CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 23

DYLAN BORNSTORM

DYLAN HAS BEEN A YEAR AWAY FROM DRUGS, away from the stages, away from illusions, away even from himself, all that culture had brought him back to that Dylan he really was, young and smart who knew a world he was no longer a part of, but he was also away from his family for a long time. It had been years since he'd seen his mother, his father so... he didn't even remember the last time he saw his old man, he just knew he was with Dannie and nothing else.

His brother, since Billy died, only spoke to him on the phone, Michael never traveled with the band, was always in the office taking care of business, Dylan heard he was going to have another child.

WHEN DYLAN RETURNED home, everything was really different.

His mother had remarried — to a manager —, Dylan was very upset, but she said she had warned him, then Dylan remembered that it was a day when he was really crazy from so much cocaine, and his brother had also said that she would go get married, Dylan realized that she was far more upset with him than the other way around.

But it was great for him to come home, to sleep in the bed he spent his entire adolescence in it, studying and talking to Monique...

Monique... speaking of her, how is she doing?

Michael entered the room and told the whole truth about Monique, she never existed, she was more a figment of his imagination.

Dylan didn't want to believe it at the time, he cried a lot, in his heart, that was all a lie, Monique was the woman he loved, the woman that surrounded all his dreams...

It wasn't possible that she had never existed...

Unfortunately, his mother told the whole truth too, she pretended that Monique existed all those years, she had never seen her son so happy, so full of life, as he was next to that living dream.

Oh! Nique, even though it's a dream why did you leave? Not even my dreams wanted to be by my side...

It all seemed like a nightmare like no other for Dylan, he just wanted to wake up from it all and see that it had all been a bad joke and that he fell right. Another reality show that was participating, which in the end they would say that everything was just another dull joke.

But Dylan realized in his mother's tears that she wasn't kidding, it was the purest truth, she suffered from her suffering in childhood and adolescence, he was absolutely sure that it hadn't been easy for her to overcome all this either...

I am fully convinced of that...

Dylan decided to go look for his father, since no one in his house knew about him anymore, and they didn't even want to know.

Dannie said that he became a beggar after he abandoned him-for he had lost everything in his life-he lost his job, and his mother wouldn't have anything to do with him or paint him gold, and with that he lost everything he held dear in his life. life.

He wasn't dead yet, but she had no idea where he might be.

Returning home, Dylan wanted to know if they really knew about it. They said yes in unison, but they didn't want him to worry about his father...

Gosh! He's my father, he wasn't the best friend I had or the best father in the world, but he was my father, he deserved a little more, I'm rich, it wouldn't cost me anything to have him in a room in my house, which there is no lack of room in my mansion...

DYLAN HAS LOOKED FOR HIM in every possible and imaginable place. Placed ad in the paper and everything.

That's when one day he showed up at her house.

Dylan really couldn't believe the state he was in.

My father, a beggar, where will we end up?

She welcomed him into her home.

He said:

— Dylan, you talked to me on the street, but I was ashamed to tell the truth, after all, I'm so disfigured you didn't even recognize me.

He said he couldn't take that street life anymore and wanted a chance to be someone again.

— When I saw him looking for me — the father continued, — I knew that a son would never abandon a father, no matter how much that father never called him, or thought only of himself...

Love is never such a coward...

Dylan tidied up the guest room for his dad and said,

— You can stay here with me as long as necessary, you won't have to worry about anything.

It was difficult for him to see his father in such a situation, without eating, without bathing, without shaving. In a way, it took Dylan a while to believe that this man was really his father, he had lost too much weight...

It was just the shard...

After the shower, Dylan finally recognized him by the tattoo he had on his arm, which made him feel more relieved.

Dylan told his brother that he had found him.

— I don't want to see 'your' father in front of me or dead...

Talking to several people close to his brother, he discovered that his father had hurt him too much, and that he didn't want to have anything more to do with him in his life.

Dylan asked his father why Michael made such a decision and his father told the true story...

DYLAN'S FATHER TOLD him that on one occasion, Michael wanted to talk to him about his mother — as she had become very sick — and he had taken her out of her health insurance, but he didn't even want to know how she was...

— I want her to die — said her father — so she leaves me alone to be happy in life.

It didn't take long for her mother to get better and fall in love again — with Phillip, her current husband — and it was exactly at that moment that Michael went to tell Dylan the news of the wedding.

Of course, Dylan's father was very jealous, he didn't want his ex-wife to remarry, it's very difficult for a man to see his wife better than him, but even so, he went to her wedding.

— She paid a beautiful tribute to you, my son — said the father, brooding over the memories — all the wedding songs were yours, songs you sang with your band, she said you were on the other side of the world and that he could not be with her due to greater forces.

I was really on the other side, but not of this world...

At the time, Dylan was at his house — nearly overdosed on so much cocaine he and Johan had snorted.

His father kept telling him that he went to the party and his mother saw him, asked Michael to kindly ask him to leave the party as he was not invited, and his father went and beat his brother in front of the whole family. And he pushed Antonieta — his brother's pregnant wife on the floor — and started to offend everyone at the party. They had to call the police for him, and that's how all the misfortune in his life began.

It didn't take him six months to lose his job and everything he'd conquered.

Dannie had put their apartment in her name-one day when her dad had gotten too drunk and made him sign leaving everything he had in his name-and kicked him out of the house the first chance he got, that had been a few years.

— Since then, I've been wandering the streets like a bum.

He also said that he tried to contact him several times, but as his brother was the band's manager, it was really very difficult, and he had no alternative, he went to live on the street like a beggar, but Dylan welcomed him into his house. with all the love in the world, she let him work as a stagehand, carrying boxes and taking care of her dressing rooms.

DYLAN WAS PREPARING the new album, with all the greatest hits, would be recorded in a big venue in London...

I always wanted to put on an unforgettable show there, just like David had done...

And it really was amazing.

Countless fans from all over the world came to London to watch the recording of the album, and it was amazing, everything was perfect.

When they were in the studio mixing, they didn't even have to change anything, everything was so good.

It was the best-selling album in Dylan's entire career until that moment, he made an unforgettable tour, because he was acoustic, he didn't need all that madness he did at shows, it was something very peaceful and serene.

Dylan returned to playing in small places, with guitar and voice, without worrying too much about the media, he just wanted to be closer to the people around him.

It didn't take long for Dylan's family to get another shack, as his father was living with him now, Michael decided to step down from his managerial position because of all he had done for his father.

Dylan has always been the type to believe that people need to be forgiven in order for them to have a new chance at life.

His father was getting his new chance, but Michael never forgave him for pushing his pregnant wife. Dylan didn't blame him, probably wouldn't forgive him for doing such a thing to his wife (if he had her) either, but he didn't want to know anything more, Michael didn't speak to Dylan for over two years because of it.

His mother also did not treat him well, and said:

— Probably, if I were in your place, I would do the same, my son, but look at my side too, your father was such a rogue with me, and he deserved to go through what he went through.

Dylan never made a point of looking at things that way.

After he spent the two years of touring, his father got back on his feet again and Dylan helped him set up his own business, so Michael saw that his father was no longer living with Dylan, so he went back to talk to him again, but Dylan she never told him who helped her father set up his business, and she never would...

WHILE DYLAN CONSOLIDATED his solo career with his family life, his love life was going as usual...

By leaps and bounds...

It was a bigger frustration than the other, and as he no longer had any friends to live with and hang out with, he never knew if most of the girls he dated really existed or not, Dylan believed they did, as many of them were singers or models. very famous, but even so, his mind sometimes deceived him even in that.

Dylan cried many nights wondering why his life was like this. I just wanted to have the tranquility of being a normal person, of not seeing imaginary friends, of having imaginary relationships.

The rehearsals and recording of the new and last album started, Dylan already knew that from the beginning, it was too good for him, he already had everything a dream could make him want to have in life...

Minus the love of a very exciting woman who taught me how to truly live...

It was the craziest tour of his entire life — it spilled out cool — Dylan used every kind of drug imaginable, arrived drunk every day at hotels, was on the cover of magazines and newspapers with all the things he was up to.

Something he never imagined he would do in his life was work on an election campaign, Jennie Wilkinson was running for the Senate.

— I would love you to help me, Dylan — she said smiling, — I know you and my brother were very good friends, I'm sure it would make a difference in my campaign with you by my side representing him.

— I'd be happy to help you, but I think with so many scandals in my life, it would tarnish your image.

Jennie laughed like she hadn't laughed in a while.

— People love marketing, Dylan, your name is all over the world's top magazine covers, my brother must be proud of you, wherever you are.

— I don't think so, I'll never be half the man he was.

— No one needs to be better than anyone, David had a truckload of flaws too, that's the beauty of life...

— Your last name, Senator, is the same as a former bassist in my band.

— Paul?

— That's right.

— He's my brother-in-law, but he's quite distant from his brother, they hardly seem like a family in that respect.

— Paul was really a difficult person to deal with.

— So you don't know?

— You know what?

— The plane they were on with Brookie went down, everyone died.

— My God...

DYLAN ACCEPTED THAT CHALLENGE for the good times he was playing with David.

As much as Dylan couldn't believe what he saw, Senator Wilkinson's name began to fall into the graces of the people, her concerts during the rallies went down in history, the campaign motto was:

We are all winners and together we will continue to win...

With Dylan's name associated with politics and the most diverse sex scandals, his mother called for the first time really worried about him, but Dylan was in a state of total ecstasy, he didn't see anything or anyone inside all that madness. He didn't even remember how many alcoholic comas he had on that tour, or how many girls he went out with, he just wanted to end his career in style.

It was the seventh album he recorded and all very well produced and very well rewarded by fans, Dylan was at the height of his life and career. He felt young again, he felt loose on stage. The songs were contagious, it took four years to compose his masterpiece, he had plenty of time to do the best he could, maybe if too many doctors saw him on stage they would have him hospitalized in the act, because it was something insane, without measure, he was in Crest of the wave.

It was also during this period that Dylan had his first — big— overdose — he almost died — he was hospitalized for almost a month in a coma in the hospital in Italy.

His mother was with him all the time, his father... he didn't even care.

Dylan called and he answered me curtly...

— I'm glad you're okay, my son...— and he hung up the phone in his son's face.

Not his mother, she was with him all the time. Dylan wanted to return to the stage — but the doctors vehemently refused to warn him that if he used one more drop of alcohol or even an ounce of cocaine, his body would not be able to resist anymore, as he was on top of the world, almost to fall..

Dylan held a press conference in his room, along with his mother and Senator Wilkinson announcing his retirement as he would not be able to go on stage again as his musical life was closely tied to drugs and alcohol because that was what it made him really free on a stage, made him different, but in fact, Dylan ended up just like the others, stopping at the same place.

Dylan said he would do one last show, with guitar and voice, just him on stage.

The whole press was abuzz, because Dylan was always a great example of someone who wasn't at all flamboyant — like the big stars of music, who spit on people and made other slights. But it never affected him — at least not in his socializing with his friends. Dylan was always the same, but it was difficult to say who were his real friends and who were his imaginary friends, everything was so real, it was difficult, I just wanted to know that they were good for me, regardless of whether they existed or not.

Dylan spent a month in that hospital detoxing.

It's incredible, because he had never had a withdrawal crisis, at other times it was normal to stay without using drugs, in fact, it was even better.

DYLAN WRITTEN FOUR NEW SONGS in that room, the hardest thing of all was knowing that his teenage life had all been one big lie, that hurt him so much. Until the day his doctor announced that he would be discharged the next day, an unexpected surprise happened. Monique showed up as soon as her mother fell asleep, Dylan was almost speechless.

How could I not believe she didn't exist if she was in front of me? It was impossible, too real to be a lie...

— I parted ways with Thor — she said, — because I couldn't take that hell anymore...

She was more beautiful than ever, age did her good...

I was the one who was a wreck...

But she was fantastic, too beautiful.

His mother woke up in the middle of the conversation, she thought her son was drugged.

— Monique's in her room — Dylan whispered happily to her mother.

— Son, sleep, there's no one in the room.

Dylan yelled:

— Of course you do, I'm not crazy, Mom... I'm not crazy...

Doctors came in and had to sedate him to sleep. Dylan only remembers that before he fell asleep, he saw his mother crying desperately to see him in that state.

Dylan didn't want to yell at her — didn't really want to — but he knew he wasn't crazy, in fact, he didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't crazy, not anymore.

The treatment ended up going on for another two weeks.