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They said the music wasn’t real, that it was all created by my dysfunctional brain

They recommended therapy and medication To this day, I still don’t know if nosis because she hated the idea of taking me out of Ellis twice a week for therapy, or because she believed lad she didn’t let those doctors try to medicate the ate my life I use it to picks and people whose tunes best co my own little symphony of friends And it helps me read people’s emotions based on the shifts in the tones they put off I use s and findthat I can hear when I a very, very still

That’s the real reason I want to rehearse in the grove I want to be wrapped inside the grove’s song, and add e that leads to the grove on the set offof tall poplar trees, which border the grove They ree to the heavens Srove, creating a thick canopy of darkness--even in daytime--that must have been what kept others away Norrove’s ainst a poplar tree and then settle onto the ground with ely shaped laurel tree that re fork: the way its trunk is split in the uitar fro I need three songs for the audition this afternoon Two of the on what to do for the third Should I choose one of s so the , in addition to singing? Or should I stick with popular songs that everyone will know and feel connected to?

I guess I could sing Joe’s star song, since it would cover both options That bitter thought trickles through my mind before I can stop it I shake away a flood of additional thoughts that try to break through the floodgates I’ve already lost too

I run through several voice war I wrote for uitar, and then start it again This time, I join in with my voice after the intro

The laurel tree I lean against see hureater life as I sing, sending the echo bouncing against the branches and leaves of the trees The aspens create a quaking, clattering rhythonflies buzz, and even the wind feels as though it is keeping har hair aroundextraspecial about this place before I’d entered I could tell by the way it had called out towith nature as my audience, but I’d never before had nature join in with me like this

Perhaps this experience really is a symptom of a dysfunction in my brain--but there’s no way I would classify it as a disorder

I stop playing the guitar abruptly The grove quiets in a way that re the next note I sing the last line of the song without the guitar accompaniment, while the trees reverberate around les up rove falls silent again Followed by the sound of a very real gasp …

I ju Gibby Soh I can’t see anyone, and I know I hadn’t irove is still quiet--too quiet Shouldn’t it have taken up its own song again by now? What is it waiting for?

"Who’s there?" I ask

Only silence answers, but I know I’ in the bushes Marta said that they couldn’t get past the security gates, but I’ure out how to sneak past the guards Maybe this one had gotten wind of Joe Vince’s prodigal daughter and was looking for a photo op?