Mad Seasons [Abandoned Story]

8.A nearly sleepless night in The Emerald City ( Long Chapter)

"This song won't be released until October, but I have the exclusive right to play it throughout the month of March. So enjoy it tonight. Just for you this beautiful and melancholic ballad by the band Mazzy Star. Their new album will be released on October 5th. A date to remember my friends" announced the radio host in his velvet voice.

The first notes began to play and the moment we were beginning to share was like a moment of divine grace. Hope Sandoval's voice was that of an angel. So soothing, soft and full of graceful and delicate beauty. Like a flower that had bloomed with the morning dew.

Just as we had begun to talk, Eddie began to hum the chorus and sing some of the lyrics after instantly memorizing them. Their voices together could have stopped time. His interpretation was both soft and almost ethereal at times. Suddenly, I was moved while I enjoyed listening. I closed my eyes.

"This is beautiful," I said in a low voice.

"The song is. It's inspiring." he replied with a melancholic tone.

His body lay further back in the tub and briefly placed his left hand on mine, which I had placed on the edge.

"I think I'd rather sing than talk."

He seemed to have been overcome by some emotions suddenly without my knowing the reason. Just before, we had talked about the view, the atmosphere of Seattle at night.

"What's wrong?" I asked him softly.

"Just ... It made me think about life, about time passing."

"About what?"

He didn't answer, withdrew his hand, and began to sing a little again without my insisting that he give himself up to me. And a few seconds later, he broached the subject of his real father, stepfather, mother, childhood, adolescence. I felt pain, regret, a little resentment and a touch of sadness.

Eddie thought that his stepfather who was called Peter Muller was really his real father. What a shock it was when he learned that Edward Louis Severson Jr was his real father who died of multiple sclerosis. He just thought he was a family friend.

"I didn't have time to get to know him," he says with both emotion and dignity. My relationship with my stepfather was never easy and it became strained."

He went on to tell me that his mother and stepfather had divorced in his late teens and that they all lived together in San Diego, including his stepbrothers. Eddie was born in Chicago and his family had moved to California.

"When I found out the truth about my real father and after the divorce I took my mother's maiden name; Vedder." he continued to tell me.

I felt it did him some good to confide his emotional wounds, listening carefully. In the bath water, my hand grabbed his and squeezed it tenderly without letting go. He added that he had started music at twelve thanks to his mother who had given him a guitar for his birthday.

"I made the mistake of trying to live alone in a cheap apartment and between my job and school, I gave up. I joined my mom in Chicago and went back to school when I went back to San Diego to San Dieguito High School. I liked that school," he finished in a brighter, clearer voice.

He did some odd jobs and it was while sending a demo afterwards that a friend of his told him a band was looking for a new singer.

"When Stone heard it, he was thrilled, as he told me."