Frank Iero and the Meaning of Life

Chapter Five - Sun, Sand, and More Sand

Chapter Five

Sun, Sand, and More Sand

            I stepped out of the side of a large boulder; I expected it to be hotter than hell, but a chilling night sky greeted me instead. A full moon hung in an inky ocean filled with countless stars, all of which illuminated the vast sand dunes sprawling before me. I never thought that the sky could have such an abundance of stars; I could see the outline of the Milky Way very clearly and was blown away by just how much beauty filled the seemingly endless sky. As much as I missed the charming trashiness of Newark already, the incredible feeling of freedom beckoned me to venture further out into the night.

A caravan of lights rested upon a sand dune not too far away, and large clouds of smoke from what appeared to be a campfire billowed from it. Using the moon's light as my guide, I followed the smoke cloud and made my way toward the caravan.

I could get in so much trouble, I thought to myself as I smirked. There was something awfully satisfying about breaking the rules.

As I moved closer to the caravan, a few tents and tuned-up cars came into view. As soon as the muffled sound of low-quality hard rock began to blare, I knew that I was safe. On the way toward the caravan's center, I bumped into a group of scraggly-looking kids that greeted me with a smile.

"Welcome back, Ghoul," said one of them.

It felt a bit odd to be called by my killjoy name, but I was glad to be anyone but myself.

The whole place looked like a haphazardly-built town; tents and cars sat strewn about the place all helter-skelter, and the strong scent of smoke made me feel hungry for barbecue. I attempted to search for my fellow bandmates amongst the crowd of feral-looking kids that dotted the camp. As I scanned the countless tuned-up cars for my friends, I passed by something that resembled a food truck. It was so heavily modified, however, that it looked more like a tank than anything else.

            After a few minutes of wandering, I finally spotted my crew gathered around a bonfire. They were all hunched over a map of some sort, and looked as if they were planning something important. Although I felt a bit nervous to greet them, I built up my confidence and headed right in without any second thought.

"Hey, G!" I said loudly.

His head shot up, and he quickly turned around to shoot a nasty glare at me.

"Ray, Mikey, you guys are looking great tonight," I said.

All of them looked shocked and disgusted for some reason; I ignored their looks and crammed myself into the group.

"What the hell is all of this?" I asked. "Dungeons and Dragons?" 

Poison suddenly grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me uncomfortably close to him.

"Don't ever call me 'G' again," he growled. I whimpered, and he pushed me back.

"Well, Jesus," I said. "You don't have to be so serious."

I scooched myself closer to Kobra. "Man, he sure is in a shitty mood, isn't he?" I chuckled.

Kobra only stared at me in deathly silence; even though a black pair of sunglasses covered his eyes, I could tell that he was a bit pissed off at me. I awkwardly stopped my laughing and paid attention to the map.

"You've been gone for hours, Ghoul," said Jet.
"Where have you been?"

"Uh, rock collecting," I said. "Yeah. There's a lot of interesting rocks around here. Big rocks. Little rocks. Rocks that look like penises."