Yesterday's Future 2✔️

14. The low-key psycho.

Simi's studio,
Abuja, NG

The short weekend was over and work had to continue. With the help of Ada, she'd been able to restock her fridge and kitchen on Saturday. Sunday, Simi just stayed in all day, sleeping, eating, smoking and listening to her unfinished  album all over and over again. It was just as she had hoped, a restful and lazy day, with no calls from Ada. Now, the week was on restart: Monday.

When she woke up at dawn, she carried out her daily exercise, had her bath, smoked a joint, then ate rice with the fish stew she made during the weekend, her music playing loudly on the stereo. Before 7:15, she was in her home studio downstairs before anyone and well, Ada was right about that track. It needed some more depth.

She pressed the play button again, sitting quietly and attentively in front of a monitor screen and the tune repeated itself, loud and clear into her ears through the cordless headphones. Alone in the studio, she hummed after the tune, nodding her head to the rhythm, eyes closed as she took in the body of the project that she had just finished recording, the last song on her debut album.

Her manager, Ada had told her during their weekend meeting that the song was good but not enough, asked her to listen to it over and over and that was what she did. She'd even suggested they feature an artiste on the track. The idea didn't sit right with Simi because the initial idea was to make the album a solo project and that was what she was working towards.

After listening to the old version over and over, she knew that they didn't need to feature anyone, it was her who hadn't put in everything. She realized there was more to do so she started at it, feeling very high spirited. One perk of being independent and having your home studio, she thought, was flexibility and freedom. Alan, resumed about an hour and thirty minutes later, and they worked together, recording and fine tuning. Ada joined them a little later too but she had to leave early for some meetings.

When it was lunch time, Alan stepped out, TJ was in the lobby watching TV, Teng and Deb were in there too, and Simi just sat in the producer's chair inside the recording room, listening repeatedly to the new finished track that it took them hours to finish and it was many times better than the last one. Inside, satisfaction danced through her thoughts. She had finally gotten her mojo back and she liked this version of herself.

She pressed the stop button on the keyboard when the song ended, heaved a sigh of relief as she carefully removed the pair of headphones that had been glued to her head for hours. Alan just ordered those high-tech headphones online from Amazon for her a week ago. They were quite expensive plus shipping fee, but doing a better job than the ones they had before so she thought well, it was a good investment.

Dropping the headphones on the table next to the monitor, she relaxed into the revolving chair, sinking into it and trying to catch her breath. She rested her intertwined fingers on her belly and looked up at the blue light that was staring back at her as she revolved in the seat, not taking her eyes off it until her eyes got weak, the chair got slower and the light got dimmer, until it was completely dark.

***

"Simi. Simi." A hand tapped her and she came alive instantly.

"Are you alright? How did you doze off here? I begged you to get enough sleep Simi." Ada in black pants and black shirt closed the door behind her as she entered into the room. Top button of her shirt was undone, exposing her cleavage.

"I did, but I woke up too early, " She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and that's when she came back fully to reality.

"You're back. Where's everybody?"