A Million Days

2

"Prince, wake up." I opened my eyes and realized the meeting was over. I looked around and Andre was staring at me. "Yo, let's go get some lunch. I gotta stop by the post office first." I looked at my hands and saw they were empty. "Are you okay? Man, you musta been in one of those sleeps where you time travel or something." I pulled out my BlackBerry to check the time. It was September 3rd, 2004. I blinked. "Shit, yeah you're right." I said as I stood up. I grabbed my coat from the coat rack and rubbed my neck as we walked out. "They granted you more time for your album, but I gotta say they do want you to work with more artists." We left the building and I was standing in Minneapolis. Shit, I really was in a deep sleep. "C'mon, dickhead." He said calling me. I was walking with him and was looking around at all the snow that fell this morning. It was sunny now and the snow was slowly starting to melt away. "What were you dreaming about?" He asked. "I don't know man. It was a weird dream. Like a fragmented one." We walked a few blocks down to the post office and I was wiping the snow off my feet while Andre went to his P.O. Box. "Damn. Lots of shit today." I picked up an envelope that fell and was trying to give it back to him before realizing it had my name on it. I blinked and read who it was from. "R and J. Who?" I said aloud. Andre locked the box up. "C'mon." He said. We left the post office and walked to a coffee shop. While he was ordering I opened the letter.

"Hello, Mr. Nelson.

I am a twelve year old boy and my mother is a big fan of yours. We live in Rochester, Minnesota and was wondering if we could meet you in person. You see, my mother loves your music and her birthday is coming up, but we don't have a way to come to your One Night Stand concert in Minneapolis as our car is broke down. I don't even know if you would see this, but my mother said your friend's P.O. Box is probably the best way to reach you via letter. Sorry if that is intrusive, I just desperately want to reach out to you.

Sincerely, R."

"What's that?" Andre asked as he sat next to me. "A kid a letter wrote to me. He wants to meet me in person." "How old is he?" Andre asked as he took the letter. "Damn his handwriting is really good for a twelve year old. Dude writes in perfect cursive." I didn't notice that before so I took the letter back. "Damn. I guess the art of learning cursive isn't dead." I said. "They don't live far. I say do it. It's just a kid and his mom. Probably a single mom." He said with a grin. I shook my head and laughed. "No, Andre. I don't know. I'm not really into stuff like this." I took the letter back and was reading it over and over. "Hey, remember when we were kids and we were hoping to meet our idol?" He asked me. "Yeah...I dreamt all the time that James or Richard would come use our bathroom and they'd thank us by giving us an autograph." Andre laughed. "So...you doing it?" He asked. I smirked. "Yeah, I'll do it. It'll make his day. And his mom's day." 

That night I was reading the letter again and looking at the address. Why didn't she write the letter if she knew where to send it? I rarely ever got hand written fan letters these days. I sat the letter on my night stand and sighed thinking about my dream I had, but as soon as I closed my eyes, I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up and got in my car to head to Rochester. It wasn't that far of a drive, but I wanted to make sure it was today because it was Saturday. It felt weird that I was doing this and I was debating on turning around, but I was already halfway there. My phone rang and I answered it while I was driving. "Yo?" "Hey, where you at?" Andre asked. "Halfway to Rochester." He laughed. "Yeah no shit. Look in your rear view." I glanced up and saw Andre right behind me. "Well I'll be damned." I said. He laughed. "I'm following you so lead the way, bruh." He said. I hung up and I felt better that he was riding with me.

We made it into the city limits and my heart was pounding from the nerves. "Holy shit." I said out loud as I turned down the street. I was looking at the numbers on the mailbox to find there was no car at the house. Shit. I bet no one was home. I pulled onto the side near the wall of the suburb and got out of the car. Andre got out. "This is it?" He asked. I walked on the side walk. "Yeah, I swear." I pulled out the envelope and read the house number. "Yeah, this is it." I saw a pair of eyes looking right at me from between the blinds before they shut them. "Someone's here. Could be the son." I said. We walked up to the house and I knocked on the door. There was music blasting inside before it shut off and the door cracked open. There was a big brown eye looking at me and staring before it shut and I heard what must've been a thousand locks unlock before the door opened. The kid was about my height which I usually expected from kids. "Uh...are you R?" I asked him. He shook his head. "I'm Jay." He said. His voice was getting deep and it almost cracked. "Ooookay so....hi, Jay. Can you tell me where R lives?" I asked him. Andre kept nuzzling me which was pissing me off a little. "Prince...Prince..." "He lives upstairs...innnn the other part of the house." I looked up and it was a two story house. "Mmmkay can you-" I looked at him and he was still standing there...but his eyes looked different. They were two separate colors. "What the-" "Yeah, you can come upstairs." He said. The voice was slightly different too. Much more soft spoken. I walked into the house and Andre was going upstairs before I was. "So, can you tell me how you changed into contacts so fast?" I turned around and two twin boys were standing side by side with their arms crossed and I realized I was being duped. "Andre, get down here." I said crossing my arms and staring at them. Andre walked downstairs as quick as he could. "Holy triplets." He said looking at the three of us.