Another Wrinkled Page

Isolation Years

Perhaps I knew this wasn't how it was supposed to turn out; perhaps I knew I wasn't supposed to give into my heart; perhaps there was a voice calling from the depths of my mind telling me to stop, turn around, and never look to him again.

But perhaps that wouldn't have affected anything, anyways. I would have been a fool, and I would have pushed those voices of better judgement out of my mind in spite of myself. I would have listened to my heart and fallen easily into his comforting arms. I would have given my all to him despite anything else.

And perhaps I'd still be equally as happy....
___________
Mikael sighed, "This is supposed to be a vocal duet, is it not?"

"The mixing on this," Steven said, peering over his dark framed glasses, "It's not working quite right. I'm not really getting the proper interplay between the voices. I'm getting, like, ninety percent you and ten percent Emma."

I was getting terribly frustrated. I knew that these two men tended to be perfectionists in the studio, but honestly, I never figured it was nearly like this. I mean, I couldn't hear this apparent mixing discrepancy that was plain as day to them, but I dared not say anything.

Steven switched around a few things on the mixing board, put on his headphones apparently to hear better, switched controls over to Mikael, and then back to himself, and back, and forth, and back, and....

Needless to say I was standing around the vocal setup for a solid two hours waiting for the vocal mix to be perfect. I mean, I wasn't standing around the whole time. I did get up to get myself tea a couple of times.

"That's it!" Steven exclaimed, grabbing Mikael's arm. "I don't know what you did, but it fucking works!"

"Em," Mikael called to me, "Come over here and listen!"

It felt like some sort of miracle to finally hear those words. I let out a slightly overdramatic sigh and then walked over to the mixing board. Steven handed me the headphones, and then played back the tape. Ah, it was only in the moment when I realized exactly how off the previous mixing job was. I must admit, two hours of old lady bickering had really come to some beautiful results. "Mike's voice really does shine right here, doesn't it?"

"It does," Steven said with an odd sort of pride in his tone.

"No," Mikael responded, "It's the harmony that makes it work, your voice against mine..." His eyes peered into mine, and for a few seconds we were locked in a gaze. The piercing look he was giving me wouldn't calm down, but rather it only intensified.

"Um, we've got to get those keyboards down now, don't we?" Steven muttered, breaking up the look. He was rather flustered by this tension between us that only seemed to be growing.

Not to say he was the only one...