“I don’t know. I think I’m always going to feel like I’m stuck, no matter how much I play. I know it probably doesn't make sense, but I just feel that way.”
“Maybe you should go back? Finish what you started?”
I shook my head. “Not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“It took me this long with this much struggle just to get out of the rut that I fell into when Dr. Adler shut the door on me. I can’t deal with that again.”
“Have you spoken to him since?”
“No,” I said. “I don't want to see him again.”
Melany eyed me. “Getting an answer might help you,” she said.
“I’m not going back,” I said firmly.
She was quiet for a moment. “Okay. I understand.”
Things were finally going right, and I wasn’t going to risk losing it all a
gain. I might always feel like a piece was missing, but that was fine. I could still play, and play well.
The next day after cooking us an awesome breakfast, Melany left to go back to her condo with the promise that we’d see each other sometime later in the day. Kaitlyn gave me a call and asked if I wanted to meet with her and Brianne to have a jam session and discuss future performances, so I invited them to come over to the house that afternoon before I had to go to work. They arrived an hour later with their instruments and amplifiers, and we set up in the living room by my drums.
“This is exciting,” Brianne said. “Playing with a real drum set again.”
“So, the first order of business,” Kaitlyn said, setting up her microphone. “Professor Barley contacted me yesterday evening, and she told me that she’s organizing another art show at Shadetree in two weeks.”
“Awesome,” I said. “She wants us to play?”
“Well, that’s the thing. Our performance was so popular that she wants to make music a main focus of the event. She’s going to feature other students from the music program at Beasley, and she wants us to be the final performance.”
“Bad ass,” I said.
Brianne took her electric violin out of its case and plugged it into its wireless transmitter. “The question, then, is what do we play?”
“I bet the audience is going to want covers like last time,” I suggested.
“Right,” Kaitlyn agreed. “So, do we resign ourselves to always playing covers, or are we going to do original, improvisational stuff like we used to do?”
“Improvisation is a specialty of mine,” I offered.
“Okay,” said Brianne. “Then why don’t we alternate?”
“Down,” said Kaitlyn.
“Sure,” I said.
“Alright. It’s settled, then. Alternate between covers and freestyle improvisation. That was easy.”
I laughed. “The three of us are in sync, it seems.”
Kaitlyn nodded. “The best musical collaborations can never be forced. I believe they can only occur when all the elements line up just right, and strangers cross paths at exactly the right time.”
“Fate,” said Brianne.
Fate. When I thought about it, it did feel like everything that’d happened to me had occurred because it was supposed to, like fate or destiny was guiding the way. Everything had happened to lead me up to this point, so that I could meet Melany and play with Kaitlyn and Brianne.