never let me down | a. wilder (depeche mode)

2 - What's Your Name

Charlotte

I wake up in a hospital bed, and sitting all around me are the members of Depeche Mode.

Martin and Dave are sitting on chairs by my bed, Andy is pacing the room, and Alan is sitting on the foot of the bed.

"She's awake!" Dave says.

I look around the room. I'm hooked up to an IV, and I have bruises all over my arms.

"How are you feeling, Charlotte?" They ask me.

I stare at them. Whatever drugs the doctor put me on must be messing with me.

"What? How do you know my name?" I ask.

Alan repeats the question. "How are you feeling? And your waitress uniform had your name tag on it. Charlotte Wells."

"I've felt better," I reply. "But why are you here? And you can call me Charlie."

"Alan here, his middle name is Charles, and we call him Charlie to tease him. What do you remember from yesterday?" Dave asks.

"Okay, I finished work, I was walking to the bus stop, then I was beat up. I'm assuming you guys came, someone yelled at someone for help.."

"That was me, I yelled at Andy to go get help," Martin says.

"Then Dave told me everything would be alright." I say.

They all nod.

"That sums it up. It's good you can recall the whole thing." Andy remarks.

"But one question, why the hell were you holding pots and pans?" I ask.

They laugh.

"We go around and record the sounds we make when we bang things together," Martin explains. "We then put them in our songs."

That's a good enough explanation for me.

"Oh! By the way, we said we were your brothers so we could see you. It's immediate family or no visitors here," Alan says. "Just play along. They'd kill us if they found out we lied."

The workers here don't seem to know who Depeche Mode are, which works out well for their story.

I laugh. "I just gained four brothers overnight."

They visit me frequently for the duration of my stay at the hospital. When I'm released, they come again.

"Where do you think you're going?" Says Dave, as I'm checking out of the hospital.

"I'm going home, I have to go back to work." I say, confused.

They all look at each other.

"We thought, and you can say no, that maybe you would want to stay with us." Alan says.

I think for a second.

"Okay," I agree, and we all walk out of the hospital together.