Chapter Twenty Four

I messed with my coffee cup as we sat in the booth. It was a fairly large booth—after all, how can you fit six people in the small four seater booth?

We were waiting for some big shot reporter to come and ask us about being in the Hall of Fame, how it felt, our humble beginnings blah, blah, blah. Basically all of that stuff. Boring to some, entertaining to others. Tommy checked his watch, sighing quietly to himself.

"Don't get so hotheaded, they'll show up." Bobby took a drink of his coffee.

"You said that seven minutes ago."

"Yeah, and now I'm saying it seven minutes later."

Nicky rolled his eyes as the door opened. The five of us looked up and saw a woman walk in. Her hair was short and grey and sunglasses covered her face. She wore a plain yellow blouse with nice slacks and heels. Tommy's eyebrows shot up.

"No. Fucking. Way."

"Is that who I think it is...?" Nicky muttered.

"Oh, my God." Frankie's mouth dropped open for a second before he closed it.

"Lorraine?" Bobby's eyes widened.

"Hey, guys." Lorraine sat down in the booth. "How's it going?"

"Oh you know... Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Just bullshit." Tommy teased.

"But that's what we're here to talk about, right? The Hall of Fame?" Bobby furrowed his eyebrows.

"That's right, so let's start the interview, shall we?" Lorraine took off her sunglasses and set them down. She put a tape recorder in the middle of the table. "So, who exactly led the group in the early days?" she took out a notepad as well and a pen.

"I did. I did all the bookings, handled all the money, all that fun stuff." Tommy took a drink of his coffee.

"Yeah, and look what happened." Nicky muttered.

"Nicky, not now." Frankie snapped quietly at him. Nicky shook his head and sighed quietly through his nose. Lorraine nodded slowly, jotting a few things down. I looked at Tommy. About twenty or thirty years ago, he would've punched Nicky in the face for that comment. Now, he just kind of sat there and let it pass.

"Now," Lorraine started. "When the group first started out, it was just Nicky, Tommy and Frankie, right?"

"The Three Lovers." Frankie nodded his head.

"And then Bobby came, made the group the Four Lovers. How long was it after Bobby joined that Tyler came into the band?"

"I think it was a few weeks. Maybe a month at the most." I shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure."

"About a month and a half later." Tommy answered with confidence. "She stayed the night at Frankie's house and the next afternoon, he called us all over saying he made some huge discovery."

"I'll be honest with you." Nicky started. "I didn't think this kid had it in her. She didn't look like the type that would be singin' in a whole group of guys. Or puttin' up with them for that matter. She looked like an innocent little school girl. But when she started singing, that thought flew out of my head. All I could think was "With a little practice, this kid could be as good as Doris Day." Sure enough."

I grinned and looked at my hands.

"Now, Tyler, you didn't plan on singing, did you?" Lorraine looked at me after writing a few things down.

"No I didn't. Ever since I was three years old I knew what I wanted to do with my life. And that was act. I used to get so lost in the moment. You take on this character and you forget who you are and all your troubles, even if it's just for a few minutes. You just escape reality and live in this world where your troubles melt away and..." I shook my head. "Well, after I started singing, I got the same sense of euphoria. I could escape my troubles, even if it was for only a minute. You get lost in the spotlight and everything just flies out the window. You don't have a care in the world during that time."

"Sounds amazing."

"It was."

Lorraine jotted a few things down. "And you and Bobby were married for how many years..?"

"Two." Bobby answered.

"But we dated about a year, so we were together around three." I added and took a drink of my coffee.

Bobby sat quietly for a second before he smiled, trying not to laugh. "She was my Christmas present."

There was a laugh from Tommy who clapped a couple of times. "I hope you know, Gaudio," he looked over at him. "I arranged that."

Bobby stared at him as I started giggling. "He did. He even had Mary teach me how to 'be sexy'." I did the air quotes with my fingers. At this, Nicky started laughing and Frankie shook his head. Lorraine looked at us, not knowing if she should laugh or not.

"How long did you have that planned?" Bobby asked.

"A couple months." Tommy calmed down. "You enjoyed it though."

"Well, yeah I enjoyed it, but—"

"Then don't have a shitfit about it."

"You wanna know how much they enjoyed it?" Nicky raised his eyebrows. "I heard the headboard banging against the wall all night."

Frankie, who was taking a drink from his coffee, almost spit it out on the table, but didn't.

"Thank you for that image, Nicky." He shut his eyes.

"You're welcome." Nicky gave a shit-eating grin.

!

"Now..." Lorraine messed with the pen in her hand. "The Hall of Fame. That was just a couple of weeks ago. How'd it feel?"

"Surreal." I answered.

"I, first off, thought that I'd never be that famous, and second it's just an honor. It really is. Not everyone is in there." Bobby shook his head.

"But we are." Tommy smirked.

"And we damn well deserve it." Nicky nodded once with finality.

"What did it feel like performing together again?" Lorraine ran a hand through her hair.

"It was great." Frankie smiled. "Just like the old times." He took my hand under the table. I smiled over at him before holding his hand back.

!

After paying for the bill, we all started to leave, but there was one more thing Lorraine wanted to ask us.

"What were your feelings on the breakup of the band?"

"It had to happen." I said. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, muttering their agreements as well.

"What're you guys doing now? And..." Lorraine trailed off for half a second as she wrote something down. "What do you think what the high point was and what do you think about the old neighborhood?

"You know what I do now?" Tommy started. "I work for Joe Pesci. Little Joey Fishes. Same kid I used to smack around. Couple of months ago we're driving through the old neighborhood. He says, "Hey, Tommy, how do you remember yourself back then?" I says: "I think I was a pretty stand-up guy." He says, "I gotta be honest with you. You were a total prick. Nobody would have put up with your shit except we all needed something."" He shrugged a little. "Everybody remembers it the way they need to, right?"

Nicky nodded once. "People always ask the same question: "Why'd you do it, Nicky? Why'd you walk away?" Well, let me clear that up. It wasn't the side deal. It wasn't the touring. It wasn't the bad food, or rooming with Tommy. It just came out of my mouth. Once I said it, I knew it was what I wanted. I wanted to go home."

Frankie sighed quietly. "They ask you, what was the high point? Hall of Fame? Selling all those records? Pulling Sherry out of the hat? It was all great." He paused for a second. "But five guys—four guys and a girl if you want to be 'politically correct'—Under a streetlamp when it was all still ahead of us, first time we made that sound, our sound, when everything dropped away and all there was was the music..." he shut his eyes for half a second, remembering, and then opened them again. "That was the best."

Bobby shrugged. "I'm not drawn to the old neighborhood, my life never revolved around the old neighborhood; I don't give a fuck about the old neighborhood. I'm from wherever I happen to be. And these days, that's Nashville, Tennessee. Just me, my beautiful wife, and a good cigar. Quiet and peaceful in the knowledge that none of this could've happened without me." He winked.

"By the way," Tommy added in. "You're ever in Vegas, go to any casino, say the name Tommy DeVito. My hand to God, you'll be out of there in about twelve seconds."

Frankie laughed. "I wouldn't doubt that."

Nicky sighed. "Alright..." He started. "I'll be honest with you. It could have been an ego thing. Everybody wants to be up front. But if there's four guys and a girl, and you're Ringo...? I mean, even Ringo got beat out by Yoko." He nodded for a second and shrugged. "Better I should spend some time with my kids."

"Like that bunny on TV with the battery, I just keep going and going and going." Frankie said. "Chasing the music. Trying to get home."

"And Tyler? You've been pretty quiet." Lorraine looked at me.

"I'm a small town girl, from Oak Leaf, Texas. I never grew up in Jersey, I never really lived the life Frankie and the guys lived, kind of like Bobby. I attended Red Oak High School where I left. I never... Really dropped out. I just ran away. I just... I felt like more a black sheep than anything. I believed the whole time Tommy wasn't too fond of me, and I used to say to myself, "You can do this; you're a strong, Texan woman." I never told anyone what always went through my mind, what made me so motivated. My parents were deadbeats. They said I would be just like them; after all I am their child. Time after time after time they'd bring me down, say my writing was shit or that I would never accomplish anything. Finally, I just up and left. I had enough. I ended up and Jersey, I went inside that club, and the rest is history." I paused for a second. "Now? I've written seven screenplays and in the process of writing an eighth. I'm a mother of four beautiful children and a wife to an amazing man. It's all I've ever wanted."