Fourth Chair
Chapter Eight
By Missy
TITLE: Fourth Chair
PARTS: Eight of Undetermined
RATING: PG-13 for one adult reference and one mildly salty word; use caution.
DISTRIBUTION: To LW, FG and Kai so far; any other archives are welcome to ask, but disclaimers must be included, my email left intact. send a URL, and provide full disclaimers as well as credit me fully. Please inform me if you are going to submit my work to any sort of search engine. Â Please do not submit my work to a search engine that picks out random sets of words and uses them as key words, such as "Google"
Please contact me in order for this story to be placed on an archive, or if you want know of a friend who would enjoy my works, please email me their address and I will mail them the stories, expressly for the purpose of link trading. MiSTiers are welcomed! Please do inform me that you'd like to do the MiSTing, however, and send me a copy of the finished product. I'd also love to archive any MiSTings that are made of my work!
CATEGORY: SOL
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FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne and Lenny's daughter may be a great cellist in the making; one whose intelligence makes them feel both blessed and mystified. Can they possibly let her go to New York alone?'
For Chesh
****
Aria studied the mixing board in front of her with muted concentration.
"This one," Her father said, "Makes the treble go up. So if you press this-" He turned on a tape, and a squeal of guitar filled the air. "Sounds bad, don't it?"
He had made her laugh, which was more than she had done in weeks. He patted her hand gently.
"Now, ya move this here...and this here. And you press this." The smooth, even tone that came from the mix widened her smile.
"Can ya do that?"
Aria reached over the board, fiddling at the buttons. When she pressed the button, however, a squeal echoed through the room, followed by a loud cracking noise.
Lenny slumped against the panel with a groan.
"What did I do?" She wondered.
"Ya just blew a valve." Squiggy pointed out, handing her a cup of coffee before strolling into the booth to fix it. Lenny surfaced to see the chagrin in his daughter's expression.
"Sorry."
He shrugged. "Ain't yer fault. Ya don't know what yer doin'." He watched her black-painted nails tense against the coffee cup. "Aria, honey...don't ya wanna go to Interlochan?"
She frowned; "Daddy, we have been round and round on this; I said no!"
"I'm gonna die either way, princess."
The words shattered the peace inside of her. "Why must you make it so hard?!"
"Because I know what's good for ya! You know what is?! Goin' to that school! Learnin' how ta play! Bein' the girl I know that's inside of ya!"
"Like you an' Mom? You barely made it out of high school!"
Lenny shook his head. "Yeah, well, yer mom an' I spent two years lyin' on a roof smokin' weed. I don't want ya walkin' through my footsteps!"
"Why not?! You both had a lot of fun!"
"But it made us both okay with wasting our time! That's wrong, honey, it just is."
"You don't have a right to say what's right and wrong for me, daddy. Not anymore!"
"Then why don't you go to Interlochan?! It'll get you away from me-"
"STOP IT!" She screamed suddenly, collapsing against the weight of his words.
He stopped. He waited.
"What if you die? What will I do if you and mom die?! Who would I have left, huh? Who would take care of Christian?" She turned to him. "You didn't see mom fall apart when you had the heart attack; She couldn't live without you!"
"Yer mom's the strongest girl I know. Ya know that ain't true!"
"It was!"
"Damnit! Listen, you're gonna have to learn to get along in this world alone!"
"Like you did?! You're not grandpa, daddy?"
And then he did something shameful. He made a threatening motion toward his daughter.
She ducked out of the way, moving toward the door.
"Where're you goin'?"
"Out!" She yelled, without looking back.
When an oblivious Squiggy re-entered the studio, his best friend and goddaughter were both gone.
To Chapter 7
To Chapter 9
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