Chapter 16: No One’s Leaving

By the time rehearsal rolled around on Saturday, I knew Lara was convinced. We’d spent four amazing hours the previous night practicing, letting her get comfortable with singing into the mic at high volume, learning lyrics, and listening to cuts. The only thing that kept our practice from being perfect was our shared worries about what the guys were going to say. I figured Pete was an easy ‘yes’, but I wasn’t sure about Bruno and especially Carl.

When the band arrived on Saturday, Lara stayed in her room. We thought it would be better if I broached the news up front. Lara would then come to the cabin after we’d warmed up a bit. This would give the guys some time to consider the idea so that Lara could avoid having to face a freshly surprised audience.

Once he’d carried in his equipment, Bruno took a long, hard look at the vocal mic that I’d placed near his usual area.

“Why is this out?” he asked, easily taking the bait.

“You’re going to sing,” I replied.

“Yeah right!”

I laughed. “No, actually, I think we might have a singer.”

“Really?”

Pete and Carl looked up at me. “Who? You?”

I hesitated. “Lara.”

“Your sister? Really?” Carl asked.

“Yeah. Wait until you hear her.”

“Are you serious? Can she even sing?”

“Fuck yeah, she can!”

Carl made a face. “I don’t know if that’s going to work.”

My heart sank a little. I had a feeling he was going to hold out.

“Are we going to be singing Madonna songs and shit?” he asked.

I laughed with relief. “No way, man. She can sing all the stuff we’ve been working on.”

He was still unimpressed. “Really.”

“Yeah. She’s going to come up in a little while to try it out.”

“I don’t know, man,” Carl persisted. “No offense, but she’s going to distract Petey-boy here, at least.”

Pete gave him a foul look but said nothing.

I sighed, annoyed at the lack of support. “Whatever, Carl,” I retorted. “Like Mina and Randi aren’t distractions?”

Carl shrugged as he continued to tweak his kit.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I dismissed, once there was a break in his repeated tom strikes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not!” Carl protested. “It just might be a little weird. Having a girl in the band, you know.”

“Why? It’s not like this is a locker room.”

“I don’t know. It’s just going to feel different. This is a time when we can hang out, just us guys, work shit out on the instruments.”

“Then why is Mina always showing up?”

“You’re right. Maybe she shouldn’t,” Carl laughed.

I glared at him. “What the fuck, now you say that?”

He looked at me levelly. “Relax, man.”

“You relax. I don’t get what the problem is.”

“Nothing. I said let’s give it a shot?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Whatever. I’m saying it now, then.”

I composed myself, trying to let go of the silly argument. “All right, cool. Let’s just keep an open mind here and—”

Carl bashed on his snare drum, cutting me off. I tuned up my guitar, suddenly angry at the way it was going. Then I took a breath and decided to let Lara make her own case when she arrived. This was all useless preamble. But what if she flaked out and was underwhelming?

We warmed up with a couple of runs through familiar material. Pete seemed impatient, glancing out the windows every few seconds. Eventually his demeanor changed, so I knew Lara was on her way up. She settled on the couch to wait until we finished the song we were playing, but the drums quickly petered out.

“So you’re our new singer?” Carl asked her before the ring of his cymbal had faded away.

“I don’t know, am I?” she replied evenly.

“Let’s hear what you got.”

“Do you want to try Stop?” I asked.

Lara swallowed hard as she stood. I could tell she was nervous.

“Sure.”

She tested the mic and then looked at me expectantly. I launched into the riff, feeling my stomach twist. The moment of truth.

A minute later, I knew there was nothing to worry about. All of us were smiling and playing with energy, even Carl. When the song finished, there was an outburst of agreement that Lara could sing, and really well at that. Bruno was very relieved. And most interestingly, Lara looked very much in her element.

That evening, I knocked on Lara’s door, letting myself in after she called out. She was on the phone, so she gave me the index finger.

“Okay ... See you in a bit!” she said to the other person.

“You sounded great today,” I complimented, when the receiver had been replaced.

“Thanks. It was fun.” She grinned coyly.

“That’s it? Just fun?”

“I fucking loved it!” she admitted.

“I knew you would,” I said. “So, you’re in the band. I guess that means we’ll be hanging out a bit more, now.”

“Of course! We always hang out.”

“I know. But we could work on new songs, get your vocals tight, and then throw them at the band. If you want.”

Lara smiled. “Really? That sounds great. What if we set a few nights a week to practice together?”

“I’d be into that,” I agreed.

“How about now?”

“Nah, I’m going to print these pictures, or it’s never going to happen.”

“Ooh, solo party in the darkroom on a Saturday night? How exciting.”

“Whatever,” I sniffed. “Anyway, it won’t take long, and then I’m going to head to Brian’s to relax and take a break from all this damn work.”

“That’s cool, I was just teasing. I’m going out too, so I can’t rehearse either. Pete should be here in a few minutes.”

“Where are you off to?”

Lara shrugged, her eyes dancing a bit. “He wanted to go to Bri’s, but we’ll probably end up at Alice’s or something, maybe get sidetracked along the way. Who knows?”

“It’s getting cold out.”

“Don’t worry, we stay warm.”

“I’m sure. All right, maybe I’ll see you later. Swing by Bri’s house if you want.”

“Maybe we will. And thanks, Matt. For giving me the chance.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t really do anything. I’m glad you’re doing it though. Now we have to get good for December. Plenty of time, so it should be fine.”

“It will be,” she agreed, smiling sincerely at me.

I hurried up to the cabin, grateful for its warmth when I shut the door. Once I’d put up the darkroom blackouts and switched to the safety light, I sat on the bed and sighed, feeling much calmer. This space was so comforting. Surprisingly, I’d missed it. The dimly lit lineup of equipment and faint smell of photo chemicals was starting to become a balm for the travails of everyday life. I thought back to memories of Heather and I processing the fishing trip prints, bumbling our way through the act of setting up the enlarger. And even building the wooden table. It all felt so long ago. I needed to call Heather later, since it had been several days of phone tag. There was so much to tell her. And yet, so little of it was involving her at the moment. Still over three weeks until I get to see her again.

I threw aside my thoughts and stood to stretch, focusing on the task at hand. I pulled a long tail of film down from the hanging wire and snipped the strip into short pieces. After perusing them, I loaded the first frame I wanted to print up. I slipped the high contrast filter into the enlarger as well.

As the prints started emerging, I realized I was going to have some interesting shots after all. The heavy grain of the fast film was gorgeous, and it gave Shannon an otherworldly character. There were some problems with the lighting and backgrounds that I wished I’d paid attention to at the time, but there was nothing to be done about that.

After I finished the first roll, despite having enough interesting photos for the project, I decided to skip going to Brian’s. I pressed on to the second batch, the ones I’d shot after the sun disappeared. I knew it would be hard to pull much out of the mostly clear negatives, but I figured I could at least learn what the limits were this night.

Another hour of patient experimentation passed. I’d just started a long exposure when I heard the quiet but deliberate sound of footsteps somewhere just outside the window of the darkroom, as if coming from the woods behind the cabin. The heating unit was between cycles, so the noise was easy to pick out in the dead silence. I wondered what time it was. Certainly many hours had passed. Perhaps one of my parents was checking to see if I’d fallen asleep. No, that was unlikely. They would’ve just come straight from the main house to the front door of the cabin, not circled around back first.

A bit of apprehension started to creep up within me. An animal? It seemed to have four legs from the sound of it. Or someone trying to break in? Steal the cameras and equipment? The footsteps receded in volume somewhat as they passed by. I tried to remember if I’d locked the cabin.

The click of the enlarger lamp turning off at the end of the exposure made me jump. My heart kicked into a higher gear as I shuffled over to the door, pressing my ear against it. The vibration of a loose pane of glass in the main room gave away the intruder’s entry. I locked the darkroom door handle just as I heard the front cabin door close ever so softly. I was in complete darkness and starting to freak out a bit. Whoever was entering was trying to be extremely quiet, which meant they were up to no good.

I felt around on the nearby table to see if there was anything to use as a weapon. My hand found the metal film developing tank. It had some heft and a milled edge. Probably my best option without making a commotion, I knew. I stood close to the door again, straining to hear what was happening in the main room. Some quiet footsteps were followed by some rustling noises. Then there were a few heavy and uneven stomps, sounding like they were coming toward the darkroom. I gripped the canister and gradually stepped backward until my leg bumped the bed.

The loud thump of a body slamming against the darkroom door startled me so much that I dropped the tank. It made no sound, which freaked me out even further. Then I discovered that it had fallen onto the mattress beside me.

Panic was rising in my throat, wondering what monster was on the other side of the door, about to burst in. My ears started roaring of their own accord and I had trouble hearing anything, even as I waited for the sound of the handle jiggling.

It never came, though. After a minute, the noises moved further away. With some forced breaths, I managed to calm myself enough to realize that the sounds were coming from the other bedroom in the cabin. They were probably looking for something to break down the door. Should I make a run for it? Dash out the front and head for the main house? Issue a warning?