Main Stage

Chapter 1: Blue

Thank you so much for clicking on my story! This particular one is very music oriented, so expect some covers and originals from yours truly (living vicariously through my characters, as always).

Happy reading!

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Eleanor Reynolds loved her Granny more than any other person in the world.  She often kept Nella after pre-school, babysitting her while her parents were away at work.  Every day, she would occupy Nella's mind with card games and dominoes.  When Nella was around seven, her Granny started to teach her the piano and taking her to her church's choir practices.  Nella loved the way her Granny used to sing, with her entire body, mind, and soul.

To sing well, you must sing directly from the heart.  Your voice plays the music of your heart.

Nella missed her and her random philosophical tangents terribly. 

"Eleanor?"

Nella turned her eyes away from the window to look at Dr. Janice.  Her office space was small and cozy.  She had a fuzzy gray rug that Nella really liked and her sofa, which Nella was currently sitting on, was more comfortable than any of the ones in Nella's living room. Nella never really sat in her living room for long periods of time.  No one did.

Dr. Janice peered at her from over the edge of her reading glasses. She had always hated those glasses; the garish green reminded her of sewage.  They were quite distracting when she had first met her therapist, but for as long as Nella had known her, which had been a little over four years now, she had never had a different pair. Dr. Janice cleared her throat. "Why don't you tell me what has your mind so occupied?"

Nella shrugged and pushed her own plain black glasses up her nose. "Just my Granny."

Dr. Janice smiled kindly. "The anniversary is coming up. I know it must be hard for you; your Granny was your haven when your home life became hostile. Do you want to talk about her?"

Nella shook her head. "I wish you wouldn't call it an anniversary. It has too much of a positive connotation attached to it."

Dr. Janice nodded and began typing on the iPad that her husband had gotten her last Christmas. She used to take notes the old fashioned way, with huge notepads she stored in three enormous filing cabinets behind her desk. The cabinets remained, but she rarely opened them anymore. Despite her age, which was nearing seventy, she had adapted quite quickly to the iPad. She'd even gotten a little green attachment keyboard for it.

She paused. "What would you like me to call it, then?"

"How about 'The Day Nella's World Ended.' Has a nice ring to it."

"But, Nella, your world hasn't ended. Despite the death of your Grandmother; despite the death of your father; despite the detainment of your brother. You and your mother have persevered."

"Oh, don't even bring her up."

"I take it she told you about Culture Cottage?"

Nella shook her head furiously, almost knocking her glasses off. "Oh, yeah. She told me about the fantastic facility, which isn't a facility, it's a cabin by Henry Lake. I looked it up on Google Maps. She told me about how many of the occupants have gotten the help they needed. She told me about how Dr. Nieta Keller was some amazing miracle psychologist/occupational therapist. Yeah, she told me all of these things. But she didn't listen when I said I didn't want or need them." Nella huffed and crossed her arms. Her mother always talked at her, not to her.

"She is concerned about you spending all your time in that... rather large house. She does not want you to be alone."

"Well, then maybe she should come home."