It had been 23 years since the Great Injustice. Chris had selected girlfriend and sister over his boys and Brad and I had missed out on an experience that would have been the highlight of our High School experience to date (we were still ‘pure’). Chris had won the front row for the Police Synchronicity concert and left Brad and I in the cold.
Since then, Brad and I both attended Northwestern and joined Phi Gamma Delta. After Rice, Chris ended up in Chicago as an adopted member of the Fiji crew and it usually only took a couple of beers for us to bring up Feb 14, 1984.
But it was time to make it right.
By now the three of us had enough of life under our belt, some shared rough experiences (we had both flown to Orlando to meet Brad after marriage #1 spectacularly imploded, although not as spectacular as marriage #2 would, and we watched him meet the jello shot candy striper he would go on to date for a while), and we had a big boy sense of the value of strong lifetime friendships.
I dropped a note to the fellas in early 2007. “I have tickets in San Francisco for the Police Reunion Tour, and it’s time to clear the slate.” We made a weekend of it and Sting, Stewart and Andy delivered the goods. Chris confessed that he thought there was a 10% chance he was going to land at SFO and Brad and I were going to call him and say “we’re both in Chicago, have a nice weekend”.
Of the original Police attendee list, only Chris’ sister is still in his orbit, while Brad and I remain on the short list. I’m totally sure Brad and I would get a ticket if it presented in 2018…unless of course his wife has a sister or some good friend.
These are the stories of the fabric of life.