TLWM: The Hate Experience

\II/ Blackout

While staff was still clearing the soundstage and undoing the birthday bonanza madness, Prince stood jaded in the live room across from his son's new drum kit. He had been standing there for over 10 minutes, just staring at it, stuck in a "now what" trance.

This new recurring dilemma was more than frustrating. It was frightening. This was about the fourth or fifth time it happened, the first being when Raven left him and Ace behind during the Diamonds and Pearls Tour. Half of him went dim whenever she wasn't a room away. And now that Ace was gone, it was a complete blackout inside him.

Pessimistically, he jumped from the guitar to piano to notebook and pen. But like he figured, nothing would come to him. It was all chatter in his head, no melody.

"It's just writer's block," one of his engineers said, but Prince never had writer's block. More so, writer's overload. The only thing he could write during times like these were letters to Raven.

I didn't know how 2 tell u this in person but... As much as I love him and as much as I'm grateful 2 have him, this is scarier than I could've ever imagined, being a father.

So when u leave, I get even more scared because I don't know what I'm doing. I can't even write a song.

Raven never wrote back. She'd always call instead. "Don't force it, baby. It'll come to you. But for now, try something else. Ace loves music and loves watching you play but he's a still a kid, you know? Go play with him, literally, like go outside and play basketball or push him on the swings. I know you missed a lot but he's still very impressionable. Everything you do from here on out will influence him and I know that sounds scary but that's parenting. And I promise, like the music, it'll start to come natural for you."

Prince did take her advice, allowing Ace to lead the days. Sometimes the kid really just wanted to play music with Pop-Pops but there were a lot of fun times outside in the park. At home, they'd play hide-and-seek for hours. Even one special day, Prince introduced Ace to his hometown by driving around and showing Ace all the landmarks of Skipper's childhood, that's what they called Prince growing up. He showed off everything from where he was born to his elementary school to where he played his first gig.

Slumped over the console, Prince wished the phone could just ring. And like magic, it did. "Yeah?"

"Is this Daddy?" asked a little munchkin.

Prince came alive, sitting up smiling. "Is this Bam?"

"Daddy why you take so long to answer the phone? I called you a thousand hundred times!"

"My phone only rang once."

"No, no. Who is that lady?"

"What lady?"