Authors: Elisa Jackson

Hitting the Right Notes (19 page)

“You’ve failed to surprise me,” he finally muttered with a dismissive hand and entered the office without turning to check on Darya who stood stoned in the corridor – deprived of the ability to breath and form words.
So it was that bad…

Anthony Stevenson did not mind her absence in her office at all. He seated himself comfortably in a chair and continued in his matter-of-fact tone.

“It was impossible to surprise me, as that would sound too amateur to describe your work, my dear. You made me admire you truly as a professional, which is quite a rare thing I must say.” Tony expected some answer probably, and listening to the silence for several seconds he finally realized that Darya was still missing in her own office.

He turned and looked out into the corridor and that was when he found her. As their eyes met, Darya’s vision was blurred by the frighteningly shiny tears that had been caused by those words.

“Ah, there you are! Shall I continue, or are you going to weep like a teenage fangirl?” Anthony didn’t even try to hide the mischievous dark delight from his voice. Apparently he was having the time of his life torturing Darya with his praise.

Darya nodded at him to continue. Her legs still felt too limp to carry her body into the room, but her ears needed more of that. Tony grinned. That was why he had come here in person – to provide her with all the flattering she needed before the concert. He didn’t say those words, but Darya could read it in the eyes of his old friend and godfather in the music world.

“What can I say more, D. I really thought you were insane when you signed the deal and bought your own songs for the amount that could buy thousands of such songs. I thought you were going to ruin them if you touched them anymore. Especially taking out the drums and bass… But you see… you have not only managed to refuse becoming a slave to the industry rules, but you
are
making your own rules and your own music. I feel like a proud father right now,” Tony paused as his voice also quivered with emotion. Would she be able to make Tony Stevenson shed tears of joy?

Maybe with the next album.

Tony took a moment to compose himself and then the devilish grin was back. “And you made me feel old, meaning sensitive – that’s a terribly thing to do to a friend,” he scolded her. Darya’s legs suddenly found the strength to rush towards him and wrap her arms around the old man’s neck for a real hug. It felt so good to be back and appreciated.

Darya felt no panic as she waited for the audience to fill the venue and the concert to start. This was going to be a nice evening with her playing for a bunch of people who came here for her music – no famous people were invited, no journalists, no critics.

Kiara rushed into the dressing room all flushed. “You can’t imagine who just came… I even got a hug from the…handsome one…what was his name? Oh my god, Darya…I can’t believe it…”

Darya stared at Kiara’s little fangirl dance for long minutes as she was half sure it had to be some entrepreneur or an acclaimed professor of science to make her personal assistant this excited. Eventually, she ran out of patience. “You are not making any coherent thoughts for me to guess. So who is here?”

“DaBlazers!” She almost screamed and continued telling about the handsome guy – well, all of them were handsome, there was no way to guess which one was more to Kiara’s taste.

“How? We didn’t send them invitations, did we?” She did feel slight stab of shame and guilt for not inviting them, but it was important that this even was only for the audience and not big star names with VIP invitations.

“They had bought tickets and entered with the audience. They didn’t even wear any makeup; so many fans did not recognize them. But I did! And I got a hug… and a kiss…”

Darya was about to join Kiara’s happy dance. It meant so much to her that her friends were here for her new beginning. But she was not here to dance and a knock at the door reminded her that it was time for her real calling.

Darya didn’t notice as the time flew and she almost reached the final song. It had been an amazing experience – just her and her guitar in the dimmed glow of stage lights and the audience humming with her and responding to every lyric she sang. Darya could almost touch her invisible wings, which were not only back, but flapping as freely and powerfully, that she could cause a storm of emotions if she wanted to. Yet, she was feeling so happy and complete, that her sentiments were in absolute harmony and the wings were causing a light breeze around them.

“This is going to be the final song for tonight. It is the title song of the album and is called “Forgiveness in two parts” and I will ask each of you here to think of something that you might’ve forgotten to forgive yourself. Think over it during the song. I truly believe you deserve your own forgiveness,” she let out a long breath and closed her eyes and her fingers ran along the strings of her guitar letting the first chords of the song fly.

Behind her closed eyes, Darya imagined seeing Eric – there would be so much to tell him, and she knew she could
sing
all of that to him. Would he forgive himself? In her mind, Darya decided that she would sing this song for him and hoped that the music would reach for him wherever he might be at that very moment.

“Forgiveness in Two Parts” was an amazing song to sing. It started with the passionate first part of “Raging Forgiveness”, which would always remind her of her young recklessness and the audience screamed and sang with her. Next came the second part “Simply Forgiveness” and it sounded like a prayer. She could feel the audience holding their breaths and joining her prayer. It was a moment of absolute unison and blessing.

As Darya sang the final verse, she opened her eyes for the first time since the song had started. For a moment, she felt it was a dream and blinked several times. The stubborn illusion refused to disappear and then she knew that he was standing right there – in the first row – looking at her with his big eyes full of love and admiration. Eric was there and Darya smiled to him as she finished the song and felt the storm of applause and the bright lights of the stage wash over her.

She would step down the stage and they would talk. She didn’t know what was waiting for them in the future. She didn’t want to guess. Darya knew that whatever was going to happen – she was going to embrace it as a part of her journey.

But right now – floating in the sea of love and lights Darya was happy – completely and unconditionally happy.

Welcome back Darya!

She heard the whisper in her mind and knew it was her music talking to her and welcoming her into its embrace.

Welcome home.

About The Author

Elisa Jackson is a bestselling Amazon and paperback author who lives and writes in Irvine, California. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English from UCLA.

Elisa is the proud mother of a beautiful 8-year-old boy with autism and a 4-year-old girl, both of whom are the lights of her life.

Elisa lives for reading books, drinking smoothies and hanging out with her friends and family on weekends.

You can reach her by joining her mailing-list here:

https://tinyletter.com/irvinian

Contents

Chapter 1 – Shine and Fall

Chapter 2 – The Show Time

Chapter 3 – Heart to Heart

Chapter 4 – A City with Wings

Chapter 5 – Born to Rock

Chapter 6 – Dangerous Dreaming

Chapter 7 – Four Glittery Eyes