Drowning Man - Prologue

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Reggo

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Alright, I can't resist anymore! :scream: I gotta post something!

So, it's short, it's sweet, but it's just the prologue.

Disclaimer: don't know the band, never met them, all untrue.

Enjoy!

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There are only a few of U2's fans at Hanover Quay today, making their pilgrimage to the band's headquarters. If any of them had known who was sitting on the roof, the number would have increased dramatically. But just as well, a couple are taking pictures, one is creating more graffiti--and writing a novel doing it, it seems--and another places flowers in front of the door and kneels down in tears.

It is cold in Dublin this morning--it's cold every morning in Dublin, but this one has an extra wintry bite to it. And Laurence Mullen pulls his coat tighter around himself. He is making a pilgrimage of his own, performing a now-monthly ritual of sitting on the roof of the studio, getting above the city and being perfectly alone. Feeling, if only for a few moments, like he is the last man on Earth.

Larry settles into his spot on the tarpaper-and-gravel roof near an air-conditioning unit. It was where he always sat, and it was beginning to show. More and more gravel was getting displaced by his backside and feet. But he had chosen that spot because it gave him a marvellous view of the River Liffey and eastern Dublin. He can see his house, Bono's house, Adam's house from here. If he squinted hard enough, he could see the Mersey ferry on its way from Holyhead. It's overcast on this day, but no snow or rain has fallen yet.

Larry is not a fan of reminiscing--one of the reasons he shies away from interviews and didn't contribute as much as Bono or Edge to U2 by U2--but he thought that maybe, just maybe, if he thought it all out, it would start to make sense. He has no worries of the building below him suddenly springing to life and disturbing him. It had fallen silent long ago. Yet another unfortunate ripple effect from a terrible week last September. The week that still haunts Larry to this day. He'd had nightmares almost every night, and the night before had been no exception. He'd dreamt of Adam, looking more like Johnny Depp playing Sweeney Todd than himself, and Lucy, joining him in costume as Helena Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett. They had been floating on a big, pink tablet on a red lake, waltzing around while it was raining red. Then they and the tablet disappeared from view as it slid over a waterfall down a huge gaping hole. Larry had seen a counsellor about these nightmares, but they never seemed to go away. It was to the point where he didn't want to sleep anymore.

He watches the traffic glide silently through the city as the wind blows around him. Then, like a silk scarf, a warm jet of air encircles him and wraps itself around him. He feels it dance as it blows east, reminding him of warmer days and Larry soon finds himself tumbling down the rabbit hole of his memory.

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okay, and I'll forward 10, 14 and...I think 19 (?) that need to be emailed, too.
 
All the back story on Larry and Lucy that's relevant was in the fic.

19th May, 19th May.
 
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