Love of the Ages

Four

The next couple months passed back like Time was flying by, yet dragging like a dead Elephant behind a single human at the same Time. Bobby'd settled into a routine of helping with household chores since he obviously couldn't get a job, but he hated it. He felt like such a worthless knot on a log, even when he was exhausted and sore as all hell from a Day of cleaning the house top to bottom. It didn't seem fair to him that Kat and Aerin were busting their asses at work at least four Days a week, and he couldn't do anything to help them financially.

He was also depressed after using something the latter called a computer to log on to what she called the Internet. She'd taught him how to use something called Google to look up just about anything he wanted to similar to using a dictionary or encyclopedia back in 1987. The difference was that the Internet could help him find a lot more things in tons of different languages, even ones he didn't speak.

What he'd wanted to know more about was Poison's history after his supposed disappearance and their hire of this Richie Kotzen. He'd wanted to know more about the work they'd done on that sophomore album, not to mention the ones that followed, that he shoulda been featured on. Unfortunately, what he'd found out just made him curl up in bed and cry himself to sleep for a nap, 'cuz he knew how those three blondes really were.

It didn't matter to him that they swore they'd never given up Hope that he'd just magickally Return as suddenly as he'd disappeared. Part of him somewhere deep inside knew that, after four Years and two albums with no sign of him, they'd given up Hope. They no doubt thought he was dead, just a skeleton buried in a shallow grave somewhere that nobody'd ever find by now. As far as the public was concerned, they were still looking for him between tours–which were few and far between now–but he knew better. Once Bret, Rikki, and CC finally got discouraged enough to call it quits on something, they'd shove it to the backs of their minds and never think about it again.

"Bobby, you and I both know that's not true," Aerin told him one afternoon. She'd come home from work and caught a nap since she was tired and he'd still been asleep.

"I know them–or at least, who they used to be–better than ya think I do," he argued, sniffling as he viciously wiped away another tear. "They mighta held out Hope for the first Year, even two, but by the Time Flesh and Blood got released, they'd given up."

"And just howddaya know that for sure?" the young woman asked. "Have ya been able to get in their heads at Night with that Astral projection I taughtcha how to do?"

"Well, no," Bobby admitted, flushing slightly. "But I'm telling ya, I know how they are–they mighta held out Hope for a while, but after a certain point, they no doubt started thinking I was dead. Once they started thinking like that, they'd have pushed all Thoughts of me to the backs of their minds and forgotten about me."

"I just about guarantee you're always on their minds," she said.

"And howddaya know that?" the bassist asked, shooting her a suspicious look.

Ignoring his question, Aerin moved to sit in front of her laptop, where she quickly made a few clicks and typed something. Moments later, she grabbed the device she called a cell phone and started tapping on the screen, her eyes flicking back and forth between it and that of her laptop. After that, she tapped something else, and he clearly heard the ringing of an outgoing call, but he couldn't imagine who she'd have been calling.

The bassist was surprised to hear a woman answer and identify herself as the secretary of a record label, his eyes widening as he listened. His ally–whom was actually now his girlfriend–told the woman she was looking for contact information on the band Poison, who was signed to them. She made it clear that she understood if she could only be put in touch with their manager, but still needed to talk to somebody from that lil social Circle. The woman she was talking to asked her to hold on a sec, and she waited patiently as a keyboard clacking could be heard in the background.