Just What I Needed

Just What I Needed (20)

But her shame left instantaneously like her frustration, because just walking into a music store could sooth all of those raw edges. Most people went into churches to find peace, but Keely could find the same calm by walking into a music store, sitting in a room playing a record loudly or in undertone or having a guitar in hands and her voice.

There wasn't room in her mind to grab a record quickly and going up to talk to the old man. Instead she wandered down the aisles slowly, fingering through the voluminous music.

Falling into the trance that so commonly came when she looked at music, Keely couldn't help thinking back to her father. She'd tried to call him again, but he hadn't answered. Maybe he was just missing her by accident, because it wasn't as if she was leaving messages, and if there was one thing she knew about her dad was that technology wasn't his strong suit, he probably had no idea she'd called.

Still, it felt strange that he hadn't tried to call her. After all, he was still her father, whatever had happened in between the years since she'd be born, there was still a blood relation there.

And just like that, her mood began to drop from annoyance to sadness.

"You looking for a good album?"

Glancing up from where she was looking slowly through every record, Keely saw the old man. His long steel grey hair was pulled back into a pony tail behind his head, his dark eyes were searching and upon her and his brow was furrowed. Even with the holey faded jeans and Queen t-shirt, he reminded Keely of the old man people used to go to for answers... But not in a bad way, his eyes seemed wise and knowing.

A smile twitched on the corner's of Keely's mouth, and she answered simply, "Always."

Smiling he said, "Bottom row, far right fourth album in."

Doing as he said, Keely found the album. "Poison's Flesh & Blood, glam rock, this is what you're giving for a good album?" she raised an eyebrow as she passed him the record over the table.

"Something to Believe In," his voice was calm as he rang up the purchase. "People underestimate the band, mostly because they were a glam rock band in the 80's. But just listen to the track. I saw them play it live in '91, and even I was surprised, it's a great song if you want hope and courage or hope."

"I'll take your word for it," Keely murmured.

"So," he leaned on his elbows over the counter. "I thought you promised to be my most loyal costumer."

Wincing, Keely answered with a defensive, "I've been really busy!"

Now he just laughed, "I would expect, rock star. Did you really think you'd have time to run down and come here everyday?"

"I guess not," she admitted. But started laughing at his expectant look. "Okay, I'll tell you. I've had a three day marathon of photo shoots, which are surprisingly not that bad, even though I think I had to change ten times each day. I went to the U2 concert with a few friends."

"Who are you going on tour with?"

"Ah... don't laugh, but Marissa James and N.S.R," she felt cowardly about how scared she was to tell him so.

He just raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," Keely settled in to talk to him. "I met the boys from NSR, and they're actually nice, well... mostly, even though their music is kind of crap. So, I just started hoping that this tour would be over quick. But then they introduced me to Marissa James, and we became really good friends, even though her music is worse than theirs.

"But she convinced me to do some recording with her, and I re-wrote almost the entire song, so it's actually good now. Plus, NSR is helping me record my album, well a third of the band is along is and they asked me to do a duet with them. Convincing me that they didn't like the sound they had right now that they only had that sound from necessity. But I said I would only do it on the condition that I would get to listen to the song first."