Our Songs, Our Story, Our Love.

Chapter 6.

It was cold.
Misty and cold as the lone figure of Paul Simon failed singer, hunched over his empty coffee cup in the small cafe in downtown Manhatten.  This wasn't a place he normally frequented, in fact it was new to him, but he had been taken in by its hidden away qualities and the red and white gingham covered table tops, plus the fact that it also seemed to be a really quiet place to just sit and mull things over. To think about everything that had happened to him, how he had come to be in this very situation and try to make sense of the muddled goings on that had constantly been at the forefront of  his mind.
This was something he needed to do today more than anything else.
When passing by this quaint little cafe, his eyes had been drawn to a vacant table with its lone chair situated in the window and that, he had decided, was where he would like to be right now to actually contemplate his life.
His need for solitude was prevalent within him. Feeling he could well do without the constant distraction of others being around him, telling him everything would work out alright in the end. He wanted and needed to wallow within his own self pitying mood. It was where he felt that all of his answers lay.

The beverage he had now finished though, had failed to warm him through or indeed lift his solemn mood.
Nothing could lift this mood today, or any day in fact.
He felt as depressed and as gloomy as the weather was outside as he now tried to come to terms with what had actually gone wrong and how he had so completely messed up the whole of his life.

Paul Simon had actually been on the very verge of having a great singing career with his best friend Art Garfunkel.
The both of them had worked extremely hard at perfecting their skills together, Artie with his unique, choir boy singing voice, practiced vocally harmonising with Paul's melodies as the two friends took their inspiration from both their heroes, The Everly Brothers.

Ever since the first few weeks of the school play, they'd actually been singing together almost none stop, every day and had continued to do so, long after the play had ended. The two of them had now also found that they really enjoyed one another's company and got along really great, sharing the exact same sense of humour and the exact same taste in music. They also enjoyed spending all of their spare time perfecting their voices and had become totally obsessed by the music they made together.

Artie and Paul both loved the sound that  harmonising made and thought that their voices suited one another perfectly. Paul had also learned to play the guitar too and had become very accomplished at it. He had thrown himself wholeheartedly into learning all the musical chords and also found that he could make up his own tunes on it as well.
When Paul had begged his parents to get him one for his birthday instead of the replacement basket ball he'd been promised, they were, at first very dubious. They feared that this singing lark, that he was now getting into and had become so totally obsessed with and which also seemed to be taking up most of his time, was generally just a fad and that he'd soon get bored and fed up with it all.  The expense of buying a guitar for their eldest son would probably also run into two, for younger brother Eddie, would also probably want one as well!

Paul's father, a band leader and bass player, actually warned Paul, that before he could ever get any enjoyment out of the instrument, he'd first have to learn how to play it.  Paul told him that of course, he had realised this and promised to do all the  practicing that was required.
So, like everything else he ever did, Paul Simon threw himself wholeheartedly into learning to play the guitar and practiced and practiced until he became very, very good.
He somehow possessed the very rare commodity of having the mindset and determination that if he was going to achieve something, he wanted to make damned sure that he was the best he could possibly be.

Artie had been so impressed with the speed in which his friend Paul had learnt to play the guitar that he also began learning to play one as well!
Artie  was surprisingly quite good at it too, having already learnt to play the piano when he was a bit younger, Artie had a good ear for music and was an accomplished musician himself. However, he also stated that he could never be as committed about learning the guitar in quite the same way in which his friend was.
Artie was always endless in his compliments to Paul and would urge him to go forward every step of the way therefore, giving Paul the confidence to grow even more, both as a musician and as a person.
He was also quite exceptional at giving all the help and much needed encouragement and support that Paul needed and just by having Artie there by his side Paul's guitar playing as well as his singing just got better and better.