HIS music. The music that he and his band mates had written together. Jordan’s soaring piano parts and gut wrenching lyrics, Logan’s heavy bass lines, and Caleb’s “nuevo- primitive” drum beats to accompany his electrifying guitar riffs. Jordan had taken her cues from their father and started writing the melody to the music that the boys spit out first, then came the lyrics and the piano part. She had started playing with a new arrangement of “The Night” over the last month for the hell of it. “Because it’s fun and I want to see if I can arrange it with a piano part because it’s fun”, she said with a laugh. Malachai had rolled his eyes. But he pushed that thought aside as he and Jordan waited for Logan and Caleb to arrive.
“Hey, Jordan”, he said.
“What up?” she said as she took a drink of water.
“Let’s get your voice warmed up real quick, then I have an idea for a song I want to bounce off of you.”
“Ok.” She started playing her vocal warm up and sang along warming her voice up so that she and Malachai could work. “Alright, ‘Chai, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Malachai played the riff that had been running nonstop through his mind. “What do you think?”
“Play it again, ‘Chai”, she said after cracking her knuckles and wiggling her fingers a moment. As Malachai played the riff again, she started playing the piano along with him and humming a melody. The melody was reminiscent of “The Infection”, but when she started singing, she the words that came out were NOTHING like the lyrics to the song it mimicked. They were more haunting and even as they played together, shivers ran up Malachai’s spine. When Caleb and Logan arrived, they automatically got set up and joined in. After the song ended, and the last cords rang through the studio, Malachai grabbed his phone. “Dad, can you and Mom come down here real quick? You two have to hear this for yourselves”, he asked David when the call was answered. “Alright, thanks. We’ll see you in a little bit.”
Moments later there was a knock on the basement door, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Soon, David and Brie emerged from the stairwell. “You called, Malachai?” Brie said, folding her arms under her breasts and leaning against the wall.
“Mom, you and Dad have to hear this. It’s magic”, Malachai said, then looked at Jordan. “You ready, sis?” She nodded and he counted them off. He and Jordan started playing together, Logan came in next, and right before Jordan began singing, Caleb pounded out a few beats on his kit.
Jordan’s eyes closed as she sang the song they’d just written, the melody reminding David of one he’d written years before, before Jordan and her twin brother had been thought of. He reached out and pulled Brie against his side so that he could hold her as they listened to their daughter sing. Naturally, she relaxed under his touch. After the song ended, David looked at Jordan. “Where did you come up with those lyrics from? Did you just make them up on the fly?”
“Actually, yeah. They just popped into my head. When Malachai called you down here, I was about to open up my bag and pull out my laptop. I was going to type the lyrics real fast, then see if I could borrow that software you have on your laptop to that I can put all the stuff bouncing around in my head to some form of music writer or something.”
David laughed. “I’ll show you how to use that software later and I’ll help you load it onto your laptop. Is there anything else?”
The kids all shook their heads. “No, we pretty much got it from here. I just wanted you guys to hear that magic we wrote on the fly”, Malachai said.
“And it was just that, Malachai”, Brie said, “it was magic.”
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As they went back to the living room to finish watching the documentary that Maddie had to write a report on for her history class, David and Brie paused. “I wonder where she got the ability to write off the top of her head like that”, Brie said as they crested the top of the stairs.
David shrugged nonchalantly. “I have NO idea. Certainly wasn’t from me”, he said, blowing off that comment.
“Bull shit, David. We both know better shit than that.”
He laughed. “I know. Thought I’d try though.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to his wife’s lips.
She smiled and kisses him back. “You’re a horrible liar, David Draiman.”
“Good thing I’ve got someone like you to keep me in line, huh, Brie Draiman?”
She playfully smacked his ass. “Am I that harsh a mistress, babe?”
He laughed. “Are you kidding me? You’re the WORST! You make me have to be more than I ever planned on being.”
“Good, that’s what a REAL woman does to a man. We make you the weakest you’ve ever been and stronger than you ever dreamed of being.”
“And what is it I do for you?”he asked, his hands sliding along her hips as he pulled her closer.
“You do the exact same thing. You’ve been with me through thick and thin, and having been with you for almost 15 years now, I know you’re not going anywhere. It doesn’t matter how hard things get.” Her arms slid around his neck.
As their lips brushed one another’s, Maddie came into the hallway where they stood. “Mom, Dad, we all love you and we all know that it’s very rare that you get time alone during the day what with ten of us kids under your roof, but I kinda need your help on this history paper. There will be plenty of time for you two to screw after I write my paper.”
They couldn’t help it, they laid their heads one each other’s shoulders and laughed. “Ok, Maddie Jade, we’ll be right there”, David chuckled.
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“Your Dad really loves your Mom”, Caleb said out of the blue.
Jordan and Malachai both blinked at him. “What?” they asked in unison. The two of them and Logan looked up from the work they were doing. Everyone was supposed to be hand writing out their part of the new song. Jordan was calling it “Deliverance”.
“I couldn’t help but notice it while we were playing the new song for them. The way your Dad’s so affectionate toward your Mom and how she’s just as affectionate back. It’s cute to watch this big hard rock star go soft for someone like your Mom.”
“What do you mean, someone like their mom?” Logan asked.
“I mean, she’s not into that whole rock star life style. Sure, she enjoys the house, but only because it’s big enough to hold her huge family. Her wedding ring is small in comparison to other rock star wives. I can see what attracted him to her. Hell, if I were older, I’d give it a shot if she weren’t taken. She’s his rock, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, and he’s hers. There were times during the war that Uncle David would need a little reassurance or a piece of advice and she was the first person he looked to. In between Maddie and the quads, Aunt Brie had a really bad miscarriage and Uncle David refused to leave her side. When they received word that her brother had been arrested and was to be tried as a spy, he stayed right there beside her when she had hysterics.”
“Wow, you guys saw a lot during that War, huh?”
“We were in hiding, bouncing from safe house to safe house, Caleb”, Jordan said. “Until the War ended, I knew nothing BUT that lifestyle. I hate to sound like I’m being a bitch, but you don’t know shit about what we saw during the Utopian occupation.” And with that, she stood and headed up the stairs toward the main part of the house. She needed to blow off some steam before she continued to work the rest of the afternoon.
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