"They tried to fuckin' guilt us into staying with the tour through this," Coop said. "The fuckin' show must go on, he tells us. I thought Matt was really gonna kill Greg when he said that shit."
"I will agree that Greg is lucky to have escaped with his life," Pauline said. "And yes, I talked to them both. In light of further developments since Matt's return, I think they've stopped worrying about a one week hiatus from the tour."
"What do you mean?" Jake asked.
She sighed, taking a drink from her latest cup of coffee. "Matt says he's done," she said.
"Done?" Jake asked. "You mean... done?"
She nodded. "He says he's not going back to the tour and that he's never going to step on stage or make music with any of you ever again. He, in fact, says that it'll be a cold day in hell before he's even in the same room with any of you."
"He can't do that!" Coop said.
"We have commitments to honor until the end of this contract period," Nerdly said. "There are still thirty-one more venues to play, not including the shows we're postponing over the next week."
"I know," Pauline said. "Matt says — and I quote: 'I don't give a fiddler's fuck about the rest of the tour dates'. I tried to tell him that he's in breach of contract if he does not resume the tour and make up the dates that are postponed and he said: 'I don't give a rat's ass about the fuckin' contract either'. He says to let them sue if they want, let them take all of his money, but he's not going back out on tour."
"Was he serious?" Jake asked.
Pauline nodded. "At the time he was in here ranting to me about all this, yes, he was dead serious. He was fully prepared to accept the consequences of a breach of contract charge and then go out on his own as a solo artist after this contract expires in November."
"Oh man," Charlie said, shaking his head nervously. "This is not good."
"Maybe he'll cool down a little," said Nerdly.
"Maybe," Pauline said, "but I really doubt it. You know how he is when he makes up his mind about something."
"Goddamn it," Jake said. "He is just so fucking pigheaded!"
"Hey, wait a minute," Charlie said. "If he breaches the contract, does that mean that we're gonna get nailed too?"
"No," Pauline said. "You guys are all safe. If you're all willing to go back out on tour and fulfill your contractual obligations but Matt refuses, he'll be the one to take the heat. Since it's impossible to replace Matt and still reasonably call yourself Intemperance, you'll just sit out the rest of the contract and then you'll be free to do whatever you want with your careers after."
"This is fuckin' bullshit, man!" Coop said. "He wants to break up Intemperance? Right now? While we're the most popular fuckin' band in the free world? That's... that's... that's not right, man! That ain't the way the world is supposed to work!"
"No," Pauline agreed. "It isn't."
They sat in silence for a few moments, each of them reflecting on this information.
"Can you try talking to him, Pauline?" Jake asked. "Or, if he won't listen to you, can you talk to Kim? None of us want Intemperance to break up, but even if that's the way it has to be, we need to finish this tour. People have already bought tickets for those shows."
"I'll try," she said. "I just don't think it will do much good." She took a few breaths, another sip of coffee. "There's something else that Matt has set into motion that I think I should bring up now."
"What's that?" Jake asked.
"He doesn't want any of you at Darren's funeral," she said.
All four of them were more than a little shocked by this statement. He didn't want them at Darren's funeral? That was insane! Except for Charlie, they had known Darren for years, had played venues with him all over the country, had sat huddled in recording studios and rehearsal warehouses with him, had rode thousands of hours on a cramped tour bus with him, had drank with him, smoked with him, fucked groupies with him.
"That's just too goddamned bad," Jake said, feeling actual anger now instead of just sadness. "But I'm going to Darren's funeral whether Matt likes it or not. There's no way in hell I won't."
"Me too, goddammit!" Coop said.
"I agree," Nerdly said. "When you've fornicated in the presence of another man, produced music with him, and smoked marijuana with him more than ten times, you are honor-bound to attend his memorial service, regardless of your relationship with him at the time of his demise."
"That may be true, Bill," Pauline said. "And I understand how much each of you sincerely feel the need to go to his funeral, but... well... this is hard to say."
"What do you mean?" Jake asked.
"Matt has been in touch with Darren's parents since he's been home. He has convinced them that all of you are to blame for Darren's death."
"He did what?" Jake yelled.
"That motherfucker!" Coop put in. "I'll kick his fuckin' ass!"
"This is most uncouth," Nerdly said indignantly.
"Yeah," Pauline said. "But the fact of the matter is that Mr. and Mrs. Appleman have officially requested that I inform the four of you that you are not welcome at Darren's funeral and that they will instruct the guards to turn you away if you show up."
"Can they do that?" Coop asked, incensed by the very thought. He and Darren had, after all, been very close back in the day. They had actually shared Darren's first heroin addiction together.
"I'm afraid so," Pauline said. "And unless they change their minds in the next two days, that's just the way it has to be."
"Fuck me," Jake said, his face red, his hands clenched into fists. "I didn't think Matt was that vindictive."
"Neither did I," Pauline said. "Neither did I."
The popular media, in their grandest tradition, was making a big deal over the death of "former Intemperance bass player, Darren Appleman". In the seventy-two hours following Darren's discovery, they printed and broadcast every last detail they could ferret out of anyone with any knowledge or reasonable facsimile thereof of the circumstances surrounding Darren's life and death. They told about Darren's earlier problems with heroin and his stint in rehab as a result. They spoke of how he had contracted botulism as a result of skin-popping heroin and had nearly died from it. They spoke of his being replaced by Charlie Meyer, initially on a temporary basis, but, by vote of the band ("guitarist, Matt Tisdale, the lone hold-out", they gleefully proclaimed), he was permanently fired. They told in exacting detail the condition of Darren's apartment when he was found, how the neighbors reporting a foul odor was what led to his discovery, how Darren was wearing only a pair of "stained blue bikini briefs", and, how the last video found in his VCR was pornographic in nature.
It did not take long for the media to get hold of the fact that Jake, Charlie, Nerdly, and Coop were being barred from Darren's funeral. The information came from none other than Marla Appleman, Darren's mother. She was accosted by two entertainment reporters at LAX while waiting to board the plane that was flying her son's coffin home to Heritage for burial. After enduring ten minutes of inflammatory questioning about Darren's drug use, his womanizing, his obviously poor upbringing, rumors about him being abused by his father as a child, and his Satanism, the relatively benign subject of who his pallbearers would be came up.
"I'm assuming," said the spunky female reporter from Celebrity Today, "that Jake Kingsley, Matt Tisdale, Nerdly Archer, and John Cooper will be carrying his casket, but will Charlie Meyer, the man who replaced him, be among the pallbearers? And, if so, who will be the sixth?"
Marla's face turned angrier than it had already been. "Matthew will be the only one of those you mentioned who will carry my son's coffin," she said icily. "His pallbearers will be friends of his, not the four deviants who caused his addiction and his death. In my opinion, they should be arrested and charged with a crime."