I don’t know how I could do anything worse than what I did, but I’m up for a challenge.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Current Date: February 13, 2023

Character: Briar Taylor
Race: Human
Age: 28
Current residence: La Caye, Saint Lucia
 

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I know I’m not supposed to have favourites and, in a way, I don’t know that I can really call this having a favourite but Jack is just a great student. I’ve lost track of Joaline and I must say that it feels good to not have to worry about her. I’m sure she might still play but I don’t care to know; Jack doesn’t bring it up—he doesn’t talk much, especially not once we start playing—and I don’t ask. It works out well for both of us, I think.

There’s also something to be said about the fact that he’s been my student for a few years at this point. Nearly from the start of our stay here. It wasn’t easy at first but look at us now.

Most of the other students I have are usually either with me for just a few weeks—in preparation for a show, a concert, or an exam—or over the summer—as a sort of summer musical camp. I wasn’t fond of the idea at first, but I suppose I don’t mind so much, so long as the students that I have to work with are willing to put in the effort.

With that said, last year’s camp didn’t turn out to be so great. Mostly because nearly all of the kids that were scheduled to attend just didn’t want to, not in the way their parents were hoping. Most of them were new to the idea of music and they were being sent to this not-quite day camp for the summer because their parents wanted to keep them out of trouble.

Needless to say, I was glad to not be dealing with the lot of them on my own, I don’t know that I would have managed to keep my sanity intact, let alone the instruments that the school was letting us use to teach these kids.

Especially when on the afternoon of the first day, as their hours came to an end and we had just barely avoided one violin being broken by one student using it like a bat, I overheard the very student that had tried to use the violin for baseball, telling another one—a friend, perhaps—that they didn’t know how much worse they could do at this point. They’d already given it their best today with the violin but they were up for a challenge.

Let’s just say that I had to talk to the supervisors about this because I wasn’t going to let a destructive kid handle all of the instruments if their final goal was destruction. It isn’t just the fact that some of these instruments can be expensive, but simply because I don’t understand how anyone could be willing to act this way with things that don’t belong to them.

As it turns out, the kid wasn’t there the following day and I can’t say I complained about it. I did heave a sigh of relief and while it still was fairly rock and roll for the rest of the summer with these particular students, we made it work as best as we could. They were with us from nine or so in the morning until two in the afternoon; they had an hour for lunch and two twenty-minute breaks.

We had games that taught them about music without the use of instruments, and we tried to teach them, well, everything that was on the curriculum. At this point in time, have any of them remembered any part at all of what we taught them? I don’t know. One or two seemed truly interested in learning; others were just there because that’s where their parents had decided to drop them off and getting them to participate was hard enough on its own but we tried.

On Wednesdays afternoons, after I’d watched the last kid leave, or be picked up by their parents, I’d be joining Jake for another two hours of lessons and that sort of helped my week get better. It was like a small break and breath of fresh air right in the middle of the week and I needed it.

Now, I feel like it has to be said that I do love teaching music. I love the way it resonates with those who really do want to learn and while some struggle, they eventually do manage and if they don’t, most of the time, they move on. That’s just not the way that things work out with the summer camp but it is part of the job description and, maybe, one of these summers, I’ll get some kids that really do want to learn and they’re the ones who asked to be signed up.

I mean, I can dream a little, right?

Final Word Count: 795

When I put you in charge, I thought you’d be more competent than me, but I’m starting to see otherwise.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human
Age: 27
Current residence: La Caye, Saint Lucia
Final Word Count: 877 words
 

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I shouldn’t have been surprised when Joaline failed her entrance application into the observatory. She has talent, but her music lacked soul. I thought that would be the end of that since that had been the primary goal to their parents hiring me to tutor them but, after Joaline had sulked for a few weeks, I came back, and practice resumed.

Jack hadn’t tried and I hadn’t expected him to. He practised and played when I was there, but he did none of the after-class work and I just wasn’t surprised. He didn’t know what he wanted and, even now, not quite two years later, he still hasn’t fully decided on what he wants but he still plays. That’s the part that confuses me somewhat.

Joaline tried to blame me for her inability to get into the observatory, at first. She accused me of being incompetent, but her parents were adamant about keeping to me as their tutor. Those were her words, and I didn’t really take them to heart. There are a lot of things that went on in that little head of hers that I couldn’t follow, and I didn’t really try to, it wouldn’t have done me any good.

After her first refusal from the observatory, her behaviour reminded me of someone I’d gone to school with. A little before I met Makar, I’d been paired with a boy for a duet that, to nobody’s surprise, we had to work on together. From the get-go, he told me that he was leaving me to deal with setting up our meeting times and making sure we both got there on time. I reminded him that while I didn’t mind setting up our practice times together, I wasn’t going to chase him around to make sure he showed up. I put together a sheet of all the days I figured we should meet, gave him a copy and told him to keep track of it.

Because like hell I was going to try and find him on campus when it was time for us to meet up because he couldn’t be bothered to keep track of the day or the time. How he managed at all at the school was beyond me, other than very possibly rich parents that made up for every single one of his failures.

By the time we had to show up for the exam, he had missed more than two-thirds of our meeting times and I hadn’t done much more than remind him of the next meet up we were expected to have whenever we crossed paths—which, you know, was often, we shared a lot of our music classes. Clearly, it wasn’t enough. Thankfully, our final grade wasn’t so much on how well the final piece sounded, but on each of our performances on the piece itself and while he found himself with a failing grade, I managed to keep my head above the water, if you would.

The moment he had his grade, he blamed me for it. Told me that when he’d put me in charge, he’d thought I’d been more competent than him, but clearly, he’d been wrong. I faintly recall not even having graced him with an answer, it hadn’t been worth it. I’d reminded him more often than not about everything and he still didn’t bother.

Joaline complaining that I was an incompetent tutor sort of reminded me of that. Jack was indifferent to her first failure, and doubly so on her second one last year. After that point, I told the parents that while I still could teach her, I didn’t think it would truly change her chances of getting into the observatory. They then told me that she had stated no longer having any desire for playing and that this was that.

In a way, that was fine.

Except, not even a week later, they called me back, asked if I would be all right with the idea of coming back, but only to keep on tutoring Jack. That confused me, he’d never truly shown an interest, though he has talent in a way that amazes me and if he could see that, he could go far, but somehow, so they said, he was the one that had asked for me.

Our tutoring changed places, too. Instead of going over to their houses, we played at the music school. I hadn’t even known him to go there but I suppose it’s not all that surprising. There’s a lot I don’t know about these two. All I’d ever had to know was that I was there to teach them how to play the piano and while she had passion, she had no real talent, and while he had natural talent, he showed no true desire to learn.

The fact that both of them already went to music school was beyond my understanding but I guess that this is just one of those things. So, at this point, I’m still teaching him after-hours and he’s different now. It’s clear he’s still not set on what his future might possibly hold, but there’s something in the way he plays, and it leaves me to wonder if he wasn’t holding back because Joaline was around.

It’s all right, though.

If I tell you everything, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a secret?

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Terraphim – Swinging Pendulum
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human – Meta – Water
Age: 25
Current residence: Xiang Po, Terraphim
Final Word Count: 805 words
 

---

The book still baffles me. It has been two years and I haven’t made sense of it yet.

Now, I don’t mind that I haven’t made sense of it yet. I don’t actually spend all that much time trying to decipher the book. When I found it, those two years back, I was fascinated by it, there were notations in it that definitely seemed to be musical and it’s why I had brought it into our room to try and figure out. The thing is, though, I’ve yet to be able to decipher it. I don’t know that it’s the language—because it is definitely not a language spoken around here, even Cameron confirmed that much—or the fact that, yes, it does seem to be in a sort of cipher.

I might turn my attention to the book once every few weeks. I’ll study my way through a few pages, take notes of what I find and what seems familiar and what might help with deciphering things but that’s about it. I don’t spend hours upon hours trying to make sense of it. I did, at first. When I’d first found the book, I would spend hours poring through it, trying to find a key, to find an answer somewhere and I couldn’t find anything.

At one point, it got so bad that I felt as though the book was taunting me. Teasing me by its refusal to tell me anything because spilling out all of its secrets would have defeated the purpose of things being just that, secrets. That’s when I realized that I had to stop. I was actually losing a bit of sleep over the whole thing and just, yeah, that’s not how things should have been. The book isn’t going to change my life. If it’s meant to, it will do so whenever I figure it out, but I refuse to lose sleep over it.

I’m aware that I could have asked for outside help on the matter, but seeing as I found the book here, at home, and deep in a nook somewhere, I feel as though it’s not supposed to be out there with everyone else. That and, well, it looks old, and it feels as old as it looks, so I’m worried that someone would not handle it properly and well, then what?

So, it sits on the desk in the corner of our bedroom. It is covered in a protective box when I’m not studying it. I don’t want the dragons wandering all over it and potentially tearing the whole book to pieces with their sharp little talons. It’s one of the things I’ve realized with these little buggers. They don’t seem to realize just how sharp their talons are. Most of the time, it’s not an issue, but when, say, they’re roaming around a particular area, if there’s anything that isn’t completely solid to the touch—say, old books that have seen better days, and new books, really—they’ll leave marks. Scratches and at times small gouges. They’ve learned better on where they’re supposed to settle but still.

I didn’t want to take any chances as far as the book was concerned, I mean, why would I? I know better than to let an old tome just sit out there, unprotected. It was sitting all by its lonesome back in our library, but I think that it’s because no one was really potentially aware of its presence just there. It wouldn’t be the first time that something is forgotten about. If you knew the little things I’ve discovered around this place while roaming, my wonderful shadow always at my side, you’d be surprised.

This place, it’s old. Nothing will change that particular fact. It was old when we were born, it is older now. I don’t know how many generations have come through before but I’m sure that we’re not going to be the last ones. Repairs are made as needed, but this place still has a story to tell and with this story, there are nooks and crannies as well as little things here and there that will eventually be forgotten about, only to be found by someone else who knows how many years down the road.

I think that every little place in this world has areas like this. People have been around for a long, long time. Old things might get torn down, but some just remain standing, no matter what. These old things and places, like this book of mine that holds its secrets near, will always manage to entice someone at one point or another. It might be just a few months, it makes take a few years, or it might even be decades before someone comes around again to look through all of the mysteries that are being offered.

I am well aware of the things I should be doing, but ignoring them is much more fun.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human
Age: 25
Final Word Count: 686 words
 

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I didn’t know what I was getting into when I agreed to this tutoring and I’m starting to regret it. In a general sense of the word, the twins aren’t bad kids. If you take a slightly closer look, you realize that things aren’t quite what they seem.

If you just focus on Joaline, things are great. She’s an angel and she’s focused on learning. She practises more than I’ve asked of her and her brother and it shows in the music she plays. If you turn your focus on Jack, however, things are different. Jack has talent but he refuses to practise. He would rather be playing his video games or just, you know, not doing anything at all because, according to him, ignoring the things he’s supposed to be doing is so much more fun than just doing them. I don’t get that boy, I really don’t.

The twins are thirteen; at that age, I was struggling to survive through my father’s reign of terror so I just honestly don’t know how teens are truly supposed to act. Coupled with the fact that their parents are pretty well off, these two can have pretty much all they want.

What Joaline wants is to learn music so she can go on and tour the globe—it’s adorable and reminds me a little of a much younger version of myself, though I never dreamed to tour the globe, I just wanted to play to escape everything else.

Jack, on the other hand, it’s hard to know what he wants. He’s at that stage in life where he doesn’t know exactly but it’s certainly nothing that his parents might want for him. Which, in a way, surprises me that he’s so willing to at least play when the tutoring is happening. I can’t make him practise when I’m not there and his parents don’t seem all that interested in their progress. It was Joaline’s idea and Jack just sort of came with. I can understand why he wouldn’t be interested if it wasn’t his idea, to begin with, but that boy has so much hidden talent.

I see them once a week at this point and Joaline has even asked if I could up that to twice a week but I think that, at this point, once is enough. I did speak to her parents about her idea and stressed on the fact that too much too quickly would likely burn both of the kids out and the parents seemed to mostly see my point, so that will remain as such. I’m also a little worried that she might have a sort of puppy-love crush on me and keeping it to weekly visits is enough.

As is, though I know I shouldn’t play favourites but Jack’s talent makes me lean more his way for focus but I make myself give them both the same attention. Joaline practises hard and well but there’s something missing when she plays, no matter that she plays beautifully. There is heart and soul in Jack’s playing and I wish he could see it. Forcing him to play more than he wants will only turn him away from his potential and I can’t do that.

These kids, they’ll be a learning experience. It’s not that I haven’t tutored others before but never quite one-on-one like this. Not that I’m ever alone with either one of them, it’s both of them or it’s nothing at all. I don’t need Joaline to get ideas about my presence in their house, after all.

I don’t know how long their parents expect me to keep on teaching them. I know there are a few openings in the conservatory and entrance testing will begin near the end of the summer and I assume that this might be it. I don’t expect great things, however. Joaline might very well try her best but I don’t think she’ll have what it takes for them to take her in and Jack, well he possibly could if he truly wanted to but, as I said, I can’t force him.

Maybe this isn’t the best time to be arguing with each other.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Terraphim – Swinging Pendulum
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human – Meta – Water
Age: 23
Final Word Count: 651 words
 

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Have you ever witnessed pygmy dragons arguing? I’m sure some would like to claim that they’re not arguing, they’re just dragons, but they would be wrong. I’ve seen them argue, do I hear them argue? I do; they don’t argue with words, they argue with these little chittering sounds that are cute at first but, the longer they go at it, the higher-pitched the sound and the more it rings in your ears and at times, I think I have tinnitus but it’s just these guys.

Most of the time, they’re peaceful. They play well together, they run around, they chase one another, people have learned to be mindful of where they walk when they’re wandering down our corridors because these little guys (and girls, I’m sure, they’re multiplying…) get underfoot very easily. I’ve lost count of the number of broken dishes that had to be cleaned up during the first few months of their stay.

But yes, these little buggers argue and I know I’m not the only one they argue around.

Mind you, they don’t argue around someone because they hope that person will take their sides, they don’t have that kind of brain function, I don’t think. If they do, they’re not like us. We can’t communicate, not really. We’ve tried teaching them ‘tricks’ and that turned out to be pretty moot. I bet Naela could likely manage to understand them but I still don’t really think we could manage to find a common ground for language, it’s not really necessary.

You can tell when they’re getting ready to ‘argue’ because the chittering they’re doing changes in tone. They talk a lot, usually in pretty soft tones and it’s not always distracting but when the tone changes, you know you’re in for something big. I can normally tune them out, at least until they get so high-pitched that it’s hard to ignore them and the only option at that point is to separate them. It tends to give them some time to cool down and the rest of us who are around them can breathe for a while.

Now and again, their timing sucks.

They go so long being happy little ones that you almost forget that anything can set them off, and the last time I got stuck in a room with not just two of them going at it back and forth, but four, I had been trying to read an old text. A book we found at the far end of the library, a book that seemed to have been forgotten and that I was trying to just figure out. It’s not something I usually do, most of the time, it’s Cameron who will take these books to his room but this one spoke to me. I’m still trying to decipher it.

Except, there I was, my nose deep in the book, trying really hard to figure something out from what I had hoped was a key to it I’d found and they start in on their little angry, I’m right, no I’m the one who’s right, routine and all my brain can offer is a feeble wish that they would have done this at another time.

It’s so rare that I want to focus on books like this; I really did wish I could have told them that arguing right at that moment wasn’t the best of times but they wouldn’t have understood. So I spared myself the trouble, I closed the book, took two out of my room, one onto the balcony, one into the bathroom, I set the third one in the hallway and I left the fourth one alone.

That got them so confused as to the sudden fact that they seemed to no longer have anyone to argue with that they went all just so blissfully quiet.

It didn’t last, though. So I went elsewhere with my book.

I was wondering where you went. Be careful up on that roof, okay?

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Birds of a Feather
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human
Age: 24
Final Word Count: 560 words
 

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I’m not very comfortable with heights. Getting on a plane was probably the one thing I ever did that defied that particular train of thought but it was a necessity. Nowadays, if I need to approach something that is off the ground or there is mention of needing to get on a plane, I have options. The main one being to not get on that plane or to get some of the medication I am so gratefully offered to help soothe my nerves before take-off.

A few years ago—though I suppose it might be more than just ‘a few years ago’ since it was while we were in our first year or two of high school—I was trying to help Jade with getting everything around the tiny house we lived in as clean as possible so the social worker coming in would leave us alone. Now, you’d think that being taken away from an abusive and drunk father would have been the greatest thing since sliced bread and it could have if it hadn’t come with the caveat that we likely wouldn’t be all three kept together and none of us really wanted to be apart from one another.

Cam had already done more than his part and we were letting him rest as we scrambled to get everything done in time. Dad was snoring away in his room so we were being as quiet as possible.

After a little while, Jade had just disappeared from my line of sight but I was telling myself he was helping clear somewhere else, he wouldn’t have abandoned me to this on my own so I kept up with the cleaning until I heard soft little thumps from above me.

Afraid of what that could have been and perhaps doubly so afraid that Dad would wake up; I scrambled outside, squinting into the midday sun as I stared up at the roof until I saw his shadow out there. He was getting items off of the roof that had landed there over the last few months. Balls, Frisbees, simple small things but I guess he’d decided on being thorough.

With my heart in my throat, I recall telling him to be careful up there. I couldn’t stay and watch him, I just couldn’t. For one thing, I still had too much to do inside and for another, the thought of watching him wander that roof, even as surefooted as he was, was making me feel queasy inside, I couldn’t take it.

He was back down after about another half-hour and dad still slept through it all.

He didn’t sleep through the visit though and he was actually pretty damned angry about being disturbed by a ‘woman who should have known her place better’. He barely spared her a few more words besides these and we spent the rest of our evening hiding away in our room, afraid of what he’d do to us if we were in his way.

All in all, our childhood wasn’t exactly an easy walk in the park but we’ve made it far from home, we’ve escaped unscathed—mostly—and we live so far away from where we grew up that I think we’re going to be all right. We’re all right so far, after all, and we all have found love. We’ll be okay.

You can be cute and charming some other time. I’ve got things to worry about and I refuse to be distracted.

 
Timeline/World: Terraphim – Swinging Pendulum
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human – Meta – Water
Age: 22
Final Word Count: 553 words
 

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Pygmy dragons make for an interesting addition to any life, I’d say. They’re a recent discovery, at least within the walls of our home and we’re all rather certain of their origins. We all believe that they followed the Guardian home when she came back from her latest trip. It is so rare that she goes beyond the wall, at least on her own and the addition of these little balls of wandering flame and energy coincide with the timeline. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it. Not that it matters.

All I’m saying is that we’ve had pygmy dragons coming around the palace and nearby grounds for the last couple of years now and I know I’m not the only one who’s adopted one. It’s an adorable tiny little thing, the colour of the ocean—so I’m told—and it is pretty invading when you’re trying to bathe. Any water ends up being its water and you can’t escape that. It is both cute and frustrating. I had no idea that was even a possibility until the little thing—I can’t tell whether it is male or female and I don’t care—came into mine and Makar’s lives.

Now, you have to understand that this little ocean-coloured companion is about the size of a tea cup. It is a charming and cute distraction and often times I’ve been trying to figure certain things out only to find myself with a face full of scales and claws and these claws aren’t always fun to deal with and I’m sure you get the idea. The best way to get it to mostly mind its own ‘business’, so to speak, is to set it up with a bowl of water. It’ll likely spend quite a bit of time in there and you’ll have your peace of mind. It works with this one, I’m not so sure with others.

I feel the need to point out that we have more than just one or two roaming the halls, not that they’re a danger, furthest from, but imagine that you’re sleeping soundly, blankets tucked up close and personal and you feel something—several somethings—skittering around at the foot of the bed. You crack one eye open only to realize there’s a pygmy party going on at the foot of your bed and now that they know you’re awake, there’s no going back to sleep. You’re done for. I don’t know if they’ve done this to my brothers but we’ve been woken up a handful of times to close to a dozen little dragons just chasing one another around at the foot of our bed.

Mind you, I wouldn’t get rid of the little thing for anything in the world. Life has changed some since it came around and while there are days when I wish it would keep a bit of distance, it isn’t invading enough to really be frustrating and I’m glad it chose us as companions. Though I’m sure that if it had been any others, I would have cared and adored them in quite the same way but this one is the one we call ours and while I don’t know if it sees us as friends or anything more ‘keeper’ like but it doesn’t matter.

It is our companion and that is that.

It doesn’t hurt. Not like it used to.

Timeline/World: Terraphim – Swinging Pendulum
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human – Meta – Water
Age: 21
Final Word Count: 562 words

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I’ve always hated feeling completely useless. I can hide it well, being quiet has its upsides but being quiet has its downsides too. It’s not even so much just being quiet as I admit that, often enough, I’m lost in my own world and this world revolves around my own things and Makar so I tend to not always notice what’s happening around me and the first time I realized this, I fell into a pit of despair. I had missed so much of the happenings going on around me that both my brothers could have died and I wouldn’t have seen it happening.

Of course, that was years ago, there have been one or two more attempts but none that ever made it as far along as that fateful snowy day when Jadyn was trapped in that snow-filled well and Cameron was indecently touched by that one tutor he looked up to so much. In a way, however, that bad day did turn into a relatively good one, when one takes into consideration that it did lead to relationships settling in but it still is terrifying to know that both my brothers were in a bad way, back then, and I didn’t see it.

It hurt. Oh, I have no way to explain how much it hurt. It hurts less now than it did back then but there are days when the thought comes back and cripples me. I’ve tried, since then, to pay more attention to my surroundings but often I find myself slipping back into my world of music and Makar. At the very least, I’ve managed to keep this slipping mild, it only happens when we’re in our rooms and I’ve made sure that we spend time outside.

I’m not strong like Jadyn; I’m not smart like Cameron. I’m somewhere in the middle though I’m told my voice can be compared to that of a siren. We weren’t very close when we were younger. Sure, we played, we laughed, we learned, but even from a young age, we all had our preferences and we didn’t spend every hour of every day together. One brother trained, the other would read and I would just sort of be. We were all made to train, read and learn but it was clear that it wouldn’t be that way for very long. We’re all too different.

We still have our similarities, of course, we still do spend time together, we’re brothers, but we’re nothing like these stories I’ve heard of twins and triplets out there who are so close, so similar that they’re never apart. Of course, these could be nothing but rumours, murmured words between others that grow as gossip and nothing more. It does, however, still leave me to wonder if I haven’t just tried hard enough to be something more than I am. Is that what it is? Have I simply not put enough effort into trying to be out in this big, huge world? I don’t know. I also don’t much like thinking too much about it, it makes that hurt from years ago draw to the surface and that hurt honestly makes it hard to breathe, it makes it hard to even simply be. I don’t want that hurt to surface, I want it to be buried so deep that no one can ever find it.

You are in no position to argue with me right now.

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Birds of a Feather
Characters: Briar Taylor
Race: Human
Age: 23
Final Word Count: 550 words

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It took some time to adapt to the different way of life. After all, we’d been living in Italy for a few years before we moved and everything was just so different. The people, the weather, the food. It took more time than I wanted to adapt but I had, I believe we both had.

I’d had enough money saved that looking for a job wasn’t at the top of my list for the few couple of weeks and I didn’t. I kept us both in the house or around the house, just relaxing and settling in and enjoying one another’s company.

One of the things I like best about having our own home though is that we have more privacy than I’ve ever had anywhere else. My brothers are close, each a house on either side of this one, but this home, this one, it is ours and only ours and I no longer have any fear of anyone walking in on us when I’m trying to turn Makar into absolute putty.

Not that it takes much, just as it hardly takes much for him to turn me into putty, but I love playfully pinning him down, letting him know that it’s my turn to make him see stars and that he’s not actually allowed to complain about it or ask for anything. Not that he’s ever done either of those things but it’s one those little things that just amuse me. It puts a little bit of, I don’t know, a kick in our relationship, a little bit of spice because we’re both otherwise so mellow.

Then again, we don’t really need it, everything is perfect as it is but some things are just nice to try now and again and what does it hurt? We both like it. Isn’t that the important part? We’re open to trying our hands at new and different things and I don’t think we’d be here if not for that. Plus, these little things are how we both relax and settle back home after we’ve had to go out there. I’d told myself that, after we moved here, I would never get on a plane again but as it turns out, when you’re a slightly well-known voice in the musical world, you don’t get to just settle down and find a little, comfortable job where you live, no, people still want you to appear as a guest of honour to this and that concert or this and that show. It’s not an often happening thing but it still happens and I never go alone.

Coming home from these is like coming home to a steaming hot bath just waiting for you to sink into. It’s soothing and relaxing, you can just forget everything for a little while and just let the peace of this little nook we live in settle into your bones. I guess I don’t mind having to take the plane now and again, not anymore. It frazzled me to no end before, but I’ve found out that sitting in certain spots in said plane makes it easier to handle than others so I always try to at least get those particular seats.

Of course, having Makar at my side to distract me during the long flights helps, too.