She counted off a three-four beat with a combination of snare drum and the occasional bass drum hit.
Both sounds were low enough that it was easy to hear her when she started talking.“Picture this.Cinderella at the masquerade.”
Danny slid into an ascending series of chords that carried apprehension mixed with excitement.
“She makes her grand entrance, and all eyes are on her.”Reese’s words were the perfect compliment to what Danny was playing.“Everyone wants to know who she is, suitor after suitor asks her to dance, including the prince.”
The tension faded from the music, blossoming into excitement.Thrill.Joy.
“She’s never had so much praise.No one has ever noticed her like this before.It’s intoxicating,” Reese said.“Cinderella finds herself in the arms of the prince more often than not, and she loses herself in the evening.”
The song was achingly bright, almost too much.The story was good.Not unique, but a nice touch.It would be fun to see what kind of lyrics Danny put to this once he dug into it.
“She doesn’t hear the first ten chimes of the clock.By the time the eleventh strikes, she’s tearing away, running for the exit.But strike twelve happens while she’s still in the middle of the ballroom.”Reese’s tone dropped toward sadness along with the music.
“Her fairy godmother’s spell vanishes, and she’s left herself, in tattered rags, amid all the town’s elite.”The song glided into somber, and so did Reese’s voice.“Everyone’s still asking who she is, but the questions are now disgust, instead of awe.Until the prince’s best friend steps in and drapes his jacket over her shoulders.”
Hope blinked in the song, but the overall feeling was still dark.
And then the music ended.
“Well?”Danny asked.
I shrugged.“Where’s the rest of it?”I was getting into the story.
Reese’s sigh was heavy.“There’s no more.Did you hear it?”
I could be obtuse and askhear what, but I did hear it.The entire melody was beautiful, but it was missing that spark that carried Reese’s musical voice with it.“How does it sound on the keyboard?”
“The same, but more likeplink plinkthanpluck pluck.”Reese’s reply was flat.
“I think it’s closer than she’s giving herself credit for,” Danny said.“Right here, around the dancing”—he plucked out a few chords—“it falls off when it shouldn’t.”
Reese scowled.“But Cinderella realizes something is wrong, even though she’s enjoying the night.She just hasn’t put her finger on what it is yet.”
Her almost-pout was cute.Kissable—
That wasnotwhere my mind needed to be.“How does the story end?”
Reese huffed.“Seriously?That’s what you’re hung up on?”
“Seriously.Spoil it for me.”If this was Reese and Danny’s rendition, it wasn’t the same as the Disney movie.Not as dark as Grimm, but it would be different.“You’re foreshadowing something the listener doesn’t know yet, what is it?”
“Cinderella runs from the room.The prince’s friend comes and finds her.He doesn’t have to search because he knows exactly who she is.A childhood friend he thought he’d never see again.Fuck the prince, she lives happily ever after with a man who actually knows her,” Reese said.
I refused to draw any parallels between the story and her life, and sat in front of the keyboard instead.“Come here.”I motioned for Reese to sit next to me.“Play the part Danny was talking about.”
It soundedverydifferent on piano than guitar, and it was both brighter and more haunting, but I still heard the bits that had them stalled.
“What about…” I went up an octave, and plucked out a few notes.
Reese scrunched her nose.“Mmm… Maybe this?”She responded with a variation on what I’d done.
“I like them both.”Danny moved to stand next to us, close enough my arm brushed his thigh when I hit the higher notes.
Reese and I went back and forth, countering and adding to each other’s suggestions.As the tone of the music grew and surged, I felt the emotion tighten in my chest, but at the same time, it was like a floodgate was opened on my creativity.Fuckthis felt good.
She moved forward in the song, and I knew where she was going with it.I added in a harmony, layered on top of what she had, and the sound in the room was incredible.