Chapter One
missxma...@yahoo.com
about the good things, but about the bad things like all the trouble
that you brought them. Troubles like being afraid of the dark and
then crawling into their bed, wetting your bed, how much you cried
during the night when you were a baby and how much sleep they got
because of that. In some cases, they wouldn't even talk about you.
They would pretend that you don't exist. They probably can't wait
until you're about to move out. They would pay everybody that found
out about you a lot of money to keep their mouth shut about you.
Sometimes, when you're not looking, your dad will talk to your friends
about how big of a brat you are when you're really not. He'll stay
stuff about you that doesn't apply to you. He would ruin the date
with your maybe soon-to-be bride/groom.
But there was one rock star that was totally different than that, Joel
Madden. Joel Madden is the lead singer of Good Charlotte. The lead
guitarist is Joel's twin, Benji Madden. The other band members are
Billy Martin (guitarist), Paul Thomas (bassist), and Chris Wilson
(drummer). Joel is very loyal to his daughter. He gives her anything
she wants because his daughter is like gold to him. Joel is twenty-
six and his daughter is half his age. His daughter's name is Ashley.
Ashley feels the same about her father like her father feels about
her. Joel had Ashley a few years before Joel's father left him on
Christmas Eve, 1995 and Joel still doesn't give her up when him and
his family becomes homeless. Ashley understands what her father had
gone thru to keep her alive and she is very proud of her father
because of that. Both Ashley and Joel can't imagine what life could
be like without each other. But not until Easter, 2003, was when Joel
could not only imagine what life could be like without his daughter,
but he soon has to. It was Easter, 2003, and Ashley was running away
from her worst enemy.
It was at least a month ago when Ashley's worst enemy kidnapped her
for a day. The kidnapped fooled Ashley and one of her friends of
seeing guitars at his car and pushed them into his car. He then drove
off and went to his house. Ashley called the police. But the sad
part of the police is that the police didn't take Ashley and her
friend to where the concert was. Ashley and her friend then had to
walk to where the concert was. Ashley's father was there the whole
time when his daughter was gone. Like I said, Joel can't imagine what
life could be like without his daughter.
It was Easter and Ashley was taking a walk in the woods that she lived
near by. The half mile trail in the woods led to a tree house. The
tree house was high in a huge oak tree. There was pieces of wood
lined up vertically on the oak tree with equal distance that made a
ladder from the ground to the tree house. The oak tree was surrounded
by dirt trail. Small, thin maple trees and tall grass surrounded the
train, which made up most of the woods.
Ashley's father had a funny feeling about Ashley taking a walk in the
woods and decided to follow Ashley because she was all alone. You
might think that Joel is invading Ashley's privacy, but the feeling
that Joel got saved his daughter's life because when Ashley reached
the tree house inside the woods, Ashley's kidnapper went for her. The
kidnapper had a knife and wasn't afraid to use it. The kidnapper went
behind Ashley and pulled his hand back to stab Ashley. Ashley's
father then pinned the kidnapper against the oak tree. The kidnapper
pulled his arm back again to stab Joel, but Ashley pushed Joel away
from the stabbing arm and the kidnapper ended up stabbing Ashley.
Suddenly, Ashley fell to the ground, basically bleeding to death. The
kidnapper had done what he wanted to do and ran off into the woods.
Joel rushed to Ashley's help as she fell to the ground.
"Ashley, please don't leave me." cried Joel, as he held Ashley in his
arms, while she was still bleeding. Joel took off his MADE hoodie and
wrapped it around Ashley's bleeding scar. Joel then grabbed his cell
phone out of his back packet and called the police.
In A Journal Entry That Joel Wrote That Night
Ashley died today. Her life was cut off too short. Her death was
long, slow and painful, for her and for me. She was my life. I
didn't want her to die. I had her when I was thirteen and tried my
best to be a good father at that age and now I don't even know if I
was a good father at all because she never told me. I didn't even
told her how great it was to have her as a daughter, so I guess we're
even. I wish I could rewind back time back a day and tell her how
great of a daughter she is. Maybe she'll tell me that I was a good
father and then I wouldn't let her go on that walk because I'm such a
good father. I miss her. She was my only daughter and I only had her
for thirteen years. Those were the best thirteen years of my life.
Even when my dad left and we became homeless, I still had my
daughter. I've tried so hard to feed her, educate her. I've tried so
hard for everything to keep her alive and keep her like all the other
kids and that all the time we've been spending time together, trying
to do that, made us grown together and made it hard for us to leave
each other for a long period of time. Even through I was touring with
the band and was doing what I love best, I still had my daughter by my
side. Maybe I could write a song about her for the next album and
dedicate it to her. Yeah, okay, here's my idea: the song is called
"Ghost of You" and the lyrics are:
I will wait until the end. When the pendulum will swing back to the
darker side of our hearts bleeding. I will save this empty space next
to me like its grave where I lay a place for us to sleep eternally
together. I have been searching for traces of what we were. A ghost
of you is all that I have left of you to hold. I wake in the night to
find there's no one there but me and nothing of what we at all. So
here I am pacing around this house again with pictures of us living on
these walls. I see my breathe in the cold of the air that I breathe
and I'm wondering, I'm wondering, if its you that I feel, if its you
that I feel, haunting me forever. I have been searching for traces of
what we were. A ghost of you is all that I have left of you to hold.
I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me and nothing of
what we at all and I'm not asking for any memories, I only want to
know you're here. A ghost of you is all that I have left of you to
hold. I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me and
nothing of what we at all. A ghost of you is all that I have left of
you to hold. I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me
and nothing of what we at all.
I will try my best to not committee suicide even if it is really hard
to live without my only daughter. The thing that I remember the most
about my daughter is how she said 'I love you' right before she died.
A Day Later
A day later, Joel was still thinking about his daughter's death. His
phone rang early in the morning, but Joel did not answer it. The
phone rang again and still no answer from Joel. The phone rang again
half an hour later. By that time, Joel's mother (Robin), his younger
sister (Sarah), his older brother (Josh), and his identical twin
brother (Benji) had woken up from bed. Joel was the only person up
when the phone rang the first couple of times. When the phone rang
half an hour later, no one picked it up. Also, no one left a message
on the answering machine. Then, Joel's new cell phone rang. He just
had gotten it a week ago for an early Easter gift from his daughter.
No one knew his cell phone number except Sarah, Josh, Benji, Robin,
and his daughter, Ashley. Joel didn't know who it was because
everyone was at home and Ashley was supposedly dead. Then, Joel
thought it would be the hospital calling to say that Ashley is alive,
then he thought it couldn't be.
"Are you going to answer that?" asked Sarah.
"No!" answered Joel.
"Why?" asked Sarah.
"Because I don't know who it is. The only people who know my cell
number is you guys and Ashley and Ashley is dead and you guys are at
home, so I don't know who it is." Joel answered Sarah.
"Just answer it, it's bugging me!" said Sarah.
"Okay." Joel answered his cell phone.
"Hello?" asked Joel, picking up his phone.
"Hello, is this Joel Madden?" asked the caller.
"Yes, this is." answered Joel.
"Hello, this is the hospital and we want to let you know that Ashley
is alive." said the caller.
"What?" asked Joel.
"Ashley is alive." the caller responded.
"How did you get my cell phone number?" asked Joel.
"Ashley gave it to us." answered the caller.
Joel quickly ran out of his seat and ran thru the door, hanging up his
cell phone and grabbing his coat. He drove to the hospital with
excitement. When he arrived at the hospital, Joel ran to the front
desk and told the nurse who he was. The nurse showed Joel where
Ashley's room was. He walked over and sat in a chair next to Ashley,
holding her hand. Joel couldn't stand the sight of his daughter in
wires or the sight of his daughter on her death bed without crying.
Joel is very sensitive when it comes to things like this. He's always
sensitive, but when it comes to his daughter, he pays attention to
nobody but her. It was soon time for dinner and Ashley was still
sleeping. Joel was calling home to tell where he was and why he might
be late or might even miss dinner when the first ring rung, Ashley
slowly opened her eyes. Joel hung up his cell phone and turned it off
so that so no one would bug him.
"Ashley?" whispered Joel.
"Dad?" Ashley whispered back.
Joel got up off his chair and hugged Ashley. Ashley tried to hug
back, but it hurt when she tried to. Joel starts to cry tears of joy
for Ashley.
"I thought you were dead." whispered Joel, after he hugged Ashley.
"But I wasn't." said Ashley, with a crackly voice. Joel hugged her
again.
"Did the nurse tell you anything like when I could leave and things?"
Ashley asked in the same voice she had earlier.
"No. Why? Do you want to come back home?" asked Joel, still with a
few tears in his eyes.
"Yeah." answered Ashley.
"Yeah, I want you to come back home, it's not the same without you."
Joel said. Ashley smiled.
"It's not the same without you either." said Ashley.
"I love you." said Joel.
"I love you, too, dad." said Ashley. Again, they hugged.
The Next Day
The next day, Joel went back to the hospital to see Ashley. He walked
to Ashley's room and walking to her bed, hoping that today, Ashley was
much better then yesterday, but as he turned the corner, all he could
see was a bed with sheets, blankets, and pillows. Joel looked at the
nurse.
"Where's Ashley?" asked Joel.
"Isn't she with you?" asked the nurse.
"No." answered Joel.
"So, she isn't with you?" asked the nurse.
"No." answered Joel.
The nurse went out and called this security guard over. She talked to
him, but in a quite voice, like she was keeping a secret form Joel.
Joel got suspicious. The nurse had something to do with Ashley's
disappearance and Joel knew it. Joel started to walk towards the
nurse and the nurse walk out of the room after she saw that Joel was
coming her way. She walked down the hall way and into the lounge,
where her desk was. She went over to it while Joel peeked through the
window of the door to see what the nurse was doing. As the nurse
arrived at her desk, there was an announcement. "Nurse, please go to
the conference room for a very important meeting. Thank you." Joel
jumped back from the door so that the nurse didn't see him as she was
walking out. Right after the nurse walked out, Joel went into
investigate. He went right to her desk and found a picture of her
husband, who looked very familiar. It looked as if she had doubles,
so Joel took one of them. Then he sat down at her desk and somehow go
into her email. The headline of one said: To my beautiful wife, Sally
Welch. He clicked on it and it said:
To my beautiful wife, Sally Welch:
Hi, this is your husband, Jack, and I just wanted to remind you on
what Ashley (I think that that's what her name was) looked like. She
has long brown hair, brown eyes, and her clothes are usually black.
She's five feet, two inches to five feet, four inches, and she is also
terribly skinny. I say that she must weight under one hundred
pounds. Well, see you soon.
Love,
Jack Welch.
Joel printed the email out so that he could have evidence of Ashley's
Amber Alert and file a police report. He quickly grabs the paper and
ran out the door so he wouldn't get caught.
When Joel returned home, he went onto the internet to search up Jack
Welch. There was like a billion people named Jack Welch in the state
that he lived in. He then looked up Sally Welch. There was only four
Sally Welch. He clicked on advance search. When the page turned to
the advance search page, he put in Sally Welch and her email address.
Meanwhile, Ashley was struggling to get out of the car that Jack was
driving to his house with. Ashley was tied up in sheets and was
tightly wrapped around her with needles. Ashley didn't have her cell
phone to call her father because Jack took it away. When Jack and
Ashley arrived at Jack's house, Ashley was put in a ten foot hole in
Jack's basement. The hole was built with cold, hard, grey bricks with
cement that kept the bricks together. Ashley wasn't the only one.
Apparently, Jack knew one of Ashley's friends, Brittany. Jack then
went upstairs and left Ashley and Brittany alone.
"Ashley, he just gave us a chance to leave." said Brittany.
"Yeah, I know." said Ashley.
"How are we going to get out?" asked Brittany.
"I don't know." answered Ashley.
Then there was silence.
"How long have you been down here?" asked Ashley.
"About an hour or so, why?" answered Brittany.
"Just asking." said Ashley.
Then it went back to silence.
At The Police Station
The police officer watched the door open with a murderer on the other
side. It was just a minute ago when Ashley and Brittany was running
for their lives to the police station. The police officer recognized
Ashley from Joel's pictures of Ashley that Joel had given the police
officer to make "missing" posters. The officer locked the door once
Ashley and Brittany ran into the station. Ashley and Brittany sat on
the bench that the station had. The officer calmed Ashley and
Brittany down and gave Ashley an ice pack for her scar. Then there
was a knocking on the door. The police officer looked out the peak
hole.
"Hey, Brittany, is this the person who kidnapped you guys?" asked the
police officer.
Brittany looked thru the peak hole.
"Yeap, he is Jack." answered Brittany.
Brittany walked over to the bench and sat back down. The police
officer walked over to his radio and called for more police officers.
Jack knocked harder since no one answered the first time. Still, no
one answered. He knocked even harder. Still, no once dared to
answer. Jack managed to open the door with the weight of his body.
The police officer pinned Jack against the wall and Ashley and
Brittany ran out the door. Ashley and Britney ran to Jack's house and
ran into the woods. Since there was no trail, they made their own
until they found a trail: a trail that Ashley took the other day from
her house. They ran fast as they could down the trail. Joel was in
the living room, which had the only computer with internet at the
time. The computer was on this long, oak desk. Behind the desk was a
salt water tank, which separated the kitchen from the living room. The
TV and the stereo system are to the left of the desk. Behind the desk
is a couch and across from the TV is a recliner. Since the kitchen is
separated from the living room with only a 55 gallon salt water tank,
Joel . he didn't notice that Ashley and Brittany were in his
backyard until Brittany started to scream. Joel ran from the
computer and looked outside the back door. He saw Ashley and Brittany
running. Joel ran to the back door and opened it. Ashley and
Brittany ran in and ran to the coach. Ashley and Brittany flopped on
the couch while Joel closed the door and locked it. Joel continued to
close and lock all the doors and windows in the house. Joel then ran
over to Ashley for her rescue. Joel gave Ashley a towel for her sweat
and some ice for her scar. Joel let Brittany call her parents to say
that she's okay and to come and pick her up. Joel also told Brittany
to call the police and Brittany did. The police came the minute that
Brittany called them.
That Night
That night, Ashley was able to stay at home as long as a doctor checks
on her once a day to check the scar. The doctor said that her body is
doing perfectly fine, defiantly when she ran five miles two days after
she got stabbed.
After the doctor left that night, Joel went back to Ashley's room
since he walked the doctor to the front door. Once Joel got to
Ashley's bed, he hugged her since he didn't have a chance to do that
yet that today. Joel sat on Ashley's bed once they stopped hugging so
that he could talk to Ashley.
"You know how much I love you, right?" asked Joel.
"Yeah." answered Ashley.
"You know how hard I was trying to keep you off my mind the past few
days, right?" asked Joel.
"Right." answered Ashley.
"And you know that if he would have killed you, it would have been
hard for me to go on with my life, right?" asked Joel.
"Yeap!" answered Ashley.
He hugged her.
"Dad." said Ashley.
"Yeah, honey?" said Joel.
"I love you a lot." said Ashley.
"I love you a lot, too." said Joel.
Then there was silence.
"You know I'm very proud of you," said Joel, breaking the silence.
"You are?" asked Ashley, pulling away from Joel and breaking the hug.
"Yeah." said Joel.
"For what?" asked Ashley.
"For saving that girl, umm......." mumbled Joel.
"Brittany?" Ashley said.
"Yeah her, and memorizing where to go in the woods. I don't know what
I could of done if you have died because you mean so much to me." Joel
then started to bulge his eyes out. "I took you in after your mother
had decided to not take care of you when I was thirteen and gave you
shelter, food, and clothes whenever you needed it, even when dad left
and we became poor, I still fought to keep you with me and fought to
keep you alive. If I lost you, then I've would of lost me, too." said
Joel, proudly. Ashley hugs Joel as Joel starts to bulge his eyes
out. Ashley, along with Joel, had a few tears in her eyes.