Picking up the Pieces

17

January 2003

Walking into the rented house that Fleetwood Mac would be staying in for the duration of the album she was nervous. Nervous to be working in such close proximity to Lindsey again and the possibility of her slipping up and talking about her kid is mind-numbing.  

Brielle couldn't understand why Mom had to go away for a long time but she promised her that she'd call her every night before she went to bed, and she made sure that Karen was aware of the time differences and made sure she could make a clean getaway to call her baby girl. 

***

March 2003

Brielle was on spring break and she had absolutely missed her mother, so Christine was able to talk Stevie into having the little girl fly out to California for spring break. Stevie agreed, she had been gone for three months and she really wanted to see her baby. It was arranged that Lori and Chris would bring her, and the day of her impending arrival was here. 

Stevie had been giddy in the studio all day, but tensions were high. Lindsey wanted to do a double album and no one else was budging. 

"Why can't we do this?" Lindsey asks. He's getting frustrated. 

"Lindsey, we think all these people that are our age are just going to come out of the w-wall and say, oh you know I'm just going to start buying music again. And in fact, they're not laying around on the floor smoking dope thinking about what the next record they're going to buy is.  They're trying to deal with delinquent children, they're trying to figure out how to pay the rent next month, or you know how to pay for their house. How to put their kids through college, they are not...the first thing on their mind is not...oh my God I have to get billboard and see what the next record is. So we have to sell records to between...10 and 27 years old, that's kind of who buys records now. SO, they're not going to buy a double record. They're not going to get how deep it is and how serious it is, how multilayered it is because music now, the music business is so fragmented you know the quick cuts on MTV and everything is just...so you don't even think. They're not going to buy twenty-two songs on a record from people who are in their fifties. It's just not going to happen. SO personally, I even if I really really believed in a double record would say it's not good for my band." Stevie states. And it's true, she knows that. She's turning fifty-five, Lindsey just turned fifty-four. it's not what's best for them. 

"On a hypothetical, if somehow the band had become unified and said this is what they wanted to do, would that be a deal-breaker for this thing, and Tom said no."  Lindsey fires back. 

"People have families...I ha-," Karen clears her throat. 

"I mean I don't but you guys do, you all have children. Brand new families and houses that you're building." Stevie picks back up. 

"That's why we're looking at the numbers to see what that really means. You know, I'd eat hundreds of thousands..I'll eat a fuck of a lot of money to be able to put out something I want to put out, at least to have it included. Of course, it's just my opinion, but I am producing it, and I am engineering it. I've got a lot invested in this. And I also, if you haven't' noticed I am so thrilled...I don't even wanna. It'll just make me cry." 

Stevie just sighs and walks out of the room when Lindsey turns back around to the mixing board. She heads into the kitchen to start something, she doesn't know what...but something. She pours herself a glass of iced tea and when she goes to grab something else she sits it on the counter, only to spill it all over herself and the counter. 

"Oh..Dammit." She states grabbing at some towels. 

After she gets the floors cleaned up and the counter she pulls her sopping shirt away from her body and bunches it up in another dish towel to try and semi-dry it.