Jeremy kept his head low. He didn’t look at her. His eyes were wet, and his heart beat faster than ever. The last person to walk on the stage was Jeremy. He stood up and walked the long way to the stage while the faces turned back to see the smart, handsome man in black suit. He had his guitar with him, perhaps the only friend that he had in this life.
He walked up on the stage and said, “Thank you for the good times. You may not know me, but I know each one of you. Tonight, I thought I would speak. Tonight I ought to sing a song with my band”.
He called up Richard and the rest of the crew to play the song with him. The auditorium was silent. Sara was almost in tears. And then Jeremy asked Richard to play the guitar for him, for he wanted to sing. Richard was surprised, but he smiled and asked which song.
Jeremy turned back and said, “Final Cut.”
Richard nodded and started playing the guitar. The moment Jeremy started the song, the whole auditorium was amazed. His heavenly voice touched each heart. Sara, started crying which made Steve wonder what was going on.
And Jeremy sang.
“And if I show you my dark side
Will you still hold me tonight?
And if I open my heart to you
And show you my weak side
What would you do?
Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone?
Would you take the children away
And leave me alone?
And smile in reassurance
As you whisper down the phone?
Would you send me packing?
Or would you take me home?”
As the song ended in a gloomy tenor, the whole student body applauded and screamed in bliss. They hadn’t heard anything of that sort in a long while.
When the song was finished, Jeremy said, “This song was for someone special. And I guess, that is it. Good luck, goodbye.”
There was absolute silence in the hall. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke a word. Jeremy smiled at Richard and walked away from the hall. Richard was stunned. He looked at Steve and then Sara. He didn’t know what to say. But their silence answered the puzzle. Richard and Steve ran uphill to find Jeremy. The drizzle painted the wet streets in yellow with the lights that flickered from every street lamps. They found the doors locked, but they couldn’t wait any longer. They broke into the room, and stood there in terror.
Jeremy slept there on the floor like an infant with all the papers that he’d scribbled with his own blood. He cut his vein and was bleeding. Richard and Steve stood stunned. They didn’t know what next to do so they called up the ambulance. When the bleeding body was taken into the hospital, the students in the college stared at it, hoping to see him live again. They didn’t know it was Jeremy. Nobody knew the reason behind it. Sara knew it. Jeremy knew it. Richard and Steve knew it.
“Silence speaks louder than words. But it is a dangerous game. Sometimes, we need to speak. And I spoke today. I spoke today…” The words of the final verses he wrote before he was taken into the hospital haunted them.
Three miles away from the place where it all happened, Richard was in tears. His mind was blank, but his heart was energized to perform tomorrow. Sunday was just a day away. The time was 7 p.m., and as he reached the campus, the fresh green leaves, the dewdrops on them, and the fog that wrapped all the boughs took him seven years back to where it all happened. He drove uphill, towards the same room where they three lived together. Room number 207 was now 307. The fresh rose flowers in the backyard were soaked in drizzle. His blue car was drenched in fresh downpour. November was the month. The month full of love and happiness.
Richard walked around the places recalling the memories he cherished seven years go. Everything looked the same. He thought dreams were like the castles made of sand, but he’d seen them happening. People craved it so beautifully, but some dreams do come true. Another time, another day every bleeding heart would have something to remember. The echoes of the distant hill still lured him. Tomorrow would be Sunday. And tomorrow they would come to see him play the songs for those young students. Tomorrow, those three names would shine again. Richard smiled at himself in the mirror and remembered the good time he was going to have with the newly wedded Jeremy and Sara, and their friend Steve.
The night was still young, and the dawn would bring back the light… again…
