Time Once Again For Another Installment Of...

TALES FROM THE DRYER

Episode V

It can be an amazing thing, friendship. It can be amazing when one finds another person that is so like oneself that it would almost frighten if it wasn't so natural, so comfortable. This connection can be powerful, almost as powerful as the connection between man and woman. The connection can create the most stringent, taut and unbreakable bond, and seemingly nothing can tear it asunder. This was the sort of bond that, as the months passed, formed between Seth and Steve, built upon layer and layer of many and various topics of conversation. They found they shared at the very least similar passing interests in many things.

There were two things, however, they found for which they both shared a particularly strong passion. One was music.The two loved music. If not for this one almost immediate connection, the two would never have become as close as they became. (And it is quite interesting to note Steven being one year older and therefore a grade higher than Seth, and that neither of them saw each other in class and only rarely outside of class when forced to attend a pep rally or some other school function that they were unable to skip.) They adored music, they practically worshipped music. So much so that they wanted to play it all the time. Even for the rest of their lives.

Seth, without realizing it (or maybe he did and just wouldn't admit it to himself) developed a great admiration for Steven, not only as the older of the two. Not even based solely on Steven's gregarious attitudes. No, Seth's admiration stemmed from the fact that Steven already owned a guitar when they met. He also knew how to play. Steven promised Seth that after he saved enough money to buy his own guitar and amplifier that he would sit down with him and help him learn to play too. And that is what he did, the two getting together in every spare moment they could, Steven walking him through basic chord structures and rudimentary scales. The first song Seth learned to play was "Sunshine Of Your Love" by Cream. "An oldie but a goodie for learning", Steven would say. Seth never felt more alive than when his first tender, later callous-tipped fingers pressed against those beatiful six wires, his hands grasping the neck, his other hand strumming along in rhythmic ecstasy with Steven. It was happening! His dream was beginning.

And it wasn't long after this that one of them, Seth, finally voiced what they both had been hoping, dreaming, but unwilling to speak aloud. That dream was the time-honored right of passage almost all teenage boys go through at some point -- "Let's start a band." That became their new goal.

As mentioned, there were two great passions in the lives of these two musical brethren. The second brought a little more complexity to their friendship. It remained buried and undiscovered for a couple of months, until one day, the topic was broached by Seth. They both shared a passion for Wendi.