Becoming

Heaven Can Wait

Nathalie pulled into the garage, surprised to see Ade's car parked in its usual spot. She hadn't expected him back for at least another three weeks. She unlatched Dylan's car seat and hurried inside with him and the diaper bag, leaving her suitcase for the moment. "Ade?" she called as she entered the house. "What are you doing here already?"

Ade took a deep breath and joined Nathalie in the kitchen. "I've left Maiden," he admitted. "I know you've listened to me venting about how Harry's been getting worse over time... well, I told him I didn't agree with what he's trying to do with the new album, and he said if I wasn't behind him completely, I should just fuck off. So I did." He saw that Dylan was awake, so he unbuckled him from the car seat and picked him up. "How's my boy, then?" he crooned to the baby.

"What will you do now, though?" Nathalie asked. "I mean, you're a bit young to just retire, right? Are you going to look to get into another band or get out of music altogether?"

"I... honestly hadn't thought that far ahead yet," Ade said. "I don't intend giving up music completely, mind, but I think stepping back for a time would be a good thing, y'know? I can do some songwriting and the like, but I can also be here to take an active part in raising Dylan."

"Well, I can't say I'd mind having the extra set of hands around when it comes to Dylan," Nathalie said with a chuckle. "And in maybe another three months, we can start working on a sibling for him, since we did agree we wanted two kids. I just wanted to wait about a year before getting pregnant again, give myself time to recover and all. How long do you figure on stepping back for?"

"Dunno for sure," Ade said. "Six months to a year, maybe? Or possibly longer. I s'pose I've had some vague notion of putting together my own band again, do something a bit different to what Maiden's been doing, y'know? I expect I'd get some interest from the record companies based on my name, so I shouldn't have a problem with getting an album out and even doing a bit of touring to promote it. I just have to write the material for it first."

"All right, well, as vague as those plans are, you have some," Nathalie said. "And I can't blame you for walking away from Maiden. Mind, I think you went about it poorly, but what's done is done and we'll figure things out as we go along. What about Dave, though?"

Ade sighed. "He's staying with Maiden," he said. "I don't blame him, he's not really a songwriter, so he don't really understand how bad it is to pour your heart into something only to have Harry change it without even talking about it first. And mind, it's not just me Harry's done this to; he had the bollocks to tell Bruce not to use a song intended for his solo album, because he wanted it for Maiden's new album. Bruce shrugged it off this time, as he had a few b-sides planned out and figured he could just fill the slot with one of them. But still, Harry had nothing to do with that song, that was all Bruce and supposed to go on Bruce's album. The least he could've done was ask Bruce if Maiden could use it, instead of telling Bruce Maiden was gonna use it, y'know?"

"Seriously?" Nathalie asked. "Yeah, that's just... not right."

"He keeps up that shite, he'll lose Bruce sooner than later," Ade predicted. "Not that Bruce isn't just as arrogant and stubborn as Harry. The pair of 'em have been butting heads since Bruce joined up. I just hope for Davey's sake that Maiden don't go down if that happens. As a guitarist, I'm replaced easily enough. Anyone they hire on in my place is obviously gonna be a competent musician, so it's more a matter of if he fits in with the blokes. But it's a lot harder to replace a singer. Deep Purple never did so well without Ian Gillan fronting them, and while Black Sabbath kind of got away with replacing Ozzy Osbourne with Ronnie James Dio, they truly went to shite after Ronnie left."

"I'll take your word for that," Nathalie said. "I'm not enough of a Sabbath fan to have paid attention. I hope for Dave's sake that you're wrong about Steve eventually pushing Bruce into leaving, though, because you're right that he'll be really hard to replace. And if Dave's gonna stay in Maiden, I want them to keep doing well for him."