ephemeral // matty healy

3-pointer

Maja was such a pleasure to spend the afternoon with. Stella knew she wouldn't be too much of a bother, and she couldn't help but be reminded of spending time with her own grandmother. They were both full of stories and asked about boys, but Stella felt the connection between them when she heard Maja laugh. She laughed with her whole body: her face smiled and as her voice came to a crescendo, her belly would shake and she would stamp her little feet.

"More tea?" she asked her patient, who gracefully nodded. The two had carefully migrated to the kitchen sometime after Stella had made lunch. Nothing fancy, but the warm tomato soup really hit the spot.

"Thank you my darling," Maja said kindly. She pushed her bowl to the side. "You are a wonderful caretaker."

Stella dropped some honey into the bottom of Maja's mug and then poured the caramel-coloured tea overtop; watching the honey crystals dissolve and disperse as she stirred with a delicately carved silver spoon.

"Really? I don't think so." She laughed before sheepishly admitting, "I've never even been able to keep a plant alive for very long." She placed the mugs on the table.

"I find that very hard to believe," Maja scoffed. Her lips squished to one side of her mouth. "I would have thought that it was your job if you had not talked about your annoying boss at the hospital."

Stella looked at her for a long time, her eyebrows raised, then furrowed down into a quizzical expression. Maja sipped her tea.

"Wait," she said as her hands clasped around the warm mug. "Don't you have a few annoying bosses?"

"Um, yeah," she chuckled. "I guess I do. Except for Apricot." Maja seemed confused as she opened her mouth and then tightly pushed her lips together. "It's best if you don't ask."

Stella offered her patient a top-up before refilling her own mug one more time.

-

It was the third day in a row that Blair had motored through a full day of work. Her time consisted of getting up early, working through lunch, and then going home to do more work alone. She and Ronan were finally getting into a groove now that they felt their project come to a close. The end was nigh, and this feeling settled in when they started to lay the final music file on top of the video. 

Matching beats and transitional sections to the video was easy. Ronan had an eye for matching the audio and visual aspects to create a seamless end product. Blair's final responsibility was recording her voice for a secondary character at the beginning of the video. It was a robot, so there would be more work to be done behind the chair than in front of the microphone, but she didn't mind because she had a new package of audio effects she had been dying to try out.

"Hello, Mr. Healy," I read from the list of prompts. Ronan was on the other side of the glass in the work room, giving me a thumbs up every now and again.

"Great. Let me make a level adjustment, then we can run it again, yeah?" He turned dials and pushed buttons while I sat in the booth, humming as I waited for the next signal to proceed.

"We do ask that our clients leave all electronic devices in the box provided. Don't worry—we'll keep it safe." I said in an eerily comforting voice. Natural, but unsettling. It's what Matty had specifically asked for when we had suggested adding another voice, and when Ronan half-heartedly suggested Blair use her voice for the character. She thought it would be hilarious, but when they realized the budget wouldn't allow them to hire a voice actor, she was thrust into the role.

"All good?" She couldn't help but rip the headphones from her ears. She was done even if they needed one more take.

Ronan did a final thumbs up from the control panel, which left Blair to play with effects. She was excited to finally get her hands on the files.

They would be finished by the end of the week.