"Miss Matthews, the Backstreet Boys are in conference room 3."
"How long have they been here?"
"Only about 5 minutes."
"Okay, I’m on my way. Thanks, Lucy."
Monday morning. Ten o’clock. They were here. And Indigo was shaking. She was beyond nervous. She was petrified. Fortunately for her, she worked well under pressure. She walked down the short hall between her office and the conference room, so calmly that no one would have suspected that her every nerve, every instinct, was commanding her body to turn and run away. But not this time.
"Good morning. How’s everyone doing today?"
After the usual chorus of replies had gone around, she continued, "Did everyone get my message?"
Brian grinned, "Yup. We all brought our journals with our songs in them."
"Perfect. I’ve got mine as well." She sat at the table between Brian and Kevin. "Now, what I’d like you to do is to quickly flip through your book and fold any pages that you don’t want to be read." All the Boys promptly did as asked. "Okay then, now that you’ve done that, pass your book to the person on your right."
Nick passed his book to Brian, who passed his own book to Indigo, who passed hers to Kevin, who passed his to AJ, who passed his to Howie, who passed his to Nick.
"All right. You are now dismissed until 1pm."
Howie looked confused, "What?"
"Everyone is to leave and go someplace private to read their respective books. You can use any of the unoccupied rooms in the building, there should also be a few open balconies and you’re welcome to venture out in the city. There are only two rules: 1)Go alone, and 2)be back at this room at 1pm." She passed around yellow Post-It Notes™ to everyone. "Mark the songs you like with these, and photocopy those when you’re done. Any questions?"
Kevin shook his head, "None."
"Good. Be fair and open minded. Enjoy."
After receiving their instructions, the guys filed out of the room and into the city. Three hours later, they reentered the room, journals and photocopies in hand.
Indigo was there when they arrived. "If everyone could please sit in the seats they were in before." After taking a moment to figure things out, the Boys did as asked. "Okay, first of all, thanks to everyone for coming back on time. Did everyone get their copies?" Everyone nodded yes. "Good, now, take out the Post-It Notes™ that you have in the journal. I’m passing around this folder to all of you. As soon as it comes to you, put in the copies of the songs you’ve marked."
After a few moments of flying pieces of sticky yellow paper, the folder had made its way around the table and back into Indigo’s hands. "Okay, now I’d like you to pass the journal that you have, again to the person on your right." The procession went as it had earlier, only this time, the person ended up with the journal of the person two seats to their left. "All that having been said and done, you are again dismissed, until 4pm. My suggestion is to go to a different place and if you didn’t before, please stop somewhere, take a break and grab a bite to eat."
Again, they filed out of the room and found new places to peruse the new material. And once again, 3 hours later, they filed back into the room. Each put their photocopies into the same folder and removed the Post-It Notes™ from their assigned journal. Indigo buzzed her secretary and asked her to come to the room. She appeared a few moments later.
"Hey, Lucy, do me a favor and print out 5 copies of each, remove the duplicates and put the originals on my desk when you’re done."
"Four o’clock on a Monday, Indigo."
"I know, I’m sorry, but please?"
"Be glad that you pay well. Otherwise…" she teased.
"Of course, Lucy." Once she had left the room, Indigo turned her attention to the guys. "Is anyone thirsty? There are a few bottles of water if anyone wants them." It turns out, everyone needed something to drink, so she brought each of them a bottle of Poland Spring. "So, where’d everybody go to read?"
Howie welcomed the conversation, "I went to the top floor in this building and I found one of those vacant balconies you told us about. The view up there was breathtaking. High enough that you could see a lot of the city, but not so high that you spent the whole time trying to figure out how much it would hurt if you dropped a quarter on someone’s head."
"30 stories will do that to you."
"I didn’t realize this building was so big."
"Yeah, it is pretty big isn’t it?"
"Indi, how’d you ever get started working as a producer?" Howie asked innocently. The others looked at him sharply until Indigo began laughing loudly.
AJ turned to look at her, "What’s so funny?"
She choked down her laughter to mere giggles to answer him, "The four of you looked at Howie like each of you were the Pope and he just committed each of the seven deadly sins when all the poor man did was ask me a question." The Boys shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Indigo looked from face to face and sighed when she came to a conclusion she didn’t like. "Okay, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this, but it looks like it’s time for the talk."
Brian loudly mock gasped, "The talk!"
"Sorry, Indigo, but my dad sat me down a long time ago…" Howie smiled.
"Look, seriously, I know this all seems a bit…scientific right now, but if it makes you feel any better, this is how it always goes, especially when I’m working with a client for the first time. You should also know that after all the discussions we’ve had about ‘the past,’ we can’t sit here and ignore it now. It’s obvious you guys are unsure about this so let me tell you now: You have open season on questions. Ask me anything. But do that knowing that I won’t answer everything. Ask me a million questions about what I’ve been doing since I’ve moved here. Make references to things we’ve done in the past, it’s okay. But the last thing I want is to disappoint you as artists. A certain amount of…friendship…camaraderie…is needed in the studio, so, no barriers. Got it?"
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"Understood."
Indigo let out a deep breath, "Thank you." She was saved from further sermon-giving when Lucy came back to the room, requested copies in tow. She handed them over to Indigo and then left to begin getting ready to leave.
"Okay, guys, here you go, I guess you could call these songs our semifinalists. These are the songs you’ve all picked out as viable for a successful record. You can take these home tonight and look over them at your leisure. Any questions?"
Kevin looked around and answered for all of them, "Nope."
"Great. All that said and done, would you like to know what the next couple of weeks are going to be like?" Every head at the table bobbed up and down, some more enthusiastically than others. "Well, sometime this week, I’d like to meet with each of you individually, to get a feeling of what you’re expecting, what you want, what you don’t want, ideas that you may have that you’re not necessarily comfortable sharing in a group setting. Then, we’ll pick a song from the selection you have in front of you. All we’re doing tomorrow is discussing the material, perhaps deciding what kind of song you’d rather do, edgy, romantic, whatever. Picking a final song will take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, as long as you make it take. I don’t like rushing things, and I hope that you’ll welcome a change from your normally hectic pace." She paused a moment. "Questions?"
Nick spoke directly to her for the first time since he’d seen her, "What will actual recording be like?"
Momentarily fazed by the shock, Indigo took a moment to recover before speaking. "Once we’ve got a song, the group decides what instruments we want in the background and overall sound. After that’s been decided, the music is laid down. Then through individual and group sessions we’ll lay down the vocals. During this period, we’ll meet from time to time outside of the studio to discuss what we think of where the song is headed, possible changes we could make etc. But this doesn’t mean you can’t bring something up in the studio. Think of it this way, you are all the producers. You are also the artist. You have every say. Any other questions?"
"None."
"All right then, I think we can call this a day. Is anyone busy Wednesday or Thursday?" A few calendars and electric notebooks came out of pockets and a minute later the general consensus was that everyone was available.
"Perfect. When you come tomorrow I’ll let you know about your individual appointments with me. I’ll see you guys then."
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{
Dear Journal,
I’m so tired but I can’t sleep. Now I remember why I bring this book on tour even though I hardly ever write in it. Do you know it’s been 5 months since my last entry? And that was about three lines long. But tonight looks like it’s gonna be one of those nights where your brain just fights your body and won’t let you go to sleep till you resolve all your issues. Remember when I used to make five-page entries? And how every one of those was about this great girl that I had lost just when I thought I was the king of the world? Yeah, well, she’s back and I can’t sleep all over again. She seems to have that effect on me.
I was around Sky for a total of only about half an hour for the entire day but I’m still completely wired. I feel so many different things going through me all at once that I think I could explode. And this is just the first day, what am I going to do over the next couple of weeks? When we came back to the conference room, the second time, and she was giving me a bottle of water, there was this one moment, when she was right next to me, and I was painfully aware of the fact that she still wore the same perfume, and she was smiling down at me, and it was perfect. That moment was literally perfect. I’m laying here in this empty hotel room and if I close my eyes just right, I can imagine that we were never apart, that her smile was always mine and so was she.
But that wasn’t even the highlight of my day. You see, we had a lyrics meeting today, and everyone passed their journal/notebooks to the person on their right and then it got passed on to a second person after that. Anyway, to make a long story short: I GOT INDIGO’S JOURNAL! You cannot even begin to imagine how I felt when I realized what I held in my hands. It was like treasure. This just might have been the answer to every question I had agonized over for two years. Here was my opportunity. Before I had just found a park bench to sit in while I read Kevin’s stuff. But this time had to be different. I wanted to go someplace where I felt like I could connect with her; just see her, feel her spirit in my surroundings. So, I went to Battery Park and I sat where you could see everything. Staten Island, the ferries, the city, New Jersey, the water, the statues, just everything that I knew she loved. And as I’m reading, I swear I could see this change, this transformation in her personality, her outlook on life. There are no dates, so I can’t place exactly where one phase ends and another begins. But there was this one poem that I read, and I loved it so much that I made an extra copy of it for myself. In a way it’s pessimistic, almost like giving up, but there’s also this spark of hope in there that almost makes me wish this poem was about me. I’m going to leave it in here for safe keeping. Safe keeping. I wonder if my heart can fit in here, too.
Please know that I love you
Yet I never expected to hold onto a spirit as strong as yours
But before you ride off into the sunset
There’s a thing or two I think you should know:
You made me feel like Cinderella
Under your loving eyes, I became beautiful
Like metamorphosis
Caterpillar to butterfly
I never wanted to love you
It didn’t make sense to give my heart to the temporary
That’s how special you are
You made me feel what I tried to deny
I owe you one
Through thick and thin you’ve stood by me
Blessed me with your presence
Graced me with your love
You’ve made me stronger
Your support has made me independent
Never have I believed in myself more
My will higher than the highest peak
I trusted you
An emotion hard to come by
You searched for it and fought for it
You won it, gained it, hold it in your hand
I understand
Beautiful birds were made to fly
To soar high above the clouds
Past endless night
My love for you burns forever
You are my one true love
You’ve shown me the way
Set brightly lit candles along my path
I will not wait for you
You and I were not made to last
Soul mates destined to separation
Eternal loves blindly and unwillingly kept apart
I will love again
Though never as wide
Never as deep
Never as strong
I will never forget you
May no one take your place
An impossible feat
To follow in the footsteps of everlasting love
I will not wait for you
I will love again
I will never forget you
I will always love you
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