Five Years of Fame [COMPLETE]

32. Singing to the Choir

Fall, Year 3, Month 11

Fall was in full swing. Halloween had passed and there were rotting pumpkins slowly collapsing on front porches while leaves piled up on front lawns.

It was raining as Reeve drove the familiar back streets. The cold atmosphere, mixed with the still-warm earth, was creating a low hanging fog that hovered a few feet above the ground, creating an atmosphere Halloween would have been proud of.

The old church was lit up, glowing in the low light of the early evening. Reeve had flashbacks to girls scouts and youth groups at the sight, the only other times she had been to the church at a time and day that wasn't Sunday morning.

The large tree rooted in the front lawn between the main building and the parking lot had neat piles of faded leaves gathered around it, it's limbs nearly bare.

Kelly was holding the back door open when Reeve pulled into the back parking lot. She closed and locked the door with Reeve safely inside, turning off the hallway lights as they went in an attempt to make the church seem empty and to keep curious eyes from seeing what was happening inside.

Kelly followed Reeve as her feet led her down the familiar hallways. She caught sight of Dani and her mother cleaning up what looked to be a buffet dinner in the small cafeteria as she moved towards the sanctuary. The smell of coffee and pizza followed her along with the sound of paper plates being crushed up and shoved into garbage bags.

Reeve pulled open one of the main swinging doors that led into the sanctuary, barely noticing the large signs posted on every entrance. "DO NOT DISTURB! RECORDING SESSION IN PROCESS!"

She had noticed them the night before. Everyone who was in the building was in the sanctuary, minus Molly and Dani. It had taken very little negotiating with the church board to get the place empty on a Wednesday evening. A bible study was moved to someone's home instead of one of the classrooms in the basement. Other than that, Pastor Ralph was more than thrilled to let Reeve and her crew move in. He had simply been excited to see her back at the church again.

Kelly shut the swinging door firmly behind Reeve, moving some soundproofing padding in place as she did so. Up on the windows were more gray form pads to block out the world and encourage the sanctuary's natural acoustics.

The ceiling rose two stories high, coming to a point high above their heads. The choir was up on the stage at the far end of the room running through vocal warm-ups. Anton was yelling out instructions to three tech assistants he had hired from the local music college. No one noticed Reeve as she slipped into a pew half-way up the aisle.

She didn't realize it at the time but she had unconsciously sat in her mother's row, the pew the Keller family had occupied for years. Reeve hadn't attended service at the church in years and yet she knew exactly where she was supposed to be.

Gage, Ember, and Ezra, her new drummer and keyboardist, were setting up their equipment as the choral voices rose to the ceiling in harmony. Reeve watched as everyone around her set up so that she could do her job. Off in the corner was a stool and a microphone. There were microphones throughout the room, several suspended over the choir's heads, and a few extra placed around the sanctuary to pick up all ambient vibrations.

Reeve had stopped by the night before to check in on rehearsals. She wasn't needed yet and yet she couldn't keep away. It was date night with Noah and when she couldn't decide on what they should get for dinner, he suggested they stop in at the church to see what was going on.

She showed him every room of the church, each nook and cranny having a story attached. She walked, holding tight to his hand, as she relived a huge part of her childhood she hadn't thought of in years.