All our lives

Chapter 17

Jon opened the glass door and went out on the balcony, carefully avoiding the scorching sun rays which at that hour were bathing only half of the outdoor space. With his phone in one hand and a glass of ice tea that had been deprived of any ice in the other, he took a seat on the comfy armchair. The rehearsal had left him so bemused that he didn't even feel the need to drown his confusion in alcohol anymore. He already felt disagreeably dizzy. It had also left him without too much free time before the concert, because this version of his band was as picky as can be and despite his best efforts to anticipate how the songs were played in this universe, he had faltered a few times.

Everybody's stumbles had been treated with humor, but definitely not in a superficial way, and Jon had silently and curiously observed their group dynamic because it was so different from the one he was used to. Although they did seek for his approval, they didn't seem to rely exclusively on it which, given the fact he was so out of phase with their current playlist, was a good thing. Yet no less eerie.

Jon took a sip from his tea and looked at the big movie poster that was covering most of the nearby building. The title didn't sound familiar but maybe it had been lost in translation. Italians, among others, had a twisted pleasure to reinterpret the hell out of some movie titles to the point where they didn't have anything in common with the original ones. This particular one ended up being called 'The girl who never lived', but its real name could be anything. 'Red' - the poster was basically monochrome, a big display of different shades of red, 'Unknown' - for what he could tell, the lead female actress, who was captured in such a way that gave the impression she was looking right into your soul whilst she was not even looking at you, wasn't yet a big name in the industry, 'Vertigo' - because that was how he was feeling and the futuristic graphic didn't alleviate his dizziness much, on the contrary, it deepened it. All those names were valid options for a dystopian action movie like this one seemed to be and maybe he would have searched for it if he hadn't had more important things to ask Google.

Jon opened Richie's Wiki page again to make sure he hadn't misread it. But no! It was all the same. 'Was', 'Bon Jovi', 'died', 'car accident', 'November 29th..."November what?!" he frowned. '2013 ...'. " 2013?!" The hell was with that date?! He took a deep breath wondering if he should search for the details of this accident or not but in the end he opted for not doing it. Not for now, at least.

"This is nuts," he thought whilst typing the question he had answered many, many times over the years. 'How did Bon Jovi form?' The Wiki page didn't say much and Jon quickly concluded that that page sucked. There had to be more than 'they were impressed by his playing' behind his acceptance into the band. Richie had gotten a 'no' first and in any normal world that would be a story to be told again and again.

'How did Sambora join Bon Jovi?' Jon tried to be more specific. He scrolled down until he found a site that seemed to tell the story just right. Sipping from his tea from time to time he read that ancient article. Was it an article? It looked like a book, but he could only see a few pages from it.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me I need to buy my own biography now!" he huffed then fixed his eyes on the poster. "Whatcha looking at?" he snarled at the impassive woman. "Can you tell me the history of my own band? The hell you can!". He didn't like the sudden fury that rose from somewhere deep within him and he shook his head in a silly attempt to get rid of it. "You probably weren't even born at that time ...", he said in a softer tone then moved his attention back to his phone. A few pages to read were more than nothing. It was a start.

He mostly eyed the first paragraphs for they were depicting events he remembered correctly. There was no surprise in how Dave, or Tico, or Alec had been picked for the band. The only enigma was Richie. A hint of melancholia mixed with a sting of sorrow curled Jon's lips into a strange smile as he quickly read bits of what was the description of Richie's first attempt to convince him he was the one. Bold as much as unnatural. Absolutely amusing to think of it after 20 years. Quite heartbreaking after 30. Jon sighed and read further. He was stepping on unknown territory.