Short Stories

Deep Breathes

I walked to the new studio. It wasn't fair and I wanted some clean air especially after the busy week that we all had last week. I was tired and was glad to do a short recording. It was a better setup than the one I went to earlier in the week. There was a lot of glass in the front, and I would see the world in front of me.

"Kayla, it's a pleasure to see you again."

"I am happy that I was invited here. I hope you don't mind me using my notebook to help me record."

"Not at all please follow me back to the studio. I hope that everything is to your liking."

He walked me back to the studio and smiled at his staff. They were all very nice.

"Can I get you anything to eat?"

"No thank you," I replied politely. "I am not hungry."

"Maybe some tea or coffee?" one of his staff members offered.

"Coffee with a little cream would be lovely."

She walked away to the café that was just down the hall. We sat down and began to set the rules for the day. All I had to do was alert his staff if I needed anything and I was only here to record poetry. All was based on that and how he enjoyed it. He was training new people on the boards and studio equipment. I got to be the first artist that they would work with, and they were eager to test things out. After meeting, talking and learning more about each one of his staff, I felt more comfortable with them. I was sure he had already told them about me, so I just talked about the artistic stuff I did since that was all that mattered to them. I talked about the poetry, short fiction and the nonfiction I wrote along with the drawing s and paintings I made.

His staff member, Anna, came back with my coffee and I took a sip. It was perfect and I thanked her for taking the care to do it properly. I felt safe and good here. I grabbed my stuff and walked back to where all the recording equipment was. This felt so good and proper. I felt like I belonged here in the booth. Maybe it was the staff or the hot coffee, but I was so glad I came.

"Feel free to record when you want to. All you have to do is press the button. Also, the blue button over here with make the mirror go into a scene like mountains or the sea. Just in case you don't want to see us. We can communicate over the speaker in here. Green button is for you to start and the red on is if you need one of us. I know some works can be hard to read out loud. Just take your time."

I nodded my head and tried to relax. I changed the mirror to the sea image, and I took a deep breath to help me focus and relaxed. I was going to be fine, and this was going to be the next evolution. I rested and looked at the sea. I read through the introduction and table of contents and then read out each poem and their titles.