Page 14 of Rock Giant
“Cool,” they both replied without pause, and laughed.
“She is cool,” Eloise added.“I like her a lot.Both Dad and Uncle Damon fawn over her like a couple of schoolboys.It’s cute, and weird.But you can see for yourselves if, you know, you find time in your busy rock star schedule to hang out with your besties.”
“Is that not what I’m doing now?”
Both women considered this with their heads tilted.Then, having reached a decision, they dragged him toward a fortress-like pavilion made of black canvass and trimmed so it looked like it had turrets.Eloise wafted past security without pausing and ushered them in.He almost wished the guy on the door had insisted on carding them.It’d have given him an excuse to make an exit.
It wasn’t that he had anything against the D’Amon clan.In fact, he was rather fond of them.They were his people.Slightly wacky, outside the norms of society, but not so strange that you were left battered by the experience of hanging with them.He’d shared a moment or two with the middle sister, Sev, back in their teenage years.Nothing serious; even by fifteen they’d both realised holding on too fast to another person was a recipe for heartache.No, what concerned him here was the possibility of surprises of the unwelcome kind.The kind that would put him on the spot and crush the carefully constructed cocoon he’d created.
Thankfully, his entrance didn’t prompt any sort of scream, or hug cavalcade.Thus, he could shove his justifications to the back of his mind again and purge his unease with a shake.
Inside was carpeted and cosy.A bit gloomy, but that was goths for you, and it wasn’t like the Black Halo colour palette was all that different.Eloise’s sister, and his one-time kissing friend Severina, stood off to the left, hunched over a tablet pointing out something to their Uncle Damon, while their father Steve D’Amon lounged on a plush velvet couch near the central pole, nursing what looked like a pint of swamp juice.He gestured them over and they exchanged hand clasps, before he offered Paul a seat, and a spinach smoothie.
“Good for colonic health.I can have one of the girls rustle you one up.Swear by them.Not bad with a splash of vodka, either.”
“Dad!”Eloise settled in beside him, her fishnet stockings brushing his denim-clad legs.“Is your liver not pickled enough?”
Steve sighed.
Paul said, “Yeah, I’m good, thanks.”
“Haven’t seen your face in a bit.Busy schedule?”
Paul nodded.He was genuinely busy.He’d gone from touring with Ronnie, to recording Black Halo’s latest album, to touring again with barely a break between.So, sure, he’d missed a few semi-important gatherings, and a wedding, but these things happened.Evidently, his absences had totted up enough for people to have started wondering though.He’d have to make sure he quietened their interest before anyone started inventing reasons for his absence.One thing he’d learned young and learned well, was that people loved to gossip about anything and everything, but about each other most of all.So, if you didn’t want speculative rumours spreading about your doings, you had to make sure to feed them just enough of what they wanted to hear so that they felt in the know enough not to make shit up in your absence.
As he lacked both a watch, and currently, his phone, he turned Eloise’s wrist to check the time.Today was mostly for chilling, except for a couple of things Sally had lined up with some internet creators and a meet and greet with their support for the next leg of the tour.The music press wouldn’t get time with them until tomorrow.It’d be mundane stuff, all platitudes, and no substance.Yeah, great line up, rocking atmosphere, album’s doing well.All that stuff.The only excitement would arise from Ronnie opening his mouth at the wrong moment and blurting something they’d have strangled anyone else for saying.He was armed and ready for that though.He’d found a supply of life-sized jelly toads in a service station when they’d stopped for a slash and because Ash wanted a sticker book.Who’d even known those things still existed?
“So, you’re back,” he said to Steve.“I thought you were retired from this gig.”
Steve, white rather than blond these days, refreshed himself with another slurp of swamp goop.“Aye, but there’s no helping it when the muse comes calling.”
“You’re releasing new stuff?”That did surprise him.He’d figured this reunion was just a victory lap to relive their heyday before they settled into true retirement.
“That’s the plan.The core fans are psyched for it, and we’ve picked up a ton of new listeners sinceIt’s No Treasongot featured on that Netflix show last year.”
He wasn’t much of a TV watcher, having grown up without one, so he hadn’t understood why the track had started getting so much airplay again until Ronnie had brought him up to speed.Actually, how the fuck had Ronnie not been aware of the reunion?
Or maybe he was and just hadn’t thought it worth mentioning.He guessed he’d never said anything to allude to him having a connection to them.Just as well or he’d have had a running Ronnie-style commentary about their every move.
“When are you up?”he asked Damon.
“Tomorrow, six-ish,” Severina answered for him from across the tent.“No use asking him, he can’t tell the fucking time.”
“Tomorrow at six,” Steve echoed.To his daughter he said, “Mind your tongue, young lady.”
She shot him a middle finger the moment his head turned back to Paul.Some things never changed.Steve had taught all his daughters how to swear effectively.If they were gonna do it, they were gonna do it well, being his reasoning.The lessons had run right alongside how to properly kick idiots in the nuts.He’d called it life-skill 101 and forbidden any of them to ever fuck a musician.Naturally, they all did the precise opposite.Just as well.Steve would have been beside himself if he’d learned they were fucking tech bros.
“Cool.I should manage to catch it, then.”As headliners, Black Halo weren’t due on stage until ten past nine and knowing how these things usually panned out it’d be more like quarter or even twenty past.
“I tried to get your folks to come.”Steve leaned forward, swamp juice still in hand, a smear of it clinging to his upper lip.“They couldn’t make it work.Saw them a couple of weeks back.”
Inwardly, Paul jolted, though he took pains to keep his reaction off his face.A rock festival wasn’t their scene.His folks weren’t even goths or goth adjacent like Toys in the Attic, they were traditional folkies.Steve and Damon making a comeback was hardly enough to bring them here, even if they had all been hanging together since the late seventies.
“Debs seemed keen to see you.Mentioned you’ve not been around for a while.”
Aw fuck, here it came.
“Yeah.I need to eke out time for a visit.You know how it is.This last year’s been insane, and we’ve not got a real break coming up until the end of the tour.”
