December 24th [COMPLETED]

9. Long Distance

The Havish sisters once told George that they didn't fight. That was what made them such a good band. They didn't fight. They didn't argue. They simply discussed matters in an orderly fashion and that was how they made all their band decisions.

George hadn't experienced an all-out brawl between Lori, Stella, and Elsie yet, so she could concede them part of their argument. But what the Havish sisters did do, something George came to quickly understand about them in her time working with them, was that they talked at each other. Very loud. Extremely loud. So loud, one would have thought they were arguing.

But that was impossible. Because the Havish sisters didn't argue.

They were talking loudly at each other for the third time that morning and George decided to enforce her ground rule of "I am not a counselor of any kind, especially not a family one."

It usually took George five minutes to disconnect her laptop and the necessary hard drives that she set up. That morning, George was out of the Havish family home, with needed equipment in her bag sitting on the passenger seat beside her, pulling out of the driveway in under five minutes. A personal record if she had stopped to consider it.

Palm Springs was hot, as it always was. The sun was high and bright in the sky. The mountains loomed in the distance and spoke of something other than a bare, blinding desert but offered no respite for the residents of Palm Springs.

When the Havish sisters had set up with George to come to stay in Palm Springs and produce their second album with them, George had grand ideas of warmth and pool sides and relaxed afternoon jam sessions. She had been in Canada in the wintertime then and was now living out her wrong assumptions.

Downtown Palm Springs was nearly empty but there was a buzz about the place. George could see shop owners restocking shelves as she passed by, coffee shops decorating chalkboard signs, and city workers cleaning up the street. Everyone getting ready for the festival scene like it was going to arrive at any moment. There were still three weeks to go. George knew this because these three weeks were her deadline with sister band, Haven, on their second album. She had no intention of sticking around for the festival season. She had better places to be.

Part of the deal working with Haven that George was starting to see the brilliance of was a second studio location. Technically, George had three studio locations going in Palm Springs alone, with the Havish sisters and their set-up at their parents' house, Jamie and her set up mastering Felix's second album at the rental house, and the third, George's sanctuary.

Julien had called in a favor for George. One of his old rocker buddies owned a local recording studio that was more of a pet project of his than a real business. He had given George a key and the run of the place to use whenever she needed. George sighed with relief as she pulled her car up in front of the red brick wall with the rod iron gate set into the middle of it.

The world seemed to disappear behind her with the street locked off, the gate acting as a barrier. Inside the gate, George found a compound. A small one, she had been in bigger, but a compound nevertheless. There was a pool at the studio, for some reason. It was Palm Springs after all. There were pools everywhere. There was also a long patio with a long, wide roof that jutted out from the small building and kept the patio in the shade. Here George could see the experience she had assumed she'd be having.

The studio interior was cooler by a lot but the air was stale and had the familiar scent of strings, foam pads, and leather chairs that George knew so well. It was empty and all hers. Here she could work. Here she could see her deadline stretching out before her instead of breathing down her neck.

George forced herself to set up her station before looking at the time. She still had work to do and Felix would understand if she was a little bit late. But she was right on time and Felix picked up on the second ring just as George placed her headphones over one ear.