Perseverance

Perseverance

By

Nathan Caleb Camerer

Are you ready? Are you sure you’re ready? Well then, my name is Clay and I’m going to tell you a story. I should probably tell you a little bit about myself first so you know how I fit into the story. I play guitar in a couple of bands and they are both signed to Tom Collins Records. The story is about Tom Collins who was and still is one of my best friends. That’s really enough so that I can start the story.

The story starts on New Years Eve 1978. Well, maybe it was New Years Day 1979. It doesn’t matter. It was at a party back then when Thomas James Collins met Cherie Nicole Bastura. Thomas was a History professor at Southwest Missouri State University and was born in 1950 in Granby, MO. He was the middle child of three and worked hard growing up and had his life somewhat planned out at an early age. When he graduated from East Newton High School in Granby, he went straight to Southwest Missouri State College on an Athletic Scholarship for Basketball. After graduating from SMSC he was then hired on at SMSU.

Cherie was born in 1955 in Springfield, MO and had a love of books her whole life and after High School she enrolled at SMSU and received a Degree in World Literature and after graduation was hired on as a Librarian at SMSU.

It was Cherie’s second year with the University, but it was the first voluntary work function she had attended. This was very fortunate because it was at this party that she met Thomas, at the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979. Cherie and Thomas started off the New Year in the backseat of his car.

The only thing that was rushed was that first encounter. They continued to live separately during the pregnancy. They were blessed with a healthy baby boy and decided that one child was enough. They had a child to carry on the family name and they had it on the first try.

They lived separately until Thomas Douglas Collins was nearly 1 year old. It was obvious to all that they were together during this time. From that first encounter until their death, the only time they were apart was when they worked and when they slept until they got a place together in the summer of 1980.

Like I said before, Thomas was a planner. The only surprise in his life was that first night with Cherie. He was planning the rest of their from that point on. When Thomas had started working at the college he had started putting money aside in three separate accounts, one for each child if he had three.

During the pregnancy it was decided that if it were a boy then they would be happy with just one child and if it were a girl then they would try again. Since it was a boy, Thomas consolidated the three accounts into one. He deposited money into it out of every paycheck and Cherie did the same.

Tom’s childhood, for lack of a better word, was perfect. His parents were just hard enough on him to keep him focused and out of serious trouble and they were just soft enough to allow him to experience life and get some scars.

Tom excelled in school and was ranked #5 when he graduated. He wasn’t a slouch at sports either, but it was his Academic achievements that got him a Scholarship to the University of Tulsa. He graduated with a Degree in International Business and Language.

It was right after he moved to Tulsa that we met. I was playing Jazz on Sunday nights at a coffee shop and he was always there. During smoke breaks out in front of the shop we got to talking and that’s how our friendship started.

It was a month after graduation when he got the phone call that his parents had been killed in an accident. They had been at a party and drank a little too much. Instead of calling a cab they had tried to drive home. They didn’t make it.

After the funeral he got a phone call from the family Lawyer and was told about the money. He wasn’t as excited about it as you would think. In fact, he never even said how much it was, but he paid off his student loans and started Tom Collins Records with it and never seemed to be broke.

Through out his college career he seemed to always have a girlfriend and when he would go on the road with my band on breaks from school he would always find a local girl.

He never seemed to keep one for more than a few months though and some how always stayed friends with them afterwards. Occasionally he would date one again a year or so down the road, but usually they would just become friends.

There are things that you do in a relationship that Tom never did, like meeting the parents or planning little weekend road trips or meeting brothers and sisters. Tom managed to avoid these things.

Then in 2006 we were playing a show and a woman walked in that made every man stop and look. She was 6 foot tall in heels with a strapless knee length Grey dress and a matching Newsboy hat on. She had short brown hair and Brown eyes that melted anything they looked at. She had Dark Olive Brown skin and she walked up to the bar next Tom and that was it. Tom never skipped a beat and had no trouble starting a conversation with her.

They never moved from their spot at the bar until after closing time. Her name was Alicia and she was in town visiting family during summer break from school at KU in Lawrence, KS.

During the first month, Tom had met her entire family and had started to go to church with her on Sundays. It was obvious to us that he had falling for this girl and he had falling very hard.

During month number two, Alicia announced that she had decided to not go back to KU and instead was going to fly to Spain and backpack across Europe. Tom immediately started planning the trip and all seemed well. They were going to go together and would buy one-way tickets there and take their time and then buy a return ticket when they were ready to come back.

During month number three, things started to change. Alicia started acting differently. She started excluding Tom from things that he had been a part of since that first night.

Tom did not take this well. Tom had always been a bit of a drinker and after his parents accident he really started drinking, but since he had started dating Alicia he had cut back. This was because of all the family things they did. He wanted to make good impression on mom and dad and the rest of the family. Now he was starting to drink heavily again.

Finally the big day arrived and since they hadn’t cancelled the trip, Tom was still under the impression that they were going together. Alicia had never said that they weren’t and never stopped acting like they were together. She had just started spending less time with Tom than she had during those first two months.

They planned to get together for lunch the day before they were supposed to leave to iron out the final preparations for the trip. Tom had made reservations at Tucci’s, her favorite, and got there just before he was supposed to. After about an hour he got a text from her saying “I love you. I can’t go with you. I already left.”

We didn’t see Tom for about a week and we finally made a trip to his apartment and had the maintenance man let us in when we didn’t get a response. We found an empty apartment. All of his furniture was still there, but most of his clothes were gone.

A month passed and finally I got an e-mail from Tom saying he had flown to Spain and was trying to find Alicia. He said he was sorry for the disappearing act and would keep us posted.

Another month passed and then another and then he was on my doorstep. Looking haggard and rough. He said he kept finding her a day late and just couldn’t seem to catch up to her and then a couple of weeks before had lost the trail and decided to come back to try and find her here in America.

He sold the Record Label and devoted his energy into finding Alicia so he could find out what he did wrong.

We tried and tried to tell him that he probably had done nothing wrong, that his feelings were just stronger than hers. He didn’t buy this. He was convinced that he had done something wrong and he needed to know what it was.

After another three months had passed and he had made numerous visits to every place in The States that she had ever talked about, he still hadn’t found her. He started to settle down and kind of fall back into his old patterns.

He started getting into band management and tour management. He was on a trip to New York trying to secure a venue and had been invited to an Art Gallery Opening by a cousin who lived there.

He walks into the gallery and finds Alicia, with her arms around another man and an engagement ring on her finger. The opening is hers. It’s her art on the walls.

Tom just stood there looking at her from across the room and finally she comes walking over. She tries to give him a hug and he backs away, still just staring at her. She tries to hug him again and says how happy she is to see him.

He looks passed her to the man she was standing next to and then to the ring on her finger and then he looks her in the eyes and asks why. How could she say the things she said to him about connections and fate if she didn’t truly believe them? He asks her if she knows that he spent 6 months trying to find her to find out what he did wrong. He asks her how could she be engaged to some new guy and what he has that makes him soo special.

She just looks at the floor and says I’m sorry and you didn’t do anything wrong, Tom. The engagement was a surprise and he had just asked earlier in the night. She had to say yes to him.

Tom shakes his head and then looks at her and then looks at the new guy who has started walking over towards them. Tom looks at Alicia and then back at her fiancé, puts a smile on his face and as soon as her fiancé reaches out to shake his hand, Tom takes it shakes it like any normal person would. He says congrats on the engagement and good luck.

Tom turns around and walks out and calls a cab and goes to the airport. He buys a new return ticket to Tulsa. When he gets here, he calls me up and asks for a ride from the airport. He doesn’t say a word for the entire ride to his apartment. When we get there, he shakes my hand and says thanks for the ride. He gets out and walks away.

That was the last time I saw him except for the occasional e-mail.

About a month after Tom left there was a surprise visitor at the studio. I hadn’t seen Alicia in almost a year and she hadn’t really changed much except that she had cut her hair very short. She was wanting to know if Tom was around or if I had seen him. I told her about the last time I saw him and showed her the e-mails. She told me about the encounter in New York and said she needed to find him. She stayed for a couple of days and we did some digging on the interwebs and kind of got an idea of where he was and where he was heading based on things he had said and pictures in his e-mails.

Then on a Monday in May I gave her a ride to the airport and she headed off to find him. I’m not sure if they have found each other yet but I hope they do and I hope they come home. I miss my friend.