Rock God

Chapter Three: Shock Therapy

The next day at school I found that I could barely concentrate on my schoolwork because I was so worried about my father. However, during lunch that afternoon a rather wide grin stretched a crossed my face because I suddenly got a brilliant idea. I turned over to look at the boy sitting next to me. His name was Joshua Remix and we had known each other since kindergarten, and he was currently the closest thing I had to a best friend.

He also understood how lonely I felt since he had bright red hair and most all of the school bullies didn't like ginger kids, so he was always picked on. He also had pale white skin, freckles, blueish-green eyes and wore a pair of thin round glasses on his face and glasses were another physical attribute that bullies couldn't stand.

"Hey Josh, I was just wondering,.. how would you like to start a rock band together?" I questioned him and at that he spat out his chocolate milk. "What?" I inquired as I simply just looked at him for he was currently acting like I had just told him that I lost my virginity.

"Mick, we're not exactly rock band material." Josh began. "We're more like chess club and stamp collecting people." He told me and that's when I just rolled his eyes at him.

"You are such a nerd." I told him while giving a slight shake of my head. "If we started a rock band maybe we could change all that and my father and I are supposed to be singing in the school fundraiser anyways." I told him when suddenly the bell rang.

"Do you think that we could get girlfriends?" Josh questioned me as we both got to our feet and I simply just shrugged while we gathered our stuff.

"I don't see why not." I told him and then I followed him out of the cafeteria and headed to my next class.

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When I got home from school that afternoon, I came into the living room to find that my mother was busy watching the news. It turns out that the house a crossed the street from us had caught on fire but luckily for them thanks to a mysterious stranger everybody was able to make it out alive. Once my mother was aware of my presence, she turned off the television set and then turned to face me and I knew that she was about to tell me something.

However, I couldn't tell by the expression on her face whether it was good news or bad news. "What is it?" I questioned her for I couldn't bare the suspense any longer. "Good news, your father's coming home tomorrow and he's going to pick you up from school." She told me as I smiled back at her.

"Really!? That's awesome!" I exclaimed excitedly, but my excitement slowly began to fade when I realized that she didn't seem all that happy about it.

"And you should enjoy the time that you have left while you got it because he doesn't have much of it." She told me and that's when the grin instantly vanished from my face as I discovered the truth. She meant that he had had terminal cancer and he was going to die. I ran out through the front door and ignored my mother calling for me. I was angry. No, I was beyond angry. I was pissed off.

I ran to the first place that I thought of,.. the park. It had always calmed me down to sit and watch the ducks and geese swimming in the pond. However, when I sat down I didn't realize that somebody was already sitting down next to me.

"Are you alright son?" He questioned me in a very familiar voice.

"No. My father is dying and it's all God's fault. I hate him so much." I said with tears rolling down my cheeks and a sniff.

"Now come on Mick, you don't really mean that." The other man said and as I slowly turned around to look at him, I realized that it was the same man that I had met in the hospital.

"How do you know that? You don't know anything about me." I pointed out but that's when suddenly he smiled his bright and shinning smile once again at me.

"Oh, you'd be surprised." He began. "Now, did you ever stop to think that it's as hard on God watching people suffer especially somebody close to you that you love as it is on you?" He inquired as I paused to stop and think about it.

"No,.. I guess not." I replied. "Did you ever know anybody that died?" I asked him as he heaved a sad sigh and slightly nodded.

"Unfortunately, yes kid, death is the way of the world and the way of the unrighteous. However, if you really love somebody, hold them in your heart, and they are of Christ then they're not really gone then, are they? Not forever anyways." He pointed out.

"I guess you're right." I began while slowly turning my head away from him and sniffing again. "It's still hard though." I told him.

"Whoever said that it was going to be easy? Jesus certainly didn't. However, you better get home now before your family starts to worry about you." He told me as I turned to him and nodded.

"Alright then, see you around." I told him before I got up from the bench and ran home.

My mother embraced me tightly once she knew that I was safe and sound and then afterwards I explained to her what happened and I started to silently think to myself how strange it was that DJ always seemed to appear whenever I needed him most like he was my guardian angel or something.

After my father got home the next day, I hugged him tightly and told him all about DJ as well and then we got out our guitars and headed to the garage to start working on our music. We decided to name our band Shock Therapy because the music we created together was so shocking that it helped us take our minds off of everything else and I always felt my best whenever I was performing anyways. Now all we needed was to have more band members. That's when I decided that over the weekend, I would start holding auditions. My father and I both had a lot of work ahead of us.