Chapter Fifteen

The situation at home got worse, and I didn't know what I could do about it. Bobby was always there, and now he was more intense and excited than ever. He kept expecting that Roy would be calling us with another recording appointment. In the meantime, he was writing new songs, none of which were any good. If anything, he became more and more incoherent, if that was even possible. He was convinced we were hitting the jackpot, going to be stars, drive around in big limousines and have endless supplies of women and money. I started going to work even earlier, and coming home later, shadowing my dad pretty much. I even tried sneaking in through the back yard, but Bobby could tell I was home instantly. I tried suggesting things he could do to help himself pass the time, places he could that were anywhere else but my home.

My mom was no help at all. She had talked with my dad and with me about Mario and Roy, and had gotten a sense of the picture. She'd taken her knowledge straight to the church, causing even more trouble for everyone. Laura was righteously pissed. Roy had no business sneaking Mario out of his "wellness location" and marching him all around town. She went straight to the police to obtain a restraining order against him, but apparently that didn't get far. The judicial system found nothing wrong with a musician being escorted to play music. No harm was being done, they decided, and in fact no one could prove that Mario was even aware of the tumult around him. The halfway house people couldn't stand guard all day long. Laura had no legal authority. Mario was a free man and if Roy Everson, after all a respected and well-known producer, took the time to befriend and accompany Mario, wasn't that all for the good if not bad?

Laura had to admit that Mario looked and smelled better. She just felt he was being used and that it was wrong. She was right. He was and it was. At the time, though, we all thought, even my mom, that Laura was getting carried away. The practice was a one time event, and if Roy had big dreams he was only deluding himself. Anyone with half a brain could recognize someone with none. Mom also was useless with Bobby. She thought he was "making great progress", even though he was doing nothing and going nowhere. I really don't know what she was thinking. I tried to explain how he was annoying the heck out of me, driving me crazy in fact. All I wanted was to be left alone, and it wasn't possible for me in that house. I was seriously thinking of leaving.

One night I even did leave. Marshall took pity on me and let me stay at his place. His wife Mandy was nice and made up the couch in the living room. His twin eight year old daughters, Alice and Elise (seriously, it was only a matter of pronunciation to tell them apart) kept me up playing monopoly till midnight. I had told my dad where I was and he promised he wouldn't tell Bobby. Thank God for that. Apparently, Bobby was panicked when I didn't come home, and kept marching around the house, looking for me under the tables and couches, calling my name and begging me to come out of hiding. My mom got the picture that night. Bobby would not stop rushing around, and was giving her no "peace and quiet".

She told me later that he moved every piece of furniture in the house several times, even turning the chairs upside down, as if he would find me that way. Now you remember that I'm a large guy. I couldn't hide behind an industrial freezer! Bobby had these ideas, you see, and once they got stuck in his head they wouldn't come out. That night he decided that I had turned into a moth, so he needed to keep all the lights on. Moths are attracted to light as you know. It made logical sense if you were insane.

In the morning at work my dad told me that mom had enough, that she was going to finally do something about Bobby. As bad luck would have it, right after he said that, and I was feeling the sort of relief that you feel when you finally know that a nightmare is over, a new song started playing on KKAS. A "hot" new song, said Hot Rod Shimley. Guaranteed to mess you up and blow your mind.

It messed me up all right, and it did blow my mind. It was our song. It was 'Stoplight', and it didn't sound bad!