But little did I know...

“Gee, d'ya know what happened to my...?”

Mikey entered running and couldn't finish the question before having his left foot trapped among random wires and falling down, bringing the amplifier down along with him.

We suddenly stopped playing.

“You okay?” I asked.
“I'd be... okay if I didn't have this thingy over my back that doesn't let me get up...” he said, with difficulty.
Gerard took the amplifier and lifted it, freeing his brother.
“What happened?” he asked, as he put it on the floor.
“Well, Frankie told me about this band you were gonna start and asked me to join, so I said yes, and I ran to my room to look for my equipment but I didn't see it so I ran here to ask you if you have seen it but then...” He moved his hands to try to represent the way he fell down and then he laughed.

“I think I saw some wooden boxes in the basement, they had your name written on them”, I said.
“They had weird drawings?”, he immediately asked.
“Yes.”

He immediately ran to the basement without saying a word.

“Don't misunderstand me, Frankie, but I'm getting tired of just playing Black Flag covers. We should start writing our own songs”, Gerard said, matter-of-factly.
“Maybe we can use my poems or just improvise... wait, wait, I had an idea!” I said, and I started playing randomly.
“Wait, wait. Lemme record that. It's great. It's so... you.”
He took his cell phone out of his pocket and started recording. Then he started singing over the random riffs I was playing.

“Wow, that's awesome. Lemme join, lemme join!”, Mikey said, entering the garage again, along with his equipment.
We all started playing. It sounded like something we had carefully planned but no, it was just improvisation.

“Something's still missing here”, I said.
“Yeah, I get you”, Gerard replied. “Something's missing.” He started looking at the roof, humming randomly. “I have an idea. I know somebody that can help us with that.”

“Who? Who? Tell us, tell us!” Mikey said, really excited.

“I think you know him. His name is Ray Toro... now that I think about it, a few weeks ago he said he was looking for a band...”

Notes