Elodie and Heloise

by Cecilee Linke

  “The key is that you have to keep writing,” Shannon would reiterate. “You know how many stories I wrote when I first began writing that were utter crap? A LOT. The only way I have become a successful writer, or rather novelist, is because I kept writing. You have some good things going for you, ma fille. You have a very distinctive, throaty and booming voice that serves you well for the songs you’re writing. You just have to keep writing and practicing and you will get there.”

  As an impatient sixteen year old, it frustrated Elodie at times that she felt she wasn’t improving. So it surprised her when she played a song last year for her mother and she got her first bit of all-around enthusiasm from her, when her mother told her that if Elodie ever recorded that song, she would want a copy of it. On hearing her mother give her such praise, Elodie felt truly smart for the first time in a couple of years, like there really was more to her than just makeup and clothes.

  “Though I, um, have to tell you,” Elodie’s voice began to gush as Duncan’s face came into mind, “I saw someone else today at the park that I think you might remember. Remember Duncan Matos from when we were kids? He’s back in town and he was walking the family dog today. I had no idea they were back and he said he didn’t even recognize me without my glasses.”

  “Really?” Shannon looked surprised. “I knew they moved away but I didn’t know they came back here. That’s great! You two got along so well whenever he came over.”

  “You could say that.” It seemed as if every bit of blood in Elodie’s body immediately rushed to her face at that moment as she flashed back to their conversation that afternoon and their memories together as kids. “We got to talking and we’re going out next weekend. I can’t, I can’t tell you just how excited I am to see him again.”

  “Well it sounds like you had a very interesting day indeed then!”

  All Elodie could do was nod, her face still warm and red from thinking about Duncan again.

  "Go on ahead and practice. I'm just finishing up a chapter for my next book and I don't mind having something besides silence to listen to." Shannon smiled and turned back to her computer.

  A huge smile broke across her face. Elodie shut the door quietly behind her and eagerly walked across the room and picked up her guitar and slung the strap over her head. She loved how smooth it felt in her hand, her beloved red glittery guitar that she had dubbed Cerise, the French word for cherry. She placed her fingers on the neck of her guitar to form the D major chord and ran her fingers over the strings, the chord resonating through the room.

  “Lovely. One of my favorite chords.”

  She sat down in her usual corner chair, opened her new songwriting notebook on the ottoman in front of it, and began her warm-up routine. Her fingers flew over the fretboard as she warmed up by playing major and minor scales. As she plucked each string and moved her fingers up and down the guitar neck, Elodie looked over the words she’d written just that afternoon. After Duncan left, Elodie’s head buzzed from the conversation she’d had with him and she couldn’t leave without writing something down about it. Since the lyrics were only a first draft, various lines and stanzas were crossed out on the page, with new verses and ideas written in the margins. It looked like a mess but Elodie could read it without much difficulty.

  She placed her fingers to form her favorite chord and began a fingerpicking pattern. Elodie closed her eyes and took in the sounds coming from her guitar, the first line of her new song running through her head. It was her usual method of songwriting to begin with a chord and start singing any melody that came to mind.

  “You made me feel..... like sunshine,” Elodie’s throaty voice whispered, her voice resting in the lower reaches of her range. She continued the same pattern, trying out different rhythms for that first line. “You.... made me feel like..... sunshine. You made....me.....feel like sun.....shine. You.... made me..... feeeeeeeel..... like sunshine.... And you made..... me feel like..... like a bird....”

  So it continued. Within ten minutes, Elodie had a rough draft of a melody and chord progression for the first verse of her new song. She felt immensely proud of herself. She started the song again from the beginning, practicing her melody and words and getting more and more confident with her singing as she went along.

  Suddenly, Elodie stopped playing so she could go back to the beginning and play the first verse. She felt she had practiced it enough that she could at least perform the first verse without looking at her paper, so she started the verse again, her eyes closed in concentration as each syllable and note flowed off her tongue.

  At the end of it, Shannon interjected from across the room, “Sing that verse again.” Her eyes were still fixed on her computer screen, but she paused her typing.

  Elodie closed her eyes again and took a deep breath.

  You’ve made me feel, like sunshine

  You’ve made me feel, like a bird

  All I need to hear are your words

  And all I want to do is make you mine, mine, mine

  ”And that’s all I have so far.”

  “Keep going, keep going.”

  Elodie responded with a giddy nod and continued playing around with her chord progression and the rest of the lyrics she’d written. It didn’t take her long to come up with a very rough draft of a song. Forty-five minutes must have passed between Elodie coming into the room and that moment when she had a partly finished song. After focusing so much on writing for the last two years, it did not take her as long to write a song.

  “All right, here’s the rest,” she announced.

  “I’m listening.” Shannon paused her typing.

  It’s been so long, since I last saw you

  It’s been so long, you didn’t recognize me

  Coming back to me, a million and one memories

  Of a love that I held, but you never knew

  And I’m reliving every little day

  From the day that we met

  ‘Til the day you moved away

  Now that you’re back

  You’ve made me the happiest girl

  And I can’t wait to see you again

  You’ve made me the happiest girl

  And I can’t wait to see you, see you, see you again

  You’ve made me feel, like sunshine

  You’ve made me feel, like a bird

  All I need to hear are your words

  And all I want to do is make you mine, mine, mine

  And I’m reliving every possibility

  Of what could happen

  Between you and me

  Now that you’re back

  You’ve made me the happiest girl

  And I can’t wait to see you again

  You’ve made me the happiest girl

  And I can’t wait to see you, see you, see you again

  As she closed her eyes, she pictured herself singing every word on that park bench to Duncan, each note filled with the emotions she didn’t even realize she still had for him anymore. She was sure that she had hit a few flat notes as she sang through the song, not to mention she forgot a chord change somewhere in the middle, but she continued on until the end.

  When Elodie opened her eyes, she watched her mother’s face, awaiting her usual critique. “Excellent. Wonderful. I did hear a few parts in the middle-”

  “Yeah I know. It’s just a draft, but you get the idea.”

  “Definitely. Elodie, this is one of your best ones in a while. Seriously. You’re spot on with the verse melody and the words flow together well. You might want to work on the chorus a little bit, but I think you’re at least 80% there. And you know that I’m being brutally honest with you.”

  Elodie grinned widely and felt her face grow warm again.

  “You know, I was at the grocery store yesterday and I saw an advertisement for an open-mic night at Rockin’ Coffee next Saturday night. It must be something new, because I haven’t seen any fliers about it before.”

  Elodie raised her eyebrows. “Oh really? I didn�
�t know they had those here in town.” Her giddiness at having written a wonderful song started to fade into something that she wasn’t sure what it really was. She rose from her seat to put her guitar away on its stand in the corner of the room and returned to her seat.

  Shannon nodded. “And you’ve been playing and singing so much recently and you love being in front of people, so I think you should give it a try. I think you’re at the point now where you can play your music for other people and they would really enjoy it.”

  “Wow, an open mic night here.....” Elodie’s voice trailed off as she imagined herself on the small stage at Rockin’ Coffee, just her pretty self, Cerise, and a crowd of potential adoring fans all listening to her music. Her mother was certainly right that Elodie loved attention and having people look at her. And she would love to share her love of music with the world.

  Then something more negative set in: what if someone from her school saw her there? The mere thought of it made her stomach drop. She had an image to keep up at school, and since she was a part of the in crowd and everyone knew who she was, there was no doubt that someone she knew would see her and then tell the entire school about her musical ventures. She couldn’t let anyone see that she was actually smart. It was far too risky.

  “I-I’ll think about it,” was all she could bring herself to say. There was no way she could hide the disappointment in her voice.

  Shannon looked confused. “Whatever you decide, ma fille. I’m surprised because you always seem to enjoy being the center of attention.....”

  “It’s hard to explain. Thanks for telling me, Mom, but I don’t think I can do it.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  With that, Elodie opened the door to the study room and left as quickly as she could. She waited until she was out of the room before she decided she couldn’t hide the tears in her eyes anymore. Papa had gone to bed and Heloise was probably out on a date, since their bedroom light was not on.

  She stalked over to her bedroom and closed the door as quietly as she could. Then she stood against the bedroom door and cried like she had never cried in her life.

  Chapter Twelve

  The early April night was filled with a crisp spring coolness that surrounded Heloise and Kyle as they walked outside, two figures with their fingers entwined as they joined the crowd of young people spilling into the night. It had been another evening spent in the warm darkness of a movie theater and Heloise had found it even harder to concentrate on the movie than usual. As soon as the lights went down, Kyle had leaned over to put his arm around her with a smile, so Heloise spent most of the movie with her head on his shoulders while Kyle rested his head against hers. Even with a stupid romantic comedy like the one they watched, Heloise couldn’t pay attention as she was so close to Kyle.

  These last few months spent with Kyle had thrilled Heloise beyond words. It was the first time she’d ever had what felt like a real boyfriend, even if they hadn’t gotten beyond kissing on the cheek and hand-holding yet. She wasn’t even sure what to even call him. She was content to take things slow so she could enjoy their relationship, even if it did make her feel envious of other girls at times. Even if she and Kyle were doing something mundane like their homework, she didn’t care as long as they were in the same room together. She enjoyed his presence, knowing that he was close by for a quick chat or a laugh.

  A gradual change happened in Heloise as she attended gaming night with Kyle and his friends. Sometimes they would play a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, then other times, they would play Risk, Small World or other strategy games as they sat around drinking caffeine drinks and eating junk food in Kyle’s family’s basement with the television on in the background. Heloise understood the rules of those games very quickly, having played many chess games with Papa growing up. At first, she would simply sit in the corner and watch them play while Kyle explained the rules. Heloise was hesitant to join in since she didn’t know anyone else but Kyle and thus she didn’t feel completely comfortable around new people. Fortunately, he understood her hesitation. He didn’t seem to mind that she’d prefer to simply watch. As long as they were in the same room together, it didn’t matter. He would occasionally reach for her hand under the table and give it a squeeze or reach over and give her a peck on the cheek, all to her obvious delight.

  One Friday evening, Heloise sat down in Kyle’s basement watching the guys set up a game of Risk and sipped on a soda. Game nights usually consisted of Kyle and three of his other friends, Alan Reese, James Gordon, and David Ramsey, all of them fellow students at their high school. Alan was the scrawny guy from the group, a wiry brunette who stood about a foot over Heloise and thus looked intimidating, but actually wasn’t. His strength was in memorizing all the intricate rules and exceptions of every game they played, so much so that games would often last for hours as he argued with everyone over the rules. James was a rather nondescript dark-haired guy with the makings of a beard on his chin and was usually quieter than the other guys. Short, red-haired David reminded Heloise a little bit of Kyle, in the way that he would hang back when meeting new people but once you got to know him, he would open up more. As a result, she and David got on well, trading jokes as she watched gameplay and helping to explain the rules of the game to Heloise.

  “So we have how many people for Risk?” Alan queried as he set out the game board on the table.

  “We got me, you Alan, David... James?”

  “Nah,” James responded. He was sitting on the couch watching a reality television show with a Mountain Dew can in his hand, looking perfectly content to veg out in front of the television.

  “Count me in,” Heloise suddenly piped up. She’d spent weeks just watching them play and spending time with Kyle by proxy, so she was eager to give the game a try.

  “Awesome, we have some female blood now!” Kyle responded with a wink.

  “And no need to explain the rules. I got it.” She found herself beaming with excitement as she helped the guys place the game pieces on the board. She placed herself to Kyle’s left, with James across the table directly from Kyle and Alan across from Heloise. As everyone else set up the game, Heloise began plotting out a strategy in her head as she had done so many times when playing chess.

  That was the first night she ever actively gamed with the guys and even though she wound up in second place, with James as the winner, she was ecstatic. By the end of the game, she was joking and talking with everyone like they were old friends.

  Another one of their favorite things to do together was cooking. This was the domain in which Elodie felt the most comfortable. Kyle admitted that he’d never been great at cooking, often saying that he was lucky if he could even boil water properly, but after seeing Heloise cook so many meals he decided to give it a try. So that evening started off with dinner at her house: creamed tarragon chicken and herbed potatoes, her favorite recipe. It was a simple enough recipe that Kyle easily followed along, even if he did have to be reminded by Heloise to cut the potatoes up a little bit smaller.

  “They’re not supposed to be huge chunks,” she pointed out. Kyle had simple cut the potatoes in half and then halved them, leaving chunks of potatoes about three inches long and wide all over the cutting board. “Mmmmmm, make them about half the size they are now. And remember, don’t be afraid of the knife. You’re holding it like you’re holding Excalibur or something.”

  “But don’t you know I was King Arthur in a previous life?” Kyle joked with a wink.

  “Haha, very funny. Here.” Heloise came over to Kyle and stood behind him, placing her right hand over his. Standing so close to him, she could smell his cologne. Probably something Old Spice like the kind her father used on nights out with her mom. It was almost enough to make her dizzy from standing so close to Kyle, but with a knife right there at her hand, she needed to pay attention.

  As she wrapped her right hand around his, she could feel the tension in his hand as he gripped the end of the knife as if his life depended on i
t.

  “Here, loosen up your hand.”

  He loosened his grip, but only slightly.

  “No, loosen up even more. Don’t go all flabby, but you don’t need to be gripping it so hard either.”

  His grip loosened much more.

  “There, that’s much better. Now take your thumb and index finger and place it just above the grip. Like this.” She demonstrated what she meant, positioning her hand above Kyle’s as he followed her directions. She shivered at the touch of his hand for only a moment before returning to the task at hand.

  “And you’re going to cut the potatoes like the wheels of a train.” She took the knife and pushed it through the potatoes in a downward motion before bringing the knife upwards toward her. “Now you try.”

  Kyle placed the knife in his hands, putting his thumb and index finger on either side of the blade just above the grip.

  “See how that’s much more comfortable?” she asked.

  “It still feels a little awkward, but you’re right. It is more comfortable. I’m just so used to holding it the other way.”

  “That’s how a lot of people hold it actually. So you’re not the only one. Now try cutting.”

  Kyle picked up a large piece of potato and put the blade through the potato in a downward motion, but forgetting to come back up like Heloise had demonstrated. The large piece of potato now lay in two smaller halves on the cutting board.

  “Close enough. Just remember to come back up. You want to cut through the potato like this.” She picked up another knife and demonstrated for him, moving the knife down and then back up, just like the wheels on a train. “You’re getting there.”