Chapter 278 - 278: 278 | Adapting To Absence

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA>

...

(Tuesday, November 3rd.)

By the time Von arrived at Climate Pledge Arena shortly before noon, the entire building was already awake.

Local stagehands moved across the empty floor carrying cables and equipment cases while David's production crew ran through lighting cues from the control booth.

High above them, riggers were making final adjustments to the overhead trusses, and every few seconds, one section of the arena would flash bright white before falling dark again.

Von stepped out of the tunnel with a bottle of water in his hand, but before he could even make it halfway toward the stage, a familiar high-pitched scream echoed from somewhere ahead.

"DADDY!"

Von stopped and looked toward the drum riser.

Conor Prince was sitting on top of a black equipment case near his kit, wearing grey sweatpants and a hoodie with a pair of headphones hanging around his neck.

He had his phone held horizontally in front of him, and the face of his six-year-old daughter almost completely filled the screen.

"I'm right here, Clara," Conor laughed. "You don't have to shout."

"But Grandma said your song is coming out today!"

"It is."

"When?"

"After the show, hopefully. We still have to finish it first."

Clara's expression immediately became suspicious.

"You didn't finish it?"

Conor smiled awkwardly. "We're finishing it today."

"That's bad planning."

Von almost choked on his water.

Conor slowly looked away from the screen in disbelief. "Did my mother teach you to say that?"

Clara completely ignored the question. "And Uncle Von is singing on it?"

"Yeah."

"And Alex?"

"Him too."

Her eyes widened even more. "So are you famous now?"

Conor burst out laughing. "What kind of question is that?"

"I asked if you're famous!"

"Not yet."

"He's lying."

Conor turned his head toward the voice behind him.

Von had finally reached the riser.

The second Clara saw him leaning into the camera, her entire face lit up.

"SUPERMAN!"

Von immediately laughed wryly. "Oh, come on."

Conor laughed and handed him the phone. "That's your problem now."

Von took it and looked down at Clara's excited face. "Good morning, Clara."

"You flew again!"

"I did no such thing."

"I saw the video!"

"Fake news."

Clara giggled. "Daddy showed me!"

Von turned very slowly toward Conor. "Your father tells you too much."

"Don't drag me into this," Conor muttered, reaching for one of his drumsticks.

Clara was still laughing. "Can Daddy fly too?"

Von looked at Conor again.

Conor immediately pointed the drumstick at him.

"Whatever you're about to say, don't."

Von nodded solemnly and returned his attention to the phone. "Unfortunately, your father hasn't unlocked that ability yet. We tried. There were complications."

"Von."

Clara burst into another fit of laughter.

A woman's hand eventually reached into the frame and gently pulled the phone farther away from her.

"Alright, Clara. Let your father work now."

"No, Grandma!"

"You've spoken to him for twenty minutes."

"But his show isn't until tonight!"

"And he'll call you after."

Conor leaned closer to the phone. "She's right. I need to finish the record before you expose me for bad planning again."

Clara pouted, but eventually nodded. "Okay."

"You're watching tonight?"

"Yes!"

"I'll look for you in the cameras."

That seemed to satisfy her.

"Love you, Daddy."

Conor's smile softened immediately. "Love you too, baby."

The call ended a few seconds later.

For a moment, Conor remained sitting on the equipment case with the dark phone screen still in his hand. The excitement on his face hadn't disappeared, but something quieter had settled behind it.

Von noticed.

"She's getting big."

"Too fast," Conor muttered. He slipped the phone into the pocket of his hoodie and picked up the drumstick again.

"My mum's handling everything while I'm away. School, meals, homework, all of it. Clara thinks this tour is some giant vacation because every time she calls me, I'm in another city with you idiots."

"Sounds like a vacation."

Conor gave him a flat look.

"You performed suspended sixty feet above twenty thousand people while I sat behind a drum kit praying the cable wouldn't snap."

"Exactly. Family activities."

Conor laughed despite himself, shaking his head.

But when his eyes moved across the empty arena, the humor faded slightly. He had a lot of history with Seattle, and today many of those he'd once known where going to watch him perform. It felt surreal.

"I used to think getting on Project: Star was my last chance," Conor said after a moment.

Von looked at him.

"When I lost my gig here, I was almost done with all of this. Bills piling up, my marriage already dead, barely seeing Clara..."

Conor shook his head with a small laugh. "If you told me back then I'd come back here with my name on a record people were actually waiting for, I'd probably ask what you were smoking."

Von smiled and patted his back.

"And being away from Clara for this long..." he continued. "I don't know. It changed the song a bit for me."

Von understood.

When You Leave the Room had started as a song about a relationship, but the longer they worked on it, the harder it became to attach it to only one person.

Its entire idea was built around absence.

That strange feeling when someone important wasn't around and your mind began filling the empty space they left behind. The irrational fear that distance could change something simply because you couldn't see or touch it anymore.

For one person, it could be a lover. For another, a parent.

A friend.

A child thousands of miles away watching her father through a phone screen.

The song didn't need to tell people which one it was.

"Then sing it like that tonight," Von said. "Don't overthink anything else."

Conor looked at him and nodded with a made up face. "I won't."

"Good. Because Patch says your last drum take sounds like shit."

Conor's face immediately dropped. "What?"

Von started walking away. "Ask him yourself."

"You motherfucker!"

Von laughed as a drumstick flew past his shoulder and clattered harmlessly across the stage.