Completing The List

18. Go See One Of Jimmy's Shows

     She was more than halfway through the list and while that excited her, Lizzy still had some big items on the list that were vague and not going to be easy to decipher without getting help from someone who knew Hayden a bit more than she did. When the read the item that was next, the first question to answer was simple: who was Jimmy? Was he a performer, someone that he admired musically? It was a good guess since one of his earlier musical references was his Mom's favorite Beatle. She walked over to the CD rack and started to look through it. When the moved in together, they had put together their music collection into one huge rack, a gesture of their lives coming together. She never put his music away since his passing, so all of Hayden's favorite CDs were still up there. She scanned over the pile, and nothing was coming up. No artists named Jimmy, except for Hendrix and Lizzy was pretty sure he wasn't talking about him. She was ready to give up and frustration was really getting to her. "Where the hell am I going to find Jimmy?"

     "Last I heard, he was still in Vegas." A voice called out from the kitchen.

     Lizzy turned to realize that Gale had the answer. "Were you planning to fill me in soon with this information or were you going to wait and see me make a bigger mess with the CD collection?"

     "I was getting a snack, sorry." She said as she came over and sat down on the couch. "I'm about ninety percent sure the Jimmy that Hayden wanted to see a show of was Jimmy Blackjack. He went by a different name here though: James Sheppard."

     Lizzy had never heard of him. "What's the relation?"

     "Hayden's brother." Gale answered. "Older than Hayden, younger than David."

     "I thought David was his only brother?" Lizzy said somewhat confused. "I never heard of this Jimmy. He wasn't even at our wedding!"

     "Jimmy hasn't been home in over ten years, which is the reason why you've never met him. He had a big falling out with the entire family which resulted in his outcast." Gale looked uncomfortable talking about it, but realized that Lizzy needed all the details before she started looking for Jimmy.

     "What could he have done that made them all so mad at him?" Lizzy asked.

     "He came out of the closet." Gale replied.

     "What?" Lizzy said out loud as a vital piece of the puzzle was finally revealed.

     "Exactly." Gale said, noting her offense. "You and I are cool about that, this is the 21st Century but how do you think Hayden's deeply Irish Catholic family responded to the news?"

     "Not good, I guess." Lizzy assumed.

     "That's an understatement." Gale answered. "His father literally tossed him and everything he owned out of the house. His mother removed every family photo he was in off the walls and pretty much erased his existence from the house."

     "That's awful." Lizzy said as this clearly wasn't the Sheppard family's finest hour. In her eyes they had clearly overreacted, but they were raised differently and it was something they were not prepared to handle at the time. She wiped away a few tears and decided to get back on track.

     "Times change," Gale said to her, "And so do people's views. I didn't see any animosity when Shannon and Michelle brought Damon to the barbecue. Did you?"

     "No," Lizzy admitted, "People can change sometimes."

     "Maybe it's time then," Gale admitted, "To reconnect with Jimmy."

     "I agree," Lizzy said, eager to keep moving forward. "What kind of show does Jimmy do that Hayden wanted to see?"

     "Magic." Gale answered.