Gypsy Road

Push, Push

When I finally flutter my eyes awake, well, more like my good eye since the other is swollen shut, the sun pours through the lounge. Strange shadows pass over the floor and across my face as we rush past other cars, street lights, and exit signs. I turn my head to see Eric sitting up on the bench.

"Good morning. How's your eye, honey?"

"Still hurts but better than last night. I can sort of move it a tiny bit now. Damn I hope it heals up soon. Being a cyclops sucks; I have no depth perception."

He laughs a little at my remark, "I'm sure it will soon. Usually black eyes take about 2 weeks to heal completely, depending on the severity. And I'd say you're probably sitting closer to the two week range."

"Ugh. I hate chicks. They always have gotta take fighting too far. This is why they call them cat fights." I sigh.

"Yeah... I'll be glad I'm not a chick then." He chuckles.

"I'm serious, it sucks. Girls blow things way out of proportion most of the time, man."
"As I witnessed last night." He pauses and changes the subject to avoid any further frustration, "If you really are worried about the bruising, I can help you cover some of it up and get you some sunglasses to wear out when we're around people."

"Thanks. I think that would be a good idea."

"Alright, just let me know when you need some help with that."

"Okay." I give him a wry smile. Surprisingly, my lip is already functioning a lot better, and it doesn't hurt as much besides the massive bruise on my chin. I guess because of my healing process, as well as the feeling of a routine with touring kicking in, time seems to pick up speed again. This time a little less quickly, but still enough to cause me to ask myself where it is all going.

Over the next couple of weeks, the U.S. tour is at its finish, and in a few more weeks we complete the rest of the North American tour, and are off to Europe. Only a few dates are here, but there are bigger gaps in between each show because we are going to have to fly between destinations now. Our first stop is tonight in London and the date is July 20th. Man, time just flies right over our heads these days. I can finally see out of both eyes, as I'm all healed up. The healing process lasted me about 2 weeks like Eric had predicted, and now I am happy to confirm that it looks good as new. We are now in a big fancy hotel in the heart of London, and I am watching the rain trickle down the glass pane looking out from the 16th floor lounge.

"It's so beautiful here." I mutter to Tom who sits next to me on a big, plush red couch.

"It is. Rainy, but that's okay," he replies.

"Yeah. I like the rain though."

"So I guess we've got a night off and then show tomorrow afternoon," Tom says.
"Yep. It's kinda strange having a show before sundown, but we have had a few of those so far so it's not too odd." I reply.

"Yeah. At least that way we'll be on day trips rather than overnight ones, at least for a while."
"That is true."

We sit in silence, Tom askew over a pile of lined paper on the coffee table in front of him, while I continue to watch the rain pour over the window. Tom's been working on writing new songs lately. Not only because the company called and told us to start thinking about it, but because he was losing his sanity not being able to write much while we were running around North America. It was hard for him to write when we were there since the trips were relatively short and we rarely stayed overnight anywhere. Usually, our nights were spent on the bus and it was difficult to write with the traffic and all to distract him from his work. He looks puzzled for a few seconds as he hums a melody out. He shakes his head and scribbles out his writing with his blue ink. I don't want to interrupt his thought process so I refrain from asking him if everything was all okay. I turn back to the window, watching the rain fall, and watching the bustling streets, full of umbrellas and pedestrians, as well as motor vehicles 16 stories below. Finally I hear Tom sigh as he drops the pen on the table and shuffles his pages into a neat stack.