Time Is Nothing (John Frusciante)

Chapter 42

April 1998

"Hi, an issue of Rolling Stone, please," Cecilia excitedly smiled to the guy at the news stand as she offered him a 10$ bill and couldn't wait to get her hands on the magazine.

"Oh, no. Keep the change," she then smiled again and grabbed her copy as quickly as she could, the anticipation getting the best of her.

Without wasting any time, she flipped through the pages and there they were — photos taken by her, spread all over the magazine, not to mention the cover. It was the first time in a very long time that Cecilia's photography work was featured on such a scale and she had a hard time containing her excitement.

The past few years had taken her a lot of hard work and dedication, but finally, she had managed to build herself up again, bit by bit. At first, she started from small jobs without charge just the way she did almost 10 years ago, offering her services to local bands and old friends. During the time she spent photographing the Peppers and assisting Gus even before that, she had met a lot of different industry people, and now was the moment when all of it really paid off — photographing the Foo Fighters for the cover of Rolling Stone by Dave's own request.

She kept on flipping through the pictures and the article and then again, the pictures and the article and probably would have done it for ten more times if her ringing mobile phone hadn't interrupted her personal moment of glory.

"Hey, babe," she answered it, the excitement still audible in her voice.

"Yeah, I got it, " she then exclaimed, "I'm holding it right now. The cover and everything, it looks so good! I'm so happy!"

"I'll meet Jessica for lunch in a few minutes. I'll see you later back home."

"Alright. Bye!" she smiled to the phone and then ended the call, quickly slipping the mobile back into her purse.

There was absolutely nothing that could break Cecilia's spirit today, the emotions she felt were close to feeling invincible. Finally, almost everything in her life was in order, things were moving in the right direction and she enjoyed this feeling of immense safety and stability. Only some years ago, her life was nothing like that and Cecilia knew what it was like to live with pain and heartbreak and instability and that is why she appreciated the life she was living now more than anything. She finally functioned like a normal human being, free from almost all hurdles of the past.

So, with a smile on her face, she made her way to a tiny nearby street cafe, where she was supposed to meet up with Jessica for lunch. Figuring she still had some time until her arrival, she decided to order herself an early tea and spend the remaining time looking through the rest of the magazine, even though she was convinced that the section she helped bring into being must have been the best part of it. And the more she skimmed through it, the more convinced she was that she was right — nothing too informative, no major releases coming in the upcoming weeks, an awful lot of pages dedicated to the bubble gum pop hysteria. Cecilia was almost ready to set the magazine aside when she noticed something that caught her eye in such astonishment that she had a hard time believing her eyes.

"Former Red Hot Chili Peppers axe-man sobers up and rejoins band," she read in a whisper, almost as if she thought that reading it out to herself would make it more real.

She felt a pit so deep in her stomach that it made her dizzy and gasp for air and she had to read the caption at least three times more until she was convinced that her mind wasn't playing any tricks on her and that she wasn't seeing things.

"John Frusciante, who played with the band from 1988 to 1992 and was a major force behind the band's 1991 breakthrough album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", has found his way back to the band after nearly six years, the band's representative confirms," she continued reading, "Frusciante, who abruptly left the band in 1992 mid-tour for personal reasons, had become a somewhat of a Hollywood urban legend of a tortured mind in the past few years, living as a recluse and addicted to drugs. All that has changed now since the musician agreed to enter a rehabilitation program in the beginning of the year and has successfully maintained his sobriety, all the while finding new common ground with his bandmates."