“Can’t do any harm,” muttered Jake, getting to his feet. “We still on schedule here?”
“A bit behind but nothing we can’t catch up on.”
Glancing at the board, Jake saw all the empty squares and recognised just how far behind they actually were. Drums were tracked for every song on the board but there were only five bass tracks completed. The guitar tracks he’d laid down the day before were crossed off but Jake realised that he couldn’t go too much further until Grey was back in the studio.
“Half an hour,” he said wearily. “If I can get these three tracked between today and tomorrow, are we free till Monday?”
“Could be,” agreed the producer, looking over at the calendar on the control room wall. “Leaves four weeks to finish the rest.”
“We’ve done more in less time,” noted Jake philosophically.
“Yeah, but there were four of you then.”
The words were out before Dr Marrs realised what he’d said.
“Yeah there were……” said Jake as he walked out of the door.
The school parking lot was busy when Lori arrived to pick up Melody. Squeezing her SUV into the last remaining space, she heard her phone chirp in her bag. Having pulled on the parking brake, she reached for her cell, hoping it was a message from Jake. He’d been on her mind and she was concerned that his migraine would still be plaguing him out at JJL. She smiled when she saw the message was from her husband.
“Migraine’s suck. Struggling. Will be home by dinner. Love you. J x”
“Want me to run out with your meds? Lx” she quickly typed back.
“Got them. Not helping, Love you. J x”
As the school bell rang, Lori sent a short emoji message in response – a sad face and a love heart. Just as she went to place the phone back in her bag, it chirped again.
The message wasn’t from Jake.
It was from an unknown number.
Her hands trembled as she read, “I’ve fucked your rock star husband.”
With tears in her eyes, Lori blocked the number then stuffed the phone in her bag as she hurried to collect their daughter.
“Who could be sending these?” she wondered as she crossed to the meeting point in the schoolyard.
An hour sitting outside in the shade had helped to alleviate the feelings of nausea but Jake’s head was still fuzzy as he re-entered the studio. The lights were dimmed and Jim had turned the temperature down a few degrees in an effort to help.
“Jake,” called out the producer as he reached for the live room door handle. “I owe you an apology.”
Shaking his head, Jake said, “It’s cool. You’re right. There were four of us then.”
“And to an extent there still is,” countered Dr Marrs cryptically. “I’ve updated the board.”
Entering the studio with the band’s producer behind him, Jake’s eyes sought out the whiteboard. Several more squares under guitar related columns were either crossed out or at least had a score through them.
“I don’t understand,” began Jake, confused as to what the update meant.
“The turquoise lines are Rich’s parts,” explained Dr Marrs. “There’s still a few I need to work with from those files but I’m confident that the others are ready.”
“Paints a much prettier picture of where we’re at,” admitted Jake, gazing at the turquoise marks. “When you see it like that, it is kind of as if he’s just been recording when we’re not here.”
“Not sure it makes any of this any easier for you, buddy,” said Jim, placing a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “But I had to try something. He’s on twelve out of these eighteen songs. This is his record too. He’s still with you on this one. Just out of sight.”
“Thanks, Jim,” replied Jake, feeling a wave of grief building inside. “I like that way of looking at it. Helps.”
“Glad to hear it. Now, you feeling up to tackling some tracking here?”
With a weary smile, Jake nodded.
The red hues of a stunning September sunset were streaked across the sky as Jake left JJL on Thursday night. Over the two days, he’d managed to get five songs done instead of three, making him feel a little more in control of the band’s progress with the album. He’d exchanged a few messages with Grey and Paul and, among them, they’d agreed Grey would come in for three days the following week to lay down more bass tracks then three the following week to finish the rest off. If need be, he could come in extra, but Grey sounded confident that he could get the remaining songs tracked in five days. Finally, the three of them felt optimistic about finishing on schedule.
The producer had agreed to give them the weekend off, promising to work on the partially completed “Rich tracking” and also to see if anything else fitted. There was still a ton of music to be tapped into among the files Rich had left behind but, so far down the line, Dr Marrs advised that they not amend the tracks too much just to squeeze in extra segments of Rich here and there. They all agreed that the unused files could be their “memory bank” for future projects.
There was a fall feel to the air as Jake walked round to his truck, just that little hint of a chill. He slung his two guitar cases into the back seat then tossed his book bag into the passenger seat. He’d promised Dr Marrs that he’d re-write a couple of the solos over the weekend and be back out at JJL first thing on Monday, ready to put in a long day. As he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine, Jake was planning his weekend out in his head. While the kids were at school and daycare on Friday, he
