Immaculate

Chapter 12 - Signs Of The Universe

Zyan Malik had been invited by Debbra's boss without her knowing and, in principle, even establishing any relationship between the former One Direction singer and Prince. But, right at the beginning of the meeting, upon receiving a briefing, Debbra remembered: Prince had always been one of Zyan's great influences, who always loved soul music, one of the genres enshrined by the late idol.

Zyan was one of the eclectic young musicians who were being invited to participate in the Prince Project, precisely because he had always declared the importance of the idol in his musical construction and artistic identity. And the fact that he was young and eclectic also made him a perfect candidate to represent the new generations in that group and in whatever was produced to honor Prince.

Debbra had seen Zyan a few times before, but she doubted he remembered her. On one occasion, about a year after he left One Direction in the middle of the band's last tour, under controversy, she had met Zyan at a party organized by an association of DJs, in London. Some journalists had surrounded him, asking aggressive questions, and he, visibly embarrassed and scared, was trying to dodge, without success.

Debbra then called him, pretending to be from the board of directors. She entered the circle and pulled him out of the middle of the paparazzi, screaming. "Mr. Zyan, they are calling you to speak in 1 minute! Excuse me, I need to take you", and she was pulling Zyan by the arm, without him understanding anything. She had dragged him to some kind of support room, which she had detected earlier, and which had a connection with the building's exit.

Debbra knew the space well, her company used to rent it out for events. "There's a door at the back, it will take you to some kind of warehouse, and then to the street, in case you want to get out," she said. Zyan, shy and upset, had only asked her name to politely thank her. Debbra introduced herself, handed him a card and watched him disappear. They never spoke again, although she saw him on another occasion, at a press conference about the launch of his book.

That day, she asked a common question, Zyan answered without much depth and she was content, because she was there doing a mere freelance and would take advantage of the answers to questions asked by colleagues. Other than that, I had never met him in person again, until that day.

Upon arriving at the publisher, Zyan greeted her very politely, but he was still the same shy and introverted person. When he shook her hand, she had the impression that he was trying to remember her, without success. Moved by recent events, however, Debbra couldn't help but get a little emotional upon meeting him.

That could only be another sign that it was time for the five boys to meet again. It was quite a coincidence that she bumped into Zyan Malik just in those days! Or rather, on that day precisely. She felt like surreptitiously taking a photo of the meeting, or just Zyan, and sending it to Harry, but she held back.

However, Debbra tried to sit at the conference table as close to him as possible, to take advantage of every opportunity for dialogue and rapprochement. She thought that this would help in an eventual need to also be involved in the process of convincing him about an eventual meeting with the four former colleagues of the boyband.

The first meeting to start discussions had been very intense, and had served to prove how complex that undertaking would be, but also how incredibly successful it could be. There were, however, many divergences, to a certain extent normal for an idea that is just beginning to be outlined.

At one point, tempers flared a bit. And precisely Zyan was one of those who was most upset with the course of an issue relating to the project. One of the things that most marked Prince's career and legacy, in addition to his genius, were the fights he faced with his record company, over rights to his songs and even his name.