The Sound of My Voice

Chapter 4

As I waited for Loki to come back with my guitar I started to hum a soft blues song, air-guitaring the chords as I laid down on the couch. My eyes remained closed as imagined the performance in my head and my lips curled up into a smile. My concentration was broken when the doors to Loki’s bedroom opened. My eyes opened to see what I assumed to be a maid came in carrying a bundle in her arms. “Are you miss Anna?” I sit up on the couch and nod, “Yeah, that’s me.” “The young Lord asked me to bathe you and dress you before he returned.” I stared at her.  That guy was overdoing it, but whatever.  I got up and followed the maid when she signaled for me to come to the bathroom. We walked through a door that was right next to the couch.

As I figured, the bathroom was extravagant. The porcelain was of the whitest I’ve ever seen and the tub was huge, easily fitting three people. The maid asked me to strip while she drew the bathwater and I did as instructed. I saw her take out a few jars and bottles from a cabinet and I knew she was going to fill my bath with all the salts and scented crap, but whatever.

I stepped into the tub when she said it was okay to and sat down, letting out a sigh. “How would you like me to begin, miss?” I opened my eyes to look at her, “Huh?”

“Bathing you, miss.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay. You don’t have to. I usually bathe and dress on my own.” Her eyes widen incredulously, “But miss, surely, you must accept my assistance—“ I shook my head with a polite smile, “I don’t want to cause too much trouble around here and I prefer doing things on my own.” She thought this over for a while, skeptically before nodding and taking her leave. “Thank you.” I said. She whirled around in surprise. I guess she wasn’t used to being thanked for her labors. It wouldn’t surprise me either. She finally smiled at me and nodded her head once in gratitude before leaving me alone in the bath.

I didn’t waste any time getting clean. I scrubbed every inch of my body and washed my hair. I never liked why my skin got all wrinkly after a while so I rarely took long baths or showers. When I finished, I drained the tub and dried myself off with the towel the maid left me, next to a change of clothes. I eyed the clothes before picking them up: a change of white underwear and a white one-shoulder sleeve empire dress with a gold trim. Not exactly my style, but it’s fine. I’m just more of a steampunk type person.

I got dressed and moved in front of a mirror to fix my hair. I observed my own features, something I don’t really do often, but I felt like it at that moment: My asymmetrical blonde hair reached below my shoulders and waved slightly; a tiny red line could be seen circling my brown eyes if I looked close enough, probably from unstable sleep hours. I looked paler than usual and anyone could see it. I washed my face and towel-dried my hair as best as I could before stepping out of the bathroom to find my acoustic guitar on Loki’s bed.

My first thought was “Oh good he got the acoustic instead of the strat. I forgot to mention it to him.” My second was “Wait, were the hell is Loki, then?” That’s when I felt his lips brush against my ear, “My don’t you look lovely?” My heart jumped to my throat and I gasped as I whirled around, “Loki! Holy shit, give me a friggin’ heart attack why don’tcha?” He chuckled eyeing me in the new dress and groped his chin, “Very lovely, indeed.” I laughed in a way that almost sounded like a snort, because it was so sarcastic, “Nice try, but to win me over you gotta work for it.” I grabbed my guitar and lay back on the couch playing the blues.

He watched me curiously, sitting on the bed as he did. It was kinda awkward and made me feel uncomfortable at first, mostly because he liked me and I didn’t really like him back at the time, at least not like that. I mean, I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. Anyway, I continued to play, blues morphing into rock, starting to sing along with my strums and licks,