The Song

Part Sixty-One

Three days into my trip to North Carolina and I’d made no progress. I was so convinced that there was some sort of clue in the house, but every drawer I dug through, every wardrobe I looked in… I was finding nothing.

“Jess, why don’t you take the afternoon off and come with me to the city?” my Dad asked.

“I don’t want to stop looking though!”

“But you need a break sweetheart, you’ve practically torn this place apart.”

“I can’t believe I haven’t left anything here. No music or anything!” I sighed.

“Caroline said she’d look when she got home from working at the library tonight.”

“I know…”

“Let’s go, “ my Dad prompted, “We’ll have a good father-daughter day.”

“Alright,” I sighed, going to grab a pair of shoes and a light jumper.

We drove into town in my Dad’s truck, the pair of us spending the afternoon wandering around. I managed to drag my Dad in a few shops, and he got me to help him pick out some tools.

“Late lunch?” my Dad asked when we got tired of walking down the quaint streets.

“Yeah, I’m starving.”

We sat at an outdoor café, chatting idly as we picked at our meals. “Thanks for being so understanding about everything,” I said after a while.

“I’m your Dad.”

“Yeah, but Mum wasn’t much help.”

“Your Mum is a disaster,” my Dad said, “Somewhere deep down, deep deep down, she means well, but most of the time she’s just looking out for herself.”

“I know,” I sighed, “That was such a mess. I still feel awful about what I put Aston through.”

“He’s such a good guy, he would have done whatever you wanted.”

“I know, and that makes me feel worse.”

“Jess, he loves you and cares about you. He’d do what you said no matter what. He’s like a lost puppy or something.”

“I need to do something for him,” I replied, “I don’t know what, but something.”

“Well I’m sure you’ve figured out what he likes,” my Dad replied, “You spent the last six months or so getting to know him again.”

“I just need to think about it I guess,” I shrugged, sipping my iced tea.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” my Dad replied.

We finished up and then headed home. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book on the back porch, the sound of the waves crashing soothing me. I didn’t know where to look for clues anymore, so I was waiting for Caroline to come home to hopefully uncover something.

“Jess!!” Caroline shouted hours later. We’d already eaten dinner and I was playing around on my laptop in my bedroom.

“Yeah! Coming!”

I ran down the stairs to find her stood in the front room with a handful of music books. “Not sure if these are yours or mine,” she replied, “But I thought you might want to have a look.”

“Thanks!” I grinned.

I flicked through them, noticing my messy scrawl in two of them. Excitedly I texted Aston that I might have found something and then I went off to the piano.

[Skype me! xx] he sent back almost immediately.

[Hang on, sign on.]

I ran and grabbed my laptop and set it on the top of the piano, facing it towards me. Plugging my headphones in so only I could hear Aston I signed in and started up a call with him.

“What did you find?” Aston asked as soon as he popped up on the screen.

“Caroline found two song books!”

“Do you think the song is in one of them?”

“I was just going to play them to find out,” I replied.

“Good, I wanna hear.”

I grinned at the camera on the computer and then opened one of the books, placing my fingers on the keys. As I followed the notes I could feel my heart fall a little bit. It was just a bunch of scales.

“It’s just practice drills,” I said sadly, “This isn’t a song.”

“You’ve got another though,” Aston pointed out, “What’s in that?”

“Let’s see…” I replied, grabbing the other book and swapping it out. “This looks more like a song.”

“Play it!”

“I am, chill out,” I grinned, starting to play the song.

It was a nice song, with a gentle flow to it. As I played it I tried to open my mind and see if I could remember it. But still, nothing.

“I don’t recognize this,” Aston said after a few minutes.

“No?”

“Not at all,” he replied, “Maybe it’s something newer?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “You’re sure you’d recognize that song I’m looking for.”

“I know I would. And you would too, it flows into the other ones.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll just have to keep looking,” Aston said, “Maybe when we’re back in London we can take a trip to your old school and talk to some people?”

“That would be good,” I sighed, my face a bit downfallen. I was definitely disappointed that these songbooks didn’t hold anything useful.

“Hey, cheer up!” Aston grinned, “We’ve got a plan.”

“I’m sorry, I just was so hoping this was it!”

“I know, just relax and go with the flow. We’ll find your memory.”

“Thanks Ast,” I smiled.

“I’ve got to get back to work but I’ll call in the morning, ok?”

“Sure, have fun!”

We said goodbye and then hung up. I switched off my laptop and grabbed the first songbook again. “Might as well get some practice in,” I muttered, starting in on the exercises.

I played through both songbooks for the next hour, and then started playing the piano freely, making things up as I went along.

“Let her play tonight,” I heard whispered behind me. I turned my head to see Caroline stood with her hand on my Dad’s arm, the pair of them in their pajamas.

“I can stop.”

“No, you can keep playing,” Caroline said, “If that’s what you need.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I won’t be much longer, don't want to keep you up.”
“Take your time, our room is on the opposite end of the house it won't bother us that much,” my Dad said, agreeing.

"Ok."

"Night sweethheart," my Dad added as they left the room.

I turned back to the keys, wiping a stray tear from my cheek. This was what I needed to do right now, play till I couldn’t play anymore, and get all the emotions that were building up inside of me out. I hadn’t found the song I’d been looking for, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t start writing a new one.

I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t, but I was still at the piano when the sun rose the next morning, one of my empty songbooks covered in scribbles of ideas and melodies. If I wasn’t going to get my memory back, I needed a new first part to my song. And this was it.