Their Lost Sound

A note from the author (SPOILERS)

If you've made it this far, I'd firstly like to thank you for having read my story, and hope that you've enjoyed it. The following is a note, or letter, from myself to you, the reader. 

If you have not yet read the story 'Their Lost Sound', that precedes this letter then I would advise against you reading on. 

I know that the mark of a good story is that there is little justification, or explanation required from the author. That being said, there are a couple of things that I feel I may need to explain (maybe it isn't a good story after all?) just to clear up some confusion that may have arisen from the story. In light of this I will probably return to edit and help polish the story so that the need for such a closing note is redundant. (For now, maybe think of this as one of those YouTube videos titled, "So what really happened in 'Their Lost Sound", OR, "'Their Lost Sound' explained").

The primary inspiration for 'Their Lost Sound' came from a song called 'Jungle' by a band called Panama. I sincerely recommend you listen to this (and all of their music) because it's not only incredible, but may help give you an extra flavour of the story.

Now on to the content and story itself. This is where I will effectively give you a blow-by-blow account of the story (in case I left you thinking "WTF have I just read"). I'm reluctant to write this as I don't want to come off as patronising in any way (I hate it when writers/filmmakers do this, so I apologise if it seems like that here), however, given that the story jumps around a bit, and features some scenes which are memories and some that are hallucinations, it may be helpful. 

Anyway, here's what is effectively a summary of 'Their Lost Sound':

- Tom and Kat are a couple, they have been friends since childhood and Kat is slightly older.

- Kat suffered from poor mental health, and having felt like there was no way out for her, decided to end her life by walking out into the ocean during the party on Piney Beach.

- Tom, found her clothes on the beach, but did not manage to reach Kat in time, and following the discovery/recovery of her body he ran away from home in the car she gave him (we begin the story here, with Tom driving and listening to the radio).

- Tom arrives at the Motel, where he initially was going to stay for one night. (NB: the telephone exchange with Kat, was not "real", rather it is a combination of his memory and a hallucination at the same time. The lines Kat speaks are one's she truly did say when she left a series of messages on Tom's answer machine as revealed later in the story).

- Tom's stay at the motel extends to years and, when Tom leaves, it is the motel owner's son who now runs the motel.

- Tom meets Mona and gives her a lift without realising he is headed back to the town he ran away from years ago. (In this scene Tom is actually an old man which, on second reading, armed with this knowledge, hopefully gives it a different meaning).

- He then returns to Kat's house where he discovers the Priors (Kat's family) have left and the house is for sale.

- Tom moves through the house and goes to Kat's bedroom where he discovers it has been left untouched like a shrine to her memory.

- On Kat's bed is a cassette which Kat left for him the night that she died. The cassette is a recording of their song, on which Kat has taped over a kind of spoken suicide note to Tom.

- Tom listens to the note and, realising he has now grown old, reflects on the lost years of his life and the future he and Kat could have had together.

Hopefully that just about "unmuddies" any waters. If there are any additional questions about the story, let me know in the comments, or shoot me a DM.

As always, I'd like to thank you for reading my work and allowing me to take you on a journey with this story.

Keep smiling,

Nick