| Suspended Ages |
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| The days trickled by him and he was still in his dazed stupor. Not even talking with his mother had helped him sort out his feelings. He was surprized his mother had taken it as well as she had, even pointing out the fact that her parents were eight years apart in age, and it never bothered them. Still, he knew there was a stigma attached to age differences in this day in age. And especially for him it would be worse since most of his life was publicized. It just wouldn't do to drag down such a lovely creature into the murky depths of the seemy underbelly of the bussiness he was involved in. Most certainly if he persued her that was exactly what he expected to happen. He tried to put her from his mind, it just wasn't as easy as he'd hoped. Every morning her eyes haunted him from his dreams and he had to shake himself awake before he was lost in their depths. Every day he lingered amongst his thoughts, sifting out words and phrases as they drifted through his mind, melding into a melody for 'Mel'. Each night he had to fight his urges not to succumb to her temptations in his imagination. It was pure living hell. Relief was studio time. Mind numbing, soul wrenching, body sweating... anyway it came, studio time was his escape. It had been a long time since Zac had shown that much intensity in the studio and Tay and Ike wondered just what had gotten into him, but left him alone, not wanting to upset the apple cart as long as he was pouring out so much passion. It was like smudging mud on gold to disturb him. He worked late nights, was in the studio long before anyone else, already hard at work before Tay had his first cup of life. It was during one of his now infamous marathon sessions that he was tinkering with a little melody on a piano as he waited for a technition to mend a spliced cable when Ike walked in and heard it. He stopped, holding out a hand to stop his babbling brother that was walking along behind him and drew his attention to their little brother. Slow and quiet was a ballad that slid off his fingers, dancing over the ivories and his subtle hum indicated that there were also words that went along with the mystery melody. They listened until a rude cough interrupted them all and a deep voice announced, 'all yours now Zac.' Zac looked up, a grateful smile his thanks and rose from the piano bench, heading toward thie drum kit once more for a few more attemps at laying down the track he'd been working on. It was then that he noticed that he'd been caught by his brothers. Their mouths slightly agape at the tenderness of the tune. It was a rareity that Zac showed his sensitive side, and even rarer that he wrote a song by himself, especially a ballad! "Zac!" Ike almost scolded. "You've been holding out on us! Not fair little brother. How come you haven't shown us that? It's beautiful! I'd love to hear the words. Is it finnished?" Ikes barage of questioning was just what Zac had been avoiding for fear of them making him spill it all. His secret would be revealed and then he would loose that secret muse that flitted through the folds of his mind and urged him on to inspiration. "Can we just get back to work now and forget all of that please?" He tried, knowing full well that they would do nothing of the sort. "Man, I can't believe you!" Tay started in on him. "Here we've been arguing about stupid stuff like doing covers or recording one of our old numbers to fill in a needed ballad space on the album and here you are holding onto that? That's so unfair Zac, not cool at all." Tay scowled. Zac only sighed to himself and tried to cover his ass. "That's not really anything worth persuing... it's not really fitting for the vibe of this album." He tried. Ike shook his head, comming further into the room and setting down his coffee before taking up the extention of his soul and stumming a few notes. "You don't really expect us to believe that now do you Zac?" Ike asked, his eyes not leaving the frets of his instrument. Zac only glowered at the back of his brother's head. "Is it written down?" Tay asked, totaly ignoring the fact that Zac had yet to relent. Tay was just taking over, sitting at the keys Zac had vacated he started to peck out a few of the notes he'd heard his brother play. Zac just sighed. He knew he'd been defeated. Tay always just took over like that. He thought that maybe he could just give them the song and not have to spill his guts. He thought of himself as a pretty good acter. Maybe even good enough to fool his brothers. In the back of his mind he not only doubted that, he knew it was just not gonna happen. Of course they would know everything in the end... they always did. For the next week Zac and his brothers invaded the studio every day and pounded out a solid song form the bits and peices that Zac had spun for a certain woman of forbidden status. Every time either one of his brothers would ask about how the song was created or where the inspiration came from he would deftly change the subject. He was getting pretty good at it too. But it just wasn't to last. The week of finals. A hectic week for his classes. He was grateful that he only had two that year and he was looking forward to his upcomming sabatical. He had a pretty sweet deal struck with the university, they were willing to deal with his sporadic tenure just for the sake of being able to boast a real celebrity as one of their teachers. He didn't mind, and he didn't mind the piddly amount they paid him either, he just loved to teach. Even the hard ass slackers, teaching was reward enough, the pay was just a perk. He was pretty sure a few of his students would be failing his class, and he always felt terrible for them, tring to get them to work harder. Sometimes, it just wasn't enough, nothing seemed to help them. But he was very proud of one of his students in particular this year. Bridget Penman. A wonderful woman with a warm sense of humor. Hard working, honor student. She was someone that deserved everything she worked for and so much more. He was proud of her, she had come so far from her childhood in the ghettos of Calafornia. She was gong to make a wonderful teacher. He was proud to call her friend. He was in his office at the university when a soft knock came at his door. He looked up and smiled when he met those familiar dark eyes. She smiled back a bit sadly and he rose quickly to escort her into the small room, shutting the door behind her as she took the seat he silently offered. "What's the matter Bridget? Is there something I can do, to help you with?" he asked concerned as he took a seat beside her. She sighed heavily, he could see she was fighting back tears. He lay his hand on her shoulder gently and she looked up at him. "Professor Hanson, I just don't know what to do or where to turn. I don't know why I came to you, I don't know if you can even help but you said if I ever needed anything I could come to you..." She started. He reached for a box of tissues on the corner of his desk and held it out to her. She took it gratefully and swiped at a few tears that had bgun to fall. "Why don't you start from the begining? I'll try to help you in any way I can, you know that." He soothed. She sniffled and nodded, her shoulders sagging defeatedly. He reached out and took up her long dark fingers and held her hand to calm her. She sighed again, trying to gain her composure and pushing her long black hair back. "I don't really know if you can help, but here goes anyway." She nearly whispered. He squeezed her hand to let her know he was there for her. She gave him a weak smile and squeezed back as she began her tale of woe. "Well... Katrina, that's one of my housemates, she's dropping out of school. Her mom has cancer and someone needs to take care of her, and she's been taking care of Katrina's little boy so she could go to her classes. So that means that we have to find a new person to take her place since she's moving back into her mom's house." Zac nodded, she continued. "Not so easy, but most likely do-able. I just found all of this out last night. Then I went into work this morning at the cafeteria, and I found out that because of budget cutbacks, the government program that pays me to do my job, is eliminating one of us. So that means that one of us gets canned and it's up to us to choose or so says my boss. And Mel and I both need that job to be able to stay in school so how the hell do we choose which one gets the axe? And what makes it worse is Mel is my other housemate! If we loose that job we won't have time to find another job and go to classes and study for finals too! We'll be evicted and then neither one of us will be able to stay in school and I'll be damned if I'm going back to that dungeon my parents call home. And I know Mel won't accept defeat and go back to Bixby. She really can't stand her step dad, he's a monster! " She cried quietly, her vehement words fading into silence. He sat and tried to digest all of the information she had just poured into his head. Trying his best to ignore the fact that he just found out where Mel lived, and that she lived with one of his favorite students, he fought to wrap his mind around the dilema that could spell disaster for too many lives. What the hell could he do? There had to be something, he could not let so many lives spin out of control all for lack of money, it was ridiculous! His gears were grinding trying to come up with a solution to help out the poor frightened woman before him. What a waste it would be if Bridget couldn't finnish school, and Mel! What of the beautiful muse of his mind? He certainly could not let anything bad happen to these women, he needed to find some way to help them... but how? "Bridget, I'm so sorry to hear of all of these troubles, and I want you to know that I'm going to try to do something, anything to help you get out of this. I can't see you not finnish school. You are too good a student to let slip through the cracks. You were meant to be a teacher, I just know it, and I'm going to do everything I can to see to it that it happens. The world needs more teachers like you. Children of the future depend on it" He drew her into a hug and held her for a moment. Then he pulled her away and looked at her from arms length. "You give me a couple of days and we'll come up with something. I promise." He stated with conviction. He smiled at her to try to soothe her frazzled nerves. "Ok?" He asked, waiting for her to answer. She nodded a bit and he smiled wider. "Good. Now you go to your next class and try not to worry so much ok? Zac is on the case!" He joked, pulling a bit of a smile from her. She wiped at her face and tried to pull herself together as she gathered up her things and rose. "I can't thank you enough Professor Hanson, even if you can't help me after all just being able to get it off my chest made me feel a bit better knowing that someone cares..." She couldn't finnish her thought and he hugged her again, knowing how hard it was for her. "It's gonna be ok Bridget, you'll see. I promise." He said rubbing her shoulder as he opened the door for her. She nodded and stepped out of his embrace and into the hall, turning to give him a brave sad smile. He smiled back and waved her off. She headed toward her next class and he watched her go, her head hung and an aura of doom over her. He sighed heavily then closed the door, leaning against it. Now what? He wondered. But he didn't ponder it for long because he too had a class to get to. He'd have to mull it over at home he decided and grabbed his satchel and flew out the door realizing that he was going to be late. The next day he had no classes so his time was taken up in the studio. But he just couldn't concentrate with the problems of Bridget hanging over him Several times Ike complained about the lack luster prefomance his brother was putting forth before Tay finally just threw down the kidd gloves and laid it on the line. "What the fuck is your problem today Zac? You've been spacey all day and you've hit more sour notes then when your voice changed! What gives?" "What do you mean? So I'm having an off day. Not like you don't have plenty of them yourself you diva!" Zac snapped back. "Zac, he's just concerned, we both are." Ike tried to soothe Zac's ruffled feathers. Zac sighed realizing he was taking his frusterations out on his brothers and it was unfair of him to do so. "I'm sorry guys. I've just got a lot on my mind is all." He swiped a hand over his face and ran his fingers through his long hair. "Well maybe it would help if you talked about it instead of barking at us." Tay not so gently suggested. "He's right you know." Ike backed him up. Zac knew he was defeated and he also could sense the impending riot that was to come when he let it loose. He really didn't think he could hide his little secret much more. But he hung onto hope and tried to avoid the inevitable. Deciding that it was pointless to try to continue in the studio the trio headed out for a hole in the wall bar they frequented. A couple of pitchers of beer and a sandwich or two later, it was pretty clear that the brothers were hunkering down for a heart to heart. Theresa, the regular waitress knew the signs well and prepared for the tornado that would soon follow for certain when they got tipsy. They always did, it was predictable and even despite all of this, they were still her favorite customers. "Now my boy, since we've seen to it that you have been properly liquered up, it's time to spill those guts." Tay joked. But underneath, all three knew there was an unspoken seriousness to his demand. And so, Zac began from the beginning. The trouble with Bridget... |
| thanx for read'n! Z-ya! |
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