Page 14 of Mason Wilder
Mason tapped his signature rat-a-tat-tat on the door to a place that was like a second home to him. Long Beach was so different from the concrete jungle of the City, and he took in a deep breath of ocean air.
The door suddenly swung open and Tommy Blade greeted him. It still shocked Mason how much Lucas resembled his dad. They had the same long blond hair, the same bright blue eyes and the same talent on the guitar. There was no doubt that they were father and son.
Tommy gave Mason a bear hug accompanied by a few slaps on the back. When he pulled back, he held onto Mason’s upper arms with a strong grip. “Congratulations on your first tour with Prodigy.” He waved his hand. “You’re an old pro at touring by now. It probably doesn’t even phase you anymore. My kids, on the other hand, are over the moon. Was it everything you hoped for?”
Mason had been waiting for years for Prodigy to go mainstream and take the leap from local bar band to signed touring band. He filled with animation as he recalled the high of finally fulfilling his destiny. “The tour. Playing on stage with Prodigy. Watching the reception from the fans. Everything about it was incredible.” Everything except the last night of the tour when Tessa dropped a bomb on their friendship, and the animation that filled him as he recalled the high of the tour disappeared. His heart sank as he thought of Tessa. He still felt so bad about how he rejected her but didn’t know how to address it. He decided that the only way to get past it was to act as if it never happened. But how could he ever forget the hurt and devastation that stared back at him in her expressive brown eyes. He hated himself for making her feel that way. She was such a sweet girl, so full of life and love for everyone around her.
He let out a deep breath as he stepped into the marble entrance, wanting to see Tessa face to face and get the awkwardness out of the way. He tilted his head and turned his ear upwards, noting the lack of noise. All of Immortal Angel was here, judging by the amount of sports cars that lined the driveway, and voices should be echoing off the cathedral ceiling. “Where is everybody?”
“The guys are in the studio. Tessa and Sindy are upstairs in Tessa’s old suite, and the women are in the great room.” Tommy slung his arm around Mason’s shoulder, bumping him with a rock-hard pec. “We’re listening to Immortal Angel’s new album. Tonight’s not only a welcome home dinner for you kids, it’s our unofficial CD release party.”
They walked through the mansion and down the stairs that led to the music studio in the basement. It’sthe place where magic happened. Immortal Angel recorded at Falcon Records’ studio, but Prodigy wrote music and recorded their tracks here.
Mason paused on the bottom step to take in the space that held a special place in his heart and housed two decades of memories for him. The area directly in front of him was set up like one big stage. The Tama kit stared back at him, light gleaming off the chrome hardware, saluting him with a greeting. The other side of the floor housed the isolation booth with several million dollars’ worth of recording equipment. Memories played in his head like a movie. He saw himself at 15 beating the hell out of his old Pearl kit, mesmerized by the sounds a 10-year-old Lucas played on his guitar, and astounded by the powerful vocals and heavy baseline produced by an eight-year-old little girl with a personality as big as the room and more determination and stamina than he and Lucas put together. The scene in his head flashed forward to last year when Sindy joined the band as rhythm guitarist, challenging Lucas with her dominant guitar playing and defiant attitude.
He remembered the countless hours of watching and re-watching videos of themselves throughout the years. It had been Tessa’s idea to set up a camera to record what they looked like performing as a band. And she scrutinized every bit of it, never accepting anything less than perfection from everyone, including herself.
“Mase! You finally made it.” His dad briskly walked toward him and gave him a hug similar to the one Tommy Blade just gave him.
Next to greet him was Damien Diamond, Immortal Angel’s bassist. He was the man who taught Tessa to thump out a beat on the bass guitar when she was barely big enough to hold it.
When Mason was a kid, the sky-high blue Mohawk, gory tattoos that ran all the way up to Damien’s chin, and his hard eyes had scared him at first, but he soon found out that it was all a front. The man was a pussycat underneath the tough exterior who loved his wife more than anything in the world.
“S’up?” Damien fist bumped Mason. “Glad to be home?”
“Yeah. But I could do it all over again.”
“I caught some reviews. Great job.” Damian put his fist to his chest. “Watching you kids gets me right here. Makes me wish I had a kid.” A sinister grin stretched across his face. “Almost.”
“There he is!” Angel Garcia, Tommy Blade’s husband, dynamic lead vocalist and famous frontman to Immortal Angel, better known as Papi to Lucas and Tessa, walked toward Mason from the other side of the studio. He didn’t give him a big bear hug or a cool fist bump. Mason received a warm fatherly embrace, genuine pride beaming from this man with a heart of gold. “I’m so relieved that you kids are all home safely. I worried so much about the four of you on the road. Me and Jessi would be up all night trying to figure out which city you were in, which time zone and how you were all handling the non-stop agenda.”
Tommy Blade put his palm across his forehead. “They drove me crazy sitting up in bed, Angel on one side of me and Jessi on the other. I’d be trying to sleep, and they’d be talking across me. One night, I finally had to get up and switch sides. I’m not used to sleeping on the edge of the bed. I sleep in the middle. I rolled over, and I fell clear off the bed, right onto the floor.”
Angel laughed and gave Tommy a kiss on the cheek. “Mi amor, I’m so sorry. You poor bebe. Jessi and I felt so bad.”
Tommy gazed at Angel, a spark igniting as their eyes met. “That’s OK.” He turned to Mason with a wicked smile. “He and Jessi made up for it. Big time. So, I feigned falling off the bed the next night, too.”
Lucas approached from the back room. “I thought I heard your voice.” He gave Mason a one-shoulder hug and a slap on the back. “Are you listening to this incredible new song? Thirty years and our parents are still putting out music. Can you believe it?”
Prodigy sang hard rock, but Immortal Angel’s music was unique in this age of EDM, hip hop, and hardcore rock and roll. They were one of the few old-school punk rock bands left that still topped the charts. Mason listened to the track currently playing on the Bose sound system, his foot already tapping and hand thumping on his thigh. It was fresh and catchy. The fast beats and raunchy lyrics made your body gyrate with movement. There was no standing still when listening to Immortal Angel.
After he listened to a few more songs, Mason left the studio and went upstairs. He wanted to say hello to Aunt Mary. He really missed her these last few months. Once in the great room, he felt slightly out of place for being the only man in this crowd of women, but only for a moment. Jessi, Lucas and Tessa’s mom and the wife of Tommy Blade and Angel Garcia, stood out with her colorful hair and rock star clothes. She came over, kissed both his cheeks and ruffled his hair like he was five years old again.Mason’s mom was standing near the fireplace, smiling at him warmly. The other standout in the room was Alyssa Diamond, Damien’s wife, in her usual head-to-toe black attire.
Then there was Aunt Mary sitting in her wheelchair with her favorite blanket and her hair pulled back into a soft bun, looking at home in the midst of this bunch of trendy rock star wives. She never stayed home, and no one would think about leaving her. She was at every occasion and get together. She was part of the Immortal Angel family.
When Aunt Mary spotted Mason her face became animated and she waved frantically at him, as if she hadn’t just seen him yesterday.
He went to her, took her hands and kissed her cheek. “Hi, Aunt Mary. Are you having a good time?”
She tried to squeeze his hands, but it was little more than shaky pressure. “I always have a good time with these ladies. They make me feel like a girl again.”
“You are still a girl, Aunt Mary. Do you want to get up and dance?”
She laughed and patted his cheek. “You’re so funny, Mason.”
Voices and footsteps brought Tessa and Sindy into the room and Mason stood up straight. Apprehension about what to expect, and what degree of awkwardness would persist between him and Tessa, had his stomach in a knot. He didn’t know how she was going to greet him or react once they made eye contact, but Tessa came in like a breeze and stole center stage. She floated to the center of the room and spun around, arms spread to the sides. “Me and my mom made this yesterday.” She ran her hand over her shoulder. “I picked up the fabric in New Orleans.”
Aunt Mary’s hand went to her cheek. “It’s so beautiful! You’re so talented, Tessa. Isn’t she, Mason?”
