London Harmony: Minuette (7 page)

I couldn't help but return her mischievous smile and I paced into the lobby toward the stairs.  She followed and sat at her desk, crossing her legs demurely at her ankles.

I was halfway up the first flight when I paused.  Wait... her transition?  I peeked down over the railing at the woman who was so poised and elegant.  She was transgender?  Well her transition went very well indeed.  I smiled to myself and darted up the rest of the stairs, happy she could be the woman she knew she was inside.

After cleaning the area and dusting the SmartCanvas unit I sat down at the computers and looked around, then I copied the Minuette track from my mobile to the computer, then I put it on one of the thumb drives in my bag.  Erasing the track from the computer.  I looked around for some reason, just paranoia most likely, then I pulled out my silver permanent marker and wrote an M on the drive and placed it on Fran's desk.

I sat back and listened to all of the tracks in order again, with all the missing tracks on my mobile and started to type out the words I could pick out of the Phantom Melodies from the ones that Fran didn't have.

It would take me a bit to get even just one complete melody, then I'd only have the words, not the accompanying music.  Maybe that's why I gave Fran one.  I wanted to hear it just as badly as she and June did.

When she returned it was pretty humorous.  She hung up her coat and came over to the desk and froze.  Then she bent and moved around in front of the thumb drive with an eyebrow cocked.  Then she crouched.  Keeping her distance like it were a trap, or it would snap at her.

Then she looked up from her prize to me.  I couldn't help but grin at the silly look on her face as she nudged her thumb toward it, still crouched over.  “Thumb drive.”

I nodded. “Indeed.  All those college classes are paying off.”

She chuckled, snatched it up, and said as she pointed the drive at me.  “You're finally loosening up and getting playful.  It's nice to meet the real you.”

I blushed then she prompted me, “I know it's a thumb drive, but where did it come from?”  She was plugging it into her computer.

I shrugged. “Remember my friend I told you about?”

She nodded and said, “Mindy.”

I put my hands out, palm up.  “There you go.”

She licked her lips in anticipation and then cocked an eyebrow.  “You said she didn't record the number.”

I'm such a muppet sometimes.  I nodded. “She didn't but this was on her car.”  Lies, lies, all lies.  She did record it and we don't have a car.  I mitigated my lies a bit. “Well, my father's car.  We borrow it at times.”  Oh hell, why was I babbling about cars?

She chuckled. “It's ok Nett.  Let's have a listen shall we?”  I nodded and moments later the space was filled with Mindy's unique piano music.  It thrummed inside me, in harmony with my heartbeat.  If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine Mind was playing just for me.

Before long Fran was humming along to my voice singing the tune, so I hummed along with her.  She got cute and modulated her humming so that we were in harmony.  Was it wrong that I was having fun?

When it was over, she copied the track to the folder that held all the raw tracks and shot off an email to Bear with the track attached.  She looked at me and said, “He's a whiz and will have the Phantom Melody isolated within a day.”

I smiled in anticipation.

Then she added, “I'll have Zil cut a bounty check for Mindy.”

I shook my head. “No, she wouldn't want it.”

Fran paused to regard me for a moment then slowly nodded.  “If you are sure.”

I nodded then got an idea and blurted, “Why not give it to the Flotilla Project charity?”

Her smile bloomed as she nodded at that.

We sat and listened to all the phantom melodies again as they formed a song.  Francine looked pensive.  “I think we need to work fast.  There won't be much more.  I hope she continues with something new afterwards.”

Ok, now that was confusing.  “What do you mean?”

She played the last bits she had. “Feel the change just there?  And the repeated line?  It is sounding an awful lot like a tag to me.  The Phantom Melody is ending.”

I cocked my head as I listened.  Bloody hell, she was right!  Well of course she is, her life is music here at London Harmony.

I felt cold and hugged my arms to my chest, the song was coming to an end?  After years of creation?  Mind had another one in mind for after this, didn't she?

Fran asked with genuine concern, “Are you alright Annette?  You're shivering.”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and then forced a smile on my face as I opened my eyes again.  I nodded and we went back to work.

I suddenly had a million questions in my head for Mindy that I was afraid to ask.

The next couple weeks just dragged by and my contract with London Harmony had to be renewed.

Two people came forward with missing tracks to collect the bounties.  The only ones missing now were the first three that they did not know about.  When we listened to the whole thing it even felt incomplete without the ending.

June had come up to listen and she even shook her head.  “That isn't all of it.  It feels as if we came in the middle of something.  I think there are some older tracks that we are missing.  The whole beginning of the song is not there.”

Did I mention just how scary smart these women are?

It was a treat to watch June and Fran listen to the tracks, they would both close their eyes and dance and sing along, adding backups and harmony to each track.

So the bounty was upped to two thousand pounds for any Minuette track that June didn't have.  She was a woman on a mission and money was no obstacle.  I had to wonder why she was on such a crusade.  I finally asked, knowing it might cost me the temp position I never wanted, “Why are you so determined to find her?  She obviously doesn't want to be found.  Can she make you that much money.”

Fran froze and June paused to study me as she formed her response.  I couldn't tell if she were upset or not.  Then she smiled.  “I don't care if we make a single penny on the deal.  I just want to share her music with the world.  Something so beautiful and inspiring, filled with that much emotion shouldn't be hidden away in a corner someplace.  It should be shared, to make it something bigger than itself, give it a life of its own.  People deserve to hear her music.  Even if she never steps out of the shadows and we present the music anonymously like my early J8 music.”

I almost felt ashamed for thinking this was about money.  I just looked at the superstar in wonder and blinked, then said sheepishly, “That's a pretty good answer.”

She chuckled and Fran joined in.  I blushed and wrung my hands.

June placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.  Then headed toward the stairs.  She pause before going down and looked back.  “It's Thursday Night.  You and your friend...”  She thought then asked, “Mindy?”  She nodded to herself then disappeared down the stairs.

I turned my confusion to Fran.  She beamed at me and said as she turned to work.  “She likes you.  She just invited you to our weekly family gathering on Tabby Cat's Water Witch tonight.”

I blinked.  Tabby Cat?  Oh good lord, how do I get this stupid smile off my face.  This just made her grin.

“So that's a yes?  We'll see you tonight at...”  She typed on her computer and looked at a sunset table.  “...around eight?”

I nodded dumbly and mumbled, “I'll ask Mind.”

She looked satisfied as she said, “Good.”  Then moved over to the SmartCanvas.

I followed.  Since there was nothing to do on the Minuette front for most of every day, I had been assisting her with loading up more titles on a server to test cloud streaming of music from various artists to the unit instead of using onboard memory.  She explained that that would give them virtually unlimited catalogs instead of only twenty or thirty titles.

I had asked once, “How exactly does that work, is there some sort of...”

She had cut me off with a silly nose crinkle. “I don't know.  I think it is some sort of black magic Tim has devised.  Fairy dust and elves or whatnot.  All I know is how to operate the beast.  Tim does all the testing remotely from the States.  That and I have to record thousands of intros.  It will take me a year to catch up.  I can only record about a hundred a week.  The evil man and June won't let anyone else record them.  I think it is my penance for coming up with the idea.  It is how they punish me.”

I had chuckled at that, especially since I could tell she absolutely loved doing it.  It had something to do with Natasha who seemed amazed by the machine and spent every second she could when she visited here to operate the unit.  I noted she always closed her eyes when she did, her hand on the screen.  One day I'll get up the nerve to ask about it.

I assumed the additions to the unit were the wireless communications modules to allow it to stream the music and data to create the faces of the musicians and tactile streams of music on the metamorphic screen.  That was a heck of a lot of data.

Fran had shared that each track contained over two and a half gigabytes of information as opposed to a simple MP3 file that averaged around five megabytes.  You could pack five hundred MP3 files into the same space as a single SmartCanvas file.

She absently handed me a list and I started typing at the console as she listened to her intros that they had sent up from downstairs.  She screwed up her face. “It is always weird hearing your own voice.  It never sounds like it does in my head.”

I chuckled and said, “You mean with too many long words that most people don't understand.”

She exploded into a surprised laugh.  “There you go!  We're getting through that shell of yours.  Nice burn.”

I blushed, I was feeling awfully cheeky just then.

I kept typing with a grin on my face, then paused.

She glanced over and asked, “What is it?”

I shrugged.  “Nothing, it's stupid really.”

She rolled her eyes. “Out with it.”

I exhaled in defeat and explained, “I just realized that this is the longest anyone has ever kept me employed. I never quite... fit in... with my ummm... idiosyncrasies.  And this is the one job I didn't want, you sort of, made me take it.”

She crinkled her nose with good humor and said, “It is... unique... people that make up our entire family here, so you fit right in.”

I was sort of sad that the day was rapidly coming when I wouldn't be working here anymore, either by choice or getting sacked if they ever learned the truth or finally gave up on finding Minuette.  I did more work here organizing things and truly becoming Fran's Girl Friday, than Minuette work.  I really did like it here and especially liked all the odd people.  The quirks of the people around us were endearing, and I enjoyed them all.

Fran smiled at me, then pulled up her email.  She squinted and just asked out of the blue, “Can you sing Nett?”

I blinked at the question and asked carefully, “Why?”

She wiggled her eyebrows and said, “No reason.  You seem to really enjoy music, I hear you humming along all the time but you never sing.”

I just buried my chin in my fists and shook my head.

She grinned and said, “Don't worry about it.  Well, come on down to the iso booth, you can watch me flounder a couple intros for SmartCanvas tracks.  Maybe we can mock one up for Minuette to show her the results once we locate her.”

The silly look on her face was priceless.

I nodded timidly then we headed toward the door.

As we walked, she started saying, “Five, seven, four, ten.”

I lost track of my count and shot an incredulous look at the far too smiley woman as I had to turn around and start over again.

I said in a mock accusing tone, “You're supposed to be the nice one, Small Fry.”

She just chuckled all the way down the stairs with me down to the second floor.  The 'recording' light went out on the larger sound room.

I haven't seen the inside of that one yet.  I mean it was always occupied when I pass it, but I have never seen inside it or who was recording.  I am intimately familiar with the other one as Fran drags me down to watch her in the little isolation booth when she needs to re-record an intro for a SmartCanvas track.

The door swung open as we approached and a group of people walked out.  They were all moving in a tight group.  I blinked twice as my smile grew when I saw the short girl, with obvious Asian heritage, who had a guitar slung over her back.  She had only one arm.  This was one of the house bands, the Purple Horseshoes, and that girl was their lead guitar.  She looked around at the others as they discussed heading out and said, “Someone needs to feed me.”

The girl with the drumsticks in her back pocket, who had her finger in Mei's belt loop, said as she looked down at the woman with love in her eyes, “Of course, we wouldn't want to see you die of starvation or anything now would we?”  The others laughed as the group paused when they were in front of us.

A tall woman with dark hair, dressed in black leathers, shot us a suggestive smile and she pointed at her cheek.  “Give us some sugar, Small Fry.”

Fran squeaked, “Hi Mick.”  She stood on her tip toes and gave the woman a kiss on the cheek, did Fran just blush?

Ok, now I was blushing as this Mick girl looked down at me with a hungry look on her face. “Who's your blushing friend?”

Good lord, that was a suggestive look if I ever saw one, she had a dangerous edge to her looks that combined with the smoldering look she was shooting me, which turned me into a puddle.

Fran slapped her shoulder. “Tone down the 'drop your panties' look Mick.  Annette here doesn't have any defenses against you yet.”

This got a chuckle from the others then Mick dropped the come hither look and looped an arm with the man beside her.  She crinkled her nose at me. “Sorry mate, was just funnin' ya.”

I swallowed and nodded, then Fran said, “Everyone, this is Annette, my assistant.”

I was her assistant?  I smiled at that as she continued, “Nett, this is Michalea...”  She stuck her tongue out at the tall woman and continued, “Mei, Kacy, Caroline, and Animal.  The Purple Horseshoes.”

I gave a tiny nervous wave then went pale as a sheet when another woman strode out of the sound room.  Bloody hell, how do I breathe?  I forgot how!  Someone help me!  That copper hair and matching eyes gave her up even if I didn't recognize her face instantly like I did.  It was Tabitha Romanov!  I think someone squeaked out, “Tabby Cat.”  Oh wait, it was me.  I sounded like a bloody git of a fangirl.  Wait, I 'was' a bloody git of a fangirl.

It was bad enough I worked in the same building as another superstar, J8, but now to see Tabby Cat just walk out of a room.  It was too surreal.  I believe my mind was yelling the correct thing in my head.  Squee!

She tilted her head at me and grinned and offered her hand and said with a slight Russian accent.  “Tabs, please.”

I shook her hand and her smile started to grow as I just kept shaking.  She prompted me with her eyes to say something.

Again I squeaked out, “Tabby Cat.”

She looked up like she was thinking then shook her head with her eyes full of humor. “No, I think that is my name.  What is yours?”  The others chuckled.

I let go of her hand and blushed profusely.  I was making an exhibition of myself.  Fran bumped her hip hard enough to make Tabby bump into Mick and chastised the artist, “Can't a single one of you be civil and not pick on my assistant?”  She shook a finger playfully at the copper haired pixie who was beaming a smile at her.

Then she said, “This is Annette.”

Tabby went to take a step to me but made a glurking sound as Mick pulled her back into a reverse hug.  Tabs grinned and said in a playfully strained voice like she was being crushed, windmilling her arms in the air, “Sorry Annette.  It is a pleasure to meet you.”  Mick grinned and released the woman.

It struck me as something unexpected how everyone seemed to treat each other like family here, including the artists, not as professional colleagues.  I was really getting to love London Harmony.

I managed a lame, “Hi.”  Smooth Annette. Another woman came out, leading a young man, no... he held himself like a boy younger than he looked.  He was clasping his hands together in front of him, rocking forward and back as his eyes locked on some point in space that only he could see.

The band got animated as Kacy put a hand up as he passed by.  “Great show in there James.”

His face became more animated a little as he raised a hand absently to high-five her.  All the other band members high-fived him as he passed, saying things like “Good show, mate.” and “Brilliant as usual.”  Even Tabby Cat.

He and the other woman got to us, and Fran held up both of her hands, fingers splayed and James actually smiled a tiny bit as he raised his hands and they clasped hands for a second.  She had his attention and she said, making sure to trap his eyes when they went to wander, “James, this is Annette.”  She moved her eyes toward me and his eyes followed as she released his hands.

I put out a hand. “Pleased to meet you, James.”

He didn't seem to acknowledge it as he rocked.

Tabby reached over and grabbed my wrist and held my hand up high.  James gave me a high-five and the woman with him smiled at all of us and lead him toward the stairs.  I froze when he mumbled to the woman as they started down the stairs, “Phantom Melodies.”

Bloody hell, had he recognized my voice?  How?

Fran looped arms with me and dragged me along.  She called back to the others, “No rest for the wicked.”

We got murmurs of goodbye and Fran looked at me as we went into the other sound room with the small isolation booth.  She nudged her chin back at the door and said, “James is one of those hidden diamonds, music wakes him up and he has the voice of an angel.  We contract with him and his sister to sing backup on occasion.”

I smiled at that and looked back at the door and she asked, “You know the backup harmonies on J8's, ‘Music in Your Eyes?’”