Whiskey Lullaby – Short Story

Note: This is a ‘short’ short story I developed from a creative writing exercise and was inspired by the beautiful song Whiskey Lullaby from Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss.

Whiskey Lullaby

‘Did you know that some butterflies only live for one day? But they have wings. They can fly and see everything.’ She told me, cigarette in one hand and a glass of dry gin in the other. I had expected to find her at her dressing table, putting on eye-shadow and lipstick, of whose matching patterns only women understood, but her lips where already cherry and her eyes misty with both alcohol and black kohl.

‘I’d take you everywhere, if only you’d let me love you.’

I didn’t know what else to say as I picked up her black gloves from the dresser and removed the vices from her hand. I kissed her bruised hands as I rolled the satin up to her elbows. I could feel her gaze down on me and I knew it was pity she felt.

‘Don’t be cheesy. And don’t tell me what to do. This,’ she said pointing to the glass, ‘takes me everywhere I want to go. I just close my eyes and imagine.’

‘I thought you wouldn’t drink anymore.’ We could hear the crowd roar. She grabbed the bottle of gin from the top of the pile of dresses. She half closed her eyes and encircled the bottle’s opening with her lips.

‘I need it. I need the courage, Frank. They’re merciless.’

‘I thought you weren’t afraid.’ I wasn’t fair but I wanted to hurt her. There was no defence against her but the aggressive offence. And I was aggressive in saving her from herself.

‘Fuck you, Frank. I’m not.’ She threw the bottle at me as she got up. ‘I’m going to be a legend, you’ll fucking see.’

I smiled. She had a beautiful voice, not only when she sang but when she spoke as well. In heavy steps she disappeared behind the curtains and to the wave of cheers that greeted her. I watched from the side of the stage.

‘Ladies and gentleman, I’ve prepared something a bit different for you tonight.’ The clamours met her declaration with such intensity and I knew that she could have offered them death and they would still cheer .She let the noise die before she went on.

‘It’s a song by two artists I really admire. Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss. Whiskey Lullaby.’

With a note that said I’ll love her till I die

And when we buried him beneath the willow

The angels sang a whiskey lullaby.

‘Happy Birthday, Gabrielle!’

That night I got drunk and went to a brothel.

Extract from a local newspaper, 5 years after

Today is celebrated the fifth anniversary of the death of young soul legend, Gabrielle Snake. The 23 years old singer, known for her uniquely volatile voice died from a heroin overdose in the bathroom of the venue she was performing in, on the day of her birthday.

Extract from the official biography of Gabrielle Snake, by Cristina Stein

After the dramatic death of who some critics call the female Morrison of soul music, manager Frank. D. White refused to make any official statements. His retirement followed soon after and he is now the owner of a most exquisite butterfly collection, in the company of which he drinks his dry gin.

All goes to some eccentrics.

My Guns’n’Roses story

As many of the musical teenagers of my generation, I started my career in liking rock music with Linkin Park, a band I still respect and am fond of.

I used to profoundly dislike Guns’n’Roses or the little I knew about them anyhow. Maybe I was just one of those persons who, as Slash said in his autobiography, didn’t get their music. What I certainly didn’t get was Axl’s high pitched voice but then I knew so little about good voices, guitars, riffs, chords or to what I now consider the actual spirit of rock’n’roll.

How I came to like them, that’s a different kind of story. I was at a friend’s house and bunch of the guys there were playing Guitar Hero 2, I think. Most of us are familiar with that game. Anyhow, it looked interesting so I asked a friend to teach me how to play. While I was concentrating on hitting the notes a.k.a. colors and trying not to embarrass what was left of my dignity as a gamer I wasn’t paying much attention to the song I was playing. However, I finished soon enough to grab hold of the last part of the song which immediately caught my attention.

“Hey, what band is that?” I asked.

“Guns’n’Roses.” Someone said from behind.  I puffed and moved on to another song and my first experience with a Guns song was soon forgotten.

Some week afterwards, I made acquaintance with one of my best friends’ neighbors. He played the guitar and asked me if I wanted him to play something for me. What he played was the intro of Sweet Child o’ Mine. It was then when it really caught me and I felt like I had missed out on something that would prove essential to my life. It was the second time I listened to Sweet Child o’ Mine.

“What are you playing?”

“Don’t you know Sweet Child o’ Mine? Guns’n’Roses?”

Of course I’d heard of them but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. So he sent me the song. What happens is that when I like a song, I usually put it on repeat and listen restlessly to it. For at least a weak I didn’t listen to anything else but Sweet Child o ’Mine. Afterwards, little by little, I discovered the rest.

Before that I wouldn’t put too much attention in knowing the members of a band, unless I really liked it.

One day, I was at a concert in a public square that I love very much, Unirii and the guys played a cover of Sweet Child o’ Mine. The friend I was with was telling me just how talented Slash is. How talented who is? He did me the favor of enlightening me by letting me know that Slash was the guitarist of Guns’n’Roses.

I can say that was the day when my madness began. I became “die-hard” Guns’n’Roses fan and the fact that I’m never going to see them in a concert, with the line-up that made me love their music so much almost makes me cry. I would probably but if I weren’t a person that seldom cries.

One year later, I took on guitar and of course, the first song I ever tried my hand at was Sweet Child o’ Mine. Guns and Slash in particular will always influence the music I’ll end up making. They were the first band whose albums I knew, whose concerts I watched over and over again, whose music I wanted to play. Moreover, the love for them opened my perspectives to many bands I had overlooked, like Aerosmith, Motley Crue, etc.

My friends are used to that already and I’m still surprised that they even let me go near a jukebox that has Guns’n’Roses ready to be listened to.

My influence while writing this is Appetite for Destruction and reading Slash’s autobiography.