Chapter 3: Together

Finally, after much time the friends have found each other once again

Kusti exited the door and was welcomed by the sounds of ear splitting metal pounding throughout the wood of his ship. Guitar riffs of devil’s birth echoed throughout the shipyard and sent a shiver up his spine. He looked forward and saw a woman, her hair was bright purple and shaved on one side, the rest draped over her head and curved round to match her face. In her hand, she held an electric guitar, a Gibson Firebird 7, an old but reliable guitar and one the woman kept in perfect condition.

She was strumming along testing out the 6 or 7 amps behind her, she plucked lightly at the strings and laughed to the reverberations. Kusti stepped over to the door frame leaned back against it and looked the girl dead in her emerald eyes and stared her down. Slowly his arm went up and he goaded her with his hand giving her the stare he knew drove her mad, his entire posture screamed at her “come and have a go, if you think your hard enough”

 

The girl immediately began playing Breadfan by Budgie, then he turned around to see a well-built man with a big brown beard. He had a bald head and played his 4 set drums and 3 symbols with skill and precision. Next to him stood Mono who began playing along to the song on a white Yamaha BB2024X. Kusti prepared himself and Karra began singing the song, filling the entire ship yard with the sounds of classic rock.

Kusti started to retune his guitar and as soon as the end of the 8^th verse came Kusti began preparing him for the shift and as the symbols faded he began, the softer tones of his guitar being the only accompaniment to this girl’s completely different tone, the shipyard went silent as her hauntingly beautiful voice echoed out to the ocean. Everyone’s body swaying to the waves around them in harmonious peace.

These people joined and the waves of business halted for the bigger waves of music that took over. They rose and rose, getting larger and larger and as her lyrics stopped and the guitar took over the wave crashed down on the crowd as the same rhythm began once again the strumming of heavy notes by Mono and Karra obliterated the peace and replaced it with the blood rush of a volcanic eruption.

 

The shipyard erupted into cheers and Karra jumped on top of the amps and faced the gathering crowds and with the final verse bowed her head in respect to the audience as they screamed applause. Then something clicked in their brains and they were lost again. Like robots who briefly short circuited they immediately returned to their lives completely unaware of the feelings that just ran through them.

Goods were sold, ships were cleaned and the waltz took over again, the endless, monogamous waltz. Karra looked over the crowds and scowled. Jumping down from the amps she looked at Kusti their heights being an identical 5 foot 9 she looked him in the eye once again. She saw that he was sick of it too, sick of this endless grey blob the world had become. Kusti stepped over and wrapped his arms around her body, hugging her.

“Things will change, that’s why we’re here”

Kusti stepped away from the girl and looked over to the well-built man with a huge beard his flannel and jeans singling him out as a younger man.

“The name’s Kusti” he said stretching out his hand, the man stretched out his hand and shook it not saying anything.

Kusti looked the man up and down. Waiting for a response.

“And you?” Kusti said after a few moments of silence, the man simply looked at him and then pointed towards Karra.

Karra began talking her voice had a slight British politeness to it even though it was clearly American in origin “He can’t speak, he can’t write, he has no way to communicate apart from his hands and he refuses to get a brain implant of any kind. Kusti looked the man up and down, paying attention to his stance, it was tense, he held his body very sternly in front of Kusti, this man knew that Kusti was the captain.

“He plays well, does he understand me?”

The man began nodding his head

“Do you have a name?”

The man grabbed his drumsticks and gave them to Kusti, he looked at the German text, one said “Laut” and the other “Schweigen” He noticed that the letter “L” in Laut and “eigen” in schweigen were coloured red while the rest was black.

“Your name’s Leigen?”

Leigen nodded once again.

“Welcome aboard Leigen” Kusti said patting him on the back.

Leigen began to relax himself and a smile crawled across his face. He sent Karra out to find the best drummer possible. She knew what she needed being the best electric guitar player Kusti had ever heard. The examples of drummers left a lot to be desired in America. There were only a few band members left. Soon they would be together and ready for their first show. Kusti gave the two the same introduction to the ship and once they were settled returned to his cabin.

 

When Kusti entered his cabin, Ruth stood in front of him in a light pink dress. It reached to just below her knees and with her hair in ponytails she was exactly what he wanted to see in this situation, after all that harsh and rough noise it was nice to see her.

“What do you think?” Ruth whispered her adorable Blue eyes growing larger her hair bouncing away thanks to her impatient and expectant dance. She waited for him to return to get his approval. Kusti walked over and ruffled her hair a little.

“My perfect little Babygirl”

Ruth went red and stepped into the arms of Kusti, he reached his arms round and grabbed her resting his head on hers. He felt completely calm, he felt his pulsing ears rest and his brain calm. His entire body relaxed when he was shook awake.

“Kusti, you’re crushing me!”

Kusti straightened up and looked at Ruth, he thought and realised it had been about 40 minutes, since he had to deal with Leigen, learning the basics about someone without the ability to talk is exceptionally difficult. He went up to Ruth and took her hand in his.

“Ready to go out and meet our new friends?”

Ruth made an exaggerated nod and practically dragged Kusti forward, they walked out the door and were welcomed by Mono, Karra and Leigen, all of them ready carrying an instrument. Leigen had an African drum on his back. Karra had a guitar on her back, most likely her Firebird, Mono had his strange pair of bolas. Kusti moved towards them.

“Before we get going, Mono, what in Sam hill are those?”

Mono grinned slightly and grabbed the pair of instruments and slipped the rope between his middle finger and index finger. He grasped one of the orbs and then began to swing the other orb around his hand creating the same shaking of a maraca, then he swung the orb around the front of his hand and it clicked against the orb in his palm. The rhythm of clicking and shaking was pleasant and soothing. He then hung them from the small latch he had on his pants.

“They are called Asalato, I found them in Africa-”

Mono was interrupted by Ruth grabbing onto Mono and hugging him around his stomach

“I missed your sound, the way you always calmed people, the way you always had a new instrument that created such a relaxing melody”

Mono reached down and hugged Ruth back, enjoying her embrace. She then moved over and began hugging Karra.

“I heard you from in my room, it felt nice to feel those familiar reverberations, everyone always knew when you were playing, mainly because we couldn’t focus on anything else” Karra patted Ruth’s head.

“We missed you to, you were the only one who put up with all of us” Karra nudged Leigen and he smiled and waved at Ruth. Ruth looked over at the man and tilted her head staring at him.

“Ruth, this is Leigen, he’s going to be our drummer from now on”

Ruth walked over to the man and then began to pat his stomach repeatedly, Leigen just looked up to Kusti and pointed down to her. Kusti shrugged.

Ruth stopped then looked up at his face. “Your stomach makes a good drum, you must be a good drummer”

Everyone chuckled at Ruth’s logic apart from Leigen who smiled, then patted Ruth’s head.

“I think that’s his way of saying thanks” said Karra.

“You’re welcome Leigen, are we heading off now Kusti?”

 

 

This was the start Kusti realised, this is the start of his new band and they were going to bring life back to this desolate world, they were going to break the corporate waltz and induct a new era of free-flowing dance. Where the entire world can have their own rhythm, where people like Kusti and Leigen and everyone can play their music and bring the emotion that everyone wants but, everyone is afraid to take.

“Yeah, we’re heading out, we got people to find and music to play”