Worlds Apart

Chapter Twelve

I could see clearly that he was reluctant to even talk about it, because of his bad mood or just for the fact it wasn't finished that I couldn't tell, but after one glance towards the sound board, he groaned and turned to me fully.

Knowing that I'd won, I sent him a blindingly huge smile.

"Okay," I announced, gaining excitement now that I had his full attention, "I know exactly what it should sound like now."

"You just don't know the words."

"They'll come," I told him, completely unperturbed by that tiny fact. "It's just going to be me and an acoustic, and I want it to sound like it's coming from a cloud or something, like it's right beside you but untouchable at the same time," I trailed off thoughtfully. I wanted that, but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get it.

Despite his earlier reluctance, I could see Cash's interest perking as he listened to my thoughts. It was something he loved, figuring out how to make something that I heard in my head into something that we could both hear, or make it better than how I heard. He truly was brilliant at it.

As if it was the most simply thing in the world, he told me, "Reverb, you want reverb."

"But I want natural echo," I told him, my eyes focusing on him once again. "I want it to sound real, like I'm right beside the person who's listening."

He paused thoughtfully, his eyes travelling around the control room about us. "There's got to be a place in the building that sounds the way you want it to," he told me, "We'll just have to find it. I won't have the board for it, but we can get some equipment to record wherever you want to do it."

I was just getting more excited by the moment, and I could tell that not only could Cash see that, it was rubbing off on him as well. His eyes were lighting up for the first time since Terri had left town, and I could practically hear the wheels in his head turning.

"Let's go find it," I said eagerly, pushing up to my feet with more energy than I'd felt in a long time, letting my song book fall to the side forgotten.

Cash blinked at me, asking, "Right now?"

"Why not?" replied I, giving a shrug and offering him a hand, "We've got nothing to do for hours. Let's go find me some reverb, sweetheart."

Really he didn't need all that much convincing, and he took my hand, allowing me to pull him out of the seat. Cash might not have been into the idea of my unfinished song, but there was no doubting that he loved the idea of a new challenge, and he couldn't resist when I offered to it to him on a plate.

Rubbing his hands together as his mind whirled about; Cash stared around the room while I was almost bouncing on the balls of my feet in my anticipation. "Okay, get your guitar," he ordered, pointing to my acoustic in question, "We're going for a sing along."

My eyebrows shot up, but I grabbed the instrument all the same. "What song do you want me to play?"

"Anything," he said, waving a careless hand, "We just need to hear the guitar and your voice."

We started out in our little studio, somewhat hopefully I might say but it was best to cross every t and so on. As was much expected, we didn't find what hit my ear as what I wanted on the record, so we've onwards, Cash opening the door for me to go through and not stop singing for a moment.

Back in the studio I had started playing the Red Riot songs that came to me right away, but I was already running out of them as I started into the hallway. It had been so long since I'd played them, and though I knew them like they had been carved into my skin, I still wasn't perfect after so long without practice, and began cutting the songs to short segments, moving easily to the pieces that I knew best.