Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse
Prince's POV
The next several weeks were a blur for both Prince and Bella. They would get together in the morning, would have breakfast and then go out for their Walks with Jesus. Thereafter they would work on their individual areas of responsibility. Often they did not meet for lunch due to Prince needing to work with Sandalphon on chord changes or other instrumentation as related to the Angels vocals or because one of the dancers needed individual attention to get a specific part of the choreography ingrained in both their minds and muscle memory. Sometimes they were able to have dinner together, sometimes not, but the outcome from the effort was outstanding. Rehearsals of the General Choir went well with almost all of those participating knowing their parts of Future Soul Song by the end of the 3rd week. That was right on schedule with Prince's action plan. This had been accomplished in part due to the way that Prince broke down each verse and taught the music initially. He would present the words and have the choir say the words in the proper cadence as if they were singing until they thoroughly knew the rhythm of each phrase. He would then teach the music by section, starting with the 1st Sopranos, then 2nd Sopranos and move through every section teaching their parts. This was greatly aided by efforts of the Section Coaches. They moved through their sections, listening to each voice and when someone was off standing next to them and singing the part so that the correct notes could be heard and copied. Once he was satisfied that each section knew their part, Prince would then put the voices together also section by section until finally all of the different voices were singing the entire verse. By the beginning of the 4th week He was working on articulation and phrasing as each section knew their parts for all of the verses and the chorus. It was critical that the words being sung be understood and that the Choir master the nuances of phrasing. Prince was very pleased with how Bella, Amiir, Samuel and Sarah had worked with their sections. He had seen not only a great desire to help, but also to learn how to vocally coach from them and their work had been exceptional. As they moved into the final rehearsal of the 4th week, Prince was certain that the Choir was ready to begin to combine with the Angelic Host and their harmonic sounds. They would be performing the Suite in 4 more weeks. Each rehearsal had to yield results if they were going to be ready.
Denise had started her Walks with Jesus as directed, but while only she and Jesus knew the content of their discussions little change was being seen in her behavior. Denise came to every rehearsal and sang, but clearly from her actions she had another mission in mind completely. In the beginning she had shown up a little early for rehearsal and tried to engage Prince in conversation. He, however was so busy with scoring changes for the Angels or nuance introduction plans for the General Choir that she rarely got more than a perfunctory hello. She next attempted to flirt with her eyes, both he and Bella noticed, and when that did not have the desired effect she would pout and look as though she was hurt. Finally, most recently, she would just stare directly at him while singing or while waiting for her part to be addressed. Prince simply did not pay any attention to her, but Bella began to think of her as dangerous. There was a reason she had joined the Choir and Bella knew that that reason was named Prince. She was simply looking for an opportunity or an in with him or Bella thought maybe worse. During her last visit with Mary, Bella had told her that she had a very bad feeling about what Denise was planning. She was obviously tiring of the coquette approach which was not getting the results she wanted. The blatant staring, and eye rolling often seemed angry and slightly hostile. Every instinct that Bella had said danger...but the only thing they could do was watch and wait.
One of the things of which Prince was most proud was how Bella had tackled and formed the shaping of the new Dance Ministry. Bella worked diligently with the dancers. She had decided in the beginning that the dancers would only dance to Future Soul Song. She shared with Prince that the vocals of the Angels coupled with the singing in the Ancient Language and the use of flight by two of the Angels presented enough visual imagery for that section. To add dancers would be overkill. Prince had agreed. Bella had discovered some wonderful dance talent in the auditions. One of the selected dancers had at one time danced as a principle in the San Francisco Ballet Company. She was exceptionally well skilled and trained and highly cooperative which made her easy to collaborate with. In two days the two of them had created all of the Choreography, blocked it out in the space provided and also created the solo for Mina to perform. Bella thought that she would make an exceptional Ministry Director when the time came. Both Prince and Bella were pleased with the way things were coming along. But Bella had to admit to herself that she missed time with Prince. She would not say anything to him of course unless she noticed his slipping back into not taking care of himself, but she did miss spending time with him. At least he was cutting rehearsals off on time and would come to her place on rehearsal nights to ensure he relaxed enough to be totally functional. As compared to his life on earth this was huge progress. She had gotten him into the habit of bathing after each rehearsal. After he dried off and put on his skivvies, she would massage him with lotion. He liked that a lot...but it remained the lullabies that allowed him to drift into sleep. She enjoyed cradling him and singing to him and he obviously was doing a lot better emotionally since they had begun.
Prince was very aware of the fact that he and Bella were spending less time together than he would like. She did let him stay at her place on rehearsal nights and what a comfort she was to him. On those days they would eat dinner together, but on the other nights he did the majority of changes he and Sandalphon agreed on and often Sandalphon was at his cottage to help. He missed her but was grateful that she did not complain because he was honestly doing all he could to spend time with her. The project was very demanding and they knew that going in, but this was the first time Bella had ever been though anything like this with him and so she could have gone off the deep end which she did not.
Prince had for the most part with Bella's help contained his hyper sexuality too. Despite the increased exposure to the Ancient Language, he had only pressed Bella beyond her tolerance level once. This was Paradise and he knew the rules and he was clearly out of order. Bella had told him he had to leave and he did albeit reluctantly. She had not let him come back to her home for 6 days, although she would visit with him at the Communal Gathering place for a meal or walk with him after rehearsals. Each day that he could not see her in private or kiss her or be in her arms was agony for him. He had determined he would do whatever it took not to be banished again. He was learning that the less he saw her the more aggressive he became, so he needed to get them back to a more normal schedule as quickly as possible. Once these rehearsals were over, he was going to do something very special for his Bella. It was important to him that she know how much he appreciated her talent, her effort, her loyalty and her love. He was a very blessed soul to have her...and she needed to not only hear that but needed to see that in action he had reminded himself.
Project wise, Prince was the most excited about being ready to combine the Angelic and General Choir singers. If they hit their projected targets within the next week, then the dancers would be added the following week giving them 3 full weeks to perfect performance and to do what Prince did best...tighten up the group over all so that they would be able to deliver an impeccable performance not only the first time...but every time Creation Song was sung in praise of the Creator. Each of those working with Prince on Creation Song was giving their very best. He was more than grateful and very impressed with their sense of team effort. He was seeing love for the Creator and for their craft in action and that was truly a blessing to his heart and contributed deeply to his happiness.