Page 96 of Musical Games
‘Great, thanks. You?’
‘Like a baby. You ready to go?’
‘Yes, I most definitely am.’
Sam was determined to make this work. She had no idea what ‘this’ really was, but she’d lost her job and any collaboration with Jamie was over. Brad was offering her a chance to start afresh in the place she’d been aiming at since childhood. She wasn’t going to let him down.
A short walk from her apartment was Kode, a small recording studio known for its laid-back vibe and the innovative musicians who’d passed through its doors. Happy she knew where it was, Mikey passed Sam to Crystal, who was waiting in reception.
‘Sam! You’re here! This is so exciting! Meet Cadence, she’s on reception, but if there's anything you need, she’s your girl.’
Sam shook the hand of a young woman who looked like she’d stepped off a catwalk. Like Crystal, her skin was flawless and immovable, her hair shiny and her teeth whiter than sunlight on new snow.
Standing next to them, Sam felt like she’d stepped out of a time machine from the Victorian era. She was suddenly acutely aware that her teeth weren’t bleached, her lips had the plumpness of a deflated Lilo and her forehead had more lines thanHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If she was a Dickensian heroine, she was more Miss Havisham than Estella.
‘It’s so great to meet you. This is the best day of my life,’ gushed Cadence like a fountain running on full-fat soda. ‘And working with Th. He’s sooooooooooo inspirational.’ She touched her perfectly manicured nails to her perfectly pert chest. ‘He touches me. Here.’
‘Th?’
‘Cadence! Shush!’
Her cheeks went a delicate shade of pink. ‘Sorry, Crystal, it’s just too exciting.’
‘Er, who is Th?’ asked Sam.
Crystal glanced around the empty reception. ‘Brad met him at an Ayahuasca retreat. He’s a water musician with direct links to Atlantis.’
‘And what am I meant to be doing with him?’
Crystal pulled out a document. ‘I need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement.’
‘Do you have a pen?’
‘Don’t you want to read it first?’
Sam shrugged. ‘I’m sure it’s just the standard stuff.’
‘You need to read page seven. It has a very specific clause.’
Sam ran her eyes over the text. She blinked and re-read, hoping the words would change. ‘Er, I’m not allowed to share details of this project by any form of telepathy including lucid dreaming, meditation, astral projection, or psychic possession?’
‘Uh-huh. Brad had one of his best ideas stolen from him during a gong bath, so we’ve had to add this to our standard NDA.’
‘So, if I sign this, you’ll tell me what I’m doing here?’
Crystal nodded and handed her a pen.
After Sam scrawled her name, Crystal sat her down on a red pleather sofa, and Cadence went back to reception and put on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.
‘Cadence knows a lot, but she doesn’t know everything,’ said Crystal in a low voice. ‘Brad’s invited you to be part of Project S86. It’s a docu-fiction film about the plight of the world’s oceans and capitalist consumer culture. He wants you to work with Th on a vocal and aural soundscape.’
‘Has he shot it yet?’
‘No, but he’s created a mood board for you to gain inspiration.’
‘What’s it about?’
‘A sacred spring in Florida is under threat from the construction of a golf course. A little girl makes friends with the manatees that live there, but her father runs the Wall Street firm behind the project and is determined nothing will stand in his way, not even his six-year-old daughter. It’s very moving.’
