We just finished practicing and were having a well earned break. But I didn’t want to stop, I wanted to keep going until we were perfect, just like Joseph would constantly tell us. I wanted to be perfect. I wanted to be so good, just like James Brown and all those other people. I wanted people to know us—know me, chant my name, be happy that I was with them. If I get that could, then I could get all the money I need, and probably help the rest of the family.

I wanted to be rich and known.

By now I was a tween, about 11 or 12 years old, but that was all I wanted. “Mike, you know that we’re done practicing for today, right? Go have some fun or do some kid things.” Tito told me as he placed his hand on my shoulder. It startled me and broke me from my thoughts of the fame and fortune. “But I don’t want to be done. I want to keep going, I want to be perfect.” The words flew out of my mouth so easily like it was written on script. Tito gave me the same look that Frank had given me earlier. In my mental state, I laughed, but physically I was serious. “We’re good enough, Mike. I don’t think we have to be perfect like you want us to.”

“Yes, we do! We’ll never get anywhere if we aren’t! I wanna be rich and famous like James Brown!” I said. Tito was surprised by my outburst and my volume had drawn Marlon into the conversation. This seemed familiar and I had the urge to stop and tell myself it wasn’t worth it, but I wanted to see where this was headed. “What’s goin’ on?” Marlon asked.

“Little Mikey, here wants to be a big shot.” Tito teased.

“I do! I really, man!”

They laughed and I was furious. I stomped to my room and shut the door behind me, sitting on my bed, facing the ceiling. They didn’t understand. I wanted to be good, that’s the only way people will know us—me. They might know us if we were bad too and laugh us—me, off the face of the planet. I would do anything to get that fame.

Anything.

There was suddenly a weight on my chest and I sat up straight on my bed. I nearly had a heart attack and attacked the thing on me until I saw it was Bubbles just playing around. A smile found its way on to my face as I relaxed. “Good morning, Bubbles.”

I had a small headache, but it came from time to time since the Pepsi incident. It wasn’t much, but I knew that if I let it continue without doing something about it, it would get worst until I couldn’t even breathe properly. Opening a drawer, I took out a bottle with short clear plastic that had small pills in it. They were my pain killers. Sometimes I over did them once in a while, but I didn’t take it serious because nothing ever really happened. I opened it, took out two pills, and swallowed them down with no water.

Bubbles was soon on tip of me again, trying to take some too, but I closed the bottle and put it back in the drawer. Bubbles stuck out his bottom lip and I tickled him. “Sorry buddy, that’s not for chimps.”

---

Today was somewhat boring for me. Elizabeth Taylor came over and we talked about nothing in particular this time. We just talked. Bubbles went back to his pen and no one had come to Neverland to play today. I don’t blame them, it seems stormy outside. There were thick black clouds moving in to cover the sun. Yep, no one was coming today.

A yawn escaped my mouth and I suddenly felt drowsy. I didn’t understand where the sleepiness had come from being that I had slept late today even when Bubbles woke me up. The storm was bringing harsh winds that made the tree branches obey its every whim.

It was strange, I’ve never felt tired like this before and this storm wasn’t in the forecast. It just seemed to come out of nowhere. I didn’t want to spend the storm here alone. But who could I spend it with?

All of the animals are a no-no, they have to be inside during a storm. “I don’t want to sleep.” I mumbled to myself. I don’t know why, I just didn’t want to like a little kid who didn’t want to fall asleep for their bedtime. My eyes lazily landed on a phone not too far from me. When I picked it up I couldn’t even see the numbers clearly, they were blurry. I just hoped for the best when I pressed the ‘Redial’ button and waited as the storm started to bring rain.

What am I even trying to accomplish anymore?

“Hello?” a voice answered on the other line, waking me up a little.

“Hello?” I slurred, sounding more drunk than sleepy. I know I recognized the voice but my mind was too tired to try and process who it was. “Who is this?”

“You called me. This is Matthew.” The voice responded. I blinked away the sleepiness putting my tired brain to work. Matthew… Matthew… Oh! I remember. He was one of my kid friends. I hadn’t seen or spoken to him in a while either, why is he my most recent contact?

“Hey Matthew! This is Michael.”

“Michael who?”

“Michael Jackson.” I heard some shuffling on the line before he responded. Another yawn escaped my mouth. “Oh hey Mike!” his suddenly excited voice startled me, causing my eyes to widen. I cleared my throat. “How’re ya’? I haven’t talked to you in so long. What’re you up to? Do you want something?”

I chuckled at his questions. “I’m fine, thank you. I know we haven’t talked in a while, I’m actually surprised about that and I’m sorry. I’m not up to much, just being bored. I actually wanted to ask you something.”

“Ask me what?”

“Um… if you can… can you please come over and wait out this storm with me? I just don’t know who else to call and all the animals have to be in their pens so… please?”

There was more shuffling and this one was longer. I didn’t know what to think of it, the world was slowly starting to become a dark blur. It looked as if the clouds outside would turn into a tornado. Then I heard the line clear a little better, indicating that someone had picked up the phone.

“What storm, Michael? It’s clear as day.”

----

After speaking with Matt a little longer about the “storm”, he finally convinced me to come over to his house. How I got there, I didn’t even know. But I did know I felt better and there was still a storm outside. The weird thing is, no one else see’s the storm but me. I don’t even know what to think or assume of it.

Even though Matt’s family told me there wasn’t a storm countless times, I still didn’t feel sure enough. Finally we just ended up closing the curtains and hiding my vision from it. It made me feel calmer and safer for some reason, though the storm never seemed to pose a threat to me personally.

“Come on, Applehead! You gotta try and get me back!” Matt’s voice rang out as a soft pillow hit me in the back of the head. “Oh, I won’t try! Know that I will!” Soon his sister joined in and it turned into a full on pillow fight. Pillows flew through the air fast as we ran around and jumped on the bed, laughing.

“Okay, okay, that’s it! I won, I’m champion!” I declared as I fell flat on my back on the bed. The kids started laughing and hitting me with the pillows while I lay down. I raised my hand to defend my face, but I was soon too tired to even do that. A thought came into my head that made me get up and walk to the curtain covered window in a zombie like state. “Michael?” the kids asked as their laughter died down.

“Hold on a minute.” I answered as I pulled it back. My eyes widened as I saw what the storm had done. Trees had been ripped out from the ground, houses destroyed, and the same dark clouds that had been circling Neverland circled Matt’s home too. A wave of drowsiness returned and my knees for some reason had given out on me. “Michael!” I heard Matt shout and he ran in front of me with a worried look on his face.

I tried to shake away the drowsiness, but I found it a challenge. “Why is your face so red?” I sat up lazily, trying to pull myself together. Come on, Michael. Get up, get yourself together. What’s wrong with you? “Well, we just finished playing a game that involved running around and—“

“No, your face is really really red. Like, it’s not even normal for you.” He looked at me concerned and gave out a small shout when I got up and stumbled onto the bed, not even being able to move properly. “Mom!”

I heard rapid footsteps coming and going. I couldn’t even open my eyes, and I groaned as I started falling asleep and the sounds around me began to fade. Before falling asleep for sure I hear Matt’s concerned voice shout, “Oh my God, Michael! You’re running a high fever!”