitals, some die hard fans who followed them to every concert, it had taken around half an hour but in truth they loved this part, once their manager extricated them they'd headed to their shared dressing room. Inside at first they were silent, until Trevor broke the silence. "I don't know if I'm relieved it's out there now, or more terrified if Dillon sees it he'll take it the wrong way and it'll push him further away, I actually feel sick I'm so worried". Bobby put his arm around Trevor's shoulder. The door catch clicking shut a little later than it should didn't register with any of them. "Look Trev, we've talked about this, the one thing we agreed on was that we've never apologised to him, how could we, we couldn't get it out there worldwide, until now, well now we can, and we have, and he so deserved it, because with the best will in the world, we fucked up, not intentionally, but we did, our sweet little brother saw it differently to us, but we've never been able to publicly apologise, tell him we're sorry, now we have, he can't fail to see or hear it, he can accept it, or ignore it, it's his decision, if he's still angry with us then we don't stand any chance of him getting in touch, but at least we've tried, I only hope if he sees tonight's performance and listens to Ary's plea, I'm praying to god he'll be able to get past the hurt he feels and recognise the genuine sincerity, because I for one would give anything to be able to hug my little brother, but it's his decision". Trevor replied, not nastily, but it wasn't what either Ary or Bobby wanted to hear. "You guys lost a brother, I lost a friend and so much more that day, you both know that's the reason I can't move on, at least you can move on with your lives, love, marry, have families even, my life's been on hold for ten years, and it's destined to stay that way on nothing more than the off chance that perhaps it will work out, perhaps one day Dillon will walk back into our lives, and perhaps, just maybe, he'll want to even know me, let alone love me". Ary joined Bobby and Trevor in a joint hug. "We know Trev, and it cuts us up too, there's nothing we can do to help you, it's always been your decision to wait for him, and we respect you for it, but you have to see, there might come a day where you have to admit defeat and resign yourself to making a life with someone else". Trevor looked directly into Ary's eyes as he said. "That's never going to happen Ary, if it's not to be, then so be it, I'll live my life alone, be the virgin I still am now for the rest of my life, living with the knowledge that I screwed up what could possibly have been the best, the most amazing thing I would ever have known". Bobby ended the maudlin mood. "Okay enough, let's get going, the family are holding dinner for us". As they broke the hug and turned toward the door, they each stopped completely dead, sucking in a breath in shock as the nineteen year old before them, with tears streaking his face spoke. "I'm sorry, I understand now, can you forgive me". He'd been torn, terrified, but they'd told him, they'd said it, he'd heard it loud and clear, they were hurting as much as he was, he hadn't been the only one suffering for all these years. But should he risk it, he'd been asking himself that same question over and over as he carefully picked his way backstage, he'd nearly been caught several times, finally, he'd got there just as they did, waiting until the hallway outside their dressing room was empty, but managing to get to the door before it closed, then silently opening the door and slipping inside. The door catch clicking shut so loudly causing him to sink back into a recess just inside the doorway, and there they were, right in front of him, talking. He'd watched and listened to everything, as Trevor spoke, then Bobby, then Ary, but what Trevor finally said clinched it for him, he knew now they were being genuine, he knew, if he were to have a future without this awful sense of loss he felt so deeply, he'd have to brave it, confront them. He'd started to move forward into what would be their line of vision if they'd turned toward him, when they did exactly that, they'd turned around, facing him, and all three gasped, their faces displaying shock, as if they'd seen a ghost. He'd said the only thing he could, the one thing they deserved to hear. "I'm sorry, I understand now, can you forgive me". TBC Allan Comments are welcome to cfgw2000@aol.com. Thank you for giving me your time, enjoy.