Never to be Unsung, a rock trilogy, vol 2, Plotting the Reapers' Demise: Never to be Unsung, a rock trilogy, #2

By JT Thilbertson

Despite a Frank Maddox ordered communication blackout between Lisa and the Band, both sides manage to pick up the pieces after the plane crash that took Ashley's life and begin to prepare for a tour de force to win Ashley the fame and recognition which she was denied.

Volume 2 follows Lisa's journey from a starry-eyed child prodigy to an adult, battle-scarred, whetstone-sharpened artist in her own right.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Glen and the band shift gears and begin to align themselves with the new direction which Ashley wanted to take upon completion of their ill-fated tour. Just as Lisa prepares to go join them, her dying father, (Frank), tosses one last joker on the table. unaware that Ashley is keeping abreast of his every move.

Even as all this is going on, the sound twigs breaking under the feet of Ashley's Aussie mate, Dahlia, can be heard at the edge of the lawn, so to speak. Who exactly is she? And why is she remaining in the shadows?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JT Thilbertson
• Release date: Oct 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393984900

Book preview

CONTENTS:       

Contents:

1) This Time You Gave Me a Mountain

2) Two Minutes and Fourteen Seconds

3) The Eastern Liaison; Call to Arms

4) Morning Glory, Silly Human Race

5) The Way In, is The Way Out

6) Future Echoes

7) Whatever Doesn't Kill You

8) Hands Across the Water

9) Waltzing  'Britannia'

10) The Battle of the Broomstick

11) Hi-Ho Silver Lining

12) Egbert and Toast

13) Return to Little Bighorn

14) The Judas Kiss that Backfired

15) Inheriting the Whirlwind

16) Libbet and the Magic Beans

17) The Cannonball Express

18) Welcome to the Machine

19) Stand and Deliver

20) When the Shark Bites

21) If One be Lost, Leave the 99

22) Shadowplay  Carousel

23) What We Have Here is Failure to Communicate

24) The Speed of Darkness

25) Heartquake

26) I Can Fly

27) Workin' that Mojo

28) Ghost Writers

29) Once Upon a Tune, in a Land Far Away

30) Gotta' Keep'em  'frigerated

31) Dead Tree Hunting; The Search for Three-Mile Oak

*Note*

Beginning  in Volume 2, the character of Lisa earns the nickname, Leutennant, (pronounced, LEF tennant, in Europe, even though it's spelled the same on both sides of the Atlantic). I have chosen to use the traditional Eastern phoenetic spelling and pronounciation of that title in the text for two reasons;

1) To portray the European 'flavor' of the term for the benefit of the Western ear, and,

2) In Volume 3, the East/West difference of pronounciation develops into part of a a comedic running  bone of contention between the characters of Glen and Lisa, whereby further 'coloring' their characters.

JTT

––––––––

CHAPTER 1 :

This Time, You Gave me a Mountain

Two Days after the entouage returned from Manchester, Glen came home to find Libbet sitting on the landing outside his apartment door. Her eyes heralded the bad news. She didn't even greet him. This isn't going to be good, is it? he assumed. No hon, it isn't, she confirmed. He then felt a bolt of dread inside, as she had never called him, hon. Drawing a deep sigh, he opened the door, and she followed him in. She took his hand as they sat down on the sofa;

I picked up the new issue of Rolling Stone about an hour ago, she began. I was praying that I'd get to you first. Eddie and Ash are on the cover. They did a major story on the plane crash. Okay, he remarked. The A.A.I.B. released the results of their investigation on the crash, she continued. "Because Eddie was able to get the plane down in water, whereby keeping it basically intact, the investigation was easier, and the results more conclusive. They found evidence of sabotage, Glen".

Sabotage? he half whispered. Yeah, she confirmed. "New Scotland Yard is actually calling it a murder investigation now.That word is in bold letters on the cover. I didn't want you to find out the same way I did, at the grocery checkout! I about scared the woman behind me half to death! I was hoping to at least spare you that much. Thanks sis", he managed, obviously shocked.

Who? he queried. Why? What did either one of them ever do to anyone? It doesn't make any sense! There's more, hon, she continued. Oh no, he reacted. More with the 'hon'. Now what?

They also released the autopsy results. You're not going to tell me something gory, are you? he pled. No, bubba, she answered. Not gory. Just weird. He sighed deeply. Go ahead, he said. "There was no water in their lungs, Glen", she revealed.

What does that mean? he queried. It means that they stopped breathing before the plane hit the water, she explained. "And the best forensic pathologists in Britain have no idea why. All of the toxicology reports came back negative. They couldn't find a trace of anything in their bodies that could have killed them".

Somebody killed my wife, he seethed. I don't know who, I don't know how, and I don't know why. And if that's not bad enough, he went on, the finest legal and medical minds and Britain, who are among the best in the world, are as stumped as I am. You know? I've had better days, Libbet. How about you?

She added her other hand to the one with which she was holding his. Yesterday I was worried about you, bubba, she began. Today, I'm petrified. I'm afraid that I don't have tweezers big enough for this thorn. I'm praying my socks off for you, and if that makes you mad, so be it. I'm still your friend, even if you do bark at me.

His eyes began to moisten. I'm not going to bark at you again, he assured. I'm still trying to forgive myself for the other day. I know where you stand. You keep standing there, just in case you're right. But as far as me joining hands with you in that stand is concerned, well, let's just agree to disagree, and leave it at that. That way, neither one of us loses a friend.

Alright, she agreed, fair enough. If you need anything, I'm a stone's throw across that parking lot, 24/7. Tony and I already talked about it. He understands. Thanks, Libs, he said, That's a two-way deal by the way. I know, she said. Do you think you'll be alright for a while? I'm too numb to feel right now, he answered.

Well, she said. Just in case you start feeling again, may I show you something? Sure, he agreed. He followed her out to his kitchen, where she took hold of the wall phone, lifted it up about half an inch, and pulled it away from the wall. Then, she pinched the end of the connecting wire and gently pulled it out of the socket. That's all you have to do, she said. honest. He finally laughed as she put it all back. Tell Tony he's a lucky guy, he smirked. And so am I. Now come here. Gimme hugs.

After she left, Glen went out on the balcony to try to sort his thoughts.

"Murdered", he mused. Over what? By whom? The closest thing to enemies she had were like, Dirk and Mickey. Sabotage a plane? Those guys need instructions to use a Pez dispenser! He thought a while longer. She had a lot of things that she wanted to tell me when she got back, he thought to himself. Now it's really got me wondering... Could this be what she wanted to talk to me about?... that someone was after her about something?

He then went inside and glanced at her overnight bag that was still sitting in the corner where she had left it. He knew what was in there. No, he said to himself. Not without talking to Libbet first. He then walked across the parking lot and knocked on her door.

I'm in a quandary, he announced. Come on in, she said. Ash said that she had a lot of things she wanted to share with me when she got back, he began, things she'd been holding back. Then, before she could return, somebody... You don't have to say the word, she offered. Well, he continued, "the word is the whole point. He drew a deep sigh. She left her diary, Lib", he revealed.

She drew a quiet gasp. Normally, I wouldn't touch the thing, he continued. I mean, it just isn't done. And now I don't know what to do. She sat back and crossed her arms, deep in thought. Finally she spoke up; Let me ask you something, she began Let's say that you kept a journal, and, God forbid, this thing had happened to you, instead. What would you want to become of that Journal?

That's easy, he answered. I would want it to get into Ashley's hands. If that weren't possible for some reason, then yours. I think you just answered your own question, bubba, she cited. Not only that, she continued. but if you think that there's even a reasonable possibility that there could be something in there that Scotland Yard could use, then I'm sure that Ash would be the last person to condemn you for reading it. Honestly, I don't see a choice.

I suppose that you're right, sis, he agreed. "I don't have a choice, do I? Not the way I see it, she confirmed. He drew a deep sigh and shook his head. This isn't going to be easy, he mused. But you're right, Lib. We have to turn over every rock and see what might slither".

Do you want me to be with you when you read it? she offered. No thanks, hon, he answered. I might start feeling again, and I already nicked you once. I'll just lend it to you when I'm done. Maybe something in there will jump out at you. We'll put our heads together on it afterwards.

Okay, she said. That sounds like a plan. I'm going to head on over, he announced. He then opened the door to leave. Glen, she called out. Yeah? he queried. "Nick's heal. Friends forgive. No need to bring that up anymore. Go ahead and bark if you need to. Howl if you have to. We're here for each other, just as we've always been, and that's that. Yes ma'am, he said. Now get out of here and get to reading, she instructed. Yes ma'am", he smirked. From there he headed across the parking lot toward his apartment.

When he got inside, he reached into the overnight bag for the diary. He felt two books, and pulled them both out. Hmm, he mused. "The Sense of Yesterday's to Come. This must be the book that she wanted to lend to Libbet". He set the book and the diary on the coffee table, then propped himself up lengthwise on the sofa. Before picking up the diary, he decided to take a quick thumb-flip through the book out of curiosity, stopping to briefly glance at the illustrations along the way. He noticed that the book was quite old, the pages yellowed.

When he got to the back of the book, he saw that the last page of text was badly wrinkled. He then looked at the inside corner of the page, and noticed that it had been ripped out of the book, then the rip repaired with new clear tape.

Ashley must have done this, he mused. Why? He decided to read the last page for himself to see if maybe he could make sense of what he'd found. 'Their love wasn't meant for this life, but for the life to come', he read. He then closed the book, set it on the coffee table, and began thinking aloud;

"Okay... She was upset by what she read... She ripped the page out of the book and balled it up... Then, Libbet asked to borrow the book, so she put the page back. That's the only thing that makes sense. But why did this fiction upset her so badly? Unless... fiction collided with some reality. He looked at the diary on the coffee table. You knew something, didn't you, baby"?

He picked up the diary and set it in his lap. Alright Mox, he said, talk to me. He opened to page one. The timeline began in mid-December, shortly before she went back to Manchester for Christmas. He decided to skim along quickly at first, searching for something that might raise a red flag. He skimmed three weeks of entries. When he got to the first week of January, the first red flag popped up. He read the full details of the Paul Bunyan dream that she never finished telling him about, along with the talk which she had with Purdy in the aftermath of it.

The next red flag appeared in the very next day's entry, as she rendered her account of having confronted him about snatching Joe from the jaws of two 'piranhas' in the hallway. "I can't lose you yet", she quoted herself, "Way to go, loose lips. Worry your boyfriend to death, why don't you? This isn't his fight". There it was, evidence of a life-threatening conflict of some kind. But with whom? About what? He read on...

The next red flag didn't appear until late February in Manchester, where he read her account of the professional break-in at her father's house, where the intruders thought they were home! "Why didn't you tell me about this? he exclaimed. Could this have been the same people who later brought down the plane"? The following day's entry spoke of Grandmother Maddox's as last words, and what she saw with one foot in the afterlife.

Then came the account of the incident that she and Lisa witnessed at the construction site, later that afternoon. And the erie parallels between the incident and her two foreboding dreams. She had made only a general mention of both of those dreams to him, and little mention of the incident at the construction site.

Oh Ashley, he lamented aloud, why did you bear all of this alone? You kept so many secrets, and one of them became your undoing. Unfortunately, his query was answered in her musing about their second trip to Hemingway's, a week later. A guilt-tipped arrow was headed straight at him, monogrammed with his name. "I so tried to bare my soul to him", she wrote. "But he couldn't handle it. It only frightened him, so he told me to watch the pretty pearls on the bridge".

After that, her entry continued, I changed the subject, and began talking about enjoying a second childhood together while we still could. We ditched school and headed for Ocean City. That was the wildest, craziest, and most irresponsible thing I've ever done, and it wasn't even my idea! I say, there may be hope for him yet! Glen found himself laughing and crying at the same time.

Once his eyes were clear enough, he resumed his search. Come on baby, he mused aloud. Tell me something that I can take the Scotland Yard for you.

However, as he read through the remainder of her writings, there was no more evidence of any nemesis or would-be assassins. What he found  within the pages was a young woman who seemed to be basking in the glow of a double honeymoon; one with her new husband, and the other with her savior. She made mention of various songs written to both, as well as short prayers on behalf of those to whom she was the closest.

All signs of danger, enemies, and premonitions of pending doom seemed to be gone. Then, when he got to the last entry, he found a bomb, but not the kind that New Scotland Yard was looking for. Her last entry was made on June 15th, the day before the last concert at Dudek Park. It was simply a poem that she wrote, about which she offered no commentary. To my frienemy, it began;

Comfort mine eyes, oh ancient scales

My heart seal shut, behind your veils

Numb me now, anesthetize

The light of Truth, might hurt my eyes

And bring me weeping, to my knees

From mine own folly, hide me, please

Help me believe I’m in the right

Convince me still that day is night

Yes, bring to naught all I could do

My dreams, my plans, my future, too

My conscience soothe in peaceful lull

Whilst I drift toward the waterfall

You’ll flee away once it’s too late

Abandon me at Heaven’s gate

To find another, rob them, too

Perhaps not, if I tell on you...

When he finished reading the poem, his heart turned frigid. The last shread of Glen's faith leaked out of his mouth as he looked upward and repealed it;

"You", he began. "You watched as someone rigged that plane. You watched as they boarded and took off. Then you watched as it fell with them aboard".

"She came back to you"! he continued. "She trusted you, and loved you, and so did I... The operative word is did, as in, once did.

He then sat and stared blankly into space for over five minutes before he broke his silence;

I need to find Jimmy...

CHAPTER 2

Two Minutes and Fourteen Seconds

Now Jimmy was a former workmate of Glen's, who was five years older than he. It was through him that he met Kenny, through whom he met Jack. And thus, the nucleus of the band formed, in Jimmy's basement. The early days of band practice were more of a party atmosphere; jamming, friends, girls... beer. Sensing a certain magic in their blend of styles and approaches, they evolved into a more serious endeavor. That is, once they got out of Jimmy's basement.

Glen climbed into Yeller and headed off to see his old buddy. When he got there, Jimmy was apparently not home from work yet. Glen was determined, so he sat on the front steps and waited for him. After about twenty minutes, the AMC Gremlin turned into the driveway.